A few more takes from the game this weekend: – Manningham’s catch will be always remembered but he took some heat for a play earlier in the fourth quarter. Here’s Matt Zemek of CFN: Michigan receiver Mario Manningham nearly cost his team a victory with a shameful lack of effort…With his team trailing in the final minutes of Saturday evening’s game against Michigan State, Manningham lazily trotted out of bounds one yard short of a first down. I was on the opposite sideline during that play but to me, it just looked like Manningham wasn’t aware of where he was on the field. He caught the ball and went out of bounds. To characterize this as “shameful” seems to be a major stretch and a shameful characterization by Zemek. – I don’t know if they showed this on TV but Zoltan Mesko laid out a ref pretty hard during the game. He inadvertently caught the man with his robust hips while heading out to punt. After the guy when down Mesko didn’t break stride and just continued to the huddle. Lloyd Carr (in his ‘Darth Sweatshirt’ gear) was one of the first guys on the field to check out his status; here’s a photo taken just after the incident: – A day after the game I’ve thought about Hart’s “little…
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Victors Steal Another One
In a matter of a few moments the Wolverines turned around what was almost certainly a program-defining win for new Spartan coach Mark Dantonio. Michigan couldn’t move the ball and was being run over by MSU backs Caulcrick & Ringer. With just a few minutes left and down 2 scores Henne and the offense picked away at the loose coverage and scored two touchdowns, the last an amazing catch by 86 that pulled Michigan ahead for good. It was stunning to watch. A few takes: Most Painful? In some ways I feel this hurt MSU fans worse than the 2004 comeback, probably because a) of the emphasis Dantonio put on this game, b) this game was in East Lansing in front of a loud crowd, almost desperate for this win, and finally c) recent history of difficult games like the 2004 stunning loss in Ann Arbor, last year’s Notre Dame collapse and the two tough overtime games this year. Speaking of 2004, didn’t Manningham’s catch look wildly familiar?: Mountaineer Flair I’m starting to get a kick out of all these tools wearing Appalachian State gear. I saw a few items coming into the game and it was definitely on the minds of many Spartans. I don’t care what people wear to a game, but to have made a conscious decision…
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On the Grand Valley State loss
On the morning of the MSU game, I just saw on Sportscenter that Tom Izzo & company dropped their exhibition opener to Grand Valley State in 2 OT. Immediately ESPN put a graphic up drawing comparison’s to the Appalachian State debacle. A few quick takes: – It is a huge upset, exhibition or not. My guess is that Izzo doesn’t like to lose at anything and teaches his players to take everything (practice, games, exhibitions) seriously. – Upsets in hoops really don’t scale to football for a many reasons. There’s only five guys on the court at a time, and one hot hand can make the difference in almost situation. Look no further than one of the greatest Spartan teams of all-time, Mateen Cleaves’s 2000 championship squad. They lost an early season game to Wright State. – If you see any idiots wearing Appalachian State gear you have full license to fight stupid with stupid by asking them where you can get some GVSU gear. – The net? This “upset” is not even close to the level of the Appalachian State loss.
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Memo to MSU Tailgaters
To all those descending on East Lansing Friday night or early Saturday morning, MSU changed its gameday parking policy a couple years ago. The time the lots open is now a function of the kick-off time, in order to curb all day drinking fests on University grounds for later-starting games. With the 3:30pm start, the lots will open at 9am. Here’s the posted times.
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The Inspiration of 1898
With Saturday marking the one-hundredth game between Michigan and Michigan State, I took a look back to find the first meeting of the two schools. It dates back to the late 19th century when on October 12, 1898, the Wolverines defeated the crew from Michigan Agricultural College 39-0 in Ann Arbor. The season of 1898 was a special one for other reasons. The Gustave Ferbert coached squad made it through the season undefeated heading into the final game- a showdown with the powerhouse University of Chicago held on Thanksgiving Day. The defining moment of the game was when Wolverine Charles Widman broke free on a 65-yard run that allowed the M men to take down Chicago 12-11 and claim the title of Champions of the West. One of the 600+ fans that attended the game was music student Louis Elbel. As recorded in the October 1979 version of the Michigan Alumnus and posted on the alumni website, here are Elbel’s own words on how the Chicago win and the season of 1898 inspired the greatest fight song in the world: “We were crazed with joy,” Elbel. “We paraded in the dark. We yelled and followed our U-M Band, singing to the tune of “Hot Time in the Old Town.” It struck me quite suddenly that such an epic should be…
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Team Survey Results
The Ann Arbor News posted the results of its annual team survey. They asked 18 players to answer a variety of questions and here are a few notes: Q. Will Lloyd Carr retire after this season? Don’t know – 11 votes No – 7 votes. Q: Best player in the Big Ten outside U-M (last year Troy Smith ran away with this): P.J. Hill (Wisconsin) – 4 votes James Laurenitis (Ohio State) – 2 votes Brian Hoyer (Mich State) – 1 vote Javon Ringer (Mich State) – 1 vote Q: What are you looking forward to most about the stadium renovation: More noise – 5 votes “Nothing” – 2 votes Q: Who’s the hardest hitter? John Thompson – 7.5 votes Q: Who should win the Heisman? Mike Hart – 9 votes Chad Henne – 1 vote Hart or Henne – 7 votes Chris Graham – voted for himself saying “I’m going to be a history-maker.”
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1933 Michigan State College Ticket Application
Check out this Depression Era ticket application from Michigan State College to purchase tickets for the 1933 game in Ann Arbor
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Brent Petway Harrassed By Spartans
AirGeorgia@umich.edu – Brent Petway received all kinds of nasty emails from Spartan fans after the first game between these teams, stemming from a collision between he and Ager. Tormenting a guy on when he is on the court is one thing, but phone calls/emails to athletes is way overboard and should be considered a crime. I know it happens all the time but it is pretty sad. I’m not singling out Spartan fans; there have been several stories about Michigan fans sending hate emails to Chad Henne. Wondering how everyone gets the email address of these guys? No problem, for whatever reason Michigan publishes a link to its entire directory on umich.edu. Check it out. In many cases, the U provides not only university address, phone and email, but also home addresses and phone numbers.
