Unverified Voracity Has Dubious Youtube

Everybody loves Rutgers. Good find by Varsity Blue to plumb the depths of the San Antonio Express-News for this scheduling morsel:

Michigan has a hole in its 2008 football schedule, preferring an opponent for the first or fourth weeks of the season. The Wolverines likely won’t play a Mid-American Conference school after already booking two games with teams from that conference.

Wonder if a Big 12 team would be willing to accept the challenge of playing at the so-called “Big House?”

The most likely team would be KSU, particularly as OSU already has a tough home game assured with Georgia as the return from their game this season.

But Michigan athletic director Bill Martin told the Detroit News that his preferred opponent would be Rutgers, particularly if a return game could be arranged to play the Scarlet Knights at the Meadowlands in a later season.

(Somehow I missed that News article.) That's an encouraging indication that Michigan will not go for three patsies and ND after this year's anomalous Oregon game goes by the wayside. If the road games end up in 80k pro stadiums instead of 40-60k mid-level college ones, that's fine with me as long as we get the stench of I-AA off of us, especially because tomato cans are becoming less attractive options. The Georgia Sports Blog has an interesting look at the increased demands of patsies. The near future will hold such oddities as Texas at Central Florida, Michigan State and Minnesota at Florida Atlantic, and Virginia Tech at East Carolina (four times!) as a result; hopefully the not-so-near future will be filled with more interesting games as a result.

Sidenote: It's somewhat surreal that Rutgers is suddenly being bandied about as a potential schedule upgrade after years and years of being one of those teams you pick in Dynasty mode when you want to spend a few years toiling before your eight national championship run. When Michigan State managed to coug it against Rutgers a few years ago, everyone laughed at the Spartans for falling to lowly Rutgers. Now the shoe would be on the other hypothetical foot.

NCAA. The game, that is. The revamped dynasty mode will rope me into buying it, though I still harbor severe EA-related suspicions about it. Are my fears assuaged or reinforced by the first quarter of this Michigan-OSU game?





I'm not exactly sure. I didn't notice any linebackers leaping tall buildings in a single bound to knock down what should be complete passes, and finding a fullback open on a crossing route tantalizes. I am tenuously encouraged. There is more if you are so inclined.

Jimmah! I was going to write something about the Jimmah's-hurt-no-he-ain't-then-why-surgery thing, but both SMQB...

The Worldwide Leader - on the heels of Log's Blog [courtesy The Wizard of Odds, as usual] - goes the anonymice route to confirm Clausen had a "procedure" performed on one of his elbows, backing up the Miami Herald report in January that Clausen had bone spurs in his right/throwing elbow and Father of Jimmy's interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in March, when he said Jimmy was "losing velocity" at the end of his senior season due to a vague arm injury. It directly contradicts Charlie Weis' spring assurance that Clausen was "full go," much to The Wiz's consternation, and the hopes of the many, many partisans expecting Clausen to start from day one against Georgia Tech.

...and the Wiz...

Weis was miffed when asked about Clausen and interrupted a reporter:

Question: "You say everyone is full to go, and last time we talked, you said Clausen ..."

Weis: "He's full to go. Contrary to recent reports, he's full to go, too. By the way, just so we can clear that one up, the only one who will answer for the health of our players will be me. So next time, we can just keep it that way, because I'll do the answering for the health of our players."

So there you have it. Can you believe anything Weis says from now on?

...beat me to it. Generally you take the prognoses offered up by schools at face value, but ND has established that they might be something less than truthful when it comes to the golden calf. My money is on Demetrius Jones against Michigan.

Etc.: Naked guy w/ strategically placed sock runs around Michigan Stadium for reasons best described as obscure.