The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 8/9

The Good: Ondre Pipkins, ManBearPig 4* DT, joins the already distinguished 2012 class. Pipkins is commitment #22 for the Wolverines, and fills a position of dire need. After Will Campbell--far from a proven commodity even as a junior--there's not a whole lot. Granted, position switches will happen, and we'll see a few guys move inside as they put on weight. In any case, this is just another example of Hoke's unbelievable recruiting thus far. Beating out Alabama, Florida, OSU, etc. for a recruit is always cause for celebration.

The Bad: Coach Hoke has finally meted out the long-expected punishment in the Darryl Stonum ND-UofM Discipline Litmus Test of 2011: essentially, Hoke has put Stonum on timeout for the 2011 season. Stonum will sit in the corner this season to think about what he's done and, ostensibly, will be back next season. Insert minor grumblings along the lines of "if he was a third-string tight end he would've been gone faster than you can say POWER PLAY" but this is the way things are. Regardless, this is a point for Hoke vis a vis Brian Kelly.

In more bad news, P Will Hagerup (who missed last season's OSU game) will also miss the first four games of 2011. This is a huge blow, as it not only puts Hagerup on even thinner ice (re: his career at Michigan) but it really puts the pressure on his replacement, freshman PK Matt Wile. Hagerup was about as highly-touted as a punter can be coming out of high school, and he performed admirably in 2010. This hopefully won't matter against Western and Eastern, but will certainly be a factor against the Irish, and could even contribute to an upset bid by the Aztecs if we aren't careful. The best way to let an inferior team in a game is to give them field position, and if Wile isn't the answer then we are in trouble.

In slightly less bad news, diminutive slot ninja Terrence Robinson will also miss the opener. While we were all enamored with the"dream shake" from his high school highlight reel, he's a guy that has two career catches, and couldn't even see the field in RR's spread. Michigan will be fine in the wideout department this season, even without Stonum, so this is pretty minor.

The Ugly: Jerel Worthy's puzzling distaste for Mizzou football:

(HT: Dr. Saturday)

The best part of the whole thing isn't even the tattoo itself, but Coach Dantonio's response to it (per Worthy): "Cool tattoo." In Dantonio-speak, "cool tattoo" is equivalent to "THAT IS AMAZING MAN SERIOUSLY I  AM GENUINELY ENTHUSED" for normal human beings with emotions and a soul and whatnot. This creation is the physical embodiment of DERP. In fact, Worthy could have just tattooed DERP across his bicep and the message would have come through just the same.

Wolverine Historian: 

Announcers at the beginning mentioning Bo's Wolverines dropping 70 on Illinois the week before...Bo, making it cool to drop obscene amounts of points on the Illini way before RR made it fashionable.

More reasons to like this team:

Kevin Koger wears awesome hats and watches Dragon Ball Z (!). Awesome. Hopefully Koger doesn't take as long to develop to his full potential this season as the average DBZ story arc.



Ruffin McNeill...no longer fat, sweaty. Michigan signs 5-year extension with CBS radio. Miami football keepin' kosher. 11W covers Day 1 of fall camp in Columbus. The Wolverine Blog asks some questions, and answers them. BHGP not exactly sold on Iowa's offensive line situation. Hammer & Rails takes a look at the Hoosiers...prediction? "This has to be a win for us." Joe Pa sustains some injuries in practice...apparently wanted to just shake it off and go home but the doctors forced him to let them take a look at him. Does this mean Joe Pa goes back upstairs to the booth?

Southern Culture on the Skids

In an offseason that has been good to great for Michigan (from recruiting to the media's infatuation with Hoke to the state of Ohio State football in general), Darryl Stonum's troubles with the law have perhaps been the sole blemish. Stonum, already dealing with a second DUI and a Friday court appearance, was ticketed for driving with a suspended license on Thursday.

Man. Unless there are some really extenuating circumstances here, this is not good at all for Stonum's football career, let alone his life. Stonum was already suspended indefinitely, however the possibility of mercy is always implicitly there in big time college football. Hoke made it clear that he had not thought much of the situation (re: a "timetable" for a return) other than the whole waking up at 4 a.m. to pull heavy things the length of fiften football fields, making the 6 a.m. wake-ups handed down to Adrian Arrington seem like a pleasant way to "briskly" start the day. There was already a significant call for Hoke to demonstrate his commitment to running a respectable program by letting Stonum go, but this incident makes it essentially a done deal.

Stonum was a guy we all had high hopes for, but throughout it always seemed like we didn't get the most that we could have out of him.

(HT: Mike DeSimone)

I think we all expected him to be another Manningham (or at least a comparable player), kicking up rubber on double moves and leaving defensive backs in the dust, wondering what happened. That happened some, but not enough to get the dreaded feeling of untapped potential that all human beings wake up one day and think about. Career stats that read like this confirm this feeling with cold, hard numbers: 76 receptions, 1008 yards, 6 touchdowns. Maybe he would've been better in a traditional offense, and maybe he would've finally made that jump in 2011. I guess we'll never know. 

There is really no other option for Hoke but to let him go, and while it's always unfortunate to lose a guy you've rooted for and wished success upon for three years, so it goes. We'll always have the kickoff return against Notre Dame. If he overshot expectations in any facet of the game, it's special teams. The guy was good enough to break Steve Breaston's single season return yardage record. That's no small feat.

We'll always have that return in '09 against the Irish. I'll never forget how that play unfolded. He burst through the first level with ease, juked another, and made a bee-line for the corner of the end zone with no one even close to him. Brilliance in random, concentrated bursts...that's Darryl Stonum.