Tuesday Happy Hour is back (and swimming in spring game reports)

Last weekend's spring game has come and gone, do you feel richer and more fulfilled? Have the football gods blessed you with greater insight into the team that will be taking the field this fall? Did this whole thing just kinda confirm what you already knew?

The last few spring games have felt monumental, like windows into the soul of the team. This one, not so much. Brian from mgoblog:

The past four years the spring game has been an important data dump that has indicated quite a lot of things about Michigan's season to come. Doom in 2008. Better quarterbacking the next couple years but with a fatal flaw: Forcier and Robinson's blowout performances came against Michigan's defense, which merely blew. Last year displayed to all how bad an idea it was to go under center a majority of the time.

This year Michigan spent about the same number of snaps as last year in the spread, ran Denard out there for one series, gave the established top tailback a few carries, and the whole thing was... just there, flopping around being dull and stuff.

Maybe this opinion is influenced by the fact that I wasn't there, but I don't think so. The things we think we found out are generally less exciting than "introducing DENARD ROBINSON!" and less important than the possibility we might totally screw him up. This is a sign of health in a program. It just makes this post a little less throbbingly important than it has been recently.

So yes, the spring game that we have all latched onto as some important harbinger of future success/failure was actually just a spring practice in which little of note happened and the status quo remained unchanged.

Let's hear it for....stability?

If, however, that isn't enough for you, take a look around the blogosphere at spring game wrap ups from all over.

- Touch the Banner: Offense, Defense

- Burgeoning Wolverine Star: 2012 Spring Game thoughts

- Holdin' The Rope: Spring Game Thoughts of Debatable Utility

- And check out MnB's own take on the offense (defense coming soon).

Anything else happen? Of course:

Michigan gives Al Borges a big raise - Al Borges coached at will last year, but was rewarded for a big season and positive momentum with a three year contract and a big pay bump. Good to see the AD taking care of its coaches.

Handicapping The Race: Offense - Tremendous breaks down the rest of Michigan's offensive recruiting, which at this point comes down to one running back (probably) and two wide receivers (definitely). Keep in mind that it is still April and offensive recruiting for next year is nearly wrapped up.

State of the Union: Big Ten Recruiting Update 4.17.12 - Black Shoe Diaries runs down the Big Ten recruiting classes so far. Michigan leads comfortably in terms of sheer size, but Ohio State is putting together a killer crop of players, and Penn State has been recruiting near or at an elite level thus far.

SEC's Slive no fan of pro-Rose Bowl model

Not surprisingly, the power brokers in the SEC -- the league that loves to remind everyone it has captured the past six national titles -- don't like the plan, either. University of Georgia president Michael Adams told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, "This is not 1950, or 1960. There are great schools in the [Atlantic Coast Conference] and the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12. I think it's time to put everybody on an equal footing. I just reject the notion that the Big Ten and the Pac-12 ought to be treated differently in this process."

Little chance the Delany plan for the plus-plus-one Rose Bowl game actually comes to fruition. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are two of the biggest influences, but the rest of college football should firmly stand against a proposition so ludicrous. That this is even being discussed is just another sign how warped college football is.

Coaching Ethics 101: KennardHusker and Ted Glover Discuss Petrino, Scandals, and The State of Fandom - A couple of the writers from Off Tackle Empire take on scandal in college sports in an extended dialog that is well worth the read.

Big 12 Quarterbacks and the NFL Draft

Where I think Jason’s argument hits a slight snag is in his belief that Griffin, Tannehill and Weeden are overvalued as draft prospects because of the weak pass defenses in the Big 12. You need to ask the question: Were Big 12 quarterbacks good because Big 12 pass defenses were bad, or were pass defenses bad because the quarterback play was so good?

Paul Myerberg responds to The Big Lead's assertion that this year's crop of Big 12 quarterbacks is overrated by the poor defenses they faced, which raises the question how bad are Big 12 pass defenses anyway?