I apologize for the fact that this looks like crap. I’ll have Paul fix it later.

McGuffie is in town AS WE SPEAK on an unofficial visit, and Stonum’s decision is pending Sunday at 2p.m. This list is more of a best guess than all-inclusive or exclusive.

Posted under Recruiting

Darryl Stonum, Texas WR extroardinaire, has set an announcement date. Stonum, he of the first name spelled a different way in every article (Daryl? Daryll?), will choose between Michigan USC, and Florida on Sunday.

The announcement by Scout’s #15 Wide Receiver will be aired on the local NBC affiliate, KPRC (Channel 2). With Michigan’s other big WR targets reportedly looking elsewhere (Jon Baldwin to Notre Dame and Fred Smith to Michigan State), if Stonum goes blue, it will be great news for the good guys.

Posted under Recruiting

Cobrani Mixon is gone gone gone…

He’s transferring, either to Kent State or Cincinnati. Teh Facebooxz provides this evidence: “Cobrani is done with michigan this is his last night eva….”

This opens up one more scholarship for the future, giving the 2008 recruiting class a magic number of 18 for now. See the chart here (or any time by clicking on “important posts” in the sidebar)

Posted under Recruiting

Incoming freshman WR Toney Clemons participated in the Big 33 All-Star game last night, helping Pennsylvania defeat Ohio 28-10.

Clemons had 3 catches for 72 yards, and a kickoff return for 35 yards. He also returned 3 punts, though the results on those were less than stellar, as he lost ground trying to go for a big play.

Possible highlights coming later in the day.

Posted under Personnel

Game times for the football contests against Oregon and Notre Dame have both been announced. Both home games will be on ABC at 3:30 PM. Oregon is a likely candidate for College GameDay to show up in Ann Arbor. Both teams will be undefeated (Oregon will have played Houston, Michigan will have played App. State), and it will be an opportunity for GameDay to show up in Ann Arbor, where they haven’t been since the 2003 OSU game. A potential hurdle is the fact that ND @ Penn State that day is also on ESPN, and ESPN has a hard-on for Notre Dame, despite the fact that ND shuns ESPN.

The Notre Dame game is a possibility, but less likely, as Notre Dame would have to beat
Georgia Tech (which they should), in addition to upsetting Penn State to be undefeated in week 3.

The other games with times already announced are the Purdue game for homecoming, which will be at noon, and the Illinois road game, which will be at 8:00 PM (7 local). Neither game has had its television coverage announced. The Appalachian State game time (and network)
should be announced sometime in June or July, and the rest of the game times will be announced after the start of the season.

If Wisconsin and Michigan both do as well as they are expected to this year, the road contest in Madison will assuredly be a night contest, and a likely candidate for GameDay as well. Michigan should probably be undefeated at that point, with the toughest game against Penn State, and Wisconsin would likely be as well, though they will have to get through Iowa, Ohio State, and Penn State.

Posted under Misc.

The annual Carr’s Wash for Kids event, during which you can pay $25 to have your car washed by UM football players, takes place from 12:30 to 2 PM. All proceeds go to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, which has been the benefactor of much Carr generosity in the past.

It’s a good way to have fun and support a good cause before heading to your local sports bar to catch the UM baseball team take on the Beavers of Oregon State at 3:0 PM.

Posted under Misc.

Andy Katz has written an interesting article on coaching succession in college. He isn’t talking about football (his focus is on Syracuse basketball), but this is certainly a relevant topic for the imminent retirement of Lloyd Carr.

Linky

Will Michigan follow the suit of Syracuse basketball (and Wisconsin football), or let Lloyd retire before searching for a head coaching candidate? It seems that, although Syracuse and Wisconsin certainly look forward, it’s definitely not a trend in the NCAA.

My take on the matter is that I would like to have a successor named prior to Lloyd’s final season (which is likely to come this year, or almost certainly in 2008). This would ease possible hits to recruiting, because recruits would know there is going to be continuity, and other head coaches (Miles, Meyer, Weis), would not be able to cast doubt on Lloyd’s tenure as head coach. Naming a successor would likely require promoting from within, something I am in favor of, though many in the Wolverine Nation are not.

Internal Candidates
The two prime internal candidates are quite obviously the two coordinators, OC Mike Debord and DC Ron English. Erik Campbell has been associate head coach for a while, but I don’t believe that he is looked at as a legitimate head coaching candidate, or he probably would have been promoted to a coordinator position in his 13 years at Michigan.

Ron English
One knock on English is that he hasn’t proven that he is a great coach, but rather than he is a great motivator and recruiter. However, my opinion on the matter is that those two domains are where the head coach must excel, and let his coordinators and other assistants do the scheming, etc. Another advantage of English is that he has shown to have a slightly more aggressive philosophy than fans are used to seeing from the Maize and Blue. English is a hot commodity, and it is likely that he would last only one or two more years as a Michigan assistant before being hired as a head coach either here or somewhere else.

Mike Debord
Debord, on the other hand, is a less exciting candidate. He gets a lot of (undeserved) flak for being uninspiring in his offense, but he is a brilliant coordinator and game planner, with the sole exception of the Rose Bowl debacle. Debord showed at Central Michigan that he may not be the most successful head coach in the world, but one must take into account the inherent advantages that Michigan holds over a MAC program. Still, a head coach shouldn’t need to have built-in advantages to succeed, and perhaps a better head coach (who could succeed at the lower level), would be able to use these advantages to take the program to all-new heights.

If you disagree with my take on the matter, feel free to debate in the comments.

Posted under Coaching

…which is Cold Pizza, but with a less retarded name.

When asked about LeBron, he said that King James is the only reason people in Cleveland are talking about basketball, instead of just the Browns with his boy Braylon. He was talking to Dana (another Michigan alum) and she dug it.

Also, arghhh boring offseason.

Posted under Blog News

There are courtesy of Scout Message Board user SuperStudSteve (ironically, an OSU fan who isn’t even named Steve).

White and Blue Away:

White on White Away:

Yellow on Blue Home:

Yellow on Yellow Home:

The away ones are Adrian Arrington from the Penn State game last year, and the home mockups are Marshawn Lynch with Mike Hart’s head (note the Cal logo on the V-neck).

My Opinion:

White on Blue looks alright, though I’m not sure it’s an improvement over the yellow pants. Personally, I think all away jerseys are getting a little played out (Texas does it best), and am not interested in seeing them (I know we had them in the 70s or 80s).
As far as the home Jerseys, I think the all yellow looks like crap. The yellow-on-blue, on the other hand, I wouldn’t mind seeing a maximum of once a year for a special occasion. The majority of fans who are opposed think the “tradition” of the home jerseys shouldn’t be tampered with. However, like Brian feels toward night games, I don’t think a special occasion-type uniform would bring a certain energy to the team (think: maize out), and couldn’t hurt in marketing the program a bit (it would be a big enough deal to get play on random ESPN talk show #s 1-6).

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Posted under Misc.

Didn’t have a whole lot of nice things to say about Michigan, though the interview he gave was a fluff piece for the Stanford Scout site, so I guess that’s to be expected.

The Eligibility Chart and Depth Chart have been updated accordingly.

At this point, I will refrain from commenting on pot-gate.

Posted under Personnel