Quick thoughts: – Ugly loss, Morgan Trent was worked over all day and night. – Booty looked very good and the receivers for USC were too much. – – You expect to see a couple drops; I don’t think they had any. – In relation to the pressure on Lloyd Carr, Musburger and Herbstreit must have mentioned “the bloggers” 4 or 5 times during the fourth quarter. Musburger (in-)correctly noted that Bill Martin has a great relationship with Lloyd Carr. That said, Coach Carr isn’t under any kind of pressure from the University, I guarantee you that. And no pressure is coming from this blog. – This hurts quite a bit. Looking back to this time last year, Michigan was coming off one of the worst years in recent history and rebounded to be in the conversation for the BCS title game up until today. A win would have been huge but it doesn’t take away what Michigan accomplished the rest of the season.
-
-
Beef Bowl Blunder
MVictors.com continued its battle for accuracy in journalism today, correcting a statement in a Detroit Free Press piece on the 2006 Lawry’s Beef Bowl, the annual meat-a-thon held before several bowl games. In his Thursday piece, Shawn Windsor wrote that Michigan “gorged itself on 612 pounds of meat, roughly 100 pounds more than the team devoured two years ago”. According to our records, Michigan actually consumed 630 pounds of beef in 2004, so they actually ate less this year. We contacted Windsor who cited his source by stating “Lawry’s told me Michigan ate more than two years ago. I guess they don’t know how to count their own beef.”
-
Wall Street Journal on Taxes & Stadium Renovation
Wednesday’s [12/27/06] Wall Street Journal featured a piece in its Marketplace section titled “Tax Breaks for Skyboxes” [full article here]. The article by Daniel Golden focused on convertroversy around tax breaks that the donors receive for leasing the boxes from universities and it focused on the biggest of the recent college renovation plans: The Big House. Here’s an interesting quote from U of M regent Laurence Deitch, although I’m not sure what this has to do with taxes: Opponents of Michigan’s renovation doubt the university will find enough customers for its luxury suites, where alcohol will be banned. “Why pay a whole bunch of money, drive up to Ann Arbor, sit behind a glass wall and not be able to get a beer,” says Laurence Deitch, one of two regents on the university’s eight-member board who voted against the plan last month. “I think I’d stay home.”
-
Lawry’s Beef Bowl Today
Today is the annual Rose Bowl tradition, the Lawry’s Beef Bowl, where the 2 teams square-off in a competition to eat the most beef. Over/under on Michigan’s beef consumption: 615 pounds. Line: Michigan favored by 40 pounds of beef. Rationale? It is well known that the Wolverines take these little bowl competitions pretty seriously so they’ll be going right after it. Also, I have to imagine that the Californianess of USC will result in a few more vegetarian Nancy boys on the Trojan side of the table. Go Blue!
-
Gerald Ford, Michigan Man
We all learned this morning that President Ford died yesterday at the age of 93. Many know of his ties to the University of Michigan and of course to some of the great Michigan football teams of the 1930s led by Harry Kipke. The above photo was taken from the 1934 team photo, Ford was starting center on that squad.
-
eBay Watch: 1915 Cornell Program
Here’s a real nice item that is being auctioned on eBay. It’s pre-World War I Michigan vs. Cornell program from the game that was held on November 6, 1915 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. It looks like a real beauty. The only problem? The dude selling the program set the opening bid price at $2,499.00. Say what? No surprise as the auction is about to end and there are no bids. Here’s what we know about the game.
-
Bungle in the Bruin Jungle
What an embarrassment yesterday as Michigan got completely destroyed by #1 UCLA. Was I expecting a win? No way. But you had to expect a little more than this. It was basically garbage time with 10 minutes to go. Good coaches don’t get crushed like that, I’m sorry. Thirty Seven points? Unacceptable!! I’d rather watch Desmond Howard breaking down the Holiday Bowl than suffer through the second half of that game again. The good news? It appears as though the football team, which has arrived in LA, didn’t have to watch this debacle and risk infection. From the LA Times: No special outings were planned, and the team did not expect to attend the UCLA-Michigan basketball game at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. “We’ve got about 120 players,” spokesman David Ablauf said. “I don’t think there are enough UCLA season-ticket holders who would give us their seats.”
-
Desmond Howard’s Holiday Bowl
UPDATE 12/22: This really isn’t going away. The nerd-o-sphere is all over Howard (rightly so). Check out these comments from one of the top blogs, Deadspin
