Excellent observations from today’s practice from ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg [who’s got a bit of Jared from Subway in his blood] on his blog post here. He notes that Kevin Grady practiced with the team and here are a few more highlights: * Feagin’s speed is immediately noticeable, and he looked comfortable running some of the basic option pitches and throws in the spread offense. My guess is he’ll be used to run some option this fall. * Freshman Michael Shaw seemed to be getting a lot of work at wide receiver. It’s a little weird to see No. 20 in maize and blue who isn’t Mike Hart. * Walking through Michigan’s weight room on the way out, I stopped to check out the team-high totals for several categories. Johnson tops the bench-press chart at 500 pounds, Taylor squatted a team-best 625 pounds and cornerback Morgan Trent ran a 4.13 in the 40-yard dash. There was also a Barwis mention of course. Look dudes, I realize that all the attention is great for the program and recruiting and all, and it’s cool to have this guy here. And I’m as guilty as anyone for deifying Barwis, I even followed him around at the spring game in Saline (it was awesome). I’m glad to see I’m not the only one getting a…
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On the Meyer Morton Award
The coaches did a nice thing at the start of the spring game on Saturday: they recognized the annual spring award winners. One of those presented was the Meyer Morton Award which went to senior Will Johnson. Here’s more from the official site, with the history of the winners and some history: The Meyer Morton Award, established by the ‘M’ Club of Chicago in 1925, is given to the football player who shows the greatest development and most promise as a result of the annual spring practice. Morton, a 1912 Michigan graduate, was a lawyer in Chicago from 1915-48 and served as a Big Ten football official for 23 years. This is the oldest individual award given by the football program and its winners include the late Gerald Ford. I actually found this pic of Ford with the award (1932) when researching a post after his death: You may have picked up this mention on the great mgoblog within Brian’s spring practice post today: Will Johnson won kind of a weird award for a fifth-year senior and returning starter to pick up. Brian’s right. It’s a little weird for a 5th year senior to be getting this award. I’m still digging for the reference, but I’m 90% sure I read somewhere that this honored was originally reserved for underclassman. Take…
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2008-09 BCS Bowl Projections? Here you go…
for all bowl projections, visit this site.
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M Football Returns: Spring Game 2007
The gates of the Big House opened in 2007 for this year’s version of the Spring Football game. This is the first of three pre-season events leading up to the football season, the other two being the ‘Fan Day’ typically in August and of course the Appalachian State dress rehearsal on September 1. Many know that the format in year’s past was more of an organized practice with a few snaps of live action. They actually introduced more team play this year with the Blue (offense) taking on the White (defense) in real snaps just a few minutes after warming up. They created some type of scoring system for the defense as well but they failed to explain to the 10,000 on hand how the white team scoring actually worked. Anyway, I liked the format and it allowed for a lot of action as opposed to a bunch of practice drills.
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Spring Practice Update: Butler Booted!!
Make the pain go away! Coach Carr kicked three players off the squad for showing up in the A2 police blotter including the sure-handed, athletic TE Carson Butler. This hurts. Butler did a great job filling in for Tyler Ecker in 2006 and made some really nice plays. He’ll be missed. On top of this, Carr didn’t go as far as booting WR Adrian Arrington off the team, but he’s not allowed to participate this spring and it isn’t clear whether he’ll be back in the fall. What else? Well, Mike Hart isn’t playing and is walking around in an arm sling to rest some type of shoulder procedure.
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Michigan Fan Day 2006
Michigan Football opens the gates again for fans in 2006 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN AUGUST 26, 2006 The Michigan Stadium gates swung open once again this year to allow the fans to meet the 2006 Wolverine coaches and players. We enjoyed the 90 minute warm embrace of the Michigan athletic department Saturday morning along with around 5,000 others. After last year’s logistical debacle they made some intelligent changes with the layout. By putting the players outside the stadium near the concession stands, they made better use of the space. They had freshman on the actual playing field which allowed more room for the kids to run around on the field and enjoy the day. I got to see my new seats in Section 38 – a very nice improvement. Also, we saw the results of some of the infrastructure renovation. They poured new cement in most of the stadium and stamped the row number in large print. Lew and Penny joined Abby and I for an hour or so as we toured around. Abby Dooley is under the impression that we attended an actual game and that Michigan won thanks in part to her efforts.
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Michigan Football Preview 2006
What you need to know about this squad SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 10, 2006 Expectations are high once again for Michigan. Here’s this season’s look at the upcoming season and this team. – Last Season. Obviously this was ugly, and 2005 will be looked at as the worst season since the early 80s. Michigan could have won every game on the schedule and had significant leads in every game, blowing it five times in losses to Notre Dame, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl. And the wins didn’t come easier either, with Michigan winning on the last play of the game against Michigan State in DB13 (OT), Penn State and Iowa (OT). While it is the worst season since I entered the U of M campus in the Fall of 1989, it probably featured the most exciting games. – Sun Belt Refs. Speaking of exciting, the Alamo Bowl all in all was quite a ride. The pathetic crew of referees from the Sun Belt conference that lost control of the game are a running joke in town. Check this out, the Sun Belt conference even produced a full report to rebut the hammering they took in the national media [check it out]. These guys were so clueless. – Last Play of the Season. I captured the diagram…
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2006 Football Tickets Arrive
AUGUST 5, 2006 I received my season tickets today, and this is always a fun day for me. There were some major changes to the ticket format. First, the tickets are about 50% bigger than in the previous designs. Second, they put a new advertiser on the back of each game. Third, this year’s tickets are barcoded. The final change is the gloss. While the tickets are of high quality the borders of the tickets seem to be in a shade of purple or gold, depending on the game. This couldn’t have been the plan!