Posts Tagged ‘Michigan’
All’s Fair in Love, War and Recruiting
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 3, 2012
Forget about the fact that Urban Meyer has only been at Ohio State for two months, because it doesn’t matter. Ignore the fact that he’s still seven months away from actually leading the Buckeyes onto the field in a game that counts, because it doesn’t mean a thing. Meyer may be new in town, but that hasn’t stopped him from climbing into the head of nearly every coach in the Big Ten, thanks to a national signing day haul that left all but Michigan’s Brady Hoke in the dust. It’s Hoke, after all, who went toe-to-toe with Ohio State’s newly-minted recruiting giant and more than held his own; it’s also Hoke, reached for comment yesterday, who told an Ohio television station that recruits who have given another program their verbal commitment are still fair game.
Tags: Brady Hoke, Bret Bielema, Mark Dantonio, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Recruiting, Urban Meyer, Wisconsin
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A Few New Coaches Hit the Trail Running
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 1, 2012
A rookie head coach can offer the keys to the kingdom. That’s the usual pitch for a new staff, one that plays on the idea that unlike his predecessor, in most cases, the new head coach will be one who builds the dynasty. So be the missing piece: play immediately, for starters, but also become known as the one recruit who turned the tide. It’s a pitch that’s worked for generations, heading all the way back to Bear Bryant’s initial turn at Texas A&M more than a half-century ago and continuing with coaches like Urban Meyer, whose 2006 class at Florida ranks among the best in college football history. And a few rookie coaches, as well as a few coaches completing their first full recruiting haul – those who had only a few months to fill out a class last winter – are again using this approach to land a top 10 class in 2012.
Tags: Al Golden, Alabama, Brady Hoke, Florida, Kevin Sumlin, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Nick Saban, Ohio State, Recruiting, Texas A&M, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp
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Mississippi State Wins, Sloppiness and All
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 30, 2011
There’s making it hard on yourself, then there’s placing yourself directly between a rock and a hard place. Mississippi State should know better: prior to tonight, the Bulldogs had lost seven straight games when committing four or more turnovers, as you’d expect. The Bulldogs were 2-13 when committing at least three turnovers since 2007, as you’d also expect. But this is a team that, under Dan Mullen’s direction, has done an outstanding job protecting the football. So it was confusing — frustrating and confounding, if you were in Starkville — to see Mississippi State handle the ball so carelessly in its Music City Bowl date with Wake Forest.
Tags: Chris Relf, Dan Mullen, Michigan, Mississippi State, Music City Bowl, Vick Ballard, Wake Forest
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Bowl Travesties, from V.T. to W.K.U.
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 5, 2011
The Hokies should have been given one easy path to the B.C.S.: defeat Clemson, go to the Orange Bowl. A two-loss Virginia Tech team that beat East Carolina by a touchdown and Duke by four points should not be part of the B.C.S. bowl slate. In addition, the nation’s second-weakest B.C.S. conference should not be sending two teams to B.C.S. play. In selecting Virginia Tech, the B.C.S. selection committees passed over four teams, Boise State and Kansas State, ranked in the top 10 of the final B.C.S. standings. The Hokies were ranked 11th.
Tags: Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma, T.C.U., Urban Meyer, Virginia Tech, Western Kentucky
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Only One More, Then It’ll Be Official
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 2, 2011
There will be no more projections, procedures or hypothetical scenarios: come Sunday, it’ll all be official. With a win in their respective conference title games, Wisconsin, Oregon, Houston and Virginia Tech can punch their ticket. Win or lose, L.S.U. and Alabama will meet on Jan. 9 in New Orleans. There’s really very little still to be decided, to be honest. Maybe Georgia squeezes into the Sugar Bowl by upsetting the Tigers. Maybe Southern Mississippi ends Houston’s hopes. Maybe Stanford gets knocked out through a very strange turn of events. More likely, everything goes as expected.
Rose Bowl
Wisconsin (Big Ten) vs. Oregon (Pac-12)
Tags: Alabama, B.C.S., B.C.S. National Championship Game, Fiesta Bowl, Houston, L.S.U., Michigan, Oklahoma State, Orange Bowl, Oregon, Rose Bowl, Stanford, Sugar Bowl, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin
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Ohio State’s Foolproof Plan: Hire Meyer
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 29, 2011
There’s a splash of Earle Bruce, a dash of Sonny Lubick and a spoonful of Lou Holtz in Urban Meyer’s coaching D.N.A., but the coach who stepped to the podium at yesterday’s announcement in Columbus is all Meyer: gifted, often brilliant and always striving for perfection, Meyer is sort of coach who can turn pretenders into contenders and winners into the best team in college football. Such as he did at Bowling Green and Utah, two non-B.C.S. conferences programs who experienced nearly unparalleled heights during Meyer’s comet-like stay at each stop. And such as he did at Florida, where Meyer may have achieved the impossible: he took what Steve Spurrier had achieved at Gainesville and, perhaps, improved upon it.
Tags: Big Ten, Brady Hoke, Luke Fickell, Michigan, Ohio State, Urban Meyer
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Giving Some Thanks for Football in 2011
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 24, 2011
This is a time to give thanks. Without further ado, 10 things about college football to be thankful for in 2011:
1. That Robert Griffin III chose Baylor Griffin III eschewed offers from Tennessee, Nebraska and Houston, among others, to be the crown jewel of Art Briles’ debut recruiting class — and, more than likely, the jewel recruit of Briles’ career. What Griffin III is doing at Baylor, and how he’s doing it, has rapidly become the stuff of legend. And that he opted to play in Waco, for a program long considered a college football wasteland, has led to near universal praise, not the sort of nitpicking lobbed at the rest of football’s elite quarterbacking class — Andrew Luck, for instance.
Tags: Alabama, B.C.S., Baylor, David Shaw, Hugh Freeze, Kansas, Michigan, Mike Leach, Missouri, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Broyles, Sun Belt, Texas, Texas A&M, Willie Taggart
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After Saturday, A New B.C.S. Look
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 22, 2011
Newton’s third law: to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. Push; push back. One step forward; one step back. Take this past Saturday, for instance. Nebraska falls; Michigan rises. Oklahoma falls; Alabama rises. Oklahoma State falls; Alabama rises. Oregon falls; Alabama rises. Are you aware that a B.C.S. and SEC rematch is a near certainty, barring a monumental L.S.U. collapse? And that Alabama’s road to the B.C.S. National Championship Game seems even more certain? Get ready. And remember that all scenarios to follow are completely hypothetical:
Rose Bowl
Wisconsin (Big Ten) vs. Oregon (Pac-12)
Tags: Alabama, B.C.S., B.C.S. National Championship Game, Fiesta Bowl, Houston, L.S.U., Louisville, Michigan, Oklahoma, Orange Bowl, Oregon, Rose Bowl, Stanford, Sugar Bowl, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin
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