Quoting the great Lew, a legend on this site, everyone needs to chill out a little bit. Venom is being sprayed everywhere and it is getting ridiculous. Scanning the blogs, message boards and talk shows, it seems you have a bone to pick with just about everyone: Lloyd Carr: For not liking Miles and for spinning this whole coach search to not hire Miles. Ok, so maybe he doesn’t like Miles. Since Carr coached with the man and knows him better than any of you ever will, maybe he’s on to something? Either way, if it is even true, all you are accusing Carr of doing is standing up for what he believes in, or in this case, who he doesn’t believe in. Chill out. Bill Martin: For not landing Miles. What should he have done? Secretly sign Miles before Carr even officially retired? Fine, but then he would have been accused of sneaking around and disrupting LSU’s season. Not cool. He asked for permission to speak with Miles after the regular season, that permission was granted. It looks like LSU made sure it wouldn’t happen. That’s not on Martin. Les Miles: For what? For indicating he loved Michigan and hinting he’d be interested in returning? or is it for burning Michigan? Mitch Albom suggested this was all a ruse…
-
-
eBay Watch: M Men sell their Rose Bowl rings?
After all my dogging of former Ohio State players for selling their precious charm pants (which they receive if they beat Michigan) on eBay, look what just showed up in the memorabilia auctions. It’s a 1980 Big Ten and Rose Bowl ring. Often the OSU gold pants auctions hide the name of the original owner; in this case the name is in giant letters on the side of the massive ring: Did this beauty belong to coach Bill McCartney, architect of the McCartney’s Monsters defense as Ufer described them, who was an assistant under Bo Schembechler on that great team? There were no other McCartney’s on the 1980 squad. Did Coach McCartney voluntarily sell his ring? Maybe not. The auction specifies that this is a “RARE salesman sample with all proper markings inside the ring”. Whew…perhaps the integrity of the Michigan coaching staff is preserved! McCartney left Michigan a year later to take over the Colorado head coaching position. He led the Buffaloes to a national championship in 1990 and retired following the 1994 season. Sample or real, this is quite a piece of Michigan history will significant ties to the present. Check out some of the names on the 1980 team and staff: Assistant coaches: Lloyd Carr, Jerry Hanlon, Bill McCartney, Les Miles, Gary Moeller Players: Mike Trgovac, Butch…
-
They Stayed…
Beat the Buckeyes – GO BLUE!
-
Bargain Bin for Bo?
I saw this outside Borders in Ann Arbor last night. On the bargain bin was a paperback copy of the book ‘Tradition’ by Bo Schembechler with Dan Ewald. While its 222 pages lack a lot of written content, the photos are exceptional. And inside the back cover they included a copy of the outstanding Michigan Memories documentary on DVD (“expanded and revised”). So what? It was $4.99! It lists for $40.18 on Amazon.com. Memo to all you latte-sucking Ann Arborites: go pick up a copy! Need more convincing? Check out this incredible shot of the 1902 Wolverines at the Rose Bowl on a trolley ride. Check out coach Fielding Yost at the bottom with his hand on the trolley. The grin on the coach is worth the five spot alone (Click to see full size):
-
Is Saturday Carr’s Last Home Game?
Is Saturday’s showdown the last in the Big House for Lloyd Carr? If so, where does his body of work put him inside the Michigan coaching Valhalla? Definitely somewhere below Yost, Schembechler and Crisler, maybe on par with Kipke and above the rest. It’s tough to compare eras but clearly it is getting harder to win consistently as the years pass. Overall Lloyd Carr has delivered. How will Carr remembered? Many of his critics have pegged Carr a great recruiter but a decent coach who should have competed for more national championships. Carr’s earned some of the criticism and deserves some of the heat for the way things started this year. Yet many if not most M fans will hold a fond place for Carr due to his performance on the field especially the 1997 championship and for his significant work for Mott hospital and other local charities. When he decides to leave Carr deserves to be honored and I’m sure he will. For the stat nerds, Carr is in a winning percentage battle with the man he succeeded, Gary Moeller. Coming into the year Carr (.75839) had a six thousandths of a percentage point lead on Mo (.75833). If Carr loses again this year he’ll dip below Moeller in this metric (and no doubt live the rest of his…
-
To go along with your Michigan lawn gnome
A few items of interest from around the web, here on Wednesday evening before the battle for the Little Brown Jug: – Just posted on mgoblue.com, for sale is a replica commemorative coin that is being used on Novermber 17th as the flip coin for the big game. It features the likeness of Woody on one side, and Bo on the other. Have to assume the Buckeye captain will call ‘Woody’ when the teams meet at midfield but we’ll see. For those who need to add to their collection of knicknacks, and knicknacks. – Frank Deford on NPR this morning, discussing the ridiculous nature of the college bowl system: “No fair or rational system can choose just two teams to play for the title. ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is a more genuine athletic competition.” – Earlier this week Mgoblog on Lloyd Carr: Carr has once again picked his charges up off the mat and driven them towards respectability. We can wish this peculiar talent of Carr’s was less firmly established, but we should be thankful for it at the same time. – And finally back to the Little Brown Jug, an excerpt from this week’s Game Notes press release: The trophy disappeared from the trophy case of the Michigan Athletic Administration building in 1930 and was not found until 1934.…
-
Bo Exhibit starts this week
I caught this tidbit during the 4th quarter of the Purdue game. Looks like the University library is opening a special exhibit this week honoring Bo. A quick scan of umich.edu and mgoblue.com came away empty, but thankfully the Freep had a few details. Here’s more from the Detroit News.
-
Bloggers done good
Big props to the team of writers & bloggers that pulled together “Hail to Victors 2007”, a preview of this year’s M football season. As editor Brian Cook of mgoblog argues in the opener, content from the blogosphere can reach highs that “far outstrip those produced by a newspaper industry reports and forgets in a day.” I think they hit the mark with this one. Overview Some might say it’d be hard for a guide titled “HAIL TO THE VICTORS” with a section on M opponents section titled “THE ENEMY” to be unbiased. Yes, the content slants towards maize side of the house, but they authors solicited the help of those inside enemy camps to offer analysis. The Notre Dame preview is dropped by Brian Stouffer of The House Rock Built, and the rest of the opponents overviews were submitted by Matt Hinton of Sunday Morning Quarterback. Cook’s review of the offense and defense provides an assessment of what each player has (and hasn’t) brought to the field to date along with what needs to happen in 2007 to make it work. He touches on points that you and the dude sitting next to you in the stadium are thinking (after your whiskey buzz from the tailgate starts to wear off). A few examples: On Tight ends “Tight end…is a…