I flew into Jacksonville the night of New Year’s Eve so I didn’t get the full bowl week media experience but from what I witnessed, the bowl reps and the city did a real nice job promoting the event and handling the media. The folks at EverBank field and with the Gator Bowl were very helpful and courteous and even provided full transcripts of both press conferences which is fantastic. So hats off. That said, naturally I have to point out a few of the less than brilliant points of light: * I donned a maize “M Golf” hat on gameday. While taking some photos of the Mississippi State fans banging their cowbells before the game, one Bulldog fan asked me if I was the Michigan golf coach. Me: “Yep.” * I’m puzzled why the Gator Bowl shelled out $30,000 for the bowl trophy. The finest trophy in sports cost all of 30 cents. Yikes, why did they feel compelled to commission Tiffany and spend thirty large?: After retrieving the trophy, Gator Bowl officials were asked by Mississippi State officials if they could have the trophy sitting on the podium for coach Dan Mullen’s postgame news conference. It took two phone calls to make that happen. There’s a big reason: the trophy was handmade by Tiffany’s and cost $30,000. *…
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Unite the Clans!
I held an impromptu live blog last night, thanks to those who joined. I thought there were some good thoughts and in the end, an epic slogan. As it was winding down chatter Aaron wrote: “Someone unite the clans.” Unite the Clans! Unfortunately I don’t think all the clans will be united until someone puts a solid winner on the field. I’ve already heard how there are several insiders/administrators who won’t ever forgive Harbaugh for the academic standards comments. The chat boiled down to where you stand on Rich Rod, Harbaugh and the other coaching options. There is a small percentage (fewer than 10%?) of folks remaining that want to keep Rich Rod. But I feel for the vast majority the question comes down to this at this point, pick where you stand: [poll id=35] During the live blog I popped that up and it went about 75/25 in favor of the Harbaugh or Rich Rod option. Either way- what’s it going to take to – UNITE THE CLANS?!! A Rose Bowl? This guy?:
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Rich Rodriguez – Gator Bowl Post Game Press Conference (audio)
Here’s the audio from the press conference: [display_podcast] If you need a chuckle—> Denard went before Rich Rod and was asked this epic question about leaving for the NFL next season. Feel free to download for your mixtapes and remixes. Full Rich Rod transcription: Q. Rich, did you have any sense something like this was coming at all either in your team or what you saw from Mississippi State on film? COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, I thought our guys practiced well, I thought they were focused, how we came out with the right intensity. But from the second quarter on, we did not execute. It sounds simplistic, but it’s very disappointing because the guys have a great attitude. But they made plays and we didn’t. They tackled better than us, they caught better than us, they ran better than us, and that’s unfortunate. Our guys did play hard, we just did not play as well as we’re capable of playing and they played extremely well, and that was the ballgame. Q. A lot of players make comparisons having a lot of time to prepare for Connecticut, kind of comparing that to having a lot of time to play in the Bowl game. How was the execution different in both games that kind of made it different? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, if I…
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Bully XX and More Pregame Photos
A few more from around the field during pregame: Interesting – Rich Rod had the kickers warm up in the Mississippi State end during pregame. (After they kicked on the Michigan side of the field). RR was watching the kicks pretty closely. There is a bit of a crown on the field – I don’t think it will affect Robinson but we’ll see. Roundtreezy getting ready… …and grabbing a drink This is “Bully XX” – almost needed #21 after the Miss State players stomped out. Jeremy Gallon warmed up with the quarterbacks.
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Gator Bowl 2011 – Pregame Photos
I had a chance to hop on the field before the game. First off, it’s just a perfect day here – can’t say more. The EverBank Field gridiron appears to be in excellent shape – a couple gashes visible here and there but only up close. While I’m not natural grass expert I can safely say the grass is cut very tight—specifically 9/16” per Nick, the head groundscrew guy in charge of it all: Naturally Nick is a Spartan, having graduated from MSU’s prolific turf grass school. He’d much rather be in Orlando watching his Spartans battle Saban and crew, but he expects to be peppered with texts throughout the game for updates. Nick had the painful task, for a Spartan that is, of making this happen in the North endzone (but he did a nice job): Michigan’s end zone is North, the and the Wolverine players will be on the East sideline. Here’s a view looking South: Go Blue. And if you’re not on the Twitter, get on the Twitter, I already tweeted out photos an hour ago!
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Staying Perfectly Perfect – 1902 Rose Bowl (This Week..audio)
Happy New Year! Thanks everyone for making this the biggest year yet for this site, toppling 2 million in visitors all time. A special thanks to the sponsors, my fellow M bloggers, all the comments and all the fantastic emails especially of late, many of which have resulted in some cool posts. I’ll be down in Jacksonville tomorrow so check back here for the usual sights, sounds and takes from the game. Speaking the New Year, here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before tomorrow’s battle against Mississippi State in The Gator Bowl. This time we look back to the season of 1901 and the first postseason game of its kind, “The Tournament East West game”, later known of course as The Rose Bowl. It took Yost and crew eight days to get to LA to take on Stanford, the team Yost coached in 1900. At stake was not only the game, but also Michigan truly perfect record of 10-0, outscoring opponents 501-0 up to that point. Above is a shot of the Wolverines on the parade float that morning. Here’s the clip you’ll hear tomorrow on the pregame show: [display_podcast] Here’s more on the 1901-02 squad: * 1901 Season Football Pass…
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Gil Thorp needs Botox
So over the weekend a gent named Neal Rubin for popped up and wrote this piece on Rodriguez in the Detroit News, basically talking about how much of an a-hole Rich Rod is. Normally I wouldn’t bother to say anything – it reads like a bad sports radio call – but after basically calling Rich Rod a slippery, money-grabbing phony, he went here: Fielding Yost didn’t sign contract extensions and then flirt with other schools to extort raises. Actually, despite this being a completely different era in college sports, Yost maneuvered quite a bit with his contracts and with U-M. I know FHY on some level—he was a very savvy negotiator and businessman, go read The Big House–so when I saw this I got a laugh. I asked author/historian John Kryk [Natural Enemies], who’s in the process of writing the definitive history of Yost and his Point-A-Minute teams, and he shared this on the topic: “No matter how long Yost’s contract was (one-year, two-year, five-year) in his first decade, it was always a source of relief in Ann Arbor every late-Nov/early-Dec when he announced he was for sure coming back. Occasionally, there were reports he was considering an offer from, say, Wisconsin — or from the East. One year he even boldly and publicly disputed the wording of his contract…
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Bill Yearby, Michigan All-American, Passes Away
Bill Yearby, an All-American defensive tackle for the University of Michigan Wolverines football team from 1963-1965, died on Dec. 20th after a long illness.
