So that's happening and it won't be slightly awkward for everyone that has read Three and Out. Nope, not at all.
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Regression is Progression: In actual football-related news, Hoke gives Denard the ol' vote of confidence:
"I think he’s gotten better every week, within the offense," Hoke said Tuesday during his weekly conference call with reporters. "I think the way he goes out every day, and his work ethic every day, his leadership and his real attention to detail, whether it be in the pro-game or carrying it, (helps him adjust)."
Wait, he's getting better? If following Michigan football the past several years has taught me anything, it's that every individual mistake or bad game is reason to sound the OMG REGRESSION alarms. Coach Hoke, are you saying that there are certain things we can't necessarily see, and that the world isn't a black and white caricature of regression and progression? My God, this changes everything. I guess we can all breathe easy and stop presaging the fall of empires every time Denard throws an incomplete pass.
Opponents, They Watchin' Us: The straightforwardly named Corn Nation takes a look at the Wolverines. Most of it actually seems to be a pre-season preview, but I only mention it to include this part:
Throughout Rich Rodriguez's three year run at Michigan, we've repeatedly noted the similarities between Rodriguez and Bill Callahan's career at Nebraska. Granted, they were mirror images, taking teams in opposite directions philosophically, but the result was the same: square peg, round hole.
/weeps
Job Huntin': Rich Rodriguez talks to Tim Brando about his job prospects. The only noteworthy parts--other than RR's declaration of still having the "hunger to coach"--are: a) Houston Nutt said something sort of intelligent and b) RR's legal issues with both WVU and Michigan are over and should not present a problem for future employers (per RR, at least).
To the first point, Nutt, the SEC's Zook, explained who I thought would be a good fit at a place like Ole Miss, mentioning Mike Leach in the process. Basically, Ole Miss needs somebody with a "different" (see: "spread") approach in order to mitigate the talent, facilities, and tradition gaps. Despite recruiting enough people per class to fill CHEM 1800, things haven't worked out for Coach Nutt, but that doesn't mean that nobody can do it. Nutt is just a bad coach; RR is not. However, as long as Miles and Saban are chilling in the SEC West (and even Petrino, I guess), it'll be hard for anybody to really be successful*.
He says we'll see what happens in the next three or four weeks, so whether or not that is an actual timetable...you've got to think that things should start to move in the near future once certain guys get fired and ADs fire up the university jets.
*Dan Mullen says "Hey, remember me!"
Early Season Hoops: Michigan defeated Towson on Monday, 64-47 (UMHoops, as always, has it covered with a phenomenal recap). This means very little in the grand scheme of things. The fact that Michigan got outscored after a 21-0 run to start the game? Not really too worrisome given the protean nature of the lineups at this point, not to mention the fact that the team is still fairly young.
The only thing that really matter is that Michigan got the win, which teams like UCLA and Vandy can't say. I'm pretty sure nobody is going to remember Duke's one point win against Belmont come tourney time. That said, winning each and every one of these games is critical because you don't want to see a cupcake under the 'Bad Losses' line of the ESPN bubble team graphic. In any case, a few meaningless observations:
- Horford looks pretty solid so far. The added weight is definitely a plus...where as he was sort of useless on the offensive end and was just sort of a tall noodly guy on the defensive end last year, he could be a contributor this year, especially if Morgan continues to suffer from the departure of his benefactor Darius Morris.
- Smotrycz also looks like a guy who will see the added weight pay off once the conference schedule begins. He caught a lot of flak from some people last year but I'm pretty excited to see him develop.
- Burke will be a good one. It's refreshing to see the outside shooting coming from that spot on the floor (one of Morris's few flaws as a player), but it's hard to gather much else given the limited serious pressure he got in this game against a severely overmatched opponent. Let's see how he does against an athletic Memphis team, Duke/Tennessee, and even UVA on the road in Charlottesville.
- 3-point shooting was pretty terrible, which should generally be pretty scary but especially for a Beilein-coached team. But, like I said, it's early in the season and everything will come in time. These games are basically practice, man.
Michigan looks to go 3-0 on Thursday against Western Illinois (8:30 ET, ESPN3). I won't be coming in for the Nebraska game until the following morning so I won't be able to make it but, Ann Arborites: can we sort of try to fill up Crisler this year? This team is exciting and for the first time in a while we have a guy that can evaluate talent and get his players to confidently execute a system. I know these early season games aren't the most exciting but it's pretty sad to see Crisler look so empty outside of the Maize Rage.
More? As much as I made fun of Zook...reporters, they are annoying. Lot's of guys that run the ball well in the Big House this Saturday...that's BIG TEN FOOTBAW right there. Butch Davis is like "hey guys that wasn't my fault." Urban Meyer's response to Arizona's job offer: HALOL.
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