The End of the Hoke Era – and the Start of a Crucial One
Brady Hoke grew up in Ohio, graduated from Ball State, and started his coaching career as an assistant at Yorktown High in Indiana. He is a football man, through and through. In 1995, Hoke began an...
View ArticleWhy Jim Harbaugh defied the experts, and followed his heart back home
[This blog comes from my feature this week in The Wall Street Journal, linked here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-michigan-landed-jim-harbaugh-1419958985?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj] The private jet...
View ArticleLions and Browns and A Lot of Losing – Oh My!
The Lions have lost to the Cowboys 13 times – so that’s not unusual. There are 31 other teams in the NFL, and 27 of them have winning records against the Lions. That leaves those pesky cats to feed on...
View ArticleThe Buckeyes win – and the Big Ten benefits
The Big Ten entered the bowl season battered from a brutal decade. How bad was it? Michigan’s sworn enemies, Michigan State and Ohio State, had given up hating the Wolverines. What was the point? The...
View ArticleBrady’s Balls, Left Sharks, and the Story We Missed
Everyone has been calling Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday for so long, it’s almost true. It’s great because everyone can play, no matter your religion, or even if you don’t like football. So,...
View ArticleBeilein at his best when conditions at their worst
Under head coach Tom Izzo, the Spartans have been to 17 straight NCAA tournaments, made it to 6 final fours and won it all in 2000 – while graduating 81 percent of his players. Not too shabby. Thanks...
View ArticleMy Q&A on “ENDZONE: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football.”
NOTE: This week, Brian Cook of MGoBlog asked me a bunch of questions about my upcoming book, “Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football,” which is due out September 1. The publisher...
View ArticleJim Harbaugh is Back in Town – and so is Weapons-Grade Intensity
[Author's Note: This piece is the longer version of my story that ran in the Wall Street Journal, on line Thursday, and in the paper Friday....
View ArticleIzzo, Calipari and Knight: One of these coaches keeps getting caught
Hello, Loyal Readers: As most of you probably know, I’m working hard to finish my latest book, “Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football,” which will be published by St. Martin’s Press...
View ArticleThe Final Four Misfit: How Michigan State Did It
Tomorrow night, March Madness resumes – even though it’s April. Why? Because there’s just too much madness for March alone. And it’s going go get madder. Of the Final Four teams, three are number one...
View ArticleENDZONE sneak preview and more
Hello, Loyal Readers! Good news — at least for me: rumors of my death have been exaggerated, though only slightly. From December 23 to July 19, I worked every day, usually about 16-20 hours a day the...
View ArticleBig Ten Media Days: The Harbaugh Effect Raises All Boats
The Big Ten held its media days last week. Fourteen coaches told a few hundred reporters that their team chemistry has never been better, their senior leadership is outstanding, they had a great...
View ArticleFirst Excerpt of “ENDZONE”: Why Jim Harbaugh Came Back
Hello, Loyal Readers! Today we bring you the first excerpt of “Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football,” due out by St. Martin’s Press September 1. It ran in today’s online Wall Street...
View ArticleNorthwestern players’ unionization falls short, but NCAA wakes up
Last year, in a surprising decision, the National Labor Relations Board granted the Northwestern University football players the right to unionize, if they wanted to. This made a big splash, but the...
View ArticleThe Lessons College Football Should Learn From The Ann Arbor News
Last week, MLive.com, which covers ten cities in Michigan, laid off another 29 employees, which was hardly surprising. On Monday, Alabama beat Clemson to claim college football’s national title. These...
View ArticleFor NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the Game is Rigged
Two weeks ago, three NFL teams – the San Diego Chargers, the Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams – all bid to move their teams to Los Angeles. The nation’s second biggest city hasn’t had a team...
View ArticleNever Underestimate The Beav — One of Tom Brady’s Best Friends
A little more than a year ago, in the last days of 2014, Jim Harbaugh accepted the University of Michigan’s offer to become the next head coach of the Wolverines. But Harbaugh could have come back four...
View ArticleThe Ivy Leagues ban tackling in football practice. Who will follow?
Political writer George Will, an avid baseball fan, once said “Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence, punctuated by committee meetings.” Football isn’t getting rid of the...
View ArticleMichigan and Michigan State approaching March Madness from different angles
The madness of March is here, and Michigan and Michigan State both have big games today in the Big Ten tournament. Michigan needs to beat Big Ten champion Indiana to qualify for the NCAA tournament,...
View ArticleWill the Spartans’ upset spark a truce with the Wolverines?
Hello, Loyal Readers! We’re back today with a piece about March Madness, and the long, bumpy relationship between Michigan and Michigan State. I wrote this for Yahoosports.com’s Postgame page, their...
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