U of M thread (in the Lions Forum) :)

[Kstat]

penn state got smoked. CJ Lee and Manny Harris just dominated PSU's guards in the 2nd half.

U-M wins by 20, 71-51.

[Deuce]

Remaining sced counting tonight:

Penn St.-W
@ UConn-L
MSU-L
@ Northwestern-W
Minnesota-W
@ Iowa-W
Pudue- Toss up
@ Wisconsin-L
@ Minnesota-Toss up

I count 4 wins left with two more possible. If they can take another one in the big ten tourner, who knows.

[Kstat]

I suppose on the bright side, if U-M pulls off a miracle on saturday, they are pretty much in the tournament. They won't even be on the bubble anymore.

[gjdodger]

Not if they lose some of these "gimmes" you're already handing them. I think they need to win 20, period. It doesn't matter how.

[SeattleLionsFan]

A look back at Rivals top 100 of 2005. High hopes, but ultimately a disappointing class for Michigan. Darren McFadden rated behind Kevin Grady?

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com...asp?CID=908560

reading that really highlighted the problems with the team last year. I think they had 5 or 6 guys, and besides Manningham and Taylor all of 'em busted out.

[Sharkbait]

Remaining sced counting tonight:

Penn St.-W
@ UConn-L
MSU-L
@ Northwestern-W
Minnesota-W
@ Iowa-W
Pudue- Toss up
@ Wisconsin-L
@ Minnesota-Toss up

I count 4 wins left with two more possible. If they can take another one in the big ten tourner, who knows.

I'll agree with that, two additional W's @ Wisconsin & probably Minnesota.

[The Oracle]

They have a good shot at winning any of their home games. A win at UConn won't mean shit if they finish 7-11, without going to the BTT finals. They need to finish .500 in the conference unless they beat UConn then they need to go 8-10 with a win or maybe 2 in the BTT.

Really need to win at Iowa and NW and 2 or their 3 remaining home games. That's the most logical/easiest way to get in.

[Kstat]

BTW, U-M adding delaware state next year is really terrible. I live all of 8 minutes from del st. They can't even compete with most quality 1-AA programs. Their football stadium looks like an average HS field.

[The Oracle]

Since I'm not in the area to go to games anymore, I could care less at this point. As long as they use these shit game to possibly gain some cohesiveness going into the BT.

[Kstat]

they scheduled it during the middle of the big ten season. A bye week would have been more challenging.

[The Oracle]

Didn't see that part of it. Maybe it'll be about the time Forcier is ready to take over the reign and it'll give him a shot at a start before BT games. Either way, oh well.

[Rocky Bleier]

High school players play 'decommit' game

A year ago on national signing day, Joe Tiller blasted Rich Rodriguez, calling the Michigan coach "a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil."
Rich Rod's offense? Snatching receiver Roy Roundtree away from Purdue after Tiller had secured his oral commitment.
Comparatively speaking, the latest wave of Big Ten-on-Big Ten crime, committed Wednesday, left victims as bloodied as the English army in "Braveheart."

The day started with Wisconsin plucking four-star receiver Kraig Appleton from Illinois.
Illinois later yanked running back Justin Green from Ohio State. You almost could imagine it was retaliation for the Buckeyes prying defensive end Melvin Fellows from the Illini in April.

One of Michigan State's top offensive line prospects is David Barrent, a native of West Des Moines who originally committed to Iowa.

Three of Penn State's best signees flipped after committing elsewhere in the conference: quarterback Kevin Newsome and kicker Anthony Fera from Michigan and cornerback Darrell Givens from Ohio State.
Scouts Inc. recruiting coordinator Bill Conley, in praising coach Joe Paterno, came up with a new moniker for "Linebacker U."
"Decommit U," he said on ESPNU. "Joe Pa's doing a great job."

If coaches now are being lauded for helping to convince committed players to renege on their word, college football really has gone mad. And it's more proof of the need for an early signing period.
If a player signed a letter of intent Dec. 1, rather than just giving an oral commitment, he no longer would be fair game for predatory coaches.
That's why coaches such as Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald favor an early date.

"Right now some kids make an 8 o'clock dinner reservation," he said, "but then they say: 'If a 6 o'clock reservation opens up, I'll take that. If school X is higher on my list, I'll go there.' "
Said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming: "Guys will commit to what I call a 'safe house' school and then look upward. They're making a mockery of college football."

The problem hardly is confined to the Big Ten.
Safety Byron Moore of Harbor City, Calif., committed to UCLA in April, saying, "I'm going to be a Bruin."
Two months later he switched his commitment to USC. Then he took a recruiting visit to Notre Dame and schmoozed with LSU coaches. Finally, on Wednesday, he signed with USC.
"The (USC) coaches kept fighting for me all the way until the end," Moore told Rivals.com, offering a glimpse into his motivation _ wanting to be wanted.

Then there's receiver Alshon Jeffrey, who decommitted from USC and signed with USC _ the University of South Carolina.
Big-time college basketball recruiting has historically been associated with cheating. Now college football recruiting has created a culture of lies.
"This reflects rather badly on all of us," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday of the decommitment craze. "But it's not against the rules.
"People say Big Ten coaches don't recruit aggressively enough, whatever that means. You can't say that and then turn around and say, 'We honor all verbals.' "

As a result of last year's Purdue-Michigan "head-butting," as Delany called it, conference officials encouraged head coaches to communicate with each other. That way, a coach wouldn't get blindsided if he lost a committed player.
A noble attempt, to be sure. A better solution is to add an early signing date, but at a meeting last month, conference commissioners voted 17-4 against creating one.
The Big Ten, reflecting its coaches' desires, was one of the four.

[froot loops]

It sounds like Rich Rodriguez was a trailblazer in another aspect.

[Rocky Bleier]

Oh, yes. Rodriguez is the devil. Roundtree said he always liked Michigan, but was not recruited by the former staff. Does Dantonio have something against Ferentz?

[The Oracle]

It sounds like Rich Rodriguez was a trailblazer in another aspect.

No, it just seems there were a lot of whiny little bitches last year. Bunch of pile jumpers.