Hello Franklin

Good thing we have a "TMMPF News Flash" tag on this blog: yesterday we adopted a kitten!

Hello TMMPF.com readers. My name is Franklin.

This is the first ever picture I took of him:


Our new kitty came from Second Chance Pet Adoption here in the northwest suburbs. We were familiar with the "big shelter" model from Anti-Cruelty Society in the city. But apparently in the suburbs, foster arrangement are more common: agencies put strays with foster parents until they can find a permanent home. Then the agencies host shows at pet stores on the weekends for people like us to fall in love.

I'll say this, he isn't camera shy:

Just for the record, the flash going off in his face was an accident.

It's hard to express how small a 10-week old kitten is when you are used to an adult cat (at nine pounds, Q isn't huge). This picture comes close to getting them in scale:


A better way to describe our reaction is at the 0:25 mark:



Luckily, Quigley has been a very welcoming older brother. They are playing together:


So far there have been no struggles similar to the Booni introduction.

We want to say thank you to Sharon, who was the foster parent to our kitty, and all the folks at Second Chance. If you live in the suburbs and are thinking about adopting a cat, please check them out.

And welcome to our home, Franklin!

How Are You Going to Get Better?

Apropos of nothing, here's a song by the Baseball Project to listen to while you read (opens in new window).

Every fan wants their team to be better than the year before. But for all the talk about recruiting, scheme changes, hot new coordinators and senior leadership, it comes down to this: beating somebody you lost to last year. Conversely, a slide can be caused by the loss of talent or a head coach, but it will be manifested in a loss to somebody you beat last year. (jump to Notre Dame section)

For a perfect example, look at 2010 for the two programs from the football-crazed state of Alabama. The flagship university Crimson Tide were coming off a national championship season. They were a near-universal pick for No. 1 in the preseason. But at 14-0, they had nowhere to go but down. Across the state, the Auburn Tigers finished 8-5 under a first-year head coach and were bringing in a new QB from the juco ranks. Expectations were somewhat muted (23rd nationally in consensus preseason polls).

Gratuitous Saban shot.

You may recall what happened: facing a tough schedule (multiple teams had byes before facing Alabama), the Tide lost to three teams they'd beaten in 2009: South Carolina, LSU, and the hated rivals in the Iron Bowl. Auburn rode Cam Newton and the taint of scandal to the national championship by avenging losses to Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia, LSU, and the Bammers, while dropping no others along the way.

This by the way is the work of LSUFreek, gif master of the SEC.

Let's talk about this year and about the teams we actually care about: Iowa and Notre Dame. In 2010 Iowa underachieved their way to an 8-5 season, including a bowl win over Missouri. The losses were to Arizona, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Minnesota. By the way I attended two of those, lucky me. Close wins (candidates to swing the other way) were Missouri, Indiana and Michigan (not technically close since it was a 10-point win, but I'm including it because it sure felt close).

How does Iowa get better? It takes a fair amount of optimism. First, you have to retain all eight wins. Iowa State on the road in the Ferentz years is always an adventure. Michigan has the most exciting (not the best) player in the Big Ten, and he's now a junior with a non-idiot for a head coach. Iowa does not do well against spread-oriented teams, and eked by Michigan twice in a row. How long does that luck last? Michigan State has a senior QB (Kirk Cousins) and revenge on their mind (getting killed by Iowa kept Sparty out of the Rose Bowl and a shot at the national championship). That's three W's into Maybes. (I'm not concerned about the non-cons, Penn State or Indiana. Any bowl game is a toss-up.)

As for losses into wins: The non-conference loss @Ariz. could be replaced by a win at home vs. Pitt and all their coaching drama. You would think Iowa is capable of beating Northwestern and Minnesota midseason, as long as the QB and RB positions are settled, but Fitzgerald seems to have our number. That's three L's into weak Maybes. (Wisconsin is still a tough game, and suddenly depleted Ohio State is replaced by a season-ending border rivalry with the resurgent Huskers.) I don't see an improvement on 7-5 with a real chance for a backslide.

Iowa: 2010 vs. 2011

2010 Opp.	Result	2011 Opp.	Result
E. Illinois	Win	Tenn. Tech	?
Ia. State	Win	@Ia. State	?
@Arizona	Loss	Pitt	?
Ball St.	Win	ULM	?
Penn St.	Win	@Penn St.	?
@Michigan	Win	N'western	?
Wisconsin	Loss	Indiana	?
Mich. St.	Win	@Minnesota	?
@Indiana	Win	Michigan	?
@N'western	Loss	Mich. St.	?
Ohio St.	Loss	@Purdue	?
Minnesota	Loss	@Nebraska	?

Notre Dame also eked out an 8-5 but in a much different manner: limping to 4-5 and then closing with four straight wins including a bowl win over Miami. The losses were Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Navy and Tulsa. Close wins were Pitt and Southern Cal.

How does Notre Dame get better? First off, Navy damn well better become a win. No more of this losing to Navy shit; Kelly and Diaco should have learned that. You'd like to think we'll flip at least one of the Mitten/Mitten State combo into a win. Both were last-minute losses. Michigan, despite breaking in a new coach, will have a ton of motivation with the first ever night game at Michigan Library Stadium.

South Florida replaces Tulsa and I think in the home opener, that's a win. (Stanford is weaker without coach Harbaugh and FB/LB/bulldozer Owen Marecic, but Luck is still one of the best QBs in the game and I see this as a likely loss.) That is three L's into pretty reasonable W's.

As for retaining wins: Purdue, BC, Wake Forest (replacing Western Michigan if only for the "W" in their name), Maryland (replacing Utah), and Air Force (replacing Army) are all winnable. Pitt SHOULD be winnable but it is a home game for them. USC is a complete enigma as long as Kiffin is in charge. No doubt they will be motivated for the night game, but will they be disciplined? Talented? Prepared? Since it is unlikely to keep all eight in the win column, let's say one flips to a loss (any bowl game is a toss-up).

Notre Dame: 2010 vs. 2011

2010 Opp.	Result	2011 Opp.	Result
Purdue	Win	So. Fla	?
Michigan	Loss	@Michigan	?
@Michigan St.	Loss	Michigan St.	?
Stanford	Loss	@Pitt	?
@BC	Win	@Purdue	?
Pitt	Win	Air Force	?
W. Michigan	Win	Southern Cal	?
Navy	Loss	Navy	?
Tulsa	Loss	@Wake Forest	?
Utah	Win	vs. Maryland	?
Army	Win	BC	?
Southern Cal	Win	@Stanford	?

That's still a net gain of two for a regular season of 9-3, which I would take as solid improvement over 7-5 and 6-6 the year before.

GOT MY STEELE

It's that time of the Steele* when we break out the siren...

WOOOOOOOOOO!

...and utter those three magical words: "in hand, motherfuckers."

Official "in hand, motherfucker" photo taken Saturday, June 4, 2011, after I stopped hyperventilating.

I've been digesting the 2011 College Football Preview as best I can, considering yesterday was full of yardwork and a nice dinner out. (No, I did not bring the Steele to the restaurant.) As you know it is JAMPACKED WITH INFORMATION but here are some initial observations:

• He likes Alabama and Oklahoma in the title game.
• He had Ohio State at No. 15 knowing about the 5-game suspensions, but not about the car dealership and Tressel's resignation.
• Ohio U. is at Number 34! This is an insanely high number, and a huge inflation from their "pure" ranking (ignoring schedule) of No. 90. Why such a bump? Because Phil ranks their schedule as dead last in all of America. He likes them to win the MAC East.
• Notre Dame makes a strong showing in the unit rankings: #20 QB, #38 RB, #6 WR, #11 OL. And then get ready for this: #15 DL, #5 LB, #8 DB, #19 Special Teams.
• In fact, Phil is fully conflicted about the Irish: he admits ND under-achieves his prediction every year, but Brian Kelly over-achieves every year. This year he goes in for the Irish again, putting them at No. 6.
• Iowa, after losing a ton of senior talent, lands at third in the Western division behind Nebraska and Michigan State (#42 nationally).
• Whether you are glass half-full or glass half-lose-to-ISU about Iowa, turn to page 299. In two separate articles, he lists the Hawks as likely to improve on last year's bad fortune (3 net close losses), as those tend to even out over the years. But he also notes that Iowa's bend-but-don't-break defense gave up a lot of yards without giving up points, and that tends to even out to the other direction as well.

Quigley loves the Steele too. Wait, is that how he won last year??

Reading through Steele also piques your interest about all that knowledge he's crammed in there. For example, while perusing the MAC, I pieced together this marvelous trivia question: Who is the most recent MAC Coach of the Year still in his job? (Hint: 11 teams have a first-, second- or third-year coach.)

Even more crazy trivia question: who holds the record (since they started keeping track in 1965) for most MAC Coach of the Year awards? Keep in mind, the MAC is known as the "Cradle of Coaches" for sending luminaries to the Big Ten and other prominent Midwestern universities.

That's most of what I've got on first glance, without going all geeky on you** about the Newcomers section moving and the confusion of those western conferences. Leave your trivia guesses in the comments section. Pick 6 is only about 10 weeks away!


* Freudian slip. I really did type that, and found it too hilariously true to correct.
** 99% of readers to MPF004: "Too late."