Friday "Frost Warning" Edition

• Ron English adds "Wheat" to his coaching staff: Ron English the new head coach at Eastern Michigan and former DC at U of M has hired one of Michigan's famous running backs Tyrone Wheatly. "Wheat" will coach up Eastern's running backs.
• Coach Rod spoke at a coaches clinic in Battle Creek yesterday: here is the link, it's about a 5 minute video.
  
• Curtis Granderson's Celebrity Shootout has some famous names playing/attending: Braylon Edwards, former U-M football coach Lloyd Carr, Drew Henson, David Terrell, U of M swimmer Peter Vanderkaay, and of course Kid Rock! If you want to attend this weekend, please visit http://www.grandkidsfoundation.org/.
• Arkansas really likes "things" from Michigan: former Michigan QB Ryan Mallet and now this? Sources are saying that John L. Smith may join the razorbacks as an assistant coach. Good Luck with that one!
• Visitors this weekend: Je'Ron Stokes WR "soft Tennessee commit", Jeremy Gallon Slot and Brendan Gibbons KR current Michigan commits, and Benny Logan a 3 star DE from LA. Goal for the weekend: keep Gallon and Gibbons committed and get Je'Ron to drink the kool-aide!

Bizzaro World

What a strange year this has been. Things seem to be just the opposite of what we expected this time last year, not unlike George Costanza's Bizzaro World on Seinfeld. Here are just a few examples of why this was such a strange year for Michigan fans.

• The Michigan Football Program hired a new coach with out any ties to the program for the first time in nearly 40 years.
• Michigan had a losing season
• Michigan didn't make a bowl game
• Michigan State is in a News Years Day Bowl
• Penn State had a good year
• Ohio State is not in the national championship game and lost two games this year
• Michigan lost to a MAC team and a Mountain West team
• Northwestern and Iowa are in bowl games
• Cincinnati Bearcats are in a BCS game
• Notre Dame won a bowl game. The first time in 15 years
• The Michigan Basketball program is on the rise and even ranked in the AP (the first time since 2006).
• Michigan State is actually putting together a decent recruiting class
• Jake Long was the #1 draft pick in the entire NFL Draft
• Michigan could have up to 6 recruits enrolling early. They had 1 last year
• Ron English is the head coach for Eastern Michigan (congrats Ron!)
• Brady Hoke is the head coach at San Diego State (congrats Brady!)
• Stan Parrish is the head coach at Ball State (congrats Stan! - There are former Michigan coaches everywhere!)
• The Lions are about to make NFL History
• Gas was $4.00 a gallon and now around $1.70
• Our beloved Big House wasn't the largest stadium in the nation. (due to construction - Penn State was the biggest this year)
• Michigan played their spring game at a high school
• The Michigan basketball team beat Duke in front of a sold out Crisler Arena
• JoPa who was thought to be in his last year, just signed a new 3 year contract. He now will coach to his mid - late 80's!
• Bill Martin hasn't hired a coach from West Virgina in over a year

(did I miss any?)

English to EMU and LLP is impressive in debut

• ESPN and the Detroit News are saying that Ron English will be the new head coach at Eastern Michigan as soon as Monday. Ron is the current defensive coordinator at Louisville and the former defensive coordinator at Michigan under Lloyd Carr. English would become just the fifth African-American head coach among the 119 Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

• Michigan beats Oakland 89-76 on balanced scoring and a "hot" 10-18 from 3 point range in the first half. Sims was the leading scorer with 20 points, Manny Harris had 15, Laval Lucas-Perry had 14 in his Michigan debut, and Stu Douglass was hot e$arly in the game and ended with 12 points.

Cardinals Speaking English

ESPN is reporting that Ron English will become the next DC at Louisville. The Cardinals are in need of defense (any defense) and Ron might just be the guy to do it.

This article quotes Ron saying that he is considering the job and that Louisville has been very aggressive. Southern Illinois passed on Ron as their next head coach.

Practice and Big Ten Bowl Update #3: Alamo

Are we talking about Practice, Practice? English also interviews for the DC position at Washington.


WVU may have to eat a few tickets for the Fiesta Bowl.

Former OSU Basketball Star father maybe mixed up with an NCAA Violation with Darren McFadden and his new SUV.



The Spartans played well, but in the end same old Spartans. 4 Picks just won't get it done.






JoPa is 81 and coaching his 500th game tonight in San Antonia against a Texas A&M program that is going through a ton of change. A&M's coach Dennis Franchione was forced to resign after his secret website newsletter gave Boosters inside information on his program.

So here is a coach that is coaching his 500th game against a team with an Interim Head Coach (their Coach in waiting still in the NFL). PSU is coming off a loss to Michigan State (who lost their Bowl Game) and A&M is coming off a big win against Texas (who won their Bowl Game big over the co-Pac 10 Champ).

Even though Penn State limped home and A&M had a big win over a top 15 team, I think the PSU offense will eat up A&M's defense. Penn State will play physical on both sides of the ball and have the advantage against a weak A&M offense. I don't expect to see a lot of scoring but a ton of good hitting. The problem is, most of the nation will be watching Michigan's Golden Boy Tom Brady trying to make history on NBC and CBS instead of the watching the Alamo Bowl on ESPN. PSU 20 A&M 13


Enjoy the full slate of Bowl Games and the historic NFL game tonight!

The Search Continues...............

The big wheel keeps on turning, Proud Billy (martin) keeps on searching...........

In what I believe is an attempt to keep the current coordinators happy, both are interviewing for the Michigan job. Ron English interviewed yesterday and it's Mike DeBord's turn today. Let me be the first to say that if Mike DeBord were to get the job, that would be the quick death of this program. If you want an ex-CMU coach, go get the one that won there - Brian Kelly. The one that lost there likes to run way too many Zone Running plays on first down.

I was told there would be no math? Your right.
How about a story problem then? Ok!

Why would a Dassault Falcon 20 (a private plane) leave Willow Run Airport at 6 EST on Monday and arrive in Cedar Rapids a little more than an hour later. After about 15 minutes leaving and returning back to Willow Run?

The possible answer? Kirk Ferentz

Update: Mgoblog now reporting Kirk was not on this flight.

Don't you just love coaching searches!


I have been puzzled by something lately. How can a State University try to hire the highest paid employee of another State University without letting everyone and their brother know? How can Houston Nutt resign from Arkansas at 7:30 and know he has the Old Miss job in the bag at 10:00PM?

This is how: Chuck Neinas does it. Chuck is a college head coach middle man. See, Chuck knows everyone in coaching and is hired by AD's that want to gauge interest from high profile head coaches in their job openings.

I will give you an example. If Bill Martin wants to see if Urban Myer is interested at all in coming to Ann Arbor, how would he know? He would call Chuck. See if Bill goes to the Florida AD and then talks to Urban, #1 everyone would know and #2 if Urban wasn't interested then it looks bad for Michigan that they are now looking at their 2nd and 3rd choices.

The process is that Chuck would call Urban and ask him if he is interested in the Michigan gig. If Urban, says "no thanks, I'm happy at Florida". No Blood, No Foul.

See Chuck keeps information tighter then Fort Knox. He doesn't use email or write anything down. Everything is verbal so there isn't a trail. Chuck sometimes doesn't even tell who is client is. So the head coaches love him, because he can get them a better job or a raise at their current school. Chuck charges schools about $30,000 - $40,000 and also does deep background checks as well.

Who knows if Chuck was involved with Houston Nutt, but I find it very interesting that Arkansas offers him a 2 year extension that he turns down knowing he has the Ole Miss job.

So when the Iowa AD says he hasn't been contacted by Michigan. I'm sure he hasn't! But that doesn't mean Chuck hasn't contacted Kirk. AD's with top coaches better keep their house in order and make sure their coaches lose Chuck's cell phone number.