A great night up at old Yost again tonight save for the final few minutes where it got very ugly. A few highlights from up in Section 22 including a clip of the Michigan students dropping f-bombs on the Spartans after Kampfer was injured.
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$6.6M and a dope with a Calculator
John Heuser’s piece in the Ann Arbor News, discussing this week that Rich Rodriguez’s compensation tallied up to $6.6M, was thoroughly blasted in the blogosphere– see Brian Cook’s posts on mgoblog and AOL, and the gang at Wolverine Liberation Army. Heuser was defended by his former colleague Jim Carty on his blog. JC called it a “meaty little story” and after acknowledging Brian Cook’s greatness took a few shots across the virtual bow. If you read this site regularly you might recall my October 2008 interview with Dave Shand where he reveals the scuttlebutt that Michigan was going to pay the taxes on the buy-out: Shand:…So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Plus there’s the million and a half out of his own pocket. That was indeed scuttlebutt at the time, but then a couple weeks later Rodriguez’s contract was FOIA’d and the terms of the buy-out were revealed. Those terms included the language on the tax neutralization [from my post on October 27, 2008]: Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract),…
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A slice of The Bacon Blog
Bo Lasting Lessons author, radio host, professor and historian John U. Bacon launched his blog this week, you can check it out at blog.johnubacon.com. In his words, what’ll he’ll provide: The only place on the web where you can get a fresh slice of Bacon delivered straight to your door every Friday morning – free of charge. I make no attempt to compete with those hard-working souls who file daily reports about teams, trades and talented teenagers traveling to this campus or that. I’m just trying to tell interesting stories about people who happen to be involved in sports. Many of these stories come from my weekly sports commentaries on Michigan Public Radio, occasional free-lance pieces, or just my own curiosity – all here for you to listen, read and review, as you see fit. You can also check out the most popular pieces in the archives, including my take on the Wisdom of Plaxico Buress, Michael Phelps’s best friend, and Kids’ Games You Shouldn’t Try At Home, among others. I hope you like them – and sign up to receive a slice of Bacon every week. All the cool kids are doing it. Check out the Bacon Blog here.
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Michigan Today: Aerial Views of campus
The January edition of the online alumni magazine Michigan Today was released tonight. Included is a nice slideshow of aerial photos taken around campus by Scott Galvin of U-M Photo Services. While we’ve seen many shots above the Big House over the years, I thought this one was pretty cool:
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The Grind, Beilein audio and Wildcat mix-tape
After the Penn State loss, I’m guessing most M fans would say a NCAA tourney bid is not going to happen in 2009. That’s of course a 180 from just over a week ago, but we were warned by a few folks this season might go this way. Shots aren’t falling and the team is struggling, Coach Beilein talked with Sam Webb and Andy Evans this morning on WTKA about where the team is at, what he’s doing to get things back on track, and how he & Pittsnogle faced a similar slump one year at West Virginia: [display_podcast] . The situation is even worse than Brian at mgoblog suggested just earlier this week: Moving forward, the last two games have blown whatever margin of error Michigan had in their effort to make the tournament. Even if you assume wins home and away against Northwestern and away against Iowa—potentially dodgy but absolutely necessary to make the tourney—you have to find three wins in these games to get Michigan to .500 in conference: Home: Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue Away: Ohio State, Purdue, Minnesota Yikes. One of those assumed games is Saturday’s tilt against Kevin Coble and the bomb-dropping Northwestern Wildcats who showed Michigan State a little something called style last night at Breslin. A few highlights from the action,…
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“Sweeping Cuts” at WDFN, Stoney & Wojo Gone!
What a shocker! WDFN 1130AM, the leading voice for Detroit sports radio, cut most or all of its local talent including the prolific drive-time standby, the Stoney and Wojo Show. Obviously, I’m stunned. The show, which features Mike “Stoney” Stone and Detroit News columnist Bob “Wojo” Wojnowski, had been the go-to show in Detroit since its debut in April 1995. Wojo’s paper got the scoop and quotes from the hosts: “It’s a really sad day because I loved working at that station,” Wojnowski said. “And I know a lot of Detroiters have loved listening to the station for the past 14-15 years. It’s just another sign of the times, a very sad sign.” Said Stone: “I will miss it terribly. People tell me the show meant something to (them). That’s amazing. Hopefully, somebody will want to pick up ‘Stoney and Wojo.” This site has (had?) a relationship with WDFN on its Michigan football page and I’ve swapped emails with WDFN program director Rona Danziger in the past. I sent her an email tonight hoping for some reaction. Included in the cuts was solid mid-morning man Sean Baligian (of ‘It is what it is‘) who apparently didn’t learn of the cuts until after this morning’s broadcast. Said Baligian, “..we’ve all been hearing rumors for a while that something big was going…
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G-Rob hired
Hey, I like the first name. Jim Carty, former AA News columnist and Syracuse grad mustered up the following ringing endorsement of new Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson: “he’s a very, very nice man.”
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Carl Dougovito is a bad MoFo | Michigan Wrestling (1931-32)
The next edition of eBay Watch takes a foray onto uncharted waters--Michigan wrestling. A couple scorecards from wrestling meets were offered up on the online auction site this past week, one from the February 14, 1931 battle against Ohio State, the next from a January 9, 1932 meet against the University of Toronto. Both were held at Yost Field House.
