(OT)Things could be worse, we could be Tennessee
What kind of a crap storm is going on in Knoxville? As someone who lives in Tennessee I am calling bull crap on the moral high road being the reason UT fans do not want Schiano. They don't want Schiano because he is not Jon Gruden. UT fans would hire the devil himself if he could beat Bama or Georgia. Now they will owe Butch Jones a buyout and presumably will owe Schiano something because he signed a memo or whatever it was. Not even Dave Brandon could have screwed up worse than UT's AD. I guess my point is things could always be worse.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
Where is your proof of that?
I recall people saying that we owned UF and that since we beat PSU by 39 in 2016 there was no way they could have improved enough to beat us.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
The PSU prediction (Michigan won by 39 in 2016 so they should easily dominate PSU in 2017)was really one of the most bizarre predictions I have even seen. It wasn't just a fringe prediction either, that seemed to be the consensus here.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
It is almost as if people didn't watch PSU in October and November last year.
The crazy thing is that PSU almost beat OSU in Columbus this year and lost in a monsoon to MSU on a last second field goal. If Barkley comes back, and that is a huge if, they'll probably favored to win the East again with OSU and MSU coming to Happy Valley.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
I was guilty of that. I was wrong.
I guess what it came down to is, I don't have a whole lot of respect for James Franklin as a football coach and I haven't really watched Penn State much over the past couple seasons, so I really just didn't take them seriously. I knew the 39-point win was in A2 with all of their LBs hurt, but if you start with a 39-point margin and adjust for Penn State having linebackers and playing at home, that still doesn't seem to get them closer than a couple TDs.
Oh well.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:59 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
Well you can tell who takes the rivalry more seriously when Harbaugh is seen jumping into a pool with his clothes on the week of the game.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
was invited to jump into the pool for the Michigan Water Carnival. It is an event designed to draw attention and increase interest to Michigan's swimming and diving programs. It is a complete non-issue, and kind of a cool thing that he did.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^
He could have said no...
Do you think Dantonio would take time out of his week? At some point we need more rivalry wins if the off field stuff is going to be a non-issue.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
don't know if Dantonio would take time out of his week, but I would day it would be kind of douchey if he didn't.
Do you think that football coaches don't do other stuff? Look, there are times during any week where Jim Harbaugh is like eating cereal and watching Designated Survivor or something. He is just a guy. He spends a lot of time coaching and recruiting football but that isn't all he does. At that particular moment he was making an appearance at a Michigan athletic event that probably drew a lot of attention to it and did some good for that program. I want a coach that does those things.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^
So now it is douchey to be solely focused on beating your rival? I guess Bo must be a massive douche in your mind because he did something every week to prepare for OSU.
I'd rather have a coach that wins against MSU and OSU. The remaining 50 weeks of the year he can make appearances, but during football season he should be blocking out distractions and especially so during rivalry weeks.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
Harbaugh had 336 hours between the Purdue game and the MSU game. 336 hours. He spent a maximum of 1 of those hours participating in a Michigan athletic program event. It is a non-issue, and a cool thing to do.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^
You know what a cool thing to do is? Beating MSU. If you beat MSU you can jump in all the pools you want with no complaint. Fail to beat MSU and be prepared for criticism, that is all.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:44 AM ^
him all you want. I have. Just not for participating in an Athletic Department event that had nothing to do with the football game. I guess he could have said no and like gone out for lunch or something, but what kind of unfocused part-time candyass coach does that shit during a bye week. You want to go to Arby's Harbaugh? Beat MSU and then we will talk!
And he had beat MSU, the year before. So, exactly how many times does he have to beat MSU, percentage wise, before he is allowed to use his position to promote Michigan athletics? Is there like a quota?
November 27th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
So you admit that the event had nothing to do with football. Can't you see how during a rivalry week that could be viewed as not being focused?
Ideally he should beat MSU every year, but that isn't reasonable so I'd say he should beat them at our historical pace two out of three.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^
Mark Dantonio doesn't even have time to breathe during Michigan week, man. He is busy working the HAARP machine to make sure Michigan has a monsoon going during their second half comeback attempt with a backup QB. It's a decided schematic advantage.
November 27th, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^
The first half was perfect weather and Dantonio got himself an 11 point lead. The whole state new that rain was coming, one team built a lead and the other turned it over twice in that first half.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
As noted in your user name, we're fans. Our predictions should be meaningless because we're incapable of pure objectivism. And who gives a shit if we're biased? It's supposed to be fun, and the bias makes it so. I love being an irrational idiot who scares the dog when yelling about a long touchdown run by a guy who's not old enough for a legal beer.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^
So the standard we need to hold the team to is the season predictions of board posters?
November 27th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
I was one of the people who "predicted" 10-2. But I also kind of felt like 10-2 was about the best this team could realistically do. I am a fan, so of course I am going to "predict" that they hit their ceiling. It didn't happen. The pass protection was much worse than I expected, the QB and WR play was never consistently good and god-awful at times, and some key injuries really hurt our chances. But M still won 8 games and has a chance at 9 in the bowl game.
If you want to call me a "revisionist" for having predicted 10-2 and being more or less satisfied with 8-4, then go right ahead. Nothing wrong with revising one's viewpoints as more information comes available.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:47 AM ^
Came here to say this. We returned 5 starters this year, and were excruciatingly terrible at the most important position. 8-4 isn't what we want, but nobody should be chicken little.....And only the PSU game was out of hand. We were right in the sparty, wisconsin and osu games until the end, even with all the issues. If anything, it gives me even more excitement for 2018.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:12 AM ^
Agreed. I'm of course bummed that we didn't do better, and it's beyond aggravating of having another year where we legitimately could've beaten OSU and we just hand them the game. But five starters coming back from last year, the defense didn't miss too much of a beat, lot of young guys who aren't going anywhere for at least two years, and the offense looked like it was finally finding a groove under Peters.
If Peters can recover well from the concussion and make a really strong showing in the bowl game, it will bode very well for next year. He'll head into next season knowing that barring disaster, he's the guy. He'll have a full offseason of knowing that, and another offseason for he and the rest of the offense to gel together, another offseason for the OL to get itself together.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:31 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 9:36 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
I agree, but can't you understand how people are disappointed in the continued losses to our rivals?
November 27th, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^
Well somebody is way off.
Either Tennessee is way off for their level of concern about Schiano's ethics . . . or Ohio State is way off for not being concerned.
If he's clean enough for Ohio State, why would Tennessee says he's not?
If he's not clean enough for Tennessee, why would Ohio State say he's clean?
Somebody has not done their due-dillegence, or has done it and is choosing to ignore it.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^
It's not so much Ohio State saying he's clean, as much as the information came out about his possible knowledge after he'd already been hired at Ohio State. I'd say it's also a different standard for a coordinator versus head coach.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:47 AM ^
But once the information comes out, you just ignore it?
There are lots of people in politics and Holllywood right now who are being fired for unethical behavior that has just came out now.
But it's still unethical behavior.
Either Ohio State shoud say Schiano is clean and here is why, or seperate themselves from him.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^
I'm not aware of anyone in politics or Hollywood right now being fired for things they knew about other people doing and not reporting it.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
I have literally no idea what this means (and Google didn't help).
November 27th, 2017 at 6:02 PM ^
Sorry. Brain fart. I meant Michael Flynn.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
to report child abuse that one has actual knowledge of is a crime in most states, so that is not really the same as those who knew about (and most merely heard widely circulated rumors about) Weistein (or whoever) stuff.
If McCreary's sworn testimony states that he was told that Schiano knew.
Seems like it is reasonable for OSU to look into it, even if the McCreary testimony came out after Schiano was hired.
Anyone know if OSU looked into it?
November 27th, 2017 at 9:53 AM ^
Eh, to be honest, there's really not that much evidence against Schiano/Bradley. Just to reference some dates, Schiano was at PSU from 90-95, while McQueary coached there from 2004-2011 (played from 94-97).
McQueary's testimony is that around 2001 after telling Paterno what he saw, he then discussed the situation with Tom Bradley. Bradley then told McQueary that another assistant had told Bradley that he the assistant had seen something in the early 90's. That assistant was Schiano.
Both Bradley and Schiano denied it (which, duh), and criminal charges were never filed against them because of the double hearsay.
So for OSU (and formerly UCLA, with Bradley), you can make the argument that both men are innocent, and they're just coordinators on their second chances.
But for Tennessee, which has already had problems with player discipline (it was called the Fulmer Cup for a reason), and sexual assault (Peyton Manning, Butch Jones calling a player a traitor for helping a sexual assault victim, and a Title 9 lawsuit), hiring a .500 football coach with that much baggage is just silly
November 27th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
"you can make the argument that both men are innocent" More logically, you can make the argument that there is not enough evidence to suggest that they are guilty.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
Yeah, that's a lot better way of saying it
November 27th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^
Schiano knew about Sandusky's activities and kept quiet. While that is a claim, not a conviction, IMO nobody in their right mind would take the risk to hire a guy who may have known about Sandusky to be the face of their university. That is insane enough. But then top off the entire episode with the sheer stupidity of taking that risk with a mediocrity like Schiano.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
Exactly! And coming off of a major Title IX scandal and settlement at the university, to top it off. Just incredibly terrible judgment.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^
True, but McQueary's testimony doesn't hold a lot of weight in my opinion because he didn't go the police after walking in on Sandusky abusing a child. In my mind a reasonable person immediately goes to the police after witnessing that sort of crime.
I'm not defending Schiano, but McQueary testifying that Tom Bradley told him that Schiano knew about Sandusky doesn't really convince me that Schiano knew becasue McQueary isn't reliable and he heard it second hand from Bradley.
That said anyone who was even associated with that program while Sandusky was there should be kept as far away as possible.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^
Of all the things that we do have to be thankful for over the holidays, one of them will be that we are not Tennessee's fanbase and part of a coaching shitstorm. There were a couple people actually out there calling for Harbaugh's head, and even today, a couple people out there in the Michigan fanbase who seem to want the NFL to come for Jim. I guess my question to those obviously drunk people would be this - do you REALLY want to be embroiled in December 2014 all over again, or worse, something like what is happening in Knoxville? I certainly don't. I am fine with the prospect of prolonged stability yet again in Ann Arbor, thanks.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:45 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:34 AM ^
One of the prominent Vol blogs has Tee Martin on the top of their new board:
https://www.rockytoptalk.com/2017/11/27/16703564/tennessee-head-coachin…
The main knock is lack of experience. He certainly wouldn't have been a first choice, but they are pretty far down the list now. The advantages of Tee Martin: it would be a "bold" choice from the "possible up-and-comer" standpoint, but a "safe" choice for the fanbase - he led the team to a national championship as QB, and some has some capital to begin.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:49 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^
He turned them down.