Michigan Wolverines (Official Thread) (12x National Champions)

As a baseball guy I hope not. I know soccer is growing and baseball is fading, but I think it will be a long time before soccer really takes over in this country. I'm not a soccer hater like most people are, I just think the excitement is a little overblown especially coming off a good World Cup.

I work for a small sporting goods company that travels to youth baseball and soccer tournaments around the country. I travel to several different states and go to mostly soccer tournaments where I help co-workers set up vendor tents to sell our apparel while I help with tournament director's and other little random jobs. I also coach summer traveling baseball.

Anyway.....when I first started I have to admit I was shocked to see just how passionate people were for the sport and how much they knew about International teams and players. Especially the kids. We sell Messi, Neymar Jr, Ronaldo, Bale etc. jersey's and other apparel. It sells like crazy too......but our MLS stuff we can't give away and we stopped ordering it. We've had more people ask for apparel from random countries like Scotland, India, Honduras, and Egypt than ask for MLS stuff. I don't care what the attendance numbers are in MLS, when I talk to tournament directors, former college/pro players, coaches, ref's, young kids and their parents and rarely is the MLS mentioned. The MLS will need the elite foreign players to come here to help get the MLS/soccer to get to the popularity level of the NFL, NBA and even MLB. It will be tough getting elite players to come here unless you give them ridiculous money. Even then I don't see those players leaving Europe/South America to come here. Our stadiums are smaller, soccer will never be the top sport here and why would those elite players waste their prime years to be part of a building process?

 

Soccer, specifically the MLS has had a slow progression. The World Cup gave us a bump, especially since there were so many more MLS players making their national teams this time (over 20 compared to seven in 2010). MLS has blown wads of cash for beyond-their-prime foreign players over the last decade or so... It's like Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury playing in China. What needs to happen is the Americans that are good enough to play in the Premiere League and elsewhere need to be given those fat checks to stay home. That's what's happened with Clint Dempsey ($8 million) and Michael Bradley ($6.5 million). If we can get some guys like Tim Howard and Jozy Altidore to come home, kids would go nuts for them. Of course, their $2-2.75 million salaries over in the UK would need to be $5-6 million here.

But the good thing is, the MLS season is in the summer. There is room in the American sports world for MLS to increase popularity without taking anything away from other sports, even baseball. I think that a lot of sports fans like to attack soccer because they think that for some reason, soccer wants to replace one of their favorite sports.

 

Back to TSUN.....

Am I alone in thinking that they'll have one of the most underrated defense's in college football next year? Mattison is a good coach and there's good talent on their defense.

 

Only 6 points seperated us in the last 2 games with them.

 

I think cowherd said it best. At a school like ttun you can't take 4-5 year for a turn around, hell the name of the school helps land players other schools only dream of. Gardner can not be a QB at this level, won't win bcs game with him. I think you play the QB you recruited. If your going to go down make sure it's with your guys

 

Even Lloyd won a championship in his third year and he had never been a head coach.

 

Do you think TSUN would ever hire Lane Kiffin?

 

Hell he can make more as OC at Bama haha

 

And we're arguing about Braxton Miller and Terrelle Pryor... hahahahhaha

 

If they have to fire cHoke I don't know where they go! Kiffin would never be hired there, way too much of a douche! Harbaugh if things don't improve with the GM in SF, they could offer him, but I don't think he wants to coach college anymore! Plus an NFL owner, namely Jerry Jones or Jimmy Haslam, or the guy that owns the Jets, will give him the keys and checkbook and tell him do whatever! Gary Patterson at TCU would be an interesting hire, but he has done nothing lately! Chris Petersen formerly at Boise St now at Washington, would've been a great hire, but he is at UW! Do they go big and try and get a David Shaw at Stanford? Dabo Swinney at Clemson? I don't know where they go!

 

What if they pulled the ultimate coupe and offered the job to Tom Herman??

I know I shouldn't be saying these blasphemous things, but does anyone think Herman would take the job?

 

It's possible! But I don't think he gets a big job like Michigan.

 

If they were to hire a coordinator for their next head coach why wouldn't they just hire Nussmeier?

 

As long as poor offensive production isn't what inspires the coaching change.

 

Nussmeier is definitely an option!

 

I actually think Gardner will have a decent year. The OL there will be better and the new OC is good at developing QB's into good game managers that make very few mistakes. I think they'll go back to a more north/south running game and try to beat you over the top with a lot of play action.

 

A-P poll out and holy crap!! Texas and scum not in top 25.