I appreciate the apparent inevitability of Harbaugh's return to the NFL. Before the revelation about Colson's conversation with Minter, I maintained that Michigan may not have been able to keep Harbaugh from the NFL, but it seems like it could have made his decision a lot harder.
I intended my earlier post mostly an updated attempt to reapportion my internal frustration at Michigan's apparent inability to convert the momentum from three wildly successful seasons into some offseason victories* between Harbaugh and Michigan.
*Feel free to unload of your jibes about offseason championships here.
I want to know more about the timing of that conversation between Junior Colson and Jesse Minter. I did not like how Michigan handled Jim Harbaugh's departure. I can accept that Harbaugh was determined to leave for the NFL. But from my perspective, Michigan did not try to make that decision as hard as possible for Harbaugh. Weeks passed with quibbling about salary, bonus pools, NIL support, and the effects of a hypothetical NCAA suspension only for an unqualified offer to materialize at five minutes to midnight. It feels like Michigan negotiated Harbaugh into leaving for the NFL and only made its last offer as a way to save face.
But if Minter was telling Colson that he was going to join Harbaugh in the NFL in January, that completely changes my perspective. I would redirect my frustration from Michigan to Harbaugh. The tables will have turned; Harbaugh, not Michigan, was stringing everyone along by pretending to entertain contract offers. Plans can change and the right NFL offer might not have materialized, but Harbaugh could have told Michigan that he intended to leave. That could have given Michigan time to start its hiring process and avoid the "will he or won't he" stall that interrupted any post-championship recruiting momentum.
Some of you are way too practical. You have an unlimited budget; abuse it!
If I can make a two-door work with kids and car seats, I'm choosing a Porsche 911 Dakar or a Singer 911. The former is absolutely bonkers, yet oddly practical. The latter is beautiful and perfect, but may not meet XM's criteria, since it's technically a restoration, not a brand new vehicle.
If I have to go with a four-door, then it would be a German superwagon of some variety: AMG E63 S, RS 6 Avant, or Panamera Sport Turismo Turbo S.
Brian's enthusiasm for the MBB equivalent of NBA capology fills me with delight. I find his sudden interest both unexpected but totally in character, as Brian has previously detailed his love for Football Manager.
I am not sure if this would make you feel better, but the same disease seems to have infected a substantial part of the Spartan fanbase. Otherwise rational Spartan fans have repeatedly told me that they expect the NCAA to imminently rain cleansing justice upon Michigan football.
I am not sure if MBB has started hiring analysts on the same scale as CFB, but giving Peedi a year or two to develop as a high school coach and then hiring him as an analyst seems like a smart approach.
So there's actually an explanation for why the story changed. The communication team that issued the original statement screwed the pooch and got its information from Ohtani via Mizuhana. In other words, the person claiming that Ohtani willingly paid a friend's gambling debts was, in fact, the friend.
I remember Dayton and Grand Canyon getting dinged for overspending, but not Charleston. I think Brian discounted Kelsey because he does not have a track record of mid-major success.
I think Brian left him off the short list because he does not enough of a track record. Charleston plays in the CAA, which too many tiers removed from the major conference. Meanwhile, Kelsey has just three years at Charleston and produced middling KenPom finishes of 144, 71, and 100.
Fenerbahçe is actually in Turkey, not Spain. (By chance, I happen to know someone who's a fan of them.) They may have played against some Spanish teams in the Euroleague (which is the basketball equivalent of the Champions' League), but they don't play in the ACB.
This comment may be the peak of MGoBoard's pedantry and I absolutely adore it. 10/10, no notes.
It's snowing here, but the temperature is just at freezing and the flakes are big, so we've ended up with almost perfect packing snow. Not too cold, not too wet, just right. Everything is about ideal for playing outside. The kids are going to go absolutely nuts with snow people and snow balls.
I would like to see a time-limited window for coaches to make challenges. If a challenge comes outside that window, then the opportunity to challenge expires. If challenged, play should continue as normal until the next stoppage. This should prevent both the psychotic Zaprudering that currently plagues college hockey and bad-faith challenges only intended to interrupt play.
My wholehearted belief in this interpretation derives solely from unhinged wishcasting, but I could not be happier to know that OSU may have reverse Ewing Theory-ed itself on offense by hiring Chip Kelly.
I don't like this post. It is the middle of the offseason. I should be reading shitposts, snowflakes, and concern trolling, not finding excellent content that provides a concise summary without stealing everything from the original creator. OP, I'm disappointed.
It's called football, it would be extremely dumb to eliminate kicking for points.
Football got its name for historical, not descriptive, reasons. American football traces its origins to the wide variety of games played at English colleges, universities, and public schools in the mid-18th century and generally categorized as "football".* They acquired this general label because players participated on foot, not on horseback.
*Those games are the collective ancestors of rugby, soccer, and football. Indeed, "soccer" is actually a American contraction and mangling of "association football", the full name of the sport.
Bacon's quip gets at my general dissatisfaction with Michigan's negotiating approach. Harbaugh may have set his mind on leaving for the NFL, but Michigan could have made his decision a lot harder.
I'm not sure the Ravens would keep sending their aspiring staff to Michigan for finishing school, but we might be able to get one more John to Jim as a going away present.
I also found the revelation about the buyout to be the more interesting part of Wetzel's story. Harbaugh's purported attempt to manipulate his buyout implies a lot about his future plans. On one hand, playing games with the buyout suggests that Harbaugh has very serious NFL aspirations. He's not just taking interviews to be polite but because he wants to an NFL position. On the other hand, he's actually negotiating with Michigan. But if he really wanted an NFL position, why bother negotiating over the timing of the buyout? His favorable buyout applies unless he signs a new contract. If he is really determined to go the NFL, he just has to leave the new contract unsigned.
No, but he does sound a lot like Eyabi Okie, who was able to thrive at Michigan for a season. Admittedly, Okie's success probably grew from his relationship to Biff Poggi. Denver Harris does not have that kind of relationship with Michigan's staff (and Poggi is no even on Michigan's staff at this point), but this kind of transfer is not unprecedented for Michigan in the portal era.
Fowler and Herbstreit were fine during the broadcast but as Michigan kneeled the ball out to end the game Fowler noted that even if this title is "tainted" Michigan should enjoy it. That's just such an asshole thing to say at the end of a game, and then to kick it to Pete Thamel's buddy Rece Davis to do the trophy presentation drove me nuts. ESPN is not garbage as a source of sports journalism but I thought they'd have enough respect to not beat that dead horse for a couple of minutes.
I am glad someone else noticed Chris Fowler's end-of-game shenanigans. Fowler could have complimented Michigan, stayed neutral, or even just kept quiet and let the moment speak for itself. Instead, he could not help but try to tarnish Michigan's moment of triumph.
I also doubt that MGoBlog is the only or original source of this idea or even the basis for the bandwagon that Herbie has joined. But I could not pass up the chance to cast Herbie as a sudden convert to the newest tenet of MGoBlog doctrine.
XM, I would never shear my regard for you based on your viewing habits. Clarkson's Farm is a reality show, but it has an interesting premise. Jeremy Clarkson is a well-known English TV presenter with a famously bombastic personality. He also happens to own a 1,000-acre farm in central England. For many years, he leased the land to a local farmer. When that farmer retired in 2019, he decided to take over management himself and conspired with Amazon, where his other show currently airs, to document his efforts (and failures). The first season of the show documents the annual life cycle of a medium-sized working farm as seen through the eyes of Clarkson, a complete neophyte. Clarkson freely admits that he has no idea what he is doing before charging ahead with reckless abandon.
As far as I can tell, the show does manufacture (much) drama. The difficulties of running a working farm and Clarkson's inexperience are enough to drive the show. The show itself does a magnificent job of showcasing both the importance of farming and the immense structural difficulties of running a modern farm. I cannot recommend it enough. Based on my limited knowledge of your personal history, I suspect you might see a bit yourself in Clarkson as he figures out to run a farm with no prior experience. Also, Kaleb and Charlie are absolute gems.
XM's latest farm report reminds me of Clarkson's Farm. Specifically, there is an episode in season 1 where Clarkson spends several days as a nervous wreck while overseeing and assisting with his first season of lambing. Being a seasoned lambing veteran, it sounds like XM handled his situation with a bit more sangfroid than Clarkson.
XM, have you watched Clarkson's Farm? If so, do you have any thoughts to share?
Out of curiosity, how do lineal championships work in boxing? I see two major complications. First, boxers compete in different weight classes that may not have overlapping competitors. Can you reconcile a line of welterweight champions with a line of heavyweight champions that does not overlap? Second, boxers can retire. What happens to the lineal championship if its holder retires without a final defeat?
For some low cost pizzazz, I would like to Michigan build off of the Donovan Edwards & Semaj Morgan package that debuted last week. Having Morgan running jet sweep with Edwards flaring or running to the other direction looked like it really stressed OSU's defense.
The basic idea is already on tape, so Michigan won't be giving up anything substantial if it runs the other parts of the base plays or some basic constraints, like double play action to a tight end delay down the seam.
You're not the first person to notice this year (or even last year). Alex has shifted the focus of Manball v. Basketball on Grass from play style to blocking scheme. Many of us disagree with the shift, but he has sustained it for two years now. I don't think we're ever going back to the way things were.
This is the answer. Seth has Michigan deployed in a 5-2 with four DBs and no Josh Wallace. In this formation and personnel grouping, Mike Sainristil plays corner, not nickel. Sainristil is a good corner, but he's not an All-American (even if he avoided getting Mossed by Marvin Harrison, Jr. last week).
Ultimately, no one knows. The CFP committee has never been very clear (or consistent) about their ranking methodology. Are they ranking by resume or power? Personally, I prefer resume rankings for postseason decisions. Every ranking method has an element of subjectivity, but power ranking always feels like an exercise in motivated reasoning. It always looks like the ranker starts with their desired outcome and works backwards to find a justification.
They are working fine for me,* but I send regular shipments of choice comestibles to the hamsters running HUEL's servers so my traffic gets extra special attention.
Brian picked a rough minute to post an offensive UFR.
But given how hard the hamsters powering the HUEL backend are working to keep the site afloat under the current deluge of traffic, I suspect Brian's not too upset.
Your experience is the exact problem Michigan faced. I summarized it generally below, but Michigan might be able to win this fight at an enormous cost. But its victory would be limited to the B1G's process, not the substance of the decision.
And it is easy for the B1G to regroup and try again. After losing, the B1G could just follow its process and come to the same result. Or it could find a new rules, rationales, and punishments until it swamped Michigan with more punishments than it could hope to challenge in court.
Recent Comments
I'm not cut out for multiplayer,* so I stick to single player games. I just finished Cyberpunk 2077 and have just picked up Spider-Man 2.
*I'll admit that the Helldivers 2 hype has challenged my normal multiplayer antipathy.
I appreciate the apparent inevitability of Harbaugh's return to the NFL. Before the revelation about Colson's conversation with Minter, I maintained that Michigan may not have been able to keep Harbaugh from the NFL, but it seems like it could have made his decision a lot harder.
I intended my earlier post mostly an updated attempt to reapportion my internal frustration at Michigan's apparent inability to convert the momentum from three wildly successful seasons into some offseason victories* between Harbaugh and Michigan.
*Feel free to unload of your jibes about offseason championships here.
I want to know more about the timing of that conversation between Junior Colson and Jesse Minter. I did not like how Michigan handled Jim Harbaugh's departure. I can accept that Harbaugh was determined to leave for the NFL. But from my perspective, Michigan did not try to make that decision as hard as possible for Harbaugh. Weeks passed with quibbling about salary, bonus pools, NIL support, and the effects of a hypothetical NCAA suspension only for an unqualified offer to materialize at five minutes to midnight. It feels like Michigan negotiated Harbaugh into leaving for the NFL and only made its last offer as a way to save face.
But if Minter was telling Colson that he was going to join Harbaugh in the NFL in January, that completely changes my perspective. I would redirect my frustration from Michigan to Harbaugh. The tables will have turned; Harbaugh, not Michigan, was stringing everyone along by pretending to entertain contract offers. Plans can change and the right NFL offer might not have materialized, but Harbaugh could have told Michigan that he intended to leave. That could have given Michigan time to start its hiring process and avoid the "will he or won't he" stall that interrupted any post-championship recruiting momentum.
RS3 Sportback.
Put me down for a good banging today.
By default, Matt assumes that all basketball players are actually shorter than listed.
Some of you are way too practical. You have an unlimited budget; abuse it!
If I can make a two-door work with kids and car seats, I'm choosing a Porsche 911 Dakar or a Singer 911. The former is absolutely bonkers, yet oddly practical. The latter is beautiful and perfect, but may not meet XM's criteria, since it's technically a restoration, not a brand new vehicle.
If I have to go with a four-door, then it would be a German superwagon of some variety: AMG E63 S, RS 6 Avant, or Panamera Sport Turismo Turbo S.
The mismatch between OP's terrible title and useful post has thrown me for an absolute loop.
Brian's enthusiasm for the MBB equivalent of NBA capology fills me with delight. I find his sudden interest both unexpected but totally in character, as Brian has previously detailed his love for Football Manager.
I am not sure if this would make you feel better, but the same disease seems to have infected a substantial part of the Spartan fanbase. Otherwise rational Spartan fans have repeatedly told me that they expect the NCAA to imminently rain cleansing justice upon Michigan football.
I am not sure if MBB has started hiring analysts on the same scale as CFB, but giving Peedi a year or two to develop as a high school coach and then hiring him as an analyst seems like a smart approach.
Why stop at excellent when you can wish for the absurd? I'll be pulling for Barzo to stand tall with a 0.41 GAA and 0.964 SV%.
So there's actually an explanation for why the story changed. The communication team that issued the original statement screwed the pooch and got its information from Ohtani via Mizuhana. In other words, the person claiming that Ohtani willingly paid a friend's gambling debts was, in fact, the friend.
I remember Dayton and Grand Canyon getting dinged for overspending, but not Charleston. I think Brian discounted Kelsey because he does not have a track record of mid-major success.
I think Brian left him off the short list because he does not enough of a track record. Charleston plays in the CAA, which too many tiers removed from the major conference. Meanwhile, Kelsey has just three years at Charleston and produced middling KenPom finishes of 144, 71, and 100.
This comment may be the peak of MGoBoard's pedantry and I absolutely adore it. 10/10, no notes.
It's snowing here, but the temperature is just at freezing and the flakes are big, so we've ended up with almost perfect packing snow. Not too cold, not too wet, just right. Everything is about ideal for playing outside. The kids are going to go absolutely nuts with snow people and snow balls.
I would like to see a time-limited window for coaches to make challenges. If a challenge comes outside that window, then the opportunity to challenge expires. If challenged, play should continue as normal until the next stoppage. This should prevent both the psychotic Zaprudering that currently plagues college hockey and bad-faith challenges only intended to interrupt play.
My wholehearted belief in this interpretation derives solely from unhinged wishcasting, but I could not be happier to know that OSU may have reverse Ewing Theory-ed itself on offense by hiring Chip Kelly.
No quips today. I'm just here to bang and be banged in return.
I don't like this post. It is the middle of the offseason. I should be reading shitposts, snowflakes, and concern trolling, not finding excellent content that provides a concise summary without stealing everything from the original creator. OP, I'm disappointed.
Now? The MGoStaff has been ignoring basketball since the final buzzer of the Long Beach State game.
Football got its name for historical, not descriptive, reasons. American football traces its origins to the wide variety of games played at English colleges, universities, and public schools in the mid-18th century and generally categorized as "football".* They acquired this general label because players participated on foot, not on horseback.
*Those games are the collective ancestors of rugby, soccer, and football. Indeed, "soccer" is actually a American contraction and mangling of "association football", the full name of the sport.
Bacon's quip gets at my general dissatisfaction with Michigan's negotiating approach. Harbaugh may have set his mind on leaving for the NFL, but Michigan could have made his decision a lot harder.
I'm not sure the Ravens would keep sending their aspiring staff to Michigan for finishing school, but we might be able to get one more John to Jim as a going away present.
I also found the revelation about the buyout to be the more interesting part of Wetzel's story. Harbaugh's purported attempt to manipulate his buyout implies a lot about his future plans. On one hand, playing games with the buyout suggests that Harbaugh has very serious NFL aspirations. He's not just taking interviews to be polite but because he wants to an NFL position. On the other hand, he's actually negotiating with Michigan. But if he really wanted an NFL position, why bother negotiating over the timing of the buyout? His favorable buyout applies unless he signs a new contract. If he is really determined to go the NFL, he just has to leave the new contract unsigned.
No, but he does sound a lot like Eyabi Okie, who was able to thrive at Michigan for a season. Admittedly, Okie's success probably grew from his relationship to Biff Poggi. Denver Harris does not have that kind of relationship with Michigan's staff (and Poggi is no even on Michigan's staff at this point), but this kind of transfer is not unprecedented for Michigan in the portal era.
I am glad someone else noticed Chris Fowler's end-of-game shenanigans. Fowler could have complimented Michigan, stayed neutral, or even just kept quiet and let the moment speak for itself. Instead, he could not help but try to tarnish Michigan's moment of triumph.
January 2024 UFRs: A nothing but bangers album.
It had better be over four hours, but then you'll be hearing from my doctors!
I also doubt that MGoBlog is the only or original source of this idea or even the basis for the bandwagon that Herbie has joined. But I could not pass up the chance to cast Herbie as a sudden convert to the newest tenet of MGoBlog doctrine.
XM, I would never shear my regard for you based on your viewing habits. Clarkson's Farm is a reality show, but it has an interesting premise. Jeremy Clarkson is a well-known English TV presenter with a famously bombastic personality. He also happens to own a 1,000-acre farm in central England. For many years, he leased the land to a local farmer. When that farmer retired in 2019, he decided to take over management himself and conspired with Amazon, where his other show currently airs, to document his efforts (and failures). The first season of the show documents the annual life cycle of a medium-sized working farm as seen through the eyes of Clarkson, a complete neophyte. Clarkson freely admits that he has no idea what he is doing before charging ahead with reckless abandon.
As far as I can tell, the show does manufacture (much) drama. The difficulties of running a working farm and Clarkson's inexperience are enough to drive the show. The show itself does a magnificent job of showcasing both the importance of farming and the immense structural difficulties of running a modern farm. I cannot recommend it enough. Based on my limited knowledge of your personal history, I suspect you might see a bit yourself in Clarkson as he figures out to run a farm with no prior experience. Also, Kaleb and Charlie are absolute gems.
XM's latest farm report reminds me of Clarkson's Farm. Specifically, there is an episode in season 1 where Clarkson spends several days as a nervous wreck while overseeing and assisting with his first season of lambing. Being a seasoned lambing veteran, it sounds like XM handled his situation with a bit more sangfroid than Clarkson.
XM, have you watched Clarkson's Farm? If so, do you have any thoughts to share?
It's probably my favorite HTTV t-shirt.
I thought the design was a weird YouTube compression artifact until I started watching Matt's clips.
I like this format (if not what it implies about this year's team). Any chance you can turn it into a more recurring feature?
Out of curiosity, how do lineal championships work in boxing? I see two major complications. First, boxers compete in different weight classes that may not have overlapping competitors. Can you reconcile a line of welterweight champions with a line of heavyweight champions that does not overlap? Second, boxers can retire. What happens to the lineal championship if its holder retires without a final defeat?
We were supposed to…
...
We were supposed to stop?
Did you see the state of Colorado's offensive line? As far as Shedeur Sanders is concerned, this might be true.
For some low cost pizzazz, I would like to Michigan build off of the Donovan Edwards & Semaj Morgan package that debuted last week. Having Morgan running jet sweep with Edwards flaring or running to the other direction looked like it really stressed OSU's defense.
The basic idea is already on tape, so Michigan won't be giving up anything substantial if it runs the other parts of the base plays or some basic constraints, like double play action to a tight end delay down the seam.
You're not the first person to notice this year (or even last year). Alex has shifted the focus of Manball v. Basketball on Grass from play style to blocking scheme. Many of us disagree with the shift, but he has sustained it for two years now. I don't think we're ever going back to the way things were.
This is the answer. Seth has Michigan deployed in a 5-2 with four DBs and no Josh Wallace. In this formation and personnel grouping, Mike Sainristil plays corner, not nickel. Sainristil is a good corner, but he's not an All-American (even if he avoided getting Mossed by Marvin Harrison, Jr. last week).
The conference is not even four months old; any scandal would be the biggest scandal in Pac2 history.
Ultimately, no one knows. The CFP committee has never been very clear (or consistent) about their ranking methodology. Are they ranking by resume or power? Personally, I prefer resume rankings for postseason decisions. Every ranking method has an element of subjectivity, but power ranking always feels like an exercise in motivated reasoning. It always looks like the ranker starts with their desired outcome and works backwards to find a justification.
To be fair, neither do most of the NFL's talking heads.
I'm here to take my punishment (and my praise). In the Maryland offense FFFF, I questioned whether Mike Sainristil still deserved his shield. (https://mgoblog.com/content/fee-fi-foe-film-maryland-offense-2023#new)
Of course, I also said that he would make up three to four yards and break up my foolhardy proposition.
They are working fine for me,* but I send regular shipments of choice comestibles to the hamsters running HUEL's servers so my traffic gets extra special attention.
*Not really.
Brian picked a rough minute to post an offensive UFR.
But given how hard the hamsters powering the HUEL backend are working to keep the site afloat under the current deluge of traffic, I suspect Brian's not too upset.
Congratulations on emerging victorious from the first-to-post Thunderdome!
Your experience is the exact problem Michigan faced. I summarized it generally below, but Michigan might be able to win this fight at an enormous cost. But its victory would be limited to the B1G's process, not the substance of the decision.
And it is easy for the B1G to regroup and try again. After losing, the B1G could just follow its process and come to the same result. Or it could find a new rules, rationales, and punishments until it swamped Michigan with more punishments than it could hope to challenge in court.