OL Insight as told by Mike Onwenu
Mike Onwenu gives some candid insights of the OL and a few other aspects. Questions asked by Angelique and Nick Baumgardner among others. BTW, it's quick but I believe MO says that while JBB didn't practice this past week, he's good.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:49 AM ^
It’s hard to imagine Mike hitting someone. He seems like the nicest guy.
October 30th, 2018 at 2:28 AM ^
As that poster said, he's a big ol' Teddy Bear.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
Oh he seems like a really nice guy, but make no mistake about it that man has a switch. And anyone dumb enough to flip it will literally get their arms ripped off and beaten with them. He reminds me of the movie The Blind Side. Awesome movie!
October 30th, 2018 at 2:22 AM ^
This has nothing to do with with your post--which is awesome by the way!
I just saw Parliament Funkadelic--George Clinton's last tour--and my ears are still ringing it was so loud.
GOD DAMN, YO!
Go Blue. One Nation Under A Groove..
October 30th, 2018 at 4:56 AM ^
Where was this?
October 30th, 2018 at 12:20 PM ^
Burlington, VT.
October 30th, 2018 at 8:14 AM ^
So jealous....
October 30th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
I could listen to Maggot Brain all day long.
Saw Parliament Funkadelic Summer '17 at the MN State Fair.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
oh man... P-Funk played at Hill back in the day and DAMN was that a fun show! color me jealous
October 30th, 2018 at 6:14 AM ^
Anyone else find it funny that they've got a plaque for Brady Hoke, but not one for RichRod? RichRod is in the full list of names. It's not so much that I think there should be a full plaque for RichRod, more that I'm a little surprised that Hoke was deemed worthy of one.
October 30th, 2018 at 6:57 AM ^
I believe Hoke is there because Schembechler Hall renovations were completed when he was still coach. Not sure if all coaches get a plaque. It's been a while since I visited there.
October 30th, 2018 at 7:27 AM ^
Hoke also managed to stumble his way into a BCS bowl win, so there is that. Rodriguez lost by 38 in his only bowl game.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
Also also, RR was fired from Arizona for bribing his mistress and sexually harassing an employee. So even if he had a plaque before it would probably be taken down now.
October 30th, 2018 at 7:27 AM ^
You can qualify the season however you like but Brady Hoke was still the head coach of a team that went 11-2 and won a bcs bowl. Yes he wasn't a great coach but that season happened and should be acknowledged.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:28 AM ^
Hoke was also the DL coach when we won the NC in 97.
He deserves a plaque.
October 30th, 2018 at 8:04 AM ^
What I find "funny" about this thread is that the OP includes Angelique and Nick to promote this thing. These two have to be the worst beat-writers in all of college football yet they get all this love...from the Michigan fans no less. This simply confirms the validity of my "pathological partisan fan" label I use. And that so many of these same fans hate on people like Chris Balas...OMG!!! Come on folks-step it up here.
October 30th, 2018 at 8:12 AM ^
I agree about Angelique...I haven't been impressed by the questions she's asked or the articles she's written. I don't feel like she offers any more insight into the program than any of the 10 Wolverine blogs out there with almost no access.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
Angelique is a hack and stenographer who never questions the party line. But Nick B does. He’s fair and analytical, and he calls out the program when needed. So it’s a little apples and oranges.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^
I don't understand all this hate for Nick. He's one of the better beat reporters out there. Been reading his stuff since he was at MLive, where he was pretty clearly way above class there.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^
You must live in a world where Graham Couch is not a thing. I would also like to live there.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
What a terrible post. I’d say “do better” but this is probably the best you can do.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^
We all know your love for Angelique... perhaps check your bias, at the door...
October 30th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
Angelique is a very good beat writer for Michigan.
Others may disagree; I might have a mild interest in trying to understand that disagreement, but I also might not care.
I will always remember the fact that Angelique's personal friendship with Mike Rosenberg, then of the Free Press, was broken over Rosenberg's reporting of the "Stretchgate" kerfuffle. To her enduring credit, she did some excellent counter-reporting of that story. She's a stand-up lady, and a nice lady too.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
Angelique is fine...adequate, even. I like her, I think she's funny on Twitter but I haven't really read anything she's written on Michigan in the past few years that stands out.
In a state where Craham Grouch is a beat writer who is (presumably) paid real money to do what he does, I guess we're lucky to have her.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
I always thought Angelique was fine, until the last couple years when she's lost my respect with her questions at Jim's pressers. She knows the answers (or non-answers) that certain categories of questions will get, and she knows Jim well enough to know what annoys him, and yet she repeatedly asks those questions anyways.
The response to this will undoubtedly be "She's just doing her job!" but the fact is that either way, whether she repeatedly asks Jim questions she knows he won't answer or not, her pre-game column will always be the same, but she chooses to go the route that rustles feathers. "Harbaugh was coy when discussing Player X's injury...Harbaugh had great praise for Upcoming Opponent Y". Why push Jim's buttons just to get the same lack of information? She's only adding to Jim's (and many others') distaste for reporters like her.
I realize that this is a very mild thing in the grand scheme of life - she's a sports beat writer, not reporting on human rights violations in Turkey - but that's why she irks me now. She's good for a few tiffs with Jim every year that are entirely on her being intentionally annoying.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
I think that's Angelique hearing a lot of reader/Twitter injury questions and wanting to get them answered. People do want to know, though they certainly don't have a right to know.
Jim will sometimes give an injury report on like 5 guys then he'll shut that down about it for a month, so she's hoping to get one of those days.
Have heard her lament that Jim doesn't do one-on-ones (Lloyd, RichRod, Hoke all did those with her pre-season), calls in to his radio show, and looks at press as an obligation. I get the frustration but as a fan I don't mind a prep-obsessed coach who's minimizing time on other coach obligations.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
Yeah I think your first paragraph says it all. Of course people want to know, but they don't have a right to know, and every sports reporter who is at all familiar with Harbaugh knows exactly what he is willing to share. He's publicly established how that line of questioning will go over the last 10-ish years of his career. Does she have an obligation to bang her head on a brick wall just because the public wants her to, knowing that all it does is make the brick wall mad? Idk, she just seems impish to me.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^
I'm with that and also think that Angelique's challenge is to find the more interesting story than X out Y weeks with Z.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
The whole point of being a reporter is asking questions you know probably aren't going to get an answer, or even ask questions you already know the answer to. You can't assume he's not going to tell you JBB is healthy or not. You have to ask. You can't assume he's got nothing but platitudes to offer about Penn State. You have to ask. Who gives a shit if it makes him mad? That's not a reporters concern.
Take the post MSU game presser for example. Would you have guessed that Harbaugh would take that opportunity to tear into Dantonio or MSU's program? Been plenty of times where's he's brushed a question like that off. But that's why you ask because you never know.
Also in general, you basically just described an environment that allows situations like MSU and Penn State under Paterno to flourish. When you start worrying about "making the brick wall mad" you're compromised and failing as a reporter.
None of us have a right to know anything at all the reporters are asking questions about, that's the whole point of the job. If you piss some people off along the way, then you're probably doing a good job.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
Yes, me specifically saying that Angelique knows what questions to Harbaugh about injuries will result in is akin to turning the other cheek to sexual violence.
I know that nuance and compartmentalization is hard, but that is an insane reach. Let's keep the discussion in scope here. Angelique is not watch-dogging for abuse, she's asking what Jim thinks of Penn State and how Aubrey Solomon's knee is doing.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^
Well, asshole, as it turns out I don't know many beat writers by sight or sound. I recognized Baumgardner's reflective image and Angelique's voice, so I included their names to give the original post a bit of gratuitous filler.
The only agenda I can see is the one crammed so far up your ass it has turned the gray and white matter within your skull a shitty brown color.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
Wow! Impressive. I just find it hard to (impossible???) believe that anyone who has enough interest to come on an open blog like this values what those two have to say. Is that all you really know about the game-seriously??? Angelique pretty much knows nothing. Nick is knowledgeable enough but he clearly hates Michigan and NEVER misses an opportunity to under-cut Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football program...that is NEVER!!! Your misdirected anger is pathetic.
As a player and coach I have dealt with these writers and sportscasters enough to know the depth of their ignorance-about whatever sport they are covering. Jim Harbaugh has long had it with these folks and I am in complete agreement with the general treatment he gives them. Because, you know what, it's not about you whiney, ignorant fans. I hope you can learn to enjoy and appreciate the skill and effort the kids bring to the game-because that is what the playing is about.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
Of course he’s clapping in the pic on the plaque.
October 30th, 2018 at 8:15 AM ^
Glad to hear Cesar is the "anchor" of the line and seeing things really well. One of the many struggles our O-Line seemed to have last year was IDing things properly and adjusting which seemed to leave them in bad situations regularly. Nothing against Kugler who is obviously still contributing to the program as a coach, but that didn't seem to be one his strengths the way it appears to be for Ruiz. Feels like with him at center and Warinner as their coach the line will be in good shape for the next several years.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^
If Kugler knows enough about OL to be worthy of a GA spot, you would expect him to know enough to ID formations. I don't think those problems were on Kugler.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:55 AM ^
The UFRs from last year would disagree in many cases. There's a difference between knowing something and being able to diagnose and execute it on gameday. It was far from the line's only problem last year so who knows what was chicken and egg there but it was a consistent theme in the games for which we saw UFRs.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^
Blame the coach(es). Not the kid. If he was consistently messing up that's on coaching. The fact that the line looks a million times better with new coaching suggests I'm right.
Of course, there's no UFR telling me what to think so I could be wrong.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
Mad about referencing UFR? Weird flex on this blog but ok.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^
Brian flat out says he has to guess a lot because he doesn't know how the play is drawn up or what adjustments they are supposed to make. UFR is cool for fans, but it's far from gospel about what's going on.