Maize n Brew gives you your daily (or semi-daily) rundown of all the Michigan Football, Michigan Basketball, College Football, and College Basketball news you need to get through the tedium at your boring ass desk job. For good measure we'll throw in a little irreverent information and commentary to help you salt away the time. Want it in 140 words or less, follow us on Twitter! Or you can find us on Facebook! Here's what's ON TAP:
Things You Need to Read Right Now
Michigan Football players poised for a breakout in 2009 - When Carcajous Attack! considers a few Michigan players who are poised for a break out year this fall. It's a long, optimistic list. My personal pick is to the right.
The Blue-Gray Sky Looks at Offensive and Defensive Line starts for their opponents. Of note, Michigan is 6th on Offense with 75 combined starts among its line. On the other side of the ball the news is not so good Michigan is 10th of 12th teams with only 17 starts on the D-Line, and Brandon Graham has 16 of them. Chew on that for a while before you get too excited about how we'll defend the run this year. Moving back to the offense, even with an experienced line, we can expect all Tenooota Blitz! just about every down. The answer? Tight ends. Mr. Kroger, your table is waiting.
Ever wanted to know what the breakdown of each conference's out of conference slate really looked like? One of Conquest Chronicles' posters put together a thorough breakdown of the OOC slates and projected the winning percentages and chances of upsets. Great work, even if I don't agree with some of the commentary. Well worth your time just for the numbers
Michigan Football
Our buddy Pat over at It's Just Sports sat down with Rich Rodriguez to talk about the upcoming season and lessons learned from year one.
Free Press fluff on Courtney Avery's commitment to Michigan.
Rodriguez Free Press fluff on turning the tables on the decommits this year (i.e., receiving commitments rather than losing them). Meh...
The Michigan Daily takes a look at how will Kelvin Grady fare under Rodriguez. Interesting read on the transition to the gridiron.
Michigan's football camps seems to be unearthing the diamond, or at least quartz, in the rough. Yet another Cornerback seems to have emerged from the morass:
Melvindale cornerback Wayne Pettus attended Michigan’s regular, four-day camp as well as their one-day senior camp this past Saturday. The 5-7, 155-pound Pettus has gone largely overlooked thus far in the recruiting process because of his size, but he is serving notice with his play that he is one of the Midwest’s top cornerbacks. He was the most consistent cover corner at the Michigan camps and preceded that appearance with an MVP performance at the NIKE Camp in Champaign, Ill., on June 6.
Big Ten Football
2009 Michigan State Spartan Football Team Preview
SpartyMSU gives us their 2009 Football Preview. Beware, overly optimistic chatter that borders on comic delusion contained there in. The dismissal that Ringer and Hoyer will be easily replaced seems ludicrous to me. You can't replace a 57 carry a game running back. It just doesn't happen outside of USC. Also, depending on two guys that couldn't beat Hoyer out last year (and believe me guys, Hoyer was nothing special) does not bode well for the offense. That said, I am a tad bit more bullish on the Spartans line and receivers than I was previously. However, the gaps in the defensive secondary are going to be hard to plug.
"This is our last coaching job as a family," he said. "This is where I want to be. I'm 53 years... - The Only Colors
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, those types of words have been spoken by every coach in this conference. Including Michigan's. I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in it boys.
Fitz is resigned through 2015. I think the boys at Lake the Posts need a towel. EDSBS is complimentary as well.
Northwestern a Better Football Destination Than UND? - My eternal thanks to Boiled Sports for pointing this out:
What I love -- LOVE -- about Adam Rittenberg's analysis of the situation is that it appears that for a young, Irish, up-and-coming coach who is from the Chicago area, coaching at Notre Dame wouldn't be all that appealling. Fitz loves Northwestern (I know!) and says that's where he wants to be.
11 Things I Want To See In the Big 10 During 2009, Part 1 - Go. Read. Laugh.
Michigan Basektball
Pat at It's Just Sports also sat down with John Beilein to talk hoops, Basketball's resurgence, and expectations following Michigan's first NCAA appearance in a decade.
Why would anyone do this to themselves? Brian Ellerbe, after an eight-year hiatus, will be an assistant on George Washington's bench this season. Yeah. This is a good idea.
UM Hoops gives us a little more info on our new S&C coach.
A good Big Ten Hoops rundown courtesy of the FoxSports Boards (HT: UM Hoops).
College Football
Traditional molting season is here again in Oregon - Oregon's new uni's are out and Holly takes a closer look at the Ducks' new... er... feathers.
Sprints Is Not Responsible for Georgia's Trouble in 2008 // 06.24.09 - Recent comments from Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt seems to blaming the willingness of Georgia's players to sit back and let the now NFL departed Stafford and Moreno carry the team, as opposed to getting involved themselves, for some of the disappointment of 2008. Call me nuts, but I think the guy's got a point. Georgia massively underachieved last year, and you can't blame lack of talent.
College Basketball
The Kevin O'Neill Thing Is Too Good To Be True - Our friends at Bruins Nation could not be happier over USC's new choice of Basketball Coach. One minute we were worried that SC would hire Ben Howland's best friend, and the next they hired one of the least liked people in the sport of basketball.
Misc...
Horns Force Game Three For National Title - Game three for all the marbles tonight. Hook 'em Horns!
Why Georgia Should Stop Spending So Much on Basketball and Invest in the Diamond Dogs - The Mayor wants his hardball, and he'll step on your neck to get it.
Lately, basketball has been getting all the attention and baseball has been generating all the wins. It's time the Georgia Bulldogs invested in success on the diamond rather than overpaying for an underperforming hardwood squad.