Dear Santa Diary,
All I want this year is for Michigan to get a kicker?oh and for Ohio State to implode and have their best players all lose their eligibility because of some stupid yet indefensible scandal?
MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
The well known bloggist Geaux_Blue started a diary series this week called "Shunning Wings," wherein he promises to profile various recruits who spurned Michigan. The first candidate is Terrelle Pryor who, for better and for worse, put an indelible mark on both programs, leaving Michigan virtually empty at QB in '08 and resigned to underclassmen for '09-'10, and putting the exclamation mark on Jim Tressell's conservative, unlikeable iteration of the Ohio State program.
Facts: Dude got discounted tats in return for his autograph. He sold off the gold pants lucky charm they give out for beating Michigan. He sold his 2008 Big Ten Championship ring. He sold his Sportsmanship Award from the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.*
Of course, considering how badly we wanted Pryor, and how badly Rich Rod wanted Pryor, we can't pretend like this is a "this is the type of guy other programs recruit" kind of thing.
This is why MGoBlog hasn't made a very big deal of the million minor mishaps accrued each year at various collegiate football programs. Giving a moral "tsk" to a 21-year-old athlete ? even if it's way beyond your own "never tell the kids" collegiate transgression list ? is hypocritical if you root for an FBS team. And since a million crotchety people with internet connections already do enough of this, it's trite. 
If ever you find yourself sounding like a Yahoo commenter, even if you can't figure out what's wrong with what you're saying, it's probably wrong (this also goes SEC media types).
And not to mention that the whole thing reeks of the NCAA's worst hypocrisy. This is a tax-exempt organization because it's all for the kids, yet here they are laying out a five-game suspension for selling off the same schwag that OSU itself can't push enough. I can't honestly connect the NCAA's decision to delay suspensions until after the Sugar Bowl to money, but does anyone think having them sit out for MSU next October instead of Arkansas in January was made in the best interests of preserving a spirit of amateurism?
So, how to respond to all of this? A list:
- Ohio State fans: Five games for some schlock when Cam Newton was shopped for a fortune?
- SEC fans: NCAA's just protecting their golden conference ? everyone knows the world revolves around OSU's record versus the SEC in BCS bowls. S-E-C!
- Big Ten fans: Wow, can Ohio State be any more of an SEC team?
- A.J. Green/Georgia: Wait, you can delay that?
- Misopogal: What were the tattoos?
- Michigan State: Adding a fifth game was a nice touch.
- Rest of World: This looks really bad.
- Michigan fans: ??
I mean, yes to all the caveats above. But this is still our big rival. This guy spurned us. And now he and his buddies are giving the Buckeyes some well-deserved time in the mud. If you're waiting for an official stance on this from MGoBlog, get it out of Brian. As for me, co-sign on any hand gestures toward the NCAA, and otherwise I'm here:**
User bluesouth breaks down the OSU plan in xtranormal form on the boards.
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* I know what you're thinking: They gave him an award for sportsmanship?
** Not a Blue Fan et al. reserve the right to call us their bitches until such time as Michigan beats Ohio State in a contest of football.
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CRISP These Now!
Before 1994 this was registration. After 2000 everything was done online. In between you wanted to kill someone.
If you were at Michigan from about Tom Brady's freshman season to Drew Henson's last, you will remember the CRISP* lady. If not, consider yourself lucky that you have no idea what we're talking about. This was Michigan's phone-based class registration system before it went all internet. Imagine maneuvering through the world's most complicated touch-tone, automated service system. Now imagine the most annoying lady's voice in the world is behind all the recordings (there was a persistent rumor they were after James Earl Jones to re-record it, which I guess they never did because students who thought this was some sort of Death Star Torture device would just starting yelling out the location of the Rebels' secret base). NOW, imagine only 127 people can use it at a time, so you are given a specific time (like 7:03 a.m. to 7:26 a.m.) that you're allowed to call, and while you're fiddling around in the system and it's misreading your inputs, your classes are filling up quickly so you will need to have backups for all of your timeslots and already know their codes. Now imagine they give you rotary dialed phones in all the dorm rooms.
Nowadays if you're interested in a course, you click on it and it fits automatically into your schedule based on parameters such as location to each other, lunch break, drinking nights, and your hall's designated videogame hour, right?
This is all a long way of introducing some courses you ought to pick up:
Mississippi State 311 and 312
Course Name: History of Mississippi State's 2010 Football Team: From Arkansas to Ole Miss
Professor: BlueSeoul
Prerequisites: Mississippi State 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 207, 208, 210
Counts As: History, Non-North American/European History Requirement, Foreign Language Requirement
Course Description: Remember the series BlueSeoul was doing on watching all of MSU (NTMSU)'s games this year? He did two more: The Egg Bowl, and Arkansas (with pics and breakdowns).
The dreaded "inverted option":
We'll be seeing a lot of this play or some variation of it. Although this one isn't really part of their option series, it is third play of their sweep series. (The first 2 being the sweep and the counter sweep.) You can tell that this play is a designed QB keeper by the blocking assignments. It doesn't matter what you call it, Relf will have the ball, and he will be running between the tackles with 1, 2, or even 3 lead blockers.
MSU is in a split back slot right. Ark responds with a 4-3 and a late shift into an outside blitz. The safety moves up into man coverage and the MLB fakes a blitz.
In the comments for the Ole Miss one sammylittle asked BlueSeoul to provide a series summation before the bowl. Co-sign that!
NCAA Rankings 412
Course Name: Graph Theory Ranking: Post-Season
Professor: joeyb
Prerequisites: NCAA Rankings 312
Counts As: Statistics, Math, Global World View
Course Description: In this class you will learn which teams in FBS had the best seasons in a statistical revamp of the rankings system. Essentially it's a new computer poll, and better than some of those that are used for the BCS. Then again, uh, Auburn is 4th. Here's his Top 10:
1 Oregon 1.677444 2 Stanford 1.963008 3 TCU 2.011924 4 Auburn 2.066706 5 Oklahoma 2.25209 6 Boise State 2.321805 7 Wisconsin 2.461991 8 Ohio State 2.473381 9 Missouri 2.555164 10 Virginia Tech 2.564181
Sign up to learn more.
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* C.omputers R.eally I.rritate S.ome P.eople
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More Ohio State
This is a snapshot from this year's edition of The Game, in case you thought that was Fresno State or something opposite Denard and Co. It's also a screenshot from this year's UFR of Ohio State (Not THAT UFR). Unfortunately, Brian seems, for the moment, to be continuing the recent tradition of drowning in sorrow rather than taking the time for a post-OSU Upon Further Review since 2008. This year he didn't even bother with the un-kempt promise, which doesn't bode well for us, but UFR fans may take some solace, for the mighty mighty stubob has stepped up.
Upon Further Review: Ohio State (by stubob)
I'm still working on getting the charts a bit nicer, but the job is a good one. As Brian or anyone else who've UFR-ed a game will tell you, it's a heck of a job. And stubob did one heck of a job. Diarist of the Week.
This doesn't mean you're off the hook, Cook.
Making Grades
Kicker fail.
It's the end of the semester, which means it's time for report cards. AC1997 has a two-part series giving each position a grade. The position breakdowns are a bit strange, and it's more of a "how do we look next year" than "how did we do this year" kind of thing, but they're good reads and good argument-starters.
Quarterback ? A+
That?s right, I went there. I struggle to see how this position could be any better. Denard will be a Heisman candidate for the next two years, Tate has proven to be a very good backup quarterback and spot starter, and Devin will now be a freshman next year and one of the highest ranked dual-threat talents of the past three recruiting classes. I guess it would be nice to have a developmental prospect, but fourth string QBs grow on trees.
I took the liberty of converting to Michigan-style grading:
Offense: 2.63
Defense: 2.19
FINAL GPA: 2.42
The offense's grade was hit severely by the Failure grade at kicker, which I guess is true. I'd much rather he'd just graded '10 and left the '11 predictions for later on.
Season's Spirit
Alternate backgrounds from monuMental, depending on whether you've been naughty or nice. Does wanting to eat the "Nice" one make one naughty? Also, since I'm late in posting this week, here's this week's masterpiece:
I shall leave you with a bit of poetry from SpyinColumbus: 'Twas the week before the Gator Bowl, and back in A-squared?
Ananda Lewis Kate Bosworth Tamala Jones Yamila Diaz Alicia Keys
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