Just in time for Minnesota week, I’m happy to welcome the latest member of The Little Brown Jug Club—Mr. T.C. Thorton. He joins these fine gents in the Brotherhood of Jugsmen, Local 1903: Brian Snider – The Jug Brotherhood +++ Eric Mierzwiak – 2009 post, Not Available in Stores Mark Foster – 2010 post, His Own Little Brown Jug (v2) Dennis Dail – 2011 post, Jug Club +1 Daniel and his wedding crew – 2011 post, The Eleven Jugsmen Check out Thorton’s handiwork: Here’s a few words T.C. shared on this life changing experience: Didn’t take long at all, and once you get started, you really look forward to working on it. I had trouble finding an original Red Wing jug that wasn’t the $600+ that antique collectors were asking for it. I ended up have my uncle who is an artist, make a replica out of clay. I ended up speaking to an old high school friend who works with Mark Foster, one of the original jug makers from your site. After emailing him and getting some pointers, I went to town on it. Took me awhile to decide on the perfect colors, probably dwelled on it longer than I should. Biggest trouble came with the Minnesota M. Their M is shorter and more spread out than our Block…
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Depth Perception (Nebraska 23, Michigan 9 2012)
When the trainers were attending to Denard in the first half I wasn’t concerned. Probably for the first time in the many, many times he’s gone down in the middle of a game I wasn’t worried. It didn’t look like there was any serious impact to his arm and we’ve seen him so many times miss a series or two before returning seemingly full strength. Turns out both my skull and Denard’s right arm went numb about the same time and that was that. As Denard sat there watching the game it looked like Bob Lopez and a couple of other guys on the staff actually got him to laugh—but he must have been dying inside. The team has repeated over and over that every game is a championship game but that was as close as U-M has actually seen this year. The captain and 101% of the offense had to sit and watch his boys get crushed. You watched the second half perhaps with some hope that Spring Game Bellomy would emerge but save for a few late first downs it wasn’t really even close. I swear I caught Jeremy Gallon staring off into space after the RS freshman was calling a pass play early in the second half and remember thinking, “Gallon knows this ain’t happening…” That…
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Dr. Sap’s Decals – Nebraska
Ed. Steve Sapardanis aka “Dr. Sap” is back with his decals. This week I added the Editor’s Pick & Fan Award. Here are the picks from Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6 and Week 7. Context: Back when Bo was coaching the Michigan Football team, he awarded decals for individual as well as TEAM accomplishments. He also selected Champions each week. Not only were the obvious categories (offense, defense, special teams) selected, but Bo also made it a point to recognize the not so obvious ones – Scout Team Champions and Team Hustlers – each week. Here are the picks this week: OFFENSE NONE DEFENSE DESMOND MORGAN – The defense shut down Nebraska’s offense for most of the game and Morgan played a big part with nine tackles, one TFL and one PBU that resulted in an INT. Without Denard, the UM defense may be asked to score points now! SPECIAL TEAMS BRENDAN GIBBONS – Three weeks in a row that a UM kicker has made three field goals? Unheard of! Might have to go back to the days of Jim Brieske to see when that was last done. Gibby’s 52-yarder showed us that his leg is not just a medium range one – NICE! HUSTLER / SPARKPLUG ROY ROUNDTREE – Seemed to be…
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TWIMFbH: Huskers Here, Huskers There (1905, 1911, 1917)
Shot from the 1911 game at Lincoln via HuskerMax.com – check out the full shot here For this week in Michigan football history we step back to October 27, 1917 when Michigan faced Nebraska in Ann Arbor and include a look at the 1905 game and the last trip to Lincoln, the road trip on November 25, 1911. Enjoy: [display_podcast] More more on the 1911 game here and as always, listen to the WTKA’s Countdown to Kick-off four hours before kickoff on 1050AM or on iHeartRadio. You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here.
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Mild Makeover
You know about the countdown clocks, the trophies and the messages posted on the doors at Schembechler Hall. Did you know the players had to endure this reminder each time they left the Schembechler Hall locker room? Damn that’s in your face. I believe they used to (perhaps still) have something like this in the weight room. Any suggestions to replace this? Neon Elvis Grbac? Maybe we need Jil Gordon to get engaged STAT!
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Paul Bunyan is Home – Sights & Sounds – (Michigan 12, Michigan State 10)
Decals and Photos here. State deserved to win last year; Michigan deserved to win this time. Bite sized game takes: Drew Dileo is getting a lot of praise but give the line and Denard mucho props on that play that set up the winning kick, and of course for the stretch (above). I give the State defense a lot of credit. Gallon had an uncharacteristic drop (sure, the ball was behind him but you hardly ever seem him drop the pigskin), but MSU’s defenders made 3 or 4 solo tackles that prevented touchdowns. I join many others in giving Dantonio props for the showing some piedras on the fake punt. I don’t blame him so much for trying the play action on the last drive. He took a calculated risk to win the game and I think it was worth a shot. Notre Dame won the game on a pass late in the game a few weeks back. The only thing I would have told Maxwell – if the receiver was absolutely not there, make like Denard and tuck and run. Misc: On rivals. Still lots of talk out there about where Michigan State ranks amongst Michigan’s most important opponents. While rivals can change over the decades (ask Chicago and Minnesota if you can find someone old enough—or me, Kryk…
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Photos: Michigan 12, Michigan State 10 (2012)
A few sights from Saturday pregame and postgame: So during pregame, the Spartan kickers ran over to the U-M (north) side of the field. Gibby trotted over to keep an eye on things. Dantonio took the field with a smirk as he was thoroughly abused by the tunnel taunters You can’t get the half boar, half rat hat at Moe’s (yet) Bell checking out the new fangled shiny helmets. Not a fan but they did look better on TV (and even in this photo). In person it looked like the shade of green was much lighter. Many former football greats were on hand, including Mark Messner (above) who no doubt recalled his epic battles with Michigan State’s Tony Mandarich Honoring Willis Ward on the 78th anniversary of the Georgia Tech game. Props to John U. Bacon for first writing about the story, and Brian and Buddy at Stunt3 for the wonderful Black and Blue documentary. Speaking of Brian – you can hear our live edition of This Week in Michigan Football History from Saturday right here At this point Fowler figured it was time to GTFO Lewan and Gholston smokem peace pipe after the game Elsewhere! Photos: mgoblog Photos: MBN Photos: AnnArbor.com Photos: Michigan Daily…
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Dr. Sap’s Decals – Michigan State!
Ed. Steve Sapardanis aka “Dr. Sap” is back with his decals for Michigan State week. This week I added the Editor’s Pick & Fan Award. Here are the picks from Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6. Context: Back when Bo was coaching the Michigan Football team, he awarded decals for individual as well as TEAM accomplishments. He also selected Champions each week. Not only were the obvious categories (offense, defense, special teams) selected, but Bo also made it a point to recognize the not so obvious ones – Scout Team Champions and Team Hustlers – each week. Here are the picks this week: OFFENSE DREW DILEO – I think Denard just found his own version of Jason Avant. Clutch catches in traffic – that’s big time! Maybe Dileo should wear #8 next year! And don’t forget his perfect holds and spots on field goals. DEFENSE J.T. FLOYD – His Pass Break Ups thwarted at least three of MSU’s drives. I’m not saying it’s because he is dread-less, but I’m just saying…dude is starting to be that lock-down corner a defense needs to be great. SPECIAL TEAMS BRENDAN GIBBONS – I said last week that “Gibbons is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT kicker. There is a calmness and confidence that just wasn’t there a few years ago.”…
