Over/Under: Reaction to Brady Hoke, Dave Brandon, Michigan Men

Not long after this blog opined that Michigan needed to hire a good coach, not make a good hire, U-M AD Dave Brandon took the suggestion to heart. When he offered San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke the job, Hoke agreed without bothering to ask about terms. To say Hoke was eager to take the job is understatement indeed; practically the first words out of Hoke’s mouth after being introduced were, “We would have walked to the University of Michigan.”

Rich Rodriguez’s tenure at Michigan was unquestionably marked by his relationship with the media. It was a Detroit Free Press investigative report that resulted in the first major NCAA violations in Michigan football history. Throughout Rodriguez’s tenure, Michigan fans complained that the Detroit media seemed to paint Rodriguez as a renegade outsider, and Mark Dantonio as an avatar of integrity—even as Michigan State players wound showed up in the police blotter over and over again.

In Hoke’s introductory press conference (video available at http://www.mgoblue.com), however, the media seemed to welcome Hoke with open arms; the Q&A sessionREAD MORE

Soapbox: Michigan Needs To Hire A Good Coach, Not Make A Good Hire

(Ed Note: This post comes courtesy of Ty Schalter of Detroit Lions blog The Lions In Winter.)

Bill Martin was, figuratively, standing alone in the rain. He was staring forlornly at the heavy oaken door to Rutgers Castle, just closed in his face. The sloppy wet spatters of New Jersey rain were figuratively pummeling his wispy comb-over as he wondered where he’d turn next. He’d figuratively come six hundred miles, figurative hat in hand, to ask Rutgers’ head coach if he’d take over the winningest program in college football history. Greg Schiano declined.

Martin was in a bind. Lloyd Carr’s storybook national championship farewell didn’t make it past the first chapter. A $226 million dollar Michigan Stadium renovation was already underway. He had a hundred years of tradition, a massive fan base, and an impressive donor list all demanding that stadium house a winner. Martin had publicly blown his chances with the best (and obvious candidate): Les Miles, an SEC coach whose #2-ranked team was about to play for, and ultimately win, a BCS National Championship. Miles,READ MORE

Call of the Day: Brent Musburger And The Case Of The Missing Touchdowns

Look, I love Brent Musburger and I think that he and Kirk Herbstreit are the best announcing tandem in college football. Sure others like Brad Nessler, Verne Lundquist, et al are fantastic announcers, too, but something about Brent’s voice that just screams “big game.” Add in Herbie and you have the best booth in America.

Having said that, Brent’s not without his quirks, and mistakes. So, with respect, let’s pick out a few of those moments from last night’s title game!

I seriously thought about clipping together all the times he called LaMichael James by his first name only, perhaps thinking his name was James LaMichael or perhaps an homage to all of us calling Brent, himself, primarily by his first name. Anyway, if “LaMichael” was added to the Brent Musburger drinking game, you all were sloshed by halftime.

But clipping that was way too much work. Instead we clipped up his two touchdown calls…that weren’t. Now, the second one in the clip below wasn’t his fault, as the officials signaled it a touchdown before replay got theREAD MORE

ESPN Must Speed Up (And Shut Up) To Keep Pace With BCS Title Teams

Those in charge of the BCS title game telecast better get ready for some quick decisions tonight as both Oregon and Auburn aren’t teams too likely to dawdle or lolly-gag or, well, even huddle most of the game. Things are going to be fast paced, tonight, which could lead to some issues for those calling, directing and producing the game.

From Michael Hiestand of USA Today, here’s Brent Musburger’s gameplan:

Championship games can attract big audiences that include viewers who otherwise don’t follow the sport. That can lead broadcasters to explain things that avid fans already know.

But Brent Musburger, calling Monday night’s BCS national championship game on ESPN with analyst Kirk Herbstreit, expects to take the opposite tack. “I’ll be quieter than usual, won’t try to over talk. I know they’ll be some people who, believe it or not, won’t know where Auburn is, so we’ll mention it. But I think the bigger the game, the less you need an announcer. I’ll just let people enjoy it.”

Musburger told Hiestand that he plans to deal with the Oregon hurry-up offenseREAD MORE

DL505: Doug Flutie On Helmet-to-Helmet Hits, Paying Players, Conference Alignment & BCS

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Doug Flutie joins the show! Yes, he was plugging something, but it’s not like he was plugging knives or anything like that (note: that’d be totally awesome if people starting going online equivalent of door to door selling knives.) Flutie is plugging the Capital One Cup. Particulars below:

Doug is touring on behalf of the Capital One Cup, which honors one Division I mens and one Division I womens program for their cumulative on-field success across 13 different sports.  The winning universities will receive the Cup in July and be handed a $200,000 check earmarked for student/athletes looking to continue their studies.  The team that wins tonight’s BCS Championship will win 60 Capital One Cup points.  For more information – and to follow the standings of your school or favorite team – listeners can go to www.capitalonecup.com.

It’s a great program, so check it out.

Flutie and I spin the Capital One Cup into a conversation about conference realignment and how any of the schools are able to actually pay for their non-revenueREAD MORE

DL502: A Caffeinated College Football Rant With Kevin McGuire of CFB Examiner

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Okay, so yesterday was a day that I had a lot of caffeine. Probably too much. And then I hopped on the Skype machine and talked with Kevin McGuire of CFB Examiner about the bowl season, Joe Paterno and whether or not the NCAA has any control over college football.

I probably should have gone with the half-caf.

Or, maybe, I just needed to get a lot of this out of my system.

We talk about the Ohio State suspension situation (which looks even more telling considering OSU won the Sugar Bowl last night on the backs of four of the five suspended players). We debate the delayed suspension, and talk a lot about why a player has to give back the money they were given if they’re already getting suspended. It makes no sense, to me, that a player gets a five game suspension AND has to give back the money he was given. If he says no, he’s suspended forever, right? That’s basically punishing the guy twice for the same crime. WhatREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Do ESPN Highlight Packages Actually NEED The Background Music?

I’ve always wondered if ESPN throws down the cheesy music in the background of highlights more out of habit — or perhaps some strange infatuation with Joe Satriani — than actual highlight-enhancing necessity.

So, now we have our answer: it’s necessary. Here are two clips of, basically, the same highlight package. The first is embedded from ESPN’s Highlight of the Night on ESPN.com (link to page) with Steve Levy recapping the Sugar Bowl sans music.

Now, here’s ostensibly the same package, with overnight host Stan Verrett explaining the pictures. This set, however, has the classic ESPN music bed.

So, which is more exciting? I have to admit, watching the highlights without the tunes was…oddly off-putting. It was just weird, wasn’t it? Maybe I’ve become classically conditioned to expect the music so it was simply more noticeable that it wasn’t there on the first highlight. Or, maybe listening to a guy tell you what you’re watching for four straight minutes is actually pretty boring, making some musical distraction inherently necessary.

What do you think?

Is Ron Franklin’s ESPN Dismissal Almost As Much Our Fault As His?

Ron Franklin was fired today by ESPN for the terribly rude, insensitive and misogynistic comments he made to colleague Jeannine Edwards. Here’s the quote from ESPN spokesman (and guy who some days has the worst damn job in our profession) Josh Krulewitz:

“Based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him.”‬

So what, exactly, occurred last Friday? From USA Today’s Game On blog:

First of all, Edwards says Franklin called her “sweet baby,” not “sweet cakes.” Second, it wasn’t Edwards that reported Franklin’s behavior to the ESPN brass. It was a colleague who did that, she says. But yes, it’s true. Edwards says Franklin did call her an “a–hole.”

Edwards says she was talking with [Rod] Gilmore about his wife being elected mayor of Alameda, California. After a few minutes, she said Franklin joined in the conversation and said, “Listen to me sweet baby, let me tell you something . . . ” with a condescending tone.

Edwards says she told Franklin not to address her like that. To which Franklin said, according to Edwards:READ MORE

DL492: Where Zerkle & I Talk Sterger, Extortion, Cam Newton and Paying College Athletes

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Josh Zerkle from With Leather joins the show today to talk, laugh and generally offend. And that’s why we love him.

We touch on Joe Theismann in the booth before getting into the Jenn Sterger name-clearing extortion plot. What name, exactly, is she (or her PR people) trying to clear? Haven’t they done more damage to her reputation than had they just kept quiet the whole time?

We parallel the Sterger situation to that of Alicia Lane and Rich Eisen. Lane could make the case that her reputation was being sullied (by co-worker and creepazoid Larry Mendte) but how can Sterger? This is nuts.

We touch on Favre, too, and wonder if this will hurt his legacy. With the internet the way it is now — compared to back in the days of Joe DiMaggio, or even Mickey Mantle (or, heck, even the 90s Cowboys), do we romanticize the past more than today? Can anyone, truly, have a “legacy” anymore with how eager we are to “humanize” everyone on the internet?

Is it the media’sREAD MORE

DL491: Listen to Me And Spencer Hall Not Discuss Urban Meyer’s Departure From Florida!

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So here’s one for timing: Spencer Hall, famed sports blog proprietor of EDSBS.com and editor at SBNation.com, joined me for a little afternoon chit chat about college football, the bowl schedule and Cam Newton.

Nowhere in the list of topics was “Urban Meyer is going to quit while you are taping the show.” And dang it if that isn’t what happened.

The problem, of course, is that for about an hour it was just an internet rumor, and we didn’t hijack the rest of the show — talking about whether or not the bowl organizers have more or less power in college football than ESPN while trying to figure out if Connecticut is, in fact, the worst BCS team in history — for some small rumor that happens every year at this time.

Who knew it was gonna be true?

So with that, here’s the show with Spencer, in advance of Urban Meyer’s presser tonight at 6pm. Why am I putting it up today and not tomorrow? Because it’s a good conversation about college footballREAD MORE