Great Expectations

I'm not an avid recruiting follower.  A lot of my fellow Michigan fans are.  Knowing of my extreme fandom, these peers often come to me with questions such as "what do you think of (fill in pre-pubescent athlete here) making his visit to Ann Arbor today?"  I don't know.  I try not to be interested.  I only glance at MGoBlog's "Hello" posts.  Why?  Because I subscribe to Rich Rodriguez's policy of only talking about players that play for Michigan.  The amazing class purported to have been assembled for 2013, verbally at least, is somehow indirectly increasing the expectations of the present.  We are overrated already.  The preseason tv ratings hype machine will try to make us more and more relevant leading up to the nation's biggest game of week 1, so it's not likely that we will be hearing a lot about our current deficiencies until the Sunday morning quarterbacks hit the air waves.

The players that are here, as well as the class that is arriving in less than two-months (remember them?) are being done a disservice.  Team 133 does not have Shane Morris dropping back for passes and running Al's pro-style juggernaut.  And no matter how many letters from the Buckeyes Logan Tuley-Tillman burns, no matter how many death threats he gets from the toothless assholes of Ohio, he will be going to his high school homecoming dance as team 133 begins to fight its way through the Big Ten schedule, not helping our depth on the offensive line.  He's a Peoria Manual Ram...and yes, I had to look that up.

Michigan has a rich history to say the least.  In wins and losses, they are the greatest team of all time.  They hold significant advantages all-time over every other Big Ten team.  Teach that in your classrooms.  Explain that (slowly) to a Spartan.  Use that.

Michigan had a great season last year...when compared to the last few seasons.  But the reality is that they lost handily to a shitty Iowa team, couldn't beat Sparty, and won the Sugar Bowl over the least powerful of the BCS bowl participants on two prayer-filled blind throws.  I feel like I'm always saying this, but I will say it again anyway:  stay grounded.

It seems the fanbase so aptly known for talking about the past, is now taking to talking shit about the future.  Making your point to a rival using players that won't have an impact until 2014 or 2015 (if ever) is a tactic reserved for Notre Dame.  Ask them how much recruiting classes matter.  

I'm not saying you can't be happy about this....or even this. (#1 nationally in football, #2 nationally in hoops)  But know that we are 8 months away from signing day, which is markedly more important than these seemingly never ending verbal days.  We'll be talking in the past tense about team 133 by then.  And remember, they're not all going to sign...they never do.

79 days 'til Dallas.

GO BLUE!

Jordan Walsh Knows More Than You

Maybe it takes a teenager to tell you about your coach...albeit a 6'4'', 270lb teenager, but regardless...

"We talked a lot about (different) stuff, and not always about football. He told me about the new additions to the Big House, the town, and everything. I like him. I guess you could say he's different from how he is portrayed. He's a really cool, laid-back person. He's always smiling, and the way he talks about things, you kind of just feel good talking to him."

Exactly.  Kind of a cool story too, with his parents being Fab 5 fans and Jordan "verbally declaring" to Michigan when he was still in diapers.

Rodriguez Inks Class of 27

LOI's are in for 27 new Wolverines.  Biggest class ever.  15 of them play defense.  Warm bodies = less starting walk-ons.  I'm not a big fan of starting walk-ons, so, ya, successful class.

The prize of the 15 would-be defenders?  Demar Dorsey, who saved the day and wiped a little egg off of our faces after perceived lock CA-S Sean Parker LOI'ed to UW at 9am.  Dorsey, at #12 overall and the #2 safety according to ESPN, is the highest rated recruit in Michigan's class.  He is also the highest rated recruit to sign with ANY Big Ten team.  In the words of Rittenburg, "a big, big score for Rich Rodriguez."

I don't know what it is, but I really like the looks of this class on paper...and youtube.  Nothing too gaudy.  Simple guys with a specific skill set made for a complex system.  Against everything I believe in, I've google-stalked the lot of them, watched some highlights, read some coach quotes...  Yes, following recruiting makes you less of a man, and there's a whole lotta folks that should be turning in their man cards tomorrow...we crashed MGoBlog before noon.

Devin Gardner leads the offensive side of the group, and he is already eating Blimpy Burger with 6 other early arrivals on campus.  The class includes a couple of running backs, just in case that surgery doesn't go well for Vincent Smith.  And it's always good to snatch another rabbit chaser from Pahokee...we did that with DT Richard Ash.  Also of note, the lone inked offensive lineman's last name is Pace.  These things just seem to add up for me.

The 3pm presser didn't go so well though.  Coach thought that for some reason he'd get some softball questions, handshakes, and congratulations from the media after landing Dorsey.  Instead, Dorsey's "checkered" high school past was brought up.  Demar was acquitted for a couple of felonies back in high school.  Rodriguez said he checked him out and said that everything was ok.  Guess who else checked him out?  Pretty much every other coach of a major program in the country.  Of those coaches, how many would have turned down a letter of intent from the #12 player in the nation?  ZERO.  Either way, Coach wasn't ready for it.  He probably should have been.  He should know better by now.  He should know that there can be no good until good comes on Saturdays with regularity.

Instead of being able to celebrate his second full class as a coach at Michigan, he instead had to defend a player that was found INNOCENT in a Florida court, and that won't set foot on the practice field until August.  There's a big price to pay in Ann Arbor for only mustering 8 wins in two seasons...and Rich Rodriguez has his wallet open.  This man can do no right until this team wins.  It's a policy that is tough to like, a bitch to endure...yet hard to argue with.

Welcome fellas...and GO BLUE!

Cissseeya

More bad news for a thin defense, as Cissoko is out at Michigan, becoming the 7th loss from the class of 2008 which was mostly a product of the previous regime.  This news, along with the 2007 class, which had unceremonious exits of Mallet, Tony Clemons, and Marell Evans (among others) means that the cupboards are WAY more bare than you know.  Which, if nothing else, means that my plea for patience with Coach from Monday is not a request...it's really your only option.

The fact that Coach is not keeping problems around, no matter how many stars they had on rivals, and no matter how thin we are at the position where the problem resides, is a good sign for those that are interested in keeping the tradition of creating a group of men that are leaders on and off the field.  In short, he is not Dantonio, who reinstated Glenn Winston basically minutes after he was released from prison.

Of course, you won't hear about how Rich Rod made the right decision by removing a player that was missing class, missing workouts, and missing study table.  The precedent has been set with the media, as the Feagin story resulted only in the perception of Michigan having recruited a drug dealer, with no props for his immediate dismissal.  And Kurt Wermer's bashing of the staff on his way out significantly outweighed the fact that the idiot was academically ineligible before he "left."

This week, you'll likely only hear that Michigan has another player that is transferring.  But that is not the truth.  He was "fired" before he "resigned."  I only hope he has the stones to own up to it for the sake of this program...that way Snyder can bury it on the back page if he has time to write while assisting the NCAA with the workout investigation.  Just remember folks, the story of Michigan getting back to being Michigan isn't nearly as sexy as Michigan in turmoil, Michigan failing to regain their dominance, or Michigan falling off the college football map.  They want us to lose.  They want Rich Rod to fail.  They want us to fail.  And you, yes YOU, can either stand there and take it, read it and believe it...or you can fight for THIS TEAM.

"This team" means "this staff."  The two are not mutually exclusive.  So the question is...are you really ALL IN?

Plus One...Minus One

​Livonia tailback Austin White committed to Michigan today over Michigan State.  Had he committed to Michigan State, there would be 10 articles in various publications telling you about how Michigan State is winning the recruiting war and Dantonio is a living genius.  But since White went Blue, it's just another ho-hum blue chip commit for Rodriguez.  But my friends tell me I should stop worrying about what everybody else thinks...so while I stand by the adage that perception is reality, this is one hell of a pick up for a class that is shaping up to be one of our best ever.

None of this changes the fact that I get a creepy feeling when I follow recruiting.

Meanwhile, lineman Kurt Wermers is leaving the program, citing the obligatory family values and "not getting along with the players being brought in" instead of admitting that practice is too hard and that he's a girl that needs a father figure to coddle him.  And awwww, you're not making any friends.  Is it because they're so much faster than you that you can't catch them to talk to them?

So, he will go to Ball State and try to cling to remnants of the old regime.  No doubt Lloyd steered him there to spoon with Stan Parrish, who according to his bio tutored Tom Brady.  Stan took over for Brady Hoke, and will be a head coach for the first time since being dismissed from K-State after amassing a 2-30-1 record over a period of three years.  But hey, at least you won't have to run to the line of scrimmage, right Kurt?  And you won't have to worry about what round you are going to be drafted in either.