Michigan Friday: Wolverines in the Super Bowl and Other Michigan News

It's hard to believe that this is the last football game of the season.  It seems like Michigan and UConn just kicked off a few weeks ago.  Wow, a lot of things have changed since that game.   It's hard to believe that Denard Robinson was a Heisman leader for a few weeks and then ends up winning the Big Ten MVP award.   Rich Rod is currently un-employed with a $2.5M check and living in Saline and Brady Hoke is now in charge of the Wolverines program.  Yes, things have changed in Wolverine land. 

So on to the game this weekend.  For Wolverines fans, there are 6 players and coaches that have Michigan ties playing in this game.  On Green Bay, of course there is our Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson and DL coach Mike Trgovac (who was my initial pick for DC at Michigan - I am very happy at the Mattison pick up).  On Pittsburgh, there are of course LaMarr Woodley and inside linebacker Larry Foote and safety Ryan Mundy who also played a year for RR at WVU.  Harold Goodwin is also the offensive line coach for the Steelers.


So who do you have?   I am sure some of you are Steelers fans and others are Green Bay fans.  I'm not a fan of either team, but I will be pulling for Green Bay on Sunday and the only reason is Charles Woodson.   Chuck got to a Super Bowl early in his career but this is probably his last shot.   He is one of the greatest Wolverines of all time and donates a ton of money each year to Motts Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.   I want Charles Woodson to get his ring.  Having a National Championship, a Super Bowl win, a Heisman Trophy, and a NFL Defensive Player of the Year award  is a pretty good career.  In fact, I'm not sure how it could be any better.

Woodley and Foote already have their Super Bowl rings.  It's time for Woodson to get one.

Something to think about:  The last time Green Bay was in the Super Bowl, Who was the MVP of the game?  Michigan's other Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard.  

• I didn't know TE Chris Barnett very well before he visited Michigan last weekend but this kid has made a big impression on me and other Michigan fans.  This kid was recruited by pretty much every major program in the country and picked the Wolverines on signing day.  Here is an article from Dallas:  "You have to really try to be the best at everything," Barnett said. "If you're going to brush your teeth, you have to be the best at brushing your teeth.  "If you're a true athlete, and you really want to go out and push yourself and be the best that you can be as a football player, a student, and as a man and eventually as a family person, they're going to teach you how to be that."    "I don't think I could be any happier right now," he said.

• There has been some buzz that Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison didn't hire Corwin Brown for the DB coaches.  Corwin reportedly petitioned for the job and was turned down.  Some of Michigan's former players felt that Corwin might have been disrespected by Michigan by not discussing the job with him and then hiring Curt Mallory.   I thought Corwin was qualified for the job and would have been a good fit. But, maybe Brady and Greg thought Curt would be better.   Corwin replaced Greg as the DC at ND so maybe there is some history there.   Either way, it's too bad but this shouldn't be played out in the media.

• Attention Grey Shirts in the SEC (specifically Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, LSU).  If your a linebacker, offensive lineman, or a defensive tackle and your coach is asking you to take a Gray Shirt.  Tell him, no thanks and call Brady Hoke at Michigan.  The Wolverines have 2 available scholarships in this year class and we could use a some good players at the for mentioned positions.  Come to Ann Arbor - our helmets have wings! This also goes for USC or Tennessee players who might be caught in the NCAA wave that is Lane Kiffin.

• Bob Griese is retiring from broadcasting.  Good luck to him.

• Iowa Football - Can someone explain to me how they didn't lose one recruit and were able to add a couple high profile players?  What are these parents thinking?  High profile players were arrested for running a "Drug House" (some of those charges were dropped) and 12 kids were sent to the hospital for getting overworked by the S&C guy in a program that they have run for years.     

• Speaking of Lane Kiffin, he is something isn't he?  Fanhouse is reporting that the NCAA will be coming down on Tennessee and Lane for past recruiting violations. With that said, let's discuss the first USC NCAA penalties when Lane was on staff.   I guess they are  accepting certain penalties by the NCAA (like not going to a Bowl Game) and not others while they appeal their ruling.  USC signed 25 guys to this years class when they were supposed to be only signing 15 players for 3 years.  The recruiting ban has been "suspended" until a verdict is reached on their appeal.   If the new Tennessee charges are accurate, USC will have a hard time appealing their decision with Kiffin in charge.   This new news should make all the kids that signed with USC and Tennessee on Wednesday feel comfortable that their program is headed in the right direction.  If the NCAA comes down hard on Kiffin personally, I believe new AD Pat Haden will have a hard time keeping him in role.  USC's class ranked #4 by Rivals and Tennessee was ranked #12.  Tennessee wouldn't have held the NCAA letter until after signing day would they? No, I'm sure that didn't happen.

• One thing to consider when you think about Michigan's 2011 recruiting class; is how did Michigan do compared to other teams that made late coaching changes as well.  I will use Scouts Rankings as recruiting service for these rankings (Rivals only ranks the top 50):  #21 Florida,  #22 Stanford, #27 Michigan, #37 Miami, #55 Pitt, #71 Minnesota, #79 UConn .  I know some of these schools don't directly compete against Michigan in recruiting.  For those that didn't make a change: #21 Nebraska, #26 Iowa, #29 MSU, #33 PSU, #34 Illinois and #40 Wisconsin.  If you compare Michigan to these other Big Ten teams, they did pretty well.

Big Ten Preview Week #3

The Big Ten had an up and down weekend in week 2.   Ohio State and Michigan had nice "national news" wins.  I was concerned about all the quality games at 3:30 last weekend and it turned out that only one was close (Michigan vs ND) and 7 Million viewers watched it.   The down part of the weekend was Minnesota's loss to FCS school South Dakota in Minneapolis. 

With Michigan now ranked in the top 25, the Big Ten has 5 teams in the polls with Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Penn State. 

Let's take a look at the weekend match ups.

Best Big Ten Match up:

Iowa at Arizona:  I did a previewed the Big Ten season on the Michigan Man podcast back in August and I picked Iowa to win the Big Ten Title this year.  Their only tough road game during the Big Ten schedule is a trip to the Big House or Denard's Den.  I did predict Iowa to have one non-conference loss and this is the game I picked.  Big Ten teams historically have not travelled well West anytime during the season.  Recent Michigan games in memory are losses to Washington, Oregon, and an Ohio State loss to USC.   This game is a late one which kick off at 10:00 EST time on Saturday night.    Vegas has this game pretty close with Iowa holding a 1.5 edge.  I think Iowa is the better team but I just don't trust the travel.  Arizona 21 Iowa 17

Arizona State at Wisconsin:  This game might be a close second for the best B10 match up.  This might be called the Steven Threet Bowl.  Steve hasn't beaten too many D1 schools as a QB at any of the 3 schools he has attended but Wisconsin happens to be one of them.  He lead a second half comeback in the Big House after being down 19-0 at half time during RR's first year in Ann Arbor.  Steve was terrible in Arizona State's Spring Game but has had a very nice first two games as the Sun Devils starter.  Wisconsin on the other hand has been under the radar in winning two games in un-spectacular fashion.   The Badgers are favored by two touchdowns which I think is a lot.   Wisky 28 ASU 21

Notre Dame at Michigan State:  You would think Brian Kelly had enough of his former home state last weekend when Denard Robinson ran all over the Golden Domers.  This week his team heads up to East Lansing to play a team ND has struggled against no matter where they play them.   Right now ND is 1-1 in the Big Ten and looking for a Rose Bowl birth (sorry I must have fast forwarded a couple of years).  Back to 2010:  Sparty has two wins against Western Michigan and Florida Atlantic both basically home games.   They host ND which gives them an edge but I don't think anyone was happy how Sparty played against FAU last weekend.   If Dayne Crist is healthy and the ND defense plays like they did last Saturday, I think ND wins this one.  Sparty is a 3.5 favorite.   ND 31 MSU 24

The rest of the games............ 

Ball State at Purdue:  The battle of Indiana.  Purdue lost their top WR last week for the year but they have enough to beat a Ball State team that was pretty good a couple of years ago.  Purdue is favored by 17.   Purdue 38 Ball State 10

Ohio at Ohio State:  The battle of Ohio.  Maybe not but after the Miami game, OSU deserved another MAC opponent.  Does OSU ever have to go on the road?  Pryor will have another big game.  The Vest better get a back up ready just in case TP goes down during the season.  OSU is favored by 30.5.   The Vest 42 Ohio 6

Northern Illinois at Illinois:  The battle of Illinois.  The Big Ten sure has done a wonderful job supporting the economy of Illinois this season.  I think every Illinois directional school has played a Big Ten team.  Zook got his first win of the season last weekend and should pick up #2 this weekend.  Zook and company are only favored by 7 so Vegas isn't sold yet.   Zook 24 NIU 13

Indiana at Western Kentucky:  A Tri-State Shoot Out.  IU took a bye in week 2 (seriously who takes a bye in week 2?).  Why is IU playing at Western Kentucky?  Lots of questions for Indiana only after one game.  I think they struggle on the road early but their offense over powers WKU.   Doesn't WKU have that big red mascot?  I like that guy.   IU is favored by 12.  IU 28 WKU 21

USC at Minnesota:  This is the lame duck coach bowl.  Ouch!  I'm guessing Lane might stay at USC for a few years but I'm guessing Pat Haden the new AD is not a fan.  USC has like 50 players under scholarship right now and Minnesota just came off a loss to South Dakota.  I don't have any confidence in Lane but I know his old man can coach.  This one might get ugly even though USC is playing with one bad behind their back.  USC is favored by 12.5.   I don't think this one will be that close.  USC 42  Minnesota 21

Northwestern at Rice:  Return of Sam McGuffie to Big Ten Bowl.  This is a tricky road game for Northwestern but I don't think Rice has that much of anything.  Even our boy Sam has struggled playing for the Owls this year.  Wildcats are favored by 6.5.  NW 24 Rice 14

Kent State at Penn State:  State vs State Rivalry?  I know I'm reaching.  Penn State had a cupcake for breakfast, a beat down for lunch, and another cupcake for dinner.   Bolden looks better when playing a MAC school vs the #1 team in the nation.  JoPa is favored by 3 touchdowns.   Makes sense: JoPa 21 Kent State 0


Week 3 Story Lines:  Will former Wolverines "haunt" their Big Ten opponents?  Will Tate Forcier play? Will Tim Brewster need a few brews after the game?  Will ND rebound against MSU (only Crist knows)?  Will that Red Guy play defense for WKU?  Will the Big Ten go 2-0 vs Arizona schools? 

I say if IU wins that game they should get to have the Red Guy as their mascot.  They can play every year for him.  It could be titled the Red Guy Return Rivalry. 

I will preview the Michigan vs Minuteman match up on Friday.

Wolverine Wednesday: NCAA is Shooting For Everyone

Right now, there isn't a major program in place that is safe from the NCAA.   They are targeting anyone and everyone that might have made some mistakes.  The dirty little secret in college football is agent activity and what did and didn't coaches and Universities know. The Reggie Bush case set the precedent and now the NCAA is looking at just about everyone.  Florida, South and North Carolina, Alabama are just a few schools that the NCAA has on their radar.   We don't know a lot of details yet, but in the Florida case one player could have taken $100K between the SEC Championship game and The Sugar Bowl last year.   If this turns out to be accurate: Congratulations to the University of Cincinnati on not getting blown out by Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators last January.

Even Jim Harbaugh could be next for his Twitter activity regarding recruits.   As you know, head coaches can't talk about recruits until they sign an LOI.  Jim could be using some type of twitter "code" to break that rule.

If your not keeping score at home.  Here is the following NCAA activity in the last couple of weeks:

• USC AD Out, replaced by Rhodes Scholar and NBC Notre Dame analyst Pat Haden.  (On a side note, I'm not sure I have ever seen a person needed to get fired more then Mike Garrett who took a blind eye to just about everything).  USC is also sending Reggie's Heisman Trophy back.   These are clear signs that USC is trying to "clean up"  for the appeal process.  I wonder if Pat Haden is a Lane Kiffin supporter?  Of course we know that Lane was at USC when all the trouble was happening. 
• North and South Carolina investigations
• Florida and it's $100K case
• Alabama player at an agents party.

How does that miss filing of paperwork/forms and few minutes of stretching look now?  Not very serious if you ask me.  Yes, Michigan made some mistakes but the above crimes seem to be much more serious.  I'm guessing next month Michigan - NCAA meeting will go as follows.  

NCAA: I have seen all the paperwork on your internal investigation and your self imposed penalties.  You have done some nice work here.

David Brandon: Thank You.

NCAA:  We agree with your self imposed sanctions and even feel they are a little over the top.  But if you think that's what you deserve.  Let's go with that. 

David Brandon: OK.

NCAA: Were really busy with the SEC and Agent stuff right now, so can we wrap this up?

David Brandon: Sure. 

NCAA: Done, we officially accept your self imposed sanctions.  Want to get a Starbucks?

David Brandon:  Sure, how about a pizza too?

-------
Now on to some News and Notes:

• On a sad note it looks like Darryl Stonum hasn't been living up to his DUI probation and spent a couple of days in jail last month.  I'm guessing he will be spending a bunch of time running during fall practice and even miss the UConn game.  (caution Freep link)

• Want some PC Wallpaper of Michigan's Schedule?  Here is some great work. Enjoy them. 

• I think we are all worried on how Michigan will start the season against a good UConn team.  This mogblog contributor, did some research on how the Huskies did last year against spread teams.  The big thing that "popped" out to me was that UConn gave up 711 total yards to Cincinnati last year.  I am now a "little less" worried if our defense can make some stops.

• It seems Michigan is making sure guys are qualified before they get offered.  One example is 3 star Muskegon DE Damon Knox.  He has been told by the Michigan coaches that if he gets his work done in the classroom there will be a spot for him at Michigan.  Currently, Damon has one written offer from Ball State.  Damon spent some time at Michigan's camp this summer and impressed the Wolverine coaches.  He is 6'5 265 and known for his Bull Rush. 

Michigan Football Random Thoughts

• With Devin enrolled now, what do you do with Denard? Let's take this question in two parts. First Devin: It's really good news that Devin was able to work out graduation from Inkster High School early and enroll yesterday at Michigan. Having Spring Ball will give him 14 extra practices to learn the system and work on his mechanics. I can pretty much guarantee that the Michigan coaches don't want another Freshman starting for the Wolverines for the third year in a row. The best scenario would be for Devin to back up Tate and Denard in 2010 and learn. If there is an injury all bets are off and probably a redshirt as well.

• Denard? After watching Steve Breaston these past two weekends, I think about what he would have been in Rich Rod's offense. Steve had a nice career at Michigan but it could have been great if they found a way to get him the ball more often. Can Denard be a Steve Breaston type of player? Maybe there are some similarities, both were high school QB' and both have an extra gear. I would say Denard's might be a turbo though. It would be great for Denard to return kicks, get some time in the slot, run the Wild Wolverine, and even get some hand offs from Tate. The problem is, Michigan is still very thin experience wise at QB if Tate goes down. So maybe we see Denard more in the offense but I don't expect him to return kick offs anytime soon.

• Is Jake Ryan a good pickup? Off course it's too early to say. He seems to have the size and speed to play LB in college. What I see out of this class is a lot of outside linebackers and defensive ends. I don't see a lot of middle linebackers. In my opinion, it would be nice to have Jake in that role. Michigan last year had very athletic LB's, what they needed is a guy with great football knowledge. A middle LB needs to be able to read plays before they are run and fill the proper holes. Dhani Jones success in Cincinnati came after they moved him to the middle LB. Dhani said that he was getting bored at the outside position and that the middle position takes alot of knowledge and on the field thinking. As we all know, Dhani is a thinking man's linebacker. Let's hope Michigan finds a Dhani type LB soon.

• Be careful comparing Lane Kiffin to Rich Rodriguez: I have seen a number of articles on what's wrong with college football and mentioning the situations with Lane and Rich leaving their last jobs. I really see these as two different situations: Rich has had two jobs since November 2000. Lane has had two different jobs since November 2009. Rich has an overall head coaching record of 113-78, Lane is 12-21 including the time in the NFL.

• Is West Virgina mad at someone else now? I'm sure Rich Rod is still #1 on that list, but there is a new sheriff in town and he is starting to make some noise. As Brian from Mgoblog points out, Doc Holliday who left the WVU staff to become the head coach at Marshall, has been fishing recruits from WVU's pond. Doc has been able to pull 3 Florida recruits away from WVU to Marshall. Which is pretty big news, since West Virgina is in a BCS conference and Marshall isn't. To top it off, West Virgina's favorite son, Rich Rod has recently taken WVU former verbals Richard Ash and Davion Rodgers from the Mountaineers. Don't feel too bad for WVU they still have the 25th rated class on Rivals and 23rd on Scout. They also have $500,000 new reasons to feel good as well. Thanks to a Mgoblog reader, Morgantown way out searches Ann Arbor on Rich Rod topics on Google. So yea, he is still #1 on the list.

USC Hired Who?

January is becoming College Football's most exciting month. You have News Years Day, The BCS Bowls, Recruiting, and now the Head Coaching Exchange.

What is going on? Is this the NFL?

Pete Carroll leaves for the NFL because it was time or the NCAA is going to come in with a hammer and smack down the Trojans. There have always been "rumors" around the Trojans program with recruits and shopping trips. There is much more to this story then OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush. Still, USC is a top tier college program and losing it's coach is big news.

So USC, goes after Mike Riley, he says no. Then they go after Jack Del Rio and he declines. Steve Mariucci has been out of the game too long and heck even the Detroit Lions quit on him.

So whose next? Lane Kiffin at Tennessee. Are you kidding me? He is a walking recruiting violation. I'm sure the NCAA will look kindly on this hire. Isn't Tennessee being investigated by the NCAA regarding the practices of some weekend "hostess"?

Congratulations USC! I'm pretty sure a recruiting class isn't as important as selling your entire program down the river. Don't get me wrong, Lane can coach, knows the X's and O's, can recruit with the best of them and is a Pete disciple but what if the NCAA finds major violations at USC? Then does this hire make any sense?

The LA media from what I have read, loves this hire. Really? Why? Because he coached with Pete? I feel sorry for Tennessee, which is a major program in the SEC. They have lost most of their coaches and now under the gun to get a good coach and save their recruits.

USC moved fast to save their recruiting class. They should have taken a step back and thought about the entire University's reputation first, a different type of Class.

This has been one wild month and were not even half way done.

Michigan Looking to Sure up the Kicking Game

As a regular follower of this blog, I'm sure you have seen that Michigan has been very active in signing walk on kickers and punters for 2009. In fact, Michigan just added another preferred walk-on punter from outside Indy just this week to the class of 2009.

Not using a scholarship on Punters and Kickers right out of high school is a pretty regular practice in college football. Most programs try to get a number of them to enroll in school and join the team as a walk-on. Recently, Rich Rod and staff have been offering scholarships to some of the top kickers and punters in the country. Zoltan Mesko got a scholarship right out of high school (Carr Era) and soon to be Freshman Kicker Brendan Gibbons is also on scholarship.

The next scholarship kicker/punter candidate is Will Hagerup who is one of the best punters in the country with an average of 41.2 yards per punt as a Junior.

“Michigan offered me,” he reported, adding, “It definitely has a football tradition that is hard to beat and the school itself is in the top two or three in the Big Ten probably. It makes my decision harder.”

Will is sporting 11 scholarship offers from across the Big Ten and from schools like Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

• CAL and Michigan were in talks to play each other but CAL wanted a home and home series. Michigan won't do a home and home so they can maximize revenue with one more home game. Michigan also has a terrible record going to the West Coast to play. So not a good idea at all. HT: MSC
  


• Lane Kiffin has fired his S&C Coach after 6 months: Don't you just love Lane Kiffin? He has a news story every week. Sources told ESPN.com that Kiffin and his strength and conditioning coach, Mark Smith, met on Thursday and agreed to part ways. The details of Smith's departure as strength coach were still being finalized, and Tennessee athletic department officials declined to comment.
  
  Smith, who was previously the strength coach at South Carolina under Steve Spurrier, was one of the first hires Kiffin made after being named the Vols' coach on Dec. 1. Smith was given a $50,000 raise to come to Tennessee, bumping his annual salary up to $190,000.
  


• Bill Martin, Michigan's AD wants one more Big Ten football game during the season so he doesn't have the headache of scheduling nonconference opponents like Utah or App. State (that end up being good): "We talk about that at every meeting," said Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, who added that the drive for nine is getting more support. "As the guarantees [for nonconference games] go up and up and up and the fans want to play our sister institutions in the conference, to me it's a nobrainer. Play 'em." Martin ideally would want to play a true round robin in the Big Ten, but he admits it's "not realistic" because of the revenue from home games that league members need to sustain their athletic programs. The Michigan AD said he has even tried to schedule the two teams Michigan doesn't play during the Big Ten schedule as nonconference opponents.
  

Michigan isn't the only school that losses players due to a Coaching Change

Last year Michigan lost a few high profile players off it's team due to the retirement of Lloyd Carr. They lost a 5 star QB (Ryan Mallet) and an offensive lineman (Justin Boren) that would rather pay his own way at Ohio State, then face Mike Barwis in the weight room everyday. Justin even threw a blast as he was heading out the door at Rich Rod and staff by saying, "Michigan had lost it's family values". Which is funny because some may question that Justin choose to pay his own way at Ohio State so his lower rated brother could get a scholarship in Ohio State's 2009 recruiting class.

Anyway, this post isn't about Justin Boren, it's about player losses when a new coach takes over a program. Over the past two years, I have counted 11 Wolverines that have "left the program" for one reason or another: Zion Babb, Justin Boren, Artis Chambers, Avery Horn, Jason Kates, Ryan Mallett, Sam McGuffie, Quinton Patilla, Marques Slocum and the recent departures of Stephen Threet (Transfer Hall of Fame) and Toney Clemons.

There were 22 coaching changes in division 1 NCAA college football last year. Out of those 22 new jobs; 17 of them were hires outside the current coaching staff. So I thought I would take a look a few high profile schools (Tennessee, Syracuse, Auburn, & Washington) and see how many players they have lost so far this Spring.

We have all heard by now the "unique" coaching style that Lane Kiffin has brought to the Volunteers and none of us are surprised that he has lost the most players to date with 11. Lane is just going to be Lane and will continue to sign players with past rape charges and say "no thanks" to 5 star quarterbacks that had already verbally committed to his school. I thought Rich Rod got a lot of attention in his first few months. Lane has taken the media attention up a couple of notches. Keep up the good work Lane! The SEC needed some more coaches with strong personalities.

Next is Syracuse, where former Orangemen and New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Doug Marrone took over the reigns from current Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson. It seems Michigan and Syracuse worked some type of trade in the off season where Syracuse sent Michigan it's un-successful head coach and Michigan traded their un-successful defensive coordinator (Scott Shafer) to the Orangemen. So far the change in management in northern New York has caused at least 5 defections that we know of so far. We will see how the rest of the summer plays out.

Auburn who made one of the most controversial hires this past off season by hiring Gene Chizik, the former Auburn defensive coordinator and now the former head coach at Iowa State. Gene was an un-impressive 5-19 in two seasons leading Iowa State's rebuilding process. So did Aubrun get a guy on the verge of becoming one of the hottest candidates out there (if he turned Iowa State around in a year or two) or did they get a guy that really doesn't know how to be a head coach yet? Only time will tell, but being a good coordinator doesn't mean you will be a good head coach. Not everyone has leadership skills. So you ask, how many players have left the Auburn program so far? The list comes in at 4 at this point. Which is not too bad for a new head coach.

Maybe the most impressive job of keeping your players in tact is at U of W, where Steve Sarkisian replaced Tyrone Willingham and the win-less Huskies in 2008. Steve has manged to only lose 2 players, one to academic reasons and the other was to injury and not wanting to play football anymore. Those departures could be seen as a normal occurrence to any program across the nation. Well done Steve on keeping your guys in the boat, now let's see if they can all row in the same direction.

The moral of this story is that when you make a major change in leadership in college football or in any organization you are going to lose people. These changes could be good or they could be bad, but thinking that everyone is going to be happy with change is not realistic. Everyone will have their reasons, for Mallett and Threet it was because they didn't fit the system, for Boren it was because he didn't have Carr has his security blanket anymore.

I'm sure each player that leaves Kiffin's closet will have their reasons as well. I just hope for the boosters that are helping pay these million dollar salaries that these changes equal more wins and championships or these fellas are going to have a short lease.

BHB Loves Lane Kiffin

I have wrote about Lane Kiffin at Tennessee a number of times already. He seems like a walking recruiting violation and has called "out" about every program in the SEC after just only being on the job for about 3 1/2 months.

We all remember Steve Spurrier's classic line when he was at Florida: "you can't spell Citrus (Bowl) without a U and a T". Well that U and a T now has a guy that go head to head with "the old ball coach" and spit out is own lendgardy one liners during a late night signing day eve recruiting call with soon to be South Carolina commit Alshon Jeffrey. According to Jeffrey and Wilson, Kiffin told Jeffrey that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina.

Lane, thank you for making a boring off season, not so boring.

Wolverine News and Notes:

• Manny Harris was named to the first team All Big Ten. Sims was named to the second team.

• There are "rumblings" from some leading recruiting sites that Ohio WR DJ Williamson could be on the verge of committing to the Wolverines after Friday's Junior Day. DJ is 6"1 172 pounds and runs a 4.4 in the 40. DJ plays his high school football at Warren Harding. DJ would be Michigan's 4th WR commit to the 2010 class. RR didn't have a comment on whether Michigan was planning on starting 10 WR's on offense in 2011.

• Cory Zirbel's knee won't allow him to play football any longer. Cory was expected to be a starter last year on the offensive line when his knee started bothering him in summer workouts, during surgery a rare knee condition called femoral condyle defect was found. Cory will help the team has a coach.

Lane Kiffin is a Walking Recruiting Violation

Lane joked about getting 29 out of 30 on his NCAA recruiting test. I wonder which question he missed? Because he is a walking talking Recruiting Violation, even UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel thinks Lane is out of control and has had too many violations in just a few weeks.

If your keeping score at home, Lane's first two violations came when he called out Florida head coach Urban Meyer for cheating when he called a recruit while he visited Tennessee, then he used a fog machine and faked a press conference when some recruits visited Knoxville. Now his third violation came when he mentioned un-signed #1 ranked running back Bryce Brown by name on the radio. Kiffin was talking about the growing trend of high school prospects waiting until after signing day to choose a school and made a reference to "great players like Bryce Brown" while appearing on WNML Radio. Those comments came after the host of the show, Dave Hooker, couched the question by reminding Kiffin that he couldn't talk about specific recruits.

Lane has been on the job since December 1st and has seemly can't get out of his own way when it comes to recruiting. Maybe old man Al Davis was right, this guy might be a little unstable?
I know the NCAA doesn't usually come down hard when programs self report minor violations, but they might have to send a message to Lane with all these violations.

Keep it up Lane! Your bringing some much needed spice to usually a slow time for college football news. I'm really looking forward to watching the Vol's this year, mostly when they meet the National Champions Florida Gators!

Must Win Tuesday

I'm not a big fan of the term "must win" it's way overused in the sports world. It's almost as bad as using coaching "genius", but tonight is a "must win" for the Wolverines. In fact, all of the games for the rest of the year are "must wins" for Michigan if they have hope of breaking their NCAA tournament drought.

The remaining schedule looks like: MSU tonight, at Northwestern, Minnesota, at Iowa, and finishing the year at home against Purdue.

Michigan needs 20+ wins to be in the conversation of the NCAA. Let's hope the "moral" victory against #1 UConn can help propel the Wolverines to a late year win streak.

Being Lane Kiffin: So you get fired from the Oakland Raiders for basically not communicating with the 200 year old owner, you land on your feet by getting a high profile college gig at Tennessee, you hire your father as defensive coordinator, you tell a 5 star QB "thanks but no thanks", you steal a high profile Florida WR from the Gators on signing day, you call out the National Champions head coach by saying that he "cheated" when he really didn't, you get reprimanded by the SEC for making those comments and now this....................

Tennessee notified the NCAA it found a Southeastern Conference coach committing recruiting violations - the Volunteers' own Lane Kiffin.

In letters to the NCAA and SEC, the Tennessee athletic department said the secondary violations occurred in January. One violation occurred when nine prospects on an official visit to the school participated in a mock press conference at Neyland Stadium's media center.
Another violation occurred when a fog machine was used as a recruit entered the field at Neyland Stadium during his official visit on Jan. 9.

A fog machine and a pretend press conference? Are you kidding me? Were the Business School and Law Schools closed? Did the Library get flooded? I guess Coach Kiffin needs gimmicks to sell recruits on the University of Tennessee. Which is sad and sends the wrong message to 18 year-old kids.

BTW: Kiffin joked he got 39 out of 40 on his NCAA recruiting test? I'm guessing me might need to retake it!

Coach you just got hired on December 1st. What is going to happen when they start playing games?

Does anyone want to coach at Louisville? I wrote an entire post on the coaching turnover at Louisville recently. It's been downright crazy. They have pretty much replaced their entire staff in less then a year, with only the offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm staying on board. Until yesterday of course, when head coach Steve Kragthorpe let Jeff go. This program is in complete disarray.

State's turn to schedule a D1A School: Montana State will play Michigan State in its season opener in 2009, traveling to East Lansing, Mich., for the Sept. 5 game.