Monday, December 9, 2013

Michigan Monday: Weekend Thoughts & Chicken Wings

Here are some random thoughts from this weekend:

  • MSU was the best team Michigan faced this year. 

  • UConn is interested in interviewing MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, please hire him!

  • Da'Shawn Hand said no to Michigan and now he is trying to recruit the Wolverines best athlete in the class in Jabrill Peppers with him to Alabama.   I sure hope Nick Saban goes to Texas.

  • Ohio State must really hate the State of Michigan. 

  • Does Michigan really have to play in East Lansing again next year?  Couldn't they have worked something out like a game at Ford Field or something.

  • Michigan commit Shaun Crawford can play.  Here are his junior year highlights.   There are conflicting reports on Shaun planning a visit to Columbus or not.

  • There is starting to be a little bit of buzz on coaching web sites that Michigan will have staff changes.   Nothing to happen quickly, which means nothing before bowl prep and probably after signing day.   Again just a rumor.

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl:

Michigan was rumored to be either in the Gator Bowl against Georgia or BWW against KSU.  It ended up with the game in Arizona.   It seems the BWW Bowl had the third pick and choose the Wolverines over the Corn Huskers.

Since your probably not familiar with this bowl here are some factoids:
  • It's played in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona (not the University of Phoenix Stadium)
  • Used to be called the Copper and Insight Bowl
  • It's played on 12/28
  • The game starts at 10:15 PM EST  -  Great start time for the kids!
  • Big Ten is 2-5 since the contract started
  • MSU won this bowl last year
  • Minnesota has played in the bowl 3 times
  • Indiana was even in this bowl game in 2007
  • TBS was the original network, then ESPN came in and gave up the rights to the NFL Network.  After 4 years, ESPN picked the coverage back up.

This seems to be the appropriate "penalty" for the year the Wolverines had.    Congratulations to the Michigan fans in Phoenix.   At least Taylor Lewan gets to play at home for his last game in the Maize and Blue.

I would guess that no matter what comes out of the Michigan Athletic Department that David Brandon is not happy with this choice.  Since he is so worried about the Michigan "brand" playing in a game that will end at 1:30 AM EST is not the exposure he is looking for.

Since this game starts in 20 days, I guess bowl practice will start pretty soon.

Here is one reaction from a poster on Mgoblog:   This is a game that nobody cares about, on a day nobody cares about, in a time slot nobody cares about.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Little brother is all growd up now......so big brother can either sit back and be proud or try to learn from little brother. Little brother obviously runs great schemes on O and D, has great game plans and play calls, makes sound adjustments, has superior strength and conditioning... and even has an obviously quality QB coach......and on and on........ despite far lower rated talent. Perhaps Michigan's AD wants to be competitive and will make some changes, perhaps not. At any rate it was fun rooting for little brother and watching him do good........Furthermore, the season tickets are much less expensive!...Will have to explore this further for next year (after all I have a couch to burn!)

Recruiting comparison of playing "highly ranked recruits" from 2009 to 2011:

MSU

Max Bullough (4-star)

Isaiah Lewis (4-star)

Blake Treadwell (4-star)

M

Taylor Lewan (4-star)

Jeremy Gallon (4-star)

Michael Schofield (4-star)

Cam Gordon (4-star)

Fitz Toussaint (4-star)

Quinton Washington (4-star)

Devin Gardner (4-star)

Blake Countess (4-star)

Brennen Beyer (4-star)

Raymon Taylor (4-star)

It seems that M requires the best of the best to be mediocre while MSU can do great things with less!

M's O coaching, play calling, game planning, and clock management is abysmal.... and possibly they're S&C program based upon O and D line strength and toughness.

Unknown said...

Aaron Wellman learned Under MSU strength coach Ken Mannie. They use extremely similar methods. S&C has very little to do with the results this season.

Unknown said...

Glad to hear a vote of confidence for Wellman.....It seemed as if Barwis with his "methods" seemed to get both strength and toughness out of players, but I certainly don't have any factual or first hand comparison.... Other than a grad assistant at one time witnessing Barwis really getting in Brandon Graham's face and calling him lazy and soft when he wasn't working hard in the gym (if this is indeed the case it seemed to work!).

Big35Hurt said...

I wonder aloud why Dantonio doesn't ever get mentioned for a better job? He seems to deserve it especially when you have idiots like Lane Kiffin getting big jobs in the recent past.

Switching topics......Michigan State is a very veteran team. THAT is why they look more advanced than we do. We are YOUNG. The experience WILL pay off. There's no doubt in my mind.