Young Ben McCready with a gift from his godfather, namesake and then-U-M coach Bennie Oosterbaan. It’s the gameball from the 1958 Minnesota Little Brown Jug game & was a Christmas gift. For Michigan historians Saturday’s game holds special significance. Bennie Oosterbaan, arguably the greatest athlete in U-M history will be honored. He was the first football man to have his jersey retired (#47) and against Air Force, he will be the first to have a Michigan jersey “unretired”. Oosterbaan’s exploits on the field are well known: a three time All-American in football, a two time All-American in basketball, and a Big Ten batting title champion in baseball. The Muskegon native turned down offers to play professionally and instead chose a different path: a life dedicated to coaching U-M students in each of the sports in which he dominated. He coached all three sports at one time another, the highlight being when he led Michigan to the 1948 football national championship. After his coaching days he remained an administrator with the athletic department until he retired in 1972. Over the past year I’ve gotten to know Ben McCready, the godson and namesake of the great Oosterbaan. He’ll be there Saturday when his godfather is honored. McCready was kind enough to share some insight on how the “unretirement” came to be, his…
-
-
Michigan AP Poll–Week 2
I hate polls. I love data. Here’s the AP poll results for Michigan thanks to pollspeak.com’s coveted Poll Stalker tool. Your boy Bob Asmussen, who had Michigan at #1 last week, dropped the Wolverines to #13. AnnArbor.com’s columnist Kyle Meinke has M at 17. Four writers dropped the maize and blue right out of the polls after reading the Spartan in-game tweets. Click here to see the full report
-
Bad Juju…Get off Me
How do I properly destroy these JerryWorld turf pellets that made the trip back to Ann Arbor? Follow MVictors on Twitter Alabama-Michigan posts: His World The Decal Club Brady Hoke – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript Nick Saban – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript Hammered (Alabama Postgame Pics from Dallas) It’s Been a Tad While Since.. Inside Jerry World: Alabama Pregame Photos Helmet Numbers 2.0 Avoid The Bammer
-
His World
By popular demand…Jerry Jones pregame: Follow MVictors on Twitter The Decal Club (Finding the bright spots Saturday night) Brady Hoke – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript Nick Saban – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript It’s Been a Tad While Since.. Inside Jerry World: Alabama Pregame Photos Helmet Numbers 2.0 Avoid The Bammer TWIMFbH: Punching a Ticket to Football’s Valhalla (1995) Fitz and Frank Stay Home (Official Statement)
-
The Decal Club
You probably recall that Michigan uniform aficionado Dr. Steve Sapardanis covered the wonderful Dr. Sap’s Decals in 2011. Prior to the Bama game we agreed to a modified, more focused version of the Decals for 2012 – something more along the lines of Bo’s ‘Victors Club’: Sap also reserved the right to take a pass on awarding this honor based on the performance. His rationale? Sap told me Bo himself would take a pass on occasion, if he didn’t feel it was appropriate based on the team’s performance. So on the heels of Hoke saying, “we didn’t play Michigan football”, we’ll hopefully see Sap next week. That said, I’ll take a shot. Haven’t seen any film beyond the painful SportsCenter reel but here’s my best shot: * Offense: Jeremy Gallon. My break out player for 2012 as suggested in HTTV did not disappoint and seemed to be one of the guys in maize and blue that could hang with Alabama. The guy is a reliable receiver & pretty much brings in the pigskin it is near him. He made everyone forget about the horrific punt handling we saw a couple years back. * Defense: Jordan Kovacs. On defense, he was far from perfect but he made some nice solo tackles. Played like a captain. * Special Teams: Will Hagerup. Easy…
-
Brady Hoke – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript
For your files. COACH HOKE: Obviously, we didn’t play Michigan football, and that is something that bothers our team, bothers the coaches. I don’t think we played tackle well enough on defense. Didn’t control the line of scrimmage enough offensively, penalties. I mean, we had a lot of penalties, and that’s usually not like us, so that is bothersome and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of things to correct. Q. Throughout fall camp, you said that this game would be a measuring stick for how your team has progressed throughout fall camp and since you took over as coach. Where’s that measuring stick? COACH HOKE: I would think we’re on the short end of the measuring stick right now. I mean, we’ve got a lot of things that I know we can do better. I’ve seen us do it better, and we’ve got to go back to work. Q. It seems like you guys didn’t run to Denard as much. Was that the game plan tonight? How were you planning to use him?
-
Nick Saban – Alabama Postgame Presser Transcript
For your files: THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Coach Nick Saban, and we’ll start with an opening statement. COACH SABAN: Well, I’m really proud of our team. I thought they did a great job of competing in the game, played with a lot of energy, toughness, very physical. There’s certainly a lot of things that we can improve on. I don’t think there’s one player that could sit in the locker room and tell you now there’s not something that we could work to improve on, and we certainly need to focus on that in the future. But Michigan has a really good team. They’ve got a great quarterback. And I thought our offensive line sort of dominated the line of scrimmage. And we ran the ball effectively. I thought AJ did a good job of getting us in the right place and also making a few effective throws. We need to be a more explosive team in the passing game, which I think we’re capable of, which we need to clean up and improve on. We did a good job on special teams for the most part. So this was really a good team win for us. And the expectation that we have and the standard we want to play to in business or in sports is about who…
-
Hammered (Michigan-Alabama 2012, Postgame Photos)
ust a few photos from the post-game, Michigan-Alabama 2012 from Dallas
