In The House

Montgomery's move

Oklahoma announced earlier tonight that it had hired Michigan's Jerry Montgomery to coach its defensive line as part of Bob Stoops' Sooners staff. Montgomery will replace Jackie Shipp, who joined Todd Graham's staff at Arizona State as its defensive line coach, a move Arizona State announced today. 

And here's Montgomery's fresh new Oklahoma bio, courtesy of SoonerSports.com: http://www.soonersports.com/school-bio/jerry_montgomery.html

"You always hate to lose members of your staff, but you know going in that at a program like Michigan, other schools and NFL teams are going to come after them," Wolverines coach Brady Hoke said in a statement. "However, I am confident that we will name a new coach who fits in very well with our staff soon."

No pun intended, but "Soon" might mean "sooner" rather than "later" - Michigan is scheduled to start spring football practices March 16, two and a half weeks from now. 

Via SoonerSports.com, Stoops noted Montgomery's forte in recruiting:

"I have closely followed Jerry's progress as he has ascended through the coaching ranks. I have been impressed by his ability to recruit some of the nation's top student-athletes and then develop their skills once they arrive on campus. We are excited to have Jerry and his family join the Sooners." 

In working on today's Blade story about the effect Montgomery's impending move could have on Michigan's recruiting - notably his ability to relate to high school juniors and seniors, and how he became the point person in working with and wooing several notable recruits to Ann Arbor - ESPN's report that Montgomery has already reached out to some of Michigan's recruits on behalf of Oklahoma didn't surprise me.

Instead, it raises a question: in college athletics, and especially so in recruiting, is there truly loyalty? But that's another blog for another day. 

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Denard Robinson wrapped up the NFL combine this weekend and his metamorphosis continues. The converted quarterback ran a 4.43 40-yard dash and even though he admitted that he is only about 60 percent recovered from a nerve injury sustained in October at Nebraska, Yahoo! Sports reported that Robinson showed clear gains in receiving drills in Indianapolis, after his play at the Senior Bowl in January. From Yahoo's Shutdown Corner:

While not perfect in all aspects, Robinson was able to show a better grasp of the little things that make receivers good at the pro level. His cuts in routes were much more concise, his overall route concepts were far smoother, and he was able to adjust to a couple of overthrown passes. It was a relative triumph for a guy that looked like anything but a real pass-catcher just a month ago. 

No more cupcakes?

On his monthly radio show, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said last night that the Big Ten Conference agreed to stop scheduling nonconference games against Football Championship Subdivision programs - though he didn't say when that would take effect. 

"The nonconference schedule in our league is ridiculous," Alvarez said during his monthly radio show on WIBA-AM. "It's not very appealing..."

It's another angle in the shift that's coming in college football, and to the Big Ten, with the four-team playoff (and an added emphasis on strength of schedule) looming, as well as the shift to either a nine- or ten-game Big Ten football schedule starting in 2016, plus the addition of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.

It's worth looking at 18 months down the road, when Michigan is scheduled to play Appalachian State in August of 2014 - a rematch of one of the more notable FCS upsets in the last 10 years. Will it still happen? 

Per the Big Ten Network, Michigan and Penn State are the only Big Ten teams who don't have FCS opponents on their 2013 schedules. A list of Big Ten teams that do:

• Indiana vs. Indiana State
• Illinois vs. Southern Illinois
• Iowa vs. Missouri State
• Michigan State vs. Youngstown State
• Minnesota vs. Western Illinois
• Nebraska vs. South Dakota State
• Northwestern vs. Maine
• Ohio State vs. Florida A&M
• Purdue vs. Indiana State
• Wisconsin vs. Tennessee Tech

Can I get an atlas?

ANN ARBOR - In addition to size, speed, strength and athleticism, Brady Hoke talked a little geography today.

In discussing Michigan's 2013 recruiting class, one obvious point was noted. Take one look at the list, and there's a very regional theme to it. Of the 27 recruits, nine are from Ohio and eight are from Michigan. Three are from Illinois. Additionally, there's one each from Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

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But none are from the football-rich states of Florida, Texas or California. Not this year. The Wolverines coaching staff has narrowed its scope. 

"That 350- to 400-mile radius is always going to be important for us," Hoke said. "This state is always going to be important for us. The state of Ohio, and Chicago, those are going to be very important areas for us. When you saw the year that different areas had - and those change from year to year - we are always going to be a national recruiter because we are a national brand. It changes yearly.

"I think it's a little bit of an anomaly (to have so many Midwest recruits), but we're going to start there."

Fred Jackson, Michigan's running backs coach, looks at quality of recruiting positionally instead of geographically.

"Brady said when he took this job he was going to spend a lot of time in all those states, in Ohio and doing all those type of things, and we've gone over and canvassed that area pretty good with our coaching staff," Jackson said. "I feel that we've got the guys, and some of them are from that state. I don't think that I'm looking at, well, they're from Ohio or they're from Michigan.

"I think we've done a good job of recognizing their talents, going after them and being successful enough to get them here."

Jackson also discussed a personal reason why he and the Wolverines may have an edge in their home state - and not just because of the brand.

"Maybe because I'm old," Jackson quipped. "I've been around a while and Brady told me, 'I'm going to put you in Michigan,' and a Detroit area I'd never been in before. But when I got there, I knew all the coaches. That comes with longevity. And I've been around a while."

Jackson estimated he's recruited 18 Great Lakes State players to Michigan in the last two years, but also said this: He visited Virginia five times in the process of recruiting running back Derrick Green. 

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In case you missed it throughout the day, here's a link to Michigan's 2013 recruiting class: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/signing-day-2013.html

Catfishing and the Wolverines

University of Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon was the keynote speaker this morning in Toledo at the KeyBank Global Leaders Forum and during his presentation, in which he discussed his career as a CEO, as well as his three years at the Michigan and the expectations he's set for Michigan's athletic program - including customer service, marketing and the program's culture - Brandon addressed the issue of social media awareness within the athletic program. 

During the presentation, Brandon was asked about the topic and told the audience that Michigan's athletic department had hired two outside consulting firms to monitor the online activities of its student-athletes - a form of risk assessment.

One of the two consulting groups - neither whom Brandon identified, but whom Michigan associate athletic director David Ablauf told Crain's Detroit Business was 180 Communications Inc. of Tallahassee, Fla. - utilized a young, attractive woman to go online and contact student-athletes.

“We took this really beautiful picture of her and she went out and baited some of our student-athletes, some of the guys into having an online relationship,” Brandon told the audience. “Baited them into doing all kinds of things and saying all kinds of things.”

The unnamed woman turned over to athletic department officials posts and comments that were made, and the names of student-athletes. During a presentation to Michigan's student-athletes regarding social media awareness, the athletic department introduced the woman to the student athletes. 

Was it a hoax? Or was it merely another method to illustrate the effect of "catfishing" - posing as another individual as a means to establish an online relationship? If you're not familiar with it now, Google "Manti Te'o." And in listening to the full presentation, Brandon never mentioned "catfish" or "catfishing" but used certain terms such as "bit the hook.")

Blade reporter Jon Chavez and I will have more about Brandon's full presentation in Saturday's Blade.