Unverified Voracity Has To Invent Colors
What are you doing? As part of their deal with the devil, once a year Notre Dame has to abandon their classic blue and gold for colors that don't even exist:
Nothing is any of those colors except the helmet: urine when you're dehydrated. The helmet comes nowhere near anything else on the uniform. They've got as many design elements as you put on your rad-ass logo the first time you ever opened up your pirated copy of photoshop in seventh grade. Also:
2. "Authentic Irish Pub" in suburban upstate New York lookin' ass font. Guy who has never left his hometown but never shuts up about how Irish he is ass font. This font is so dumb, if you let your eyes lose focus, the letters automatically rearrange into "You know, the Guinness they have in Ireland is different and much better than here in the US."
These are the worst things Under Armour does annually.
I hesitate to suggest that Michigan won't do similar things under Harbaugh because not even he can stand against the tide by himself, but so far so good. Last year's all-white road uniforms were sharp and we haven't had uniformz announced or even rumored. It is possible. Texas, Alabama, and USC have largely or even entirely avoided uniforms that look like a wrestler's entrance video.
Harbaugh uptick. MLive covers how Michigan and MSU spend their money, albeit with poorly-axis'd graphs. The most interesting bit is a clear Harbaugh surge in spending on support staff:
This is spending on guys like Erik Campbell, TJ Weist, Bam Richards, Devin Bush Sr, etc. Michigan almost doubled its spending on support staff in Harbaugh's first year, hitting 2.7 million. The number they landed on doesn't seem like a coincidence:
In its 2013-14 NCAA financial report, Alabama reported spending $2.7 million on football support staff. … Clemson reported spending $2.5 million on football support staff in 2013-14, up from $480,000 about a decade ago.
Harbaugh asked and got the same budget as the two teams who played for the national title this year.
Michigan's recruiting expenses also saw an uptick, but I don't know if these numbers account for Satellite Camp World Tour 1.0 or not; either way the financial impact of those tours is going to be a slight increase in a number best described as "piddling."
Michigan was good at kickoffs. Michigan was 17th nationally in opponent drives following a kickoff that started at the 25 or worse and 16th when they tried to return kickoffs past the 25 themselves. That success rate was only 57% despite ranking in the top 20—so much of the value in a kick return is the 50 yards at the end that almost never happen but sometimes do.
I think they'll be good in both departments this year. Kenny Allen got good hang time and a lot of touchbacks, and whoever Michigan opts for as a returner is going to be fast and mean.
More expansion, hooray. If the Big 12 is going to expand they should just take BYU and Houston and be done with it. Houston doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the same reason Pitt was never seriously considered by the Big Ten—footprint rules everything around me—but when the other options are Cincinnati, Memphis, UConn, and directional Floridas, Houston starts to look mighty appealing anyway. So of course a former president of CBS sports recommends UConn:
For that reason, Pilson advised the Big 12 to take a page from the Big Ten’s playbook. Much as the Big Ten, a traditionally Midwestern league, recently added Rutgers and Maryland to plant its flag near several East Coast population centers, the Big 12, whose members reside in Great Plains states and Texas (and West Virginia), ought to invite Connecticut to join, Pilson said.
“Having Texas and Oklahoma and the other major Big 12 schools playing in the Northeast would create additional revenue opportunities and make it a more attractive conference in terms of new sponsors and a better linear television deal,” Pilson said.
That seems nuts to me. The Big 12 does not have a network and won't have one unless Texas gives the LHN up, which no. If Texas really wants exposure in a different part of the country they'll blow the Big 12 up.
Unless we can interest the Big 12 in some of our finest athletic departments?
Invite Purdue and Rutgers to join the Big 12 conference.
Yep, you heard me. Purdue University and Rutgers University would be great fits for your fledgling conference, since they really round out and diversify what the conference needs most. And to help you out, I even made a pro/con list for each school and why they'd work in the Big 12. …
Cons:
- There are no drawbacks to this move whatsoever
A compelling case from the Crimson Quarry.
There is a Big Ten angle here. 247's Bobby Burton notes that the Big 12 has a grant of rights agreement through 2025 and Texas is seriously considering an exit at that point:
The only assurance Texas, or any school for that matter, could truly give to any newcomer is the "grant of rights" to the league that is currently in place. That grant for Texas and all of teams of the Big 12 extends to 2025.
Yet I don't see an extension of the grant of rights occurring based on my discussion with a high-ranking Texas official this morning.
"I do not like any of the choices," the official said. "(I) want to watch to see if there is a move to extend the grant of TV rights. I will fight that tooth and nail."
Per Burton, Texas's president and chancellor both prefer the Big Ten to the Pac-12 or SEC. Oddly, he says "expect Texas to ask for an annual trip to Chicago and to either of the East Coast markets," which almost certainly can't happen without making the division structure insane. Chicago they can manage since the West division in that event is going to be Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Texas, Northwestern, Illinois, and whichever other Big 12 refugee hypothetically comes along.
By the way, at that point you're back down to playing the other division 25% of the time even with nine conference games. Hooray expansion.
Persons profiled. Angelique profiles Mo Hurst…
Hurst has been on the Uber clock this summer, logging miles and earning money, in addition to interning at Blue Lion Fitness in Ann Arbor.
“I’ve just done it for extra cash, pretty much that’s it,” the affable 6-foot-2, 282-pound lineman said. “I definitely like the flexibility. I can work whenever, which helps with my schedule with (football) workouts and working at Blue Lion Fitness.”
Once camp begins Aug. 8, however, Hurst’s Uber days will be over. But he’s enjoyed the experience, especially longer trips to the airport which net $22.
…and Dymonte Thomas:
“Jake [Butt] is a character. We talk trash every day. He likes to get better. He knows in the NFL there are going to be DBs who are quick and fast and strong, kind of like me, who are going to cover him, and he’s going to have to get open. That’s why he likes the competition. He’ll go against the linebacker, but he knows if he can get open on a DB, he can get open on a linebacker, so Jake and I go at it every day.”
Thomas offered a Butt scouting report as well:
“Jake’s going to be probably a first-round pick,” Thomas said. “Jake has got strides. It’s not like he’s super fast, but he has long strides that make him fast. He’s really good with his double moves and he’s really good at sticking, stopping and going. If you don’t slow him down, he will leave you. He’s sneaky fast.”
Etc.: This Harbaugh conspiracy theory is just crazy enough to consider. My take on the new apparel: it's definitely a shirt. Jordan Poole playing well in AAU. Fixing the schedule needs 7 B10 ADs to approve. Hugh Freeze has a future in politics. Moritz Wagner profiled.
It's a minor point in the post, but I'll always be annoyed that Pitt (secretly a perfect B1G school) wasn't even considered. I mean:
-strong academics and research
-natural rival in PSU
-Solid BBall school most years
-Not Rutgers
Honestly, I don't really get why everyone hates the Rutgers add so much. Especially those, like me, who would prefer no expansion. If we have to expand, what's so bad about adding an annual tomato can game rather than a potential loss? Rutgers in the division rather than Pitt in the division makes it more liklely that UM/OSU is a divison championship game every year, which is a-ok with me.
That may be the Big Ten's goal. But that's not necessarily the goal of the specific teams within the conference.
But I want to see as many competitive good games as possible every year. Hell, if there was Pro-Rel I'd probably be for it. I watch every game every year, but I don't watch the second half of every blowout. That's why I'm excited about getting ND back on the schedule. Whether you like them or not, they're usually good and it's a high profile game. As a student, attending the ND, MSU, and OSU games meant butterflies in my stomach and getting extra amped for the game. Play the best teams and beat them, not more tomato cans. If we lose a few extra games every few years, I'm OK with that. This is entertainment after all.
As long as we can continue to raid New Jersey for several top recruits annually, I can live with Rutgers in the league.
I agree about Pitt though. They should be in our conference. Apparently PSU doesn't want it - they want to continue to be perceived as the top dog in their state. (Which isn't unreasonable; we didn't want MSU to join, and OSU would never support another Ohio school in.) And they don't expand the geographic footprint. But they'd be a good cultural fit.
Michigan shouldn't be worried about Pitt...or Syracuse, who would've also been a better choice than Rutgers.
the supervision of the B1G ---- there was an implicit understanding that if/when the B1G had an opening (the conference had 10 schools in 1939, of course), Pittsburgh would be next in line.
http://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19390202…
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1939/02/01/page/19/article/pitt-puts…
The University of Chicago pulled out of B1G athletics in 1946. So there was the opening.
But per stuff I've read over the years (can't find the link, sorry), Ohio State apparently grew to oppose Pittsburgh over those 7 years. OSU's primary concern was evidently increased competition to the east.
So it became a "race for the invite" instead of simply an invite for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was still a contender, along with MSU, ND, Nebraska, Iowa State and Marquette (yep, Marquette had football then!).
Michigan State obviously got the invite themselves in 1949.
That was probably Pittsburgh's best chance at getting in the B1G. PSU football was better than Pittsburgh football in the 1980s, and arguably was making more $ too: so the B1G went that way with the 1990 invite. Then once PSU joined, inviting a 2nd PA team was unlikely, primarily because of PSU opposition.
Thanks, I didn't know that.
5 times Pitt has been passed over. 5!!!
During the 1930's and 1940's, Pittsburgh had developed a reputation that very much hurt them in terms of getting a Big Ten invitation. Think Oklahoma in the '70s, or SMU in the '80s, or Miami in the '90s. That's the reputation that Pittsburgh had in the 1930s and 1940s. The Big Ten had come to the conclusion that adding Pittsburgh would not be beneficial to the conference's image.
ST2 was born in Pittsburgh, so I've always been partial to Pitt.
I have three monitors at work side-by-side-by-side. I pulled up PMS7406 and put it on all three at the same time. Each monitor showed a slightly different version of the color based on my monitor settings, I suppose. At this point, who knows? Let's just beat the snot out of everybody and worry about the proper shade of maize later.
Why did that kicker even dive? He was nowhere close...must have wanted some dirt on his jersey for the first time.
#Kickers
Where you push the tackle/dive button too soon
I'd start to slide and get 10 yards in .5 seconds. Definitely helped when my tackle game was subpar early on.
Peppers is fast.
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Harbaugh's gonna outspend MSU like Reagan outspent the USSR. The breadlines in EL are about to get longer.
Or to quote Diddy: "What you gonna do against a crew that got money much longer than yours and a team much stronger than yours..."
is really good. I recommend reading it. The trash talk and evaluation of Butt is great, but the rest of the article is really good too. I liked the way he spoke about leading and teaching and his thoughts on Harbaugh. Might have another branch to join the coaching tree of the future.
I really hope the loss of Baxter doesn't affect our badass* special teams from last year
*yeah, yeah, "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
I think the ST were average last year, but compared to recent prior seasons, yeah, they looked badass. There's a good anecdote in the Mike Reinhold diary about Bo coaching special teams and the emphasis he put on them. I suspect Harbaugh learned that lesson well and we won't need to worry about the loss of Baxter. I hope.
That Wagner piece was good. I bet that had to be a very tough decision.
Agreed. And I can't wait to see him play in this upcoming season.
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Texas should just become an independent. They've abandoned all pretense of being a team player and are going to shake down any conference they can join for whatever they can get. The Big Ten shouldn't touch that poisoned chalice.
Texas, Notre Dame, and BYU should get together, encourage some other teams to join them, and form the Independent Conference. They can schedule games against each other, and at the end of the season, the two best independent teams can play each other to see who is the best independent team.
I approve Rutgers and Maryland to join them
I have absolutely no fear that Texas would join the Big Ten and then try to "shake it down." They'd know the deal going in and, if they wanted more, there would be a mechanism for them to leave the conference. The Big Ten's athletic and organizational traditions go back further than Texas's. Texas would be a fine addition, if it accepts the conditions for being added.
Dehydrated pee and baby poop is the new black.
doesn't have a lot of good options for expansion anymore. I would choose BYU and then Colorado State over Houston and then leave it at that. Texas needs to just be independent and then that conference can work on getting their own Network and don't all have to play second fiddle to Texas.
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Remember how terrible our return games were under Hoke? No offense to the guy, but willingly putting Vincent Smith as your primary kick returner does not play to his strengths and is an open concession of starting at the 20 every drive.
Dammit, I hate that "Nike had a trademark on the term 'maize'" rumor. It all goes back to that Zimmerman/Fletcher Michigan Daily article, which had no basis in fact whatsoever.
You can literally search the USPTO to see who has trademarks on what, and Nike didn't trademark "maize" or anything like that. But thanks to that article, now people have endless ammunition to say "LOL Michigan is so incompetent that they gave away the rights to their own colors."
It's worse than that: the Daily article claimed that Nike had a "copyright" on the color. That had to tip everybody off that the writer was horribly confused, at best; one cannot "copyright" colors, period. Given that that element of the story was clearly wrong, why did subsequent writers use it as the excuse for their own fabrications (e.g. citing the Daily article as proof that Nike had the "trademark" on the color when the word "trademark" never appears in the article)?
Fact-checking is dead, but not forgotten.
Any fan who tries to talk trash over shades of colors should just be laughed at.
please, please, pretty please!
I don't think they are thinking this through far enough. If Rutgers and Purdue leave, Indiana is doomed to be the doormat of the B1G for eternity.
"Cincinnati would play inspired in honor of their hometown's beloved ape Harambe"
That is fantastic.
The Crimson Quarry article is great. I especially liked the proposed B12 East:
Rutgers, WVU, ISU, Purdue, Kansas, Texas
One team could easily improve to 7 wins and a low grade bowl game, and let's just say you won't want to "mess" with them.
I thought the whole, "the Guinness tastes so much better" thing was horseshit. When I was there I thought it tasted just as awesome as it normally does.
I didn't realize it until I got back to the states and had a Guinness......I'm sorry to report that it's true. It does taste better in Ireland. It still gives me douche chills when someone says it, but I'm here to tell you that it is accurate.
I was in Taiwan for 2 weeks and I can attest to the fact that the food tasted much better over there. There was so much more flavor. I think the US farm factory practices have removed a lot of the natural flavors of foods. Yes, we can feed our people, but it's a bland existence.
a cervveza siempre mejor en vacaciones.
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Though I haven't been to Ireland, I have been in England many times and can whole-heartedly agree with you. To be exported here, Guiness needs preservatives and gets put under pressure and refridgerated. Over there, nothing but beer ingredients are added, and its kept in a cask at cool temps (~50-55°). It is drawn out of the cask by pulling on the pump lever. Here, its pushed out under pressure. Its not the same... There are enough beer snobs on this board that I don't feel ashamed saying that I'll not drink Guiness here!
Just your basic ethical standards, sense of right and wrong, fair play . . . so, in other words, nothing really.
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