The scholarship numbers are an issue again, so we might as well start there:
3SIB has a solid, detailed breakdown of what we know now, so head over there for a primer on the numbers and what it all means.
Confusing the matter, Kellen Williams, who many thought would greyshirt after a knee injury, still plans to report with the rest of his fellow signees:
'It depends on a physical I'll take in August, and then I'll start practicing, but not in full-pads.
'Essentially what they told me it's a medical redshirt.'
Even so, Williams plans to be here by the end of the month and enroll for the first summer session with the majority of other including players. So far he's a little ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation, and is already walking without a limp. He hopes to start running over the next few weeks, only will be doing it on campus.
Not sure if this means he'll be enrolling on his own dime or what, but it's still an interesting development.
Meanwhile, our old nemesis Brian Cook is strangely quiet on the Alabama recruiting front, possibly because he's too busy finding new targets to help deflect criticism of Fearless Leader (emphasis mine):
Lane Kiffin caused defections at Tennessee are up to a spectacular nine now, which is a lot more folk a lot faster than Rodriguez "ran off," to use the parlance of people who don't know what they're talking about. ...
Relevance to Michigan? Slight. I guess he's taking a lot of heat that might otherwise be directed at Rodriguez.
At the very least he's being honest about his motives this go 'round, especially since RichRod is quickly proving to be the kind of "snake oil salesman" he'd have you believe Nick Saban really is. Observe:
“Stay tuned. There’s a couple guys I’m going to sit with here. Just guys that maybe if they’re not doing all their responsibilities and doing what they need to do to be part of our football program may not be back. I hope that’s not too many.”
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't cutting players loose that aren't contributing to the team in the manner the coaches expect while still under the NCAA's scholarship cap an even bigger dick move than the purported "evil" of Saban's house cleaning? 'Cause I seem to recall someone lecturing us poor, dumb, illogical Alabama fans about how, even though "scholarships are technically one-year commitments, in practice players are guaranteed four years as long as they remain eligible and keep their noses clean." So even though Michigan has the room to let these players stick around and get their four years, RichRod is still looking to give a few the boot for no other reason than they aren't contributing to the team in a meaningful way. I'm with the Capstone Report on this one: Stop exploiting these scholars and let them finish their education!
On to memes that simply must die, Block U undestandably takes offense at Lee Corso's logical fallacies (and he isn't even an Alabama fan!) in defense of the BCS, namely that "we don't need a playoff because the BCS gets it right even though USC was the best team he saw last year and they would have beaten Florida given the chance." As someone who's opposed to a college football playoff, thanks for making us look like idiots Corso. And as an Alabama fan, let me take a moment to put this particularly odious meme to rest (emphasis mine):
"They went crazy, because they beat an Alabama team that didn't want to be there," Corso said of Utah. "They didn't beat the Alabama team that played Florida four weeks before that."
Can we please move past this? Yes, Alabama came out flat in the first quarter. We were a team that watched a dream season and shot at the national title slip away in one quarter of play, had to deal with the Andre Smith distractions all week, had to reshuffle the offensive line, and for the first time all season didn't really have anything to play for beyond one more win. Yeah, they probably didn't want to be there taking on a mid-major BCS Buster in a lose-lose situation (if we win, we're supposed to, if we lose, we're a laughingstock). But that's not a knock on Utah. In fact, after the first quarter was over and the team realized "oh crap, these guys aren't afraid of us, we better start playing some football," the defense locked down and held the Utes to 10 points (3 of which came on a FG resulting from a recovered fumble within FG range) the rest of the way. I'd happily wager that the Tide's downfall had more to do with losing Mike Johnson, who had slid over to LT in Smith's place, thus forcing the Tide offense to attempt a rally behind an o-line that had never even practiced in that particular grouping. Had Andre Smith been on the field, or, at the very least, had Johnson been able to stay on the field, we would have had a good chance of rallying for the win. But that's still not a knock on Utah. That's a knock on Alabama. We didn't show up, our depth was exposed, and Utah was simply too good of a team to let have those kinds of advantages. Let this one die.