We’re back from last week’s foray into the Pit of Despair. Unfortunately for you, I’m on vacation next week, so you’ll get Round Two of the search for the height of ennui. And I think it will be harder to stomach than the first bunch. Armanti Edwards will feature prominently, as will Rich Rodriguez. Just remember: this will hurt me more than it will hurt you. In the meantime, as usual if you come across any social media happenings worth noting, send them to @Bry_Mac.
Michigan rules the Twitterverse
A Michigan Man remains connected to his community. Very connected.
(via Business Insider)
Michigan football (@umichfootball) is the most followed official team account in college athletics. Michigan basketball (@umichbball) is the fifth most followed official team account in college athletics. Between the two accounts, they have, uh… math… a lot of followers. Like thousands. So bravo to Michigan’s digital media folks. I award you one (1) Internet. Michigan State’s football and basketball accounts are next in the B1G at #13 and #15, respectively. I guess the rest of the conference really needs to get its crap together. /Urban’d
Reporters suspect college student may have gotten drunk and slept in one time
Johnny Manziel was in the news this week when he was reportedly sent home from the Many Manning Men Passing Camp for showing up late and hung over. The whole topic has been done to death, so I don't really want to talk about it, but there is one reaction worth noting. Mark May has had enough of Johnny Football's disgraceful actions, and isn't afraid to say so.
Alright Johnny Football enough is enough this is your last wake up call STOP BRINGING SHAME TO THE GAME !
— Mark May (@mark_may) July 16, 2013
You may think "SHAME TO THE GAME" is a little harsh, but you've gotta respect a guy who won't tolerate people disregarding the social norms while purporting to represent the greater football community...
...anymore.
(H/T to A&M’s SB Nation site, Good Bull Hunting, on the find)
In case you missed the fun part of that, May was charged during his college days with, among other things, "inciting to riot" and "terroristic threats." He apparently went on a Will Campbell hood-destroying escapade, except that BWC's shenanigans were cheeky and fun while May's shenanigans were, to use a technical legal term, "light terrorism." Some people (read: all people) might think this makes Mark May look like a gigantic hypocrite when he gets all huffy when a college student shows up to something hung over. But May responded, pointing out that (a) only people who have DONE bad things can CRITIQUE bad things, and (b) f*** your punctuation and logic.
Thats why I can critique experience
— Mark May (@mark_may) July 16, 2013
Hard to disagree with that kind of logic, because by the time you find the logic, it’s next Tuesday and we’ve moved on to other things. It's worth noting that he hasn't tweeted a single thing about Aaron Hernandez or Jeremy Hill, and I haven't seen him comment publicly about them. Murder* and battery** don't bring shame to the game. That distinction falls to being a self-indulgent, self-important immature prima donna and/or typical college student (again, not a debate worth having AGAIN), because lord knows football can't survive with one of THOSE in its ranks.
*Allegedly.
**Not allegedly. He did that. That's assault, brotha (but not really, but there's no applicable Adam Sandler quote for battery so we'll just pretend).
[A jump, after which either sharks or Bacari Alexander will fall out of the sky.]
HALOL again
After a haitus of several months, one of the Athletic Department’s most prolific tweeters rejoined the ranks last week.
We're back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd like to give a personal shout out to @shoot707 for spending time with us in Minnesota last year! #goblue
— Bacari Alexander (@bacari34) July 8, 2013
His stuff ranges from the informative
Caris Levert has gotten stronger and Stands at 6'6" and some change. The biggest change is his confidence. #mygoodness
— Bacari Alexander (@bacari34) July 8, 2013
To the corny
Last 3 years I showed up to football games with my shoelaces untied... This year I'm bringing "Gardening Tools"... #wehaveagardnerthatilove
— Bacari Alexander (@bacari34) July 9, 2013
To the… the this.
If you're in the 2014 class and possess a lot of talent and high character call @JohnBeilein at (734) 888- COMMIT #nothenumberisntreal
— Bacari Alexander (@bacari34) July 8, 2013
Welcome back, coach.
ESPNado
Some of you missed the SyFy made-for-TV movie Sharknado last week [ED: Per the comments below, it was apparently actually made for distrubution, which, yikes], I can’t really explain it. It was a terrible movie, but it garnered a huge buzz on Twitter. Like a geeky awkward guy trying to join a dance-off, ESPN tried to get in on the action. It backfired.
Stop trying to be at the cool table, ESPN. You’re The Man now.
In somewhat related news, Awful Announcing did an interesting piece on the disconnect between social media and society at large. They point out that while Sharknado was huge on Twitter, its ratings were actually pretty mediocre, even for a SyFy movie. The gist:
The truth is that as popular as the service is, Twitter represents a small portion of the actual population. The United States had an estimated 22.9 million active users as of last year. That's a mere 7.3% of the population that's active and engaged on Twitter. So while trending topics may be all the rage and so many television shows and sporting events look to incorporate Twitter into their broadcasts, keep in mind only a small section of the population is actually using the thing. For all the people tweeting about the awesome wonder of the Sharknado, there were another 7 people that were already watching The Big Bang Theory - they just weren't tweeting about it.
They point out that Twitter is heavily dominated by the coveted “18-29 year old urbanite” demographic, so commercial interests might give more Twitter more sway than a typical 7.3% swath of the country. I also think you can’t forget about the externalities of events like this; the first run ratings might have been poor, but I’d bet this kind of buzz might earn them more eyeballs than usual on subsequent viewings. All things considered, social media isn’t a bunch of dorks in their parents’ basements, and it isn’t a perfect representative sample of American life. This should not be shocking news to anyone.
Save the Endangered Tigers
Missouri football had a tough year last year, and Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel is under some pressure.That'll happen when your team goes 2-6 in the SEC East, which, for those of you who don't know, is the decidedly less Alabama-y division of the SEC. So, fair or not, he's on the proverbial "hot seat" (maybe they're getting this SEC thing down afterall). But before anyone could create the coaching version of the Presidential Exploratory Committee (i.e. the "Fire Gary Pinkel" website), Pinkel beat them to the punch by creating www.garypinkel.com, presumably because www.PleaseDontFireGaryPinkelHeSeemsLikeADecentDude.com was taken. They just posted some stuff from SEC media days, but for a while the only thing on a site was a video featuring a rousing endorsement from a former player, two ESPN anchors, a BTN anchor, and post-vision-quest Don Draper.
I’ve seen some things, man. But yeah, Jerry Pinkett is great.
If nothing else, watch at 0:33 where Linda Cohn gives the kind of strong endorsement you'd hear for the neighbor kid who mows your lawn every week and does an okay job:
I think stabilty in coaching is very important. And there are so many, from year to year... there is forward progress. And the development of players is taking place at Mizzou. So I think... it's always easy as a fan - and that's why they call us fans, you know - to think it's, the grass is always greener somewhere else, that we should bring in this guy, and this program has this guy, and we get kind of full of ourselves thinking we're all that. There's something to be said for a stable force. And I think he's doing a fine job. Like I said, he's developing players and you guys are competitive.
Somewhere Kirk Ferentz is having this made into a motivational poster for Iowa's football facilities.
Marshall Henderson vs. Erin Andrews
There was a little disagreement between Erin Andrews and Marshall Henderson Twitter this week, which...
Erin Andrews
Wait... disembodied voice? What are you doing here? We haven't heard from you for months. And this isn't even your feature.
Don't care. Had to weigh in. Erin Andrews
But you haven't even heard the...
ERIN ANDREWS.
Yeah, well, for everyone else's sake, here's the story. Marshall Henderson was suspended indefinitely from Ole Miss. This was met by college basketball fans with emotions ranging from self-satisfied glee to... nope, that was pretty much it. Erin Andrews, a well-known Gator fan, tweeted her satisfaction at the karmic turn of events, and Henderson responded.
His response feels a little like Doctor Claw promising to get Inspector Gadget next time. Sounds menacing, but you know it won't actually happen. So…
Can we please just declare "Erin Andrews"and move on?
But Marshall Henderson made Bo Ryan sad. Surely that's worth something.
That's it. I'm outta here. I'll be waiting in the Central Michigan UFR. Brian gets me.
/All by myself…
Your weekly Roy Manning
Michigan Fans are everywhere. Even the forest. S/O to Smokey for reppin the #MaizeAndBlue#GoBlue#WolverineNationpic.twitter.com/YtzzhzeeVL
— Roy Manning (@CoachRoyM) July 6, 2013
Hey, Smokey... if you see Jon Hamm, let us know. We're getting a little concerned.