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]

You love these lists, you hate these lists, but since this one mentions Fielding H. Yost it landed safely in my feed reader.  ESPN’s Page 2’s writer David Schoenfield assessed the “the greatest perfect seasons across all sports”, and here’s where Yost’s quintessential Point-a-Minute team of 1901 was slotted: 28. 1901 Michigan football (11-0) Under the legendary Fielding Yost, Michigan outscored its opponents 555-0, including a 49-0 thrashing of Stanford in the first Rose Bowl, to win the mythical national championship. (Back then, sportswriters referred to it as the “voluminous altercation over the determination of the unequaled college football champion in all the country.” Harvard went 12-0 that year and argued it was the national champion. See, college football hasn’t changed in 107 years; in fact, if Michigan and Harvard played today, we wouldn’t know who would win. Be prepared for defeat, Michigan, be prepared. No, I’m not going to react other than to say I’m happy they at least recognized something that happened before 1981.  Speaking of lists, I’m going to leave this silly list ranking Big Ten coaches alone where it belongs.

Perhaps you’ve already viewed the video of quarterback David Cone’s rap, with former Michigan receiver Toney Clemons producing, on mgoblog here.  Here’s  a tightened-down, .mp3 version compliments of DC, Mr. Dave and D Cone for your ringtones, iPods, and parking lot mixtapes: [display_podcast]

Audio of Rich Rodriguez on Bill Simonson’s ‘Huge Show’ yesterday, thanks to the MLive’s Grand Rapids Press. A lot talk about quarterbacks, competition, and the spring game: [display_podcast]

[Ed.  File this under “had to be there” to appreciate this but so be it.] Photo: Terrible Pass One of my pet peeves during games are the fans the choose to scream out their special messages to the coaches and players the entire game.  Especially annoying are those that do this despite being ridiculously out of earshot of anyone actually participating in the game.  This isn’t cheering or chanting or singing—it’s a dude trying to draw attention to himself.  I’ve pointed out a few of these incidents on these pages; it happens all the time and it drives me nuts. I was up at Ford Field for the hoops final on Monday night and once I sat down it was clear I had one of these guys behind me.   From what I overhead, I believe he was from North Carolina and I think he went to N.C. State (although my brother says he was wearing a Duke shirt).  I’m confident he came up here with the sole purpose of taunting the Tar Heels. As soon as UNC comes out the locker room he’s belts out a massive “BOOOOOO!!”.   When Tyler Hansbrough gets a foul or misses a shot he screams, “TYLER GIRL!!!”.   Each time Hansbrough touches the ball he yells, “HE’S TRAVELING!!”.    The game was out of hand after five…