noDucknewby

Wow, I guess I've been to all those games. My favorites: The Civil War for the Roses. Going on memory here, but I believe we possessed the ball for the final nine minutes, strangling the rodents Rose Bowl hopes. The memory of watching the clock tick down to zero as the crowd erupted still gives me chills. Fright Night vs USC. Up yours Pete, your dynasty is over and ours is just beginning. Absolutely electric atmosphere, not sure I've ever heard Autzen louder. Barkley mouths off then gets stuffed for his worst game of the season. Stanford 2010, one of my best fall memories. Fished pre-game for steelhead on the Willamette. My brother and I hooked four and landed two, the latter boated right underneath the Autzen footbridge. Epic comeback punctuated by LMJ's housecall burst right up the middle to put the game on ice. Vs tOSU 2024. There sure was a lot of red in the stands that day, but you couldn't even hear them as they were drowned out by the Autzen faithful. Damn that was a loud one. I was worried bad officiating was going to cost us that day, but in the end OBD pulled it off with clutch plays and a little DL wizardry.

OK here's the map. Geographically there's a natural break at Lake Michigan, 10 teams west and 8 teams east. Take your pick of Wisconsin, Northwestern or Illinois and move them to the east side and you have 9 on each side. Easy geography. HOWEVER, this in no way works competively with Indiana, Michigan, OSU and PSU all on the east side. You can swap some border teams around to try and get some competitive parity, but it's a real problem because Michigan, OSU and PSU sit in the center of the east side. It's hard to split Michigan and OSU, but it could be done with a rivalry guaranty. I just think it's a hard sell. Similarly that applies to Michigan/MSU. That said, I think the best split would be: West East fuskies Minnesota OBD Northwestern USC Illinois UCLA Indiana Nebraska Purdue Iowa OSU Wisconsin PSU Michigan Rutgers MSU Maryland Not sure why my columns didn't work, this is a little cluttered but you get the picture.

If we go that route, for criminy sakes make sure Phil signs off on it. If he wants exclusivity then he deserves it.

Lanning is pretty good at assessing the teams needs. If he wasn't confident the existing OL room could do the job then he would have gone after more OL hard in the portal. IMHO Seaton was a "nice to have" not a "have to have" guy. It's possible that the Yale transfer was just added for depth and DL and Terry are very happy with the existing crew and incoming recruits. One thing I've noticed the past two seasons is that an OL loaded with transfers takes a while to gel. Hopefully with the experience this crew has playing together they will hit the ground running.

Great news, let's hope he can stay healthy.

Sixteen teams is plenty, any more just waters it down. In a 24-team playoff, seeds 17-24 would have virtually zero chance of winning it all or even advancing to the quarterfinals. I get where Petitti is coming from, in a 5+11 model ESPN (with their "advanced metrics") and the SEC can collude to stack the deck. With 24 teams and more AQs that becomes less likely. The devil of course is in the details, a 5+11 model with an impartial committee would work just fine. No byes and the first two rounds played on campus. Bid out the semifinals and the natty, there's really no need to try and incorporate the bowl system anymore, it's become antiquated. The bowls could continue with P4 and G6 teams that didn't make the playoffs, there would still plenty of interest.

Yeah that. It never ceases to amaze me how college football is incapable of grasping the obvious.

Oh gosh who could have seen that coming?!🤣

Just reinforces the need for a QB guru IMHO. Our QB development going forward is key to our success on the field, and Mehringer should stay with the tight ends where he has excelled.

Could be a best case scenario for us, but also could blow up and push Dante to the NFL. Everything hinges on him--if he bails then we're all in with Raiola as QB1, but I'm just not convinced he's the guy to lead us. Of course DM was damaged goods when he came here and despite his playoff struggles he's still had a great year. Of course the coaches are much better talent evaluators than any of us, so if this is the call then I'm on board 100%.

Assuming DM stays, keep Mehringer coaching the tight ends (huge success) and get a QB guru for Dante. Not blaming it all on him, but unfortunately he has had his worst games when it mattered the most. That's on the coaches IMHO.

Sounds like he may have gotten a bit of the treatment Bellotti got: https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-utes/2025/12/27/opinion-new-michigan-coach-kyle/

Gotta admit I'm pretty surprised, I figured he'd be skiing and riding his Harley this year. They got a good one, although it seems that he may be another placeholder at his age.

I couldn't care less if ND joins a conference, but their ridiculous sense of entitlement needs to be bludgeoned by whatever means necessary. Seriously, they have the same CFP clout and monetary reward as an 18-team conference?! Then they bail when their already preferential treatment doesn't go their way? And we call USC spoiled children? Their "storied rivalry" with USC is passe anyway, nobody outside of those two fan bases gives a rat's behind anyway.

Maybe he can take Cowherd with him😁.