This Month in MGoBlog History: December 2008 - Will Big Will Recommit?
Previously:
December 1 - Monday
Cripple fight. Who was the worst: 2007 Notre Dame or 2008 Michigan? Brian says it was 2007 ND.
Unverified Voracity Says Get Well. Hockey signing day recently passed, including Chris Brown and Kevin Lynch.
December 2 - Tuesday
Tuesday recruitin’. The first mention of MI QB Devin Gardner.
There was an error in the Blogpoll, does it matter? No, none of it matters because the whole BCS system is dumb.
December 3 - Wednesday
Updated ballot I guess.
Mailbag. Could Paul Johnson have done better at ‘M’ or Rodriguez at GT? Why would Tennessee hire Lane Kiffin?
Unverified Voracity Asks Why? Like why does it look like Charlie Weis is staying at ND and Brian Kelly is staying at Cincinnati?
December 4 - Thursday
The basketball team lost to a middling Maryland team (this was the BIG10/ACC challenge, not a conference game), but they actually looked decent doing it.
Posting is going to slow down now. Here is a list of summer projects that Brian will consider for the blog:
The addition of a rating system for diaries and posters in general that will bubble high-rated things up to more prominent positions and bury low-rated ones.
More prominent access to diaries and the like; a better page for each user.
Creating a full-fledged recruiting wiki.
Similar to the above, adding in player pages and so forth.
A revamp of the comment system.
Improving the interface for posting diaries and comments.
Fixing the stupid bug that never sends emails to some people who register.
December 5 - Friday
Due to absences at the bust last night, it is likely that Sam McGuffie, Avery Horn, and Carson Butler will be transferring.
Unverified Voracity Sizes Spartans. Scott Shafer might be on his way out. The Miami (OH) head coach position might be an option.
A post mortem on the QB position. Brian goes back to his season preview and evaluates what happened throughout the season.
December 6 - Saturday
The basketball team beat Duke! Muppets (#4)!
December 8 - Monday
Game column for the Duke game.
On Michigan's last possession of the first half, DeShawn Sims got loose—barely—on a back cut and Jevohn Shepherd zipped a seeing-eye bounce pass through two Duke (Duke!) defenders. Sims threw it down with a roar, Crisler exploded, and Jay Bilas exclaimed "that is Michigan basketball!"
YEAH MICHIGAN BASKETBALL WOOOOOO—
Wait… what?
Game column for the hockey sweep over MSU this past weekend.
December 9 - Tuesday
Unverified Voracity Would Like to be in Your Belly. Good quotes on Beilein:
The remarkable thing about John Beilein is how consistently other coaches praise him. It is near-universal, and he's got the track record to back up their praise. Now, a lot of times you'll get generic blah blah about whoever they're talking about because it's TV and everything is positive, but with Beilein it seems genuine. He's not a good coach, he's the best, they say, and though I'm sure their evaluations leave out the most critical part of the job (recruiting) having the bar-none best coach in the country as acclaimed by other coaches is probably a good thing, right?
Tuesday Recruitin’. Unfortunately, there weren’t many big recruits on campus for the big win over Duke. However, there is a picture of Will Gholston with Brandon Graham after the court was rushed.
December 10 - Wednesday
Unverified Voracity is Writing a Comparatively Lit Thesis. Laval Lucas-Perry will be joining the basketball team at the beginning of January, and it could be an important addition. Also, Rick Leach is amping up his support of Rodriguez.
Mailbag. How will the 12th game scheduling shake out? Will any of the DL recruits switch to OL? Will there be more snake oil this year/could it be predicted last year? Beilein’s start is remarkably similar to his start at WVU, also more Georgia Tech comparison talk.
December 11 - Thursday
December 12 - Friday
Post mortem on the running back position.
Sam McGuffie transfer is official.
December 14 - Sunday
December 15 - Monday
Unverified Voracity is Tiny, Mesmerized. Brady Hoke has made a somewhat lateral move and will now be coaching San Diego State.
December 16 - Tuesday
Tuesday Recruitin’. IN LB Jordan Barnes has decommitted. QB Shavodrick Beaver is looking uncertain.
The Detroit News and Free Press have both reduced their weekly delivery. Brian goes into detail about why print media is unsustainable.
Scott Shafer has resigned.
There will be a postseason live chat tonight.
Potential DCs: Jeff Casteel, Corwin Brown, John Chavis, Paul Rhoads, Vance Bedford, Ed Orgeron? Chris Spielman?
December 17 - Wednesday
Brian editorializes a bit more on Shafer, the 3-3-5, and how much the DC is to blame for the bad defensive performance.
Bleacher Report has put out a dubious rumor about Auburn. Interestingly, one of the Bleacher Report creators and the author of the story respond in the comments.
There are a number of rumors that Jay Hopson will be promoted to DC. Matt Hinton provides some analysis on Hopson’s career.
December 18 - Thursday
Unverified Voracity Debones. EMU is looking for a new coach, and there are a number of ‘M’ connected names mentioned.
D Steve Kampfer will return from his head injuries in time for the GLI.
December 19 - Friday
Unverified Voracity Makes Plans. Bowl games are scams. Lots of money seems to be going...somewhere.
Mailbag. Was Shafer just a bad fit or is this the start of Rodriguez panic? And lots of questions about decommits.
So Beaver is gone and what’s worse, he’s committing to Tulsa.
December 22 - Monday
What now at QB? Virgina’s Tahj Boyd, Florida’s Eugene Smtih, Maryland’s Raymond Cotton, Florida’s Denard Robinson, Texas’ Tyrik Rollison.
Monday Recrutin’. There doesn’t seem to be much consensus one way or another on what Will Campbell is going to do. Also, ‘M’ is getting back in with TX WR Josh Gordon who will get an in home visit.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a second quarterback recruit in the 2009 recruiting class. See you on the 29th.
December 29 - Monday
The Campbell recruitment is in further chaos. He’s telling everyone at the All American Bowl that he wants to leave the state of Michigan, but then premium sites started to post that he is close to 100% to ‘M’.
Hockey recap. They won the GLI, but they had to because they were playing really bad teams (see: MSU).
Basketball recap. They haven’t imploded since the big win over Duke, so that’s important. Lucas-Perry has started playing, but interestingly, isn’t taking minutes from David Merritt or CJ Lee.
December 30 - Tuesday
All sources are still confused about Will Campbell.
Tuesday Recruitin’. Denard says he likes what ‘M’ is doing and that he would fit in well in their system.
Basketball vs. North Carolina Central bullets. It was a sloppy win that significantly hurt their RPI.
December 31 - Wednesday
Unverified Baby, Stay For My Voracity. There has been uncertainty about Manny Harris leaving early after the season; now there is talk that DeShawn Sims might go early too.
December 20th, 2018 at 4:40 AM ^
awesome. fuck you!!!
December 20th, 2018 at 4:47 AM ^
Wow, I had no idea we were looking at Ed Orgeron, lol.
December 24th, 2018 at 8:57 PM ^
LOL, "The Otter". Wasn't that Big Will's nickname during this process?
I know it's been said a million times, and I've never seen anyone provide data conclusively for or against, but man does Michigan seem to have a higher percentage of 5* busts compared to others.
Big Will, Ondre Pipkins, Ty Isaac, Green, Grady, Kalis, Etc.
December 24th, 2018 at 9:00 PM ^
Also, I hate the RR years and what that did to our Football program...but man...I freaking LOVE Denard. I just love that kid / man. Dude was everything you hope a Michigan Man would be.
December 20th, 2018 at 7:26 AM ^
The brief glimmer of hope in September 2009 promises to be depressing.
December 20th, 2018 at 7:36 AM ^
The Dax flip flop reminded me a lot of the Big Will flip flop.
Crootin'
December 20th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
Is that Seth going after Brian a little bit in the comments regarding the Auburn/Bleacher Report story?
Love it. Ahhhh... memories.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:25 PM ^
And I was correct. In a few years he and I would be going into the *print* business with HTTV 2012, and today MGoBlog has a credentialed staff, writes gamers, and has staff meetings to plan out content. And I can't even guess what the second-most traffic of any Michigan site on the internet got but it probably wasn't 13 million. By any measure except the having of beards we're the "mainstream media" now.
December 21st, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^
Why don’t you guys do mailbags anymore? Do our questions suck? Is it too derivative of Simmons’ schtick?
December 21st, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^
That's a good idea.
December 20th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^
The Rodriguez years were so depressing.
December 20th, 2018 at 3:17 PM ^
UCLA was the first sign that basketball was turning it around and then Duke was the confirmation. That was an amazing game/atmosphere.
We're headed for a roller-coaster ride with the January/February/March retrospectives. Making the tournament (as a 10 seed!) was such a huge deal back then...
December 21st, 2018 at 11:44 PM ^
Yeah, events like that are why I continue with this series, even through the football months of 2008.
December 20th, 2018 at 7:56 PM ^
Dec. 5, 2008: I ran through the intersection of State and Hoover and hugged a small group of other students who were celebrating the win over Duke. Also made a drunken bet with a roommate that night that Zack Novak's #0 would get retired. Still haven't paid that one.
December 23rd, 2018 at 2:44 PM ^
This is actually awesome to see and a great trip down memory lane, thank you!
December 24th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^
This is fun to look back at, thanks!
December 24th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
First: TX WR Dewayne Peace is no longer considering official visits($, IIH). He's moved back into the "solid" category
Narrator: He was not solid.
December 25th, 2018 at 9:24 PM ^
I was so excited about Will Campbell. I was glad he eventually became a contributor, but his career felt like a missed opportunity. I was indignant when some services dropped him in the rankings as we approached signing day, and I remember a lot of them thought he would be better at offensive line than d-line. Not sure if they were right or if the staff just did a poor job of developing him (or if he did a poor job of developing himself).
December 28th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Imagine if we got josh Gordon
December 29th, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
That's my new go-to "What if?" What if Josh Gordon had gone to Michigan?
December 31st, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
Going back and reading these really makes you realize how insignificant most of the recruits are that everyone perseverates on each year. Shovoderick Beaver? I remember the disappointment when he decommitted.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
Will Campbell is just one of several can't miss, sure-to-dominate defensive linemen that never did dominate at Michigan.
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