The contested catch stat is interesting. Bell actually got quite a few contested opportunities and didn't do much with them. My guess here is that it's a function of Bell being the guy JJ trusted, so he got a lot of rough opportunities.

As we has out exactly why the passing game is how it is, it's worth asking if this is a two-sided equation: On one side, you have guys who aren't very good at contested catches (almost certainly true), making the offense gun-shy about throwing passes that would be contested. On the other side, how much of this is a consequence of a coaching preference to throw to guys that are schemed to be wide open, rather than trusting receivers to win contested matchups? Anyone who has griped about the lack of targes to Nico Collins can probably imagine that maybe the staff doesn't like those kinds of passes, and while high-point balls to tight tends (to name one example) aren't unheard of, it does seem to be less of a practice with this offense.

And when you have less of an emphasis, you have less coaching for those scenarios. So the players aren't as good at it in part because the staff isn't developing that skillset. 

Lest someone think this is unique to Michigan, there's another offense that functions that way that is clearly visible in those stats: Tennessee, who lit up teams like Alabama this year. Jalin Hyatt had an electric season and only faced 5 contested passes all season long. That's an offense that runs simple concepts and asks the QB to throw to the guy that is hand-wavingly wide open. 

**

That soccer scouting bit is funny. But it rings true to me; I was just looking at player ratings for one of the two recent Man U-Leeds games, and one thing that was notable is that there was a wiiiiide gulf in the evaluation of several Man U players between a couple of different sites. Just fans doing single digit player ratings, of course, but it's interesting how guys can watch the same game and think completely different things about what is going on. 

On Naurato: Pay that man his money. 

BTW hard to argue against retaining Naurato right now. I will accept the possibility that he'll get the full job after the season, but recent foot-dragging from the department in other areas makes me concerned that they may just not be doing stuff that they are perfectly able to do now. 

The hockey team is coming together down the stretch, and Naurato has held together a difficult situation and things look pretty good. 

I'll miss Elbel Field.  I lived on Mary St. for a couple years and spent all summers in Ann Arbor, so I have a lot of good memories there.  But such is life.

"Architects will share design plans for a previously approved, 2,300-bed housing and dining complex to be built on the current Elbel Field"

HEY! Stop that!

I don't get the scouting study - each scout watched a random player.  Wouldn't the results be more consistent if each scout watched the same player he thought was chosen at random?  I feel like different scouts would score different players differently.

"For him to return to the ice and immediately get booted out of a game with 22 penalty minutes is an inspiration to shit-talkers everywhere."

This is the quote of the week.

I do wonder if SP+ might have a built in bias in favor of returning production from freshmen, since I'd imagine it assumes a certain amount of growth between first and second season and so much of PSU's rushing output came from the two freshmen,

I loved teaching at UM-Fllint. The diversity of students-tradition college age, older parents, grandparents and racially-enlivened classroom discussion. 

Family stories from interviewing the oldest living member of the family yielded an amazing range: a family the had lived near a Saddam Hussein’s prison and hearing screams from torture; an auntie whose family had bee sharecroppers in Mississippi and she got sick to avoid work before the prom but then too sick to go. 

I understand that the QB position in Ryan Day's offense seems to be pretty plug and play at this point, but with OSU's new QB, I think it's pretty bogus to put OSU over Michigan especially after the last 2 years

ohio with a qb to be named later is ranked higher than Michigan returning JJ, Blake, most of the Oline, Wilson, CJ and The Don....   calling bullshit.

"several former college athletes argue they should have been paid an hourly wage like other student workers on their campuses. The NCAA contends that its business is unique and that the normal rules that determine whether someone fits the definition of an employee don't make sense for college athletes."

At the vast majority of universities with full athletic programs, student athletes—especially those in the four major sports, especially football and basketball—are routinely portrayed in university marketing material, whether in print or in digital media. The exploits of championship teams are routinely depicted in video clips and testimonials.

In addition, it's pretty common for alumni contributions to jump to their institutions when one of the teams enjoys unusual success, so the hours that student athletes put in on their sports are directly aiding the fundraising of these institutions.

It's also true that virtually every one of these institutions has large numbers of non-athletes working in various marketing capacities. At a place like Michigan, not only are there marketing people at the top administrative level of the entire university, there are marketing offices in every one of the individual schools.

None of these non-athlete marketing people are creating value—they're taking the value of the efforts and achievements of university faculty, students, researchers, and athletes and communicating that value to the outside world. And many of these non-athlete marketing and fundraising people are paid extremely well.

So why in hell should student athletes not be compensated in some fashion as university marketing employees? 

I like Big Dorms and I cannot lie. 

Charlie Jones for contested balls MVP

Can't believe we have a Dennis Bergkamp reference and there's no Denard against ND highlight in sight.

The NCAA administration being full of lawyers and businesspeople seemingly being completely caught off guard by the legal defeats they've suffered trying to maintain the myth of amateurism remains shocked to me.  I get you don't want the gravy train to stop but how is this a surprise to anyone involved that at some point free-ish labor would want to get a piece of the billions they help generate?

Michigan and OSU basically being ranked equally makes sense - OSU has maybe the most talented WR corps in the nation and that's going to cover up for what I assume will be some slight growing pains at QB.  It's part of the reason I absolutely wouldn't waste an early first-round pick on an OSU QB because it is so difficult to know how they'll translate without the safety net of elite skill position players, but as it relates to college it makes sense.  And defensively they were young this year so not a shocker they should be better.  But I still like UM at home competing for yet another shot at the playoffs.  Also, the PSU love seems to be based on the idea that Allar will be better than Clifford, which is absolutely not a given and drastically underrates how good Clifford was as a 9th-year QB.

A few things... grapefruit is also a hybrid. Body goes into a funk trying to digest it, and any medicine you might be taking the efficacy gore through the roof.

Regarding our wrs and contested balls or lack thereof.  That's a lam chicken or egg argument.   Collins was a great ball contestor and we still never three to him. It's more the philosophy here than the players. 

Question... how does the site owner announce he's taking a vacation?

Answer... by linking to a FREEP article!!!! (dorm going in on Elbel field).  For SHAME!

My immediate reaction to this was the chart, "Penn State #5 really?"

Then I read Brian's next line, exact same sentiment, and made me laugh out loud. Good thing I was on mute during that Teams call. Would have been embarrassing. 

The BIG ten had an opportunity to not do the SECs heavy lifting this year by breaking up OSU, UM, and Penn state into different divisions. Along with playing 1 less conference game.

They decided a half day of meetings wasnt worth the trouble.

Imagine Georgia, Bama, and Clemson in the same division. That wouldve been rectified by the SEC on February first if it ever came to be. Yes I know Clemson isnt in the SEC but couldnt think of a 3rd team comparable to PSU in the SEC.

Wild that both Georgia and OSU don't even have a clear starting QB for '23 and they're 1-2.

"Raters who gave only an overall score could barely agree with one another on how well a player had performed, as the researchers might have expected. But the grades from the group that used a carefully designed scorecard disagreed even more. Even if you ignored the second group’s overall ratings and averaged their eight specific task scores together instead, there was little consensus among the scouts on what they had seen."

Wait until they find out about inter-rater reliability in college grading, especially in the humanities.

I'm surprised there's no mention of Alex Orji's Instagram photo!

There are not nearly as many givens in sports as the viewing public believes there are. The margin of error between winning and losing any contest at the level of competition that Michigan plays is very small. "Objectively" the '23 Michigan football team is a top five program. However, they are still going to have to show up and win every contest on the field of play-and make such a ranking a reality. The last two seasons give much hope to the fans of the Wolverines. I would suggest that Michigan's returning top 30 players are better than OSU's...and Georgia's an Alabama's for that matter. We will see-the folks making these preseason predictions are no more informed or knowledgeable than the average fan. 

So let me get this straight... Despite the fact that NIL has created massive wealth for NCAA football players, Brian still insists that "People are getting paid. Not players, but people."

Have I got that right? We now have the transfer protocol and NIL funding that treats players as a completely different class of people as their fellow students, gives them exceptional bargaining power to control their own destinies (thus completely changing the entire 'feel' of college sports)?  

But that's still not enough for the hand-wringing self righteous author? 

Got it.