A brilliant package put together by the great WolverineHistorian. Here’s defensive highlights from Michigan’s national championship run a dozen years ago, hat tip to MSC: Elsewhere: Former WDFN morning show host Jamie Samuelsen, on his Freep blog, makes his case for Bo Schembechler being included on ESPN’s stupid Mt. Rushbore, err Rushmore. He’s right, and thankfully he took a swipe at the ESPN series: And can we please now retire the “Mt. Rushmore” concept? It has been around for years, and now ESPN is trying to brand it as an original idea to get more airtime for Rick Reilly. Next, they’ll probably try to do the Mt. Rushmore of Mt. Rushmores.

Coach Beilein went back on WTKA, in cleary a little better mood than in recent interviews and press conferences.  He’s lightened up a bit on the Iowa, Manny Harris didn’t play incident, but is holding to his standard line (which he acknowledges people are growing sick of) that you’d have to be at every practice to understand why he makes the decisions he does. [display_podcast] A couple notes: Beilein talks about the importance of the next three games, and implies that the opportunity to into the NCAA tournament is on the table (if they win the next three).  Agreed, I think 2 of 3 would do it. When talking about Manny, he said Harris had his best day of practice yesterday. He talks about the importance of this year’s seniors, who will be honored at Senior Day Thursday against Purdue. [poll=28]

An interesting nugget this evening on WTKA as Brian Cook of mgoblog was on for an hour (audio’s not up yet).   One of Cook’s insiders revealed that Rodriguez met with Steve Threet and basically told him he’s decided frosh Tate Forcier (pronunciation guide) is getting all the snaps this spring.    Thus Threet bolted.   If this was posted on mgoblog I missed it (and maybe the info wasn’t solid enough to post). If true, it certainly explains the timing of Threet’s heated exit, a few weeks before spring practice where he could have practiced and competed and then, if he thought things weren’t looking good, left.    It was puzzling to me why he didn’t at least go that far.  I figured something was up between he and Rodriguez. Beyond that you can take this a few different ways.   Most of you assume Rodriguez knows what he’s doing and if nothing else, at least knows what he wants.   It could mean Forcier is what he wants, that Threet isn’t going to cut it, or a little of both.    Again, if true, the cynics would question why/how Rodriguez could put all these chips on the table without actually seeing the kid throw a pass with a winged helmet on his skull. Maybe it’s Rodriguez being a super nice guy, giving…

I caught about an hour of WTKA this morning, and in the aftermath of the Iowa debacle we had a full on football season-esque panic from the callers.    Most of it was directed at Coach Beilein, who never gave a good reason why he benched star player Manny Harris (through whom Beilein readily admits most offensive plays are run through) for the entire overtime of a must-win game. Callers accused Beilein of being stubborn, dumb, and short-sighted to name a few.   What wasn’t directed at the coach was directed at the refs, who sucked again.    If nothing else, it shows that people out there care about basketball and the possibility of a NCAA tourney bid have got folks excited. Mark Snyder of the Free Press was on hand in Iowa City and called into WTKA to offer his perspective on the game and aftermath, here’s the audio: [display_podcast] Notes from Snyder’s call: Sam Webb asked him if there was something we missed (“did many say or do something?”).   Per Snyder, no one in the locker room said anything,  Harris said “he had no idea” and that he hadn’t talked to Beilein about it.   None of the players claimed to know anything. Beilein told Snyder it was because Harris “wasn’t fresh and hadn’t played”.   Of course Harris had played all but…

Chapter 3 of Craig Ross’s wonderful tome Obscene Diaries of a Michigan fan starts this way*: The average person, when he walks into his doctor’s office, does not assume he knows as much or more than the physician. Even if the patient reads about medical issues in the NY Times, has an uncle who is a physician, and once won an insurance dispute with Blue Cross, he is unlikely to make the leap that he knows better than the doc. Yet, somehow, the casual football fan often thinks that he (rarely she) “knows better” than the coach. That schmuck. Putz. Fool. Moron. Corso. Beano! I won’t say Michigan fans are worse in this regard than other fans. But they are definitely not better. Earlier this week coach John Beilein called into the WTKA morning show.  Host Sam Webb asked the coach essentially what’s been on everyone’s mind: why’s C.J. Lee starting at point over Kelvin Grady?   Listen to the beginning of Beilein’s answer, a message to those that question his decisions: For those who can’t hear it, after Webb suggests fans are asking about playing time at the point, Beilein offers this: Beilein: “First of all, anybody with questions about this..would have to watch every practice, every day, for the last 32 years to find out why I make decisions…”…

The mad dash for dollars coming out the federal government stimulus pledge is well under way. The website stimluswatch.org has collected all of the requests for federal grant money to be considered (being on the list doesn’t mean it was approved). Did you think all of the requests were for bridges and electric cars? Think again. Check out this entry after a quick search on “football”, submitted by Jones, HS in Orlando, Florida: The funds requested? $6,500,000. Now, I’m not saying this isn’t a viable use of federal funds, but I can see a few folks getting a chuckle that the students have to suffer through playing games inside the Citrus “Bowel”, the site of Michigan’s glorious victory over Tim Tebow and the Gators in January 2008.

No, it’s not the name of a Canadian law firm, it’s a little audio from last night’s Red Berenson Show live from The Arena on WTKA. In the final segment of the night Andy Evans and John Bacon toss the microphone over to Coach Red who relived a few old tales with his former idol, opponent, teammate, and roommate: the great Gordie Howe. A few notes: A funny moment, Andy Evans is reading from a prepared notecard promoting Gordie Howe’s appearance before the Ferris State game on 2/28.  The card described Howe as Red Wing great, etc.  Evans stopped mid-sentence, suggesting that anyone listening to a hockey show probably understands who Gordie Howe is.  Well done AE. Red noted that they may coerce Howe to do an honorary puck drop before the Ferris State game – solid! Bacon served up a couple stories (many are retold in Blue Ice) and Red took it from there.   Bacon also reminded Berenson that he cut Gordie’s son Murray.  Red countered this by noting his son didn’t make the Michigan team either. Berenson talked about the first game he saw Howe play in the NHL (at the Olympia) against Rocket Richard and the Canadiens, and discussed some of the events when Howe and the Wings scrimmaged the Wolverines back in the day, and what…