2019 Michigan Season Thread

[FearlessF]

well, that and the weirdo factor with Jim

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's all part of the same story. Some of society's weirdest are some of it's most transparent.

[MrNubbz]

Lol. That’s more like something Jim would say. Urban handles himself way too professionally, is way too media savvy and has too much class to pop off at the mouth like that. Urban is a politician.

Now maybe he bends the truth a little bit, maybe he lies, maybe he looks the other way on things sometimes- but the guy sure as hell knows how to handle himself with the media/public. Jim? He’s just a weirdo who will say/do anything.

There's no maybe about it,he sure as hell blew the Media day last year.Had he not tripped over his tongue IMO he'd still be HC in C-Bus

[Anonymous Coward]

Ambry Thomas has colitis. No word on whether it is ulcerative (chronic) or infectious (acute). The timeline, with first concerns popping up around May/June, may line up better with the chronic condition, unfortunately. He gained then lost 20-25 pounds this offseason, landing him back at his playing weight from last year. 

CB might as well be the only position I'm worried about now. It's surely not RB. And I'm getting more sanguine about DT. But CB has almost no one behind Ambry and Levert. 

[MaximumSam]

Oh Harbaugh has been accused of being a liar, so I don't think Urbs has a monopoly there.

[Temp430]

Ambry Thomas has colitis. No word on whether it is ulcerative (chronic) or infectious (acute). The timeline, with first concerns popping up around May/June, may line up better with the chronic condition, unfortunately. He gained then lost 20-25 pounds this offseason, landing him back at his playing weight from last year.

CB might as well be the only position I'm worried about now. It's surely not RB. And I'm getting more sanguine about DT. But CB has almost no one behind Ambry and Levert.

Major bummer about Thomas.  There is lots of young talent on the roster.  Gray, Turner, Green seem the most likely to step up.  Coach Zordich has his work cut out for him.  There will be painful in-game learning to be had whoever it is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh Harbaugh has been accused of being a liar, so I don't think Urbs has a monopoly there.

Everyone on earth has lied before. I think the issue here isn't presence/absence, it's extent, stakes and recidivism.

[MaximumSam]

Everyone on earth has lied before. I think the issue here isn't presence/absence, it's extent, stakes and recidivism.

Eh, hard to swing a cat without finding someone that says Harbaugh hasn't been a square dealer.  

[bayareabadger]

Oh Harbaugh has been accused of being a liar, so I don't think Urbs has a monopoly there.

This is my third-favorite OSU-Mich sparring point behind the Dean-Pipkins runoff showdown and which coach had the more terrible situations he turned around in past jobs. 

[MaximumSam]

This is my third-favorite OSU-Mich sparring point behind the Dean-Pipkins runoff showdown and which coach had the more terrible situations he turned around in past jobs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, hard to swing a cat without finding someone that says Harbaugh hasn't been a square dealer. 

I specified my comments are about the extent, stakes, and recidivism of lying. You are still focused on presence/absense.

Also, this conversation started with the premise that tact and candor are inversely proportional trains and that, on the continuum from 

> tact -------- candor < ,

Meyer falls closer to the left than Harbaugh. Do you disagree with that, and why?

[MaximumSam]

Speaking of random dishonesty, this latest Harbaugh dustup is quite entertaining.  It involves the now neverending saga of James Hudson transferring from UM to Cincinnati.  Some weeks ago there was a big discussion about mental health and depression and whatnot, which was interesting if not particularly dramatic.  But now, Fickell and Harbaugh are going at it.

Fickell - 

“All (Harbaugh) said to me was, ‘I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to lie. And I don’t know why we’re talking.’ It was really cold. I talked to Nick Saban because we have a transfer from Alabama. I talked to Ryan Day because we have a kid from Ohio State. We have a kid from Michigan, so I wanted to reach out, not to ask about the kid, but acknowledging that this kid has some issues and are you willing to help him? Or what are you willing to do? And it was pretty cold.”

The situation seemed to escalate when Michigan, in a response to Hudson's second waiver request, brought to the NCAA a story of Hudson leaving a liquor store near campus with a "bag of goods," Hudson's mother told The Athletic. She said the story was entirely false. 
Fickell blasted Michigan for coming after a player who chose to transfer. 

“It’s like a junior-high relationship: ‘You broke up with me, so I’m going to tell everybody that you did this, this and this.’ What grown-up does that?” Fickell said. “They responded with a junior-high comeback. I was shocked. Shocked. That if somebody said something about you, that you would then respond back by trying to bash a 19-year-old on things that were hearsay?

“It sounds a little bit like ‘A Few Good Men.’ Yeah, he was on the first flight out the next morning. That’s why I’m pissed and I want to say something. For you to get in a junior-high battle and say things about a kid, whether you believe him or not, you’re taking shots a kid who is struggling. And who am I to say how much? But he’s struggling, and to say that, it hurt the kid. Big time. It was hard. I know a lot of this stuff should be done behind closed doors, and I’m not calling people out. But when they took a shot at the kid, it was really disappointing. Really disappointing.”

Harbaugh


Harbaugh also alleges that Fickell — a former assistant coach at Ohio State who enters his third season as the head coach at Cincinnati — “tried to coach” him on how to describe the situation differently, insinuating coercion.

“And I told him, ‘Coach, I believe in telling the truth. Forthright, honest. What I told James, what I tell you, what I tell compliance is going to be the truth,’” Harbaugh said. “I read the article. He asked the question in the article: ‘What’s most important, your personal beliefs or what’s in the best interest of the kid?’ And I can answer that: What’s most important is the truth.

“I’m astounded that he’s gotten to where he’s at by not knowing the answer to that question.”



In any event, the transfer process is so murky and hard to follow that these types of he said/he said dramas are almost guaranteed.

[MaximumSam]

I specified my comments are about the extent, stakes, and recidivism of lying. You are still focused on presence/absense.

Also, this conversation started with the premise that tact and candor are inversely proportional trains and that, on the continuum from

> tact -------- candor < ,

Meyer falls closer to the left than Harbaugh. Do you disagree with that, and why?

I've never found Harbaugh to be very candid.  He can be salty, but that's different than candid.  For example, in his latest controversy I very much liked him vocalizing what he thinks the process should be, but found it very offputting that he would pretend Michigan has no say so in his guys transferring.  For lack of a better word, that's a bitch ass thing to say.  Do I give him points for vocaling a policy that would help players and say he's candid, or say he's a liar because he says one thing but his actions say another?  *shrug*

[Anonymous Coward]

You are still focused on presence/absence. Focusing on extent/stakes/recidivism would involve comparing Meyer and Harbaugh on this. For example on the severity of their scandals, whether they lied about those, how often those worst scandals appeared, and how far back in their careers those scandals began. Go ahead and focus that if you like.