Little man with big heart dies at 88Sad news out of Michigan’s Schembechler Hall as 1930s Michigan football player Hercules Renda died yesterday while doing his daily walk at a Pontiac high school track. By all accounts, this was a great guy/ My wife had my copy of Jim Brandstatter’s “Tales from Michigan Stadium” signed by the man. Check out the photo above, I like his style. First off, he signed on the page of the book with his photo, second, he simply signed it “Hercules”.
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Golden Gophers Grift Growler
Little Brown Jug disappears after defensive breakdown SALINE, MICHIGAN OCTOBER 8, 2005 Third and nine, deep in Michigan’s end. The Golden Gophers had run on first and second downs, seemingly content to run out the malfunctioning game clock. Certainly they wouldn’t put the ball on the arm of a back-up quarterback, and would take their chances in overtime. Lloyd Carr acknowledged all of this after the game. Instead of stopping Gary “Love Muscle” Russell, the solid sophomore running back slipped around the right side, up Minnesota’s sideline to the Michigan 13 yard line. Bye, bye Jug. How could this possibly happen? Here’s a few takes on this disaster: – Rushing Gained, Allowed. Michigan only managed 94 rushing yards. The Gophers surrendered 364 to Penn State last week. This wasn’t the fault of Mike Hart, who went over 100. He ran hard; he didn’t have the holes. – King a Homer. Despite Rivas’s tough day, he did drill a 47-yarder in the second quarter. Michigan Stadium public address announcer Howard King had a tough day as well, messing up some calls. On Rivas’s field goal, as the ball was in there air, you could hear King mutter “Come On” urging the ball through the uprights. Assume King forgot to turn off the microphone, but it is nice to know that his…
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Firelloydcarr.us – Website Review
Simple site needs some help, Fails to deliver SALINE, MICHIGAN OCTOBER 5, 2005 As the early season troubles mount, so does the pressure on University of Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr. Certainly the Lloyd Carr haters have been well represented on radio talk shows and message boards for a long time now, but finally someone has pulled together an anti-Lloyd website a’ la fireronzook.com, which was widely publicized during the former Florida coach’s tough times in Gainesville. Here’s a quick review of firelloydcarr.us, which overall is pretty disappointing. Opinions of coach Carr aside, here’s my take on the site: First off, the actual website name. The media don’t often mention the actual domain of the site, so my take is that many assume the site is simply firelloydcarr.com (as opposed to .us). I don’t blame the guy: in the fireronzook craze, a bunch of people probably bought up all the “fireCOACHNAME.com” sites. Someone owns firelloydcarr.com. So, the .us extension is a little troublesome, but he’s doing what he can. The layout is of low quality. It looks like the guy just learned how to publish a website, and his Firelloydcarr.us banner looks as though he discovered the primary colors, and then learned how to add a drop shadow to text. Weak. Maybe a Lloyd Carr bobblehead would be better!…
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MSU Buries Irish, Plants Flag
Above, check out a video of the 2005 MSU flag-planting incident in South Bend Five in a row in South Bend? SALINE, MI SEPTEMBER 18, 2005 A half time you knew this was going to be a classic. Congratulations to the Spartans for an impressive 44-41 win over ND, and now five straight wins against the Irish on the road? Wow. This game sparks a bunch of thoughts. Five thoughts on the game: 1. Five straight in South Bend? My god, what a feat. From the perspective of the Michigan fan, there are few things going on with MSU Football that bring on feelings of envy for those in Ann Arbor. This is certainly one. The Spartan’s dominance over the past decade over the Irish is amazing. It is comparable with Michigan’s dominance over John Cooper’s Ohio State teams. 2. No TD for Irish. For Irish fans grumbling about the play where MSU knocked the ball away on the goal line. It was close, but couldn’t be overturned. Chad Henne was probably in the end zone on first down last week (before fumbling on second down), and that wasn’t even reviewed. My advice: take your beatings like men. 3. Planting the Spartan Flag. For Irish fans concerned that excited Spartan players (see above – #14 should’ve had a V8) took…
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Throw Stuff on Field? You’re Gone (for Good)!
Martin to M Fans: Throw Stuff & You’re Gone ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 Michigan fans threw crap on the field after the refs reversed a couple of calls against the Wolverines in favor of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here’s a note from Bill Martin: During Saturday’s UM/ND football game, a number of objects were thrown onto the field from both student sections. The throwing of objects onto the field is dangerous and unacceptable. A golf ball narrowly missed a reporter on the sidelines, while a photographer was not as lucky. He was hit in the head with a bottle and taken to the hospital. The action of a few has disappointed and embarrassed the entire University community. We will eject any individual throwing objects onto the field. The resulting actions could lead to possible criminal penalties as well as revocation of your right to purchase season football ticket(s). Bill Martin Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
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Irish Prevail over Bumbling Wolverines 2005
First clever ND drive, poor Henne play stop #3 BlueANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 There were certainly a lot of questions going into the annual rematch with Notre Dame. The Irish were coming off a decisive win over ranked Pitt, and Michigan’s defense showed some holes in their win over Northern Illinois. But in one of the most baffling performances in recent times, the Wolverines stepped on themselves leading to their first home loss since 2002. To show you how dumbfounding this game was, check out the table below. To the left, the conventional wisdom on the street before kick-off. To the right, what actually happened during the game. Some of the pre-game hype was validated, but most left you scratching your head: Pre-game conventional wisdom/What Actually happened The game would be a shoot-out. The over/under was just around 60 points.Both offenses struggled for the most part, in the 17-10 score. The Notre Dame win over Pitt was meaningless. On Friday night Pitt lost to Ohio.Notre Dame scored at will against Pitt and moved the ball right down the field in one of the most impressive opening drives witnessed in Michigan stadium (12 plays, no third downs!). That said, the Pitt game wasn’t meaningless – Notre Dame has talent. Notre Dame couldn’t stop Michigan’s brilliant offenseNotre Dame stopped Michigan’s…
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M Downs Northern Illinois, D Struggles
Long run, sustained drives bring memories of 2004ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 Michigan took down a solid Northern Illinois team on Saturday but questions remain on the defensive side. Whether is was coach Bo Schembechler at halftime or talk radio after the game, the word on the street is that the defense does not appear to have the solved the problems that plagued last year’s end of season. On the bright side, the offense looked great, converting when it needed to. You had the feeling Michigan could have ran every play. Freshman Kevin Grady looked good in his Wolverine debut. His acceleration through the holes, and awareness on the field was impressive. Mike Hart still looks strong and M is obviously looking to use him more as a receiver. Surprise punter Ross Ryan looked pretty good; we’ll see where that goes this season. But the missed tackles, assignments, and in some cases, just getting beat by the man across the line (Gabe Watson!), won’t fly this week against Notre Dame. I heard Coach Carr’s press conference immediately following the game. He seemed oblivious to the defensive struggles – telling the press that they shouldn’t expect to keep teams’ offenses completely down anymore. He drastically changed his tune on the weekly Monday call, which they actually held this Monday (Labor…
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The Road Game Blues
Wisconsin Looms; Can M Buck the trend? Wolverines Struggle in first road game each season SALINE, MICHIGAN SEPT 21, 2005 Five seasons in a row Michigan football has headed into its first game on the road undefeated with sights on another national title. 5 straight times the Wolverines have stumbled. That said, heading into the Wisconsin game, Michigan has two positive trends on its side: M has won 6 straight against the Badgers (Lloyd Carr has never lost to Barry Alvarez) and get this: the Wolverines have not lost a Big Ten opener since 1981. Unfortunately, that loss was to the Badgers. Taking it back to 1998, Michigan has actually dropped 6 of 7 road openers. Here the summary: Year Opponent Result 1998 @ Notre Dame Loss – 36-20 1999 @ Syracuse Win – 18-13 2000 @ UCLA Loss – 23-20 2001 @ Washington Loss – 23-18 2002 @ Notre Dame Loss – 25-23 2003 @ Oregon Loss – 31-27 2004 @ Notre Dame Loss – 28-20 There’s no positive spin. This is a team that has and should have national title aspirations and basically they’ve been derailed right off the bat in all of these seasons. If there’s a good side it’s that Michigan has rebounded in these years, winning Big Ten Titles in four of these seasons. The…
