I’ve missed the calls from Detroit News beat writer Angelique Chengelis into WDFN, so it was a nice surprise to hear her again this afternoon on WTKA with Big Host host John U. Bacon.  She was in town for the Michigan basketball banquet and found a few moments to talk with Bacs.  The audio: [display_podcast] On the spring game, the Angel offered “they didn’t show a lot” but called Forcier was “poised”, offensive line is better, as with the running backs, and defense needs some work.  Yep. She noted she spoke with Denard Robinson, and was very impressed with his overall confidence and demeanor.   For someone who hasn’t seen the field, she couldn’t say enough nice things about him.  I saw him buzzing around and signing autographs in the tunnel, overall seemed like a nice guy. Angelique thinks there will be a great competition between Forcier and Robinson, and she’s not counting out Nick Sheridan. A side note: you might be able to tell from the photos that I had some media access to the game, and caught Chengelis up in the press box.  In a environment full of mostly pretty goofy looking men (webmaster included), she sticks out like the sore thumb with red nail polish.    Please save the ‘take a cold shower’ comments. Related:  If you’ve got time,…

Forcier and Vincent Smith celebrate after a score A beautiful day out there today as the masses came out to check out the Wolverines, back in Michigan stadium this year after holding a closed scrimmage in Saline in 2008.  A few of the posts I put up during the day: Crowd Details, Biggest Ever? Stevie Brown, 2009 Meyer Morton Award winner Blue 32, Maize 24: M Alumni Game (Photos) Alumni Game: Leach grunts, Line moves to Blue -1 Spring Game: Locker Room Tour (Photos) Interview: Nick Sheridan While there was no stand-out player at last year’s game, there’s no question that today it was freshman Tate Forcier.   He showed some of the things you heard about in practice: sharp passes, moving well in the pocket, throwing well on the run, and showed that he can carry that ball.   I don’t have all stats but I believe he ran for at least 2 touchdowns, including a beautiful jump and stretch to get the ball over the line in an overtime simulation.  Vincent Smith mixed in some nice runs as well. The defense gained a little momentum in the middle of the full-field scrimmage, but still showed some of the poor tackling that we’ve seen over the last few years.  Will Campbell noted that a focus for the defense will be wrapping…

Update:  With all the fans now in the house, Madej is saying “close to 50,000”.   I’d saying 40,000-ish, maybe more. Per media relations director Bruce Madej, the first person in line this morning for the locker room tour was in line at 3:30am.   Madej is says he thinks this is largest crowd he’s ever seen, going back to 1978 and is convinced that this is bigger than the crowd in 1998. He’s not clear where the 40,000 number came from, which has been tossed around as the number of fans in ’98, but he’s convinced there’s more here today.

This year’s Meyer Morton Award, which has been given out since 1925, went to Stevie Brown.   It signifies the player that has shown the most progress in Spring drills. Past winners include Jamie Morris, Stan & Braylon Edwards, Desmond Howard, Jim Harbaugh, and in 1932, future president Gerald Ford.  The PA announcer advised is designated for Michigan seniors, but traditionally this was not the case.  Take Ford for instance, he was a senior and MVP in 1934 yet received the award two seasons prior. I wrote about this last year after the Saline spring game [see ‘On the Meyer Morton’: This is the oldest individual award given by the football program and its winners include the late Gerald Ford. I actually found this pic of Ford with the award (1932) when researching a post after his death: You may have picked up this mention on the great mgoblog within Brian’s spring practice post today: Will Johnson won kind of a weird award for a fifth-year senior and returning starter to pick up. Brian’s right. It’s a little weird for a 5th year senior to be getting this award. I’m still digging for the reference, but I’m 90% sure I read somewhere that this honored was originally reserved for underclassman. Take Ford for instance. The late president won the honor in…

Well, they made it fun.  No pies in faces or anything like that but I think fans really enjoyed the Alumni game that just concluded.  The ‘Blue’, a 1 point favorite going in, prevailed by converting a touchdown on the final play of the game: The Game winner! Had the pass fell incomplete, the game would have ended in 26-26 tie (Maize would have scored two points for stopping the Blue on downs).  Larry Foote was all over the field, making a nice interception.  Ricky Leach got in for a couple plays, throwing a pick.  Coach Jerry Hanlon yanked him immediately.  More photos: Beckmann with Leach Ron Bellamy, overachieving Impressive crowd, 20,000? Touchdown Larry Foote with Beckmann Ugly at times Rich Rod leading the Victors Ref James Hall Devin Gardner

The opening line on the Michigan Alumni flag football game was “Leach’s team” –2.5.  No offense to Rick, but the M legend outside the tunnel.  He looks great, but when he bent over to hoist an 7 year-old kid up for a photo, he let out a giant grunt.   That’s got to mean something, like a horse crapping in the paddock.  In all seriousness, Leach signed a bunch of autographs and chatted it up with fans who were clearly stoked to see the legend: Guest poster Lew speculated on what the alumni players would wear.  Looks like they are donning tees with Fab 5-esque white baggy adidas shorts.

Early bird gets the worm.  A few photos from the tour of the Michigan football locker room in progress, ending at 10am.  It’s a beautiful day and I’m guessing you are going to see a pretty good crowd today.   At around 8:15 the line for the tour wraps out of the stadium gate, east around Crisler up to Stadium and back up half way to Main Street.  The guys inside managing the crowd are barking at folks to keep moving, and they should.  Enjoy a few photos (click to enlarge), especially those of you with good intentions but just couldn’t get out of the sack.   

I’ll be out there all day, hopefully I’ll have some photos and takes uploaded as it happens, certainly from the morning activities. The official schedule of happenings from mgoblue.com: SATURDAY, APRIL 11 • Locker Room Tours, 8-10 a.m.  [UPDATE 4/11: Photos from the tour] • Michigan Stadium Gates Open, 9:30 a.m. • Alumni Football Game, 10 a.m. [UPDATE 4/11:  Alumni Game Photos] Live Video | Team Rosters • Michigan Takes the Field, Noon [UPDATE 4/11:  Rolling Updates]