The original Little Brown (White?) Jug, from Historic Michigan Football Photos. Surely Coach Rod has a lot on his mind and the history of the Little Brown Jug is likely not one of those things. Just after the hire last December I wrote the following: Count me as a one who will be disappointed if during his Monday press conference on November 3, 2008, Coach Rodriguez fails to recount the history of the Little Brown Jug, as Coach Carr did each year during his tenure Here’s to hoping we’ll get some mention of the Jug today. Update: Here’s today’s press conference broken down into clips thanks to MLive. Mention of the jug? Yes but barely. Rodriguez mentioned the jug as something that they have to play for this week and said that it’s “neat”. It’s really NEAT man!: Video: “11/3 Monday Press Conference Rich Rodriguez from MLive”
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Familiar position for Rodriguez
Interesting stuff on Jim Carty’s blog this morning, he mentioned it on his call into WTKA this morning. He pulls out a few of the West Virginia sports columns from November 2001, the year Rich Rod’s crew went 3-8. Check out the parallels to the current situation. Is this comforting at all? Not really man, but interesting. Elsewhere in an exciting time in the nerdosphere: * Michigan Sports Center wants Shafer’s butt. * WLA wants everyone to stop bitching. * Maize and Blue Nation begs for your patience.
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Take a Slice: Michigan fans, where do you stand?
I spoke to Power Index pollster Lew a little bit during the Purdue game and suggested that at this point in the season, Michigan fans had pretty much settled on their opinion of Rodriguez and his staff at this point (no matter what happens the balance of the season). Well, if that point wasn’t hit before or during the Purdue game, we’ve definitely hit it now. Win or lose to Minnesota, Northwestern and Ohio State, I think the fickle Michigan base has settled in with their opinion of Rich Rod and staff for the rest of the season and into the longest off-season we’ve had in 33 years. I think it breaks down into about six categories, and here’s my toss of turf in the air at where the Michigan football fan population fall: A few notes:* The strongest group of Michigan fans (30%), are that loyal group that are on board no matter what. They would have been fine with a DeBord hire, for instance. You won’t hear from them too often on blogs, on the radio, message boards.* I think there’s a lot of people out there (20%) that wouldn’t fall into that loyal no matter what category, but are fully on board with Rodriguez and allowing him to do what’s he’s got to do (the ‘In Rod…
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Respect for the Streaks
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Replay Beef: (First) Sheets TD should have been reviewed
It’s 21-14 right now. Michigan just scored on a nice toss from Threet. Memo to opposing defenses: we have enough trouble moving the ball just in general—-blitzing this offense is foolish. Thanks for that one d coordinator from Purdue. So let’s get this off my chest. If we’re going to have instant replay they’ve got to use it, especially in the right spots like on TOUCHDOWNS. On Purdue’s first score as Purdue running back Kory Sheets stretched toward the end zone his knee hit the ground. The good angle on TV was blocked by the ref’s gigantic hat, rivaling the ref’s hat at the 2004 Rose Bowl: Dudes, if it’s close you have to stop and look at it. I don’t know whether they would have found anything but they have to look at it! Come on. I don’t put this on Rodriguez, but he could have asked for the replay too, but that’s just there when the guys in the booth aren’t doing their job. UPDATE: Sheets just scored again on a nice play, absolutely a touchdown when watching on the TV. And what do they do? They review it! Just to be sure. That’s the right thing to do…what happened on the first one??? Losers.
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Blue beat Buckeyes inside Spooky Yost
mgoblue.com Halloween night at Yost was a big one for Red Berenson’s boys as they took down a gutty Buckeye team 4-3. I know there’s many of you around town that have been to a couple games, maybe none, yet you enjoy the Red Wings and perhaps even watch the Wolverines on occasion. You’ve got to get down to Yost–it’s such a great product. Louie Caporusso and Aaron Palushaj are fantastic. There are tickets available to some of the home games this year, get down there. The students are off the hook dominating the east of the arena, the band keeps the place hyped up, the hockey is phenomenal, and if you get down there early enough you can win the 50-50 raffle (Ticket number 1 was the big winner last night). mgoblue.com I’ve ripped on Michigan fans at the Big House lately, time to rip on an opponent. So there’s a Buckeye fan behind me in his late 50s or so, moustache of course. He’s yelling the whole game at a couple of Michigan players, e.g., after a Michigan player shoves a guy, “WHY DON’T YOU TAKE UP BOXING???” and bitching about referee calls the whole game. He’s loud but there’s some kind strange pitch in his voice that gets in your head. I’m actually ok with the guy…
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Carty Interview Part III: Radio, Evil Wojo, Blogging and Bruce
Continuing the interview with former News columnist Jim Carty. In Part I we talked about his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription and his feud with Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. In Part II we talked about some of his critics, access at the Capital One Bowl, on the accusations the News misled some student athletes during the athademics series, and on when he called Bill Martin ‘Barnacle Bill’ during the coaching search. In the last installment, We discuss radio, the good vs. evil in the world of sports journalism, bloggers and their place in the media and finally, we wrap up with my plea to make Bruce Springsteen shut his yap and just sing. MVictors: I see you’re still doing the WTKA Bud Light Victors Lounge, are you able to “enjoy” the lounge now that you don’t have to run over to cover the games now? Jim Carty: I’m trying to do them all, sometimes law school prevents that. There’s a WTKA staff rule, no booze for the talent [laughs]. MVictors: Are you on the payroll for those gigs? Jim Carty: For the Monday appearance and for the Saturday appearance I’m paid a grand total of $100 [laughs]. MVictors: You do a great job on the radio, you seem very comfortable.…
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Carty Interview Part II: Critics, Kolarik and Barnacle Bill
Continuing the interview with former News columnist Jim Carty. In Part I we talked about his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription, and his feud with Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. In Part II we talk about some of his critics and its impact on his personal life, on his access to the team at the Capital One Bowl, on the accusations the News misled some student-athletes during the athademics series, and finally, on dubbing Michigan athletic director Bill Martin ‘Barnacle Bill’ during the coaching search: MVictors: How big of a concern was some of the criticism of your work at the News reaching your family?Jim Carty: My kids I think are too little at this point, my oldest daughter is eight and I don’t think she’s ever been aware of the controversy I create. She just sort of thinks it’s cool that I worked for the newspaper and didn’t understand why I would go back to school. At one point during the Bernard Robinson thing, when I was writing that he should be kicked out of U-M, there were some phone calls to the house that really freaked my wife out. And in general, during the backlash from the project [academic series] I think that was very disturbing to my wife.…