A big win in Happy Valley for the Wolverines and for the first time since 1997, Michigan has won ALL of their B1G Road Games – can you believe that? That shows you the type of effort involved and how special this team is. Speaking of Special – let’s take a look at your Champions. SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION – Most of the time, Special Teams will flip the field with a long punt. Saturday, Jourdan Lewis not only flipped the field, he flipped momentum in the game at a most critical time. While Penn State settled for a field goal to make it a 5-point game midway through the 4th quarter, Lewis’s 55-yard kickoff return set the table for Michigan to ice the game. While the Wolverines’ Special Teams were not exactly stellar all game, this return erased the block punt earlier in the contest and provided a much-needed spark. OFFENSIVE TEAM CHAMPION – Jake Rudock is the man! Plain and simple. We are seeing now, what Jim Harbaugh saw in #15 months ago. Calm. Cool. Accurate. Heady. Sure, he fumbled and threw a pick when he locked onto a receiver in the game, but he is starting to play Brian Griese-esque. He makes good decisions and my gosh is he accurate! I’m not saying he is flawless but “Dad” as the…
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It’s On!
Remember, we re- retire all these jerseys next Saturday and officially retire Desmond’s #21: Refresher course. My spies tell me the families were invited to come next week, too. https://t.co/O1bWuweh4d — MVictors (@MVictors) November 22, 2015
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Finding room in Michigan Football’s Valhalla
I had the pleasure to write today’s #MichiganComic for Scott and the illustrious ‘The Blockhams’ series. Thanks for the opp, Scott! Follow The Blockhams on Twitter
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Everitt’s Bandana
Awesome piece in cleveland.com on my man Steve Everitt including this pic of Bo’s visit to Key West to see the big man in 2003. (HT: @moesportshops). Slice: Everitt heard Schembechler was coming down Key West way for the World Sailfish Championship Tournament. “I asked if he wanted to come by the house figuring he’d say no,” Everitt said, laughing. “He said yes.” Amy Everitt, Michigan Class of ’93, got the camera out and started snapping pictures. Steve felt a little sheepish so he kept telling her that was enough. But now, nine years after the legendary coach’s death, Everitt says, “I wish she would’ve taken 1,000 pictures.” She stopped well short of that, but not before getting one of Schembechler in what Everitt describes as “my Michigan bathroom.” Everitt remembers one pose in particular: Schembechler sitting on a closed toilet, playing Everitt’s “KISS” pinball machine, a metal-legged survivor of Hurricane Wilma. Therein you’ll find several more reasons why EVERITT RULES. Go Blue! Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Making a Stand (1993)
A new video from the Dr. Sap archives – 1993 Penn State goal line stand: Go Blue! Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Smitty Loses His Lunch | Storytime with Dr. Sap
[Ed. You already know that quarterback Steve Smith anchors the offense on the Schembechler All-Bovember team, but I bet you didn’t know this tale!] By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis A few years ago (my gosh, as I write this I realize it was almost 20 years ago!) I met former Michigan quarterback Steve Smith at a card signing. Smitty was one of my favorite Michigan players growing up because he could do it all from the QB position. He could run – he had 4.5 speed in the 40 – and he could throw. He was THE #16 before Shoelace wore #16. After his playing days as a Wolverine, Smith opted for the Canadian Football League because most NFL teams viewed Smith as too short to play QB at the next level. Not wanting to switch positions, Smith signed with the Montreal Concordes (formally the Alouettes) of the CFL in 1984. But Nebraska’s Turner Gill also signed with Montreal and Smith ended up being the #2 QB in Montreal behind Gill. Now mind you, just because I grew up in Canada, it doesn’t mean I was a diehard CFL fan, quite the opposite. I only followed former Michigan players if they came to play football in the Great White North, eh? As I chatted with Smith about his playing days…
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Sights & Sounds: Michigan 48, Indiana 41 (2 OT)
via mgoblue.com Heading into the season we figured Harbaugh was the answer but that he needed time. We hoped that time would be short, even just maybe something would happen this year. We hoped that under his tutelage, a quarterback would emerge to lead this team. And we hoped somehow we’d muster a running game and the defense would come together. So here we are in mid-November with much on the line and with the events of the past few weeks—very hopeful. Rudock looked like a different cat out there, with a new level of confidence and toughness. At times he looked a bit like a young coach Harbaugh himself with the fierce runs on third down and balls to fire the pigskin over the middle. And as Sap said, the passing game is starting to click. The concerns for these 2 weeks are obvious. A winless in B1G team in IU won the line of scrimmage and the “yeah but Glasgow” excuse turned into this. We still couldn’t really run the ball and in space the first “man”, meaning mainly an Indiana 19 year old kid, took us down. The penalties were horrible. The linebackers were ineffective at best. We missed a bunch of tackles. But you are hopeful, aren’t you? Despite all that stuff Michigan is a really…
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Double OT Hoosier Champions | Dr Sap’s Decals
WoW – what a finish! Take the W and get out of Bloomington. A win is a win. Now it’s onward – to your Champions. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – When things start to click, your game becomes one with your teammates. Plays that weren’t being made before, suddenly look like old hat. Jake Rudock is starting to click, but more importantly, he’s clicking with Jehu Chesson. That deep threat wasn’t there earlier in the season, but in these last two games, especially against Indiana, Jake Rudock to Jehu Chesson has been money. The two had record-setting performances Saturday night and it’s a perfect time in the season for this to happen. The threat of a deep passing game can only help the Michigan offense these next two games. Jake to Jehu – sounds much like another great Michigan QB to WR combination: Benny (Friedman) to Bennie (Oosterbaan). DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Playing against a spread offense like IU only brings out the worst in your defense. It exposes lack of depth. It exposes poor tackling in open space. It’s never a pretty picture on D. As the game wore on, and as IU’s Jordan Howard kept ripping off huge run after huge run, I wasn’t going to select a Champion on defense. It just felt as if I would be rewarding the…
