Touch the Banner is on the move!

The day that we all have been waiting for has arrived. That's right. After a couple years of contemplation and a couple months of consternation, the new site has been created and launched. That's in no small part to the numerous people who have donated toward the site redesign. So as of today, I am officially abandoning Blogger for the greener pastures of Wordpress. You can find the new site now and forevermore at:

TOUCH-THE-BANNER.COM

Site News: Launch date (plus a mid-day serving of Jourdan Lewis)

Jordan Lewis (image via Maize and Blue News)

In site-related news, the tentative launch date of the new website is June 7. Thanks to those of you who have contributed to the efforts. If you would like to donate, please use Paypal (on the left sidebar) or do some shopping through Amazon (LINK).

In football-related news, a video popped up on Scout of cornerback Jourdan Lewis working out against various guys at Belleville High School (LINK). One of the guys is former Detroit (MI) Cass Tech quarterback Jayru Campbell, who is headed to prep school after squandering away his college opportunities.

Site News: Message board suggestions?

I will be getting together with the web developer in the near future, and we will be working on a message board forum for the website. I have asked questions in the past about what you as readers/commenters want to see on the new website.

Today I want to be more specific, if possible. The Wolverine (and other Rivals message boards) just rolled out a new forum format; some people are pleased, and others are disgruntled. The most experience I have with a message board is at MGoBlog, which functions well but has a few glitches.

• What message board formats/features do you like best? You can leave links to other forums in the comments so I can check them out.
• Are usernames sufficient? Or are avatars necessary?
• What are your thoughts on upvotes/downvotes? So far it seems I have had more people railing against voting on comments than people in support of it. I am indifferent as of now.
• Other thoughts/suggestions?

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your suggestions!

Site News: What do you want on the new site?

UPDATE: This is bumped from its original post date of March 14. Thanks to the funds many of you have sent my way (Paypal is on the left sidebar if you're interested in helping), I have gathered enough to start the website redesign. I have a meeting with the developer this coming week, and I will continue to look for additional feedback from you, the reader. What requests do you have for the new site?

Thank you!
---------------

Good morning, trusted TTB readers! I know I've been promising a new site for a while, and I actually have had a domain name and a new platform for an embarrassingly long time without doing anything about it. Unfortunately, while trolling around Wordpress, I realized that I have become pretty proficient at using Blogger . . . and not at all proficient at actually building a website from scratch. It's like your first girlfriend - you like her because you don't know any better.

But it's time to be a grown-up and ask other people for help, so I am hiring a professional web developer to create my new site. We had a meeting the other day and should be getting rolling soon, even though it will surely take a bit of time to code and launch the new site.

Here are a few of the features planned:

• Drop-down menus to clear some of the clutter up top
• Individual logins for commenters
• A message board for readers to post threads/comments

Here's what I would like from you:

• What other features would you like to see?
• What features do you like about the current site that might translate well to the new site?
• What advice do you have regarding the look of the site, the implementation of the message board, etc.?

I am all ears and would like to hear your thoughts so I can be very specific when it's time to sit down with the web developer and hash out the details. I can't promise that all suggestions will be heeded, but you're my focus group.

Thanks for reading (and commenting), and I'm looking forward to putting together a site that we all can enjoy!

Site News: Help me redesign the website!

As I mentioned over the weekend, I have started the ball rolling on redesigning the website. I have explored a few avenues, met with a web developer, and chosen a path. Based on the developer's references, I am confident that the new site will be something of which I can be proud and we can all enjoy.

With that goal in mind, I have placed a Paypal button on the left sidebar in case you would like to contribute to my push for the redesigned website. My goal is to raise $3,000, which covers most (but not all) of the proposed funds required for everything I aim to include. I know this goal might seem ambitious, but I want to grow the website for us all to have a better experience. Some aspects of Blogger have begun or continue to frustrate me. I want to assure you that I will be pocketing $0 of any donations up to the above number, because every single penny - and more -  of that would go toward the redesign. Anything and everything would help, and your contributions are greatly appreciated. You can track the progress of the goal with the thermometer on the right sidebar, which I plan to update on a daily basis (or whenever donations come in).

As always, thanks for reading and for discussing Michigan football with me. Go Blue!

Site News: All-Time Recruit Rankings

Jabrill Peppers

I have added an "All-Time Recruit Rankings" (LINK) page to the top. As you might guess, it's a database of every Michigan recruit listed in order of class recruiting ranking. I used 247 Sports' Composite rankings to do the list. It shows, for example, that Jabrill Peppers is Michigan's top overall recruit since 2006, while Justin Feagin is the lowest ranked recruit, though there are several unranked players who are behind Feagin. If you ever have a question about how Michigan's recruiting efforts stack up against historical classes, this should be a helpful resource.

Keep in mind that the page is under construction, but if you have any comments, corrections, suggestions, etc., please leave them in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Site news: Movin' on up?

If you're a regular visitor, you may have noticed a lack of in-depth posts in the past few days. Despite football season being months away, I found myself somewhat abruptly inundated with things to consume my time. Some of them are personal (time-consuming but nothing serious), while others are good news related to the blog.

I am glad to report that I was recently contacted to write an article for a national football season preview magazine. I will give more specifics when the time arises, but in the meantime, I am proud to have been asked. That has taken up some time that I normally can devote to the blog, but that will presumably be a short-term time constraint.

A new website is also under construction, but that too has been put on the back burner while I take care of these other projects.

I thoroughly appreciate the contributors, readers, and commenters on TTB, and thanks for your patience through the occasional lull.

Meta: Building a new website

I mentioned this last night on Twitter, but I am in the process of building a new website, which will convert my Blogger site to a Wordpress blog. The problem is that I have no clue what I'm doing. I am decently intelligent when it comes to technology, but not enough to code HTML. Furthermore, the free themes at Wordpress are pretty terrible, and the premium ones aren't much better. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments, via Twitter, or through e-mail. Thanks, and Go Blue!

Meta (sort of): Introducing Recruiting Season

(image via MHSFCA)

In my vast interest in college recruiting within the state of Michigan, I started a blog called Recruiting Season, which focuses on in-state recruiting. This started late in the 2013 calendar year, and I soon realized that I didn't have the time to devote myself 100% to both Recruiting Season  and Touch the Banner. The math doesn't quite work out, does it?

With that in mind, I want to open Recruiting Season  up to aspiring writers, bloggers, or simply fans who are interested in a blogging partnership. I do have an interest in participating with the blog to an extent with some scouting reports, rankings, general information, promotion, etc. However, if there are readers out there who would be interested in compiling names, information, highlights, etc., then please let me know by e-mailing, commenting, Twitter, etc.

Most Popular Posts of 2013

Surprise, surprise - Jabrill Peppers was the year's biggest individual
draw to this here blog.

At the end of each calendar year, I like to look at the posts that were viewed most often and see how things went. Here are the twenty most viewed posts from 2013.

1. 2013 BBQ at the Big House Visitors

2. Visitors: Michigan vs. Ohio State

3. Scouting Report: Jabrill Peppers

4. A History of #1 Rated Tailbacks

5. Scouting Report: 2014 Quarterbacks

6. NSFW Attractive Michigan Girl of the Week

7. Spring Game Visitors

8. Scouting Report: Mason Cole

9. Scouting Report: Da'Shawn Hand

10. Visitors: Michigan vs. Notre Dame

11. Recruit Tracker: Wilton Speight

12. Visitors: March 15-17, 2013

13. Scouting Report: Chase Winovich

14. Nebraska 17, Michigan 13

15. 2013 Michigan Summer Camp Attendees

16. ESPN 300 for 2015 updated

17. Visitors: First week of April

18. Visitors: Last week of March

19. Recruit Tracker: Maurice Ways

20. Scouting Report: Malik McDowell

Site News: Hello, Mike!

Touch the Banner  is excited to welcome a new member to the writing team, in the form of a guy we will affectionately call "Mike."  While Andrew is still a part of the crew, Mike will be taking over some of his former duties, including interviewing recruits, former players, etc.  I think Mike is going to do an excellent job and brings a good amount of professionalism and knowledge to the role.  I have asked him to put together a post introducing himself, which should be coming soon.

Welcome to TTB!

Site News: I'm Outta Here

Not for good, though.  Don't get your hopes up.

From Friday through Sunday, I'll be at a Nike Coach of the Year Clinic.  I have a couple posts set to go while I'm out of town, but if any news breaks over the weekend (like a commitment or a new Kate Upton GIF), I'll get to it as soon as I can.

If I learn anything worthwhile at the clinic, I'll pass it along when I return.

Help Wanted

This here blog is now looking for someone to contact Michigan recruits, former players, and the like.  Andrew, who has done an excellent job of interviewing Michigan commits and players, has other professional obligations; while he plans to continue his contributions to the blog, he no longer plans to do interviews.

So if you have a journalism background or if you're just interested in contacting once and future Michigan Wolverines, drop me an e-mail.  You have a chance to get your work published, in case you're looking for something to build your resume.  With Andrew's help, the blog has grown into a highly trafficked website and I'm looking for someone to help maintain that growth.  As I mentioned the other day, readership has increased by 41% in the last year or so.  It's been a good year for Touch the Banner.

META: Comments and such

In the slowly evolving world of Touch the Banner, I have finally decided to make commenters sign in to post.  I have the sometimes tedious task of moderating comments; deleting e-mails, marking comments as spam, etc. has become too cumbersome for me to continue, so I changed the settings.  I apologize to those of you who enjoy commenting anonymously, but that's how the internet goes.

I have also purchased the domain www.touch-the-banner.com, which simply redirects you to the Blogspot address, something I plan to update during the offseason.  I am not savvy when it comes to programming and such, so those kinds of upgrades involve enlisting help from others.

Also, if you have any suggestions for post ideas, upgrading the site, etc., please let me know via comments or e-mails.

As always, thanks for visiting the site.  It's a lot of fun to discuss Michigan football with you all.

Thanks!

I would like to thank this blog's readership for their generous contributions.  Between donations and ad revenue on Friday, I was able to purchase a $120 gift card from Target.  The card will be delivered to the family of a co-worker who lost their home in a recent fire.

Thanks again!

Site News

I will be heading out of town for the next few days, somewhat unexpectedly.  I'll be gone from this afternoon until probably sometime on Sunday.  I have a couple posts ready to go, Andrew will be posting a couple things, and I'll be online occasionally.  I'm not expecting any commitments in the next few days, but if there's any breaking news, you might have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to get any kind of in-depth analysis.

2012 Nike Coach of the Year Clinic

I don't know whether to be happy or sad about the fact that I'll be sitting through a Nick Saban
presentation on Friday evening.

I'm leaving this afternoon for the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in Allentown, PA, and I'll be there until Saturday.  Speakers include Steve Addazio (Temple head coach), Bob Surace (Princeton head coach), G.A. Mangus (South Carolina quarterback coach), Larry Fedora (North Carolina head coach), Bill O'Brien (Penn State head coach), and Nick Saban (Alabama head coach), along with several other college and high school coaches.  I have some posts ready to go in my absence, but obviously, any breaking news in the next couple days will probably not be covered until I get back on Saturday or Sunday.

Last year's clinic was summarized in sections from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, so check those out if you're interested.  In particular, check out [former] Yale coach Tom Williams's comments on Michigan from Day 2.  If you're relatively new to reading the site, football hasn't changed much in the last year, so you might still find it relevant.  Last year's speakers included Danny Hope (Purdue head coach), Kirk Ferentz (Iowa head coach), Mike McQueary (Penn State's former receivers coach), and Paul Johnson (Georgia Tech head coach), among others.

I will be posting a summary of the presentations next week (or sometime soon).  In the meantime, look for tomorrow's scouting report on Murrieta (CA) Vista Murrieta athlete Su'a Cravens.

Donate! Or don't.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a reader asking if Touch the Banner  had a Paypal "Donate" button so he could make a donation to the blog.  I had been thinking about this for a long time, but I had never followed through because I thought the button might just sit there and collect dust.  But since I received a request, I created a Donate button and placed it on the left sidebar.  Please feel free to donate, but I didn't create this blog to become rich.

TTB Andrew and I would like to thank our first donor.  All proceeds from Paypal will go toward Andrew's collection of Chia Pets.

Mini State of the Blog

Thanks to Brady Hoke for restoring Michigan's football program.

I would just like to take a moment and thank the readers, commenters, and contributors who spend their time here at Touch the Banner.  With TTB Andrew's help, visits to the site have increased over the past year by more than 700%.  As I mentioned on Twitter, the blog has reached the point where people were e-mailing me on Sunday night asking, essentially, "WHERE'S MY DAMN CHRIS FOX COMMITMENT POST?!"  This after I had written six commitment posts in the previous 32 hours or so (along with, you know, living my life).

I have big plans for the blog, and I certainly hope it continues to grow.  I appreciate the e-mails, comments, tweets, etc., even many of the negative ones.  This past year has been a great one for Michigan football.  I hope 2012 is even better.

Thanks again for reading, and Go Blue!

Site News

Posting may be light for the next few days.  I am busy ruining people's holidays, but that takes a lot of time and effort.

I hope you are all having a horrible, horrible holiday season.  Bah humbug.