Doctor G

ND's has a horrible offensive line, one of the worst I have seen at a big program. I do not care who they get at QB or RB if that marsh-mellow line doesn't get tougher nobody will do well. As far as Clausen goes he doesn't show the talent a 5-star recruit is suppose to have yet. Although he is running for his life all the time, of course that is when the ball is hiked correctly. The last 3 coaches for ND Davie, Willingham, and Weiss did not get the talent that is needed to sustain a top 10 program. Numerous of reasons for this, one is their inability to attract the top talent and ND admissions office raising the standards after Lou Holtz left the program. Does any of this excuse Weiss for having one of the worst programs in division 1-A, hell no. This program is no better than Northwestern and if those 2 played, the Wildcats might put a beaten on them. What are ND's choices? Nothing right now they are stuck with Weiss and his 10 year contract. They better hope Weiss can change things, but with the talent they have now it will take 3 to 4 years of very good to great recruiting classes.

[$1.2-million. I don't think it would be a problem for someone with the university to cover that bill. I'm a regular reader of mgoblog.com (it's a great read) and in a post today he said that a "solid source" said Miles would jump at the chance if Michigan offered him the job. I'd be happy with Miles or Ferentz. The word on LSU blogs is that they (LSU) are very happy with Miles and willing to offer him Saban type money to stay. That is a lot of money and is UM willing to pay the price. Or is Mr. Miles willing to take less for his supposedly dream job? He had a good recruiting classs last year and it looks to be very good this year. It will be very interesting to see what UM does with this coaching situation and what Mr. Miles will do. The one coach I thought would be a great choice Bobby Pertino (guessing on the spelling of the last name) unfortunately went to the NFL with the Falcon. It will also be very intersesting to see what happens in Maimi, Florida State, and Notre Dame, the rest of the season. It could be a very touch year for these once great programs.

The Florida schools are great, the women are incredible. When I lived down there I was fortunate to get to see the top 3 play at there home stadiums and the atmosphere at all of them was so electric. I had a great time at all of them. I have been to Austin, but I didn't see a Horns game. That was a fun town to party in, so the games might be a lot of fun to. I don't have to say anything about California, everybody knows those advantages. So UM and MSU have to be great recruiters just to compete.

Packer: in your last paragraph I have to agree with you, that is UM to a T. And I didn't say this before, but most teams would kill with a 100 year record UM has. With Florida I had to put them there in the top 5. They destroyed OSU last year and if Tebow is as good as they say, they will fight USC for another national championship. Yes they have had there trouble, but right now they are pretty good. Give all I have said that was negative I have to give UM a lot of credit. Of all the elite teams I have mention what do they have going for them UM doesn't? There are from states that are loaded with high school talent, nobody ever mentions this. Michigan high schools have some very good talent, but not an abundance of it like Florida, Texas, California and Ohio has. UM has recruited all over the U.S. and even has gotten talent from Canada. These other teams have only 1 thing on UM or MSU for that matter, they have a ton of local talent to choose from. While I am being nice about UM (thank God my brother is not on this site) I have to say I have met Lloyd Carr in person and he is without question one of the nicest gentleman I ever had the pleasure of meeting. He cares a lot about his players and the university. I do not know what has happen to the team in recent years, but he is one good person. That nice B.S is over now, but it is true.

Forgot to mention in my first post foxsports.com does a great job with soccer (football) coverage. They also have a shop site with a lot of Celtic gear and many other clubs.

GCW: I have just gotten back into soccer recently. I played it a lot as young man growing up in Florida. I was very proud we won a couple Catholic League championships down there. I had gotten a way from it when we moved back to Michigan. Started watching recently the Premier and Scottish Leagues. I have been very enthralled to see such great soccer played at the highest level. I will be watching more matches and I will post again. GO CELTICS!!!!!

Wonderful the little Wolverine fan can look up stats. Anybody can point to one year or a couple and say we did this. But no where did I say in any of my posts that UM were bad. In fact they have been a very good top 20 throughout Coach Carr's tenure with a couple of top 10 (I believe there were 3) sprinkled in there. But most Wolverine fans want a top 5 and let's be honest with one self; they haven't been except for 2 of them. Most experts of college football (which you do not seem to be one of them) would not rank them among the elite of college football. Maybe you need to understand what an elite football team is. Southern Cal is probably at the top of the list of most people but that was an easy one. OSU would be there Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma (they are slipping a little bit) would be most people's top 5 with LSU coming on strong. These top 5 are the teams that have won (BCS) national championships. Let's look at some others Tennessee, West Virginia, Auburn, California, Georgia, Louisville, and Michigan would match up very well with this group. Now you can be very satisfied with that as most people would be. But if you were a true Michigan man you would not be satisfied at all. In fact you be like my brother (class of 90), he is made as hell and extremely embarrassed. Of course I have had a little fun at his expense this week. Now you can fight with a lot of MSU grads (there good people and I am not one) on this site, but that will get you no where. Maybe you should start thinking how UM will change it around. If you have done this already my apologies, I do not read every post.

My friend please take off your maize and blue glasses for a minute. A Big 10 title isn't what it was; they all have had very poor bowl records the last few years. Every single year you pointed out UM were beaten pretty badly by one team or another and to be a consistent contender the Wolverines have not match up against the elite programs for a while now. Now if you are content just being a good team, winning 8 or so games a year and make it to a bowl then that is fine. But the majority of UM fans want to be an elite program and this team hasn't match up. So most realistic people understand this, but you have chosen to stay in your delusional world. I hope you like it, but most of your UM brethren will not be joining you.

That was the worst loss and most embarrassing in college football history. UM has been getting their asses handed to them every single year under Carr except 97. Carr's teams hasn't been a top ten program for a long time. If this was any true top program Carr would have been gone 5 years ago. But then again Michigan will not pay top money to get a football coach. Do any of you really think Les Miles will take less money to come to Michigan? LSU pays him over $3 million a year with use of a private plane. This loss will have devastating effects on this season and recruiting. UNLESS they can win the rest of the games this season. Even if they do, they will never shake this type of loss.

There OK bye me, I buy another one of their uniform. But I like a lot of the new uniforms that are coming out, except for the ugly Canucks.

I voted for small effect, but it would drastically change my viewing habits. I would turn on the game, but not watch all of it. Then I would cut off most of the NHL except for the Wings, Habs, and Canucks. HNIC wouldn't be the same, especially the late game. It would be a very sad day and I would mourn the passing of the NHL that I grew up with.

HARPOON the ugly Orca, one of the worst designs ever made. Color scheme is perfect; Johnny Canuck would have been an improvement. I do like the stick logo myself, simple and clean. But let's face some facts; it wouldn't have been Vancouver if the didn't screw up the uniform. They have become the symbol of poor taste and ugly uniforms

True the Red Wings touch guys through the years could provide some solid goal scoring and play good hockey when needed. I artibute that to Jimmy D., he had a very good eye for fighters who could play the game. But I hate to say this you do not see as many of that type of player that you used to. There is a few, but you have to really look.. KP: I agree with what you have said in this post, but even your solid arguments will not convince these guys. You have a faction on this site that dislikes fighting and no matter what you say will make them change their minds. But as I have said before you will not see an enforcer type on this team until Holland moves on.

Kp I agree Asham would of been a very solid fit here and he would have been a better pick-up than Drake. But you will not see Holland sign any touch guys. That is not the way he runs the Wings. If you want a tougher team either you will have to wait fora new GM (that will not for a long time) or you can root for a new team (probably not happening either). So you can just come to grips with what the Wings are, a good team that will get their points and make the playoffs. Now you may not enjoy the product all the time, but have a couple of beers and you can watch womens beach volley ball.

I wasn't one of those down on the selection of Michael Smith, he is a great skater. Yes he played in a smaller league, but he has potential to be very good. Now in my opinion I would have selected Nick Petrecki, but Smith has a higher ceiling. Petrecki would have given the Wings something they do not have in their farm system, a big, tough, hard hitting d-man. Yes I know his limitations in skating and doesn't have a great shot, but neither does Smith for that matter. But I really can not complain about their selection, because I understand the route they are going. I do have to say their 3rd round selection of Anderson could be the steal of the draft. In just about every publication this kid was a late 1st or early 2nd round selection. To get him late in the 3rd round is just great luck and great scouting on their part. The rest of the draft we will have to wait and see how these young guys develop, but their first 2 picks were very good.

I do a lot of business in Toronto and the fans are not half as obnoxious as some of you guys are saying. Most of the Leafs fans are pretty decent. Now granted the ones that only see through Leaf colored blue glasses are way over the top in their opinions. But you can say that about some Wings fans too. A lot of the ones I talk to appreciate the game of hockey and have a great passion for the game. On a funny note some of you will love, there is a Canadian documentary out now how a lot of cities around Canada dislike Toronto as much as any of you. In fact you could say it borders on hatred.

Agreed, they do have a need for wingers and for goalies. The later rounds were not very helpful, because most were little guys. Unless they can skate like the wind, again we will need to sign bigger forwards in free agency. It will be interesting to see how these forwards drafted after the 27th pick do in 3 to 4 years. Editor Note: It is Brendan Smith who played for St. Micheal's not Michael Smith, sorry for the the mix-up.

One of the big reason is Toronto is Canada's biggest media market, they are New York of Canada . Most of the hockey publications are either based there or have a significant presence. TSN is also based there, so the Leafs get a lot of coverage good and bad. Since the Harold Ballard days this team has been the soap-opera of the NHL and make for good articles. Around the league (and most of Canada) the Leafs are hated basically because of the money they can generate, a strong loyal fan base that in their minds the NHL begins and ends with the Leafs. So the Leafs are either extremely loved or extremely hated, no in between for this team.

What is interesting is whoever talks with Nashville wants to get the team out of there. There is no-one except Bettman that wants the team to stay. Maybe Bettman can put together with a rich benefactor a deal and buy the team. Then Mr. Wonderful can run the Preds and get the hell out of the league office (yes I know, a pipe dream). I am starting to think the league has something against Balsillie. To bad he would make a great owner and add a fresh face.

I have gotten into the draft craze this year, for some reason or another. Ever since Bullocks came out with his mock draft, I have been reading a lot about the draft. THN has the Wings selecting this Sweedish kid, I know a lot of you will be upset. http://www.forecaster.ca/hockeynews/hockey...-nhl-draft-mock The have a little different view of the draft from TSN & ESPN. So I thought it would make for great reading.

Now I am all for the rough play and fighting. But from what I have seen on youtube and other tapes they won by being thugs. As bad as it is today with fighting being down a little, it was totally to the other side in the 70's. I like hockey to be wide open, end-to-end action and a couple good fights mixed in. Not a fight every 5 seconds. Correction: Lindsman nickname was the rat, not pest.

Good eye ARice, I wouldn't even had looked at it.

If you guys watch some old clips on youtube and see what some of these guys did back in the 70's. You would have a new list. Especially anyone on the Broadstreet Bullies. Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz and all the rest from cell-block C, made most of these little ******* look like church ladies. Also you have to add Kenny 'The Pest"Lindsman to the list, he was hated all over the league.

Gillies would be your pick then, if he lasts that long (highly unlikely). He can skate and if (a big if) he is as tough as his uncle, then anyone drafting him would be very lucky. The players that might be available at 27th in my very "non-expert" opinion is Petrecki, Maclean, Sweatt, and Cross. 3 of these are defenseman. Now if you are willing to take a chance Pacioretty has a great chance to be a very good power forward. But he is very raw in his development.

Thats is to bad. I really liked those. I hope their new ones do not have that damn ugly Orca. I might be the only one doesn't like it, but I really hate it. Give me the hockey stick logo!!