Spearheaded by the request of Michigan’s president James B. Angell, officials from the schools representing the Western Conference (U-M, Chicago, Minnesota, Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana) met in Chicago in January 1906 to discuss major reforms. Their target? Michigan football and its coach Fielding H. Yost. Here's how it played out.
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Blue Books: Badgers Bungle Bo hiring
A couple weeks ago I looked back at Lou Holtz’s attempts to woo Michigan coach Lloyd Carr to South Bend and join his Irish staff. In late 1989 Carr had interviewed for the Wisconsin head coaching job which was eventually given to Notre Dame defensive coordinator Barry Alvarez. It was Alvarez’s departure that prompted Holtz to seek out Carr. Did you know that legendary General Bo considered an offer to take the reins at Madison back in the 60s? Indeed. Here’s an excerpt from John U. Bacon’s wonderful Bo’s Lasting Lessons, where Bo recounts what happened in Chapter Three titled ‘Wait for the Right Opportunity’: After we won our conference title in my third and fourth seasons at Miami–1965 & 1966–Wisconsin called. From the outside, it seemed like a pretty good job. Wisconsin’s a good school in a great league. It was about ten o’clock on a Sunday when I walk into this meeting room to face twenty guys sitting around–and some board member falls asleep, right there in front of me! Now what does that tell you? They also had a student on the committee, and this kid asks me how I would handle Clem Turner, a Cincinnati kid, who was always in trouble. Well, how the heck do I know how I would handle Clem Turner? I’ve never…
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Power Index, Week 3
The spread between teams in the conference is collapsing and Michigan continues its drop after the brutal loss to Notre Dame. In the preseason poll the gap between the Buckeyes and the lowest rated Gophers was 85.2 index points, that gap heading into week 4 is now 73.5. Steady Eddie all season? The Spartans, in four polls from the preseason to the current week, the Michigan State index has held a range of 50 to 51.1. Here’s the current poll: The comments from the pollsters were pretty consistent: the Big Ten sucks: Gilliam the Badger: “The Big Ten proved this week that it ranks slightly higher than the WAC, the Sun Belt, the Missouri Valley, the Big Sky, and Big East conferences.” Biggie the Spartan: “We did not learn a whole lot this week other than the Big Ten looks to be pretty lame from a national perspective.” Schlimmy the disappointed Buckeye, “Wisconsin provided the Big Ten with their best win of the year so far (which isn’t saying much). Michigan and Ohio State, first Michigan simply handing Notre Dame the game in the first quarter. Second I completely expected my Buckeyes to get spanked by USC, once Beanie hurt his foot/toe a couple weeks ago I knew they were in serious trouble vs USC. I’m not saying they would…
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To Hell is Back
One of the things bloggers do when they’ve been away from the keyboard for a little while is check out site statistics. A quick scan of the incoming links revealed that my previous posts referencing my favorite Schembechler phrase are being peppered. It didn’t take long to find out why. As you may know by now you can thank Notre Dame head coach Chuck Weis for that: “I think the first opportunity they’re going to have to really make a statement is that day [Sept. 6 against SDSU], and then we’ll listen to Michigan have all their excuses as they come runnin’ in and sayin’ how they have a new coaching staff and there’s changes. To hell with Michigan.” ** Translated by Brian at mgoblog, who is fluent in Hutt Beautiful! I love this. Rich Rod is getting from all sides this off-season and I say bring it on. Any shot at our new coach just unifies the fickle Michigan fan base and gives a reassuring boost to our rivalries. Now we need Tim Brewster to announce he’s cleared a space in his office to display the Little Brown Jug and we’ll be all set. Referencing a Schembechler line is fine by me although I’m sure many would say that Weis would never dare say such a thing if Bo…
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Snake Rod? Don’t think so
So Purdue Coach Joe Tiller is mad at the new kid on the block. You’ve certainly heard his quote directed toward Rodriguez after losing verbal commit Roy Roundtree: “If we had an early signing date, you wouldn’t have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that’s what happened,” Tiller said. So many things bug me about this, some already said some not. First off, the suggestion that Coach Rodriguez is selling “snake oil” implies a RR’s master salesman selling a lie. Yes, he’s selling fantasies like Rose Bowls, the Rivalry, the NFL and Heisman trophies. Where does Rodriguez come up with this stuff? Tiller is selling the Old Oaken Bucket, giant percussion instruments and the Motor City Bowl. Second, it sure must have been some charming looking Wizard hat to conjure up that spell he put on the naive recruit. Rodriguez actively recruited for Michigan for THREE WEEKS…must have been some slick moves involved to change the mind of a verbal commit. Perhaps it had something to do with a receiver wanting to play in the Big Ten in a spread offense like Purdue’s, only better? For Tiller to put this on Rodriguez is weak. A charming way to welcome a new colleague in the league. Not…
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We Score Every Play! Really
Today mgoblog published some great stuff, including a link to the 2005 West Virginia playbook. A lot of the plays involved a wiggle, and waggle and the quarterback taking it to the house. It’s TOO EASY! Run, Ryan Run. Elsewhere: I added a few Big Ten Blog links on the right toolbar. If you’ve got some other suggestions let me know. All these seem to be updated fairly frequently. Funny, after reviewing these I learned quickly that other Big Ten blogs like to talk about Michigan about as much as I do. But sometimes they’re just not very nice about it. A few examples:
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Capital One After all…[?]
To the chagrin of the Capital One bowl officials, looks like after yesterday’s shake up at the top Illinois will end up in the Rose Bowl [latest BCS projections], and that’ll put Michigan in the Capital One Bowl. Wisconsin and Penn State are already locked into the Outback and Alamo. As posted here, remember the bowl official offering an actual opinion weeks before selection: “At best, they’d be looking at the Alamo Bowl,” said Frank Frana, an official with the Capital One Bowl. “At best.” “There are at least four teams ahead of them: Ohio State, Illinois, Penn State and Wisconsin,” Frana said. “Their bowl opportunities are going to be tough.” Sorry dude. Oh, and how can I get your job? During the season you go to games to watch teams play to see if they’ll be a good fit for your bowl? You couldn’t watch them on TV, you need to go to the game. And all this ‘work’ eventhough you end up have little choice in the matter, really. Great JOB! And for Ohio State, another year where they won’t be going to Pasadena. Crazy phenomenon. Finally, it looks like this guy was on the ball.
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Alamo Likely for Carr’s Finale
Looks like Lloyd Carr, Hart, Henne and Long will finish their Wolverine careers in the Alamo Bowl. Even if the Buckeyes worked their way back into the BCS Championship they will certainly be the only Big Ten team in a BCS bowl. After that, the bowls with Big Ten agreements pick in the following order this year: 1. Capital One 2. Outback 3. Alamo 4. Champs Sports 5. Insight 6. Motor City The Big Ten standings don’t matter after the champion is determined; the bowls pick who they want. Capitol One could take Michigan for whatever reason. Michigan fans would argue that the Wolverines are the rightful #2 based on league standings and the fact they beat Illlinois, but it doesn’t matter. CollegeFootballNews seemed to think this scenario would play out as they projected the Blue in the Capitol One Bowl this morning. Whoops. The crew a CFN must have missed this quote I found in today’s Ann Arbor News which will crush any idea that this could happen: “At best, they’d be looking at the Alamo Bowl,” said Frank Frana, an official with the Capital One Bowl. “At best.” “There are at least four teams ahead of them: Ohio State, Illinois, Penn State and Wisconsin,” Frana said/. “Their bowl opportunities are going to be tough.” How about the Outback?…
