Michigan Football, the 2020 Abbreviated COVID Season

[lineygoblue]

I also think that constantly changing coaches can be a crap shoot. Outcomes of coaching changes program wide seem to be determined by a huge number of variables. Some can be controlled, some can't. If you aren't sure you can control critical variables that apply to your organization, you shouldn't make changes. I think Michigan football is in that place and history tells us that coaching changes have not been well managed here. They may have been elsewhere but those places aren't the University of Michigan.

I like the craps analogy. I play craps when I go to the casino, and I know what its like to roll 'big red' when you don't want to, and when I DO want big red to come up, it rarely does.

Anyway, good points.

OSU has had nothing but success in every coaching hire since Cooper. They lucked out with the Meyer availability coming at the time when Tressel was kicked, but it is what it is. Now they have this new guy who, at least for now, is a continuation of what his predecessors laid down for him.

OTOH, you have Michigan that stayed with Lloyd Carr about two years longer than they should have. He was on the downside of his career, while Tressel was on the upside. It showed in the way Carr coached. He was nowhere near as competitive at the end, as he was at the beginning. The Rodriguez and Hoke hires were absolute, total disasters. Neither had a clue on how to run the program, recruit, or coach on game day. Plus they were undermined by factions on State Street that wanted their own guy. Harbaugh comes along with a decent pedigree, and pretty much satisfies all the factions, but hasn't been able to deliver a true signature win against anyone of significance.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, they look on and laugh. And nobody on State Street in Ann Arbor seems to care. When 'the game' kicks off in November, and Michigan rolls in at no better than 7-4, the 'loyal alumni' will be selling their tickets off to OSU fans in record numbers, making Michigan Stadium 'redder' than its ever been. And Columbus will still laugh ... and nobody on State Street in Ann Arbor will do OR say a thing about it.

I was on the Event Staff 2 years ago when Ohio came here and beat us. I literally had OSU fans surround me and my co-workers, and scream their fight song into our ears, and do their alphabetical spelling at the tops of their lungs, .. and there was nothing we could do about it. They finally stopped, and eventually headed for the exits. Its hard for me to believe that the people on State Street in Ann Arbor don't notice this, and even worse, .. do nothing about it.

Harbaugh doesn't even seem to care. He's off on some trip to Planet Zebo or some such thing. I don't recognize what "Michigan football" has become. To the rapturous glee of our OSU fans here, I'll admit, .. it hurts. It hurts bad. And there's not a damn thing I can do about it.

[klondike]

I was listening to the radio and Doug Marsh said about mid way throught the 2nd quarter he heard Harbaugh say to his offense line that they were "dominating out there". I thought that is not good of a coach to tell his team that, especially a weak one like the OL up to that point. Just saying. Since he said that, the offense went into the tank..

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've said this before: reasonable people who either decide or influence the deciders are happy where the program is right now. Outsiders who complain, especially former players like Woodson, are ignored; they think former players making millions or having made millions will care about being ignored. See the Fab Five, and particularly Weber.

[lineygoblue]

I've said this before: reasonable people who either decide or influence the deciders are happy where the program is right now. Outsiders who complain, especially former players like Woodson, are ignored; they think former players making millions or having made millions will care about being ignored. See the Fab Five, and particularly Weber.

100% Jeff. Spot on.

[lineygoblue]

In the worst kept secret department, Michigan announced today that the game with Notre Dame will kick off at 7:30 pm, and be carried on ABC.

So the Irish get to hammer Michigan at home in prime time.

yippee.

[Hannibal]

Another shitty Disney game. Hooray.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yeah, ABC is terrible. The productions suck. Illinois was on ABC Satruday ..... bad camera angles, shitty replays, missed plays, missed ref calls while the idiots calling the game do some stupid bio or info plug. Just bad overall. Fox is better by a long shot but still not great either. One thing Fox does have is overhead replays. You can actually see the coverage with these shots. Whoever the guy in the ABC production van calling the live cameras almost always has the play view zoomed in way too far. Replay views don't allow a viewer to see blocking schemes and I didn't find the color guy in the Illinois game very good when he tried to explain a play with those crayons on glass thing they use.

What I do is I tune in WTKA stream pre-game and get all the pertinent info about injuries, who's warming up and who isn't, the coin toss, etc. The radio feed is not synched with ABC as it's usually delayed but it's way better than listening to ABC through the kick-off. Then I have to go to the TV because the delayed radio is distracting. I listen again to the WTKA broadcast at half time and usually have ESPN GameCast up in another window to tract stats. I also keep the WTKA stream open for post game interviews.

[Jeff Buchanan]

TE Mustapha Mohammad has entered the transfer portal.

https://www.maizenbrew.com/2019/10/14/20914226/mustapha-muhammad-transfer-portal-michigan-football

[Hannibal]

The '18 class was a complete disaster.

[Hannibal]

The announcers on Saturday were terrible and they are two of Disney's best. ESPN has a few "D" crew play-by-play guys that are pretty good but most of their color guys are terrible and Chris Fowler and Rece Davis are horrible PxP guys.

[lineygoblue]

Most announcers nowadays are more interested in hearing themselves talk, then they are analyzing the game. You can tell some of their lines are thought up beforehand, just waiting for a moment when they can spring it to sound 'clever'. Its very annoying.

I used to watch MSU's replays on their PBS station on Saturday nights following their games, and they had two guys named Terry Braverman and Tim Staudt who are/were some of the biggest homers you ever heard, which is to be expected on their own channel. I'd still rather listen to THEM than some of the nimrods on the networks.

Steve Levy, Chris Fowler and Matt Millen are some of the worst I've ever heard. Why the Big Ten Network doesn't just give Millen all Penn State games is beyond me. Let the guy do what he does best, and shill for PSU. He despises Michigan and barely tolerates everyone else.

Jeff - I think one of the reasons that streamed feeds are on as much as a 30 second delay, is because if they were live, more people would turn off the sound on the TV to listen to them, than the network people. They know which side their bread is buttered on.

[froot loops]

Chris Fowler is far better play by play guy than Jim Brandstatter. It's not even close.

There is an app that allows you to sync up the radio streams with the TV feed.

[lineygoblue]

Brandstatter is paid to be a M homer, and that's what he does, along with Dierdorf. They are not paid to broadcast to a national audience.

George Blaha is a Sparty homer and makes no effort to hide that. That's what he's paid to do. He's not intended to broadcast nationally. I think he does a good job.

Fowler and his ilk broadcast nationally and should maintain some semblance of neutrality. They usually fail.

[froot loops]

Its not about being a homer, Brandstatter is really, really bad at play by play. You can't follow what's going on during the game. I'm talking skill wise, he's not cut out for it, Chris Fowler is much, much better at calling a game, it really isn't close. George Blaha is a homer for MSU no doubt, but he always puts over the opposing team and he can call a game(he is much better at calling basketball games).

[froot loops]

And for the record no fan ever thinks the national guys are biased in favor of them. Heh.