We touched on it briefly last night but in case you missed it, Raekwon McMillan, the country's best inside linebacker prospect and Meyer target, is writing a blog twice a month to share thoughts about his life and the recruitment process.
Yesterday's edition had some pretty choice cuts, none finer than McMillan's excerpt of Urban:
Of all the head coaches recruiting me, I'd say Urban Meyer is probably the funniest.
He calls me "Bubble." That's because he said I have a linebacker butt. I have a wide butt with a great leg base. Every time we talk, he calls me that.
He says all great athletes have huge butts and great strength bases there. He was telling me about guys like Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes and Percy Harvin. Guys like that. He said they were built the same way. That's a great comparison. I just hope I can pan out like that.
With Alabama also in hot pursuit of the freakish talent out of Georgia, he's had plenty of contact with Nick Saban. How does McMillan compare Nicky Satan to Urbz?
"Nick Saban is a lot more straight forward. He's all business when it comes to stuff with football. But when it comes to recruiting, he's not. He told me if he could go out and recruit more, he would do it. "
"He can be pretty funny, too. A lot of people don't think he laughs, but I've seen him laugh. I mean, it was surprising at first. But then you get to know him, and he does it a lot. He thinks it's funny what people say about him. "
"He talks about how people call him the devil. He just says he didn't know winning football games would give you that moniker."
It is pretty funny that Saban would bring up the devil stuff with recruits. Speaking of Tusca-Lucifer himself, Scott Pioli became the latest football man to stick up for Saban saying:
"I know Nick is a tremendous coach and he's a tough worker. He's a tough boss but I know a lot of people that are tough bosses."
"I'll say this about Nick: I think he's tough but he's fair. He doesn't ask anything of people that he hasn't done himself or that he won't do himself."
Works for me. I won't argue the man's methods considering all that crystal.
AL D. BORGES SPEAKS, PART II. In the final segment of MGoBlog's excellent chat with Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges, the coach discusses what it's like on game day, the science of calling plays, and his much-maligned performance in Ohio State's 26-21 victory last November.
Specific to Michigan's struggles to do anything offensively in the 2nd half against Ohio State:
“There’s a lot of criticism, I know, from the Ohio State game, which the plan was very similar [to the Iowa game] and there was a lot of the lauding or praises for the Iowa game. A lot of the [Ohio State] plan was in the Iowa game. There was a lot of the same stuff. There was a little more nuance that we actually ended up running in the bowl game -- I’m telling you something I haven’t told anyone before -- but the second half of the Ohio State game we didn’t get to a lot of those calls because we failed on third-down-and-short situations several times. We failed, we turned the ball over a couple times. A lot of those calls don’t get out of your mouth. You see what I mean?"
“I told you guys this in the press conference, and I remember saying this: everybody’s going to complain about the play-calling and who’s touching the ball, you know? Getting carries? If you’re not getting first downs, you’re not getting calls out. You don’t get that turn. You lost that turn, because something went wrong and you didn’t move the chains. You turn the ball over. And now everybody’s going to think you screwed it up, which, at the end of the day, maybe you did. It’s not all the players; it’s the coaches, too, now. We don’t always make the perfect call. But the bottom line is at the end of the day, if you don’t get a lot of chances to call plays, you’ll always be short. You won’t rush the ball very well. Nobody will rush for 100 yards. You won’t have a receiver catching over 100 yards. Your quarterback won’t have good numbers. You have to keep the chains moving so the play-caller can get more calls off. You’re in a constant situation where you’re trying to set plays up, but if you don’t get to those plays, you never get to the counterpunch.”
Borges also took a stab at defending the notion Brady Hoke isn't as involved in-game strategy as other head coaches that actually wear a headset:
“Now the one thing that people don’t understand -- they think that because he doesn’t wear a headset he’s not communicative. That’s insane. You have to be on my end of it. Any time something’s crucial, he does have a headset on and he is communicative. Two-minute drills, fourth-and-one. He makes sure that all that stuff’s in. I’ve never been up there not knowing what to do based on his decision right away.
Trying to inject some humor, Heiko asked Borges for a picture next to a greaseboard, instructing the coach to act as if he was just asked about bubble screens. The result was awesome:
“Heh. You had to turn this into a [farfergnugen] circus, didn’t you. I don’t have a problem with them! I just don’t like calling them as much as -- what most people don’t understand is that the bubble screen is an [alternative] to a run play. Here, let me show you.”
"The bubble screen is a play designed to take advantage of the fact that this guy -- (the DB) has moved up and inside to defend the run. When you see this, most guys want to throw a weak-[butt] bubble screen and run around it. I would rather -- (Borges draws an emphatic arrow from the running back to the defensive back) run right into it and knock the [poop] out of this guy.”
Props to MGoBlog for the fantastic interview. If you missed part one, you can find it here.
HI & LO. With the BCS era set to expire after this season, Brian Bennett took a look at the B1G's highs and lows since the BCS era began in 1998 and to the surprise of no one, the bad far outweighs the good.
Of course, the chief beef with the B1G's performance during the BCS era is the fact the league can claim just one national championship in three appearances, all by the Buckeyes, while the SEC has had five different teams play for the title. Even the Big 12 has scoreboard on the B1G with three teams earning a spot in the BCS championship.
Always ready to tout the Rose Bowl as the 2nd best option in postseason action which makes sense considering the payday, B1G teams have combined to win just three times in Pasadena against nine losses in the BCS era.
Finally, the black eye of the three most prestigious teams going on probation during the era (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State) did no favors for a conference trying to dig out of the SEC's shadow.
On the bright side of things, the Buckeyes anchored the high's during the era led by their nine appearances in BCS games, the most in the country, and the conference squads did combine to earn more BCS bids than any conference in the nation, one more than the SEC compiled.
Finishing up, whether or not he creeps you out, Jim Delany did show the way to launching the B1G Network and the move has paid off in spades. The league has a larger war chest than any of its peers and with the deals to bring east coast markets like DC and New York into the mix with the upcoming additions of Maryland and Rutgers, it might be time to buy a bigger safe.
OSU led all teams with nine BCS bowl appearances in BCS era.THE REAL GRIND. I try to keep my skully's light and airy but I just had to include this updated story on Devon Walker.
Don't get me wrong, there's some positives in his saga but as you'll recall, Walker is the Tulane kid that was paralyzed on the field making a tackle against Tulsa last September.
Eight months after his injury, the prognosis says neurological recovery is a long shot at best though he has been able to wiggle his toes and move his shoulders. Facing that reality, Walker appears to be in good spirits and doing everything he can to meet the challenge.
Helping him along the way is Tulane AD Rick Dickson, who has been in constant contact with Walker and the family ever since riding with him in the ambulance following the tragic play.
Now that Walker is home, Dickson and the community have created a fundraising campaign, Devon's Den, in an effort to not only help with medical bills but also to install a room in the Walker home that would include "the kind of technology and resources he would need to heal and connect with the outside world – not to mention a handicapped shower" at a cost of $300,000.
The article really is a great read and if you wish to donate to Devon's Den, you can do so here.
SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT, $2(K) BITS. Earlier this week, the FBI published details of their investigation into the San Diego hoops game-fixing scandal involving the school's all-time leader in both scoring and assists, Brandon Johnson.
A total of eight people have earned jail time as a result of the scheme and Johnson himself will serve six months in the hole.
Recruited to alter the outcome of games by former San Diego assistant Thaddeus Brown, Johnson would earn as much as $10,000 to ensure a winning bet. The FBI asserts at least four games were fixed, earning up to $120k in the process. The payouts drew attention because San Diego is such a small program, and one that went 11-21 during the season in question.
As noted in the article, it feels like the smaller programs (see: Toledo) are more susceptible to such shenanigans as there aren't as many eyes on those games and if fixers keep from getting to greedy with their bets - in an effort to keep a lower profile - they could potentially keep the fix in for longer periods of time.
Obviously, it's unrealistic to think the law is batting 1.000 at catching fixers. I wonder how many games a year are actually influenced by such activity? Less than 5? Five to 10? More? I'm not prepared to say this is another reason why student-athletes, especially those playing for programs that actually generate revenue for the school, should be paid but a little extra spending money couldn't hurt the prevention efforts.
ENTER SANDMAN. Flowchart: What Sports Media Job Is Best For You?... Video of that time Bird went off in the 4th quarter to beat Dominique in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semis. The oral history ain't bad either... The Corporate States of America... CD102.5 getting some love... 1980's baseball stars posing seductively. Beyond hysterical. Also semi-NSFW... Coach K to lead Team USA once more... How The Average American Has Changed From The Sixties To Today... Sergio's back at it already?!... Toledo looking to sell alcohol at football games... I found your glasses.
