Will be interested to see who Whittingham brings in as DC; if the rumors about Jay Hill (DC from BYU) are real then that would be good because he's young-ish (50) and was a former HC at Weber St. At this point I'm all about "adults in the room" at Michigan for the near future.

Feels like a bridge coach but gives you a solid floor and you can then hire some young assistants and see if one of them pops into your next HC. He's got a shelf life but I liked him more than the Drinkwitz and young assistant tiers given the muck he's walking into.

With the likely hiring of Kyle Whittingham, I'm of the mindset that he's a decent option especially in the short term. The age stuff bothers me less when we're arguing vs. Monken because they're 6 years apart and both are 60+ by season kickoff. A lot hinges on coordinators and a transition plan.

The hire works as a bridge guy, especially if they get a good set of coordinators. It's definitely not a long term choice but the age gap between him and Monken isn't that big (basically 6 years) and time is of the essence. He's a better HC candidate in my eyes than some unproven coordinator.

this is a major talking point in the group chats

He's the Ted Cruz of the NFL.

Yeah, they'll be better next year because of luck and regression but that's a fitting end to this dumb year.

This is such a stupid game.

That was a slow motion car wreck of a play in a slow motion car wreck of a game in a slow motion car wreck of a season.

Minnesota better win this game because otherwise this may well be one of the worst offensive performances compared to opportunities in recent memory. They've gotten 4 TOs, 3 in plus territory, and 13 points for it.

Pro kickers being able to casually kick 52+ yarders is still so wild to me.

Detroit being tied in this game despite 3 turnovers would be a silver lining if it wasn't for the fact they've been a walking wounded team for months now and would probably just want to sim to end of the season if they could.

Gotta go for it here? I assume the computers are yes.

Gawd these ICE ads are both awful AND stupid. And of course my very stupid uncles are saying "God bless America" during them.

Appropos of nothing but Biff talking to the media has incredible highs and deep lows.

My feelings about potentially hiring Brohm is that if your first exposure to him at Louisville is a bowl game in Boca Raton you're not going to get a good sense of him. I am somewhat lukewarm on him in a vacuum but given where everything sits now he'd feel like a solid fallback with some upside.

Ratio me. Please. It's a badge of honor. If you don't like a link, go follow some chicken-heart who needs the approval of the thought-police. Caitlin Flanagan of @theatlantic.com is a tremendous writer and this piece is an excellent read. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Could I interest John Harbaugh in a scratched-and-dented college coaching job?

I will say, it's weird seeing Pittsburgh fans somehow claim "finally, a break for my team" as if we all don't remember the entire history of the NFL. Maybe you had a bad call or two this year go against you but please stop trolling for sympathy today.

I blame myself for this Lions season; I bought my first Lions hat in the offseason and that clearly messed with the mojo.

You'll go games without seeing an OPI and then whenever the Lions get close to winning a game suddenly that's the only foul the refs are looking for. Anyway, good to get the season over and done with so they can start fixing the flaws on this team.

Oh look, an utterly stupid ruling that only hurts the Lions. God I hate losing to Rodgers and his shitty person.

I despise this entire game.

Yeah, the vibes around this team have been off for a while (honestly since they went to DC) and this is absolutely the type of beating that shows the floor falling out. They need an overhaul this offseason on the lines and some better injury luck next year or whatever window they had is closed.

This is just one of those seasons where dumb stuff just keeps happening and the team's weaknesses are absolutely back breaking.

Porter being beat, Williams dropping the pass, and then Porter talking and waving his finger is why corners are the most insane, alternate-reality guys in the NFL.

Someone should probably try blocking Highsmith; you aren't going to run away from him.

The right call to go for it there but good defense; does feel like the refs are going to let Porter be handsy in this game.

I wrote about this a while back because it is *so* annoying that Campbell's intelligence and thoughtfulness is ignored because he has large biceps. www.nbcsports.com/fantasy/foot...

JMU is a good football team, and would be a mid-tier B1G team. Heck, I think they'd give Michigan a game for a half, at least. But they absolutely can't hang with this Oregon team in ways that even Tulane could with Ole Miss for a minute.

I see we've entered the "I looked at CFBstats.com scoring numbers" portion of the message board job search.

Tulane both absolutely deserves to be in the playoffs and absolutely are in a terrible matchup for them. At some point a G5 team is going to win one of these games but this year ain't it.

While it sucks in a sense to see Michigan strike out on Dillingham it is good for the sport that a guy at a mid tier B12 team stays home and gets a commitment from his school to make that a reality. I assume it's Whittingham/Brohm tier now.

This game decided by a Mateer pick six to nobody and two awful kicking plays by usually-great OU special teams does not bode well for my "these playoffs won't be excruciating and annoying to watch" pregame bet.

I honestly think DeBoer would be happier at Michigan in the long term but the timing just doesn't seem right. I assume Dillingham or Whittingham is going to be named by Monday.

Bama receivers have made basically the entire spectrum of plays in this game.

I swear Alabama's left tackle is just holding Thomas on every drop back at this point and daring the refs to call it.

So yeah, back to being a game.

Alabama is up 10 on the road and yet it still feels like these two teams are basically the same.

Bama playing for the FG must feel like a win for OU at this point.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the two most equal teams (by seeding and resume) would be tied at halftime but it's wild how they got there. I also suspect that Bama fans aren't super excited about being basically equal to a mediocre OU team.

Woof, what an awful quarter for OU. Yeah, feels like DeBoer is probably going to do just enough that he'll stick around at Bama regardless of how this game ends.

I'm not saying DeBoer is trying to throw this game but if you *wanted* to throw a game it would look indistinguishable from this performance thus far.

It's crazy that Michigan's offense somehow looked more competitive against these Sooners months ago than Bama looks right now.

Four corners offense from here on out in Norman feels on the docket.

I'd root for OU anyway because of a family connection but knowing a mediocre OU team beating this flawed Alabama team more-than-incrementally increases the chances of this coach search ending with a coup for UM makes it an easy night.

I just have absolutely no patience for this type of non-apology statement. Nacua clearly knows something about this guy's Livestream and personality; he didn't trip into the video. And then he does the classic "sorry if you're offended" when it's objectively an offensive act. Just own your actions

What's also telling is that Nacua himself seemed more worried about the blowback from the ref comment than the proposed antisemitic touchdown dance.

I mean...WTF.

Also considering the defending national champs are in this game, this polling of HCs sort of cracks me up.