• Coaches Show 10-28 (audio)

    Duty calls.  Per Brian’s post last night on mgoblog, Rich Rod (via various Angel tweets) apparently announced some pretty major moves in personnel.  After parsing through the tweets Brian made this request: I looked for podcasts on WTKA‘s site but couldn’t find them; maybe MVictors will  be able to dig out exactly what was said so we can parse that into molecules. He’s clutch like that. Here’s the first segment of the show thanks to Ira at WTKA: [display_podcast] . I ain’t got time to bleed, I mean, I don’t got time to transcribe.  If anyone wants to take a run, have at ‘er. [Update:  mgo-transcription and analysis here.]   Relevant transcription only via Brian: On Will Campbell and Quinton Washington: “We made a couple moves with some big guys, some backup linemen. Quinton Washington was a backup lineman; we moved him to nose guard. We kinda traded Will Campbell over to offense, where I think he’s going to be a natural offensive guard. After a week and a half I think both of those moves will probably stick for now. I think Will’s got a future at guard, I think Quinton Washington’s got a future on the D-line.” On the secondary: “We moved around Cam Gordon. We wanted him to learn—well, he played the deep safety, we wanted him…

  • Drunken 19 year-olds in Masks = More Moxie

    Mike Rothstein’s Penn State preview included a Q&A with David Jones of the Harrisburg Patroit-News.  It included this: Q: Will the night-time/Halloween atmosphere help Penn State? Why or why not? DJ: "No. This team is slow on D. I don’t see how drunken 19-year-olds in masks are going to affect that."

  • The Michigan Apple Tradition

    Ron Kramer’s passing a few weeks back prompted several nice tributes.    Many recalled his habit of bringing apples to the football team including Mark Snyder of the Freep [ed. I can’t find the link!] who mentioned the tradition started before Kramer. This caught the attention of Jean and Jerry Delay & for good reason.  After reading the piece they shot Snyder a note and Mark forwarded it my way (he knows this is my bag).   I thought I’d pass it along: In the article you mentioned that Mr. Kramer continued a tradition which had begun with "an older man." I am pretty certain, as is my brother, that the older man you referred to was our father, Jay J. DeLay. During Mr. Kramer’s student days, my father, who was President of Huron Valley National Bank(now Comerica-Ann Arbor), used to deliver crates of apples to the football players and to the Michigan Marching Band. My brother and I still have memories of the apple crates being tossed to the band members, who at that time, had seats in the stands. Huron Valley National Bank was known as "the apple bank." Apples were not only part of the bank’s logo; they were offered to all customers when they entered the bank’s lobby. My father, who was passionate about Michigan football, and attended…

  • Will You Copy The Material of Others?

    I was recently forwarded (by a couple people), this piece titled Harmon: "I Know Damn Well I Will" from U-M school of LSA website.  Does it look wildly familiar, from the title, to the screen shots to the video?   It should – I posted a strikingly similar piece in July titled Tom Harmon’s Vows – “I know damn well I will!” (1939) and you’ve seen that video a few times I’m sure. Perhaps the author forgot to mention where he got all that material?   No mention, link or hat tip? I’m not sure, but I asked my friends at LSA magazine to look into it.   It hurts a little bit being someone who’s been quoted in the magazine, is an LSA grad and even a small time but heartfelt donor to the school.    <<Ugh>> Update October 26:   Just got a classy email from Lara Zielin, the editor at LSA Magazine.  She explained the genesis of the story idea, where credit should have been given and noted that they are updating the story online with a credit to this site.  Zielin asked to put responsibility for the omission on her (not the author).

  • Hoodlum Friends Inside

    A follow-up on the Banished from the Big House post from last week, where U-M media relations confirmed to me that a couple premium seat holders had their tickets yanked for rowdy behavior during the State game. MVictors reader ‘Mfan’ claims to be a witness to the whole thing: They were actually seated right in front of me. Came in hammered, and brought a flask in. They were loud, obnoxious, swearing, etc… typical of what you’d find at an nfl game. That didn’t go over too well in the club section, especially with kids around. Of course it didn’t help when they started threatening to be waiting in the parking lot for the people that complained. To UofM’s credit, they contacted my Dad the next week to get his side of the story (even though he never complained), then contacted him later to tell him that they were banning the 4 guys from the stadium (with a refund).

  • Forgot to Register

    From my inbox, thought I’d pass this along.  Greg Kinney, the great curator at the wonderful U-M Bentley Historical Library forward this cartoon last week and I love it.  It was stored in one of the athletic department scrapbooks: The gent on the left is disgraced Michigan football player James Joy Miller, who was dismissed after the 1909 season for failing to properly register and attend classes.  The scandal made it all the way over to the New York Times and Michigan ended up apologizing to each of the teams they faced that year. Cook is explorer Frederick Cook, who reached or (claimed to reach) the North Pole in 1908, months ahead of the guy credited with it – Robert Peary.  At one point he promised to the King of Denmark that he would submit all the detail of his reports and findings to the University of Copenhagen.  He submitted a report, but not all of the detail the school was expecting and this happened: In late November, drawing on his diary, he completed his promised report to the University of Copenhagen. (He chose not to send his diary to Denmark for fear of losing it.) In December, the university—whose experts had been expecting original records—announced that Cook’s claim was “not proven.” Many U.S. newspapers and readers took that finding…

  • Big Ten Tie-Breaker Rules

    I get a lot of hits on this search phrase thanks to a post from a couple years ago.  Here’s the latest Rose Bowl tie-breaker rules.  Also, latest Bowl Projections here.  (FWIW: I don’t like using the BCS standings for anything, especially rules determining league standings like rule 5-5 below, [and 4 and 6-6]). Rose Bowl. Unless ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the final BCS poll, the conference champion shall participate in the Rose Bowl. The championship shall be determined on the percentage basis of conference games (tie games counts ½ win and ½ loss). If there is a tie for the championship, the Rose Bowl representative will be determined as follows: An ineligible team shall not be considered in the standings for determination of the conference representative. If there is a tie for the championship, the winner of the game between these two teams shall represent the conference. If there is still a tie, or if the tied teams did not play each other, the representative shall be determined on the percentage basis of all games played. If there is still a tie, the highest-ranked team in the final BCS standings shall be the representative. If more than two teams tie for the championship, the same selection procedures shall be followed with the following exceptions: If three…

  • Sam McGuffie Update

    photo: riceowls.com You’ll recall Sam McGuffie transferred to Rice, sat out last season but now he’s in action for the 1-5 Owls.  He their leading rusher (399 net yds or 57/game, two TDs) including 309 in the last four games, and the Owls’ top receiver (28 catches for 254 yards, one TD).   The stats sheet also lists him with 10 punt return yards on zero attempts which is pretty damn cool.   (Add that phantom punt return to the mix tape.) While he sat out football last year he immediately joined the 2009 Rice track team & did work: From the photo above, looks like he’s also offering free admission to the ladies for his one man gun show.  And I’m sure he’s still logging onto his favorite defunct website. Follow MVictors on Twitter