Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is a Schembechler-era savant and once again he’ll be diligently handing out his postgame helmet stickers after each game. Sap has pored over hours and hours of U-M games over several decades, and in these posts he’s able to tie the present to the past. I encourage you to subscribe to Dr. Sap on YouTube, or follow Sap on Twitter:
By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis
I’m still on cloud nine after today – and it wasn’t the fact that Michigan responded with a decisive win. I’ll explain my euphoric state shortly, but first things, first – let’s award some helmet stickers!
OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – If Bo Schembechler were still around, he would have said that, “Michigan played like Michigan, today!” The old coach would have been right, once again.
The offense looked sharp, decisive and confident. None more than the QB, Shea Patterson, in my opinion. Not only did he throw three TD’s, he displayed tremendous ball accuracy & placement with his throws and he looked much more comfortable running the offense this week against Western Michigan. I get it, WMU is no ND, but Bo always said that a TEAM improves the most from the first game to the second and that sure was the case today. It was great to see #2 put the ball right on the money on almost all his throws today. I have a feeling he’s only going to get better!
DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – I thought the interception by Noah Furbush came at a critical time when Western Michigan had a chance to keep the game close. Instead, his pick set up another Michigan score that put the Wolverines up, 21-0 and that was the ballgame. You can “Solve Your Problems With Agression,” as well as making timely interceptions! Well done #59 – helmet sticker for you!
SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION – It may sound strange, but I’m gonna go with kickoff specialist, Jake Moody. Every single one of his kickoffs was a 1970s aluminum beer can – non-returnable (that was before the 10 cent deposit came into play). You can never under estimate the value and importance of consistently kicking the ball deep on kickoffs and not allowing your opponent to have momentum swing in their favor by returning one the distance, like Michigan did last week against Notre Dame. Making your opponent drive 75 yards to score against Don Brown’s Dudes is an uphill climb, to be sure!
THE BANNER – On Saturday, I had the distinct privilege and honor (along with Seth Fisher from MGoBlog) of holding up the coveted M GO BLUE M CLUB banner. It was amazing and a thrill I will never forget! The adrenaline I had running on to the field to prop up the banner was incredible! The band was playing, the crowd of over 110,000 was roaring and there I was at midfield setting up the banner! The banner that Woody Hayes and company tore down in 1973 and tried unsuccessfully to do it again in 1977. The banner that Charles Woodson and that national championship team ran under in 1997. THAT banner!
Twenty years ago I was there when, before the Syracuse game of 1998, the banner was stolen and the M-Men had to run under a make-shift blue nylon sheet. So to be there at Michigan Stadium on Saturday and help hold up the banner was just…AWESOME!!! It was great to see the M Club Banner Crew members spring into action and get things going when we got our queue to take the field. But a couple of unforeseen obstacles had to be over come by the group before the football team came roaring out of the tunnel.
For those of you who were there on Saturday, while it might have initially looked chaotic [Ed. Yes, it did Sap!], things were under control. First off, the banner was not folded up the night before by the M Club Banner Crew in the manner it was supposed to be. That resulted in a different disposition of the banner when it was unfurled.
Once that was resolved, the banner crew looked to orient the poles in their customary locations. That was where the second issue arose. Because the stadium had new field-turf installed this summer, the block M seemed to be different in size. This caused the customary landmarks for pole-placement to be off. Once the banner crew recognized that difference, adjustments were made and the banner was fully upright and ready for the Wolverines to take the field.
Next thing I knew, the maize and blue came roaring past me to jump up and slap the banner – the beacon of Michigan Football – that I was now holding up. Soo cool!
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