I took a load of photos but during the Michigan Spring Game but the best were of Denard Robinson doing his thing. It was his day and consider Brian’s take seconded: Robinson looks like a quarterback now. A running quarterback with rudimentary passing abilities, but a quarterback. There were zone reads and screens and rollout passes and a number of zippy seams that hit players between the numbers. When the offense broke down, Robinson made the concept of "pursuit angles" humorous. Putting him on the edge, as suggested by the coaches’ clinic tea leaves, puts the defense in a bind. His throws were all on a line but they were accurate aside from a couple mediocre bubble screens. Here’s sixteen in action. Please save the “Why don’t you marry him?” as I’m happily married. Wait, is he available? Ironic that everyone is blurry except the guy flying through the scene. [Ed. A few folks asked for a high res copy.] As Brian noted, he tossed a pair of soft screen passes but beyond that the passes were solid. That said, the follow through here is awkward unless he’s demonstrating that the Denard Meter is on high. He ended up turning this up field for a nice gain, but in this shot consider that he’s facing…
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Pre-Spring Game (Photos)
Sights and sounds, prior to the Spring Game: FieldTurf fixed, only a minor trip hazard. Assume they’ll tighten this down before the UConn kick-off. A view of the club seating on the West sideline (where the old Press Box used to set). The hardest working man in radio: Ira Weintraub preps the radio set for the WTKA 1050AM live broadcast (in the freezing cold). Beyond the quarterback, guy #1 that needs to be healthy next season: David Molk. And guy #2, beast Mike Martin
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Post Alumni Game: ‘64 Captain Jim Conley (audio)
I caught up with the oldest player on the field after the game, Jim Conley of the ‘65 Rose Bowl champs. He roamed the defensive backfield for the Maize team this morning and shared a few thoughts. Worth a listen, heavily tongue-in-cheek from the salty veteran: [display_podcast] Notable: I asked Conley about the lack of a QB on the Maize team: “It met my dreams, you understand? Because I hate referees, kickers and quarterbacks.” On the refs, who seemed to give the Blue QB (John Navarre) more than the allowed 5 seconds: “They had that Spartan Bob clock…they had 8 seconds sometimes.” On playing safety: “I moved better than I thought I was going to, to tell you the truth. I just wanted to show the fans that an old man can play free safety. If you’re a safety, you gotta sit back, look at the field, read the quarterback and go to the ball. And as you saw nobody threw in my area because I was there.” On the leap he offered up during his introduction: “I wanted to show people that I have that 42” elevation…”
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Alumni Game Photos
Once again the Spring Game was preceded by a game featuring a collection of former players. The LaMarr Woodley’s “Blue” squad edged out Desmond Howard’s “Maize” (albeit clad in white, Dave Brandon’s first snafu at the helm). The game went down to the wire, with a Hail Mary getting batted around in the south endzone just out of reach of Fab Fiver Jimmy King. The pics: Two of the guys who received big cheers from the crowd, that’s Jim Conley on the left, captain of the ‘64-65 Rose Bowl champion squad flanked by the great Zoltan Mesko More from Conley in a later post, but he demonstrated his vertical leap on the intros to the delight of the 10,000 who came early to watch Desmond slipped in in a hoodie to coach the Maize squad Coach Rodriguez’s right hand man is Dusty Rutledge who helped organize the event, including handling some of the player invitations. Dusty did not play today. Fiver Jimmy King showing his moves before the game. He not only saw the field, he… …found the endzone for the white team with a great catch. I asked him about it after the game, he said he was very aware of where he was on the field on the play, and playing on…
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Spring Up!
Happy Spring Game 2010. A little chilly yet this morning (still under 40 but rising). I’ll be out there for the Alumni Game before 11am and of course for the 1pm scrimmage. I’ll be taking photos, hopefully chatting with a few folks. There won’t be power or wifi available to the media so I’ll probably post what I have tonight. If I have something worthwhile I’ll blast out a tweet so follow me MVictors on Twitter. Don’t forget that WTKA will be broadcasting from the event, and those out of town can catch it online.
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Green Jack-et
Saw this animated gif(t) on Burgeoning Wolverine Star this evening and had to share:
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Jon Falk Killing it (WTKA audio)
Gotta love the ‘97 ring. In case anyone has any questions, “big Jonny” flashes the hardware If you missed this, now you got it. Longtime U-M football equipment manager Jon Falk started working for Bo Schembechler in 1974 and knows where all the bones (and jugs) are hidden, and has stories to back it up. He’s got a book coming out this August titled If These Walls Could Talk (you can pre-order) and joined Ira Weintraub and Sam on 1050AM WTKA’s live show from practice yesterday afternoon. Here’s the audio: [display_podcast] Natural Enemies Thanks to Ira for having the audio reposted Be the first to know, follow MVictors on Twitter
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Remember to Bow Before Chuck
Just released from U-M media relations, the run down for tomorrow’s Spring Game included this note: 8-foot Charles Woodson Bobblehead on Display: Fans can view and take pictures of the eight-foot tall Charles Woodson Bobblehead. The bigger-than-live bobblehead was created by the Big Ten Network to promote its upcoming series called Big Ten Icons, a show dedicated to the top 50 athletes in conference history. The Woodson Bobblehead will be located near Gate 8 (northwest corner of the stadium). The full release: Everything You Need to Know about the 2010 U-M Spring Football Game Presented by PNC Bank ANN ARBOR – The 2010 University of Michigan spring football game presented by PNC Bank is less than 24 hours away and the program hopes to exceed the estimated crowd of 50,000 fans that watched last year’s final practice at Michigan Stadium. The spring game is free to the public, but the football team and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital have partnered in a fund raiser for the new hospital scheduled to open in Fall 2012. Gates 2, 4, 8 and 10 to Michigan Stadium will open at 10 a.m. EDT. The second annual alumni flag football game begins with introductions at 11 a.m. The 131st team in school history will take the field for warm-ups at noon. The final spring practice will…