Unverified Voracity May Have Tried To Be Sensible
Premature but okay. Joe Lunardi's bracketology is in the way (way) too early phase but yeah okay I'll mention this:
The other 1s are Gonzaga, UCLA, and Kansas. I think way too much is being made of UCLA's tournament run, especially given the possibility Johnny "Contested Twos" Juzang stays in the draft. Other Big Ten teams in this projection: Ohio State (2-seed), Purdue(2), Maryland(3), MSU(5), Illinois(6), Indiana(7), and Iowa(11). Northwestern(!?!?!?) is listed as the first team out, Wisconsin second team out.
The previous sentence makes me doubt the usefulness of linking this at all.
I am skeptical this happened. Dennis Dodd recently asserted on a podcast that Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell turned down an eight year, 68 million dollar contract from the Detroit Lions this offseason. This seems unlikely for one main reason: this is an entirely sensible thing to do if you are the Detroit Lions, and the Lions never do anything sensible. (On the other hand, failing to hire Matt Campbell and turning to some other guy named Campbell, who seems a little deranged, does seem like a Lions thing to do.)
If that did actually happen and Campbell didn't take the job that is a major indicator he's aiming for a terminal college job instead of the NFL. Michigan may be in the market for a coach after this season.
[After THE JUMP: Ol' Murderface returns to the column]
I completely believe this happened. Ben Mason doing Ben Mason things.
TE/FB Ben Mason didn't practice today because he worked so hard yesterday that he "tore the skin off the bottom of his feet."
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) May 15, 2021
AND THEN HE ATE IT
Obvious. Michigan-Washington is scheduled to be a night game.
I wanted this person to play in the Big Ten. Jalen Coleman-Lands was a Beilein-era recruiting miss who started his college career in 2015—the same year Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman did. Seven years later he's transferring to Kansas:
The 6-foot-4 Indianapolis native averaged 14.3 points and 3.9 rebounds last season at Iowa State. He shot 43.5 percent from the field and 39.5 percent behind the arc, ranking ninth and third in the league, respectively .
Before that he played two seasons each at DePaul and Illinois separated by a redshirt season in the middle.
Kansas has been cut off from the usual slate of blue-chippers—their top rated recruit is #46, which isn't bad but isn't up to Kansas's usual standards—by that FBI investigation and has apparently decided to recruit everybody in response. Coleman-Lands is their fourth transfer of the offseason.
I wanted Josh Langford to come back and Coleman-Lands to transfer into the league so that they could discuss Furbies, stovetop hats, and Punky Brewster during a halftime segment.
Prospects for non-Franz NBA draft candidates. Andrew Kahn gets a couple of scouts on the phone to discuss what's in store for Isaiah Livers, Chaundee Brown, and Mike Smith at the draft. It sounds like Livers has a shot at getting drafted despite his injury:
Grant said Livers projects as a spot-up shooter in the league who has “good enough size to avoid being a complete liability defensively.” In the NBA, Livers figures to be a small forward or a small-ball power forward.
Said another scout, who we’ll call Ian Malcolm, of Livers’ NBA chances: “If his shot is a knock-down shot, and he can defend a (power forward), he’s got a real chance.”
Brown doesn't seem to have enough of a track record to sneak into the second round but if he's able to maintain his contest-immune shooting it's not hard to envision him sticking on a roster in a three-and-D role:
“He’s 6-5, long, athletic, and he guards,” said Grant. Neither scout would be surprised if Brown landed a two-way deal after the draft.
“Is he good enough?” Malcolm wondered. “He’s going to get the chance to prove he’s good enough.”
Prospects are dimmer for Smith because of his size; you have to be electric to play in the NBA at "5 foot 11."
The whiff. Fascinating article at ESPN about the ever-rising strikeout rate in MLB:
In April, there were 1,092 more strikeouts than hits, the largest such gap in any month in major league history. The season strikeout record surely will be broken this year for the 15th consecutive time. In 2016, the percentage of plate appearances that ended in a strikeout was .211. It has risen, year by year -- .216, .223, .230, .234. Right now, it stands at .243. Those are, of course, the six highest rates in major league history. In 1968, the famed Year of the Pitcher, the K rate was only .158. …
"I love baseball," Bradley said, "but there are times I won't watch it because it's a little dull."
Featuring this incredible quote!
"I don't want to say that the baseball IQ has gone down, but the baseball IQ has gone down."
If you want a bunch of old man quotes and disturbing statistics this is the article for you.
Year two of G League competition didn't turn up much. An ESPN article on the now all-but-finished 2021 basketball recruiting class notes that the NBA's effort to get future high draft picks into their Ignite program didn't have many takers this year:
G League's impact shrinks: Last year, the G League poached four five-star prospects from the college ranks: Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix. This year, it was only two: Hardy and talented forward Michael Foster. While the number of non-college options continue to grow for high school prospects, it simply hasn't impacted the college game to the point of concern. The introduction of name, image, likeness should also lessen its impact.
Maybe a pandemic thing?
Etc.: Don't click here. The Daily checks out the Michigan and State Theaters' tentative reopening. Rudy Tomjanovich makes the basketball hall of fame. Devante Jones working out. GM who selected Kwity Paye thinks Kwity Paye is going to be good.
Why are people in love with this coach. His record is simply not that good. He is slightly above .500 as a coach and has not been exceptional at Iowa State.
16 3W 9L 17 8W 5L 18 8W 5L 19 7W 6L 20 9W 3L
Your data points out of context don't tell the best story.
This is a better way to look at what he's done, specifically the shit show that was Iowa State before he got there and then his first year.
I'm fairly conflicted on this and to be honest would've would've been a reasonably excited if we had brought in Campbell to replace Harbaugh after a disastrous 2020.
Having said that, we're treating him with kid gloves by comparison but there are still enough flags that give me pause to think he's a home run. I can't get past his 0-4 record against Iowa and his lack of a track record in recruiting. It's clearly a monumental advantage to be Michigan vs Iowa State on the recruiting front, but I've got no reason to believe he'd be any more likely to bring in top 10 classes to Ann Arbor annually than Harbaugh and his new staff are.
Maybe superior player development of the guys we've got, particularly at quarterback, would be so significant that Michigan could perform to the standard in big games that the fanbase is looking for. Still, I just don't know. It's my wish that Michigan drastically outperforms our expectations in 2021 and we can be a bit more united in support of the program rather that fractured into factions of pro/anti Harbaugh. History tells me not to hold my breath on that.
Well said. I've been in the pro-Campbell camp but I too can't say he is a for sure home run hit, but then again we though Harbaugh would be and thus far he has proven to not be so. In truth, who out there not named Saban, Dabo or Meyer would be a for certain home run hit? I can't answer that, so in truth if and when Harbaugh is replaced there will certainly be some gamble to the process. For what its worth, I don't think Harbaugh goes anywhere after this season unless he gets another job, wins less than 4 games, gets utterly blasted by rivals or does a Hoke with one of his players.
My wish is also that Harbaugh can turn this around and win 9+ games, beat OSU and possibly even make the playoffs but history says that isn't likely to happen. This program and fans needs to be united more than ever. We have been divided ever since Rich Rod if not before that even. All we ever wanted were nice things, can we not have nice things?
"In truth, who out there not named Saban, Dabo or Meyer would be a for certain home run hit? I can't answer that, so in truth if and when Harbaugh is replaced there will certainly be some gamble to the process."
I'll go further and say that not even Saban, Swinney, or Meyer would be a surefire home run. Nobody is that, even though some may have a better shot at it than others. Nonetheless, if the need arises to replace Harbaugh, you can look for a HR but will probably have to 'settle' for something different. At that point, you take the best looking candidate available and don't look back.
If what you have isn't working, then you replace it because it's not working.
0-4 against his main rival? Insert appropriate Michigan coach v Ohio State joke here.
As someone who favors hiring Campbell, my biggest asterisk on what he's done at Iowa State is this Big 12 is a pathetic league now.
The loss of Texas A&M/Mizzou/Nebraska/Colorado turned the Big 12 into a glorified mid major league, and elite Texas HS recruits no longer look at playing for Texas or Oklahoma as a major dream. Elite talent from Texas is more likely to play for Ohio State or Alabama nowadays than go to a Big 12 school. Texas is a pathetic shit show of a program nowadays, and Oklahoma is more of a Wisconsin-y "get top recruits at a handful of positions and overcome a lack of top end talent elseware with scheme and continuity" team now.
Basically, the Big 12 has turned into the modern day version of Big East football, and one thing we learned from the post-ACC raid Big East is that weird have-not programs have a chance to rise up when there's no dominant recruiting powers left in their league. Campbell hasn't done anything to prove he can cope with having to face a genuine death star program like Ohio State.
I watched the end of the Iowa State v. Louisiana game last year. ISU was ranked, playing at home, and a 13 point favorite (Louisiana was unranked). With about seven minutes left, ISU was down 10 points and turned it over on downs around mid-field. I believe ISU had two timeouts left at that point, but Campbell did not use either one, and seemingly conceded the loss. I cannot imagine that Michigan fans would have taken that well.
Campbell was making a point to his team. He sacrificed any chance of victory (ISU's defense didn't stop Louisiana in the last 7 minutes regardless) to tell his team to stop listening to the press clippings and get their sh!t together. ISU had a fair amount of build-up going into last season. The message was received.
Campbell's clock management is light-years better than Harbaugh's. He's consistently proven that.
This is the same thing people said about Rich Rodriguez, as if WVU was a perennial 2 win team before he got there. In reality, RR improved WVU by about 1-2 wins a season once he didn't have to play Miami, Virginia Tech, etc. anymore. Same for Matt Campbell. Iowa State is 1-2 wins better than they were after the big 12 lost teams and replaced them with worse teams.
Go look at ISU's historical performance and focus on conference record & in-season ranking highs. There's your answer. He has been exceptional within the context of ISU's historical performance.
Jim Harbaugh took USD from 1-11 to 11-1 in about 2 years.
He took Stanford from 1-11 to 11-1 & an Orange Bowl win in 2-3 years as well.
Then took the storied 49ers from a 10-yr playoff drought to the conference title game in year 1 & the SB in year 2.
Now THAT guy has a proven record of turning underachieving teams around!
Let's get him!
I get you have a hard-on for hating on Harbaugh at any opportunity you get but how would you gauge someone's coaching acumen aside from past performance?
As noted, Harbaugh took a bunch of awful teams and made them elite. Campbell took Iowa St. from bad to average for most of his tenure and then last year either (a) broke through and is poised for elite success or (b) had a really experienced team and won a bunch of close games during a weird pandemic season. Maybe it's a bit of column A, bit of column B, but if we're going off past performance I'd argue Campbell has way more question marks than Harbaugh did in this comparison and there's a real downside here wherein Campbell doesn't improve recruiting or player development in significant ways AND buckles under the pressure of coaching at a school with a target on it's back from day 1.
But shouldn't this very shallow comparison go much deeper than that? Harbaugh seems to have Lucked into a once in a generation QB (who's father was an NFL QB) for starters. It also turns out the SF situation at the end may not have been all on the Niners ownership considering how many "Harbaugh is odd" stories creep up quite a bit.
This is what a detailed interview and background check process is supposed to pick up, details of which we know very little about.
I have no idea if Campbell is the long-term solution. But if Michigan makes a change, he should be on the short list of viable candidates to go through that very process--which might be broken at Michigan, but that's another can of worms.
So what you're saying is that Harbaugh winning 11 games and getting the first USD player in the school's history drafted was luck, taking Stanford from 1-11 to 12-1 in 4 years was luck (and as we all know, children of former NFL QBs always turn out to be stars), and taking SF from one of the worst teams in the league to a SB contender was luck. Oh, and taking a Michigan team that was coming off a 5-7 season and, other than a random 11-2 season in Hoke's first year, hadn't won more than 9 games since 2007 and turning in 3 10-win seasons and a 9-win season was all luck.
I agree that if Michigan fires Harbaugh you talk to Matt Campbell, but acting like Harbaugh's track record is somehow the consequence of a series of random events is a little silly and then REALLY undermines what Campbell's accomplished if we apply that same logic to his record.
If that was directed towards me Mustache, I have never been a Harbaugh basher! I am now certainly a Harbaugh skeptic however.
Pointing out his resume pre-Michigan was simply a "Whoa Nelly" to the Campbell stans, that's all...
Not sure what you’re implying. We should’ve and did go after Harbaugh. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out like everyone hoped. He was a home run hire at the time, I have no regrets about hiring him. Unfortunately, I’m ready to move on unless we see something radically change this year. I really don’t think you can hate on the Harbaugh hire though...unless you have the ability to predict the future.
welcome to the information age where we pick apart everything based on scant evidence....Harbaugh was a great hire at the time, the best available. However, evidence shows things aren't working out and so we move on. At the moment Campbell looks like a solid choice and someone who's ready to work at a bigger program. We do get this year to see how he does after a big year.
If only anyone could find that guy
By the logic, Hoke and Rich Rod were home run hires.
Hoke was certainly NOT a "Home Run" hire, by any definition, yet he had the best season for Michigan since TB12's senior campaign!
RichRod did appear to be a bold, out of the box (for Michigan) hire, but he was immediately hamstrung upon arrival. And let's be clear, the intervening years' results & incidents have revealed he had reached the end of his creative path before Michigan hired him, and was also an asshole himself!
To think Bama almost hired him, but he turned them down and they had to settle for Saban!
He also hasn't beaten...Iowa. They don't recruit well at all and their big win over Oklahoma was with the Sooners missing likely their best offensive and defensive players and a QB making his 3rd start, with a new defensive coordinator. Not saying he can't coach but I don't know what he has that seems transferrable to a big time gig.
He's/his teams have beat Oklahoma multiple years.
I've never seen someone format wins and losses like that.
I'm glad we have field hockey, gymnastics, and softball to bask in the glory of in between insanely good basketball news.
Michigan may be in the market for a coach after this season.
Unless there's some kind of crazy scandal that comes out - not impossible given what has come out of major college programs lately - this will not happen. Harbaugh basically, in spirit, got fired and re-hired and assembled a mostly new staff. He's going to get at least another 2 years, even if they suck it up, as long as they keep their nose clean and are clearly putting in the work.
Regarding clean noses:
That's one thing that's in Harbaugh's favor. For all his flaws on the football end of things which I think we have discussed intermittently here, the embarrassements have all been on the field and there have been no flamingly awful off-field scandals.
Now, you would all be right to point out that not devolving into a Dantonio-esque prison work-release joint should be a bare minimum standard and not a cause for hosannas, but I think we are all well aware that that's not something we can take for granted.
i completely agree. i know it's super-unpopular around here, but i'll take a cleanly-achieved 10 or 11 regular-season wins a year over whatever shady academic and recruiting shit is happening at osu or clemson.
Clean is great. The problem is our “clean” program has still underachieved due to poor coaching and player development. You can’t look at our (fairly impressive) recruiting under Harbaugh and say Harbaughs lack of elite success is simply due to recruiting talent or being “clean”. He’s 3-3 against MSU, how many years did MSU have a better recruiting class than us?
Don't disagree with you *at all.*
I am just saying that even though we all want to have our cake and eat it too, if there was a coach who the People In Charge knew could deliver that, we'd have hired him. Hell, we thought that's what we got. But if they have to choose between A+ off the field/ C on the field vs the reverse, I think they'll err in favor of scandal free mediocrity seven days a week and twice on Saturday. And knowing that Harbaugh at least as a track record of embarrassing us outside of Saturdays just might be the tipping point that keeps him around instead of rolling the dice on an unknown quantity.
calling this tenure "scandal-free mediocrity" and grade C is the silly.
Fair enough. I truly have no idea what letter grade to give football because so many factors go into it, but it's neither an A or an F, so... /shrug
i know it's super-unpopular around here, but i'll take a cleanly-achieved 10 or 11 regular-season wins a year
If we're going 10-2 or 11-1 every year, we'll be a top 5 program. You're not exactly setting the bar low.
Did someone say "hosanna"?
They have been putting in the work for 7 years. So did Richrod. So did Hoke. Well maybe not as much with Hoke. Everybody in college ball works. Not everyone wins.
Campbell could be brought in next year and retain a number of these assistants. The Ravens guys will have an easy return to the NFL.
Wait to see how much space there is in the stands in the fall, especially if there is a slow start. I don’t think Jim has a free pass for two more years. Anything below 7 wins and he is toast. He might even be rigging up his own parachute right about now.
Depends on how things play out. Let's say he wins less than 7 games but doesn't absolutely implode.
Scenario 1: The team gets off to a slow start, looks a bit lost, especially on defense. As the season progresses there's clear growth and is actually playing pretty good football by the end of the season and have finished 5-1 on the 2nd half of the season, despite being 6-6 overall. The coaches have also put together a good to great recruiting class.
Scenario 2: The team gets off to a slow, looks a bit lost, especially on defense. As the season progresses there's really not much progress, they basically look like a Rich Rod team but have just enough talent to get to 6-6 on the season and it looks like the coaches are in over their heads. The recruiting class is subpar and they lose out on most of their top targets because of how the team is trending.
In something similar to scenario 1 there's basically a 0% chance they fire Harbaugh. Even at 4 or 5 wins, if the arrow on the season as a whole is up and recruiting is decent, it just isn't going to happen, sorry.
In something similar to scenario 2, even then I'd put it at 60-40 that Harbaugh is fired. Depends how fans respond, what is current revenue and forecast looking like, what are the big boosters saying, what are recruits saying, are back-channels saying your top candidate is likely to accept, etc etc. Enough negative with truly crap performance and crap trend, I can see them letting him go.
I think you make good points. It’s hard to say how it will play out. In Scenario 1, he has to beat MSU. The only other problem with scenario 1 is that even if the 2nd half goes well, ending the season every year with an obliteration at the hands of OSU erases most optimism.
I also think we can’t base 2021 expectations on 2020. We will still have more talent than most of our foes, 6-6 is an absolutely abysmal season in year 7 of the same head coach. If people want to write off 2020 as an aberration, ok. However, I don’t think that should lower our expectations for 2021 that we find 6-6 acceptable. 7 wins minimum, including a win against MSU and looking competent against OSU is bare minimum for his retention for me.
Actually you just said my biggest fear about Campbell that no one has mentioned while talking about his record vs. Iowa or in conference post-conference realignment.
He took all of his assistants from Toledo to ISU and I fear he'd do it again. Similar to Scott Frost when he went UCF to Nebraska.
If you really want a coach, no AD is going to dictate which assistants stay...a recommendation? Absolutely. But a mandate? No.
And guys like Hart, Bellamy, Clinkscale and maybe even Moore...have to stay. Though I'm not sold on his developmental skills. But the first 3 are non-negotiable in my mind, but I know it doesn't work that way. If Campbell wants to bring in his own RB, or secondary coach(es), no one is going to say "no."
To my point...I posted this over a month ago.
HC: Matt Campbell
OC: Tom Herman
co-DC: Jon Heacock
co-DC: Roy Manning
QB: Tom Herman
RB/RGC: Mike Hart
WR/PGC: Ron Bellamy
TE: Vince Marrow
OL: Kurt Anderson
DL: Eli Rasheed
LB: Roy Manning
CB: Maurice Linguist
S: Steve Clinkscale
...obviously Mo Linguist is gone, replace him with James Rowe (current Colts CB coach, former App State, Florida ties).
As long as Warde is AD, "it's up to Jim".
Harbaugh will only leave if he retires, goes to the NFL (which he will try to do again after this season), or he goes 3-9 / 4-8 and someone (Regents?) is able to change Warde's mind out of hero worship mode.
Barring one of these scenarios, we will have Harbaugh as our coach in 2022. And, really, for the foreseeable future.
This just flat out isn't true.
What the hell do you expect Warde to say when Harbaugh is being negatively recruited and the press won't stop talking about his situation at Michigan?
Do you not remember December? Honestly. It wasn't that long ago...have you forgotten what that was like?
Warde quietly (nationally) adjusted Harbaugh's contract and basically put him on a series of 1 year deals, but played it to the public as a contract extension.
The enormous buy out is gone. We can dump Harbaugh the day after OSU and save MILLIONS of dollars compared to if we fired him after last season.
Warde is an AD, he has a football coach he needs to support and negative media attention he needed to go away. He absolutely wasn't firing Harbaugh after LAST season is what you should've said. Which he wasn't.
Not in a pandemic, not when he was laying people off and furloughing many more. He wasn't going to do all that and then pay one man, any man and his staff $15M to NOT coach.
So instead he killed the media attention, he gave Harbaugh another year to fix it, and he gave himself an easy out if Michigan underperforms and he wants to fire his head coach. That is A+ leadership and management considering the circumstances.
For all of you saying if Harbaugh wins 4 games, he's still coming back. I would put thousands of dollars down right now on that being wrong. 4 or less wins and Harbaugh is OUT.
Now some may not want to hear that 6 wins and a shit bowl and he could stay. Which, maybe. But 4? No shot. The fan base will be at a fever pitch at 6...4 isn't even a question. Just get the press release that we've mutually parted ways and go get Campbell.
IMO MLB baseball is not "a little dull" it's VERY dull and is dooming itself to the dumpster of obsolete sports unless they figure out how to get the ball in play more often. Watching a three, sometimes closer to four hour game where literally nothing happens but strike outs or home runs isnt most fans cup of chowder and it certainly isnt mine. No baserunners means no steals, no double plays, no throws from the outfield to home plate to name just a few - and all those plays are prominently featured on any montage of historical baseball.
The game I loved as child of the late 60's and 70's doesnt exist anymore. It's been replaced by something that kinda looks like baseball but really is closer to what "Home Run Derby" would look like if the pitchers were trying to strike the batter out from time to time. It's fucking boring as hell.
My Giants struck out 17 times the other night, a team record in a 9-inning game for a team that's played the game for nearly 150 years!
But they also hit 3 home runs & won 4-2, moving to the best record in baseball.
Today they have 8 hits by the 3rd inning, only 1 of em a HR, on the way to completing a 4-game sweep at Cinci.
So... I may have an entirely different view of what's "fun" than fans of some other teams?!
Winning is FUN!
Imagine a baseball team trying to win!!
Baseball's biggest problem, says this Cubs fan, is owners/GMs deciding to tank the hell out of things. Every team in the NL Central this year made their team worse. Except for maybe the Cardinals, who got a great player out of Colorado for... paying a small percentage of his contract?
I can't tell you what the Cubs have done since they won the world series in 2016 to either:
- try to win more games
- make the fans happy
Current ownership has decided to become a real estate company, buying tons of land around Wrigley and investing in their own TV station. This has meant that their best pitcher got sent to SD, a WS hero was non-tendered, another WS hero was given a lowball offer to pitch here, and 3 of the 4 good/fun players on the roster are going to be free agents after this year, with one of them playing at an MVP level (again). Great job everyone!
Same BS here in Colorado. Effing Monfort (Rockies owner) is more interested in his new hotel/real estate project next to Coors Field than putting a winning team on the field. Got hosed on the Arenado deal and word is he needed to free up cash no matter what to keep the hotel on track.
Sadly, next likely out the door is Trevor Story and then 1 or 2 of our quality starters. Told my family back in March we will not be going to Coors Field this summer, which is a damn shame after no in-person games last summer and having a 12 year old son that I love watching baseball with. We were inches from buying season tickets too and am extremely glad we did not.
Seems like the most likely change that is going to be made is moving the mound back a few feet
I’m in favor of tweaking it a bit at the major league level. I would go to 61 feet next season (can’t do anything in the middle of the season) and study the effect of increasing by 1-2 feet at the minor league level. Baseball is a game of inches. Giving the hitters another 6 inches, <1% of the distance, to make a decision shouldn’t be a drastic change.
Or lower the mound a bit?
MLB is experimenting with a 61’ 6” distance in a minor league this year. They aren’t experimenting with a lower mound. A friend of mine who knows a lot more about baseball than me says lowering the mound won’t do much.
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