Check out Daniel Bromwich’s piece in the Michigan Daily as he dressses down the student body who have “sucked as fans this year”, and urges them to wear Maize on Saturday. He closes with this: A common complaint about the incoming luxury boxes is they will destroy the fan unity that currently exists because the stadium is one giant bowl. My question: What unity? Prove you have some Saturday.
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HBO’s ‘The Rivalry’ Reviewed
The brief letdown I felt on Sunday stemming from the losses this weekend has faded and I’m in full-on geeked mode for the Big One. The Lloyd Carr retirement rumors have raised it up a notch and it’s just been too long since the last home game – let’s do this! With the hype building for Saturday it was a great night to watch the premiere of HBO’s first documentary dedicated to sports: The Rivalry. Initial review by those that at pre-screening event was that it was slanted toward the Buckeyes and didn’t mention Lloyd Carr. I went in with an open mind: – The content definitely slanted toward the Buckeye side of the house. I’d say the last half of the piece was 80% focused on Ohio State fans and Woody Hayes.– Overall it was well done. While they didn’t have any mention/picture/video of Lloyd Carr, they didn’t exactly spend a lot of time on Tressel. But the Carr omission was a little weird. I mean, they showed footage of John Cooper and a lot of Earle Bruce, but and didn’t mention Carr?– The quotes from Bo were great. They talked about the gold pants that each OSU coaches and players gets if they beat Michigan (and later show up on eBay). One thing that never occurred to me…
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Famous ESPN GameDay signs
Despite both squads coming off a loss, The GameDay crew is coming to Ann Arbor this weekend. Check out this site or this site with a list, for some of the classic signs that have appeared behind Herby and Corso, along with my favorite:
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Pasadena-Strange Surroundings for Bucks
Quick trivia question: Who’s been to more Rose Bowls in the last 22 years, Michigan State or Ohio State? Answer: It’s a tie, they’ve each been to one…Check it out In the Buckeye’s case this is largely due to a combination of John Cooper’s inability to take down the Wolverines in the 90s, and most recently Ohio State’s success after the BCS was instituted in 1998. Anyway you slice it is still a little bizarre that Iowa has visited Pasadena more often than the Bucks during this stretch. In the same 22-year span Michigan has been to the Granddaddy nine times winning three.
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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…
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Pre-Screening of HBO’s ‘The Rivalry’
For anyone interested in seeing a pre-screening of the HBO Documentary ‘The Rivalry’, HBO and Comcast are hosting fans Wednesday at the Michigan Theater. You may have seen this on the M-Zone blog last week. I got the same info. If you want to go, call the listed number below and make a reservation. If anyone checks it out I’d love to get a review for MVictors – please send it along! For those out of town but can’t wait, HBO has posted a short interview with Bo Schembechler that may be part of the show, along with some photo galleries.
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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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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.…