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Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in
mgoblog - i'm an actor, not a reactor's InsaneJournal:
- “Grindin’”—Clipse
- “Boss Life (ft. Nate Dogg)”—Snoop Dogg
- “Across 110th Street”
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
- Its All Over (But the Crying) Lee Fields
- Vertigo The Libertines
- Across 110th Street
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
- The Ace of SportsHis name was Ace (actually Harry), and he liked M and Detroit sports. Get it?
- Autumn ThunderThe half-assed Michigan blog. MS Paint, Hart, and more Hart. Still occasionally useful, though some of his best work has grown outdated.
- Bitter RivalsShort-lived M v MSU site, beat Mike Hart to the fraternal metaphor.
- Blah Blah Blah2008 was not the year to start blogging about Michigan.
- HokeamaniacThat didnt last.
- In Rod We TrustThat didnt last either.
- Maize WingsVery late to the very late-00s blogging party
- MGoBlue Football
- MGoSwim
- Michigan Football RecruitingGuy I grew up with made a crootin site.
- Michigan Football SaturdaysDedicated blogger in the era of everyone had a blog
- Michigan Hockey NetCovered M hockey, Red Wings
- MMMGoBlueBBQJoe Pichey wrote for himself before he wrote for us.
- Stadium & Main
- The DiagMLive tried to have a blog
- The GameCant think why a M fan wouldnt want to post daily about the M-OSU rivalry anymore.
- The M ZoneHumor site, now a worthy follow.
- The Michigan Faithful
- The Wolverine Blog
- Three And Out
- UMGoBlogAnnoyingly, would get our traffic. Annoyingly, UMGoBlue.com took his twitter handle.
- Victors ValiantHad useful previews.
- When Carcajous Attack!Used to have some great previews, joined Maize n Brew for a time.
- Wolverine Liberation ArmyOnly the unicorns remain of the once proud proletariat
- Wolverines Daily
- Feelin Frisky Syl Johnson
- Across 110th Street
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
| Monday, June 4th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3:22 pm | Michigan All-Extracurriculars Team [Site notice: comments on this postand anything else you write on the site todaywill probably disappear as we do a thing related to the thing weve been saying is going to happen soon because that thing is happening]
I couldnt find the version where hes drumming You know those make your all-time lists that circulate in the offseason. That inspired me to make some themed versions, sort of like how Ace made his all-Beilein teams last year. Previously: The 5-stars. This week: Extracurricular Entertainment! ---------------------------------- Rule: This team is for those who made their contributions off the field. I dont mean being a quiet model citizen; I mean doing things that we found entertaining, insane, or otherwise meme-worthy. Cutoff Point: Had to exist in the Michigan consciousness during the Time of Blog (2005-present) ---------------------------------- Quarterback: David ConePlease still exist please still exist please still exist DAMMIT.
Why you gotta use MySpace, Notorious C.O.N.E.? Since stone age social media no longer hosts, youll have to settle for our memories of former WR Toney Clemons filmed roommate/former QB David Cone in their apartment laying some sick rhymes (free mgoshirt to whoever can track down a copy of the album for us).
Mr. Dave Fortunately MVictors still has the audio, if the vid is gone for all time. But that video was so good. Honorable Mention: Denard. How do you separate Brians kids name, Shoelace, the smile, Whaaaaat?!?, the cover of the last NCAA edition for a decade, and a crumpled up mailbox from the actual dilithium? You cant, and the purpose of this list is to honor the Coners because these lists otherwise exist just for an excuse to put Denard at QB when you wouldnt otherwise. [after THE JUMP: bang bang] Running Back: Vincent Smith, Kurt Taylor, Sam McGuffie
Vincent Smith is a super good dude with a super good charity who plays NCAA with us and did we mention Pahokee and fingergun MIKE-ing? Sam McGuffie was the most interesting croot of all time for his backflips, and is now an Olympic bobsledder. Kurt Taylor was originally just a placeholder on this list, but managed to hang on. Honorable mention: Drake Johnson. As one reader put it, he was so starstruck when we heard a Michigan player had been run over by a forklift we knew which player it was. FB: Wyatt Shallman, Henry Poggi, Khalid Hill, Sione Houma
[Patrick Barron] Four fullbacks is very on brand these days, and anyway how do you choose just one of these animals? I mean people wore panda masks to Michigan games to watch We had multiple podcast/radio episodes with ukeleles because of the Tongan Terror. Wyatt Shallman had a wallaby, then when that landed him in trouble with PETA he acquired a ferret he let us name. His tags are&
Then theres Poggi:
&who also brought his dad. Honorable Mention: Michael Hirsch graduated from Harvard despite a life-threatening medical issue then chose Michigan over offers from all of Wall Street (who pays their players Im told). Tight End: Carson Butler
weirdest GIS ever Those of you not around for the blogs early days missed out on the first real character. Nicknamed Manbearpig once, allegedly, Carson Butler is best known for irritating the hell out of Lloyd Carr and for instigating the St. Patricks Day Nerd Massacre. Also his high school coach blamed all of this on Rich Rod. Wide Receiver: Jeremy Gallon, Tae Odoms, Amara Darboh, Jerald Robinson
Are you for real, Indianas secondary? Taking four receiver is also #onbrand. Jeremy Gallon impressed us by looking like Snoop from The Wire and on-field Inspector Gadgetry. Martavious Odoms was the original jet smurf and created #EATING with Vincent. Darboh was a walking Tom Rinaldi feature that never happened even when Amara got his American citizenship while at Michigan. Jerald Robinson got the most understandable ticket in Ann Arbor history by running over a parking garage gate. HM: Jehu Chesson (seriously, Rinaldi, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?) and because he ran track and participated in an MGoBlog event once. Dr. Carl Tabb mostly for being a competent on the field when Braylon/Avant/Breaston went down for a spell, and for not wasting those doctor hands on blocking. Offensive Line: Molk, Ortmann, Huyge, Wermers, Spanellis
David Molk is one of our all-time favorite players on the field, but if you thought he was deft at slipping then pinning tackles, its only because you never saw him reach block an interviewer. Also hes possibly the guy behind an anonymous book that trashed the NFL, which if thats true: *Swoooon*. Mark Ortmann makes the list for one event only: punching Corey Liugit in the dong. Not only did it spark a durable MGo-meme, he got away with it! Mark Huyge should have been bounced because this is really an on-field thing, but dude is unkillable. Also he majored in naval architecture and marine engineering and is now a researcher at Michigan helping to design bespoke battleships. Kurt Wermers is of the more notorious variety: he managed to fail out at Michigan because he was playing World of Warcraft instead of going to class, and before everyone found this out he tried to blame his departure on the lack of family values among Rich Rods recruits. Grant Newsome is an outspoken advocate for paying players, could kick your ass with a hole in his leg, and will be president some day. HM: Stephen Spanellis for being good at twitter. Defensive Tackle: Will Campbell, Marques Slocum
Is BWC on here just for trying to Dukes of Hazzard a car? Yes, that would have been sufficient. No, it wasnt the end. Theres also his legendary recruitment, which spanned a coaching change, beat the MCU to an adaptation of Thor by several years, included this photo, caused a massive decommit-before-signing-day freakout, and ended with the gif above. Slocum is best known for a Facebook quiz:
He was also quite the character IRL. Via Ace:
Honorable Mention: Bryan Mone for being the other TONGAN TERROR, Will Heininger namesake of the Heininger Certainty Principle. Defensive End: Craig Roh, Chase Winovich
Brian wants Craig Roh to be included because he was in his wifes class and would run stairs if he got there early. Whats of more of interest to the rest of us are the eyebrows, and that our message board wore bracelets asking What Would Craig Rohs Dad Do? His low pad level made him the original crab people. There was also that time Roh had to tell Greg Robinson Im not a linebacker, put me back on the line! which was ballsy and correct and did us a favor by highlighting GERGs incompetence at the 3-3-5. And then theres Chase. Chase who dyes his Honorable Mention: Mario Ojemudia Death Stare" Linebacker: Kenny Demens, Mike Jones, Antonio Kinard
From left: Demens, Roh If Craig Roh is the Nakia* of the GERG-era, Demens is the noble Okoye, remaining faithful despite being sidelined for the far less effective Obi Ezeh, and lining up a foot from the line of scrimmage like he was told to, and taking stuffed beavers in the face, because beavers are the hardest-working animals in the animal kingdom, and he was told to.
this was Michigans defense at the start of this decade By many accounts one of the nicest dudes to come through Michigan, you have to credit a man who put up with coaching malpractice so bad that internet people can point it out without complaint. But everyone has his limits and Demens broke bad exactly once, calling his own blitz on the two-point try in overtime of the ridiculous 2010 Illinois game to end that thing. Antonio Kinard is the other side of the interesting coin for having an outsized impact on Michigan coverage despite being so unlikely to enroll Brian never bothered with a recruiting profile for him. Hes also uncle to Fitz Toussaints kid. After not qualifying at Michigan this 2010 recruit took a prep year, failed to qualify at Miami (YTM), went to a JuCo in Arizona, and wound up at Cincinnati with enough eligibility that Michigan only missed playing against him by a year. Im forgetting someone. Oh well. Honorable Mention: Clint Copenhaver, for being the reason we have Keith Jackson saying "Clint Copenhaver" -------------------------- * [The character in the film version of Black Panther. Im not getting into Malice, comic book nerds] Safety: Troy Woolfolk, Delano Hill
Troy Wilforck? Tloy Wolfork? Truy Wurflurk? Truy&Tron&Trig? Wolfpoirrk. Nailed it. Despite being the son of a former star running back at Michigan, and THE most important player on the defensive roster for his ability to play anywhere in the secondary for a secondary is disastrous shape, nobody on TV, nor an NFL draft room, and few in the print media could spell or pronounce his name correctly. Despite such precautions, Angry Michigan Safety-Hating God found him anyway right before that crucial 2010 season:
(Midnight Maize) In 2011 Woolfolk was so beat up and Thomas Gordon was capable enough that Woolfolk barely played. To their credit, the fan community didnt even try with the name simply going with T-Wolf. Delano Hill arrived at Michigan looking upwards of 40 years old. I told you, stretching for safeties is going to be a running theme for this series. Honorable Mention: Jordan Kovacs for lending his namesake to the Blessed Order of St. Kovacs, Carvin Johnson for his player of the year trophy expression.) Cornerback: DELONTE HOLLOWELL, Adrian Witty, Ross Taylor-Douglas
Taylor-Douglas winding up as a Rutgers linebacker was narratively convenient for multiple reasons [Patrick Barron] Who tweets ridiculous things in all-caps? DELONTE HOLLOWELL, by far the most interesting of the Cass Tech mites to grace some forgettable backfields. Adrian Wittys nickname around these parts is Heroin-laced carrot for being the friend of Denard we recruited to recruit DenardWitty neednt have even enrolled after such an accomplishment to win our hearts, and indeed he did not enroll. Ross Taylor-Douglas was murder on those of us who try to keep rosters, changing names and positions on a bi-weekly basis. Too small for the kind of cornerbacks Michigan wanted on the field, RB/WR/CB Taylor-Douglas transferred to Rutgers and became a linebackernot a good one, but not as bad as their other two. And even played against Michigan. Kickers & Punters: Quinn Nordin, Phil Brabbs, Zoltan Mesko
[Barron] Kicker: Quinn Nordin committed to Penn State by getting on a private jet and making everyone wait on the tarmac to see where he landed. That should have been reason enough for the obvious follow-up question when Harbaugh slept over at Nordins house to be which wing of it? Providing mouth fodder for idiots to let you know you dont need to listen to their sporps opinions is cool. So is a Wild Thing haircut, sneezing at the camera, and doing this during warmups:
Also this team has a kickoff specialist because we couldnt leave off the inspiring Phil Brabbs, who was also the subject of a Heisman campaign those of us who did homework in the fishbowl tried to start circa 2002. At punter is Zoltan the Inconceivable, punter of Saturn, Space Emperor (of Space), which t-shirt was my first from the MGoStore. Having a silly name and being a business major and having a family that Brian ran into on the way into the game arent in and of themselves that remarkable, but the thing about Zoltan is he made everything he did remarkable. Also another good M charity by the way. Return Specialist: Dennis NorfleetAnd finally, we are not Al Borges, so we of course could not forget about the glorious little ninja who never got his return touchdown and rarely got to play slot, and wound up a bad cornerback before leaving for apparent academic reasons. Norfleet became an MGo-obsession when we began Signing Day 2012 by talking over gchat about how we wish Michigan would offer him if they whiffed on enough guys. Michigan ended up whiffing on enough guys to grab Willie Henry and still get Norfleet. Even as we lobbied for Norfleet to be involved in the offense to no avail, we were delighted by his impromptu dancing before returns, even after Dave Brandon coopted the thing for #entertainment because even then there was room to add bread.
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| Friday, June 1st, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:11 pm | Reports: John Beilein Interviewed For Pistons Job
A Wojbomb has struck Ann Arbor:
Wojnarowski's report was corroborated by the Freep's Pistons beat writer, Vincent Ellis, who added some detail:
Woj mentioned a couple other candidates in a quick article posted shortly after the news broke:
I won't lie: this isn't the news I wanted to hear, especially since The Athletic's Brendan Quinn tweeted that "a number of people extremely close to Beilein" were not aware this meeting occurred. Beilein, notably, acts as his own agent. The Pistons are owned by Tom Gores, noted Spartan who's done a not-so-great job of running the franchise since buying it from the family of noted Wolverine William Davidson. That said, there's plenty of reason to believe this will end in a nice raise from Michigan for Beilein—and quite possibly his entire staff—when the dust settles. The Pistons are looking at a number of candidates, including one with NBA head coaching experience in Dwane Casey, and a few other names (like TNT's Kenny Smith) have popped up without anything seeming to come of it. Meanwhile, Beilein has three years left on a deal that pays him $3.37MM annually, second in the Big Ten only to Tom Izzo—but the gap to MSU's coach, who makes $4.4MM a year, is sizable. An extension is being discussed, and athletic director Warde Manuel has made it clear he wants Beilein around for a long time. Beilein is in a strong negotiating position; he's coming off his second national title appearance in six years, the men's basketball program has been easily the most consistently good of the major sports during his tenure, and the money for his assistants doesn't stack up to M's Big Ten competition:
Manuel passed his first major test at Michigan with flying colors when he hired Mel Pearson to replace Red Berenson, a move that's brought an immediate turnaround for hockey. This may be the one he's ultimately judged on, however. For everyone's sake, let's hope this moves quickly and results in Michigan firing the money cannon. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7:03 pm | Michigan All-Blank Teams: The Blue Chips
But which position is he on? [Patrick Barron] Heres some very important #content for #content week as our focus remains on pushing out two very important projects. MGoBlog photographer Eric Upchurch last night tweeted one of those make your all-time lists that generate the same answers (our board is up to that now). I thought Id up the difficulty/interest by theming them, sort of like how Ace made his all-Beilein teams last year. First: the 5-stars. ---------------------------------- Rule: Has to be over 4.5 stars on my database and a five-star to someone. Cut-off: Had to commit (or transfer) to Michigan after 1989. If you want all-Bo teams talk to Dr. Sap, and anything earlier go to MVictors, because Im not old enough to have strong opinions on anyone before the mid-1990s. Also my recruiting database only goes back to 1990 (yes, millennials, crootin existed before the Rivals database). ---------------------------------- Quarterback: Chad Henne
No this entire post wont be me posting gifs and slapping some words on it; I just wanted to try it once. Four-year starter, his healthy junior season was the best by a Michigan quarterback under Lloyd Carr despite being up against a parade of NFL draft picks. Drew Henson at his best was the best, but as the owner of a Henson jersey I can vouch it was Henne who really rescued the value of that purchase. Speaking of that parade, partly because the position gets ranked higher, Michigan has brought in a LOT of five-star quarterbacks. Brandon Peters didnt get anyones 5th star but was a 4.60 for reference. Other candidates: Shea Patterson, Shane Morris, Devin Gardner, Ryan Mallett, Clayton Richard, Matt Gutierrez, Drew Henson, Jason Kapsner Running Back: Tyrone Wheatley, Anthony ThomasThe first time I learned that Michigan had to convince high-schoolers to play for themrather than, I dunno, springing from midfield or somethingwas a Free Press article about Wheatley being the most perfect human-football specimen ever produced in the state. Wheatley is the but& response to are our 5-star running backs cursed? You youngsters probably dont know what it feels like to have this massive pair of shoulder pads gliding away from smurfs (and Nits). To this day his signature shoulder-dip is my go-to move when trying to dodge a person in an enclosed space. If you do have a frame of reference, its probably because A-Train was a near carbon copy of #6. Thomas didnt have much of a pro career but he was a great college player, fast enough to return kicks and one of the best pass blocking RBs of the modern era. And he always. Fell. Forward. Other candidates: Kareem Walker, Ty Isaac, Derrick Green, Kevin Grady, Kelly Baraka, Justin Fargas, (okay okay were cursed!), Ricky Powers. [After the JUMP: This all could have been (was) a Tweet. Happy June] Fullback: Chris FloydYes back in the day fullbacks got five stars. Other candidates: Demetrius Smith, J.J. Brown Tight End: Jerame Tuman, Devin Asiasi :(Sorry. Maybe youll understand if I show you what the pool was? Other candidate: Tim Massaquoi (was a WR) Wide Receiver: Amani Toomer, David Terrell, Marquise WalkerNo YOU pick just two of them (Mario barely missed a 5th star else its four). Toomer was the possession receiver-plus we dont use enough for YMRMFSPA comparisons because Avant and Hemingway are more our era. Also Toomer could also just blow by a guy. Please note in the video above how the Michigan fans would get really loud when the usual handoff suddenly became a play-action and our eyes shifted downfield to find 18 going deep. THROW THE BALL MORE! Then theres my classmates, Terrell and Walker. Terrell blossomed first, abusing the tiny corners of Alabama once Michigan realized theyre allowed to exploit that. Walker hung around after the party and was basically Michigans offense in 2001. Other candidates: DPJ, Drake Harris, Darryl Stonum, Antonio Bass :(, Tyrone Butterfield, Seth Smith, Mercury Hayes Offensive Line: Jeff Backus, Damon Denson, Rod Payne, Maurice Williams, Trezelle Jenkins
Two more All-Americas to go, Cesar. [UM Bentley Library] Weighted towards OTs (for good reason) so you can choose which right tackle slides inside. While Michigans hit rate on straight 4-stars is pretty low on the OL, the five-stars usually floored at decent and most were longtime starters. Denson and Maurice Williams both came in as defensive linemen (so did Hutchinson but he wasnt as highly recruited). Trezelle (Superprep #1 offensive lineman of 1991) is the 77 everyone forgets (even if they include Tony Pape) for some reason even though he started 28 games. Payne will make it tough for Ruiz to eventually crack this lineup. Others: Cesar Ruiz, Patrick Kugler, Justin Boren, Jason Brooks, Ben Bredeson, Kyle Bosch, Kyle Kalis, Stephen Schilling, Todd Mossa, Dann O'Neill, Tony Pape Defensive Tackle: Will Carr, Jason Hornremember when two five-stars shut down the double-Heisman walk-on? You guys all underrate Gabe Watson but I thought it was close because Watson was really good. Horn maybe gets knocked down in the Michigan memory banks because he was starting as an underclassman on teams with better players around him, and was a very good upperclassman on teams with severe linebacker problems behind him. I remember him from when I was first starting to pay attention to more than quarterbacks and running backs, and #94 was this neck roll with legs constantly jumping on the back of some poor penned in soul (or spooking Stanley Jackson into another interception). Will Carr was Greg Mattisons other DT of that era, and was an All-American his senior year in part thanks to Horn requiring a lot of attention, and in part thanks to that massive ass. Watch the other side of the Biakabutuka game sometime. Thats good enough for a surprisingly short list given how well Michigans developed DTs over the decades. Aubrey could supplant him. Others: Aubrey Solomon, Ondre Pipkins, Marques Slocum, Walter Reggans Defensive End: Brandon Graham, Rashan GaryWe could argue about including Rashan Gary over LaMarr Woodley here, or we can punt Woodley to the next section and watch BG highlights outside of the context we originally had to. Others: Vilain, Roh, Jamison, Pat Massey, Juaquin Feazell, Rasheed Simmons, David Bowens Linebacker: LaMarr Woodley, Victor Hobson, Prescott Burgess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, May 31st, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:42 pm | Hello: Zach Carpenter
Now this is how an offensive lineman commits. Late last evening, at the tail end of a rare busy May news day, three-star Cincinnati (OH) Archbishop Moeller OG Zach Carpenter announced an out-of-nowhere commitment—even Sam Webb was caught off guard—with one word and a hashtag:
You'd be excused for not having Carpenter at the forefront of your mind. His rankings range from middling to high three-star, he didn't add his Michigan offer until last month, and his recent campus visit was overshadowed by higher-profile visitors and a few subsequent commitments, including two on the offensive line. Michigan's coaches, especially primary recruiter Al Washington and O-line coach Ed Warinner, turned up the heat in recent weeks, however, as it appeared Carpenter was destined for a Clemson commitment. The Wolverines liked what they saw enough to make a strong push, per Sam:
At 6'4", 310 or so, Carpenter joins four-star Nolan Rumler among interior-only commits; the other three linemen in the class—four-star Trente Jones, three-star Karsen Barnhart, and three-star Jack Stewart—could all play tackle or guard, with Jones looking the most likely to be a pure tackle. As Sam noted in the post above, Michigan will continue to pursue another tackle in the class. Meanwhile, if you're wondering how the Amazon series would impact recruiting, here's a data point from after his visit, via Steve Lorenz:
That feeling stuck, evidently. Carpenter is the 11th commit in the 2019 class, which sits fifth nationally and first in the Big Ten in the composite rankings. GURU RATINGS
Hey, ESPN scouted a guy! Who's not in their top 300, even! Anyway, Carpenter is either a high three-star—the top three-star guard on Rivals, four position spots away on 247—or a meh three-star (ESPN). ESPN should be taken with at least some seriousness here since they actually got eyes on the guy. That said, the other sites and Carpenter's offer list—plus Michigan's obvious desire to beat Clemson to the punch—are good indicators that he'll at least wind up on that 3/4-star borderline by the end of the cycle. He certainly has the size for the interior. Carpenter is listed at either 6'4" or 6'5" (I'd guess the shorter end is more accurate) and somewhere between 290 and 325 pounds. While he plays tackle in high school, he projects as a people-moving guard or center. [Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.] SCOUTING Michigan's staff had quite a bit of familiarty with Carpenter before they were actually Michigan's staff: Warinner offered him while he was coaching for Minnesota, and Washington recruited him when he was at Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Carpenter has a good offer sheet and plays at one of the most prominent programs in a big-time football state, where he's on track to be a four-year starter. He's already earned first-team Division I all-state honors, among several others. There's very little actual scouting out there on him, oddly. Until today, we mostly just had a skimpy ESPN underclassman evaluation:
This was the only other thing that qualified in the non-coach-quote category that I could find, from BuckeyeGrove's Marc Givler:
247's Steve Wiltfong collected the requisite coach quotes yesterday, and they're good ones. Former head coach John Rodenberg, who named Carpenter the first junior captain in Moeller history before stepping down after last season:
Michigan hopes that last bit won't be necessary despite Carpenter's apparent physical readiness. We finally got some real detail today from 247's Ohio guru, Bill Greene, who did a full breakdown in which he said Carpenter reminded him of a couple middlingly ranked interior linemen who ended up thriving under Warinner's tutelage: Pat Elflein and Billy Price. Here's a chunk from the positive side of the outlook:
Greene noted that Carpenter likely needs conditioning work to reshape his body a bit and shed some bad weight. Even when noting Carpenter's potential shortcomings in pass protection, stemming mostly from a lack of quickness, Greene qualifies by saying he believes Warinner can coach him up to be ready to play in his second or third year on campus. OFFERS Carpenter held offers Arkansas, Cincinnati, Clemson, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, USF, Vanderbilt, Virginia, West Virginia, and UCLA, among a couple others. Notably absent from that list is Ohio State, which gave Carpenter some looks but prioritized other linemen and didn't offer before Carpenter was ready to make a commitment. He's unlikely to forget that, especially with Warinner in his ear. HIGH SCHOOL While Archbishop Moeller hasn't won as much as they're used to of late after back-to-back state titles in 2012-13, which led to their coach stepping down, it's still one of the big-name programs in Ohio and a regular producer of talent. Four-star DT Aeneas Hawkins signed with Penn State in the 2018 class. The school produced four-star tight ends each of the previous two years in 2016 OSU signee Jake Hausmann and 2017 MSU signee Matt Dotson. Other notables include former OSU DE Sam Hubbard, former MSU LB Shane Jones, former MSU DE Marcus Rush, and former MSU LB Greg Jones. The Spartans have done very well with the Moeller prospects the Buckeyes left behind; Michigan taking some instead would be a nice change of course. STATS OL, no stats. FAKE 40 TIME None listed—I don't think Carpenter has done many camps. The impressive 400+ pound bench press and 600-pound squat, if true, are much more relevant to his position anyway. VIDEO Junior highlights: Sophomore highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page. PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE Carpenter will almost certainly get a redshirt year. When he arrives on campus, the presumed starting duo of Ben Bredeson and Mike Onwenu will be seniors, Onwenu challenger Stephen Spanellis a redshirt junior, and Joel Honigford and Chuck Filiaga will be in their third years on campus. Cesar Ruiz is locked in at center until he departs, meanwhile, and Phil Paea is reportedly working there too. Spots on the two-deep really start to open up the following year, however, and there could be even more opportunity for Carpenter if Ruiz ends up as an early NFL entry candidate. As Greene noted, Warinner has done a lot with interior linemen of Carpenter's size, style, and caliber. UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS Michigan is up to 11 commits in the class and five on the offensive line. That's quite an OL class already, but as Sam mentioned, the light OL class last year and the team's general desire for more tackles means they'll go for a sixth lineman, almost certainly a pure OT. Four-star RI OT Xavier Truss, four-star IL OT Trevor Keegan, four-star FL OT William Harrod appear the three most likely candidates, with Keegan and Harrod looking like better bets at the moment than Truss. Here's the class as it currently stands: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:08 pm | Not Just a Shooter 1.6: Bryan Colangelos Burner Podcast 57 minutes
Hail Our Sponsor!It’s Gordon Fall! That is, New York Life Insurance Agent Gordon Fall. Gordon provides holistic life insurance policies for individuals with long-term goals and short-term financial situations. He’s been building his client roster with fellow lifelong Michigan obsessives, so if you’re starting out in your career, growing your family, or beginning to think about retirement, contact Gordon and get that conversation going! Call 248-885-1630, DM him @GordonFallNYL, or visit gordonfall.com --------------------------------- EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS RECAPstarts at 1:00 LeBron is very good. The rest of the Cavs aren’t, especially when Kevin Love is concussed, but that didn’t quite make the difference against a Boston team that would’ve won this series handily if they had their two best players. Alas. EAST POSTMORTEMS AND OH MY LORD WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRYAN COLANGELOstarts at 10:53 Did we talk about the Bryan Colangelo burner account mess for longer than we previewed the NBA Finals last episode? Maybe. Before that, we discuss Boston’s very bright future and give the Raptors all the time they deserve. MICHIGAN BASKETBALL STUFFstarts at 40:34 It was a good day. --------------------------------- MUSICTHE USUAL LINKSApparently he gets shirts custom-tailored with larger than normal collars, which is kinda weird I guess. Not as weird as operating a bunch of burner accounts as a pretty public person. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:10 am | Not Just a Shooter 1.5: P.J. Tuckers Triple Root Canal 41 minutes
Hail Our Sponsor!Its Gordon Fall! That is, New York Life Insurance Agent Gordon Fall. If youve come to an MGoEvent ever you've met him. When not giving us baseball cards of MVP Dave Brandon that Dave Brandon had printed, Gordon provides holistic life insurance policies for individuals with long-term goals and short-term financial situations. Hes been building his client roster with fellow lifelong Michigan obsessives, so if youre starting out in your career, growing your family, or beginning to think about retirement, contact Gordon and get that conversation going! Call 248-885-1630, DM him @GordonFallNYL, or visit gordonfall.com --------------------------------- 1. WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS RECAPstarts at 1:00 Houston wouldve won. Then Chris Pauls hamstring failed him and the inevitable Golden State onslaught came. Also, it probably wouldve been good not to have a historically bad shooting performance in Game 7. 2. FINALS PREVIEWstarts at 20:17 Itll be compelling to watch LeBron face a Sisyphean task. Golden State, unfortunately, wins every other matchup on the floor. Your hosts have a heated debate over whether the Cavs win one or zero games. 3. ROCKETS POSTMORTEMstarts at 32:53 A lot of possibilities, including LeBron. One very bad Ryan Anderson contract getting in the way of a superteam, though. --------------------------------- MUSICTHE USUAL LINKS
Part-way through it you start hearing the home crowd just dying with every shot. This was very audible pain that I think everybody was going through. Then they cut the camera to Chris Paul. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1:15 am | Zach Carpenter Commits To Michigan
247 This one rather came out of nowhere:
That's 3.5* interior lineman Zach Carpenter, a Cincinnati native who had nine crystal ball picks, all to Clemson, before committing to Michigan fairly out of nowhere. Carpenter gives Michigan a full class of 5 OL as they seek to rebuild their line under Ed Warinner. The ranking may not be great but the peripherals look solid; a full Hello post tomorrow. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 30th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:10 pm | Hoops Hello: Jalen Wilson
Not a bad evening for Michigan basketball. On the heels of Charles Matthews announcing his return, John Beilein's landed his first 2019 commitment, and it's a big one. Denton (TX) Guyer forward Jalen Wilson, the #34 overall prospect in the class, announced his choice of Michigan over a final group of Baylor, Kansas, Marquette, Oklahoma State, and UCLA this evening. (EDIT: With a video you should very much watch, I should add, now that I've done so myself.)
Wilson, who was named after Jalen Rose, pledged to his mother's favorite program a couple weeks after taking a visit to Ann Arbor. A month ago, this is what he told Rivals when asked about his interest in the Wolverines:
They don't tell that to everyone. Beilein and Luke Yaklich led Wilson's recruiting; this is a promising sign for Yaklich's recruiting chops. While Wilson, for the moment, fills Michigan's only open scholarship for 2019, more space is certain to open up, and the coaches are actively recruiting more top-tier talent. GURU RATINGS
I was annoyed that Rivals made me count up their position rankings for them until I got to ESPN and Wilson was missing from their database entirely. ESPN put out a cursory top 60 last summer; Wilson didn't make it and hasn't made the, from what I can tell, one or two updates since. I have no idea if they've even looked at him. The thing about the state of the recruiting industry, especially in ESPN's case, also applies to hoops. A lot of the best work out there is being done by independent sites now. Anyway, Wilson is a top-40 prospect to the two sites that have profiles on him. If his #34 overall ranking holds, he'd be the seventh-highest-ranked Michigan signee since 2000, according to 247's database. He's listed at 6'6", 185 pounds on 247 and 6'8", 210 pounds on Rivals; several scouting reports split the difference, and either way he's a true three or a smaller four in Beilein's system—he should bring positional versatility and defensive switchability. (That's a word, right?) [Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.] SCOUTING While already a known prospect, Wilson had a little work to do last summer after an injury cost him most of the early evaluation period—big-time recruiting attention was mostly local (Oklahoma and Texas). He blew away then-Scout analyst Evan Daniels upon his return, earning mention as one of the top players of the entire July evaluation period:
SMU had offered by then; their 247 site did a more thorough breakdown at the time that highlighted Wilson's combination of skill and versatility:
The shooting form is notable, as Wilson hasn't consistently posted good three-point shooting numbers in AAU ball, which can be a real concern or a product of playing style and small sample size (or all of the above). 247 initially slotted him soundly in five-star territory; even a slight backslide since has only brought him back to #29. Rivals got some extensive looks at Wilson at the end of the year and came away similarly impressed. By the Elite 14 event in early November, analyst Eric Bossi noted gains in his game from the previous open period:
Wilson landed his Kansas offer at this time. One of the Rivals local outlets watched Wilson drop 30 points while going a cool 16-for-16 from the free-throw line—evidence of that new-found aggressiveness—at the Cowtown Tip-Off. Next up was a standout performance at the Thanksgiving Hoopfest, which features the best programs in Texas and schools from surrounding states, that precipitated his rise to #39 overall on Rivals. Bossi again:
UMHoops posted an extensive breakdown on Wilson's game, praising his diverse scoring ability from the wing, around the basket, and in transition, as well as his rebounding. Dylan also noted Wilson doesn't play above the rim—he's not a shot-blocker even at the high school level—and addressed his poor outside shooting numbers from the spring evaluation period:
The shot could use a Beilein magic, though it appears on film the shooting guru will have plenty with which to work—Wilson's form is solid. The numbers haven't caught up yet; he's a career 68% free-throw shooter in high school (never above 71% in a single season) and 36% three-point shooter. He may already be improving despite the poor stretch of AAU ball; he went 41-for-105 from downtown in his junior year at Guyer. Even with the outside shot as a question mark, Dylan seems like a big fan of the pickup—from his conclusion:
Endless Motor stands out as a slight outlier; they see Wilson as more of a mid four-star, comparing him unfavorably to in-state five-star and recent DePaul commit Romeo Weems, which isn't a huge knock but suggests he may lack the ceiling of more explosive athletes:
Wilson's stock has continued to rise, at least in terms of interest. During last month's evaluation period, he was "one of the most closely watched prospects" at the Dallas leg of the Adidas Gauntlet, drawing attention from UNC's Roy Williams in addition to Beilein, Oklahoma's Lon Kruger, and a host of assistants. He didn't miss the opportunity to show off: I'm inclined to think Beilein and Co. will get a lot out of him. OFFERS Wilson holds offers from all of his finalists—Baylor, Kansas, Marquette, Oklahoma State, and UCLA—as well as Arizona State, Florida State, LSU, Oklahoma, Purdue, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, VCU, and Virginia Tech, among a few others. STATS In nine games this year for his AAU team, YGC36, Wilson is averaging a team-high 19.7 points (nobody else cracks 12), going 41/81 on twos (51%), the aforementioned 17/64 on threes (27%), and 44/62 (72%) at the line. He also leads the team with 7.1 rebounds per game and has dished out 26 assists against only 13 turnovers. He hasn't been too active on defense with three steals and a block, but he's at least stayed well out of foul trouble. (All stats via PrepCircuit.) In high school ball, there are extensive stats from all three of Wilson's varsity seasons available on MaxPreps. In 40 games as a junior, he averaged 16.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 60/39/68 (2P%/3P%/FT%). VIDEO Here's a bunch more from least (Dec. 2017) to most (this month) recent: Enjoy. PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE Wilson may not have GRIII hops, but he's got a lot of skill already, and there's room for his game to grow. His ability to slide between positions on the wing will come in handy, especially on defense. He'll join some other talented, bigger wings from the 2018 class in Iggy Brazdeikis, Brandon Johns, and Adrien Nunez, so he should get the opportunity to work his way into a big role after beginning his career on the bench even if (as I'd expect) this season is going to be the last college go-round for Charles Matthews. If Wilson develops a consistent three-point shot, he's got the potential to be an offensive centerpiece. While he probably doesn't have as much upside defensively, he's got plenty of length, and Luke Yaklich has done a lot with less. UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS Michigan is technically out of scholarships but is a dead lock to take at least one more 2019 prospect—between possible NBA departures and playing time transfers, there's gonna be more room. The current favorite to fill that spot is 4.5-star IA PG DJ Carton. Five-star IN PG Keion Brooks, top-50 MI SG Rocket Watts, and three-star NY sharpshooter Joe Girard also hold offers and have at least some interest in the program. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, May 25th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:00 pm | Jimmystats: A Racket of Running Backs
[Paul Sherman] Earlier this week Ace ran into an article on the Saquon Barkley pick and why, despite sabr-conventional wisdom, it might not have been such a bad idea after all. The article is Michigan-relevant for two reasons. One because he brings up the play where Barkley got manned up as a slot receiver on McCray and smoked him for the 4th quarter touchdown that officially made it a rout. Since that’s already seared into your memory and most everyone involved is now well out of Michigan’s sphere you don’t have to relive that part. The second reason is because Michigan is stockpiling running backs again. At first blush you might dismiss that as an emphasis on running the football, but…
…it also might be a sign that Harbaugh is staying at the head of the curve in the latest countermove of offensive progression. IS MICHIGAN REALLY INVESTING IN RUNNING BACKS THAT MUCH?The data say yes. Michigan returned five running backs this season and brought in three freshman. Next year they graduate one (Higdon), and are still in full pursuit of multiple targets, and not in the “we just need one of you” kind of way.
Nine running backs is over 10 percent of your scholarships. That is indeed a major investment. And when you look over Michigan’s history such an emphasis is indeed out of whack with the needs of Harbaugh’s modern predecessors. I was on the Daily when they peaked at seven in 2000 because they didn’t think they’d get both Chris Perry and Reggie Benton (and Carr held up his promise to Tim Bracken). And then it just turned out they had known, though didn’t say, that Justin Fargas and Ryan Beard weren’t going to be around for 2001; proving the anomaly, in two seasons they were down to just four. The other example is Rich Rod’s first two years, though that includes Kevin Grady who moved to fullback. Still: Brandon Minor, Carlos Brown, Mike Cox, Teric Jones, Michael Shaw, Vincent Smith, and Fitz Toussaint were all on a roster together. We’ll come back to that one. [After THE JUMP: Why all the backs?] IS THIS A BULLETS IN THE CHAMBER THING?When talking about recruiting we often mention the importance of recruiting four times as many players as you have snaps for at quarterback and offensive line, and twice as many receivers. These are positions that require a high level of development and therefore projection, so you have to collect assets knowing there’s a strong likelihood that many of them won’t progress to the level you need. Running back is not on that list. There’s absolutely progression, especially in pass-blocking and route-running, but we’ve all watched a lot of running backs for a lot of teams and rarely have any of them substantially changed their production over the course of their careers unless there’s some exigent circumstance. Chris Perry is the lone exception; by his own admission that had more to do with his level of focus as a junior than his ability (also by his own admission he doesn’t read MGoBlog). Anyway no, if you’re grabbing lots of running backs you probably have a plan to use them. WHAT’S THE PLAN, STAN?Rather than use the “Don’t leave McCray on an island with Saquon Barkley” as our example let’s go back to the RPO I drew up last week that Michigan used to get consistent yards on Ohio State: Michigan ran it thrice in The Game, the first and third times with “21” personnel, which means two running backs and a tight end (11 personnel is one RB and one TE, 22 is two RBs and two TEs, etc., with the remainder receivers). The sandwich attempt is above, with McDoom line up as the flanker (a receiver on the side of an inline TE) and going in a jet motion, essentially doing the same thing that Evans did. Jet motion has been all the rage for the last five years or so as part of the natural dance between offenses and defenses. The spread put offenses in mostly 11 personnel, with three wide receivers spreading the defense horizontally. So defenses, freed from worries about fullbacks, started using hybrid space players instead of their regular linebackers to cover the extra space and forced running plays back to the meat of the line. So offenses used jet motion to mix up those matchups and threaten horizontally again. And defenses practiced various reactions to jet motion and coached their players to stay responsible. So what’s next? Why it’s the same play just instead of all that jet motioning of a receiver who’s basically a running back, just start with another running back: You see, the thing about putting a hybrid safety in at one of your outside linebacker spots is the other outside linebacker isn’t one (neither is your hybrid space player a thick, block-destroying linebacker). One of the goals of motion is to not give the defense the matchups they desire, and one of the most common matchup games offenses like to play is flipping the roles of the outside linebackers. They’ll use all sorts of tricks for this. Here’s Maryland lining up in an unbalanced formation (the right tackle is technically a tight end and the receiver on the 30 yard line is technically the left tackle), then running jet motion with their slot receiver, then the tight end comes across the formation too and after all that it’s just regular old split-zone. But look who ends up LB in the gap they’re running it to: 5’9” slot safety D’Cota Dixon. Who’s blocking him? The left guard. But there’s an easier way to threaten both sides of a formation: backs. Flank your quarterback with two running backs and it accomplishes the same threat to the field side. It also messes with defenses who set the strength (you know, strongside/weakside) by which side of the quarterback the running back lines up. Depending on their skills, you can get a lot more than that out of your backs. The defense doesn’t want to waste a coverage guy on some dude who’s most likely running behind a wall of meat. So quite often they’ll match your back with a linebacker they wouldn’t trust on a receiver. And if your running back has the ability of a receiver, that’s a mismatch. If you have two running backs on the field and only one of the defense’s slot defenders is able to cover one, you’re guaranteed a mismatch! That second back has to earn that matchup, however, by being good enough at other things to make up for whoever’s coming off the field for him. Chris Evans can eat into Eddie McDoom’s snaps when Higdon is on the field because McDoom hasn’t been much more than a jet pony, a trick that justifies a handful of plays per game but not more. But backs need rotation. If you have a guy with Hidgon’s skills to sub for Higdon, Evans’s passing threat can remain on the field. If Walker can be a strong lead blocker, he can siphon away fullback snaps (something we could use this year since Ben Mason’s the only one who’s seen the field). Another trick a lot of defenses like to use these days against spread to run teams is to have an end (or a 3-4 OLB if you’re Wisconsin) take the RB out of the backfield—hey, the offense is probably optioning him anyway, right, so might as well just make that an official man-for-man. That has its downside: This is not new stuff. It’s ooooooold stuff. Like the original stuff—those “flankers” started out as wingbacks after all. But you don’t have to go back to the 1930s to mess with defenses with a pair of backs; the ’80s will do just fine:
Yeah that’s a fullback (yeah I’m going to draw this one up this offseason). Fullbacks are backs too. That’s the point: these guys often have skills besides runner that are on the field and not being put to use. Chris Evans is just as dangerous as a slot receiver when you get him the ball in space. Khalid Hill was a good receiver. Ohio State used Ezekiel Elliott’s great blocking to devastating effect. IS HARBAUGH REALLY A BACKS GUY?
data from UFRs so it’s missing some OSU and bowl games Harbaughffense is predicated on two major principles: moving defenders where they don’t want to go, and hybrid players who create mismatches just by being on the field. By now I’m sure you’re familiar with the tight end blocky/catchy spectrum, e.g. Zach Gentry can block down on a lineman but he’s too fast to cover with a linebacker and too big to put a defensive back on him (Penn State covered him with a 6’5”/220-pound linebacker in case you’re wondering if defenses aren’t adjusting). That extends to the backfield, although to date this has mostly been with fullbacks of all varieties. Still the chart above isn’t just an I-form and plow offense. Even including passing downs, Harbaugh’s had a second back or fullback in the formation as often as not, and he’s having them do a lot more in those formations than run or pretend to run and pass protect.
The tight end passing game is stark, and that’s not even accounting for the fact that Funchess is in the Hoke TE numbers for 2012 and 2013. It does however have to take into account that Hoke left his successor just two viable receivers, and that Mackey winner Jake Butt was around for 2015 and 2016. But those TE numbers are in line with Harbaugh offenses at Stanford and San Francisco. And though they’ve recruited a lot of receivers too it’s not surprising that Harbaugh’s tight end recruits have seen the field earlier and had more success. This isn’t his first McKeon. He also passes five times as often to his fullbacks. But the RB targets are only slightly up from the Hoke era, and still not close to the usage Rodriguez got out of his backs in the passing game.
Michigan in 2016 was 39th in RB targets, and fell back to 84th when everything broke last year according to The Mathlete’s numbers. Also last year there was a rather sharp disparity based on who was under center.
The Peters numbers have a lot to do with whom he was charted against: a bunch of pushover defenses when Michigan was running on 70% of standard downs, and Wisconsin, who was mugging the receivers all day. No need to do more than dump off to an open tight end when passing. O’Korn’s RB targets would have gone up if the Ohio State game counted. The Speight thing sticks out though. Michigan last year apparently went into the season expecting to operate a spread to pass offense like they used against Florida State in the bowl game. But come Purdue their pass protection problems necessitated more blockers, and the 3- and 4-receiver sets disappeared. Prior to the season one of our big predictions, based on Harbaugh history, was that Michigan planned to run out their heavy personnel and multiple backs, then have a lot of those tight ends and tailbacks line up as receivers. The TRAIN formation embodied that philosophy, but it doesn’t end there. THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU BRING UP RICH ROD?Harbaugh loves his tight ends; Rich Rod didn’t know what to do with them. In Rodriguez’s prime years at West Virginia tight ends were at a premium in college football, and fourth stars went almost exclusively to big backs. Sub-six-foot receivers and scatbacks—even those who loved to block—were virtually ignored, a market inefficiency he could exploit. So Rodriguez built his base offenses with two backs. One might be more of a blocker—walk-on fullbacks could do the job just fine—while the other was a dynamic scat-type who could threaten the side opposite his slot-smurfs. They all had to catch the ball. And they did so a TON:
Rich Rod even had a position—“Superback”—separate from running back because having two in his base offense was standard. He was going that route at Michigan. Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown regularly lined up in the backfield at the same time. Michael Shaw and Sam McGuffie rotated in liberally. Mike Cox and Stephen Hopkins were the heirs apparent to Minor, while Vincent Smith and Teric Jones, and Fitz Toussaint were recruited for the Steve Slaton/Noel Devine role. All of them had different skill sets but those skills were all multiple. Harbaugh’s still going to have more tight ends on the field than most, and use a fullback, and he didn’t recruit the greatest receiver quartet in program history to leave those guys on the bench. So where is he going to find snaps for these backs? It’s really up to the backs and how they develop. One of them will be on the field all the times, and at least four are guaranteed to get carries. If Christian Turner’s “soft hands” make him as dangerous as Vincent Smith was on screens, if Hassan Haskins can passably lead block from split backs, if Michael Barrett can develop that wiggle into lethal wheel routes, that’s good reason to put a second back on the field instead of a fullback, a second tight end, or a third receiver. They want some guys who can threaten defenses in multiple ways and create mismatches in the downfield passing game, short passing game, blocking, and of course running the dang ball. They want to have a lot of guys involved with the offense to make them a tough scout, and force defensive coaches to cover a hundred contingencies in their short prep time, or else let Michigan dictate matchups that go exactly like Barkley-vs-any-linebacker will go. With last year’s pass protection problems and quarterbacks who rarely made it to—let alone knew to look for—their 4th reads, Michigan more often than not had to leave Higdon and Evans in to help protect. That did not go well: they combined to allow six pressures against Michigan State alone and another four vs Wisconsin. The hope going forward is that the added RPO element and better protection from the line will open up the running back position to be more involved in the passing game. As we saw plenty in the Ohio State game, when given multiple backs with multiple skills to play with, they can really screw with a defense. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7:02 pm | 2018 Recruiting: German Green
Previously: Last year's profiles. S Sammy Faustin.
This DB recruiting class is comprised of five near-identical guys, and to drive the point home two of them are twins. German Green, the focus of this post, is the one who tore his ACL, missed the critical-for-rankings-purposes rising junior summer and his entire junior year, projects to safety, and doesn't have much buzz; Gemon Green is the guy who didn't get injured and is a four-star corner. Green also drives the point home about a certain lack of information out there these days: ESPN did not scout him at all. Barely anyone did. There was a little bit about both twins after their sophomore seasons ("tall, athletic corners that are poised to blow up"), but then German got hurt. It was so sparse out there that I transcribed a video interview in which not too much was said. Here's 24/7's Greg Powers at some sort of all star thing:
That's a lot more reserved than Powers was when the twins committed to Michigan&
&and might mean that Green's senior season didn't knock anyone's socks off. All right then. Rivals didn't have much more; their most useful bits on German come at around the 1:15 mark in this video: Rivals Texas guy Nick Krueger also chipped this in around Signing Day:
Green did get back for some camps as a rising senior, drawing reasonably positive mention during them. These mentions usually came after someone said something real nice about Gemon. German was "impressive in his own right as he frustrated wide receivers with his size and length" at the Dallas Opening regional and got an honorable mention call out as part of a "terrific" DB group at a UA camp. A 7-on-7 event where his brother was the Alpha Dog
And that's it. In rather desperate straits we turn to the highlight video above for hints. It's three minutes long and padded out with some fairly routine tackles where Green doesn't screw up a run fit; there's one instance of excellent coverage on a fade and a couple more incompletions he harasses. It's not the kind of video that makes you question what the recruiting sites are looking at; if you told me this was the #1000 player in the country I'd say that sounds reasonable, especially when he runs a 4.7 at the Opening regional. The twins thing could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. The good bit is that he's literally the same physical package as Gemon, the 4.7 is probably an artifact of the ACL tear, and if Gemon is a Texas offeree and 4-star sort German might be the same except everyone missed it. And Michigan really wanted Gemon. The bad bit is the way they demonstrated this. Lorenz:
German's offer was a shot in the dark. Later in the cycle Texas offered Gemon but was a bit hesitant about German&
&and Michigan was the beneficiary. Texas continued their pursuit of the brothers even after Gemon's commitment but never offered German. Michigan's last throw-in commit to get someone else, Mike Dwumfour, appears to be working out beautifully, but Dwumfour had a lot more positive arrows than Green does. Offers from Tennessee and Oklahoma State came just before the Greens went off the board. It's hard to tell how offer-y those offers were, and how much the idea of picking of Gemon appealed to schools a rung below the big time recruiters. And there was little interest in offering, or scouting, Green once he got back on the field. Maybe that's a recruiting industry problem and we'll discover that more guys are getting misevaluated these days, but if a highlight video doesn't get you hyped up much and there's no super secret vibe out there, the ranking is the best thing to go on. Etc.: Has a twin! Why Jeremy Clark? They're all Jeremy Clark! Prepare yourself. The next three people are probably going to be Jeremy Clark YMRMFSPAs. In this case, Green is another large and lanky CB/S hybrid with meh offers and rankings. If you want me to splice out hair-thin differences and spit out other names, it's& still Jeremy Clark. Guru Reliability: Low. So very low. Injury caused him to be barely scouted. Variance: High. On the one hand, goes gene for gene with a touted CB with a Texas offer. On the other, is ranked in the wilderness. Ceiling: High-minus. Like his brother, but apparently minus a step. General Excitement Level: Low. All recruits can defy their recruiting rankings and these posts are always guessing; in this case the guessing at maximum uncertainty. That said, German doesn't really have much arguing against his rankings. Projection: Redshirt is a near-guarantee, and then he's in the same boat as Faustin: fighting for one open job the next two years and maybe trying out corner as a backup plan. Faustin's already in tough against some older guys, and Green is further back yet thanks to the ACL tear. If he emerges it's likely as an upperclassman. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, May 29th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9:28 pm | Defunct Michigan Blogs Yo this is going to be some #content right here, since I dont have time for nothing else. I was going through our lists in preparation to transfer the tertiary things to the new site (dont ask) and this reminded me it had been a long time since we cleaned up the links on the sidebar. Ive done so, but it hurt to remove some old bookmarks I used to check every day. So they dont all just get summarily dumped, I figured a thread in tribute to some great Michigan writing during the formative years of blogging was in order. If you joined the sphere too late for the age when 20-something Michigan fans all had blogspots and tried to invent our own shticks so as to not come off as LiveJournals, some of them are worth going back and reading. A top three: Burgeoning Wolverine Star
An Xs and Os Michigan blog. Chris Gaerig is one of those guys I keep meaning to contact about writing for HTTV sometime because he was a fantastic writer as well as a deep thinker about specific Michigan plays. His posts used to get linked regularly in UFRs. Neck Sharpies exists because I set out myself to fill some of the void he left. Also: basketball. The Blog That Yost Built
There are two types of MGoBlog readers: those who think we have too much hockey, and those who think its awful how little we cover hockey. Tim Williams started his site because we didnt have enough hockey coverage at MGoBlog and if he still had time to write hed be a regular here, since were all among the former as well. Ronald Bellamys Underachieving All-Stars
Though he has a far better writing gig these days, I still think of him as Johnny RBUAS. If you have ever wanted to feel very emotional about a beloved Michigan players fictionalized stream of consciousness, this site was for you. If you havent, really thats okay, I wont curl up in a ball and cry, unless Johnny RBUAS writes about it. Bonus: the url was umichedme dot blogspot. Others I remember and dont: What did I miss? What do you miss? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 30th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3:42 pm | This Weeks Obsession: Daves Burner Account
hashtag ifitaintbrokebreakit [Eric Uphurch] THIS ARTICLE HAS A SPONSOR: Its Nick Hopwood, our MGoFinancial Planner from Peak Wealth Management. Legal disclosure in tiny font: Calling Nick our official financial planner is not intended as financial advice; Nick is an advertiser who financially supports MGoBlog. MGoBlog is not responsible for any advice or other communication provided to an investor by any financial advisor, and makes no representations or warranties as to the suitability of any particular financial advisor and/or investment for a specific investor. ------------------------------- BECAUSE OF RECENT EVENTS, LETS JUST NAME SOME ENTIRELY THEORETICAL DAVE BRANDON BURNER ACCOUNTS AND SEE WHERE THIS GOES slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed Ace: Slackbot knows this is a bad idea but were gonna power through it. The Mathlete: This a probable mild bad decision, @probablemild Seth: @thebrand1234567 Ace: @retailactivationerror The Mathlete: @enoughlatenightdrinking Alex: @campdavid6969 Ace: @everafter734 Alex: @vulturecapitaltoysrus Seth: @tgiff And by the way we are docking the cost of those cardboard boxes from your last paycheck. Ace: @findanewteam @happylife_goblue Seth: @... The Mathlete: @plentyofseatsonmyjet Ace: @lochdogg The Mathlete: @wowexperience Seth: @section1. Ace: lol, was waiting for that one. Seth: Sorry, Section 1. Ace: Should we maybe tell people why were doing this? This is why were doing this:
I never thought Id say anything like this but& at least Brandon knew better than to get on the bad side of his own players? [After THE JUMP: we create the space.] The Mathlete: (do we want to offer some sort of a bounty for anyone that can track back a potential Brandon burner account) Ace: (my god yes, I still have that Dave Brandon football card) slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed Brian: @mypersonalityihavetofixit Seth: @createthefuture, @innovatethespace Brian: I should state for the record that I don't think Brandon actually had any burners. Ace: &but wed be interested in learning about any. Brian: Because he just emailed people under his own account. Ace: This is true. Brian: Also remember that post on the official site about "big boy football"? Ace: His university account! Brian: To have a burner you have to have a sense of shame. Seth: @pimphand from back when Dave read MGoBlog. Ace: Or be illegally sharing medical information. So& maybe we should check some tweets from after the Morris incident. Brian: Again, Michigan was just throwing that out there in public possibly illegally. I absolve Dave Brandon of the sin of having burners, because he's guilty of all others. slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed Alex: Would you put it past @pizzadave5and7 to defend Dave Brandon's sartorial choices online? slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed Ace: Every time I think back to 2014 it gets more and more, just, how did any of this happen. @onedaymediatour A deep cut: @heretoacceptanaward Alex: My take remains this: if Shane doesn't get concussed, and if Michigan doesn't create a massive PR crisis, Brandon isn't fired in time, Harbaugh doesn't go to Ann Arbor, and we get Butch Jones or something. Ace: The emails helped. Alex: but. his. e. mails. Brian: I don't want to get into Man In The High Castle alternate histories until Harbaugh wins a thing Ace: Fair. Seth: Michigan had way more problems in 2014 than the football coach. Ace: There was a rally on the school presidents front lawn during, I believe, his first week on the job? About football. He came from Brown. That had to be a hell of a hello for Schlissel. He still looked completely befuddled about most of this at the presser announcing DBs resignation. Alex: Well if @thebrandthebrandthebrand had made some good points in Schlissel's menchies, who knows what would have happened. Ace: @deleharding Brian: Yes, poor bastard. "This seems like the kind of academic institution I can respectably leave my post for. Oh, look, a protest! The vital wellspring of campus life! Seems strangely male, I wonder if this is about-- it's about what? Did I sign that contract already?" Seth: Schlissel had a pre-scheduled meeting the morning of the Fire Brandon rally with the Detroit Jewish Community Relations Council. First thing he said when he met with us (i.e. our director and board officials) was "I don't want to talk about football." Brian: We all get there eventually. Ace:
Surreal. Was then, even more now. Brian: I cannot believe that happened Alex: I was in a creative writing class in Angell Hall when this was happening and my classmates were wondering why a helicopter was hovering overhead. The Mathlete: Remember how I was randomly in town and you, your wife and I randomly ate dinner together after? Brian: At Seoul Garden? The Mathlete: Red Hawk, I think. Brian: Both good options. Ace: I definitely took photos of Brian getting interviewed on the local news in a Michigan hockey jersey. Seth: Kenny Magee sent me some photos of that. I think the reporter had to stand on a duffel bag because Brian was too tall for her. Ace:
The Mathlete: you were plotting your run from Trustee Ace: The whole album is just absurd. The Mathlete: We should plan a 5 year reunion of the event. Alex: I'm hoping for An Oral History Of The Demise Of David Brandon at some point. Seth: I bet Two Cokes guy is successful now.
Ace: The absolute best protest sign, bar none. Seth: Ohshit the meme guy is in there.
Ace: HES EVERYWHERE Brian: Some months later a guy @-d me something about how Brandon had accomplished more than I ever would and his twitter bio said he was the manager of brand activation for a pro sports team. Ace: That was Dave Brandon. slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed Brian: His twitter was not anonymous! He swiftly deleted the tweet and went private IIRC. Ace: lol Brian: I am the manager of brand de-activation Ace: Way better gig Seth: That explains the website launch. Ace: Hey-o. Coming soon! The Mathlete: -ish Brian: GUYS Ace: were all fired Seth: No it's still Thursday. Wednesday Whatever I blog. (for now) Ace: TWO DAYS, BABY FIRE ALL THE TAKES Brian: Anyway this is probably enough Dave Brandon retrospective for one year. slackbot: quit drinking and go to bed The Mathlete: We need to save some for the Anniversary Party next year. Ace: Yes. Thank you, Bryan Colangelo, but also not. Alex: More like Cryan Bolange-- no, NO wait! sorry! I'm trying to dele-- [gets hauled into the Sarlacc Pit] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:17 pm | Charles Matthews Returning For Junior Year
The pieces are in place. Michigan announced this afternoon that Charles Matthews is withdrawing his name from the NBA Draft and will return to school for his redshirt junior season:
Matthews has the opportunity to be Michigan's go-to scorer (a role Jordan Poole is eyeing, too) now that Moe Wagner has gone to the NBA, and his return cements the Wolverines as one of the Big Ten favorites for 2018-19, especially in conjunction with the news that Maryland's Kevin Huerter is hiring an agent. Not only does Matthews give the team another NBA talent, he allows a talented freshman class of wings to work their way into big roles at a more reasonable pace. It seems likely Matthews will follow the Wagner route—testing the waters, returning, then leaving after improving a couple key areas—and if he does, Michigan should be a very good team once again. His slashing, rebounding, and defense will be major assets, and if his shot develops this season like his footwork did last season, he'll be an all-conference player. I'll have a post soon to give a full overview of the returning and departing talent in the conference and its outlook now that we have a better handle on the rosters. Meanwhile, top-50 2019 TX forward Jalen Wilson is announcing his decision at 6 pm ET from a group of six that includes the favored Wolverines. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:04 pm | Unverified Voracity Wonders If It's Happening
it might be happening Unfortunately, a miss. ALSO JACK HUGHES?! Oliver Wahlstrom will play at BC next year. Michigan is still waiting on Jack Hughes, who everyone says will either play at the NTDP next year or accelerate like Zach Werenski. Mike Spath just said today on Inside the Huddle that Hughes hasn't made a decision yet, but: "there's a very strong likelihood" that he accelerates and that he's "in position to do so." Per Spath, the potential catch is that if Quinn Hughes gets drafted and decides to sign, a major motivation for Jack to accelerate goes away. The upshot: "if Quinn and the family decide to come back for one more year at Michigan, look for Jack to join him." Zach Shaw suggests you'd prefer the Rangers or Red Wings grab Hughes, then.
Strongly prefer. The Big Ten hockey schedule is bad again. Prepare for another year with the vast majority of Michigan hockey's home games in the fall semester, when everything is happening. The Big Ten schedule features just four home games after the break:
Notable bad things: two(!) bye weeks, the Notre Dame series are not home-and-homes, and Michigan is shipping a Penn State game to NYC. The latter is payback for PSU doing the same thing. While it's slightly annoying for season ticket holders at least 1) the AD didn't announce this after season tickets were due, 2) after asserting a price cut that moving the MSU game actually turned into a price increase, and 3) to play in front of nobody in an outdoor game in Chicago. Announced attendance at the first game was almost 14k. Hopefully Michigan can fill in those blank spots with nonconference home dates, but even then those are more likely to be Arizona State-ish teams than actually compelling games. Also of interest: the Michigan State game that is traditionally at the Joe is now listed as TBA. The new version of the JLA might be too crowded to accommodate them? If so they should probably just move those games back to campus. There's no other arena worth having an MSU-M game in. An outdoor game that's a good idea! The January 5th game at Notre Dame is going to be outdoors:
My tolerance for outdoor games has about bottomed out but this one passes muster. It'll be jam-packed. Hopefully the appeal of that outdoor game is an incentive to return for Quinn and attend for Jack. Matthews decision status. Charles Matthews spoke to the media after one of his draft workouts, and you can try to read between the lines:
Not a whole lot there, but the press conference did cause Andrew Kahn to reiterate the data he'd gathered about missing the combine. I'd been looking for since Matthews didn't get invited to the combine:
So you return unless you can't go back to school because of your academics or are staring down the prospect of getting 15 minutes a game because Tom Izzo's got his eye on a walk-on. I'd imagine Matthews returns for a final year, a la Moe. LET'S GOOOOOOO. Our long national nightmare is finally, finally, finally over:
Dr. Pepper. You had Pitbull under an overpass, and then saddled us with this epic doof for years and years. Choose light. Choose Pitbull again. Etc.: Barstool, imo. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, May 24th, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:20 am | Not Just a Shooter 1.4: Steph Currys Injury Podcast 46 minutes and 27 seconds
Hail Our Sponsor!Its Gordon Fall! That is, New York Life Insurance Agent Gordon Fall. If youve come to an MGoEvent ever you've met him. When not giving us baseball cards of MVP Dave Brandon that Dave Brandon had printed, Gordon provides holistic life insurance policies for individuals with long-term goals and short-term financial situations. Hes been building his client roster with fellow lifelong Michigan obsessives, so if youre starting out in your career, growing your family, or beginning to think about retirement, contact Gordon and get that conversation going! Call 248-885-1630, DM him @GordonFallNYL, or visit gordonfall.com --------------------------------- 1. HOUSTON-GOLDEN STATE: THIS SERIES IS TERRIBLE BASKETBALL IS RUINED FOREVER WARRIORS IN FIOH.starts at 1:00 Alex loses and regains his Michigan card. We can talk about Game 4, or we could talk about the 2004 Detroit Pistons! Eh? Eh? Ben Wallace? Eh? Okay, lets talk about the most insane basketball game weve ever seen. When we talk about Isolation ball its still always coming after a screenits a matchup game. One team has Durant. 2. POSTMORTEMSstarts at 27:40 We discuss the future of the (now long-demised) Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans, two teams with bright futures and one or two major summer decisions ahead. We are not bitter about Donovan Mitchell. We are not bitter about Donovan Mitchell. We are not bitter about Donovan Mitchell. --------------------------------- MUSICTHE USUAL LINKS
Still not bitter. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:52 pm | 2018 Recruiting: Sammy Faustin Before this series kicks off again, a word about the state of the Recruiting Industry: it's less good than it was. A few years ago there were four distinct sites, each of which put a sizeable effort into scouting and justifying their rankings. They had their idiosyncrasies but for all but the most obscure prospects there was a fairly broad pool of scouting to draw from.
In 2018, Scout is obliterated, ESPN's recruiting efforts are mostly aimed at the class of prospect who might have a televised announcement, Rivals doesn't go to Opening regionals, and 24/7& uh& has so many articles that it gets annoying trying to scroll through them for still-relevant information? The Wolverine does do a solid job of getting a few scouting takes when a guy commits, at least.
The industry's consolidation means that some guys are not going to have very diverse takes. C'est la vie.
Previously: Last year's profiles.
Sammy Faustin is one of a fleet of near-identical defensive backs in this class. Despite losing nobody from the secondary, Michigan jammed five different guys who range from 6'2" to 6'2" and from 190 to 190give or take a smidgein an all-out effort to stop getting slot fades on their face. Faustin goes first because he's most definitely a safety. Don Brown:
As I said: Don Brown's recruting strategy was "aaaaargh slot fades." Faustin was fairly low-profile when he committedhis best other offers were Nebraska and uh& Maryland? Ole Miss?and didn't have much chance to overturn existing opinions due to an ankle injury and a hurricane that wiped out almost a month of the season; when Rivals scouted him it was in a driving rainstorm that made cornerbacks irrelevant. That might be one reason why ESPN doesn't even have a full evaluation. Faustin got an abbreviated underclass eval that was never followed upan unprecedented oversight for the site that got Josh Metellus more correct than everyone else because they gave him a real in-depth scout after his commitment. At least that evaluation mentions him as a CB/S combo who projects to free safety:
What scouting did get done is mostly in line with his rankings, and pretty consistent in describing a big CB/S hybrid who doesn't have eye-popping athleticism. Touch The Banner:
Corey Bender of 24/7:
Brandon Brown of Rivals got the short stick with the above-mentioned weather conditions and didn't get much to scout but even in high school Faustin was a hybrid:
When Rivals caught up with a rival coach he said the nice things loud and said the "not a great athlete" bits quietly, but they're in there:
His own coach provided a fairly detailed vision of what he'll do at Michigan:
These are fairly eh reports, and when The Wolverine asked Rivals national guys about various folks in the class Faustin was lumped in with the other two Floridians as guys with "have every physical tool in the world that just, for whatever reason, arent there yet." He is "long and fast" but didn't have a great senior year, etc. The main thing arguing in favor of a bust-out is Don Brown, who zeroed in on Faustin pretty early. Brown's track record when grabbing who-dat randos is pretty good, as Kwity Paye and literally every person he ever recruited before coming to Michigan indicate. The shape of Faustin's recruitment indicates he's not much of a backup plan. Also Steve Lorenz reported that Brown is "in love with Faustin's game" even if he's not an immediate impact guy, and that he could play either CB or S. "Decisiveness" is his one-word asset. Even so, without enrolling early or getting much of a senior year a redshirt is likely coming. Faustin was more or less told he would redshirt:
But then everybody should redshirt because Michigan has a full two deep of returners in the secondary. FWIW, the requisite coach quotes are requisitely positive:
He does come off as an understated yes sir no sir sort of person in an interview with a local TV station. Etc.: Faustin lived in Turks and Caicos until he was 11, so if you see someone on campus who looks like they're going to up and die next winter throw him some handwarmers or something.
Why Jeremy Clark? Both are large CB/S hybrids with modest recruiting profiles and big big wingspans. Clark's best other offer was NC State even after he hit every camp he could; he was initially pegged as a safety but successfully moved to corner, in part because he kept busting coverages at S. All other DBs in this class also want to be compared to Jeremy Clark. Guru Reliability: Moderate. Scanty scouting, not much follow-up as a senior due to Factors, but from a heavily scouted Florida school and what scouting is out there more or less agrees. Variance: Moderate. Seems like a high-floor low-ceiling sort who is already most of the way there physically and lacks an electrifying top gear. Ceiling: Moderate. Big long CB/S sort who probably tops out at Clark, who did get drafted even after losing most of his senior year to injury. General Excitement Level: Moderate. This certainly seems like a very moderate person. Projection: Redshirt is almost guaranteed with the entire safety two-deep back and Faustin's abbreviated senior season. In 2019 there will be one safety spot open; Faustin will vie with one or two of his classmates, J'Marick Woods, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, and Brad Hawkins. Chances are he doesn't win that job, but he'll get another crack the next year after Metellus departs. Anyone's guess how those battles turn out, but if Faustin doesn't win there he could try the CB > S conversion Clark did. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![wool-yarn-2[1]](http://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/The-Ballad-Of-Tloy-Woorfork_9F26/wool-yarn-21.jpg "wool-yarn-2[1]")
![fork-hi[1]](http://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/The-Ballad-Of-Tloy-Woorfork_9F26/fork-hi1.png "fork-hi[1]")
Have you checked out his podcast yet? Hes been bringing in interesting guestsRichard Hoeg was one, Brians 
