Watching live, my (very untrained) eye thought "man, Onwenu is a beast." PFF's take: "Onwenu is a beast." Brian's UFR take (with the usual clear video supporting evidence): "Onwenu is a beast."
And yet, listening to the Balas/Skene podcast post-game, Onwenu sucks, he doesn't have any desire to block people with authority, he lacks heart, he's never going to figure it out, I assume he's a decent human being but he's the worst football player in the history of football.
Exactly. He's missed essentially his entire career so far due to injury. Assuming he gets a 6th year of eligibility down the road, he's only a RS freshman this year. He's had zero opportunity--through no fault of his own--to live up to any "hype" so far.
In Mo's case the fall to later rounds is at least defensible given the medical reports leading up to the draft. If teams were scared away by that, fine. But there were also a number of NFL draft folks on Twitter whose names I don't recall who insisted that Mo was falling in the draft because he wasn't actually that good. If scouts watched Mo's game film and thought "yeah, that's a mid-round pick," well, they might want to consider a different line of work.
Agreed--I clearly should have left out the sophomoric cheap shot on this post to keep the focus on Mo, who is one of my favorite Wolverines of recent vintage (and maybe ever).
Yes, this was exactly my intent on all points. And yes, good for him as well--his decision worked out for him, and he successfully avoided the end of the Hoke era here.
I'm actually taking delivery of my first 4K TV today, so I can't give you an independent review of that set yet. But I went through quite a lot of research to land where I did. In terms of brands, I think any of Samsung, LG, and Sony are likely to work well. Some key considerations that you might keep in mind when choosing which way to go:
1) Do you play video games and/or watch lots of ESPN/cable news with stationary graphics? If so, then you might want to avoid OLED TVs, since some have experienced burn in. My understanding, though, is that recent models have done a lot to reduce/eliminate this concern. Also, if you play video games, look at input lag/response times--the lower the better.
2) What is the ambient light like in your room? OLED sets generally have deeper blacks but don't have the same peak brightness that an LCD/QLED set would. If the TV is mostly going to be in a very bright room, then it might be worth sacrificing the black levels in exchange for the extra brightness. If you go the LCD/QLED route, consider how much you care about good black levels. "Edge lit" sets will generally be cheaper and thinner, but are unable to match the black levels of back lit "full array local dimming" sets (which have a number of lighting zones directly behind the panel that can be turned off completely for deeper blacks in those zones--that's what makes OLEDs so nice for black levels, because the pixels themselves can be turned off individually for true black).
3) HDR--there still seems to be somewhat of a format war going on for HDR content, particularly relating to the more advanced versions that use metadata. DolbyVision and HDR10+ are the combatants, but it's not clear (to me, at least) which of these is more likely to be future proof. If your potential TV supports both, that would be ideal.
Personally, I went with the 2018 Samsung Q9FN, which is a QLED, full array local dimming model. It seemed to have a solid combination of low input lag for gaming, peak brightness, and black levels. It only supports HDR10+, though, and not DolbyVision.
For additional research, I recommend avsforums, as those guys are generally very helpful and knowledgeable.
As a Cincy fan, we played Houston 3 times this year. I'm too lazy to look up the actual stats, but he struggled against a strong defense. I haven't watched Michigan as much this year as I have UC, but my sense is that Michigan's D is just as well suited to stopping Gray as UC's is--perhaps even moreso since UC doesn't have a hyperactive Zavier Simpson-style guard to pressure the ball quite as aggressively.
Disagree. A multi-down three tech is vastly more valuable than a run-stuffer, unless that run stuffer can offer a reasonable amount of pass rush (or, at least enough pass rush to be among your 4 best rushers to be out there on passing downs). Vea sure looks like he will be a great NT, but from a value perspective it's hard to justify spending a high first rounder on a guy who won't be out there on passing downs.
I believe LG is supplying Sony with its OLED panels. Sony likely has better upscaling and other peripheral hardware to go alongside the panel, but otherwise the LG and Sony models should be awfully similar.
Regarding Sam's credibility, did he ever put in a "gut feeling" for Najee? I followed it fairly closely, and the impression I had was that he was unwilling to go that far--indicating that he had strong reasons for thinking Najee was going blue, but that it was not a certainty. Given the additional info that has since come out (e.g., Najee was enrolled, everything was in place for him to start school this week), it seems to me that what happened was consistent with what Sam was saying.
In other words, I think a reasonable person with access to Sam's info would have concluded as Sam did (and relayed to those on Scout and on WTKA): either (i) Najee was going blue, or (ii) Najee was undecided. Just because the ultimate result appears to have been option (ii), with Najee choosing to stick with Bama, doesn't in my mind discredit Sam. If he had said "IT'S HAPPENING" and posted a Najee-in-a-sock-hat-traversing-the-country gif on twitter, that's one thing. But I think he was pretty careful in saying "look, the guys in Schembechler Hall think he's coming, I have evidence to support that, but I haven't heard confirmation from Najee's camp. So I can't give you a 'gut feeling.'" The outcome wasn't what we fans wanted, but it doesn't mean Sam was wrong or bad at his job.
If EMU ends the season in front of MSU, I hereby propose that citing this stat should be the offseason equivalent of "the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals" meme.
Agreed. For one, we have more depth to overcome injuries that we really, really hope don't happen (like Clark going out and still having 2 top CBs to send out there). Just as big, though, is it is far less likely that our future opponents will "download" our defense and come up with a scheme that will kill us. Don Brown's scheme >>> Durkin's scheme, and I have every confidence that if someone comes up with something that starts to work, Brown will effectively counter in game. Unlike a certain Game from last year that I won't mention.
I think the rule is that you get 5 years to play out your 4 years of eligibility, so you can take a voluntary redshirt for a year. But if a player is injured and unable to play for multiple seasons, then they can appeal to have a 6th year to get through their 4 years of eligibility.
So, MSU is claiming that Davis falls into this category. But during one of the years in question where he was "too injured" to play (as opposed to taking a voluntary redshirt), MSU awarded him as scout team player of the week...which sounds an awful lot like a voluntary redshirt year and not a year where he was unable to play due to injury.
At least that's how I understand it--NCAA rules experts on here can feel free to correct me.
Bill Connelly just did the same exercise for the B10 that he did for the SEC (which inspired Brian's post). Similar overall results, with the same outcome for Michigan's three annual games. Worth a read:
Hoping the Bengals get Doctson or Sterling Shepard. I'm still annoyed that they didn't take Lockett last year after he torched Michigan in the bowl game (and everyone else on KSU's schedule before that).
Agreed, especially given the well-documented, non-recruiting-related justifications that the northern schools can put forward (e.g., knocking out some practice time without classes, and leaving more time to focus on exams when they return).
Ha, sorry about the lack of an "NSFW" tag. I don't post very often, and didn't think about the dangers of linking to SI so soon after the swimsuit issue.
I've seen all the good reviews come in regarding Brown, but I don't think I was truly 100% happy about the hire until I read the following paragraph from Space Coyote:
"In order to defend the spread, Brown tends to move away from his one-high safety looks and move to more of a two-high look out of cover 4. He does this so that he can rotate safeties into run support, either to defend the crease (outside the Tackle/TE, inside #2) or the alley (outside #2, inside #1). He will occasionally use a single-high look and give crease/alley responsibility to the deep safety. His deep safety isn't nearly as deep as Durkin's; this puts even heavier responsibility on the CBs to succeed, as many times the receivers can get over top of the defense without great support over the top. The box is primarily responsible for the run (along with the safeties), while the CBs and in some cases the safeties look almost completely to the pass before helping out in support."
As I interpret it, this means that (i) Brown would not have stuck with the base defense against the OSU spread that I think everyone acknowledges wouldn't have worked, and (ii) Brown's answer to the OSU spread is closer to an MSU-style defense than whatever the hell that 3-3-5 was that DJ came up with this year.
Many thanks for posting. I never once have remembered to use the link when ordering from Amazon, and I order stuff from them all the time. Would love for mgoblog to get even a small benefit from that.
On one hand, I tend to agree, and I'd imagine that if presented with the additional info that Brian dug up Hackett might not have issued the statement.
On the other hand, my immediate reaction to the news that Blake was getting bombed on twitter was a desire to tweet support at Blake (which I did not do, because (a) nobody should care about Random Internet Guy offering support to them, and (b) I assumed that he has been counseled to stay the hell away from twitter for awhile), or retweet some supportive tweets from Devin Gardner or other guys with ties to the program.
Neither of those is a fruitful response coming from random fan base members such as myself--but the statement of support from Hackett at least puts it out there, clearly, and from a source that is likely to filter down to Blake himself, that the real fan base doesn't wish any harm on Blake and in fact fully supports him.
--Kareem Walker (OSU commit) visited Michigan last week, and there seems to be a decent chance that we flip him
--OSU was reported to be in contact with UW commit Antonio Williams after Walker's visit to UM
--Urbz was rumored to have given Walker an ultimatum (initially thought to be 24 hours, but MGoFish later backed off that timeline) to either cancel his remaining visits and reaffirm his commitment, or else.
--Williams decommits from UW.
A Michigan-colored-glasses reading of these events would be that Walker refused to reaffirm, OSU no longer considers him a commit, and has offered his spot to Williams, with Walker potentially flipping to Michigan in the near future.
I'm with you. None of us is under an obligation to give money to him. He is leveraging his participation in a sports team that many, many people love to support, and if some number of those people want to also show gratitude (or whatever) to him for that participation by helping him go to grad school, he's giving them an avenue to do so. I don't see any harm in that at all.
Recent Comments
+1 for Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. Nothing better than your goalie literally turning into a brick wall.
Watching live, my (very untrained) eye thought "man, Onwenu is a beast." PFF's take: "Onwenu is a beast." Brian's UFR take (with the usual clear video supporting evidence): "Onwenu is a beast."
And yet, listening to the Balas/Skene podcast post-game, Onwenu sucks, he doesn't have any desire to block people with authority, he lacks heart, he's never going to figure it out, I assume he's a decent human being but he's the worst football player in the history of football.
I really need to stop listening to that podcast.
Exactly. He's missed essentially his entire career so far due to injury. Assuming he gets a 6th year of eligibility down the road, he's only a RS freshman this year. He's had zero opportunity--through no fault of his own--to live up to any "hype" so far.
In Mo's case the fall to later rounds is at least defensible given the medical reports leading up to the draft. If teams were scared away by that, fine. But there were also a number of NFL draft folks on Twitter whose names I don't recall who insisted that Mo was falling in the draft because he wasn't actually that good. If scouts watched Mo's game film and thought "yeah, that's a mid-round pick," well, they might want to consider a different line of work.
Agreed--I clearly should have left out the sophomoric cheap shot on this post to keep the focus on Mo, who is one of my favorite Wolverines of recent vintage (and maybe ever).
Yes, this was exactly my intent on all points. And yes, good for him as well--his decision worked out for him, and he successfully avoided the end of the Hoke era here.
All the best, Ace. Very much hoping for the "beat this shit into submission" outcome.
He did. Moved down 10 spots on the 247 rankings. Rating stayed the same, I think.
I'm actually taking delivery of my first 4K TV today, so I can't give you an independent review of that set yet. But I went through quite a lot of research to land where I did. In terms of brands, I think any of Samsung, LG, and Sony are likely to work well. Some key considerations that you might keep in mind when choosing which way to go:
1) Do you play video games and/or watch lots of ESPN/cable news with stationary graphics? If so, then you might want to avoid OLED TVs, since some have experienced burn in. My understanding, though, is that recent models have done a lot to reduce/eliminate this concern. Also, if you play video games, look at input lag/response times--the lower the better.
2) What is the ambient light like in your room? OLED sets generally have deeper blacks but don't have the same peak brightness that an LCD/QLED set would. If the TV is mostly going to be in a very bright room, then it might be worth sacrificing the black levels in exchange for the extra brightness. If you go the LCD/QLED route, consider how much you care about good black levels. "Edge lit" sets will generally be cheaper and thinner, but are unable to match the black levels of back lit "full array local dimming" sets (which have a number of lighting zones directly behind the panel that can be turned off completely for deeper blacks in those zones--that's what makes OLEDs so nice for black levels, because the pixels themselves can be turned off individually for true black).
3) HDR--there still seems to be somewhat of a format war going on for HDR content, particularly relating to the more advanced versions that use metadata. DolbyVision and HDR10+ are the combatants, but it's not clear (to me, at least) which of these is more likely to be future proof. If your potential TV supports both, that would be ideal.
Personally, I went with the 2018 Samsung Q9FN, which is a QLED, full array local dimming model. It seemed to have a solid combination of low input lag for gaming, peak brightness, and black levels. It only supports HDR10+, though, and not DolbyVision.
For additional research, I recommend avsforums, as those guys are generally very helpful and knowledgeable.
Nope, my Dad went there during the Oscar years, so I grew up a UC basketball fan.
See my posts above. He did not do well against UC. His biggest point total in 3 games was 17, and he needed 22 shots to put up that many.
Gray's stats against Cincy this year:
Game 1: 9 pts on 4-15 shooting, 1-6 from 3, 6 assists and 6 boards.
Game 2: 13 pts on 3-13 shooting, 1-7 from 3, 4 assists and 1 board (with 4 turnovers)
Game 3: 17 points on 6-22 shooting, 2-9 from 3, 3 assists and 5 boards (with 4 turnovers)
As a Cincy fan, we played Houston 3 times this year. I'm too lazy to look up the actual stats, but he struggled against a strong defense. I haven't watched Michigan as much this year as I have UC, but my sense is that Michigan's D is just as well suited to stopping Gray as UC's is--perhaps even moreso since UC doesn't have a hyperactive Zavier Simpson-style guard to pressure the ball quite as aggressively.
Disagree. A multi-down three tech is vastly more valuable than a run-stuffer, unless that run stuffer can offer a reasonable amount of pass rush (or, at least enough pass rush to be among your 4 best rushers to be out there on passing downs). Vea sure looks like he will be a great NT, but from a value perspective it's hard to justify spending a high first rounder on a guy who won't be out there on passing downs.
Same here. Got mine last Friday here in Richmond, VA.
I believe LG is supplying Sony with its OLED panels. Sony likely has better upscaling and other peripheral hardware to go alongside the panel, but otherwise the LG and Sony models should be awfully similar.
Regarding Sam's credibility, did he ever put in a "gut feeling" for Najee? I followed it fairly closely, and the impression I had was that he was unwilling to go that far--indicating that he had strong reasons for thinking Najee was going blue, but that it was not a certainty. Given the additional info that has since come out (e.g., Najee was enrolled, everything was in place for him to start school this week), it seems to me that what happened was consistent with what Sam was saying.
In other words, I think a reasonable person with access to Sam's info would have concluded as Sam did (and relayed to those on Scout and on WTKA): either (i) Najee was going blue, or (ii) Najee was undecided. Just because the ultimate result appears to have been option (ii), with Najee choosing to stick with Bama, doesn't in my mind discredit Sam. If he had said "IT'S HAPPENING" and posted a Najee-in-a-sock-hat-traversing-the-country gif on twitter, that's one thing. But I think he was pretty careful in saying "look, the guys in Schembechler Hall think he's coming, I have evidence to support that, but I haven't heard confirmation from Najee's camp. So I can't give you a 'gut feeling.'" The outcome wasn't what we fans wanted, but it doesn't mean Sam was wrong or bad at his job.
Schroedinger's Friday Recruitin' Update
If EMU ends the season in front of MSU, I hereby propose that citing this stat should be the offseason equivalent of "the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals" meme.
Agreed. For one, we have more depth to overcome injuries that we really, really hope don't happen (like Clark going out and still having 2 top CBs to send out there). Just as big, though, is it is far less likely that our future opponents will "download" our defense and come up with a scheme that will kill us. Don Brown's scheme >>> Durkin's scheme, and I have every confidence that if someone comes up with something that starts to work, Brown will effectively counter in game. Unlike a certain Game from last year that I won't mention.
Assuming Urban allows Samuel to be a ball carrier...
28-23 Wolverbears
I think the rule is that you get 5 years to play out your 4 years of eligibility, so you can take a voluntary redshirt for a year. But if a player is injured and unable to play for multiple seasons, then they can appeal to have a 6th year to get through their 4 years of eligibility.
So, MSU is claiming that Davis falls into this category. But during one of the years in question where he was "too injured" to play (as opposed to taking a voluntary redshirt), MSU awarded him as scout team player of the week...which sounds an awful lot like a voluntary redshirt year and not a year where he was unable to play due to injury.
At least that's how I understand it--NCAA rules experts on here can feel free to correct me.
I didn't know Luiji was coming to RVa--bummed I won't be in town to see the game.
That OL...yeah, I think that'd be decent. Long-Hutchinson-Molk-Baas-Lewan.
If PSU returns to a power (or even a quasi-power) then the set of three rivals for M, MSU, OSU, and PSU looks a lot better.
Bill Connelly just did the same exercise for the B10 that he did for the SEC (which inspired Brian's post). Similar overall results, with the same outcome for Michigan's three annual games. Worth a read:
Link
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sporting Don Brown's 'stache in no time.
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True. Or at least not a high-to-mid first rounder. I think PFF's analysis on him is pretty convincing.
Hoping the Bengals get Doctson or Sterling Shepard. I'm still annoyed that they didn't take Lockett last year after he torched Michigan in the bowl game (and everyone else on KSU's schedule before that).
In theory, I agree with you. And yet I maybe have 1% of the self-discipline required to not watch GoT this season while waiting for the book.
Agreed, especially given the well-documented, non-recruiting-related justifications that the northern schools can put forward (e.g., knocking out some practice time without classes, and leaving more time to focus on exams when they return).
Ha, sorry about the lack of an "NSFW" tag. I don't post very often, and didn't think about the dangers of linking to SI so soon after the swimsuit issue.
RIP, nginx.
I've seen all the good reviews come in regarding Brown, but I don't think I was truly 100% happy about the hire until I read the following paragraph from Space Coyote:
"In order to defend the spread, Brown tends to move away from his one-high safety looks and move to more of a two-high look out of cover 4. He does this so that he can rotate safeties into run support, either to defend the crease (outside the Tackle/TE, inside #2) or the alley (outside #2, inside #1). He will occasionally use a single-high look and give crease/alley responsibility to the deep safety. His deep safety isn't nearly as deep as Durkin's; this puts even heavier responsibility on the CBs to succeed, as many times the receivers can get over top of the defense without great support over the top. The box is primarily responsible for the run (along with the safeties), while the CBs and in some cases the safeties look almost completely to the pass before helping out in support."
As I interpret it, this means that (i) Brown would not have stuck with the base defense against the OSU spread that I think everyone acknowledges wouldn't have worked, and (ii) Brown's answer to the OSU spread is closer to an MSU-style defense than whatever the hell that 3-3-5 was that DJ came up with this year.
We also beat out FSU for Shelton Johnson last year, I believe.
Kalis and Jalad at Tanagra.
Drevno, his arms wide.
Michigan 35 - 0 Minnesota. Bonus prediction: Peppers scores his first TD.
Many thanks for posting. I never once have remembered to use the link when ordering from Amazon, and I order stuff from them all the time. Would love for mgoblog to get even a small benefit from that.
Looking forward to the Refs -435 in the UFR chart.
On one hand, I tend to agree, and I'd imagine that if presented with the additional info that Brian dug up Hackett might not have issued the statement.
On the other hand, my immediate reaction to the news that Blake was getting bombed on twitter was a desire to tweet support at Blake (which I did not do, because (a) nobody should care about Random Internet Guy offering support to them, and (b) I assumed that he has been counseled to stay the hell away from twitter for awhile), or retweet some supportive tweets from Devin Gardner or other guys with ties to the program.
Neither of those is a fruitful response coming from random fan base members such as myself--but the statement of support from Hackett at least puts it out there, clearly, and from a source that is likely to filter down to Blake himself, that the real fan base doesn't wish any harm on Blake and in fact fully supports him.
I think it goes something like this:
--Kareem Walker (OSU commit) visited Michigan last week, and there seems to be a decent chance that we flip him
--OSU was reported to be in contact with UW commit Antonio Williams after Walker's visit to UM
--Urbz was rumored to have given Walker an ultimatum (initially thought to be 24 hours, but MGoFish later backed off that timeline) to either cancel his remaining visits and reaffirm his commitment, or else.
--Williams decommits from UW.
A Michigan-colored-glasses reading of these events would be that Walker refused to reaffirm, OSU no longer considers him a commit, and has offered his spot to Williams, with Walker potentially flipping to Michigan in the near future.
28-10 Michigan
A whole lot. *also guilty*
Michigan 31, Maryland 10
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Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
You've found the wrong Private Ryan
I'm with you. None of us is under an obligation to give money to him. He is leveraging his participation in a sports team that many, many people love to support, and if some number of those people want to also show gratitude (or whatever) to him for that participation by helping him go to grad school, he's giving them an avenue to do so. I don't see any harm in that at all.