Unverified Voracity Directs Traffic

Gameday is... just north of the stadium in the dirt parking lot, says the Daily. Please be nice. Also, the pep rally today -- previously scheduled for 3PM -- now starts at 6:30.

And that's a 180 for everyone. Jim Carty, whose "hey, Les Miles!" blog post some months ago spurred the increasingly regrettable "Les Miles Isn't A Candidate For Anything" post, now claims Miles won't be the coach if Carr retires in the immediate aftermath of the OSU game:

Will Miles be the next coach here if Carr steps down?

Not if Carr announces any time soon. Jilting LSU in the midst of a potentially championship season would go against everything Miles' mentor Bo Schembechler stood for, and it would be impossible for Miles and Michigan to both hold out for nearly eight weeks as the Tigers chased the title.

Carr knows that, so you can consider the date of his official announcement a bit of a referendum on whether or not he wants Miles to have a shot at the job.

Dan Wetzel has this meme, along with his standard "why would anyone leave LSU?" stuff, too.

There is only one thing to say to this: What?

The only reason to hire a coach NOW NOW NOW is to keep Michigan's recruiting class together. Recruiting is important, but the difference between hiring someone three or four weeks after the OSU game -- probably about as fast as the process can go -- and eight is like, what, two kids? Three?

If you have a clear #1 coaching candidate (and unless Tedford says yes(!) to Michigan, Miles appears head and shoulders above all other available coaches) a couple of recruits is a piddling price to pay. Besides, if Michigan sits and twiddles its thumbs even after New Year's Day they've functionally named a coach already.

File this under "way ahead of ourselves": Varsity Blue creates a potential Miles-Carr frankenstaff.

Creamed. Basketball got plowed by Georgetown last night, which should put an end to everyone's vague hopes Beilein was a miracle worker. Stadium & Main attended some alumni thing in which Beilein hopped on the bar and started talking:

We had the entire first floor of Clyde's packed with Michigan fans, and Coach Beilein actually got up on one of the bar area tables to talk to us. I don't remember every word, but he mentioned something like "If you could see our practices, they look like middle school practices." Talked about fundamentals, asked that we be patient with the team, said that the team will grow throughout the year, etc.

Unfortunately, the team proved his middle-school prediction right (or at least, so it seems -- due to the wonder of ESPN 360 I didn't see the game). Still, when the Seattle Times surveys 82 D-I coaches and asks...

Which college coach is the best at formulating strategy?

...it's nice to see the list reads like so:

John Beilein, Michigan: 9
Bob Knight, Texas Tech: 8
Tom Izzo, Michigan State: 6
Rick Majerus, Saint Louis: 6
Billy Donovan, Florida: 5

It'll take time -- scholarship seniors are Ron Coleman and Ron Coleman, juniors Jerrett Smith and Jevohn Shepard -- but WVU under Beilein is the bottom.

In case you fear. Is Charlie Weis getting canned at the end of the year? Well, if Peter King was right in January, survey says "not unless Regis wants him gone":

Let's put all of the Charlie Weis-to-the-NFL possibilities to bed, shall we? [Uh.... check! -ed] I've got the real number it would take to buy him out of his contract, which has nine years left to run at Notre Dame. That figure plus the fact that he doesn't want to leave should take him out of the NFL pool for the foreseeable future.

The rock-solid, no-exceptions buyout number for Weis from Notre Dame: $21 million.

He goes nowhere.

Etc.: US Military wasting all its victories on Notre Dame; HSR on OSU all copying us and on Lloyd.