College Football News opined this morning on the possibility that Jim Harbaugh, who was named the next Stanford head coach this week, could be a candidate for the Michigan head football job after Lloyd Carr decides to pack it in. Here’s the take: Obviously it is too soon to really start speculating, but do you see Jim Harbaugh as a candidate to replace Lloyd Carr at Michigan when he eventually retires? – KH A: Just like everyone wanted to see Steve Alford become the main man at Indiana, Michigan fans are going to be all over Harbaugh if he has any success at Stanford. Let’s wait a little bit before kicking out Carr, like you suggested, and let’s also wait to see if old No. 4 can handle himself at the never [sic] level. The Michigan job, whenever it opens up, will be one of the premier gigs in all of coaching, college or pro. There’ll be a who’s who of candidates fighting for the job. This won’t be Alabama; the big boys will be lining up. Memo to CFN: I don’t think the email said anything about kicking Lloyd Carr out! How did “after Lloyd Carr decides to pack it in” become a boot out the door? God the national media loves to talk about how Michigan fans want…
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Piling On
The biggest cliche during week one of the bowl season was to dog Oregon’s uniforms. Fine, here you go:
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Russell Crowe Calls Schembechler Hall
Many know that Coach Carr selects a book or movie each year as the theme to motivate the Wolverine players. Funny, because you only really learn what Carr’s choice was when the team has a good season. I remember back in 1997 there was a lot of talk about Carr’s choice of the mountain climbing epic Into Thin Air, and this season there’s been just as much talk about Cinderella Man. Well, apparently word of this year’s theme made it to Hollywood, and perhaps as far as Australia, as the star of Cinderella Man Russell Crowe got wind of Carr’s choice and decided to give Coach Lloyd a call over at Schembechler Hall. Check out this excerpt from the Detroit Free Press: So Carr walked into his office one day a few weeks ago and passed the football executive assistant. Nothing unusual about that, except on this day she said: “Oh, and Russell Crowe is going to be calling you.” “Oh, sure,” he replied. Sure enough, Carr’s phone rang. Crowe was on the line. “We had a great conversation,” Carr said Thursday. “We talked for 20 minutes. Of course, when he called, I was not expecting a call from Russell Crowe. I told him how much I enjoyed the film, and he did say that it was one of the…
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Copy of Bo Headline
I got some requests to see the BO DEAD headline in the Ann Arbor News which has got so much heat. Click here to see it.
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Harbaugh Named Stanford Coach
Former Michigan All America quarterback Jim Harbaugh has been elevated to the big time, he’s going to coach in the Pac 10 at Stanford. He’ll have his work cut out for him as departing coach Walt Harris has left him with the team that went 1-11, and only one of the losses was even close. I noticed that the Stanford editorial staff isn’t quite on the ball, stating that Harbaugh was scheduled to “meet the media Tuesday at 2 pm, PDT.” Pacific Daylight Time? Gang, we switched over to Standard time several weeks ago. If Harbaugh can turn things around at Stanford he’ll quickly jump to the top of list of potential Lloyd Carr successors. Links: San Diego Tribune piece Stanford Football Official Site
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George Karl’s Share
A lot of people are calling for some type of punishment for Isiah Thomas for ‘ordering’ the hard foul that started the Knicks/Nuggets brawl this weekend. While there is a lot of blame to go around, I think George Karl deserves some scrunity for this. There is bad blood between the Knicks (including Thomas)
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The Drunk and Old 98
Here’s a great moment of Michigan Football lore. Were you aware of the showdown between Wolverine legend and Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon and a drunken fan during Michigan’s game at Cal back in 1940. I recently purchased this page out of Life magazine on eBay for $6.50 and it depicts the scene. Additional research yielded some great quotes from the fan, enjoy: There are so many great things about this incident. The guy is just a real classic. After watching this thing and picturing Brennan giving the interview for Life magazine, you end up wishing he actually did bring Harmon down. I love that Harmon had to make a little move and apply a stiff arm to shed the pickled Brennan. The beauty of it is that Brennan, in his mind, feels like he actually did tackle Harmon, first saying he almost did, then he changes his tune by saying no Cal player tackled #98 all day but “I did.” This guy is a national treasure. I tracked down some more info on the game here, turns out Harmon called it a day before the first half even ended. The fact that Life took the pains to put this pictorial together is great as well [a 1940s version of YouTube], and their caption writer deserves major props, “..Brennan sinks…
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Onion Sports: Bowl Game Gifts
I grabbed a copy of the fake news newspaper, The Onion, while in Minneapolis this week. There were some real classic articles in the Onion Sports section. Check out some lines from an Onion “Sportsgraphic”, higlighting some of the gifts that are awarded to this year’s bowl participants: Sugar Bowl: In keeping with college-football tradition, Notre Dame and LSU will receive different gifts of equivalent value: Each Notre Dame player will receive a 2007 Saturn Sky roadster, a PlayStation 3, and a video iPod; the LSU team will receive an autographed football signed by the entire 2006 Notre Dame Squad. Liberty Bowl: Upon satisfactory conclusion of the game, participants will be given the most precious gift of all—–liberty. Rose Bowl: USC and Michigan players will follow trails of rose petals to their locker rooms. Upon entering the changing area, they will find the rooms lit by the flames of 1,000 red candles and filled with string-quartet music and hundreds of bouquets of roses; both teams will then slowly begin tearing up as bowl officals present them with engagement rings.
