• Eastern Michigan Post Game notes

    Another nice win as Michigan pulls away in the second half to take down Ron English and the EMU Eagles.  Tip of the hat to English whose squad put together a gutty first half and played hard throughout.   It’s easy to forget about the giant holes in our defensive line when guys are sprinting for touchdowns right and left (or north and south I guess), but it remains a concern.  Miscellanea: QB Depth:  As Tate Forcier lay flat on the ground with his face in the turf, visions of sugar plums and roses (which remain on the far right of the possible season outcome continuum) got a bit blurred.  Denard’s two poor passes over the middle show he’s not ready to be the quarterback of this team and that’s not a shock.  Big things could happen with Forcier at the helm but if he goes down and Robinson is inserted, we become a better team than 2008 but not much more. Speed:  There are many reasons to be giddy about this season, but we’re seeing that promise of speed with three demonstrations that are on par with any burst we’ve seen in years, maybe since Steve Breaston in the 2005 Rose Bowl.  Consider (I’m going to collect these like when fans put up K’s at baseball games): Robinson’s fumble-turned-touchdown run…

  • More Cowbell, Coach!

    With Coach Beilein out with an inner ear infection, fortunately a few other coaches filled the void at the Eastern Michigan hoops game this afternoon: Wife Laurie trying to help Coach Carr out with the rhythm on the cowbell. Coach Rodriguez takes a break from the recruiting trail BTN in HD was not designed for Coach Keady Related: – Game Recap from UM Hoops

  • Leachapalooza: The Best of Rick Leach (WTKA 12/9)

    I waded through the audio of Rick Leach in studio at WTKA 1050AM this week and boiled it down to a eleven noteworthy clips, each about a minute, give or take. You can download all the clips here for your 2009 road trip and tailgate mixtapes. Here you go. Be patient, the clips need to download for you to hear them. Oh, and is it me, or does Leach have a borderline WWE voice? On the Les Miles hire and some of the “garbage” that went on: When Don Nehlen called Leach and what that meant to him: Contrasting Michael Rosenberg’s perspective, on how Bo would support Rodriguez: Click here for the rest of the clips:

  • Carr Reacts to Leach comments (kind of)

    Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News dropped into Lloyd Carr’s office in Wiedenbach Hall this week and tried to get your former coach to bite. He didn’t. Of note: Former Michigan quarterback Rick Leach said early in the week on an Ann Arbor radio station, in response to a question about Carr, that he wishes the former coach would come out publicly to support Rodriguez. “As far as I know, there’s been no comment, nothing come out publicly to support him, and to me, and I guess since I speak my mind, my feeling is, I guess silence speaks 1,000 words,” Leach said. “I wish he would, because many people came to his side when he needed help.” [Ed: Here’s the audio:] Carr, however, said he made his intentions clear from the beginning. “I’ve talked with Rich several times, and I told him I would not be making any comments publicly because I didn’t want to have anything that I said be misconstrued,” Carr said. “However, I told him if he ever needed me, I was available. I would be there. “And he made it clear that I was always welcome. I think our relationship has been very positive.” To the folks who insist Lloyd Carr come out and say something: What exactly is he supposed to say? That he…

  • Lloyd Carr Chuckled at this

    Thanks to an October 25, 2007 post on the NY Times sports blog The Quad, we know that Lloyd Carr is a big fan NYT opinion columnist Maureen Dowd. It prompted me to write this post which included this spicy meatball: Well, if Carr isn’t too busy with consulting on the Eastern Michigan coaching search, he read Dowd’s column on Saturday. She was filling in for fellow columnist Frank Rich and scribed a piece on the state of the print news industry, in particular, the trend that some papers are firing staff and outsourcing their news to India. Seriously. Paying by the article, one thousand words for $7.50. Dowd found James Macpherson, the man who runs Pasadena Now, an online news site covering the town where you want to be each January first. Here’s a snip: So, he thought, “Where can I get people who can write the word for less?” In a move that sounded so preposterous it became a Stephen Colbert skit, he put an ad on Craigslist for Indian reporters and got a flood of responses. He fired his seven Pasadena staffers — including five reporters — who were making $600 to $800 a week, and now he and his wife direct six employees all over India on how to write news and features, using telephones, e-mail,…

  • Angel on WDFN: Players asked for 4-man front (audio)

    The Angel, back on Shep, Shave and Shower on 1130AM-WDFN this morning: Notes: * Angel said Brandon Graham went to the coaches and requested they run the four man front. * Talked about the significance of the Little Brown Jug before and after the game to Rodriguez and drew some comparisons to how Carr treated it (thank you). * A caller bitched about the late hit on Odoms. Chengelis agreed it was a late hit and said Odoms should be ready this weekend. * Said Threet has a shot at getting back Saturday? * On Minor, Rodriguez said he’s dealing with a bunch of nagging injuries. Angel thinks Minor will be on the shelf this weekend. Elsewhere: Don’t miss Jim Carty, Esquire on WTKA 1050AM this morning.