The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009- 5A
SFantasy football
v t w stereotypes
ARIEL BOND/Daily
Rich Rodriguez said he did not see an infraction on a play during which it appears Jonas Mouton punched a Notre Dame player.
No disciplinary action for
Mouton's apparent punch
One Daily writer's
journey through this
year 's draft
H ailing from Chicago,
I have zero loyalty to
the Detroit Lions. But
when Detroit's Louis Delmas
returned a fumble 65 yards to the
end zone last Sunday, I threw a
hissy fit. Drew Brees was on the
verge of his sixth touchdown
pass, which in fantasy football
terms means
"cha-ching."
You see, there
are few things
better than the
start of the fan-
tasy football
season for me.
Well, except
for the spec- ALEX
tacle that is a PROSPERI
fantasy foot-
ball draft.
On the night before this semes-
ter commenced, a dozen of my
friends gathered for a live draft at
my house.
After 16 rounds, tons of pizza
and the trio of Donte Stallworth,
Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress
being drafted in the final round
("That would be one sick prison
team," one owner said), it became
clear that every live draft I've
ever done includes the same six
types of people.
THE UNKNOWN: Simply put,
he's unpredictable. His insults
are overshadowed by his awful
picks, like drafting the Pittsburgh
defense in round seven.
He chews a Nutri-Grain bar
to assure he stays focused, and if
members of the opposite sex were
present, we would kick him out of
the room.
But tonight, his ineptness pro-
vides the entertainment. Wheth-
er it's making fun of Joe Flacco's
unibrow or making way-too-soon
jokes about Steve McNair, he's
hilarious.
And just how good is he at
drafting?
When debating between
two backup quarterbacks, he
used the "eeny meeny miny mo"
tactic.
THE BUZZKILL: The draft is
blazing along. Insults are flying
left and right and potato chip dip
is all over the table - courtesy of
me. Then it's the buzzkill's turn to
pick. His draft strategy is similar
to the Minnesota Vikings circa
the 2003 NFL Draft, taking for-
ever on every pick.
Some people think there is skill
when drafting players. In reality,
a monkey could pick a winner.
By round eight, when he takes
quarterback Matt Cassel, he is
still taking too long, which earns
him death stares from the other 1t
owners.
THE ODD COUPLE: If there was
ever a reality show about two col-
lege kids who are close friends but
absolutely hate each other, these
two would be more popular than
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
Better yet, if there was an award
for two fraternity brothers who
act most like sorority girls, they
would also win.
Here is one of their sarcastic
exchanges:
Owner 1: "He'll get alot of car-
ries," after he drafts running back
Steven Jackson.
Owner 2: "Thanks for that
inside analysis."
And this:
Owner 1: "John Carlson, he'll be
good."
Owner 2: "Good research."
Owner 1: "Mark Schlereth said
it, so it has to be true."
THE "GREATEST": The oldest
member of the group is making his
picks over the phone from Boulder,
Colo. Although he has told every-
one he's taking Adrian Peterson
No. 1 overall, he refuses to make it
without calling in. This forces the
draft to start seven minutes late
and throws the whole night into a
frenzy.
He thinks he's so football-savvy
that he took the troubled Brandon
Marshall in round five and Chris
Henry one pick later.
An enormous ego leads him to
proclaim that he's not worried
about spending his final two picks
on guys no one else has heard of.
He's the guy who will instant
Message you after each pick and
chastise it. He even proclaims that
the auto-draft is smarter than one
of our owners. Sadly, he's the guy
who will probably win the league.
THE MOM: He's making sure
there are plenty of chips and
drinks available. He even offers
to drive people home after. But his
biggest accomplishment in the
draft comes in round five. Since
it's a live draft, we have a draft
board where each person attach-
es a sticker corresponding to his
pick.
Each position is color coordi-
nated. So when he drafts tight end
Antonio Gates in the fifth round,
giving him four different posi-
tions, he announces, "I have one of
every color. Yes!"
His excitement rubs off
on another owner, who, after
drafting tight end Tony Gonza-
lez says, "Oh my god, it's a new
color!"
THE NOT-SO-SMART ONE:
He's in the Business School and
has Michael Turner, Marion Bar-
ber, Roddy White, Kurt Warner,
Joseph Addai and Greg Olsen
after round six - not a squad to
kill for, but not bad, either.
The problem: all his picks have
byes during either week four or
week six. You can pencil him in
for a big "L" those two weeks.
Sometimes, cheat sheets just
aren't enough.
By RUTH LINCOLN
Daily Sports Editor
Charlie Weis doesn't appear to
be a fan of Big Ten officials.
Or, as the Notre Dame head
coach might see it, Big Ten officials
aren't fans of Charlie Weis.
During his Sunday press con-
ference, Weis complained about
the officiating during Michigan's
upset win of the Irish on Saturday.
As a part of his comments, Weis
indirectly referenced a play dur-
ing which Michigan linebacker
Jonas Mouton hit Irish center Eric
Olson.
Video replays show that Mouton
delivered a quick punch to Olson's
chin as play came to a stop at the
8:48 mark of the second quarter.
When asked about the episode
yesterday, Michigan coach Rich
* Rodriguez seemed caught off
guard.
"What are you talking about? I
know they were talking about one
incident, and from what we saw
on film, we didn't see anybody
throw a punch or anything like
that," Rodriguez said. "The little I
saw on the clip, I saw the guys got
tangled up together and Jonas was
trying to free himself. There were
a whole lot of officials out there.
I'm sure if there was an infraction,
they would have called it."
Rodriguez said Mouton will not
receive disciplinary action from
the team.
It's no secret that Saturday's
emotion-filled rivalry game led to
some added intensity. Mouton's
hit didn't appear to be a serious
infraction. It just happened to be
caught on camera.
It's hard to say if the conference
will discipline Mouton. In theory,
the league has made a priority in
recent years of ensuring such inci-
dents are few and far in between.
Sportsmanship and player safe-
ty have been rallying points for
coaches, players, officials and fans
for years. And in 2008, the Big Ten
officials made, those categories
their "points of emphasis" for the
season.
Who knows how well the Big
Ten officials took those sugges-
tions to heart. Some oflast season's
biggest incidents, like Wisconsin's
Jay Valai's helmet-to-helmet hiton
Ohio State's Dan "Boom" Herron
in October, went untouched by the
league and the Badgers.
Although Mouton will not by
disciplined by the team, the coach
added that he and his staff take a
stalwart approach to unsports-
manlike conduct.
"Let me make it perfectly clear
- no personal fouls will go unpun-
ished," Rodriguez said. "No penal-
ties go unpunished. Personal fouls
in particular, there is no place for
that in the game of football, not
only in the game but every day in
practice. We take great pride in
that."
Bill Carollo, the new Big Ten
coordinator of football officials,
told ESPN.com in June that
unsportsmanlike conduct, espe-
cially helmet-to-helmet colli-
sions, will again be major points
of emphasis for Big Ten officials in
2009.
"If you're going into the end
zone pointing at the guy you just
beat on a pass play and taunting
him, or making abig hit and stand-
ing over him like you just knocked
him out, that will not be tolerated,"
Carollo said.
According to ESPN.com, Big
Ten officials now will receive
video training tapes to high-
light proper enforcement. Head
coaches will receive similar vid-
eos throughout the season, with
the first scheduled to arrive next
Wednesday.
In Michigan's loss to Notre
Dame last September, former
tight end Carson Butler punched
an Irish player in the head after
the game was out of reach. Butler
was ejected from the game but
did not receive a suspension from
the Big Ten or Rodriguez.
DuringRodriguez's short Mich-
igan tenure, Butler has been the
only player to have such an inci-
dent. Rodriguez would not defend
Butler's actions at his Monday
postgame press conference.
"A guy was grabbing him or
something at the end and he retal-
iated in the wrong way," Rodri-
guez said in September 2008. "He
apologized for it, but you've still
got to keep your poise better than
that."
NOTES: Wide receiver Junior
Hemingway wore a green jer-
sey during Wednesday's prac-
tice, denoting limited contact.
Rodriguez said Hemingway also
practiced Tuesday and "looked
pretty good." Hemingway injured
his ankle two weeks ago dur-
ing his two-touchdown perfor-
mance against Western Michigan
and missed last Saturday's win
against Notre Dame. ...With right
guard David Moosman out with
a shoulder injury, redshirt junior
John Ferrara stepped in with the
No. 1 offense during yesterday's
practice. Ferrara, who switched
from defense to offense midway
through last season, started five
games last year at left guard.
- Prosperi was dejected after his
first-round pick - Steve Slaton -
scored just four points last weekend.
But then he remembered Drew
Brees already scored 38. He can
be reached at apjp@umich.edu.
HVF
Yourb
Will Blue be back in 2009?
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t i Sri 't!!
Wolverines, along
with super-recruit
Evan King, hope to
learn from last year
By JOE STAPLETON
Daily Sports Writer
Last year, the Michigan men's
tennis team entered its season
with high expectations.
Fifth-year coach Bruce Berque
was erasing years of mediocrity
and constructing one of the bet-
ter tennis programs in the Big
Ten, Michigan was coming off
two straight 20-win seasons after
not having one since 1988.
The team expected success and
in the beginning of the season, it
came. And then, so did the slump.
"We hit a patch where we
started thinking, 'We've arrived,'
" Berque said. "And we saw what
happened when we stopped lis-
tening, stopped working quite as
hard."
Michigan lost 11 of 13 matches
from Feb. 7 through March28 and
plummeted from No. 14 to No. 51
in the national rankings.
And while the Wolverines fin-
ished the season on a high note,
winning 10 of their last 11, Berque
thinks his team expected more.
"There were a few brightspots,"
he said. "But overall, we all feel
like it could have been better."
This year, Michigan is looking
to play well for the fall season,
which is centered more around
individual improvement, because
most tournaments are scored on
an individual basis.
It is then that veterans, like
juniors Jason Jung and Chris
Madden and seniors George
Navas and Mike Sroczynski, will
attempt to prove they learned
from last season.
They'll need to put those les-
sons to work with a tough non-
conference schedule during the
winter season, in which they play
No. 15 Kentucky and No. 17 Wake
Forest.
Their coach thinks they're
ready.
"I think they're going to take
some of those lessons they learned
(last season)," Berque said. "They
know that we've got more than
enough talent to have a very good
season."
By "more than enough talent,"
Berque is referring to the arrival
of highly-touted freshman Evan
King.
The freshman missed the first
week of classes to play in the Unit-
ed Stpates Open Juniors, where fe
beat then-No. 3junior in the coun-
try, Augustin Velotti of Argentina.
King was the No. 5 recruit nation-
ally, according to tennisrecruiting.
net, and Berque said he might be
the -most high-profile recruit in
Michigan tennis history.
But through it all, it sounds like
King has taken a page out of the
book of a fellow high-profile fresh-
man, current Michigan quarter-
back Tate Forcier:
"I don't think the pressure
affects me, because I don't put a
lot of pressure on myself, anyway,"
King said. "I just want to help the
team play well."
King is originally from Chi-
cago but moved to Florida after
his junior year in high school to
train full-time with the United
States Tennis Association High
Performance program while tak-
ing online classes through Laurel
Springs Prep Academy. He said
it's good to be back in the Mid-
west.
"I definitely missed it," King
said. "In Florida, there really isn't
a winter season, and I like indoor
tennis a lot."
King and the rest of the team
will have to play outdoor tennis
for at least another month. The
Wolverines' season kicks off at the
Napa Valley Invitational in St. Hel-
ena, California on Frijay.
There's, $