The Buckeyes? They're Doing Everything I Want to Do

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Let me make a short list...

1) Played a home at home with Texas in football

2) Played a home at home with USC in football

3) Won "the game" 6 consecutive times

4) Has a modern day "fab 5" (really 6) recruiting class coming in for hoops next year...and they don't even need it (BTW...66-55, Buckeyes over Michigan in hoops this afternoon)

5) And finally, the game I wanted, in the venue I wanted, has been scheduled for the team that I hate.  The Buckeyes will return the home at home to Navy in Baltimore to open the 2014 season...at M&T Bank Stadium, the home of the Baltimore Ravens.

Lost in all this Rodriguez talk, in the idiotic NCAA investigation, and the lack of wins around here, is that we have a serious deficiency in COOL SHIT.  Cool shit creates a buzz, which makes people take notice of your program, which makes future recruits buy your hats and baggy shorts when they're 8 years old, virtually locking them in and creating recruiting classes 10 years in advance.

Somebody call Dave Brandon, and tell him that we need to fix Michigan Athletics the way he fixed the pizza at Dominos.  I'm sick of the bland taste and the cardboard crust.  Like it or not, Rich Rodriguez is the new spicy sauce...and that's why I want to keep him around, why I want him to succeed.  Throwing out the metaphors, I don't want to be scared to schedule a west coast road trip, or to agree to a home at home with a decent team.

Friday Linkfest 2/26/2010

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  • Brian at MGoBlog covers examples of other teams with somewhat similar offenses to those alleged to Michigan.

  • Wojo reminds us that it is all about winning, and that the pressure is on for Coach.

  • Genuinely Sarcastic covers Morgan Trent's comments on the allegations...and how Dwayne Jarret just caught another pass.

  • Dr. Saturday breaks down the charges, and does what everybody else should...put "major" in quotes.

  • Michigan Football Saturdays wants Coach to step down.

  • Probably the coolest thing I've seen on the web in a while... Every game from the sweet sixteen on in the NCAA tournament, in its entirety, streamed to you on the web via NCAA Vault.  Unfortunately (and obviously), there's not one game from the decade that includes the Wolverines.  But there are several great Michigan State losses in there.  Too bad you can't see their three first round exits from 2002, 2004, and 2006.

  • Angel reports that we got a thumbs-up from Jim Delaney.

  • Rosenburg makes a list of things to look for in Spring practice across the Big Ten.  Tate vs. Denard vs. Devin is highlighted.

  • The rest of the basketball season, as outlined by The Daily.

Twitter Thursday, A Primer

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So...twitter.  I know most people think that it's a website where you do something akin to updating your facebook status, and that's where it ends.  But let me tell you, once you build a group of people in your feed, like esteemed bloggers, media members, and celebrities, you get a really nice ticker of things you are interested in.  And if something is going down or there's a game you want the inside info on, there's no better place to get up to the millisecond information.

During the Tuesday press conference on NCAA infractions, while everybody searched for a link to the video of it, I had it basically dictated to me by the staff of AnnArbor.com (@mikerothstein & @davebirkett) and MGoBlog.com (@PaulVBlue & @MgoBlog) through the magic of twitter on my cellphone.  It's raw, opinionated, and it's RIGHT NOW.  There's something to be said for getting your news this way, before it's swallowed up and regurgitated by assclowns like Drew Sharp.

Later that evening, while in attendance at the Michigan Basketball game vs. Illinois (worst. game. ever.) I was able to resist the urge to jump up and down for a slice of pizza and instead checked twitter on my phone during timeouts to get instant stats from Michigan Daily sports writer/editor Nicole Auerbach (@nicoleauerbach, @michdailysports)...things like "Zack Novak is 4-8 from three, and the rest of the team is 1-16," or useful opinions from @UMHoops like "Just a terrible half."

I interrupt this post to give you a real world example!  ESPN's Adam Rosenburg, @ESPN_BigTen on Twitter, just posted the following:

Final three MSU players plead guilty - http://tinyurl.com/yl65pzy

See, twitter can brighten your day!

Anyway, even if you never plan to update your status and contribute to the madness, I encourage you to get yourself an account, follow some people, and install TweetDeck on your PC for a streamlined interface to get the whole Twitter picture.  Rock on.

Oh, and don't forget to follow us, UMTailgate.com....@umtailgate.

Stupid

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​First of all, where's Bill Martin?  I think we're still paying him, right?  Regardless, Dave Brandon (are we paying 2 AD's?) led the presser today that ultimately revealed a notice from the NCAA that contained ticky-tack violations, and no surprises beyond our internal investigation.   It seemed to outline a loosely managed paper trail that blurred the lines of what "stretching" is and when it is or isn't ok to punish an athlete. 

How many feel good stories were there about 6am summer stadium laps under Lloyd?  Braylon.  Arrington.  Askew.  Just to name a few.

Complete and utter bullshit.

In an anonymous survey I conducted with my own common sense, I concluded that every other team in the country blurred the same lines.  The difference between Michigan and everybody else?  Rosenberg's hard-on for a local pulitzer.

More later.  Maybe.

Update:  Violations allege Michigan went over the 20 hour allotted practice time by 20 minutes...in October of 2008.  I think the investigators just wanted to come to Zingerman's.