Miscellaneous Minutiae, 7/18/2012

Jeremy Lin, money, and more money. This is only tangentially relevant, but MSG's--the Knicks ownership group--decision not to match the Houston Rockets' offer sheet for Jeremy Lin and the preemptive justification of this decision by MSG made me laugh and then reminded me of Brian's post from yesterday about the Rose Bowl: yes, in the end, it's all about the money. Sometimes certain stories pop up and for a little while make you believe that at least some infinitesimal portion of the experience is reserved for things other than money (pride, tradition, passion, etc.) Unfortunately, it becomes increasingly obvious that it is always about the money, 100% of the time, every time.

According to Chris Marangi, a portfolio manager at MSG's third-largest shareholder, Gamco Investors, Inc.:

“We like it when companies shop for bargains, and Ray Felton looks like a bargain compared to Jeremy Lin,” Marangi said. “We’re value investors.”

Like the people in change of running college football, it seems that the people in charge of decisions made my professional sport franchises are equally as out of touch and myopic. You could make an argument for the riskiness behind keeping a guy like Lin at that cost, but there were many more reasons in favor of keeping him.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that people who only care about money, besides not understanding how sports team work and operate, often only care about short-term returns. Without venturing into a rant about this being symptomatic of Knicks ownership's complete ineptitude since the beginning of the new millennium*, it's frustrating to see monied interests continue to be short-sighted, especially when it would seem against their own interests.

To be honest, I'm actually kind of shocked that this whole playoff thing even happened in the first place given the aversion to change among most people in sports with money and a position of power. This calls to mind the constant reference to how "the bowls have been good to us" by various Big Ten folks throughout these playoff negotiations.

Then again, it remains to be seen how different the new playoff structure will actually be; from were I stand, it seems as if it will be not that different.

*And I'm not even a Knicks fans (I'm a Bulls fans). So, really, this is actually a good thing, but my point still stands. James Dolan and whoever else was in charge of this decision are being extremely short-sighted at best and potentially petty and vindictive at worst (if rumors of jealousy within the organization coughCarmelocough are to be believed).

Tony Barnhart on Alabama's biggest losses. Tony Barnhart briefly addresses Alabama's significant defensive turnover and which players will end up being the biggest losses for Saban's Gradgrindian, buzzsaw of a defense. Alabama lost two starting corners from last season's team, first round pick Dre Kirkpatrick and DeQuan Menzie. As such, Saban dipped into the nebulous pool of JUCO talent and emerged with two corners, Deion Belue and Travell Dixon:

Based on my last conversation with Saban, both Belue and Dixon will be ready to play against Michigan on Sept. 1.
"Our system is not as complicated as some people make it out to be," Saban said. "Both guys picked it up well, and I expect them to contribute."
The rule of thumb in the SEC is that you don't bring in juco players to sit on the bench.

 If there is a light at the end of the tunnel--as I mentioned in the Alabama preview posts--it's that Saban felt the need to grab not one but two JUCO corners. The Crimson Tide do return Dee Milliner, a former 5-star who has logged a significant number of starts in his own right, but it doesn't seem like Alabama has much in the way of experienced depth after Milliner. Either way, Belue and Dixon will definitely be on the field on September 1st, which should be a good thing.

Personally, I think that Mark Barron will prove to be Alabama's biggest defensive loss. The Tide lost a lot on the front 7, but they do return a lot of talent and athleticism. I do like Vinnie Sunseri and Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix as players, but asking them to replicate Barron's play at strong safety in week 1 is asking a little much, IMO. Both are excellent talents receiving some of the best (if not the best) defensive coaching in the country, but if Al Borges and Michigan are looking for some potential weakness to target and play off of, the strong safety spot might be it.

Spencer Hall on Day 1 of SEC Media Days. You would think that I, a Michigan fan and alum, would feel above the notion of watching even one solitary second of SE Media Day coverage. You would think that, and you'd be absolutely wrong.

As much as I hate to say it, the B1G's collection of coaches are fairly bland compared to the SEC's, which can be good or bad, a dichotomy that directly correlates to how many people you've forced off of your lawn in the past year or so. If the answer is "a lot of people," then you probably find this to be a good thing.

Whatever your opinion on the matter, it's undeniably true that media days are infinitely more entertaining when coaches actually say things. After day 1, Steve Spurrier openly made fun of Ole Miss, Kevin Sumlin and Gary Pinkel spent much of their time at the podium being all "hey guys we've played competitive football before you know", and James Franklin literally made me want to put on helmet and tackle random people while quoting Shakespeare. It was an eventful day.

Instead of blabbering on any more, just read Spencer's account of the proceedings. It is very good.

True freshmen contributors: hopefully there are less of 'em. Kyle Meinke and Nick Baumgardner run down the list of potential true freshmen contributors, debating an arbitrary O/U of 6. As Meinke notes, Michigan returned 14 starters and played 7 true freshmen in 2006 (Michigan returns 15 starters this year). I find it hard to believe that Michigan plays less than that number this year.

Pipkins, Darboh, and Chesson are the candidates that come to mind first. After that, Kalis and Bolden seem like pretty good bets (although I think that everyone would hope for a redshirt for the former). Dennis Norfleet should get on the field in some capacity. Safety depth is not exactly tremendous; Jarrod Wilson will probably see the field. An injury to either Kovacs or Thomas Gordon--KNOCK ON WOOD--and Wilson is becomes understudy #1 after Marvin Robinson slides into the starting lineup.

That's 7 already, and I'm sure there will be others. Devin Funchess and AJ Williams probably aren't ready to play yet, but Michigan's TE two-deep is pretty grim. Other than that, who knows. This isn't NCAA, so there will always be guys losing redshirts that you, the all-knowing fan, might not agree with. In any case, I think it's safe to say that the less true freshmen that end up playing, the better.

More? If you didn't know anything about this whole situation, you'd think that Mizzou's and TAMU's tackles were preparing to block literal forces of nature this fall...stinks to be them, PAWL. Darius Morris picture in the excellently named Laker blog Silver Screen and Roll captioned "No more turnovers!" FWIW. Ramon Sessions's departure means nothing with Nash coming in, and Darius still has to beat out Steve Blake for the backup spot.

Bill Carmody has been recruiting surprisingly well of late for the Wildcats...I'm starting to get behind this Northwestern team as one that can grab a tourney berth even in spite of John Shurna's departure. I agree with Lake the Posts; this team, somehow, seems deeper and better equipped to avoid those late season failures than in years past.

Although I almost stopped reading after the Ayn Rand reference in the beginning, this just about sums up the folly of the Knicks' decision to not retain Lin's services.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time

This week in shameless self-promotion:

• Over at Maize n Brew, I wrote a thing about Nathan Scheelhaase last week to end Illinois preview week. Poor man's Denard or rich man's Terrance Owens? Why am I even asking this question? 

• I also wrote way too many words about the state of Northwestern football; this can be found here. 

• Lastly, I put in a few words on freshman safety Jarrod Wilson, whose CV currently reads: "Is a safety; talented, motivated, self-starter. Proficient in MS Word and Excel. Social media expert. Trucked by Thomas Rawls one time, but whatever." 

In other news, the BWC incident definitely does not require a full post--or even its own bullet point--so this sums up my reaction about as well as any number of words could: 

Spring Game Thoughts of Debatable Utility

A Preface: The Spring Game is meant to be a glorified practice. Nothing that happened in Michigan's spring game yesterday should be used to predict anything that might happen in the fall. It is an event that's simply meant to be a fun way for fans to watch some pseudo-footbaw in April. That's it. As such, all of the following are simply observations on what happened on Saturday, in a vacuum. 

• On the brightness of the helmet numbers: I am about to give you all a history lesson, free of charge. Many grade school teachers will tell you that, back in the day, as the Roman Empire was collapsing in the west, that it was all the the product of multiple centuries' worth of societal, political, and economic strife, not to mention the incessant waves of Germanic invasions that eventually brought the empire to its knees in the officially accepted year of collapse, AD 476. Do you want to the real reason for the empire's collapse? The by and large  obscure Roman emperor Davidus Brandanius issued an edict that called for "the inscription of excessively shiny numbers and #GOROME on each Roman soldier's helmet." This was of course done in order to spread the brand of Rome far and wide, as conquered peoples would see this inscriptions and cease to resist the Roman intrusions on their land. I mean, who wouldn't want to engage in and be a part of such a thing? Exactly. Unfortunately, in later battles, the sun would reflect upon these brightly painted inscriptions, reflecting sunlight off of the helmets and into each soldier's eyes, leading to massive breakdowns in the phalanx formation, and, ultimately, defeat in battle and general ownage at the hands of the various Germanic invaders. We would do well to learn from the mistakes of the past. 

          Okay, that was stupid. Tl;dr--who cares. Moving on!

• Devin Gardner: I guess you can't really start anywhere else. I spent last season defending Denard against the "play Devin" people and it looks like I'll spend this offseason defending Devin against the "move him to wide receiver" folks. For the record, I do think he should absolutely get on the field as a receiver if he proves to be up to it, but if Hoke says he's the QB2 then that's enough for me. 
• A couple errant throws shouldn't be enough to freak people out, particularly since said people are probably the same ones who were calling for Devin to take over last year because of his passing ability. Remember, these guys haven't played in front of large numbers of people since January, and it's not like Devin has all that much game experience anyway. 
• I understand the fact that, being a rising junior, many are expecting "more" from Devin, but it doesn't work out that way all the time. The INT wasn't great but it was just a solid break on the ball by Countess; Devin wasn't locked onto Jeremy Jackson, Navarre-style. Jackson also could have done a better job of understanding where Countess was and working his way back to the ball, but Gardner needed to either get the ball out a second earlier or he shouldn't have thrown it at all. You live and learn. I believe Denard when he says that this outing was not indicative of how Devin has performed in practice. 
• He short-hopped one and then awkwardly shotputted a checkdown but looked much more comfortable looking downfield, where he completed an intermediate pass down the middle of the field to Jeremy Gallon (the pass was a little behind Gallon, but good enough to be completed). His footwork and mechanics weren't great on this day, but you have to figure that general rust and/or nervousness played somewhat of a factor. In short, better to get these sorts of things worked out now than in September. 
• On the positive side, Gardner looked as athletic as ever when the pass wasn't there. Of course, it's easy to run when you know you're not about to get thumped. However, it is nice to know that if Denard has to step out for a play or two, we can bring in a supremely athletic 6'4'' guy at quarterback. 

Blake Countess getting some run with the offense...wait, what? 

(Melanie Maxwell/annarbor.com)

• Russell Bellomy: On a related note, Bellomy looked like he could be a capable option down the road (as much as one can say such a thing after watching a spring scrimmage). He left that pass to Jerald Robinson, forcing him to go to his knees to catch it, but overall it's difficult to make any sweeping generalizations about arm strength given the nature of the passes he was throwing. Bellomy does look the part of the ideal Borges quarterback, however, and with another year of seasoning and some badly needed time in the weight room, I wouldn't be surprised to see him challenge for playing time next year and the year after (and yes, I am figuring Shane Morris's arrival into that outlook). 

• Wide receivers: It wasn't an impressive day for the receivers, but, again, general spring game caveat goes here. There was really no effort to stretch the field, and let's not forget that Michigan actually has competent to pretty good players in the secondary these days. It's difficult to make a real assessment here because I was watching on TV, but it's unclear for me whether or not the wideouts were simply not getting open or if Devin was hesitant to hit them, particularly after the INT. Whatever the case may be, I think it's fairly obvious that we need Jerald Robinson to step up or we're going to be hoping that Darboh or Chesson fill the big WR role when they get to Ann Arbor in the fall. He definitely looks the part but didn't seem to do much on Saturday (2 rec., 9 yards). 

• Desmond Morgan injury: Let's hope that it isn't anything serious, because that would be an awful loss even if we're talking about him simply missing some summer conditioning/player practices. I didn't catch this live, but apparently this is what knocked him out. That's what you like to see from your tailbacks, and Fitz will definitely need to do that a few times against Alabama's 3-4 outside backers if Michigan wants to keep Denard in one piece. 

• Hawthorne and Jones: Other than sounding like a law firm, these two had a productive day. Sure, they were up against walk-ons and backups most of the time, but they are experienced players that can fill in if injuries strike (knock on wood). This, folks, is what elite teams call "depth." Depth, meet Michigan football, Michigan football, meet depth. FWIW, the same positive depth-related sentiments apply for the secondary and guys like Courtney Avery, Raymon Taylor, and Terrence Talbott. Hawthorne's hit on Justice Hayes was the speedy, slashing sort of play that we've seen Hawthorne make before, namely early on in the 2011 season (e.g. the Notre Dame game). 

• Denard: A short day, obviously, but he did make a couple of crisp completions, first on the slant to Gallon and second on a rollout to Roundtree near the right sideline. These may seem like routine plays, but they really haven't been for Denard. If he can make these sorts of throws with consistency, the offense gets better by at least an order of magnitude. This will be especially true against Alabama, as I would imagine that Borges will look to move the pocket fairly often.

• Thomas Rawls: A Bull Moose like Teddy Roosevelt. But, seriously, he looks like the stereotypical Big Ten mooseback. On the 21-yard TD run in the first half, Washington, Ash, and Heitzman were on the field for the defense. Rawls eluded a flailing tackle attempt from Heitzman in the hole, while Washington made a similar attempt but didn't come nearly as close as Heitzman did. On the second level, Rawls broke a tackle attempt from early enrollee Jarrod Wilson en route to daylight and the end zone. All in all a poor sequence of events for the defense, but it's nice to see Rawls hit the hole hard. It was very reminiscent of Kevin Grady's touchdown against Vanderbilt in 2006. No matter what Fred Jackson says, Grady is the obvious YMRMFSPA for Rawls. 

• Defensive line aka I'M SO GLAD OUR FIRST GAME IS AGAINST ALABAMA WOO: This might be the only unit to add to any Michigan fan's list of THINGS TO BE DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT, but that's only because these concerns existed the second after the careers of Mike Martin, Ryan van Bergen and Will Heininger ended. Hoke calling the interior of the defense "soft" is not a good sign, but is also standard motivational verbiage. I will say, however, that people should be careful when they try to parse Hoke's pressers, especially when he uses words like "soft" or "physical." Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Hoke uses these words as a catch-all for "bad" and "good" play. Of course, the interior needs to get better, but I'm not sure that any problems on Saturday were the result of guys like Campbell, Washington, Ash, Black, etc. just not playing hard enough or tough enough. In any case, minus the TD run from Rawls and some nice runs from Fitz, it's not like the interior was getting blown up with regularity. On the flip side, there wasn't much push up the middle or general pressure, but, you know...whatever. There's a long way to go until September 1st. 

• Chris Bryant: Is huge. Hoke emphasized that there's always competition for every position, which is typical coachspeak but you get the feeling that he means it more than a lot of coaches do when they say those sorts of things. Mealer and Omameh are ostensibly the starters at LG and RG if the season started today, but it seems that neither position is safe, which is a latter more worrisome vis-a-vis Omameh. 

• Toussaint: There's not much to say. No offense to Brandon Minor, but Toussaint is Michigan's first All-Big Ten type player since Hart. Fitz looked quick, agile, and showed a bit of power in finishing his runs, namely one play which ended with him essentially bowling over J.T. Floyd near the sideline. There are some question marks on this team, but one thing I'm fairly sure of: Fitz is about to have a monster year.

Well-executed inside zone for 10 (HT: mgovideo)

• The Michigan Defense's Excellent Adventure: Given Jake Ryan's neck roll and several other players sporting the half jersey thing, Michigan's defense looked like it arrived at Michigan Stadium straight from the 1980s via some sort of time traveling phone booth. Whatever works, guys. If the defense can continue to play like those vintage Bo defenses from the 1980s then keep on keepin' on. 

• Philanthropy!: Spring game donations for Mott amounted to a whopping $161,080, and that is apparently before it will be matched by the Beam family. Well done everybody.