This may be a dumb question, but why is height such an important attribute for a SAM? I get that strength is big because a SAM needs to keep contain and take on blockers. If Wangler adds 20 lbs., he would be within 5 lbs of Jake Ryan on a shorter frame so he could actually be stronger than Ryan. If it's a matter of reach to help keep blockers away from the SAM's pads, then why not describe it in terms of reach? What is is about height?
I grew up not too far from Blue Earth, Minnesota and Blue Earth was in the same sports conference as my high school. It is not a big place, but it also happens to be the hometown of two Division I wrestlers, Ty and Luke Eustice, who were both All Americans at Iowa.
If ND had won yesterday, would it then be legitimate for M fans to say that ND dodged a bullet because our best corner dislocated his ankle before the season or our starting safety/LB hybrid got hurt last week or the referees missed the fact that your receiver did not possess the ball when he crossed the goal line on one of your touchdowns? There are a lot of what-ifs that we can point to as well.
I think we are 1 win away from a 5-0 start. If we beat ND on Saturday and then take care of business the next three weeks, I think we should beat MSU, but I don't think it's a gimme. With respect to the question posed by the OP, I think we need it more.
I hate the Buckeyes as much as the next guy, but when a reasonable fan comes on here and posts reasonable comments--I don't get it. He even went so far as to say that you could put up to three others in front of Pryor.
Interesting that one of the photos had Huyge lined up at LT. I obviously want the best guy at the position to protect our QB's blind side, but I was hoping that Lewan would seize that position and never let it go. Not that one photo from the first day in full pads means much.
I'm not sure why you are getting negged for that comment, but the "these kids" reference makes you sound like an "old" guy with unwanted kids on your porch--which I guess could make you a contemporary of mine.
Brian's reference to a Malcolm Gladwell essay turned me on to Gladwell. I've since read Outliers and could not put it down.
Another Doris Kearns Goodwin book that is excellent: No Ordinary Time, which is part biography, part history of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Another book in the same vein of being part history, part biography is Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters: America in the King Years. It's the first of a trilogy--I have not read the others, but that read like a novel.
Fiction-wise, I love anything by John Irving or Richard Russo. I recently finished E.L. Doctorow's Homer and Langely and wanted to kill myself after finishing it.
It also had the "God damn plane has crashed into the mountain" (a Big Lebowski reference and appropriate for last year's football season) for quite a while.
Of the Parker/Dorsey/Knight trio, would the decision of one affect the others? It seems like they all would play strong safety (i.e., the deep safety in GERG's defense).
Magnus -- do you think that it is a foregone conclusion that Woolfolk will play safety? If we have a viable option at strong safety, doesn't Warren's departure make Woolfolk playing corner a little more likely? I guess it boils down to whether the coaches will be more comfortable starting a true freshman (or freshmen) at corner or safety. Of all the new guys coming or potentially coming, who do you think are the most ready to see the field?
I was thinking that exact same thing--Harbaugh vs Kiffin will be high drama. They both have big egos and big mouths (but Kiffin seems like an idiot to boot).
Yes, the parties both acknowledge what led to Leach's firing, but the two sides do not agree that the conduct was "mistreatment." It's fine for ESPN to report that Texas Tech deemed the conduct to be mistreatment, but the way they reported it also implies that ESPN concluded that the conduct was mistreatment. That's where I think they went too far.
I agree that "mistreatment" is the stated reason for the firing, but wouldn't it be more consistent with journalistic principles for a news organization to refer to it as "alleged mistreatment"? In that way, ESPN would accurately report the stated reason for the firing without implying that they have drawn a conclusion one way or another about the allegation of mistreatment.
I like Soldier Field as an option. It's more centrally located than Lambeau and would be easier for out-of-staters to get too. Plus, I think Chicago would be a more appealing destination in general.
I agree that it is rare for a back-up to make an impact, especially at quarterback. Apart from Cassel, Brad Johnson (who was Casey Weldon's backup at FSU) is the only other one I can think of.
I have no idea even where he was taking classes, but I don't think that he could lift with Barwis yet. My guess is that whatever school where he has been taking classes would have a weight room where he could lift.
The other thing that I've been wondering about Witty is how the year away from football will affect him. I guess it should have given him a chance to fully recover from his injury and spend time in the weight room, but he hasn't been able to practice football for a long time.
Thanks, Magnus. I would love to see Barnum and the other young guys really push for playing time and give us more depth and competition at those spots. I'm hopeful that we will see significantly improved O-line play over the next year or two.
Magnus -- I'm curious why you think that Huyge will not be a starter next season. Given that Omameh won the RG spot at the end of the season and Huyge and Dorrestein were then battling for the RT spot, it does seem like the coaches were looking for something more from him, but it still surprised me a bit to see you elevate Barnum (who I don't think saw any first-string snaps last season) above him.
If you don't like Brian's "desperate rants," why don't you just go away? No one will miss you, and the average IQ of the posters on this board will surely go up.
Schism and dissent plagues the program top to bottom, and you, as a fan, have a choice. You can loudly voice your anger at the program, you can disconnect and give up and regard Rich Rodriguez as an interloper and regard the players as weak or lazy or whatever. No one will remember this if and when the program turns around. You'll switch hats and no one will know. Except you.
My advice: do the things now that will allow you to fully bask in the glow of victory later. Let's say Mike Rosenberg was actually a big Michigan fan. Now he's spent a full year publicly hating Rich Rodriguez, and anything positive Rodriguez does will be poisoned to him. He'll be rooting for him to fail a little bit so he can be right.
Being right isn't that great. My brother and I spent a large portion of the 2005 Penn State game—the New Math game—making sarcastic comments to each other about the state of the team and the game. As it turns out, we were basically right about the team. But as we were jumping up and down at the end of the game someone who had clearly been annoyed by us earlier turned around and said something like "what can you say now, jerks?"
He was 100% right, and I was shamed, and it took something away from that moment. That moment does not come along except once in a very long while, and what a shame to have done something to spoil it.
I don't have enough points to start my own topic, so I'm bumping this to discuss Molk's return. Specificially, I wanted to hear people's thoughts on the timeframe of Molk's return in light of the statement that "Molk probably won't be back for another few weeks" that appeared in Angelique's notebook article on Wednesday (it's the first link under mgo.licio.us or can be found here: http://www.detnews.com/article/20091014/SPORTS0201/910140338/1131/SPORT…)
I think a lot of people like SwordDancer (and me) were cautiously optimistic that Molk would be back for Penn State, but a few more weeks would keep him out until Purdue. It surprises me that something as significant as as update on the status of Molk's return hasn't been discussed more, and perhaps I missed it, and forgive me if I did, but I couldn't find it.
I don't think that he wants to install a run-based spread to the detriment of the passing game. I think that, as he has said many times, that he wants "at least two guys that he can win with." I thought that I read somewhere that if anyone wants a run-based spread, that it was Magee.
The Twin Cities are not far at all from Northfield. But you should check out the Goodbye Blue Monday coffee house when you are in Northfield. It's a great little independent coffee house owned by a husband and wife--I used to work with the wife.
It's surprising that with Moosman's injury, Dorrestein was not mentioned in the mix among Barnum, Mealer, Ferrara, and Omameh to play. On Saturday, it looked like Huyge slid over to right guard and Dorrestein came in at right tackle. I did not see any of the other guys get snaps.
[Edit: I posted this before I saw jamiemac's post. I have the same question.]
Anyone know why these are no longer available? Was there an intellectual property issue? I was waiting for the completion of the MGoShirt contest and was going to order a Barwis' Gym shirt, an In Rod We Trust shirt, and the MGoShirt winner.
Recent Comments
Very helpful.
This may be a dumb question, but why is height such an important attribute for a SAM? I get that strength is big because a SAM needs to keep contain and take on blockers. If Wangler adds 20 lbs., he would be within 5 lbs of Jake Ryan on a shorter frame so he could actually be stronger than Ryan. If it's a matter of reach to help keep blockers away from the SAM's pads, then why not describe it in terms of reach? What is is about height?
The correct expression is "tough ROW to hoe." All roads would be tough to hoe.
I grew up not too far from Blue Earth, Minnesota and Blue Earth was in the same sports conference as my high school. It is not a big place, but it also happens to be the hometown of two Division I wrestlers, Ty and Luke Eustice, who were both All Americans at Iowa.
If ND had won yesterday, would it then be legitimate for M fans to say that ND dodged a bullet because our best corner dislocated his ankle before the season or our starting safety/LB hybrid got hurt last week or the referees missed the fact that your receiver did not possess the ball when he crossed the goal line on one of your touchdowns? There are a lot of what-ifs that we can point to as well.
I think we are 1 win away from a 5-0 start. If we beat ND on Saturday and then take care of business the next three weeks, I think we should beat MSU, but I don't think it's a gimme. With respect to the question posed by the OP, I think we need it more.
I hate the Buckeyes as much as the next guy, but when a reasonable fan comes on here and posts reasonable comments--I don't get it. He even went so far as to say that you could put up to three others in front of Pryor.
Interesting that one of the photos had Huyge lined up at LT. I obviously want the best guy at the position to protect our QB's blind side, but I was hoping that Lewan would seize that position and never let it go. Not that one photo from the first day in full pads means much.
Which Robinson was Woolfolk referring to there? Jerald? Denard?
There's been a lot of speculation that he will play one of the two box safety positions: spur or bandit.