text:
Jets coach Rex Ryan loves to talk up his matchup with Bill Belichick before the Patriots and Jets meet, but don't let him fool you: It's Ryan vs. Tom Brady each time, and it continues to be must-see theater.
You just have to wonder whether Ryan has run out of things to throw at Brady. There's always the kitchen sink.
In the Jets' upset win in the January playoff game, Ryan confounded Brady with 28 snaps with five defensive backs, and another 28 with six, seven, or eight. Ryan used dime packages (six defensive backs) on an amazing 18 snaps, which is unheard of.
The Jets played mostly zone defense in that game, and continually rolled coverages to one receiver and then another. Brady said last week it was the most looks he ever had seen in a game.
On Sunday, Ryan raised the ante.
The Jets played with five defensive backs just 11 times. But they played 56 snaps with six or seven defensive backs.
If 18 snaps was a lot to play dime last year, how about 32 this time around?
And, of course, Ryan had his wrinkles. The Jets mixed coverages but played a lot more man-to-man than last season.
And apparently Dick LeBeau stopped by Florham Park, N.J., at some point, because suddenly the Jets morphed into a zone exchange team.
Zone exchange is a quarterback-pressure concept where the defense sends the same number of rushers - four - but they come from unexpected positions.
For example, a linebacker or defensive back may rush the quarterback, but he is replaced in coverage by a player who was lined up on the line.
It becomes a zone blitz when you send a fifth rusher.
The Jets used a zone exchange seven times against the Patriots. That's a lot.
Last year, the Patriots played the Steelers and Packers , whose defenses are coordinated by LeBeau and Dom Capers, respectively. They are credited for bringing the zone blitz to a different level when they were on the same staff with the Steelers in the 1990s. Both still feature it today.
They combined to send a total of one zone exchange at Brady in two games last year.
The Patriots had some trouble with the concept Sunday, as Brady was sacked twice and knocked down another time. But one of the sacks and the knockdown were wiped out by penalties.
Still, the appearance and frequency of the concept is just another tool for Ryan to throw at Brady, and no one makes him work harder. That's probably part of the reason Brady seemed a little testy after the game.
That and the fact that the Patriots didn't have a banner day offensively - if that's possible with 446 total yards, including 321 by pass (net), and 152 rushing.
The Patriots got 306 yards on the 15 plays that went for 10 yards or more (12 pass, 3 rush).
Of the Patriots' 81 plays (including penalties), 39 gained 4 yards or fewer. That's called grinding out a victory, and that's what Ryan and the Jets want Brady to do. And he did.
Against a better offensive team - one capable of catching passes and throwing an accurate slant - maybe the Patriots lose this game. But the Jets weren't, and the Patriots didn't.
Here are the positional ratings from Sunday's game:
QUARTERBACK Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Of the 43 times Brady dropped back to pass (including penalties), he produced only three negative plays: 1.5 sacks and a high throw to Wes Welker on third and 3 early in the third quarter. And one of the sacks, when Brady held onto the ball for 4.28 seconds, was wiped out by a ticky-tack illegal contact penalty on Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis against Deion Branch. Later in that drive, Brady had perhaps his best throw of the game, from the opposite hash mark and off his back foot, getting rid of it before the six rushers got to him. Brady threw well before Branch had made his cut to the sideline but hit him in stride. In all, we counted seven exceptional throws from Brady and four alert plays, including three crucial pre-play adjustments. Brady wisely stayed away from Revis, throwing only three times for one catch for 4 yards by Welker.
RUNNING BACKS Rating: 4 out of 5
BenJarvus Green-Ellis had a career-high 136 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns. His running was nearly flawless, especially when you consider that 73 of those yards (53.7 percent) came after first contact, as he broke or eluded eight tackles. He did choose the wrong hole once, and allowed a half-sack and a knockdown in pass protection. But considering Green-Ellis was in on a season-high 61 plays (previous high was 40 against Oakland), that's a very good day. The direct snap to him on third and 4 from the Jets 46 on the final drive was a perfect call by offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. The Jets had an undersized end (Jamaal Westerman) and four defensive backs lined up right of center. The Patriots crushed them on a huge play. Stevan Ridley may have been trying a little too hard to repeat his bust-out game against the Raiders because he didn't exhibit quite the same patience and decision-making after he got the ball (seven carries, 13 yards).
RECEIVERS Rating: 3 out of 5
Tight end Aaron Hernandez gets points just for taking the field with a knee that probably wasn't quite ready, and making the Jets have to defend him. Hernandez had one exceptional catch of a Brady laser in traffic, but he continued to have trouble run-blocking, which happens healthy or not. And twice Brady looked to Hernandez to break off his route against all-out blitzes but it didn't happen. At least on one Hernandez drew a flag. Rob Gronkowski continued to be a bull in the run game (three plus blocks) despite being ill. That was some tough 33-yard catch by Welker in the first quarter, as safety Jim Leonhard, who was late, was charging hard. Welker did have two outstanding run-blocks on the final drive, which made up for two misses in the first half. Branch might not be a threat on a go route, but few are better inside of 12 yards. Ask Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
OFFENSIVE LINE Rating: 3.5 out of 5
There were a few lapses, which drew the ire of Brady, but for the most part, this unit fared well. Part of that had to do with the fact that the Jets played just six snaps of base defense outside of their 10-yard line or the Patriots' final drive. When the Patriots did most of their successful running on the final drive, the Jets made the curious choice to play seven defensive backs when they knew the Patriots wanted to grind out the clock. Right guard Brian Waters was brought in for physical games like this, and he delivered with seven exceptional run blocks against two half run-stuffs. Left tackle Matt Light also stood out in the run and allowed only a half-sack. Logan Mankins had a long day against Mike DeVito. Both Mankins and Dan Connolly were asked to execute some very difficult reach blocks (getting in front of a defender that's lined up away from you) against a Jets alignment that made it tough.
DEFENSIVE LINE Rating: 4 out of 5
The defense almost should be graded on a curve because of the Jets' performance, but this unit did well. There weren't many pressures to be had because quarterback Mark Sanchez played skittish and looked to be on orders to throw to his primary read. The player who stood out was end Andre Carter, who had his best game as a Patriot. He was a beast against the run with 3.5 stuffs, three other tremendous tackles shedding blockers, and 1.5 knockdowns. Mark Anderson had two half-sacks (Rob Ninkovich forced Sanchez into the final one) and a run stuff. His first sack was good hustle play getting back up after being blocked. Albert Haynesworth had a knockdown in 21 snaps. He shoved a few people around otherwise, but Kyle Love (who was handled by center Nick Mangold) does that, too.
LINEBACKERS Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Rob Ninkovich (two half-sacks, tipped pass) was charged with knocking tight end Dustin Keller silly most of the game, which he did very well. Keller was a nonfactor, and taking away Sanchez's security blanket was huge. Brandon Spikes and Gary Guyton left a lot to be desired against the run. Spikes plays with suddenness and physicality, but he can hit the wrong hole. If he has to move laterally, which the Jets tried to get him to do, he's in trouble. Guyton is very slow reading his run keys. On Shonn Greene's 3-yard touchdown, it took Guyton about two beats to realize where the run was going, and by that time it was too late.
SECONDARY Rating: Incomplete
This was akin to arriving for a test but the teacher failed to show up. The Jets just didn't compete in this area. Why it took them until 7:14 left in the game to throw deeper than 10 yards outside the numbers - as they did on the touchdown to Santonio Holmes (which safety James Ihedigbo failed to cover over the top) - we'll never know. Sanchez played like a guy who had been beaten up in the previous game, which he was. He can't complete a slant against zone coverage, there were three dropped passes, and he was staring down his receivers. The Patriots generated only eight total quarterback pressures, so on most plays he had time and soft zone coverage. The Jets just couldn't execute their rudimentary game plan, although the Holmes touchdown, where Sanchez rolled out against an all-out blitz, was a terrific call by coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Otherwise, the Jets offense is just trying to crawl before it can walk. The secondary missed only one tackle in this game. That was definitely an improvement.
SPECIAL TEAMS Rating: 2 out of 5
Not a great day for this unit outside of Stephen Gostkowski and Zoltan Mesko (two punts with hang times over five seconds). Welker should have let the first-quarter punt go once he was going to have to slide to catch it. That his fumble was recovered by the Patriots was a big break. Kick coverage struggled, giving up an average of 39.6 on five returns by Joe McKnight, including the 88-yarder. Have to tip the hat to Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff for throwing in two two-man wedges on that one. The Patriots didn't have an answer as both Jeff Tarpinian and Ross Ventrone failed to get inside and were taken out by fullback John Conner. Antwaun Molden and Tracy White each had two special teams tackles.
Situation: On the first play of the second half, leading, 10-7, the Patriots had first and 10 at their 20-yard line.
What happened: This is a play the Patriots had in their back pocket, having shown the same look in the first half and knowing they likely would get zone coverage by the Jets. The Patriots also used their own tendencies against the Jets, and took advantage of a mismatch when safety Eric Smith (33), whom they have victimized in past games, was on the same side of the field as receiver Wes Welker (83). Bringing tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) in short motion was a tip to the Jets that the Patriots were likely to run BenJarvis Green-Ellis (42) out of this formation, with Gronkowski executing a wham block on the nose tackle.
The Patriots used this play against the Raiders repeatedly. That's why Smith bit on the play-action by Tom Brady (12), and Darrelle Revis (24) had to track down Welker after a 73-yard gain.
ON HIS GAME: Tom Brady, quarterback
BenJarvus Green-Ellis had a career-high 136 yards, many after contact, but the offensive line made a lot of holes. End Andre Carter carried the defense against the run. But Brady gets the nod because of all that he has on his plate against Rex Ryan's defense between protection calls, audibles, and deciphering the coverages. Outside of the 45-3 game last season, when the Jets lost safety Jim Leonhard to a broken leg the week before the game, this was Brady's finest performance against a Ryan defense with a 72.7 completion percentage.
OFF HIS GAME: Brandon Spikes, linebacker
The Patriots are going to need a lot more from both Spikes and Gary Guyton if the Patriots are going to compete with offenses that aren't below average, like the Jets'. Spikes had a run stuff, but he aGreg A. Bedard can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @gregabedard.


text:
The previews were great Brian. Can't wait for tomorrow.
Previously: The story, the secondary, the linebackers, the defensive line, the running backs, the receivers, the offensive line, special teams, and the conference.
Rating: 3.
You are feeling a sudden sense of well-being relative to two years ago.
|Denard Robinson
|Tate Forcier
|Devin Gardner
If I had to summarize the thousands of words poured out into this space previewing the 2009 Michigan quarterbacks in a single sentence, it would be "they are going to be much better but probably still suck":
The upshot: freshman quarterbacks suck, but on average they suck far less than Michigan's two-headed monster of yesteryear. An average-for-a-freshman performance from Forcier will be a huge step forward for the offense.
And lo: Michigan's quarterbacks combined to throw 14 interceptions against just 15 touchdowns, fumbled probably a dozen more times, averaged a meh 7.2 yards per attempt, and singlehandedly sabotaged a surprisingly winnable 2009 edition of The Game. This was vast, vast improvement—the 2008 QBs combined to average 5.1(!!!) yards per attempt—and also pretty much sucked.
But, hey, that's what you get when you start true freshmen. We can now slot Tate Forcier in Doctor Saturday's list of recent true freshman starters at BCS schools:
|Comp. %
|Terrelle Pryor
|Ohio State
|Robert Griffin
|Willie Tuitama
|Erik Ainge
|Chris Leak
|Chad Henne
|Matt Barkley
|Tate Forcier
|Mitch Mustain
|Tyrod Taylor
|Virginia Tech
|Matt Stafford
|Thaddeus Lewis
|Jimmy Clausen
|Notre Dame
|Josh Freeman
|Kansas State
|Reggie Ball
|Georgia Tech
|Kris Heavner
|Brady Quinn
|Notre Dame
|Juice Williams
A tick behind Chad Henne isn't bad. And since Henne's receivers were current NFLers Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant, and Steve Breaston while Forcier's top target was a redshirt freshman who only started playing extensively at the tail end of the year—the senior "star" went undrafted—you could plausibly argue that the main difference between the freshman years of NFL starter Chad Henne and current sophomore Tate Forcier was the quality on the other end of the pass, especially since Forcier's YPA was superior. (Save your Baby Seal U protests: Forcier threw two passes in that game.)
To put the suck of '08 in perspective: '09 sucked but only because of the turnovers. The YPA average in I-A last year was 7.2, exactly what Michigan managed. A standard deviation was a yard. Michigan improved two standard deviations with a true freshman under center.
So of course everyone expects the guy who threw four interceptions in 31 attempts last year to start. This is Michigan, where things don't seem weird until the melting clocks drip PCP-tripping Gary Busey homunculi into swimming pools full of ham. We've seen stranger. Have you heard the one about the field goal that one of Michigan's players unblocked?
Yeah: Denard Robinson. This is the part of the preview where I ignore the the guy with 281 attempts and 118 rushes in favor of the guy with the 31 attempts and 69 rushes because of an impressive spring performance, a bunch of practice reports, and some inflammatory comments from Troy Woolfolk. For the record, here they are again:
"Denard has been out there through the thick and thin and been out there all the time regardless if he's hurting," Woolfolk said. "And Tate, he tries to come out, but he's not as consistent as Denard is. And that's allowed Denard to jump a little bit ahead of Tate and I think that Tate's going to have to do a lot of work to catch back up to Denard in camp this year."
With Rodriguez and Steve Schilling essentially backing those up a couple days later and the general tenor coming out of spring practice, it seems clear that Forcier did not think his job was under threat, slacked off a bit, and has paid for it with his starting job. (Forcier: "I felt like I was working with the team, just not as much as I should have. Part of that is maturity." Rod Smith: "He didn't come back in shape, and he's competed as hard as any of the other guys.")
By now (and for now) this is assured. When Bruce Feldman was attempting to justify($) his out-there pick of Michigan as #25 on his preseason ballot, he deployed this conversation he'd had with Rodriguez:
Rodriguez is so fired up by the development of QB Denard Robinson, who is so dynamic he evokes memories of WVU great Pat White. Rodriguez says Robinson's presence and personality are similar to White's, and that Robinson is actually bigger than White was at the same stage. He doesn't quite play as fast as White did, but he will.
"Pat was so decisive," Rodriguez said. "He knew what he was doing. Pat was a fast player who played fast. Denard is a fast player who didn't play fast all the time, but I know he will play faster this year. He'll play faster and faster. He'll become more relaxed and calm executing the offense. There is a lot to learn, but at the same time, he is eager to learn it. And as he plays faster and his teammates play faster, we'll get a lot better."
Rodriguez added that the other two QBs Tate Forcier and Devin Gardner are very gifted too and will push Robinson, and if they overtake him, well, then the Wolverines offense should be in good shape.
We were at the point where the other two quarterbacks are "pushing" Robinson even before the fall scrimmage reports ("clear starter," "will absolutely start," "will be the starter") started rolling in. Perhaps more telling even than those rapturous reports was the substitution pattern: like David Molk, Mike Martin, and select other players too important to risk, Robinson saw his snaps limited. His time wasn't nearly as limited as that of the aforementioned duo—he had time to establish himself obviously the man before Forcier and Gardner mopped up during the last bit of the scrimmage—but the sign was clear. The competition is chasing.
I guess this is plausible. I mean, there's this:
Since that was done against the 1972 Pittsburgh Steelers it's pretty impressive. Yes, they had a 5'7" defensive tackle too.
So what does Michigan have in this guy? Anyone who attempts to tell you is having a moment of foolish arrogance. The guy who did this…
…also did this…
|has a lane
|darts through this gap
|easy QB draw
|another one for TD
|squeezes in for Iowa TD
|a precious thing forever.
|shoots into the secondary
|six exciting yards
|Iowa doom INT
|underthrown DSU TD #1
|fired it hard and high
|okay Koger seam
|zings one on the money
…and was such an incredible neophyte that he never once ran the zone read despite its status as Rich Rodriguez's calling card and Robinson's ability to do that first thing above. Any program not digging out from a 100-year flood would have taken one look at the kid in fall practice and put so many redshirts on him that he'd be peeling the last one off right now. Michigan couldn't because its other quarterbacks were walk-ons or injury-prone freshmen.
The results were occasionally brilliant, sometimes promising, and frequently facepalm-worthy. In lieu of a full UFR passing chart here are all of Robinson's infrequent attempts rolled into one pretend game with around 30 attempts:
|6 (2)
|3 (1)
That's three inaccurate screens and an 8/18 downfield success rate, which rivals Mallett's insane freshman performances, without even considering that four of those passes were terrible interceptions. This will not be news to anyone who saw Robinson play last year: he was in vastly over his head.
A guy that raw with that much speed has the ability to make a stunning improvement in a single offseason. And the above-linked spring highlights at least suggest that Robinson's improvement has indeed been stunning, especially since he followed that up with a similarly impressive performance in fall. He's added a non-insubstantial eight pounds to reach 193, and the offseason has come with a heavy focus on ending all the fumbling. Rodriguez:
"He looks to me physically bigger, and maturing physically," said Rodriguez. "Mentally, he understands some of the concepts a lot better, which he should. I see his confidence continuing to grow. And he's so eager to please and do well that he's taking steps every day."
"There were a couple times today with ball security … even though they didn't fumble, it wasn't as good as we'd like," Rodriguez said. "But you could see they were making a conscious effort to take care of the ball. Decision making, the same thing… they're not just trying to force something in there."
This is the bit where I evaluate the player's strengths and weaknesses and offer up a projection for season stats and the like, but here the former is obvious and the latter a mystery. Robinson's radical improvement has come against Michigan's second and third strings, which are so thin as to hardly exist. How will he react when those seams are covered? How will he react when he gets pressure? Can he hold onto the ball when he's not playing two-hand touch? Run around, run around, don't know.
Let's take a wild-ass guess and ballpark it as Pat White, freshman edition. White was a redshirt freshman who split time with a pocket passer—Robinson is essentially the same thing. In 2005, White rushed for 952 yards at 7.3 a pop and completed 57% of his passes for 7.3 YPA, 8 TD, and 5 INT. Downgrade those YPA numbers 10-20% to take into account Michigan's presence in the Big Ten and that's your random guess.
|WOOPs Brian Smith
|WOOP gone vs ND
|spins by safety
|zips by DE
|juke, spin, head down: RB?!
|tries to cut it outside
|just kind of falls over
|more falling over
|scraping OLB gets out on Forcier
|nailing Mathews in the numbers
|brilliant adjustment
|zips it in there
|steps up to nail Hemingway
|seriously tight window
|tough rollout Koger TD
|tying MSU game
|zings deep corner route
|ridiculous sideline toss
|dart hits Mathews in the numbers
|points Roundtree somewhere
|should never have thrown this
|insane but Odoms reels it in
|Forcier's 50-yard punt.
Until about a week ago, virtually every scrap of talk about Tate Forcier this offseason had been negative. A quick scan of any Michigan message board will turn up a thread or four that someone in the Forcier family will screenshot and throw into the section of their personal site once embarrassingly named the "Hall of Shame" and subsequently nerfed to something less ambiguously bitchy and more clearly intended as motivation. The charges: Forcier is a douchebag. He's going to transfer. He's not going to get any better. He hasn't been going to workouts. He will pout when and if he doesn't play, destroying team chemistry. Etc. I've unpublished a couple around here.
How we got here from "Weapon of Choice" and Moxie Death Star is a matter of:
Still, the numbers on the above chart are just off future star status, especially when you knock Pryor and Griffin out for being athletic freakshows whose stats were inflated by the rarity of their throws.
Forcier didn't get a ton of help from his offensive line or receivers, either, which made a couple of his performances better than they looked. Michigan State provides a typical example:
You wouldn't know it because of all the pressure and the drops killing his stats, but Forcier had a spectacular day. His downfield success rate* was 71%, which is up there with Chad Henne's best game. Chad Henne's best games didn't come with game-killing overtime interceptions, sure. He made three and a half terrible decisions throwing the ball (with the half being the bomb to Koger) and some additional ones in the ground game.
But does anyone remember the "Sheridan Might Start!" meme? Will anyone own up to actually advancing that point of view? No? No.
After the great start (post ND: "two games in it looks like Tate Forcier has 99th percentile skill in accuracy on the run, pocket awareness, and (yep) moxie"), Forcier had a mid-season swoon with an implosion against Iowa in which his DSR fell to a bleah 50% that didn't take into account how "disastrous" some of the bad reads; the following week Forcier duplicated the 50% DSR performance against Penn State. He picked it up afterwards with a "decent" Illinois game and had "one of his best games" against Purdue before turning in a "good day" against a very good Wisconsin defense; though Ohio State didn't get charted I can tell you that his performance in that game was plain great except for the four awful interceptions, which is a weird thing to say but there it is.
So. By the numbers, both official and blogger-generated, his freshman season was promising. Unfortunately, the numbers aren't everything. Forcier made a ton of bad reads on the zone read and Michigan's rare option plays, one of which Burgeoning Wolverine Star documented in detail. Part of the reason he looked so ineffective on the zone last year was because he pulled the ball out too much.
Worse, the numbers capture Forcier's interceptions but not his massive fumble issues. Everyone remembers Tate gifting Ohio State the first touchdown of last year's game with a basically unforced fumble, and that was a problem all year. Illinois:
The fumbling issue remains a problem, though: Forcier was irresponsible with the ball and coughed it up twice, once on a QB draw he made a poor read on. Michigan lost one, causing everyone to turn the TV off. Hopefully this is a major point of emphasis in the offseason; Forcier can't be as careless with the ball going forward or the offense is never going to get off the ground.
The big downer was the fumble, which was a huge error on Forcier's part but also an understandable one since Purdue blitzed right into the option and Forcier was not prepared to deal with the corner there. He should have eaten the ball and taken the loss.
Robinson chipped in his share of mind-bending fumbles but Forcier, more than anyone else, was responsible for Michigan's crippling 13 fumbles lost.
But as training camp progressed, the Forcier vibe got better. Rodriguez:
"I've had quite a few talks with Tate and some of the other guys and said if you're a true competitor, you'll respond to it," Rodriguez said. "So far he has. He's responded … he's not sulking and laying back. He's working his way back and trying to prove himself."
"Obviously he went through some adversity there with Troy's comments and the wings and all that stuff you guys know about." He's worked hard to prove himself, and show that he wants to be the team's quarterback. "I'm definitely gaining a lot of respect back for Tate," as are a lot of others.
With transfer and ineligibility rumors quashed and fitness levels approaching something the coaches consider reasonable, Forcier has bounced back and finds himself in position to play. Rivals has taken to using its insiders to talk him up like whoah, and while I don't share the point of view on offer there*, especially the lack of confidence in Robinson, it seems like his time with the third team is at an end. As I've asserted a thousand times before, the two sophomores are so different that Michigan has reason to play both, and can reasonably hope the platoon is greater than the sum of its parts.
What can we expect from Forcier's sophomore year? Beware linear projections. Way back in December, Ace took a look at a subset of those true freshman starters in the chart above and compared their sophomore performance to their freshman years. He found that sophomores improved their average yards per attempt by a full yard, completion percentage 5.5 points, and touchdowns by five. If you take those improvements and apply them to Forcier's freshman year you get ridiculous results: 65% completions, 8.5 yards per attempt, 20 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and the #12 passer efficiency rating in the country.
That's totally not going to happen. Ace took a bunch of really terrible QBs who became decent to good and applied that transition to a decent quarterback, resulting in a projection that says Forcier will be the greatest sophomore QB of the past ten years, and by some margin: only Chris Leak's sophomore year rating of 145 is anywhere close to Forcier's projected 151. More realistically, the hope is for Forcier to cut down on the crippling turnovers by a third, add some more touchdowns, merely maintain his YPA—only Chris Leak significantly exceeded Forcier's freshman YPA as a sophomore—and add a point or two to completion percentage. Forcier doesn't have a long way to go to be a good quarterback, but that means his improvement in all things other than holding on to the damn ball will be incremental.
*(Chances there's some serious fuddy-duddy-ism going on there: high.)
And then after all that there's Devin Gardner. Gardner just came in for an extensive recruiting profile last week, so I won't rehash that when virtually nothing has changed in the interim. The executive summary: massive upside, raw, needs serious work on his throwing motion. I've also made my opinion on the redshirt issue clear:
Should have the luxury of redshirting with Denard's emergence into a viable option. Given Rodriguez's statements on the matter…
There is also freshman Devin Gardner, but Rodriguez said he wouldn't burn Gardner's redshirt if it was for a couple of plays a game.
…you'll probably see him on the bench unless both sophomores struggle. After that it's kind of hard to see him unseating an established junior, but they'll mix him in when given the opportunity; a lot of people have claimed he's going to be the starter as early as 2011, but I think he'll have to wait until he's a redshirt junior, at which point he should be Awesome Devin through and through.
Rich Rodriguez is not of a similar mind. He told the media Monday that Gardner was on the depth chart and would play. I'm still hoping that the two sophomores play well enough to keep him on the bench, if not immediately then by the time the Big Ten season rolls around, at which point Gardner can come down with a strained whatever and get that year of eligibility back.
The previews were great Brian. Can't wait for tomorrow.
Let's Get Denarded
great...now I get to have that song stuck in my head all day
all hail devin's hopeful redshirt.
You really want us to fake an injury to get an extra year for Gardner? After the NCAA violation crap I want our program to be spotless. Let's just hope Rodriguez doesn't use Gardner because our sophomore duo is killing it.
First of all, you have to apply for a medical redshirt.
First of all, I know you need to apply for a medical redshirt. What does that have to do with what I wrote?
Second, it may have been a joke. It didn't read like one to me. That is what I was asking. Does he really want that, or is it a joke?
He can play a certain number of games, minimally, and still get a Redshirt. As long as it's not spread over the season (can't play the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 11th). So what Brian means is he gets the "I can't play the rest of the season sore funny bone" after he's had a little in game experience, and just takes a natural redshirt. No one is defrauding anyone medically, or otherwise. It's just a white lie public statement so the coach isn't telling the media he's not playing anymore because we really want to redshirt him, thus saying, he's just not good enough yet. Makes the player look better, and is completely legal and typical. You don't have to justify to the NCAA why you didn't play him. Just don't.
So yes, we all really want him to do this. Unless the reason he's playing his Rich wants to break him in slow, but really thinks by the end of the year he'll be the best quarterback and will be starting. But there hasn't been a lot of indication of that.
If you have any participation in a game, you cannot redshirt.
You should know that NCAA rules indicate that any competition, regardless of time, during a season counts as one of your seasons of competition in that sport. It does not matter how long you were involved in a particular competition (for example, one play in a football game, one point in a volleyball match); you will be charged with one season of competition.
What I was pointing out was that if he has to apply for it and they allow it to go through, then there is no ground for the NCAA to stand on in terms of trying to say we broke a rule.
They've come up with some cock and bull injury story. Because it happens a lot. So, the poster questioning the practice was right...it is committing a fraud to the NCAA, and he was right to question the practice, particularly when we're under scrutiny. Of course, it's one of those things that everyone does. But then, so was practice time.
Getting pumped up for tomorrow!? Looks like we are in for a real fall day with weather dipping into the low 60s by gametime. Ah football... the one great thing about summer coming to an end.
I'm sitting here in my Braylon jersey and Michigan hat that has never been washed with rasterbated pictures of the pose and "hail, yes" in my office windows. I'm not getting pumped. I've been fucking pumped.
if i could vote yet. 2AM and I'm fucking pumped myself. 13 hours 30 minutes.....
Nothing's more important for this group than whether they've learned to make the correct read on the read-option. Tate didn't do it well last year and Denard wasn't seemingly given the opportunity. It's what makes this offense go, it's what makes the linebackers and secondaries tentative, allowing the o-line to be effective on the second level and freeing up both parts of the option. If they can do it well, with Denard's speed and Tate's ability to turn it into a run-pass triple option, the offense will be very, very potent.
It's also why Devin should redshirt. As we've seen with Tate, it's very difficult for a true freshman, even one who's been as coached up as possible in high school, to make the correct read consistently. Rich Rod's best ever qb redshirted, so should Devin.
Did a quick comparison of the true freshman QB's listed in the chart above using by Points Above Normal. In general true freshman QB's improve slightly in Year 2 but regress to the mean. As freshman they average just over 1.0 PAN, about 50th in the country. As sophomores the same players increased to about 1.7 PAN, about 10 spots nationally. The biggest benefit though, is when you look at overall team offensive performance. The increase in overall team offensive performance is about 3-4 times higher than the increase in individual QB performance. If Tate is the baseline, even if his numbers don't increase dramatically, the overall offensive performance should take a step forward.
So many questions to be answered over this season. Here are a couple of mine.
1. Denard had a 45% completion percentage in HS. Some people, even really good athletes, simply can't achieve high levels of accuracy. Just the way it is. His height is a detriment and he probably won't grow any more. Sure, Drew Brees is not tall, but there is something about tall QB's that give them an advantage. Will Denard's completion percentage at Michigan exceed what he did in HS?
2. Tate was coached up in HS to levels beyond what most kids ever see. Will he rise to another level? I am not sure, but as Brian noted, even half of the typical sophomore jump will make him pretty good. His passing velocity also seems a bit on the low side - is it easier to teach a kid with a laser arm touch? Again, not a big kid with the disadvantages that go with lack of size.
3. Devin seems to have what Denard and Tate do not - the physical gift of size, rifle arm and speed, all in one package. My guess, and I hope I am wrong here, is that Gardner will get more playing time than a lot of people think. Freshman QB's....yuk.
Guess all this will be answered soon enough.
Lastly, one thing that has bothered me about our QB's, is if yo really have no real leader in terms of snaps, your passing game suffers. Every QB, as you all know, has his style and receivers become comfortable with the speed of the pass, angle of the ball in flight, tendencies, etc. That won't happen to the same degree when you platoon. Of course, we don't know what is really going on in practice.
Look forward to tomorrow in a big way. GO BLUE! See you at the Big House!
One, the way I see the QB situation going down tomorrow is that Robinson starts and Robinson and Forcier see about equal time in the first half. At the half, it becomes obvious that this is going to be a game and that Tate is the best option and he plays the entire second half, leading to a 45-31 win.
Two, I'm not normally into fawning, "fearless leader," Brian worshipping, but I have to say thank you for this entire preview series. Looking at the "previews" in Phil Steele, AA.com, and the Detroit papers almost makes you laugh after reading all of this. It's funny that the last two seasons have been by far the worst in my 25+ years of watching football, but I knew significantly more about the team and what was going on than I ever did in the past, and it's not even close. So thanks for that, it truly is a service to us.
reading college football previews all day and having tachycardia over tomorrow's game. This is my first game away from AA in 8 years (alot of people go to college for 7 years... yeah... they're called doctors...) and I took this weekend off from the hospital to go to a UM bar here in Chicago and tailgate like it's 2006. Excited/nervous rating for this season knows no peak.
spring game footage is very interesting to look back on - Denard more comfortable with the offense and a ton of improvement - he's not throwing into a crowd, for example, and generally accurate - potentially exciting. Not to temper the excitement too much, but watch his helmet - he still appears to be locking onto his primary receiver at the expense of missing better, more open alternatives - for example, around 2:18 mark , he turns it up to run instead of hitting wide open slot (Roundtree) flaring out into the flat for a big gain. Also, on one of his TD passes to left side, he had Stonum dragging across the middle of the field for much easier TD toss / catch - would have required a slightly back across the field throw but was a better read - I guess hard to complain too much given that he stuck it in for a TD. Baseline for Denard this year is to show major improvements in decision making, good ball security and (hopefully) be able to competently run the zone read. Enough to have a pretty good offense - but he won't be an elite QB until he shows he can come off his primary receiver to find a more open 2nd or 3rd option in the pattern.
Go Blue!
we couldn't have redshirted the guy.
when so many UM fans here seem to be convinced he can't complete a five-yard pass without dumping it at the feet of a wide-open receiver. Something doesn't add up.
One big, unanswered question is whether Forcier and Robinson will be able to sustain the season-long physical pounding they'll get carrying the ball as often as they should if they're running the offense correctly. That points to one of the ironic things about Pryor—his size and skill set is absolutely perfectly suited to RR's offense—his size alone means he'd be much more likely to meet the physical demands of the read-option; he's simply miscast as a drop-back QB at OSU. He's not as incompetent at throwing the ball as many here allege, but he's never going to be Chad Henne, either.
Haters gonna hate.
Now, where's that stutting eagle?
is a pretty good QB.
good O-line and they gave him a ton of easy throws his frosh year.
The crazy skill around him in the offensive back field as well. Don't people think that crazy good receivers and rb's make a mediocre qb look a hel of a lot better?
Please go pro after this year.
a concerned fan
Because even if one starts taking all the snaps, I don't really see either being able to stay healthy the whole season. So they split, and manage the touches, or one gets a lot, gets hurt, and the other has to come in. At least we've got two, with a break glass in case of emergency 3rd.
is that his most recent season is not the one at the top of that chart. With an additional 130 attempts last season, pretty much everything dropped: YPA, completion percentage, TD/INT ratio, efficiency rating.
As discussed in the Forcier section, you're probably not going to see constant improvement from QBs in that chart, but you don't expect to see struggles, especially not from players that are projected to have NFL careers ahead of them.
Pryor may have the tools to be a great college QB, but he didn't show nearly as much last year as people expected him to, and I, for one, look forward to this new progression. If he throws 25 interceptions in 2011, at least two of them will be in The Game, right?
I can see it now, gracefully adorning the hall of shame (or inanely mentioned in unnamed newspaper):
"Forcier is a douchebag." -Brian Cook of mgoblog.com
...the NCAA 11 style!
Tate, Shoelace, and Gardner all in the same shotgun backfield for a 3-headed monster no one can defend.
where Tate lines up at qb, Denard at running back and Gardner at wider receiver and the insane amount of shifting and trick plays you could design. Makes me salivate. Never going to happen, but a guy can dream, right. Hell, even if only for a single play against OSU it would be great. Talk about a triple option.
What I really like about Denard comes at the 44 second mark in the spring game video. Denard's rolling out, he has one man he can easily beat. He could have just gone with dilithium and run for yardage. Instead in mid stride he throws. It's a bit of an ugly pass, wobbles, but keep in mind that was Spring Game (pre summer camp, etc).
That right there is ever so annoying/impossible to defend against. If the DB's come up to help seal Denard in and force him to the sideline / tackle him he can just gun it over their heads. That looks like what happened there, he hits a man in space because the guy handling coverage underneath has started to come up. If everyone stays on their WR, the WR's just run deep, sucking people up the field and opening up space for Denard to run.
That ability to throw on the run, without much of a pull up / tell is really hard to defend. I love Tate, but when he tends to pull the ball down and telegraph his intentions. That means to throw he normally has to pull up and plant. That pause normally gives the guy(s) in pursuit time to hit the QB and the safeties a window to react in. The fact that Denard can gun one out in midstride is going to be a nightmare for defenses.
Look at the clips in the "see me rollin'" section above. I don't see Tate pull up to plant in any of them.
Watch Tate's movement in a lot of those clips. He is dropping back to avoid the rush, he's moving laterally to avoid pressure, he's scrambling. He is always looking down the field, always telegraphing an intent to throw. Like in the last clip he's rolling to avoid pressure and pointing Roundtree to a point. So he's just thinking "Throw, throw, throw."
Tate does an excellent job of using his feet to buy time, to get his WRs time to get clear, but he doesn't have the speed and the moves to make DBs come forward and off their coverage assignments to the same degree Denard does. He also never really hits top speed, he does just enough to avoid the rush and let him keep his balance to pass in most cases. They know the DEs and LBs can run him down most of the time.
Whereas when Denard feels pressure he'll hit the gas pedal, he'll start to move to the line of scrimmage and attack. Tate is running to buy time for a WR to get clear. Denard is running with the option of ripping off a 20 yard gash or unloading the ball.
That's actually the one part of Tate's game I really like. If he can learn to hold the ball better so he doesn't fumble as much, he is extremely dangerous when the play breaks down. The other thing he needed to work on in the off-season is staying on-script more often and not scrambling at the first sign of trouble.
I don't disagree with what you're saying there. No question he is looking to throw still and telegrapsh that intention. I just don't think he slows up to plant, therefore giving a tell as to when he's actually going to throw.
I'm with you on this. I also loved the second TD throw to Roundtree. If Denard can run the zone read , throw on the move, and throw decisvely from the pocket, he is going to give defenses massive scheme fits. For all of Tate's admirable moxie, Denard (if effective) is just a much more difficult problem for defenses.
Good points about Denard, but I caution (like Brian did) that were are reading quite a bit into a couple of non-contact spring games and fall practices. He has been watching this defense for months, knows that nobody is going to pop him when they get close, and he is likely matched up against the 2nd and 3rd-string defenders on most of those passes. I have all the faith in the world that Robinson will be a good QB, but throwing a couple of passes on the run in a controlled environment does not lead me to believe that he will perform similarly in a game-time situation.
So of course everyone expects the guy who threw four interceptions in 31 attempts last year to start. This is Michigan, where things don't seem weird until the melting clocks drip PCP-tripping Gary Busey homunculi into swimming pools full of ham. We've seen stranger. Have you heard the one about the field goal that one of Michigan's players unblocked?
I lol'd. Really good stuff.
He really tried hard, but he sure looks like a chemistry prof in that picture.
At the running back position UM has little experience (some experience but no where near what the QB position has) but hopefully a lot of potential and they get a 4.
At the QB position they have: A) Guy who started all 12 games and as the chart of freshmen QB's shows played pretty good, and B) guy who played in about every game last year and has been the talk of spring and fall camp. And the QB's get a 3?????
QB is a lot harder of a position to play, and generally the more experience the better the QB will be. RBs can come in as freshmen and do well. The QBs' experience here is better than nothing, but it's probably not optimistic to rate them higher than a 3 till they've got two full years of experience under each of their belts.
I agree with maxr on this but I also said yesterday that the RBs should only be a 3. On the other hand, if 3 is average I actually expect that the QBs will be better than average. Maybe not quite 4 status but probably closer to 4 than 3. In the end, I feel better about our QBs having a big year versus our RBs having a big year.
What would the QBs be rated as Seniors/Juniors?
Do I want Denard to be the second coming of Pat White? Hell yes! I love that style of ball, but I trust the coaches to use the QB's in a way that gives the team the best chance to win no matter who is behind center.
tate is actually third behind denard and DG
DO NOT TEMPT THE MICHIGAN BLANK HATING GOD by suggesting DG come down with a strained whatever.
And so completes a literally epic team preview. This site has outdone itself once again. XOXOXO
But is it really complete until we have Preview 2010: Preview 2011?
That was an incredibly judicious review of what we should be thinking about Denard on 9/3/10. Thanks for the objective analysis. You have to admit that the spring game video shows DR making the zone read correctly at least some of the time, and with good results every single time (against that dominating defense he was facing, I will admit). But if he can make the zone read consistently, he can only pile up the yards and points. Given RR's offense, DR has so much more potential upside than TF that I am extremely excited with the way we seem to be going at the QB position. Tomorrow will tell us an awful lot. I'm thinking it's going to be good, but your sobriety is, well, properly sobering.
Please let the sophomores QB be good enough that DG can redshirt and own everyone for at least 2 years and not just 1.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Is College a Scam? Probably Not, But Calling It One Would Make the Suffering Meaningful
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw
I apologize to Bill Henderson, a first-rate student of empirical method, for what is to follow, but it's at least a sliver of data from which I'm going to spin a little perspective, which itself will be cold comfort to those caught in a particular population cohort at a particular moment in history on a particular segment of the macro-economic cycle.
A short piece in today's New York Times Sunday Magazine, entitled "Hello, Cruel World," is a survey of the 2011 graduating baccalaureate class of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, which the Times characterizes as follows: "For all its merits - including a much admired theater department and a prestigious Wall Street internship program - Drew ranks 94th among 178 private liberal-arts colleges on U.S. News & World Report's annual list. The middle of the collegiate pack is not where you want to be when you're competing for a diminishing number of entry-level jobs."
Now I don't think there's a perfect analog between undergraduate education and professional education when it comes to a causal link between the tuition investment and post-graduate employment. If you read the survey and the student comments, however, it's clear that there's an expectation that going to college has something to do with putting yourself in a better position to compete for employment. Does this sound familiar? 39% of the Drew class have full time jobs. Phi Beta Kappa students from Drew's senior class can't find non-menial jobs. An anthropology major works as a dog groomer. An English major can't earn enough money to make the monthly payment on $128,000 in educational loans. (If I read this correctly, the Times spoke to 226 of Drew's 309 graduating seniors in December 2011. Of the 226, only 4 are in law school as compared to these numbers for other graduate programs: education - 11; health care - 7; psychology/social work - 7; business - 5; liberal arts - 5; sciences -5.)
What I don't see in the comments from the students interviewed is the idea that college is a massive conspiracy cooked up by faculties and administrators to feather their own nests with government-funded student loans, leaving students to bear the cost over the remainder of their working lives. (I grant it's likely that undergraduate school don't publish post-graduate employment statistics, but I think Judge Schweitzer probably got it right in his skepticism about the causal relationship between those statistics and the decision to go to law school.) I don't mean at all to minimize the hardship of having a lot of debt without a job to provide the income to repay it, but this information is really telling us that the lifetime mortgages placed on young people by college and professional school tuition debt are a far broader issue than merely the so-called law school "scam."
Here are several theses, briefly stated and barely explicated:
1. It's really hard to assess causation, "but-for" or proximate, for this kind of hardship from the midst of the hardship. I think lawyers (and law students) self-select as finding meaningful causative links in what other people refer to as "blame": "okay, something bad happened, who's responsible, and can we have a perp walk?" (I've written about this in connection with the financial crisis: "The Financial Crisis of 2008-09: Capitalism Didn't Fail, But the Metaphors Got a 'C,'" and "The Epistemology of the Financial Crisis: Complexity, Causation, Law, and Judgment.") (That's not to say there are never perps, but the availability heuristic triggered by the Andy Fastows, Bernie Ebbers, and Bernie Madoffs makes us think there are more real ones than there really are.)
2. It's really hard to make policy from the midst of this kind of hardship. My sense is that the problem is not so much the debt but the economic prospects, or at least the ratio of the debt to the prospects. In other words, this wasn't an issue before the downturn, but the debt still existed. What springs to mind is our family's experience as baby boomers raising children in the millennial baby boomlet of the late 80s and early 90s. The problem was lack of capacity in the elementary and middle schools at a time when you could drive around a suburbs and see dozens of unmistakably 1950s and early 1960s former school buildings that had been sold off in the zero population growth culture of the late 1960s and 1970s. Matching up macro-demand and macro-supply, particularly looking forward rather than backward, is hardly science. (From a Drew graduate in the survey, now at Georgetown Law: "I'm hoping that the job market will pick up in the three years I spend at law school, because a lot of lawyers are getting laid off.")
3. No institutions are immune from Schumpeterian creative destruction, including AOL, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, General Motors, AIG, Dewey Leboeuf, or law schools. (Of the 25 largest U.S. corporations in 1900, only two existed in the same corporate form in 1963.) That doesn't make living in the midst of the destruction and re-genesis any easier.
4. Quietism or "manure happens" (as we horseback riders like to say) is not an appropriate leadership or management philosophy, but there are no silver bullets either. No proposed solution is immune from the mysterious leap of hypothesis that occurs when we try to translate our experience of the past into predictions of the future. I mentioned to Bill offline that I think his recent industry analysis of legal education is spot-on, but I share his optimism only in the macro, not the micro. I agree with Bill that we'll likely look back in five or ten years, having experienced the shake-out, and agree that the profession and its schools are in a better place that they were in 2012, with those smart enough or lucky to have made the right moves - i.e., see the first sentence in this paragraph - being around to write the history. I can't be optimistic that nobody is going to be caught in the micro of the shake-out. As to them, it's going to be really hard to assess causation, "but-for" or proximate, for their kind of hardship from the midst of the hardship. But that won't stop people for searching for the perp.
[Cross-posted at The Legal Whiteboard.]


text:
Who needs late night comedy when we have Marco Rubio, and now-- ta daa!-- Tim Ryan:
Just when you thought Marco Rubio was the only unintentional attention-getter on State of the Union Night, along comes "Gunslinger Tim Ryan," the Democratic U.S. Representative for Ohio's 13th congressional district. Move over, Marco, our guy is cooler.
Pew! Pew! Take that, NRA!
Via a pal of mine, Marco's Moment of Got Water? is immortalized as a GIF and has become the most memorable moment of his political career:
This morning, Stephanie Miller quipped that Rubio will need even more water as climate change does its thing. She actually said it better, but you get the idea.
Want more? Go to "Thirsty? Just add Rubio!" here!
And let's not forget the Video of Republican SOTU Rebuttal 2013: Supercut of Marco Rubio Dry Mouth Noises.


text:
Sept. 5, 2006
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Sophomore midfielder Chris Pontius found the net for the first time this season and freshman forward Bongomin Otii chipped in with his team-leading fourth goal as UC Santa Barbara blanked visiting Cal Poly 2-0 Tuesday night at Harder Stadium. The Gauchos kicked off conference play with their 11th consecutive win over their Central Coast rivals.
With the victory, Santa Barbara improves to 3-1-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the Big West, while San Luis Obispo heads home with a 1-2-1 overall record and a 0-1-0 conference mark.
The Mustangs surprised the Gauchos early in the first half, limiting the home team to just four total shots in the opening period. In fact, UCSB's first shot of the game didn't come until about 18 minutes left in the period, when a strike from Eric Avila just outside the box bounced off a Cal Poly defender.
Santa Barbara finally broke through just before the break in the 44th minute. After a Mustang foul, freshman midfielder Jon Curry's free kick from the left side sailed into the box and was cleared out by a Cal Poly defender. Pontius was there to collect the rebound outside the right corner and immediately fired a rocket from 30 yards out up and in the top right corner of the net, beyond the outstretched arms of Mustang goalkeeper Eric Branagan-Franco. The goal, which proved to be the game-winner, was the fourth for Pontius in his career.
After taking the 1-0 lead into the locker room at halftime, UCSB put the game out of reach in the 72nd minute. Goalkeeper Kyle Reynish started the play, clearing a ball out of the box just beyond midfield. Brennan Tennelle then one-time the ball over his head to forward Andrew Proctor, who beat his man one-on one on the right wing and laid the ball off for a slashing Otii just inside the box. The Denver native poked a shot into the right side of the net and passed a diving Branagan-Franco for the final 2-0 margin.
Otii has now scored four goals in four games for the Gauchos this season.
Santa Barbara completely dominated the second half of play, outshooting the Mustangs 8-0 in the period. The Gauchos also held a 5-0 advantage in corner kicks after halftime. Reynish made a season-low one save in the match, registering his third complete game shutout in four games.
"We played a very organized, tough team tonight," head coach Tim Vom Steeg said. "They worked very hard to take us out of our game and we had to make some adjustments at halftime to open things up a little bit. This was a big win for us over the best Cal Poly team we have seen in years."
UCSB's four-game homestand continues this Friday, September 8 when they take on the 18th-ranked University of Illinois at Chicago in a non-conference match. The Gauchos and Flames will play at 7:30 in the second end of a twinbill after the women welcome Wisconsin in their home opener at 5:00 p.m.


text:
Swansea defender Alan Tate has signed a new four-year contract with the Liberty Stadium club.
Tate is currently sidelined after breaking his leg in a golf buggy accident 10 days' ago, and is expected to be out of action for up to six months.
The 28-year-old joined the Swans from Manchester United on loan during the 2002-03 campaign, before moving permanently in 2004. He has since gone on to make over 300 appearances for the club and was glad to secure his future in south Wales, despite his injury absence.
He told the club website: "I'm delighted to sign the contract because is shows the club have a lot of faith in me.
"It will take me well into my 30s and who knows what will happen beyond that, although obviously I would like to stay even longer.
"It will depend on injuries and form, but I would love to finish my career at Swansea and, with a bit of luck, I hope that could happen.
"We've been talking about a contract for a while. The injury delayed things a bit. I was meant to sign before I got injured, but then it got put on the backburner.
"Then it was deadline day, which held things up again, but the new contract was never under threat because of the injury.
"The club could see it was an unfortunate accident which no-one could have expected."
Tate is the latest in a long line of Swansea players to commit their futures to the Premier League newboys with Neil Taylor, Garry Monk, Joe Allen, Angel Rangel, Nathan Dyer, Ashley Williams and Andrea Orlandi among those to pen new deals.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text:
For three quarters unbeaten Neuqua Valley couldn't make its half-court offense click against Lake Park.
Senior center Pat Kenny, in particular, couldn't find room to deliver against the Lancers' consistent double-teams.
"They were fantastic against Pat," said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton. "That's the best job anyone's done all year."
But with the Upstate Eight Valley game on the line, Kenny produced three baskets in the opening 3:21 of the fourth to help the Wildcats push a 2-point edge into a 48-38 triumph Saturday night in Naperville.
Neuqua Valley (8-0, 4-0) started its run when Kenny and Western Illinois-bound point guard Jabari Sandifer ran a pick-and-roll for a Kenny layup.
Then senior forward Trevor Davis scored in the post before Kenny added a 15-foot jumper and a short flip in the lane.
Kenny scored eight of his 10 points in the final 12 minutes, while Sandifer led everyone with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.
"We just said we wanted to be in the game to learn from it," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "And at the end of the third quarter, it was 35-33 and we said, 'OK, now we can learn from this.' The problem was in the fourth quarter, Sandifer and Kenny made plays. That's why they're special players."
Lake Park (5-4, 1-3) devised a game plan to deal with Kenny's aggressiveness and knack for scoring in the post. Lancers center Jake Ktsanes forced Kenny to catch the ball further away from the hoop than his preference -- then Lake Park attacked him with a second defender as soon as he caught the ball.
"I think I was trying to force a little too much at the beginning of the game," Kenny said.
He wasn't the only one. Neuqua Valley committed 15 turnovers in the first three quarters and had to rely on its defense to create transition baskets.
Backup forward Elijah Robertson electrified the Neuqua Valley fans when he stole a pass from the wing to the top of the key and threw down a dunk at 3:28 of the first quarter.
Kenny stole a similar pass and took it all the way for a jam in the second quarter while Sandifer turned a third-quarter steal into a breakaway layup.
"Their (motion) offense is kind of methodical," Kenny said. "You can see the same stuff happening. We kind of got the hang of it, anticipated it and read it right for some easy baskets."
Yet Lake Park ran several sets that generated open jumpers for Jeremy Caboor, Sean Moore, Carlos Cortez and Ktsanes. Caboor and Moore each scored 10 points.
Ktsanes' 15-footer with 1:57 left in the third pulled the Lancers within 35-33, but they didn't score for more than five minutes while Kenny went on his mini-spree.


text:
Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
While Israeli police officials and state prosecutors on Sunday discussed filing an official indictment against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to media reports the Israeli leader has been hatching a plan to remain in power for at least another six months.
Olmert has agreed to let his ruling Kadima Party hold a primary election later this month, but only on the condition that the winner will have to form a new ruling coalition. If the primary winner fails to form a new government, Olmert will remain prime minister until new national elections can be held.
Kadima Party sources who spoke to Ha'aretz said that Olmert is purposely trying to undermine his successor by continuing to push through controversial policies that will create enough discord to destroy anyone's chances of forming a majority coalition.
One of those policies is a new evacuation-compensation proposal aimed at bribing Jews to move out of areas of Judea and Samaria that Olmert intends to surrender to the Palestinians. Many in Olmert's party, including leadership candidate Shaul Mofaz, firmly oppose the plan, while a majority of the prime minister's current coalition partners support it.
But Olmert's power play may come to naught if the police decide to officially recommend an indictment against the prime minister in any one of seven corruption investigations he is currently facing.
Senior police investigators met for five hours on Sunday to discuss the issue, and were expected to formulate their official recommendation by Monday morning. Even if the police decide to recommend indicting Olmert, the State Prosecutor's office would still take about two weeks from then to make its final decision.
However, an official police recommendation against Olmert would in the eyes of his detractors even further invalidate his mandate to govern and his future plans. Though the prime minister's current behavior suggests he wouldn't see things that way.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
For Information & Reservations:
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Israel Today
Free to Your Inbox


text:
Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City have been dealt a blow in their chase for exciting Spanish midfielder Beñat.
According to talkSPORT, the 26-year-old Real Betis star has been tracked by the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester City but will reject their interest and opt to stay in La Liga.
All three of the Premier League sides are reportedly looking to rebuild this summer but it appears their plans will have to make do without the Spain international, as he wants to join Athletic Bilbao
Gunners manager Arsene Wenger has reportedly got a significant amount of money to spend and a midfielder could be one of his options.
Arsenal would likely have had a strong bargaining position ahead of their rivals at White Hart Lane and Etihad Stadium, due to having an informal link up with Betis.
Young forward Joel Campbell has been on loan at the Seville club since last summer.
The report claims Beñat should cost Bilbao as little as £6million, mainly owing to his contract expiring at the end of next season.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text:
(MCT) WASHINGTON — A bill to expand background check requirements for gun sales cleared its first Senate hurdle Tuesday, with Democrats hoping it could be the vehicle for a compromise measure that would could pass the full chamber.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the proposal by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., by a 10-8 vote, with support solely from Democrats.
Schumer said the bill, a variation of a measure he introduced in 2011, represented his "ideal approach" to extending background checks to nearly all gun sales. The proposal faces stiff opposition from Republicans, as well as Democrats from conservative states.
But now that it is out of committee, Schumer said he was optimistic about reaching an agreement. "I'm continuing to talk with colleagues across the political spectrum and across the aisle," he said.
Expanding background checks to include most private sales is a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's push for new gun laws in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school mass shooting. Currently, only sales by licensed dealers are subject to checks. Under federal law, felons and others are barred from owning guns.
Universal background checks had been considered the most likely gun control measure to pass Congress, in part because polling has consistently indicated strong public support. The Pew Research Center in a survey released Tuesday found that 83 percent of adults, including 79 percent of gun owners, support stronger background check requirements. Even among National Rifle Association members, who generally do not support other proposed gun laws, such as an assault weapons ban, background checks notch 74 percent approval.
But negotiations in the Senate have proven thorny. Schumer, along with Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.V., Mark Steven Kirk, R-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had tried to craft a deal in time for Judiciary Committee consideration. Coburn, a conservative Republican with a top NRA rating, withheld his support out of concern that records of private transactions could lead to a national registry of firearm ownership.
That concern was echoed Tuesday by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee's top Republican. He warned that "mass shootings would continue to occur despite universal background checks. Criminals will continue to steal guns and buy them illegally to circumvent the requirements."
"When that happens," he continued, "we will be back here debating whether gun registration is needed. And when registration fails, then the next step is gun confiscation."
Schumer said that sales records have been maintained by licensed firearms dealers since the Brady Law passed in 1993 without infringing on people's Second Amendment rights.
"I would hope and pray we would debate the rational parts of this bill and not say this bill is going to lead to confiscation or registration," Schumer said. "There is nothing in this bill or nothing in the history since the Brady Law was passed that indicates a scintilla of truth to that argument."
Schumer acknowledged that even with a universal background check system, some criminals would find ways to obtain guns. "This isn't going to be a perfect bill," he said. "But it'll sure reduce crimes."
Also on Tuesday, the committee approved a school safety proposal from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. by a 14-4 vote. The bill authorizes $40 million annually for a federal grant program that would pay for security measures, such as classroom locks and surveillance cameras.
The committee suspended consideration on a bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines until Thursday. A fourth gun bill, which addresses gun trafficking and so-called "straw purchases," was passed by the panel last week.
©2013 Tribune Co.
Visit Tribune Co. at www.latimes.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services


text:
April 26, 2013
All event times are Eastern Time Zone unless otherwise specified.
Seniors - Check-Out Card Pick Up: Sparks Center Business Office, 1st floor
Monday, April 15 through Friday, May 3
Check-Out Card Pick Up — Pick up your check-out card from Terri Fyffe in the Business Office in Center Hall.
Each senior must return his completed forms and checkout card to the Deans' Office no later than Wednesday, May 9, 2012. Students need to be aware of the policy regarding fulfillment of senior requirements: Visit http://www.wabash.edu/bulletin/home.cfm?site_code_id=962
Candidates for the degree who fail to complete all of these requirements in a timely fashion will not be allowed to participate in Commencement, nor will their transcripts be released.
Tennis at Oberlin: Oberlin, OH
You Can't Take It With You-Vanity: 7:30PM - 9:30PM
You are invited to the Sugar Creek Players' production of the hilarious comedy YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU at the Vanity Theater in downtown Crawfordsville. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee. Call the box office at 362-7077 or email email@example.com for tickets.
AMC Classic Cinema 8 Show Schedule: 205 Dry Branch Drive


text:
The staff is great and the service is excellent. The hotel is located in the center of the city, with west lake area only 10 minutes away via taxi.Hotels.com に掲載されている 20 件の口コミをすべて見る
Excellent boutique hotel. It is not for someone seeking all the frills, large gym/spa, etc...but for a business traveler seeking a place to relax and ...Hotels.com に掲載されている 174 件の口コミをすべて見る
GREAT LOCATION GREAT FOODHotels.com に掲載されている 104 件の口コミをすべて見る
the hotel itself is fine. however, they could not find the booking confirmation from hotels.com. i have to dial 2 long distance calls to make it right...Hotels.com に掲載されている 58 件の口コミをすべて見る
its great hotel the staff are very helpful and the service realy excellent i do recomend the hotel to my friends and everyone i injoy staying there on...Hotels.com に掲載されている 50 件の口コミをすべて見る
I stayed on business and I don't speak English. I relied heavily on the front desk and other staff to get from meeting to meeting, eat and go out. The...Hotels.com に掲載されている 103 件の口コミをすべて見る
Located on LinYin Rd which is near to west lake and LinYinSi. Landscape captured the essence of JiangNan scenery. It is like the best park without the...Hotels.com に掲載されている 43 件の口コミをすべて見る
My husband and I had been living in Tianjin, China, for a month, and decided to travel to Hangzhou for a long weekend. We booked the Wyndham Grand Pla...Hotels.com に掲載されている 84 件の口コミをすべて見る
The services and facility are both 5 star. But I think they need do better cleaning to remove the hard water stain in the bath room. I think it is har...Hotels.com に掲載されている 22 件の口コミをすべて見る
excellent. service is very friendly and helpful, hotel is clean and well maintained, location is not the best but great for the money and really walka...Hotels.com に掲載されている 157 件の口コミをすべて見る
Thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary vacation at this excellent resort. Staff were all friendly and attentive and made us fell right at home. Really lik...Hotels.com に掲載されている 11 件の口コミをすべて見る
THE COUNTRY YARD HOTEL ITS IN THE SAME BUILDING OF JW MARRIOT. SO IS AS YOU ARE IN MARRIOT BUT DIFERENT BRND NAME AND COST. EXELENTHotels.com に掲載されている 116 件の口コミをすべて見る


text:
An eight-year-old boy is in a coma after catching the Bat Lyssavirus - only the third ever confirmed case in Australia.
The boy was bitten or scratched by a bat in north Queensland about two and half months ago but his parents did not know about it at the time, according to Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.
Dr Young said the case was ''very sad'' and the boy is in a coma in a Brisbane hospital with the outlook quite grim.
''He's critically unwell, the previous two cases did not survive and the vast, vast majority of people who contract rabies overseas die,'' she said.
''Very few people survive unfortunately.
''But we only have had three cases in Queensland so it is hard to say [what the boy's survival chances are].''
It is not known if the boy was bitten or scratched as he did not tell his parents about the contact with the bat when it happened and is now too sick to say what happened.
He began having fits about three weeks ago in north Queensland and was eventually diagnosed with Bat Lyssavirus which is similar to rabies.
His family have been keeping a bedside vigil and have all been offered medication for potential exposure to the virus.
''This is an extraordinarily difficult and distressing time for the family,'' Dr Young said.
It is only the third confirmed case of Bat Lyssavirus in Australia so far, with the other two diagnosed in Queensland in the 1990s.
In the earlier cases, both patients died.
It can take years for Bat Lyssavirus to show symptoms in patients and Dr Young urged anyone who had been bitten or scratched to seek medical attention, even if the incident was years ago.
She did not specify where in north Queensland the boy contracted the virus saying it would be ''harmful'' for people to think just because they are not in the area they do not need to go to a doctor for a bat scratch or bite.
''It doesn't make any difference,'' she said.
''We have bats, both flying foxes and bats, that live throughout Queensland and indeed most of Australia, and any bat or flying fox can actually carry a strain of the Bat Lyssavirus.
''So the message is really, you shouldn't handle any bat, there is no specific reason to be concerned about the bats in north Queensland.''
Theoretically the virus can be passed from human to human but is extremely rare.


text:
What I've come to learn is that how I acted was completely wrong. I should not have done what I did. If I could go back and redo it, I certainly would ... My recourse now, if I was back there, would be to simply find another place to live. —Addam Swapp
SALT LAKE CITY — After 25 years, the man who triggered a 13-day standoff at a Utah polygamous compound that ended with the death of a corrections officer will be released from prison Tuesday.
Addam Swapp, 52, has been granted parole after serving time in state and federal prison for his role as the leader of 1988 standoff at the Singer-Swapp compound in Marion.
The showdown, which took place about 35 miles east of Salt Lake City, was sparked after Swapp bombed a Mormon church building in nearby Kamas, claiming it would lead to the overthrow of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and resurrect his father-in-law, who was killed by police almost 10 years earlier.
The Utah Board of Pardons granted parole for Swapp in April saying he has accepted responsibility and shown remorse for his role as a leader in the confrontation.
The 13-day standoff unfolded after Swapp detonated 87 sticks of dynamite at the LDS center in Kamas on Jan. 16, 1988. Police followed tracks in the snow to the nearby compound, where Swapp's father-in-law John Singer had been killed years earlier.
In 1979, police shot Singer after he pointed a gun at officers trying to arrest him over his refusal to send his children to public schools. Singer, 48, practiced polygamy and had been excommunicated from the LDS church, which he held responsible for his legal problems.
Swapp, who had married two of Singer's daughters, barricaded himself in a log house on the compound with 14 others, including nine children.
More than a hundred officers gathered in the snow surrounding the compound, using tactics in the ensuing days such as flashing lights and circling loud snowmobiles around the property in the middle of the night to psychologically wear the clan down.
Inside the compound, members of the Singer-Swapp clan fired shots at police floodlights and used mirrors and a lantern to flash the message "Cops not telling truth," in crude Morse code.
The standoff ended in a gun battle that killed Lt. Fred House, a dog handler with the state Department of Corrections.
House was shot by Singer's son, John T. Singer, after a dog was released toward Swapp when officers moved in to capture him.
John T. Singer was imprisoned on state and federal charges related to the standoff and was released from prison in 2006.
Swapp, who was injured in the shootout, served 17 years in federal prison on related charges before starting a Utah sentence in 2006. He's been serving time in Arizona after officials decided not to house him in Utah because of his ties to a state officer's death.
At a parole hearing last September, Swapp showed regret for his actions and said the years he had spent behind bars shaped his beliefs and let him focus on the pain he'd inflicted on other people, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
"What I've come to learn is that how I acted was completely wrong," Swapp said. "I should not have done what I did. If I could go back and redo it, I certainly would ... My recourse now, if I was back there, would be to simply find another place to live."
At the hearing, he read an apology, including a statement directed at the House family.
A parole board member reported that House's widow Ann House said she felt Swapp had been imprisoned for enough time and accepted his apology.
After he's released, Swapp said he plans to join his wife Charlotte in Fairview, Utah.
When reached by phone on Friday, Charlotte Swapp declined to comment to The Associated Press about her husband's pending release.
At the September hearing, Swapp told the parole board that he plans to use his freedom to atone for his actions and transcend the notoriety associated with the standoff.
"I am fully determined to live a life of peace, to be a blessing to my fellow man, (so) when I finally am buried and people reflect upon my life, I want it to be not what happened in the year 1988 ... but the man that I've become since I got out of prison," Swapp said. "So I can be a blessing to my fellow man and that when people talk about me, it will be with love in their hearts, not as some radical, not as some fanatic, but as someone who truly represented the teachings of Christ. That's what I want with all my heart."


text:
Bartlett went 0-for-6 over the first two games of the series and 3-for-24 over his last six games.
Torii Hunter also had three hits for the winners, who got a serviceable five innings from Boof Bonser, who improves to 5-and-2. The Twins' bullpen worked four scoreless innings, with Joe Nathan pitching the ninth for his 14th save in 15 chances.
Mike Bacsik gave up four runs over five innings and took the loss for Washington, which stranded eleven baserunners. He falls to 1-and-3.
The Twins avoided being swept at home for the first time by a National League team since interleague play began in 1997


text:
*HTML is ON
*UBB Code is ON
Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.
T O P I C R E V I E Wheng44Astronaut Scott Carpenter 1925 - 2013.randyRest in peace, Astronaut Carpenter.Spacepsycho.RonpurThanks. I was hoping you put him in this week.ejectrA better man would be hard to find.mach3valkyrieLooks like he's all set to go.Fair Winds and Following Seas Aurora 7.Greggy_DThank you, Ed. Great pic.dss65How appropriate. Thanks, Ed.------------------DonKSCartistA beautiful photo and perfect for this tribute Ed. ThankstopmilerAbsolutely perfect, thank you.bwhite1976Nice picture. Great man. RIP. chappyShocked to hear this sad news, R.I.P Malcolm Carpenter carmeloA great Astronaut.astro-nutA very nice photo of an American Legend and Hero.
Astronaut Scott Carpenter 1925 - 2013.
Fair Winds and Following Seas Aurora 7.
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.


text:
|RSS Feed
@theMarket: Pushing on a String
There was a time when an announcement of further easing from the Federal Reserve would have sent the markets soaring. This week the Fed promised more monetary stimulation and the markets finished flat to down.
Even more puzzling was gold's reaction to the announcement. The Fed is planning to purchase $85 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities, effectively pumping even more money into the economy. That money, unlike its previous bond-buying program, which bought long Treasury bonds and sold short ones, will involve printing new money. That is normally considered inflationary and yet gold prices barely budged. The next morning gold promptly fell $20 an ounce.
In a historic move, the Fed also tied interest rates to the jobless rate, promising that until unemployment came down to a 6.5 percent rate, it would keep interest rates at a near-zero level. The market's response was a big "so what." Investors do not believe that these latest Fed actions will do anything to reduce the number of Americans out of work or increase the growth rate of the economy.
The economy has been functioning under a historically low interest rate environment for some time. These low rates have been effective in avoiding another recession and keeping unemployment from rising further. But maintaining the status quo is not enough. In order to add jobs, the economy has to grow faster and that's not happening.
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has often said the central bank can do only so much. In order to accomplish a high-growth, low-unemployment economy, he maintains fiscal stimulus is absolutely necessary in tandem with lower rates. I agree.
But the Fiscal Cliff is not about cutting taxes and higher spending. It's about avoiding tax increases and cutting spending. Those actions seem to be at odds with what the central bankers are saying. The Republicans continue to insist that spending is the problem and that President Obama and the Democrats want tax cuts but little in spending cuts.
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, on Thursday, continued to insist "that the right direction is cutting spending and reducing debt."
How dense can one be? Has Boehner and the tea party bothered to look at how well that recipe hast worked in Europe over the last two years? It has been a disaster. It was also a disaster in Latin America throughout the 1980s. It flies in the face of what our central bankers are saying as well.
Boehner argued that if you include President Obama's new proposals to increase spending in areas that could stimulate the economy, then there would be practically no spending cuts at all in his Fiscal Cliff deal. Well, hurrah for the president.
I had hoped that if President Obama was re-elected, we could avoid the worst. The Bush tax cuts would be extended and the GOP's insistence during the election campaign (and up to and including yesterday) that we needed deep spending cuts would be moderated. So far the jury is out on my bet.
You may disagree, but I firmly believe that more, not less fiscal spending is absolutely imperative to jump starting the economy in tandem with the central bank's monetary policies at the present time. I will worry about the deficit after the economy is growing at a healthy rate and unemployment drops. At that point, I believe the explosion in tax revenues from a growing, full-employment economy will take care of the deficit, the debt and the Republican's propensity to angst. Until then, don't sweat the deficit, stay long and bet on avoiding the Fiscal Cliff.
Bill Schmick is registered as an investment adviser representative with Berkshire Money Management. Bill's forecasts and opinions are purely his own. None of the information presented here should be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. Direct inquires to Bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
- Tickets >
- Concerts Tickets >
- Pop / Rock Tickets >
- Hey negrita Tickets >
- Hey negrita London Tickets
Hey negrita London Schedule
Hey negrita London Tickets
Hey negrita tickets London are one of the most sought out commodities in London. With your Hey negrita London tickets you are guaranteed one of the best live performances in Staples Center from some of today's best musicians in Hey negrita.
No results found for Hey negrita London
Sorry, no 'Hey negrita London tickets' were found but other Concerts tickets may still be availableTry the following:
Buy with Other Brokers:
If you couldn't find 'Hey negrita London' tickets with us, check other Hey negrita London ticket outlets for great tickets posted for sale!
TicketsNow.com - Click here »
RazorGator.com - Click here »
Keep checking back :
FYI: New Hey negrita London tickets often become available for purchase as the event date nears.


text: Thomas S. 6/11/2012 - 3:24 PM Permalink Report Abuse 6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful 5 out of 5 Perfect! Easy to install and feels great in my 92A1. No regrets at all, great buy. Comment | Was this review helpful? Yes | No Name Leave a Comment Submit Comment


text:
- Where is the McRib?
- Why is it back?
- Where did it go?
- Why does it come and go?
- What the ...?
- and, occasionally, "There IS a McRib?"
The McChronicles promised to seek the answers - and for this risky assignment we went straight to the top. Today The McChronicles held a face-to-face discussion with McDonald's Debra McDaniel, the Senior Director of U.S. Menu Management (pictured just seconds before she dealt with the McRib issue). This makes the second time that we consulted with Debra on the McRib in two days. Here is what she had to say:
- "When we keep the McRib on the menu, orders eventually start falling off."
- Bringing the McRib on and off the market is "the best way to deliver it in consistent high quality" under these conditions.
- "Another example of a product that McDonald's 'pulses' on and off the market is the Shamrock Shake." (Deb came up with that one after thinking about the question overnight - and it is a great analogy.)
So, there you have it McRib fans, straight from the source. In essence, when the McRib is allowed to remain on the menu, orders drop and the product is not sustainable. When the product comes and goes, we go wild for it and buy it like it is going out of style (which it is - until Debra brings it back).
Know one thing, Debra is a passionate McDonald's employee who truly loves her products and how they please us all. The McChronicles has seen this firsthand. She's not jerking us around - in fact, it seems like we are messing with her. The McChronicles concludes that we have met the enemy and it is us. To resolve the McRib issue we need to consistently order more McRib sandwiches. Deb would like nothing better than to make it a permanent fixture on her menu.This has been a SPECIAL REPORT from The McChronicles.
The McChronicles: a blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.
Images: iRyanHD (poster), Debra McDaniel (The McChronicles)


text:
By Gerry J. Gilmore
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2006 – The Defense Department and the American Legion today pledged to mutually support a nationwide program that assists severely injured military veterans. American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock signs a memorandum of understanding outlining Legion interaction with the Defense Department in co-management of the Heroes to Hometowns program. Pictured on the right is Leslye Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense (military community and family policy), who also signed the agreement, at the Pentagon Military Severely Injured Center, July 26. The Heroes to Hometowns program assists former servicemembers who've been severely injured in the global war on terrorism.
The American Legion is in a unique position to partner with the Defense Department, the Veterans Affairs Department and other agencies to garner community support for severely injured servicemembers and their families, Leslye A. Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, said at a ceremony held at the Pentagon Military Severely Injured Center. Arsht and American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock signed a memorandum of understanding outlining each organization's respective roles in support of the "Heroes to Hometowns" program.
The Legion can help build relationships at the local level to assist injured servicemembers and their families in transitioning to civilian life, Arsht said. "It's a real honor and privilege for the American Legion to fit in on this," Bock said. "We're so proud to be able to join with you to do this," he told Arsht.
Arsht thanked Bock and his organization for their role in encouraging communities to welcoming military heroes home. "We very much look forward to working with you," she said. The Heroes to Hometowns program encourages local communities to prepare support programs for injured veterans and their families, said Pam Crespi, a civilian administrator in DoD's Morale, Welfare and Recreation Policy office who's knowledgeable about the program.
Community assistance may entail job searches, home remodeling, transportation requirements, or anything a family might need to transition back to civilian life, she said. The American Legion is a non-profit veterans-service organization that's active in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines. The organization has 15,000 posts across the United States and overseas and boasts nearly 3 million members. The Legion's national headquarters is in Indianapolis, and it also has offices in Washington, D.C.
The American Legion is a perfect choice to partner with DoD to provide assistance for returning injured veterans because of their state networks and their local contacts, Crespi said.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
America Supports You: DoD, American Legion Ink Support Agreement
Posted by Raymond Foster at 10:03 PM
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago police are investigating after a severed goat's head in a box addressed to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts was left outside Wrigley Field.
Ricketts is currently in negotiations with city officials and neighborhood business people about a $300 million renovation of Wrigley Field.
Cubs spokesman Julian Green says staff at Wrigley Field discovered the package Wednesday and immediately called police.
Police Department spokesman Mike Sullivan says officers responded to a call around 2:30 p.m. indicating an "intimidating package" had been received.


text:
Despite heavy unease amongst Davidson County Republicans, Gov. Pat McCrory confirmed Roger Younts on Monday to fill the seat of former House District 80 Rep. Jerry Dockham.
Despite heavy unease amongst Davidson County Republicans, Gov. Pat McCrory confirmed Roger Younts on Monday to fill the seat of former House District 80 Rep. Jerry Dockham.
Younts, 30, of the Holly Grove area, was sworn in by House Speaker Thom Tillis and will serve the remainder of Dockham's term, which expires in 2014. Dockham resigned after taking a position with the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
"I will strongly stand for the conservative values of Davidson County and pledge to deliver excellent constituent service," Younts said. "The number one goal I will work toward is improving the economy and bringing in new jobs."
Younts said the tax reform bill will be a major step in improving the economy and generating job creation.
"It will certainly allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money by lowering income and corporate tax rates," Younts said. "The current plan being offered would lower the state's tax burden from 44th in the nation to 17th."
Younts, a trust analyst with BB&T, was nominated by a 3-2 vote of a select group of the Davidson County Republican Party last week, a controversial decision some weighty Republicans called "unethical."
As the Republican Party's treasurer, Younts legally cast one of the three affirmative votes that helped him win the seat. Younts and two others also voted not to let eligible voter and North Carolina Republican Party Hall of Fame member Dwight Story participate in the process.
Story, who is most known for hosting candidate forums at Piedmont Crossing in Thomasville, was not able to attend Thursday night's vote at Yarborough's Restaurant because he was on a trip in Wytheville, Va., but he was scheduled to vote via telephone.
Davidson County Republican Party Chairman Lance Barrett said state GOP officials, who helped oversee the voting process, told him prior to last week's meeting that all eligible voters were agreeable with Story voting via telephone. Barrett said he and fellow party member Kenny Meredith also spoke with Younts personally the day before the meeting, and Younts said he was OK with story voting over the phone.
Younts said that's not the case.
A plethora of county Republicans, including Davidson County Register of Deeds David Rickard, started reaching out to state officials after the vote, hoping the governor would delay his decision until he reviewed what happened.
After learning about the governor's decision on Monday, Barrett said the party is considering challenging the issue.
"I'm surprised and disappointed that Gov. McCrory would confirm Roger, knowing that a letter of challenge may be forthcoming," Barrett said. "It would have seemed prudent to wait until the letter arrived and then make a decision based on all available information."
Barrett said the party is considering all of its option, including the challenge, which would lay out the areas of concern from both a procedural and ethical standpoint.
"There are several areas of concern the way the NCGOP handled the process, including possible outside influences," Barrett said.
Emails obtained last week showed that Barrett tried to move the meeting until later in the month, when all eligible voting members could be present. However, state GOP officials overruled, saying the majority of the voting members were polled and did not desire a postponement of the meeting.
NCGOP Political Director Kim Canady and general counsel Michael McKnight helped oversee the voting process. NCGOP Chief of Staff Mike Rusher said last week the state party is confident the process was executed within the boundaries granted by state law and party rules.
Late on Monday, Younts said there has been a lot of information to take in during a short period of time. However, he said he has received a lot of support.
"It's been uplifting to have received so many people calling to congratulate me, in particular Congressman (Richard) Hudson and Congresswoman (Virginia) Foxx," Younts said. "It's been really special."
Nash Dunn can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 227, or at email@example.com. Follow Nash on Twitter: @LexDispatchNash