Unverified Voracity Enters A World Of Pain Comment Count

Brian

mark it zero 2

this is a completely normal bowling event

I honestly don't know how anyone goes bowling and doesn't get in a massive brawl. You've just spent several hours of your time flinging a ball at various inanimate objects and the objects generally win. You are losing to some smug-ass ovoid shapes. In such circumstances, it is only natural to become so irrationally angry that you start a yell-fight over the circumstances you find yourself in.

And lo, it has happened to football teams.

This makes total sense. I do enjoy how bored the cops look. Because this happens every time they're in a bowling alley.

These are unrelated, but I wish they weren't. Mo Hurst will play in the bowl game. Probably less than he has in most games, for a ton of reasons. Here's hoping he gets through it okay.

God bless Mike Leach. And God bless the reporter who absolutely nailed the zoom-out reveal midway through:

This is art on par with the raptor gif. And they said bowl season didn't mean anything.

You cannot understand the Brohm of it all. Purdue beat Arizona in an extremely entertaining game that featured one of those college-only back-to-back-to-back touchdowns in the last few minutes to swing the game to and fro. In the end Purdue's margin depended heavily on this play at the end of the first half:

That is a perfectly legal play that I've seen Auburn and Arkansas execute over the past few years. People are describing it as a "fake kneel," though, and they do have a point: Purdue had a guy lined up as the traditional we're-gonna-kneel "safety" on the play. Shame on Arizona for biting on that after Purdue got the ball back with almost a minute left...

...oh.

[/mentions fill up with "intent to deceive" outrage]

Well... you're not wrong. If a team is going to line up in a formation that causes the refs to demand the opposition stop playing they should stop playing too. One dollar says that there's a new rule covering running actual plays from a kneel-down formation next year. Which is a shame:

Most importantly, when Gus Malzahn runs this play, the call on the field is “THERE’S A SNAKE IN MY BOOT!” because the name of the fake kneel is “Woody,” it almost always involves the smallest running back on the team getting the ball, and because anytime one can take an excuse to yell “THERE’S A SNAKE IN MY BOOT!” on a football field, one should.

RIP.

Interesting Michigan-related item:

M apparently had this scouted.

Random bits from Zach Shaw. Shaw has been poking around the 24/7 database for article on various Michigan units, and has come across a number of things that look promising for next year's defense:

  • On the DL, Aubrey Solomon had a "stop rate"—tackles at or near the LOS—of just over 10%, which was on par with Hurst and Winovich. Nearly identical to both, in fact. Those guys were 10th and 11th nationally in that stat. If Solomon maintains that productivity he should be at least good and, with some extra pass rush, potentially great next year.
  • At linebacker, Khaleke Hudson and Devin Bush Jr. missed just three tackles each all year. Both guys had a ton of QB pressures but not many stops—probably because the DL was crushing so many plays before they could even get to the LBs.
  • The cornerbacks did this: "Michigan’s three cornerbacks — all first-year starters — allowed 32 of 81 passes for 478 yards, 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and 16 pass breakups." That is, of course, bonkers. Like having Jourdan Lewis clones coming out of your ears.
  • The safeties were good-ish. In the aftermath of a tough game for Metellus against Ohio State there have been a lot of criticisms of the safeties, and by implication departed safeties coach Brian Smith. But collectively there were middle of the pack when targeted and had an acceptable missed tackle rate—Metellus's was more acceptable than Kinnel's. The individual stats don't take into account the general lack of huge plays against M. Michigan gave up quite a few 20+ yard plays (59th) but relatively few 30+ (22nd); a lot of those longer plays were the inevitable result of Michigan's very aggressive defense cracking. The safeties mostly held down those opportunities.

If Solomon improves as much as most rising sophomores he could be only a reasonable step back from Mo Hurst, and then Michigan just has to find a linebacker from 5-6 options and a develop some DL depth to have the kind of defense that could be #1 nationally. Again.

One downer: per Football Outsiders Michigan's punting efficiency was 121st nationally, and the early shanks from Will hart didn't have much of an impact. Brad Robbins's net yardage was 121st. Shoulda got an Aussie.

Etc.: Graham Couch is at it again! If you've seen various Lars Von Trier movies the reference to him in this article will go 1% of the way towards restoring your lost time and/or sanity. Marcus Ray departs WTKA. The Blind Pig will carry on. Patterson officially in; the other two guys are officially not. Ted Janes of the Daily talks to John O'Korn. Jourdan Lewis: still good.

Comments

Ecky Pting

December 28th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^

Before he took the Wazzu job, Mike Leach was a frequent guest-host with Jack Arute for many months on the SiriusXM College Football Playbook (now sadly overrun by ESPNU). He would extemporize on issues of the college-football day as well as a multitude of other subjects. Always a gut-busting hoot!

Here's a wide-angle take of the presser.  Skip ahead to about 7:30 for the best part:

LKLIII

December 28th, 2017 at 1:27 PM ^

That was one of the anonymous comments that seems consistent during this years Big Ten media day. That basically we are very good at scouting opponents & we show up very prepared for almost anything an opposing team shows us scheme wise.



One puzzling thing to me that stood out in terms of slow defensive adjustments was allowing McCray to go into coverage with an offense's best athlete in space.

BlueMan80

December 28th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^

The wrong play, if they did. They are refs. They are supposed to observe and flag violations of the rules, not tell people what the play is or influence play. And these refs get paid to do that crap....

Fezzik

December 28th, 2017 at 6:14 PM ^

The OL should be prepared for contact on every single snap. If they get knocked on their ass it's their own fault.

What if there was a fumbled snap on a kneel play? The DL should be agressive until the game is over.

This isn't minority report. The refs should never proactively make calls and decisions on what probably will happen.

Communist Football

December 29th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^

The year after Peyton Manning graduated, Tennessee won the MNC with a number of incredibly lucky plays (missed last minute FGs by opponents and the like). One of the craziest was when Arkansas was beating them, and all they had to do was run out the clock, and they fumbled. Granted it wasn't a victory formation, but still:

 

His Dudeness

December 28th, 2017 at 11:37 PM ^

I said to my brother as we watched "and if RR sends a safety flying over the line to smash the QB, he's the asshole."

If Purdue ever takes the victory formation even at the end of the first half I hope Michigan bashes the flying shit out of them. That's a dirty unsportsmanlike play. It should be against the rules. Brohm is a good coach but he is dirty. I hope he fails.

WolverineinDallas

December 28th, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^

Michigan got killed in punting exchanges all year. Hopefully it's something that can get fixed by next season. Wasn't Robbins one of the better punters coming out of high school? I'm not sure what other options they have right now.

TheTruth41

December 29th, 2017 at 8:06 AM ^

Was the lack of down field coverage by our gunners. Our guys this year didn't seem able to get down field enough to force a fair catch even on shorter punts. Last year Chesson flew down and was right on the returner so even if there was no fair catch it was a minimal gain.

LKLIII

December 28th, 2017 at 1:31 PM ^

He's suppose to be awesome. But 1) College kickers, and 2) High schools sample size is small & kicking rating systems are suspect/highly inaccurate IMO.



That one play aside, I sure wish Blake O'Neil was a true freshman back in 2015 instead of a grad transfer senior.

Dayday

December 28th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^

I never liked the "don't rush the qb on a kneel down," unspoken rule. You should be encouraged to go all out. This debate has been waged before and I'm always shamed into believing I'm a blood thirsty monster. That play alone reinforces my belief.

funkywolve

December 28th, 2017 at 1:03 PM ^

is there were still 48 seconds left and Purdue had 2 time outs and Arizona had 3 time outs.  Purdue had also been carving up the Arizona defense in the first half.  They had almost 400 yds of offense when they got the ball back with 48 seconds left in the half.  Nothing about that screams kneel down and just get into halftime

LKLIII

December 28th, 2017 at 1:35 PM ^

My understanding is that Tolbert has been offered some other positions within the football program or Athletic Department, so he's still in good standing with the team & Michigan overall. It'd make sense that he serve out the remainder of the season before departing.



The Wisconsin/Arkansas guy has been floated about as the next possibility. Don't know if it's a 60% likelihood or a 95% likelihood, but he's the leading name for the job right now.

B-Nut-GoBlue

December 28th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^

Our safeties and LBs could get helped a little if maybe on 3rd and 15s we just called a zone defense and made some schmuck make a throw into it or RUN into guys facing him, instead of man-man EVERY SINGLE TIME even when unnecessary.

PapabearBlue

December 28th, 2017 at 1:55 PM ^

For so many things that this team does right I've never understood the need to play our super agressive defense on 3rd and long on the opponents side of the field. It's not four down territory, rush 3 or 4 and leave everyone else in zone coverage, we have the athletes to cover space if they are in the right spot, get the stop and get the ball back. Who cares if they get 10-15 yards back when they needed 20.

ken725

December 28th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^

Long and Levert had the recruiting pedigree. I think Watson filling in was one of the pleasant surprises of the season. I'm hoping he is coming back for his 5th year. 

Yessir

December 28th, 2017 at 1:38 PM ^

Regarding bowling... saw 2 guys almost fight over whether Bowling was a sport.  Saw this debated many times over the years, but these 2 were ready to knuckle up over it.  General rule is can't be a sport if you get better at it the more beer you drink. 

HOT TAKE: Onwenu moves to defense next year. Plenty of interior oline.  M.O. is talented enough to break the rotation on the dline.  Never got his starting spot back after injury due in large part to Ruiz playing so damn good.  I remember a couple of differnt plays where M.O. pulled and cleared a runway for RB.  He's talented and could play O or D. 

bklein09

December 28th, 2017 at 4:45 PM ^

No chance we have enough Oline depth to move Onwenu to defense. He’s basically a co-starter, and there is no circumstance where I see them putting the OL depth at risk since it’s basically the only thing keeping us from being elite. My hot take is that moving MO to defense would be as bad as making Gardner a receiver a few years back.