Lights Out! Under the Lights I – Sights & Sounds | Michigan 35, Notre Dame 31 (2011)

In the intro of this week’s edition of ‘This Week in Michigan football History’, I said, “Time will tell if this tonight’s battle will be talked about for decades to come…”

Well, it didn’t take much time to make that assessment and you can have that answer now if you’d like it.  Yes, this will be talked about for decades to come.

I don’t know exactly where that stacks up in the pantheon of historic games and finishes but it’s got to be near the top of the list.  Certainly, the fourth quarter was the wildest I’ve ever witnessed, right above the 1995 Virginia tilt and even the 2004 Michigan State game.

Bullets:

• The Credit.  Denard’s getting all the accolades this morning, some of it deserved, but I think the performance of the receivers is really underappreciated.  On the replay of the telecast, I heard Herby suggest that Denard intentionally/strategically underthrew some of those balls.  Ummm, no chance.  I just saw several weak tosses that were basically up for grabs.  And thankfully most of the time an M man came down with it including the game winner to Easy Treezy.  
• Best Toss of the Game.  I don’t think you could see this on ESPN when Vincent Smith made his amazing TD run (pic above) on the screen.  (And BTW-what a nice call by Borges.)  Anyway, after Smith scored he tossed the ball in the air—right into the hands of one of the members of the Irish Guard.
• The Big Man is Back.  I’m not sure how I missed Stevie Everitt on the sidelines during the game in his signature Big House Football shirt, but I did.   Thankfully he popped into the postgame interview.  I noticed on my way home that my website blew up with search engine hits on “Steve Everitt” and I was afraid the big guy was in some tragic accident or more likely, killed someone.  [UPDATE:  Somehow I managed to catch the big guy for a few words in the postgame.  He was a tad confused but whatever, here’s the audio.]
• Passing Leach.  Denard passed Rick Leach into first place all-time for Michigan rushing by a quarterback.  That also moved him up to #3 in Big Ten history in the same category.
• Wisdom.  My 5-year-old watched the replay of the Shoelacerooksi and told me, “Well, that was easy.”
• Poms.  I joked about the maize poms-poms in a pregame tweet but I must say they looked incredible at the end of the game.
• 9/11 Tribute.  I thought the 10th-anniversary tribute was nicely done and scrolling the victims who were Michigan graduates on the big screen was a nice way to recognize them.
• Program.  Order a commemorative program from the game, if nothing else to impress your friends.  It’s packed with history on this great rivalry from the likes of John Kryk (Natural Enemies), John Borton from The Wolverine, and even a tiny bit from me on the first night game.
• Print Media.  Speaking of printed material (and I realize most of you may rejoice in this), a night game puts enormous pressure on those in the print media to get their columns in before the deadline to go to the presses for the Sunday edition. (Here’s the AnnArbor.com mega guide).  The way things played out obviously this was a nightmare for those guys.  I’m guessing many a column was half written heading into the fourth quarter and ended up on the press box floor.  On the sunny side, they pulled out all the stops in the press box for the media on hand.  Witness the butter dish of victory:

Here’s my “MEGA GUIDE” from the big weekend:

• This Keeps Getting Better
• Roy Roundtree Postgame (Video)
• Do It Treezy (Postgame Pics)
• Desmond Howard – Inaugural ‘Michigan Legend’ Honored
• Not Yet Under Those Lights (Photos)
• Heisman Caliber Accessories
• ESPN GameDay – Then and Now
• This Week in Michigan Football History – Remy Steals Powlus’ Thunder (audio)
• Pre-GameDay
• Desmond on Strike

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