I spent a little time with Denard Sunday and most the questions and answers were pretty dry. My impression watching him—he feels like he’s the guy and exudes confidence. A few of the solid quotes including my favorite from the day*: How has he gotten better? "I think I’m more calm. I’m getting used to the offense, and that’s really helping me out." On his thoughts last year: "There was just a whole bunch going through my head and everything was coming by so fast. Everything has slowed down." On whether he thinks more than one quarterback will be starting this season. "Oh yeah, oh yeah. Because all of us are playing real good football right now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Devin on the field and Tate on the field in one of these games. They could start the first game, we really don’t know." On Devin’s progress. "He calmed down. Everything was fast to him at first when he came in. He took it all in and he’s using it now." *On where he was with the read option last season: "Man. <laughs>. Last year I was like, ‘All right, I’m not reading, I’m just running’ – that’s what I was thinking. Now I can read it." Related: The Standard Fare Will Hagerup – Media Day Devin…
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The Standard Fare
I didn’t spend a lot of time on the concourse, but here’s a look at the standard menu. As I understand it from Dave Brandon’s comments this week you’ll be seeing much more. And postscript, the $6 drink price mention is just about the only thing Stoney got right in his tweets from Saturday’s scrimmage: To appease the uproar over the water bottle ban, the athletic department decided to fight hate with a little H20 love and offer free commemorative bottles of water for the UConn game. This isn’t a hot button issue for me, otherwise you would have heard about it on these pages. Truth? I didn’t even know you could bring water into the game until this came up. I got an advance edition of the exclusive water at media day and it’s cool. Here’s a blurry shot of the logo:
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Will Hagerup – Media Day
You’ve been spoiled for the past four years with Zoltan and you know it. Enter Will Hagerup. I got a glimpse of this kid’s leg recently and he can really hit it. The kicking duties are up in the air but I think this guy will jump right in on Sept 4. I ran over to chat with him today: How does it feel to walk in the footsteps of Zoltan? "Obviously it’s an honor to follow a legend here and a pretty daunting task. I’m just trying to do as best as I can personally do and not try to set any insane goals and try to compare to him. He’s been a great mentor to me and doing real well so far in the NFL." On his performance in the Saturday scrimmage: "Just getting out there and warming up at first was just awesome, first time kicking in the Big House. So that was a lot of fun. I thought I did well there, which doesn’t count for much. In the game, the ball was pretty heavy, it was like punting a sponge. I didn’t do great, I hadn’t a few pretty good punts but I’d like to do better. I’ve got two weeks to get myself ready." On whether he was still helping out on kick-offs: "I…
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Devin Gardner – Media Day
I spent a few moments with Devin Gardner. From the little I’ve seen, he’s clearly much improved and in the mix the fall and I’m very surprised after seeing Gardner a bit in the fall. A few quotes: Are you still living with Charlie? [for context, click here and scroll down]: Charlie? Oh no, I’m not living with Charlie anymore I’m living with Denard. How’s that going [living with Denard]? "It’s going great. You know, he’s like a garbage disposal, he eats everything, I don’t know why. He’s hungry all the time." He looks like he’s bigger. "Yeah, because he’s eating all that food <laughs>." It looks like you’ve improved [from spring to now], do you think so? "I’ve definitely improved from the spring, but I don’t think I’m where I need to be. I want to be the best at everything I do." What command of the playbook do you have at this point? "Everything they’ve taught us I know it to a ‘T’. I don’t know if they’ve told us everything, but they said it’s a big chunk that we’re going to use against UConn." Related: Will Hagerup – Media Day Tate Forcier – Media Day Media Day (Photo Gallery) Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Tate Forcier – Media Day
A few words from me before quoting Tate. This guy stood in here today and got hammered with questions about missing wings, expectations and being called out by Woolfolk. He handled it all like a pro. He was humble, apologetic, and most of all, kept getting back to do whatever’s best for the team. Whatever happens from here give him credit for manning up and embracing this adversity. He certainly won points with me today. Here’s Tate: Does he feel like he’s been challenged? "Yes..He told me he was going to. And I think Coach Rod has done a great job at it and it’s only making me better. I can’t be made at it." What did he do to earn his helmet wings back? "Something my dad always told me, action speak louder than words. I just stayed quiet…and did all the work, and make sure everyone saw me doing the work…first one on the practice field and the last one off. Whatever it took. I got them back and I’m happy." His answer to the skeptics, that this team won’t improve: "People can think what they want. They don’t see what’s going on every day like all of us players do." Did he think he didn’t have to work as hard (during the off-season)? "I wouldn’t say that,…
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Media Day (Photo Gallery)
Just returned from media and mulled through the photos. The typical mix of on and off topic items from the day. Barwis talking about Brock Mealer’s progress and program: Brock after this press conference chilling: Denard is still going with the untied shoelaces. One media member still rocking the docksiders: Just begging for a caption contest: I tried to get an all braids dreds photo, this was the closest I could get: Big Jon Falk hasn’t lost his 1997 championship ring: Fred Jackson talking about the next Chris Perry: Don’t mess with Molk: Tate as Drew Sharp looms. Tate said all the right things today, more later. Tate checks in with Coach Rod before the team photo: BigHouseATron – did you know the tunnel expands? It really does! This is the cool, they hung bowl, conference championship and national championship banners inside the indoor practice field: Another look: Related: Will Hagerup – Media Day Devin Gardner – Media Day Tate Forcier – Media Day Media Day (Photo Gallery) Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Fuel-fed Feud: Keselowski v. Busch
You might have caught this clip on SportsCenter this morning, I cracked up. NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch bumped into each other this weekend and one of them was none too happy: In case that clip gets pulled by the NASCAR brass, basically Keselowski grabs the track microphone, introduces himself and calls Kyle Busch an "ass". Busch went onto to win all the races at Bristol this weekend (Truck, Nationwide, Sprint) and toted a broom in the winner’s circle. When asked about Keselowski’s comments, Busch replied, "Who?". So who cares? Well, it turns out both Keselowski and Busch are both huge Michigan football fans. You might have known this about Busch, who described his fanhood with the Wolverines in this USA Today piece from 2008: Although he is from Las Vegas, young Busch is a big University of Michigan football fan. U of M is about 40 minutes away from MIS in Ann Arbor, Mich. "My brother (Kurt) moved up to Michigan years ago to run in the Craftsman Truck series and he went to a Michigan game," Kyle recalled. "He bought me a Michigan sweatshirt and sent it home for me. I never really paid attention to college football until then, but I became a Michigan fan. Not too complicated of a story, but it’s fun to…
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The Scrimmage
[ed 8/21: I attended today, couldn’t take photos and can’t talk about it (sorry). That said, I’d suggest you take the tweets from Mike Stone (@stoney16) with a grain of salt. I think Stoney got into the Bloody Marys this morning.] There will be some sort of scrimmage today and yes, a few fans will be in attendance. From the Freep’s Mark Snyder: While the Big House is usually empty for such events, there could be a few thousand fans today as U-M invited its premium season-ticket holders for a sneak peek. "We hope whatever they see there will stay there," Rodriguez said Friday on WTKA-AM (1050), conceding that hope might not be enough in the Internet age. "We’ll keep things (schemes) close to the vest. We certainly won’t show anything that anybody from UConn or the Buckeyes or Sparties or Notre Dame fans will pick up on. We’ll keep it close to the vest." Snyder is correct that premium season-ticket holders can attend, but also invited are folks who donated (at a certain level) to Mott Children’s Hospital during this year’s Spring game. All guests today have been instructed not only to be sober, but also to leave their cameras, video equipment at home.