The second round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (current bracket HERE – background here). Here’s a printable version. Bill Cowher (CBS analyst) vs. Cam Cameron (Miami Dolphins) How they got here: Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher received a bye in the first round as the #2 seed in the region while Cam Camerson absolutely crushed Mike DeBord in the first round. Bill Cowher [bio from CBS] is of course the former Steelers headman who’s last game was the victory in Super Bowl XL just up the road in Detroit. Many see Cowher as a great fit for the college game. He’s emotional and seems to have a good rapport with his players (despite the allegations in Jerome Bettis’s book). The question for NFL coaches always seems to come down to whether they’d be willing to do the other things that come with the job, that is, not just call plays and review film, but recruit, do charitable work, represent the community, turn boys into men. Cowher is one of those NFL coaches that seems to be worth a shot. My question on Cowher is why would he take a college gig? Yes, NFL jobs are more work but couldn’t he name his price if and when he decides to return to coaching? Who wouldn’t shell out $6M for…
-
-
Crisler Region Round II: Kelly v. Pinkel
The second round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (current bracket HERE – background here). Here’s a printable version. Brian Kelly (Cincinnati) vs. Gary Pinkel (Missouri) How they got here: Coach Kelly received a bye in the first round as the top seed in the region, Gary Pinkel won a tight battle with Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema in the first round. Brian Kelly [bio, Cincinnati official site] is a name that’s come up quite a bit with respect to this job. He was a strong candidate for the Spartan job but something happened somewhere along the way and MSU ended up with Mark Dantonio. Shortly thereafter Kelly then replaced Dantonio as the Bearcats coach. Word on the street is that there’s some serious hard feelings between Kelly and MSU following the hiring process, so much that Kelly wouldn’t release one of his players to rejoin Dantonio. Jim Carty of the AA News wrote on this during the summer. Kelly’s pedigree is of course largely based in Michigan, first he had ridiculous success at Grand Valley State leading his teams to multiple national titles, and then in 2005 to Mount Pleasant where he led the Central Michigan to a league championship. He took over after current M offensive coordinator Mike DeBord quit. There’s risk is giving Kelly the job. Let’s put…
-
Michigan Football Lost Luggage in 1914
There’s been so many great items auctioned lately and this one is really nice. A pre-WWI scorecard from the Wolverines trip to play Harvard. The piece consists of 4 pages: the cover, an layout of the starting line-ups, a scorecard and roster, and finally a list of key college football rule changes for 1914. Pretty cool. It fetched a sweet $366.50 on eBay. Check it out: Rule ChangesOne cool thing about scorecard is the back cover lists ‘Important Changes in 1914 Football Rules.’ You could tell the college football rulesmakers were concerned solidifying some of the rules around the game’s latest innovation: the forward pass. Two of the key rules listed in the scorecard related to the quarterback position. It didn’t take folks long to realize that a QB shouldn’t be able to dump the ball to avoid a sack: 3. A penalty to 10 yards is inflicted on the team attempting a forward pass, and, finding the making of the pass impossible, intentionally incompleting the pass by grounding the ball. While taking away the ability to ground the ball, they knew back then that they’d need to protect those precious quarterbacks: 4. There shall be no roughing of the player who has just made a forward pass. Street Clothed WarriorsThe trip to Cambridge was a big one from the…
-
So you hate Ferentz
Jeez. I guess you hate Kirk Ferentz. Evidence, as if I needed it: 1. The barrage of callers to WTKA this morning freaking out over the prospect. 2. Over 500 votes later into Round II of Death March Madness, and Bobby Petrino (at best a sketchy candidate for this job) takes down #1 seed Ferentz. 3. Jim Carty, while not accepting any of the rumors just yet, cited several reasons to question Ferentz’s character.
-
Yost Region Round II: English v Gruden
The second round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (current bracket HERE – background here). Here’s a printable version. Ron English (Michigan D coordinator) vs. Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay Bucs) How they got here: #2 seed Gruden received a bye in the first round. Ron English won a close match-up against Wake Forest headman Jim Grobe in the first round which really could have gone either way. English pulled away late. As for Ron English, what a difference a year makes [bio mgoblue.com]. If we went back into time, just prior to the Ohio State game in 2006 I think Ron English would hands down be the choice to succeed Carr by the majority of Michigan fans. The only concern back then would have been experience and this concern remains. Michigan went on to lose four straight ugly games (OSU, USC, Appalachian State, Oregon) and now they’ve lost two more. The defense has looked shaky all year and the idea of English becoming the next head man at Michigan is tough to envision. He’ll get an interview and he’ll make his case, but my guess is that the Wolverines and English will be parting ways next season. He’s clearly got a lot of fans as he received the most votes out of any candidate in Round 1. His passion is…
-
The Biggest Losers
Sports Illustrated ran a factoid this week [Defeat Don’t Fail Me Now – Sports’ Biggest Losers] that listed the players with the worst winnings percentages in games which they’ve appeared. Heading up the NBA and NFL are Michigan grads: Jamal Crawford [Michigan ’00] leads this painful category in the NBA with a .303 winning percentage over his career, nearly thirty points lower than his closest rival. He’s played for the Bulls when they sucked, and now is on the freakshow that is Isiah Thomas’s Knicks. James Hall’s [Michigan ’99] really been on the losing end. He of course been with the NFL’s worst in the Detroit Lions for several years and lately caught on with lowly St. Louis. He’s walked off a loser in nearly 75% of the games he’s played, “tops” in the NFL. Yikes. Don’t cry too much for these guys. The fact that they even qualified for this thing means they’ve been in professionals at the highest level for quite a while, and played in a bunch of games. At the time of the piece, Crawford had played in 461 NBA games; Hall in 99 NFL contests.
-
Kipke Region Round II: Ferentz v. Petrino
The second round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (current bracket HERE – background here). Here’s a printable version. Kirk Ferentz (Iowa) vs. Bobby Petrino (Atlanta Falcons) How they got here: Ferentz received a bye in the first round as the top seed in the region, Bob Petrino crushed Kansas State coach Ron Prince in the first round. We’ll start with Ferentz [bio, Iowa official site]. Born in Royal Oak Michigan, Ferentz’s career took him from places like Connecticut, Maine, and even the Cleveland Browns under NFL coaching god Bill Belichick before settling in at Iowa. As one of legendary coach Heyden Fry’s star pupils in the 1980s, Ferentz returned to the Hawkeyes in 1999. His status as a candidate is elevated by the fact that current Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman was the Iowa president at the time of the hiring. He’s had a tough season and there are a few in Iowa City that feel the bloom is off the Rose. A season ending loss to Western Michigan didn’t help things. In the past couple days we’ve heard the Ferentz name come up more and more, to the point that there’s a rumor that the Iowa coach has been offered the Wolverine job. Of course we don’t know if that’s true, and if true, whether Ferentz would leave…
-
Just Rumors – Ferentz offered?
Can’t anyone keep a secret anymore!! From the man that nailed the Lloyd Carr retirement details, Brian at MGoBlog posted the word that Ferentz was offered the gig: I’ve sat on this a couple days waiting for some third-party corroboration and now I have it: Kirk Ferentz has been offered the Michigan job. The general feeling is he will turn it down out of fidelity to Iowa, in case you were thinking of making a late-night run to Ann Arbor (or Iowa City) Torch & Pitchfork. I do realize that this — unlike the Lloyd thing — is unlikely to ever be publicly acknowledged if Ferentz turns it down, but this comes from someone in a position to know, and how. Also unconfirmed rumor: I saw Mary Sue C. sneaking out of Brian’s apartment early this morning. And how!