A few from the first half, more later:
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Ed. Steve Sapardanis aka “Dr. Sap” is back with his decals. This week I added the Editor’s Pick & added a bit to the Fan Award. Here are the picks from Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6 and Week 7 and Week 8 and Week 9.
| OFFENSE | ROY ROUNDTREE – I’m sure most of you had the same reaction I did with Roundtree’s performance on Saturday – IT’S ABOUT TIME!! We knew he had it in him, it was just a matter of WHEN he would have his breakout game. Not only was he targeted more times against Northwestern than he was all year, he drew THREE pass interference calls – I don’t even know if Desmond had as many in one game. Welcome back, Treezy! |
| DEFENSE | KENNY DEMENS – He didn’t play a perfect game but he did make the tackle of his life – TWICE! It’s a play and situation you dream of as a kid growing up playing Pop Warner Football. Demens not only made the big stop to win the game on 4th Down, but he also made the stop the play before on 3rd Down! OUTSTANDING! |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | BRENDAN GIBBONS – We’ve called him, “Gibby” and “Lefty” but I think we should just call him “MONEY!” Eleven field goals in a row? That’s GOTTA be a Michigan record! |
| HUSTLER / SPARKPLUG |
DEVIN GARDNER – DG was doing whatever it took to win the game yesterday. He laid out for his first score and even after Coach Hoke reminded him that the 35th President of the United States was his backup, he still kept plays and drives alive with his feet – to say nothing of the throws he was making with his right arm! |
| UNIFORM CHAMP | CHEERLEADERS – I guess I’ve been paying too much attention to the action on the field to realize that the U-M Cheerleaders have TWO sets of unis. The predominantly blue scheme caught my eye, but then I really liked the white outfits! I think it’s because the long white sleeves look very USC-ish, and I’m SOOOOO okay with that!
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| UFER MAIZE & BLUE FEDORA FAN |
Maize & Blue Bib Overall Guys – The weather was unseasonably warm yesterday, so I can’t fault the guys below for their get-up.
I just have one question: where did they get the maize & blue striped bib overalls? I know the M-Den doesn’t sell them. Might have to ask the folks at Carhartt if they carry this style! [Ed. Come on Sap! Always go to Moe’s, MVictors #1 sponsor---they’ve got them]
[Ed. Runner up: YOU – all those in an attendance for the roar you gave The Ox when he was announced before the game. I got the chills.] |
| EDITOR’S PICK | The true gentlemen of SAE, who dominated FIJI in the 2012 Mud Bowl on Saturday. Photo thanks to Geoff Voss: |
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Related:
Check out more postgame jug photos here, and of course pregame shots here.
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Slash! Gardner heading here:
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Gardner and Capt. Robinson comparing notes |
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Gopher drumline adding some pageantry |
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Gang tackle. There are few extra legs and feet in there somehow like the Iwo Jima Memorial |
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Deep sigh. Guys, it’s hard to take the ‘No More Minnesota Nice’ thing seriously when you flash the hearty double thumbs up next to Mandy Pepperidge – who herself looks like she just found a box of puppies. And memo to the guy below: I know Gangnam Style is irresistible but you made a commitment when you put on that shirt and the eye black. |
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I haven’t seen the reply yet but this is the play where Roundtree wrestled the catch down near the goal line to set up the score. Would love to see a little more of Wrestlin’ Roy the rest of the way. Here he is telling the back judge what was up:
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Until just now, I thought there were merely cute little helmet cozies on the back of the bench, certainly worthy of a post here for many reasons. Upon further review- they are actually hooked up to a propane-fueled heating (or cooling?) system. Gophers know how to deal with the elements, that’s for certain. |
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Slash Part II. |
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View from the press box – first class all the way. |
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Did she reach it? Careful now! |
So much more:
At halftime Coach Mattison told Doug Karsch "..they’re getting us on the same play..". Above (click for poster size) is what it looked like all day. Hats off to Air Force and I’m not taking anything away from the Falcons. As you know, they ran that thing to perfection. It seemed the U-M corners did their job – engaging the block, containing the corner and forcing the run inside. It’s just that the inside was a gaping hole you could fit a Stealth Bomber though..let alone any one of Sam McGuffie’s brothers.
That was close. If Air Force could have done something/anything else, namely, toss it downfield more than 15 yards, or execute a fake kick, or execute a real kick, I think we’re 0 and 2.
On the other side of the ball, it’s amazing how numb we’ve become to Denard’s exploits. Denard’s performance seemed to be an afterthought on postgame the talk. We untie our shoe laces, compose songs and videos about how much we love the young man, and sleep in #16 jerseys but I just get the sense that his performance yesterday was met with a fat yawn. Four TDs and 416 total yards, 200 each on the ground and air and those 2 ridiculous scoring runs? I get that it’s coming off the Bama game where he was smothered but sheesh.
And…that concludes the MVictors game analysis. Onto the #’M’iscellanea:
Indulging just a little: Regarding The Michigan Daily’s ‘Resist Temptation’ campaign to get students and fans to replace chanting “You Suck!” with “Defense” before fourth downs. I only was able to catch one instance outside in the 4th quarter, but from the Air Force sideline I can tell you it sounded like: “DEE—SUCK”. (Pretty close to “DEEZ NUTZ!”, which would have been awesome). Also – while there was a lot of space with 10 minutes before kick-off, it looked like the students filed into the Big House at a better than average clip?
Double Zero Indeed. Our AFA visitors made fine guests as expected and the team played beyond admirably. But one bone to pick with my sky blue buddies. The team nickname is the Falcons and apparently they bring a couple of these impressive creatures on road games:
So why, given you’ve got those badass falcons, do you have that silly/cartoonish feathered mascot walking around who goes by the name, “The Bird”? They don’t even call him ‘The Falcon’ or Francis the Falcon or whatever. It’s just ‘The Bird’. Here’s me giving you the bird, Bird.
The two Devins: Added to the postgame press conference hall of shame was the fiasco 
around the media trying to figure out how to address individual questions to Devin Gardner or Devin Funchess, as the Two Devins were trotted out to meet the press at the same time. The Wolverine’s Michael Spath asked the first question and intentionally addressed the question to “Devin” as a joke, but that didn’t help matters. More than a few times the players had to ask for clarification as to whom the question was addressed and it got silly. “The old one,” was offered up at one point to clear up the confusion, making Gardner, who was trying to be a bit stoic, crack up. Props to WTKA’s Steve Clarke who directed the final question to “Number nineteen”. I was going to direct mine to “number square root of 144”.
More Funch: Speaking of Clarke, he asked #19 what the players call him. Funchess said they call him by last name or “D Funch”. I’m going with Hawaiian Funch, or as @stuba2 on Twitter suggested: “Honey Funchess of Oats.”
#NDRG: Coach Hoke said earlier this year that he likes when things get a little chippy in practice. Weeeelll, Coach Hoke himself got a bit chippy with the media after the game. This isn’t the best example of that but it’s the most fun. Here’s Mike Rothstein of the four letter mother asking about “the ‘non-Denard running game’” and Hoke snorting at the new phrase:
The Fitz & Frank boost: Regarding the #NDRG…based on today’s game I loaded the data and crunched the numbers on what would have happened in Dallas had Fitz and Frank suited up for the Wolverines. Average final score after 10,000 simulations: Alabama 41, Michigan 14.
Tight Spiral. Spotted pregame, Tim Hardaway outside Crisler with a nice delivery although he needs to bring that arm across his body a bit more and dial down the wrist action.
Oosterbaan. Looked like they did a real nice job with the Bennie O. ceremony and I love the choice of Jake Ryan to don the #47. While Oosterbaan, like everyone who suited up in his day, played offense and defense, he was best known for his work at WR. But I dig that the coaches aren’t necessarily pigeon-holing the Legend jerseys to the positions the player was known for. If they didn’t it would get weird after a while, with offense skill positions dominating the Legends jerseys.
Onto #87. That said…I do think it would be cool to give Ron Kramer’s #87 to a tight end next week and I think the big debate will be whether they’d be willing to offer it up to a freshman, namely Mr. Funchess. We’ll see. I know some folks won’t be down with the idea of handing over such an honor to an unproven freshman, but if all signs are that Funchess is a good kid, I say why not. And for the coaches it means it’s something they won’t have to worry about again for several years.
Elsewhere:
- Air Force Photos (MNB Nation)
- Takes from Brad @ Maize & Blue Nation
- More Game Photos from UMGoBlue.com
- Photos from Michigan vs. Air Force (mgoblog)
- Air Force Recap: Remnants Of RichRod (mgoblog)
- Touch the Banner recap
- Instant Analysis: Michigan 31 – Air Force 25 (Maize n brew)
- What to Take from the Air Force game (Maize n brew)
Air Force content on MVictors:
I spent a few moments with Devin Gardner. From the little I’ve seen, he’s clearly much improved and in the mix the fall and I’m very surprised after seeing Gardner a bit in the fall.
A few quotes:
Are you still living with Charlie? [for context, click here and scroll down]: Charlie? Oh no, I’m not living with Charlie anymore I’m living with Denard.
How’s that going [living with Denard]? "It’s going great. You know, he’s like a garbage disposal, he eats everything, I don’t know why. He’s hungry all the time."
He looks like he’s bigger. "Yeah, because he’s eating all that food <laughs>."
It looks like you’ve improved [from spring to now], do you think so? "I’ve definitely improved from the spring, but I don’t think I’m where I need to be. I want to be the best at everything I do."
What command of the playbook do you have at this point? "Everything they’ve taught us I know it to a ‘T’. I don’t know if they’ve told us everything, but they said it’s a big chunk that we’re going to use against UConn."
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Most eyes were on #7, that’s QB Devin Gardner of course
What a great day and I couldn’t resist swinging by to check out the first practice of the year out at Schembechler Hall.
Big news? QB Nick Sheridan is hanging up the cleats and Rodriguez advised he intends pursue coaching. He’s got a semester or so of work left and I guess he can’t technically be an assistant until he finishes up. Sheridan was watching practice today and I’m going to try to do an interview in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned.
Anyway, here’s a few photos from the big day. Rodriguez spoke to the media for about 10 minutes and eventually we got to head outside to watch 4 “periods” (5-8) of practice:
Joe Schad of ESPN interviews Ryan Van Bergen
Fred Jackson coaching up the backs
Calvin Magee works with the backs as well
Denard Robinson warms up. Rodriguez admitted that they’ll be doing “different things” with #16, “moving him around.” RR hinted that this would be at WR.
The guys wearing blue are the defense. Here the corners working on getting low.
That’s Ricky Leach (holding his lucky blue jacket) along with some former players.
