This is from memory, but I thought it came out after his weed bust that Cissoko was really 20 or 21 while in high school; i.e., everybody thought he had this really high ceiling, but the reality was he was just dominating because he was older than the competition. I also recollect that when he got caught with weed, he told the cops "I was not going to smoke it; I was just going to sell it to my friends." I.e., don't just charge me with possession, but possession with intent to distribute.
Yes, we want Kansas to lose. I live in Dallas and in 2013 after we beat Kansas in the Sweet 16 I was able to get amazing seats for the Elite Eight (literally, the first row behind the media) for less than I paid to go to the finals in Atlanta for seats that were 20-30 rows back.
In addition to StubHub, look at Vivid Seats and SeatGeek. The fees and listings are similar (and I am pretty sure often overlap), but SeatGeek has a feature that gives you an idea of how good of a deal you are getting. I ended up buying my three tickets last night on StubHub just for the semis with the idea that I will wait and see whether it is worth the money to pay WAY more to get into lower seats for the finals (I am not even considering the possibility of a Michigan loss). There are so many rows in the bowl (A-Z, then AA-QQ, then 20-35 that paying 5x as much to be in the bowl did not seem worth it as compared to low rows up upper deck. I would recommend paying a bit extra to avoid the end zones as I sat there for prior Alamo Bowls and it was like watching from outer space and there was no way to know whether a play went for 1 or 10 yards (not as much of an issue in basketball).
For the finals, prices are lower, but this is in part because you are paying for one game instead of two. It also depends who ends up going. My theory is for prices we want (1) Nova, (2) Duke, (3) Kansas, and (4) Texas Tech, the theory being that lots of Tech fans will live within driving distance of San Antonio, Kansas is also close enough to drive and they travel well, and Duke will travel better than Nova.
I rated our chances as pretty slim even if Clemson or Washington lost. I was surprised to hear debate on Sports Center about Michigan after both won. It sucks, but we lost to Iowa. After the loss, I thought "no big deal; same as before, we beat Ohio State and we are in." After we lost to Ohio State, I realized "ooooooh, this is why losing to Iowa mattered." We lost. It mattered. Had we won, Ohio State would have beat Wisconsin (or not), and we would be in Ohio State's shoes -- the non-Big10 champion going to the dance. Oh well. Still a great year. In a year or two, we will not have these debates. We will be more dominant than Alabama.
Ohio State lost to the Big 10 Champion and was a two-point conversion (against a 3-9 team) and generous spot away from losing their last two games. Sending them instead of a conference champion ignores the reality that there is a significant risk of losing every game. A two loss Penn State who had to risk another loss that Ohio State did not -- who beat Ohio State and won the conference -- deserves to go.
In the visitors section -- scalped tickets. That is how I learned that the different color at the top of the ticket meant something. It was a long game . . .
We DESERVED to win this game, just as we deserved to win last year against MSU. But, we lost. Harbaugh has accomplished a great deal in two years. Just imagine what the future holds. Does anybody think Saban is a better coach than Harbaugh? I would put Meyer ahead of Saban and look what happened in only year two of the "__ year war." Give Harbaugh some time and Michigan will be dominating recruiting and W/Ls the way Alabama has been the last several years.
Speaking of selling your soul, can you imagine Harbaugh ever doing the equivalent of the black helmet thing? Ugh.
Plus, what a difference the bowl game can make. Last year would have looked and felt alot different had we not gone out and spanked Florida after getting spanked by tOSU. Let's hope we spank our opponent in the Orange Bowl (FSU?) and leave people wondering what might have been.
***James Rogers was out for most of the PSU game in favor of Talbott so we may see our long-held dream finally come to fruition: a secondary made up of nothing but true freshmen without a fourth star to any of their names.***
Denard's passing was awesome. The only reason we are not talking about it is because his running was even more awesome. But he was throwing darts out there today. The kid is a true talent.
A bit OT here, but isn't that essentially what we have? Denard is the next Pat White and Gardner is the next Vince Young. The offense looked completely different today as compared to last year.
I am not saying Tate will not play in the NFL (though I would be surprised), but the fact that he essentially has been playing QB full time since high school (home schooling) translates into a lower ceiling. Yes, he will improve, but his ceiling should be lower than that of either Denard or Gardner.
Actually, Drieisbach lost his job to Griese (though Brady was there and thought he should have started). Dreisbach did handle it well, asking to play on special teams. I think I remember his getting applause for his last home game against Wisconsin when he was on for a kickoff. Also, though not drafted, he was on an NFL roster for a time, at which time there were six Michigan QBs in the NFL (Harbaugh, Brady, Griese, Grbac, Collins, and Dreisbach).
1. First game at the Big House, in the rain as a 1st year law student in 1989, watching Michigan dominate Notre Dame and still lose because of two kick off returns for touchdowns by The Rocket. I learned to love Michigan and hate Notre Dame the same day.
2. Sitting down low in the corner of the end zone two years later in what turned out to be the perfect seat: I got to see Desmond Howard stretch out to catch the pass from Grbac. Sweet revenge.
3. Learning the hard way at the Florida State game that the visitor tickets one can buy from a scalper look different from the home tickets. Sitting in the middle of the FSU fans doing the annoying tomahawk chop as we lost by 20 points was no fun.
4. Seeing Desond Howard strike The Pose.
5. 1994 Colorado. Ugh! At least I was not there.
6. 1995 Virginia: Dreisbach to Mercury Hayes. This was back when they had the Pigskin and Kickoff classics the week before the season, so this was the only game that day and I spent the entire day VCRing every highlight I could find, and there were a bunch of them. Wish I could find that tape (but I could not play it even if I could -- who has a VCR any more?)
6. 1996 Northwestern. I flew from Dallas to Chicago to see a 4-0 Michigan team lose to Northwestern on a last second field goal, back before Northwestern got somewhat decent. Actually, we lost twice. The first kick barely made it, Northwestern got a penalty and had to kick again. They made it -- again.
7. 1997. Too many wonderful memories to list, but . . . Win against Notre Dame, comeback against Iowa, seeing Woodson in person return the punt for a touchdown at The Game (jumped so much my glasses flew forward about four rows); the Rose Bowl.
8. Brabbs making a long field goal after a gift 12 men on the field penalty and after he had missed an easy, short kick earlier the same game.
9. 2006, right before the Ohio State game. Oh, life was so good.
10. Beating Florida for Lloyd's last game. Other than that, not a whole lot of fun since The Game in 2006. Hopefully, things turn around.
In three weeks, I will fly from Dallas to take my 7 year old son to see his first Michigan game. We will meet my friend from Chicago and his 7 year old son who will be attending his first Michigan game as well, the same friend who was with me at the 1998 Rose Bowl. I hope our sons remember their first Michigan game the way you remember yours.
Even after what happened this season, it is still an awesome video. Unfortunately, you could do pretty much the same video next year, except all of the color highlights will be from September and the black and white is everything after.
The video also underscores the beast that is Minor when healthy. Too bad for Minor, the team, and the fans.
I don't see how we pull it out tomorrow, but it sure would make the season if we did.
One of the best things I have read in a while. Outstanding!
For as long as I have been following recruiting rankings online (7-8 years), I remember discounting Michigan's ranking and focusing instead on "average stars." My theory was that the rankings overrated numbers and underrated quality. Your work makes me think that Rivals et al. had it right all along -- numbers matter too ("we need the dudes"). Anyway, from memory, our numbers always seemed relatively low, though I was not focusing on defense specifically.
Thanks.
Imagine how bad we would be this year without Warren? My recollection is that it was between us and USC and many (if not most) did not expect us to win that particular recruiting battle. Good thing we did.
Too bad we lost Jai (sp?) Eugene.
I hate jerseys without names and I am also annoyed by first initials. The jerseys have NUMBERS too, so why do we need the first initial? How many people look at Carlos Brown, No. 23, and wonder "Gee, I wonder if that is Stevie or Carlos Brown? I sure wish there were an initial to help me figure it out." Or, do people wonder "Why the hell is there an initial on Stevie Brown's jersey? They must think we are total morons. Stevie is no. 3, Carlos is no. 23. Duh."
All three of our wins are more impressive than Iowa's. I would have Michigan in the top 15. CFN has us at 11 and that looks about right to me.
Also, I would drop USC more and under Ohio State. Yes, we know they are good and will do better as the season progresses, but they lost to an unranked team that just snapped a 16 game losing streak the week before. Their loss is worse than OSU's. I would drop USC below Oklahoma too; Oklahoma's loss was to a ranked team at least. Washington should be ranked and ahead of USC (head to head win and loss to a ranked team).
Auburn should be higher; Notre Dame should be ranked; Mississippi should be way lower (what have they done so far?).
Excellent column and I really enjoyed the poker metaphors. As much as I like Lloyd, he really was weak tight, and Weiss certainly looked like a LAG on that last drive.
Rodriguez looks to me like a tight aggressive. He is aggressive, but he picks his spots.
"Down 34-31 and at the Michigan 42 with 2:13 left, the true freshman's performance on the game-winning drive was real and it was spectacular."
Yes, like the boobs of the chick from Desperate Housewives, Forcier is REAL AND SPECTACULAR!
Seriously, in what situation can you imagine the coaches thinking "hmmmm, I think we need Sheridan here because he is better than either Tate or Denard with respect to [fill in your own blank]"?
I can see the argument (though I disagree with it) about giving Sheridan game experience because of the risk of injury to Tate and Denard, but I cannot see an argument whereby Sheridan increases our chance of winning.
If I were one of the coaches, it seems like it would be worth my time to look it over; unless they have somebody on staff who puts out something similar, but even then it would probably still be worth a look. Perhaps I just exposed my ignorance about coaching?
I do not know how you did it last year. I could not even bring myself to read them; I cannot imagine having to do one for games like Toledo (for most of the games, actually).
I cannot believe anybody took it seriously. People who know about college football (e.g., the coaches) certainly didn't. Note how the commentary during the Western game was entirely favorable.
As Brian as observed, "mandatory" within the meaning of the rule essentially means "can lose your scholarship if you do not attend." I.e., it does not mean "will never see the field if you do not attend." This distinction is HUGE. Asking a kid how much mandatory time he spends on football without first explaining the distinction is prima facie evidence of either an agenda or incompetence.
The headline of the article, implying that the players understood the rules and concluded, based upon their first hand knowledge of what happened, that rules were broken is completely misleading. The headline should have read "Michigan broke rules, reporter concludes."
We have the last laugh -- these allegations will go nowhere and a year from now everybody at the Freep will be that much closer to unemployment. F--k them.
Because I cannot imagine why he would ever see the field again barring injuries to Forcier and Robinson. The only good thing about Sheridan playing against Western was the fact that it reminded us of how bad things were last year so we could feel even better about how good we were on Saturday (when Sheridan was not playing, that is).
Last year, it seemed like it took forever to get the play off after everybody was at the line. I remember thinking "this no huddle thing is really stupid -- it would be faster if they huddled and told everybody the play instead of standing at the line bumbledicking around for 15 seconds."
This year, they got to the line and a few seconds later the play went off. Much better.
I cried the week before my first wedding (the Colorado game). The marriage ended in divorce. She left in October, 2007; I was at the Rose Bowl January 1. Priceless!
Lesson learned -- next wedding during the off-season. Still married.
I cried the day my first son was born -- National Signing day, 2003. Hello Woodley!
I cried the day I heard "Hail to the Victors" on the baby monitor. Why I had kids.
GO BLUE!!!!
Hey, the season has not started so I can be as wildly optimistic as I want. Western's 10 points, by the way, come in the fourth quarter against our backups.
That had to be among the best, most thoughtful, highlight videos I have ever seen. The music and the switch from black and white to color were great. Right up there with the Rose Bowl preview video when Michigan played Texas. What a great blog!
On that video of RR giving people a tour of the new facilities, he mentioned how last year at this time only 1 guy on the team could do a certain lift (clean and jerk?) with 300 lbs whereas this year over 30 guys can do it. Hopefully, this will translate into superior play and fewer injuries.
Also, what if we are as lucky this year as we were unlucky last year? Every year there are usually 2-3 games that easily could have gone the other way. Most years, we win more than our fair share of those games. It is entirely possible, though not likely, that we could go 10-2 if we get a few breaks along the way. Of course, 4-8 is also a possibility if the breaks go the wrong way and we suffer some injuries given our scary lack of depth at almost every position.
Penn State and Ohio State are the only two teams on the schedule clearly better than us (assuming the rosy "we have really improved a lot and nobody gets injured" scenario). Both of these games are at home and there is no reason to think we do not have a chance in those games. Look what Ohio State did to us (at the Big House) in 2001.
Oh, the joys of the day before the first game where the world is full of happy possibilities.
All of the content the last couple of days is truly impressive. Simply outstanding! What a treat to have all this to read the day before our first game.
That does not mean that we are not justified in thinking "Oh God, please let this not be so bad." Kind of like we are justified in thinking "Oh God, please don't fumble" every time we see Odoms line up to receive a punt.
Is the fact that the lack of depth on offense does not look so bad given the even worse lack of depth on defense.
Any injury almost anywhere and we are in trouble.
Maybe the offense really can work with a slow runner who cannot pass for more than 10 yards? Sheridan actually looked okay at times when all he tried to do was complete the short pass (as long as receivers were open and no defensive rushers were anywhere in the backfield). Maybe Sheridan is now making perfect decisions and can now pass 15 yards down the field? And Forcier makes some bad decisions which means Sheridan is still in the mix?
Like I said before, this has to mean that Forcier is not nearly as good right now as I was hoping he would be. It will be interesting.
Death and two Freshmen -- sad, but true.
I also see some truth to the idea that RR has no choice given that Sheridan saw significant playing time last year and the other two are true freshman.
Still, I would be much happier if either Forcier or Robinson was named the starter immediately before game time with the idea that the other would see significant playing time if the situation warranted. The fact that Sheridan is in the mix means that neither Forcier nor Robinson are as good right now as I hoped. Sheridan could have the biggest off-season improvement in the history of college football and he would STILL be worse than I was hoping Forcier and Robinson would be right now.
***Seriously, in the words of the Wolf, "Let's not go sucking each other's dicks just yet."***
Of course, I cannot figure out how to do it, but the post gave me a big smile. Thanks.
Recent Comments
This is from memory, but I thought it came out after his weed bust that Cissoko was really 20 or 21 while in high school; i.e., everybody thought he had this really high ceiling, but the reality was he was just dominating because he was older than the competition. I also recollect that when he got caught with weed, he told the cops "I was not going to smoke it; I was just going to sell it to my friends." I.e., don't just charge me with possession, but possession with intent to distribute.
Good parenting by you. Very impressive video for any age.
Yes, we want Kansas to lose. I live in Dallas and in 2013 after we beat Kansas in the Sweet 16 I was able to get amazing seats for the Elite Eight (literally, the first row behind the media) for less than I paid to go to the finals in Atlanta for seats that were 20-30 rows back.
In addition to StubHub, look at Vivid Seats and SeatGeek. The fees and listings are similar (and I am pretty sure often overlap), but SeatGeek has a feature that gives you an idea of how good of a deal you are getting. I ended up buying my three tickets last night on StubHub just for the semis with the idea that I will wait and see whether it is worth the money to pay WAY more to get into lower seats for the finals (I am not even considering the possibility of a Michigan loss). There are so many rows in the bowl (A-Z, then AA-QQ, then 20-35 that paying 5x as much to be in the bowl did not seem worth it as compared to low rows up upper deck. I would recommend paying a bit extra to avoid the end zones as I sat there for prior Alamo Bowls and it was like watching from outer space and there was no way to know whether a play went for 1 or 10 yards (not as much of an issue in basketball).
For the finals, prices are lower, but this is in part because you are paying for one game instead of two. It also depends who ends up going. My theory is for prices we want (1) Nova, (2) Duke, (3) Kansas, and (4) Texas Tech, the theory being that lots of Tech fans will live within driving distance of San Antonio, Kansas is also close enough to drive and they travel well, and Duke will travel better than Nova.
I rated our chances as pretty slim even if Clemson or Washington lost. I was surprised to hear debate on Sports Center about Michigan after both won. It sucks, but we lost to Iowa. After the loss, I thought "no big deal; same as before, we beat Ohio State and we are in." After we lost to Ohio State, I realized "ooooooh, this is why losing to Iowa mattered." We lost. It mattered. Had we won, Ohio State would have beat Wisconsin (or not), and we would be in Ohio State's shoes -- the non-Big10 champion going to the dance. Oh well. Still a great year. In a year or two, we will not have these debates. We will be more dominant than Alabama.
1. Bama
2. Clemson
3. Penn State
4. Washington
Ohio State lost to the Big 10 Champion and was a two-point conversion (against a 3-9 team) and generous spot away from losing their last two games. Sending them instead of a conference champion ignores the reality that there is a significant risk of losing every game. A two loss Penn State who had to risk another loss that Ohio State did not -- who beat Ohio State and won the conference -- deserves to go.
In the visitors section -- scalped tickets. That is how I learned that the different color at the top of the ticket meant something. It was a long game . . .
We DESERVED to win this game, just as we deserved to win last year against MSU. But, we lost. Harbaugh has accomplished a great deal in two years. Just imagine what the future holds. Does anybody think Saban is a better coach than Harbaugh? I would put Meyer ahead of Saban and look what happened in only year two of the "__ year war." Give Harbaugh some time and Michigan will be dominating recruiting and W/Ls the way Alabama has been the last several years.
Speaking of selling your soul, can you imagine Harbaugh ever doing the equivalent of the black helmet thing? Ugh.
Plus, what a difference the bowl game can make. Last year would have looked and felt alot different had we not gone out and spanked Florida after getting spanked by tOSU. Let's hope we spank our opponent in the Orange Bowl (FSU?) and leave people wondering what might have been.
Forget it, he is on a roll.
Okay, I am happy and all about the kid, but it does dampen my enthusiasm just a bit to see that the homecoming queen is taller than our new CB.
***James Rogers was out for most of the PSU game in favor of Talbott so we may see our long-held dream finally come to fruition: a secondary made up of nothing but true freshmen without a fourth star to any of their names.***
This is truly scary.
Denard's passing was awesome. The only reason we are not talking about it is because his running was even more awesome. But he was throwing darts out there today. The kid is a true talent.
A bit OT here, but isn't that essentially what we have? Denard is the next Pat White and Gardner is the next Vince Young. The offense looked completely different today as compared to last year.
I am not saying Tate will not play in the NFL (though I would be surprised), but the fact that he essentially has been playing QB full time since high school (home schooling) translates into a lower ceiling. Yes, he will improve, but his ceiling should be lower than that of either Denard or Gardner.
dupe
Actually, Drieisbach lost his job to Griese (though Brady was there and thought he should have started). Dreisbach did handle it well, asking to play on special teams. I think I remember his getting applause for his last home game against Wisconsin when he was on for a kickoff. Also, though not drafted, he was on an NFL roster for a time, at which time there were six Michigan QBs in the NFL (Harbaugh, Brady, Griese, Grbac, Collins, and Dreisbach).
Some random memories:
1. First game at the Big House, in the rain as a 1st year law student in 1989, watching Michigan dominate Notre Dame and still lose because of two kick off returns for touchdowns by The Rocket. I learned to love Michigan and hate Notre Dame the same day.
2. Sitting down low in the corner of the end zone two years later in what turned out to be the perfect seat: I got to see Desmond Howard stretch out to catch the pass from Grbac. Sweet revenge.
3. Learning the hard way at the Florida State game that the visitor tickets one can buy from a scalper look different from the home tickets. Sitting in the middle of the FSU fans doing the annoying tomahawk chop as we lost by 20 points was no fun.
4. Seeing Desond Howard strike The Pose.
5. 1994 Colorado. Ugh! At least I was not there.
6. 1995 Virginia: Dreisbach to Mercury Hayes. This was back when they had the Pigskin and Kickoff classics the week before the season, so this was the only game that day and I spent the entire day VCRing every highlight I could find, and there were a bunch of them. Wish I could find that tape (but I could not play it even if I could -- who has a VCR any more?)
6. 1996 Northwestern. I flew from Dallas to Chicago to see a 4-0 Michigan team lose to Northwestern on a last second field goal, back before Northwestern got somewhat decent. Actually, we lost twice. The first kick barely made it, Northwestern got a penalty and had to kick again. They made it -- again.
7. 1997. Too many wonderful memories to list, but . . . Win against Notre Dame, comeback against Iowa, seeing Woodson in person return the punt for a touchdown at The Game (jumped so much my glasses flew forward about four rows); the Rose Bowl.
8. Brabbs making a long field goal after a gift 12 men on the field penalty and after he had missed an easy, short kick earlier the same game.
9. 2006, right before the Ohio State game. Oh, life was so good.
10. Beating Florida for Lloyd's last game. Other than that, not a whole lot of fun since The Game in 2006. Hopefully, things turn around.
GO BLUE!!!
In three weeks, I will fly from Dallas to take my 7 year old son to see his first Michigan game. We will meet my friend from Chicago and his 7 year old son who will be attending his first Michigan game as well, the same friend who was with me at the 1998 Rose Bowl. I hope our sons remember their first Michigan game the way you remember yours.
GO BLUE!