I caught up with Michigan head Soccer coach Steve Burns on the field prior to the Wisconsin game in anticipation of the huge NCAA battle against Central Florida on Sunday. Dig it: MVictors: You’ve got Central Florida tomorrow and you went down and scouted them this week. What opportunities do you see and what worries you? Burns: They are a talented team. It was good to see them because they are a lot better than I thought they were going to be. Their strength is in their midfield–they run a 4-5-1. I think the biggest thing is that they’re a team that’s not going to beat themselves, meaning they’ve got discipline and they play within themselves. We’ve got to go out and beat them. It’s going to be a good game. MVictors: I understand that tickets are scarce (for Sunday). What kind of crowd do you expect tomorrow? Burns: It could be upwards of 4,000. The chairback seats sold out in about two hours and I’ve had a lot of requests for tickets. I went out and bought 50 tickets and..I’m out, I’m out! [laughs]. MVictors: What’s going to happen tomorrow? Burns: Well I’m hoping that it’s not like this [gesturing to the sunny sky]. I’m hoping that it’s gray, rainy and bitter. I don’t think it’s going to be…
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Not Fun
Wisconsin 48, Michigan 28. That’s former Michigan center Stevie Everitt on the sideline near the end of the game—not pleased, not really looking too patient either. That’s me too.
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Wisconsin (Pregame Photos)
A few from pregame down on the field. The crew from Slippery Rock – they got a huge welcome from the crowd: I don’t have any audio but trust me, it sounded like exactly like this: “Wooooooooooo!” Ladies Field Hockey champions, the “Woo” girls The other champs—here’s Men’s soccer team captain Alex Wood with their new hardware: Troy Woolfolk looking well; walking around Ball! Ball! Ball! This is your AD Dave Brandon, chatting with a few students about the new lights and the test he did this week. Always a great performance by the drum major – here with the leap.
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Senior Day Photos
A few from Senior Day before the game. Obi: Moundros looked like he teared up a bit: James Rogers: Webb:
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This Week in Michigan Football History: The Student becomes The Master (1976 Ohio State)
Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before tomorrow’s battle against the Badgers. This time we look back to 1976, as Bo was set to face off with Woody Hayes in the 8th battle of their 10 Year War. Here’s the audio and it’s deeply laced with the voice of the great Bob Ufer and I love it: [display_podcast] A hat tip to the great WolverineHistorian who compiled this collection of clips with Bob Ufer calls overlaid. Watching Rob Lytle fly out of the backfield and break off those big chunks of years is a quite a spectacle: The sponsor of This Week…is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.
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Light ‘em Up
I got an email this morning from reader David D. who tipped me that it appeared as though the permanent lights were going up already. Brandon indicated earlier that the project would start after the Wisconsin game to have them ready for The Big Chill. Per Dave Ablauf of U-M Media relations, they have indeed started the project and don’t blink, they’ll be in and done by Saturday: “The permanent lights are in the process of being installed and will be in prior to this weekend’s game with Wisconsin.” That’s fast! I think most fans are ok with the concept of permanent lights but I’m sure there’ll be some reaction on the aesthetics once they are in place.
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Toasting Crazy Legs Hirsch (1943)
Have a look at this can of Old Style beer featuring the great Elroy ‘Crazylegs’ Hirsch of Wisconsin.
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Fourth equals Third
Everyone right now (both ESPN folks, CFN, CBS) is projecting Michigan to the Insight Bowl. The key here is the Big Ten putting a second team into the BCS (which Michigan has a lot to say about). But there’s one thing I’m guessing all the prognosticators are missing. As I found out earlier this year, the Gator Bowl and Insight Bowl share the third and fourth pick of the non-BCS Big Ten teams: The Gator Bowl will share, with the Insight Bowl, the third and fourth pick in the Big Ten Conference after the BCS. The Gator Bowl and the Insight Bowl will each submit, to the Big Ten Conference, their team selection…Should each Bowl desire the same team, the selection order will be decided by the flip of a coin.. [from the Gator Bowl press release distributed to U-M media] I think most projectionators are still assuming that the Gator gets pick #3. That’s false. All these sources above assume two Big Ten teams will make the BCS and it’ll come down to Michigan and Penn State for those third and fourth spots. Assuming Penn State is the team of choice (JoePa’s last game, beat Michigan, etc.), then it’s likely both bowls will select the Nittany Lions it will come down to the coin toss to determine who gets…
