A little show and tell. I thought I’d share a few thoughts about the media experience covering hoops as I made it to the Towson game Monday. First, a view from the new media section: The media used to sit in two rows: one midway up the lower bowl (where the students sit today, see the maize rage filling in above) and another just below the concourse in the blue section as well. The perspective was a bit closer in the Blue section before of course, but the new area is more spacious and has a nice angle on the game. I asked a few media vets what they thought of the new space and they seemed pretty good with it. The postgame was pretty interesting. At the end of the game, U-M media relations walked around with a shortlist, asking the press with whom they wanted to speak after the game. I wanted to ask for Jalen but didn’t. Most of the media who hang around postgame then head down on the court, through the tunnel and wind down a hallway (not quite the kitchen in Good Fellas) and enter the Junge Center—the building between Crisler and the Big House. Shortly after the players arrived, spread around the room and took questions for about 10-15 minutes. A few shots:…
-
-
Extra Medium – Michigan 31, Illinois 14
What a relief. Yes, this is a below average Illinois team but it’s still a win in a Big Ten road game and you know we don’t have many of those the past few years. If you were gripping in the second half you weren’t alone—Michigan had many shots to put that out of reach and didn’t until the end of course. Props to Gardner for coming in and taking it home—he deserves a lot of credit for getting it done. Seems like Al Borges got the message to ease off the pro-style pedal a bit and let Denard do his thing. #16 seemed much more comfortable despite the mistakes. I still think he’s missing a gear, but he played a better game and we’ll need him even better against Nebraska. This sets up a nice one next week against the Huskers (I’m so glad they beat PSU)—you’ve got to be jacked for Saturday. Showdown at noon and it’s going to be good. Obviously doesn’t tell the whole story but the NCAA data is nice to see: #11 rushing offense, #33 total offense, #17 total defense, #7 scoring defense. Of course Western Michigan isn’t included. J.T. Floyd (or “T.J.” per the BTN postgame show) turned into Chuck Woodson today, shades of Nick Sheridan turning into to Tom Brady at Minneapolis…
-
Great Q Shoe, Great A Super Drew
From Twitter, prompted by a solid question from my man MGoShoe: Response from Drew Henson:
-
Dr. Sap’s Decals–Illinois
Matt Wile: 5 decals – for 5 Non-Returnable (Aluminum Beer Can) Kickoffs!* Don’t kid yourself at the importance of these kicks – they forced Illinois to drive 80 yards almost all game and that made a HUGE difference! Fitzgerald Toussaint: 3 decals – 1st QTR 65-yard run, 25-yard run, and 4th QTR 27-yard TD run David Molk: 3 decals – seal blocks on Toussaint 65-yard and 25-yard runs in 1st QTR, seal block on Denard 2-yard TD run in 2nd Qtr J.T. Floyd: 4 decals – 1st QTR PBU, 4th QTR INT (would have given one more for a pick-six!), 4th QTR PBU, +1 editor’s choice, for transforming into Chuck Woodson for this game, wow. Ryan Van Bergen: 3 decals – 3rd QTR sack, and two 4th QTR sacks Denard Robinson: 2 decals – 5-yard TD run in 1st QTR, 2-yard TD run in 2nd QTR. Jake Ryan: 2 decals – 1st QTR TFL, 3rd QTR PASTING hit on QB during option-pitch – outstanding! Jordan Kovacs: 3 decals: 1 for forced fumble in 2nd QTR, 1 for TFL in 3rd QTR, and +1 editor’s choice for actually being Zack Novak and fooling us this whole time. Thomas Gordon: 2 decals for fumble recovery in 2nd QTR and PBU in 4th QTR Michael Schofield: 1 decal for seal block on…
-
Inspecting Canham’s Carpet (1969)
Glenn “Bo” Schembechler wasn’t the only major change to hit Ann Arbor in 1969. New athletic director Don Canham decided to introduce artificial turf inside the Big House. Here’s a great photo of Dan Dierdorf and Bo inspecting a sample of the righteous carpet up on eBay now: Apparently Dierdorf was skeptical of the safety of natural grass, having suffered a knee injury in 1968 (from the notes on the wire photo): I’m not sure what they hoped to accomplish with their little empty shoe test, but oh well. It’s pretty clear that Canham was not only dead set on the innovation, but he was also pretty proud of it. The new coach would seemingly be the obvious choice to don the cover of the game program, but Bo was present. In fact, no person is present at the front of the program for Bo’s first game at the helm—here’s a look at the Vanderbilt game program (also on eBay now), showing off Canham’s carpet: The bid on the Bo/Dierdorf photo is currently at $27.28. The Vandy program is going for $59.99.
-
TWIMFbH – Shiny New Big House Welcomes Navy (1927)
This week we head back to 1927, a very special season in Michigan football history. On this day 84 seasons ago first year coach “Tad” Wieman led the 5-1 Wolverines into battle against the Midshipmen of Navy. The significance of the season wasn’t necessary about who played in the games but rather where. In 1927 Michigan Stadium was opened for business and on November 12 Navy would be the fourth team to visit the million dollar super-structure. As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now: [display_podcast] _ You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Related: 1926 – Any Stadium Bonds out there? – Bonds to fund Michigan Stadium 1927 – Big House Dedication – Ticket stubs, Stadium history 1927 – Yost’s Bust -Head statue of F.H. Yost 1927 – Yost’s Shiny New Packard – Beautiful car given to Yost by alums 1927 – Freshly Minted Big House – Postcard – Great pic of ’27 Stadium Bonus: Construction photos taken by Harold Sherman: 1927 Dedication day (Ohio State) pregame in color via ready Larry:
-
Memo to Penn State: Forfeit Saturday
twitpic Via Tom VanHaaren Obviously there are so many thoughts here as this disaster unfolds. One is the complete lack leadership at Penn State in handling this mess properly. But there’s still an opportunity to do the thing seemingly everyone involved in this mess had failed to do—move beyond protecting the sanctity of the football program and do the right thing. Forfeit Saturday’s game. [Update: Umm, so me and my buddy Drew are going ride a tandem bike to the next home game. He posted this right after I posted the above: Drew Sharp: Penn State should forfeit Saturday’s game] Follow MVictors on Twitter
-
Dr. Sap’s Decals–Iowa
Denard Robinson: 4 decals – 5-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald Toussaint in 1st QTR; 20-yard run in 2nd QTR; 21-yard run in 3rd QTR; 7-yard TD pass to Kevin Koger in 4th QTR Ryan Van Bergen: 2 decals for TFL on 4th Down Stop in 1st QTR and 2nd QTR TFL Mike Martin: 2 decals for 2 TFL Blake Countess: 2 decals for 2 PBU’s Defense: 1 decal for every member of unit for 1st QTR 4th Down stop Fitzgerald Toussaint: 1 decal for 5-yard TD catch in 1st QTR Kevin Koger: 1 decal for 7-yard TD catch in 4th QTR Mark Huyge: 1 decal for fumbled snap recovery in 2nd QTR Will Heininger: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB sack Craig Roh: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB Sack Vincent Smith: 1 decal for catching Denard wounded duck to set up 3rd QTR FG Brendan Gibbons: 1 decal for 32-yard FG in 3rd QTR Desmond Morgan: 1 decal for 3rd QTR PBU Martavious Odoms: 1 decal for 28-yard kickoff return in 4th QTR Jake Ryan: 1 decal for 4th QTR TFL Junior "Megatron-Completed-the-process-but-didn’t-get-credit-for-it" Hemingway: 1 decal for TD catch that wasn’t called! Will post updated season tallies next week.
