Photo: readers Amy and Jeff It’s been a while, huh? Where the major sources slot the 4-2 Wolverines in the 2008-09 bowls. Don’t book your flight just yet: College Football News/Scout.com: Insight Bowl 12/31/09 vs. Kansas CBS Sports: Champs Sports Bowl 12/29/09 vs. Wake Forest ESPN (Mark Schlabach): Valero Alamo Bowl 1/2/10 vs. Oklahoma State ESPN (Bruce Feldman): Champs Sports Bowl 12/29/09 vs. North Carolina Related: Consolidated BCS Bowl Projections for 2009-2010
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eBay Watch: 1976 Orange Bowl Stub
Next installment of eBay Watch features a somewhat unique piece of memorabilia from the Bo era, a ticket stub from the 1976 Orange Bowl game where Michigan faced Oklahoma. Here ‘s the auction, with a starting bid of $9.99 waiting for a taker, and here’s a snapshot of the stub being auctioned: For what it’s worth, here’s a cleaner version of how the ticket looked thanks to ticketmuseum.com, you can see they got a jump on the bicentennial craze right off the bat (1/1/76): The game holds a historic significance as the first non-Rose Bowl invite in Big Ten history (in the modern era). Under pressure from the Big Ten, much due to the dominance of Michigan and Ohio State over the past few years, the Big Ten decided that teams in the 1975 season would be allowed to play in a post-season game other than the Rose Bowl. The lock at the top by concerned the Big Ten, as these rivals cornered the market on recruiting pitches about bowl games. For Michigan fans, the game pretty much sucked and paled in comparison to the masterpiece put on in the 2000 Orange Bowl by Tom Brady and Alabama. Freshman Ricky Leach and the Wolverines lost 14-6 in a defensive battle struggle dominated by OU’s Selmon brothers, Leroy and Dewey, who…
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BCS Prize in Tatters, It’s Been Shattered
Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators are struggling a bit in 2008. First they suffered the beat down at the hands of your Wolverines in the Capital One Bowl, now this. Turns out there was a little mishap with the Sears Trophy. Yep, their prize for their 2007 BCS Championship win over the Buckeyes has seen better days: From USA Today: It may remain a mystery who actually destroyed the crystal football, which shattered after hitting the ground outside head coach Urban Meyer’s office. Florida has already contacted the company in Kentucky that makes the base of the trophy and imports the crystal from Ireland for a replacement. Florida associate athletic director Chip Howard confirmed the accident. The trophy was sitting on a coffee table outside of Meyer’s office while construction of new coaches’ offices is being completed. “It may remain a mystery”? I’d like to understand a little more behind that line. As if anyone can plop down outside Urban Meyer’s office and kick up their feet on the coffee table? I’m guessing they have a decent idea who broke the trophy. Reaching back on my Clue skills, I’d start with: – Professor Gatorade – In the Coaches’ Lobby – With a Cheerleader.
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Capital One Bowl Fan Pics
A few photos directly from the Michigan fan section at the big game. Thanks to Amy and Jeff who sent over these beauties. I had a great New Years but would have loved to have been there. Enjoy! Update 1/14: Reader Kelly sent over a recap of her experience at the game along with a few more photos. I blended them into the photo gallery above. Here’s her take on the game: It was unreal and I still can believe I got to witness it in person. It was my first bowl game (I came from New Jersey) and a first for my brother and his 8 year old son (they live in Orlando). We grew up in Michigan, and I’m fan because of my brothers influence…to share that time with my nephew and brothers was truly amazing. It was the kind of thing we’ll be telling our grandkids about. The only negative is that I’m afraid my nephew will never attend another game that lives up to what we saw that day! We had some serious nosebleed seats – Section 308 and 6 rows from the top. We were surrounded by Michigan fans, but it seemed like Florida fans where everywhere else. I’m guessing it was about 80% Florida fans and 20% Michigan fans. Two things about the fans…
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Kuselias: “We already have a playoff”
Filling in on ESPN’s Mike Tirico Show was Eric Kuselias, Michigan law school grad. I’ve listened to the guy before and he does a good job, but today he enlightened the audience. He said that he gets annoyed by everyone saying we need a college football playoff. Why? Not because he’s tired of the tired debates. No, the purported MENSA member is bothered by the calls for a playoff because “we already have a playoff. It’s with two teams.” Seriously. I assumed he was kidding at first but he went on with this for a little bit. Gee thanks Dr. Kuselias. In the future, I’ll try to specify a specific number of teams when arguing for the need of a playoff. This reminds me of one of my econ professors at Michigan insisting that people were wrong to suggest that inflation was a bad thing. No, people should be concerned about “unanticipated inflation.” Right.
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More on Capital One; Audio of Carr’s speech
I’m still blown away by the team’s performance on Tuesday. Looking over the highlights and the media coverage it is just amazing. When things fell like they did, with Penn State and Wisconsin locking into their bowls prior to the BCS pairings and Michigan just hanging there and then finally drawing Florida of all teams….I thought it was a good break for Michigan to get a New Year’s Day bowl but a bad one given they’d have to play the likely Heisman winner and the defending national champion. The Gators seemed to be a perfect poison for the struggling Wolverines. You had to be thinking bad thoughts or at least braced for a spanking like fellow blogger CC at Autumn Thunder. The one hope I had coming in was that we’d have a healthy Henne and Hart, and you know good things can happen when those guys are clicking. But still…it was Florida with Tebow and Harvin. Not mention they were playing essentially a home game. The way those guys played despite the mistakes – it was just incredible. Watch the highlights again and watch how hard Arrington is going and how hard the defensive line comes off the ball. Even when Tebow made a play he ended up on his arse. Finally for MVP Henne, talk about putting it…
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Post Capital One Bowl Game, Lloyd Carr (audio – a bit choppy)
Thanks to MLive, the post game press conference from Lloyd Carr: – “Proud of our players, to deal with some of the things they’ve had happen this season…” – “The way things started this sesaon they could have folded. Never did.” – [After the game] “Told the players I loved them. Most importantly, I thanked them.” – [After down 35-31, any doubts?] “I told our kids only we could stop ourselves, which we did a number of times…we got all the time in the world we needed.” – On Arrington’s punishment this summer. Great stuff (midway through the audio, check it out)…Talks about this summer, the punishment of running the steps….says his mother called him every morning to wake him up at 5:30am to make sure he was at the stadium to walk the steps…Carr adds he only asked him to walk steps; Arrington used it as an opportunity to get in better shape. – “There were some sensational catches and Adrian made some of those.” – “I never woke up not wanting to be there” [coaching at Michigan]. – [On his wish for the program] “I hope they win every game…Every time.”
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Live Blog: Michigan vs. Florida Capital One
If you were questioning whether this was a partisan Florida crowd, check out the stands And Carr gives some touching comments at midfield and he’s flanked by wife Laurie. Great stuff; Great win….can’t be happier for the guy and the program. And taking down Urban Meyer and Florida is a big one for the Big Ten. And Tebow scrambled for what seemed to be hours and threw it up high in the air…it looked for a moment like the Gator receiver was open but no. Incomplete and Michigan and the Big Ten win this one. Henne’s the MVP for me. They dose Carr with the cooler. The story of course is Carr but also Michigan giving a glimpse of the future Michigan offense (maybe DeBord trying to keep his job) and the final story line is M overcoming those 4 turnovers. Clock ticks to zero and what a great end to a tough season. Two incomplete passes sets the clock to 2:04 and sets up third and 10. And Trent JUST MISSES and incredible play to pick the ball off. 1:58 – Fourth Down.