This Month in MGoBlog History - April 2007: Welcome John Beilein

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

March 2007

 

April 1 - Sunday

Reports that John Beilein has been officially offered.

April 2 - Monday

No news yet, but internet chatter points to Beilein being a done deal.

A post updated through the day. By the end, major networks are reporting that it’s official.

April 3 - Tuesday

Brian accidently deleted the NIT championship game (Beilein’s last game at WVU), so no post recapping that game. There is good news that all the players are indicating that they will return.

Google brings up an instructional video led by Tom Izzo when you search for 1-3-1 zone.

A 1-3-1 zone primer which is expected to be implemented under Beilein. Ten years later this seems fairly obsolete. Interesting, none-the-less.

April 4 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity is Making a...Nah. Contract details have been released, and Beilein will be getting 1.3 million a year after all compensation is added in. However, apparently the contract doesn’t include anything about a buyout.

Beilein presser liveblog.

Has recruited a number of Michigan kids over the course of his career.

PSL? Has recruited there at Cansisus but hasn't had any recent ties in the state.

Facilities? Beautiful locker room, beautiful film room... wouldn't want to walk in to Crisler and try to win. Maize Rage noted as a distinctive feature.

Practice facility? General mutterings about the future, didn't offer anything concrete.

[I hate the way these questions go. Where is the "do you plan to continue with the 1-3-1 if you get the sort of athletes who can play tough man-to-man?"]

Conversations with recruits? Dodges it, basically. Manny Harris is one of ten(!) kids; Beilein one of nine(!!!).

Buyout? "The University of Michigan has nothing to do with my buyout. My lawyers and WVU are working on it." !!!

April 5 - Thursday

Recruiting Board Update. Names of note that have been added to the board: CA QB Dayne Crist, TX DE Kapron Lewis-Moore, and TE Kevin Koger.

Terry Foster is a lazy journalist.

April 6 - Friday

Post with various WVU videos (they still work!) that involve John Beilein in some way.

Colin Cowherd is stealing information from bloggers. This could probably be a post from last week.

Unverified Voracity is Like No Way. New WVU coach Bob Huggins is telling his recruits from KSU that several West Virginia spots will be opening up (i.e. transferring), so if the current ‘M’ class doesn’t stick, there could be some WVU players coming.

April 9 - Monday

Mailbag with questions on how out-of-state scholarships work and more Beilein questions and reactions.

Mike Jackson is the first member of Beilein’s staff.

April 10 - Tuesday

Kelvin Grady is sticking with his commitment.

A banner contest! Voting doesn’t work any more though. There are a few good submissions, including this:

April 11 - Wednesday

Manny Harris is sticking with his commitment!

Unverified Voracity Brings the Noise, Funk Pending. There are two current football rumors that seem credible: Kevin Grady has torn his ACL and will miss the 2007 season and Carlos Brown has been missing practice and will transfer back to the south.

As always, there is a nonzero chance both of these things are false, especially the latter since there is a chance Brown could change his mind. (It's unlikely a hypothetically torn Grady ACL leaps into self-mending action.)

Also, there are several newcomers to the ‘M’ Blogosphere, including this one…

And improbably-named freshman Ace Anbender covers the entire Detroit scene at the Ace of Sports.

Kurt Vonnegut has died.

April 12 - Thursday

Recruiting Board Update. Elliott Mealer added to the board. Also, WR Fred Smith has an offer and is very high on Michigan.

Varsity Blue (Tim and Paul) will be at the spring game with cameras, taking notes, and interviewing players. Requests and suggestions for areas to focus on are welcome.

April 13 - Friday

Kevin Grady has torn his ACL, but it sounds like Carlos Brown is staying. Brown had moved to CB this spring, so the sudden need for more running backs might be playing a part in persuading him to stay.

Alpena basketball player Eric Puls is coming to ‘M’ as a PWO. He’s 6’9” and can shoot, so maybe he’s a fit for Beilein’s system?

April 14 - Saturday

Spring game notes. There are no Tight Ends, and anyone who cares to remember ‘09-’10 won’t feel as optimistic about the LBs as this paragraph does:

  • The first string linebackers were Ezeh, Panter, and Mouton. Though reports from practice have been a little down on Panter's readiness, I thought he looked fine to good out there, a solid tackler with good enough speed. He was mostly tackling Vince Helmuth and Moundros, though. Mouton was physically reminiscent of Larry Foote. I have my money on him in the WLB competition against Graham. Ezeh was at SAM and did okay.

So this happened at the spring game:

Also in the category of “what a different world we live in”:

Anyway: Patilla was switched to fullback this spring once the backfield situation got dire, which bodes unwell for his future. Fullback is a black hole of a position that sucks in the underwhelming from other positions and holds them in its gravitational clutches forevermore.

April 16 - Monday

Jay Bilas says that Tommy Amaker turned around the basketball program and do you really think John Beilein is going to put them in contention for Big 10 titles? Jay Bilas and Tommy Amaker are best friends.

Unverified Voracity is Heresy-errific because Brian confesses that he doesn’t like EA’s NCAA football games. Also, apparently Lloyd went to WVU to coach under Don Nehlen, but only lasted about six weeks before Bo called him back. Maybe he would have replaced Nehlen, and then…

Alex Legion is opening up his recruitment. Also, Reed Baker will not be back.

April 17 - Tuesday

Recruiting Board Update. Mike Martin has been added to the board, but he might have to wait until camp to get an offer.

April 18 - Wednesday

Maybe there’s still hope with Legion. His mom is giving interviews about how terrible his handler (Tim Green) is.

April 19 - Thursday

Richard Bernstein and disabled veterans are suing ‘M’ because of the lack of disabled seating in the plans for the renovations at Michigan Stadium. After talking with future Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bernstein, Brian’s feelings on the matter are still mixed. Somehow he isn’t sure if Bernstein is related to Sam; apparently, the kids weren’t on all the commercials yet at that point. The post ends with another diatribe against luxury-suite hater John Pollack.

April 20 - Friday

The post doesn’t say it directly, but I assume the colors were changed to orange and maroon in solidarity with VT after their campus shooting.

An emailer asks for Brian’s explanation on why he is pro-luxury suites. He refutes several popular arguments, and then states his case for them.

April 23 - Monday

Unverified Voracity...A New Car! Legion is down to ‘M’, UCLA, and Kentucky. Also, Scott Dreisbach is a backup QB in the Arena League...and playing some LB.

April 24 - Tuesday

Recruiting Board Update. Elliott Mealer has committed.

A recap of the PSU, ND, and OSU spring games. How did Ohio State do so well with QB recruiting this bad (obviously Pryor comes in 2008):

  • 2007: no recruits.

  • 2006: Antonio Henton, a three star who was Rivals #9 "dual-threat QB" and only the 25th best recruit in Georgia. Committed to OSU over Illinois, Maryland, and Louisville.

  • 2005: Rob Schoenhoft. Four-star who was Rivals' #6 pro-style QB. Committed to OSU over Michigan.

  • 2004: no recruits.

  • 2003: Todd Boeckman, a three-star and Rivals #19 pro-style QB. Committed to OSU over Pitt and Maryland.

April 25 - Wednesday

Rumors are coming out of Texarkana that Mallett is going to transfer and won’t be in Ann Arbor for the upcoming season. Hindsight says this was probably very close to becoming reality.

Unverified Voracity is Like That’s My Dad’s Name. Matt Gutierrez is getting some draft hype, but no, he is not the next Tom Brady.

April 26 - Thursday

The 2006 class one year retrospect. The results are fairly accurate so far. Perry Dorrestein probably performed better than expected, and Justin Boren, well… Overall not much out of this class aside from Brandon Graham. But it would be a rough next few years for these guys.

Unverified Voracity Craves Gel. Mallett is staying put, Ryan Mundy is using the grand transfer program to go to WVU, and James Ferentz has committed to Iowa. Why is that big news? The thought is this will keep Father Ferentz in Iowa and not allow him to succeed Lloyd at ‘M’.

April 27 - Friday

Unverified Voracity and Such and Such. John Beilein has managed to avoid 40% of his buyout. Also, coaches have been banned from using text messages to recruit.

April 30 - Monday

Banner contest winner!

Recruiting Board Update. ‘M’ is looking very strong for OH TE Kevin Koger.

Brian is working on a new football annual (essentially the first HTTV), so posting will be light the next few weeks.  

And to end the month...we have two football players caught in a car with drugs. Brian has a strong enough source to say that one of them is Mario Manningham. Details are still very sketchy.

Comments

Megan

May 4th, 2017 at 12:25 AM ^

Very cool stuff Maize.Blue Wagner!  Pretty cool for a new person like me to the blog to be able to catch up on blog history.  Thank you!