I spirited discussion on the state of the program, along with some second guessing already. [display_podcast] Take: I’m a little weary of the ‘If Carr were coach they’d be 4-2 or 5-1’ or whatever. I’m a big fan of Carr, but the silly ‘what if..’ game is ridiculous. Take 2: I love that everyone’s forgot how to pronounce Appalachian.
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Shand Uncensored: Part II, Jim Carty and the News Series
Continuing the interview with former WTKA morning show host Dave Shand. In Part I, we discussed what Shand is up to these days, his lawsuit with Bill Martin and his thoughts on the current morning crew at WTKA. In this installment, I serve up a few discussion topics--this time on Jim Carty and on the News athletics and academics scandal, and Shand does what he does best.
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Shand Uncensored: Part I
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with former WTKA morning show host and former NHL and Michigan hockey player Dave Shand. The 90-minute interview was held at Mac’s in downtown Saline a couple of days after Michigan’s stunning loss to Illinois. Shand is in the middle of a lawsuit with Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, who Shand claims directly caused his dismissal from the Ann Arbor radio station. The interview is broken into a few parts, first, we’ll start with the basics: What he’s up to, the status of the lawsuit, and his thoughts on his old show and the new hosts at WTKA: MVictors: It’s been a year and a half since you were fired from WTKA, what have you been up to?Shand: Right after I was fired it took me a while to absorb it because we had just received the highest ratings that any show had ever gotten in the history of the radio station. I had just received a 50% raise in pay. Literally within a month, and we were right in the middle of the spring rating period, I was fired in April 23rd. No one ever gets fired in the middle of the rating period because you want to wait until the Arbitron ratings come out to make personnel decisions. If…
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Free Pass revoked?
So what’s the limit of Rich Rod’s “free pass”? From the text’s and notes I got on vacation it’s clear that for many of you there’s a line and the Toledo loss may have crossed it. I still haven’t watched the game but looked over the press, the stats, etc., and really there’s no excuse for that. In his road show to meet alums around the country, Rodriguez urged fans to ‘fly in formation’, that is, like a flock of geese supporting each each other as they moved ahead. If someone strays from the pack, Rodriguez said we’ll try to save them but at some point you’ve got to rejoin the main group and leave the stray to perish. I can’t blame a lot of folks from peeling off after Saturday. To me, beyond players behaving really poorly on and off the field (they’re not) and perhaps the team being disorganized and sloppy in games (they’re not), he gets a free pass from me. Said another way, I’m not drawing any conclusions about Rodriguez or his future in Ann Arbor on this season. Even if they drop the rest of the games this season. But even the most laid back ‘let-Rich-Rod-get-his-players’ drum beaters must have not seen it going like this. From the conditioning, to coaching, to allowing time for…
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Fact Checked into the boards
Is a Big Ten-affiliated bowl allowed to select a 6-6 Big Ten team over a 7-5 team? For example, if Michigan were 6-6 and Northwestern were 7-5, and all the other bowl spots were taken, could the Motor City take a .500 Michigan team over a Northwestern team with a winning record?
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Disney’s a Great Place…
…to miss a game.
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You can’t escape it
I’m in Orlando for a few days on vacation, posts will be light for a little bit. You can’t escape Michigan football though. On my way to grab some groceries I picked up WQAM and listened to former Michigan All-American Jim Mandich who goes by ‘Mad Dog’. (As an aside, Mandich, a former Dolphin, referred to former Dolphins coach Nick Saban as “a giant piece of turd”). I had a Michigan shirt on and while checking out, the cashier asked me how I liked Ann Arbor because he was applying to graduate school. I told him it was a nice town, blah, blah, blah, but then I heard a guy behind me ask, “Did you pay for that shirt?”. It was the dude bagging groceries in the next aisle who was flashing his Buckeye key chain.
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Power Index 6: Lions Unseat Buckeyes
The huge gap that Ohio State held in the preseason poll was gradually slipping away all season, and finally this week the pollsters had enough. The tight win over Wisconsin wasn’t good enough and Penn State takes over the top spot. Perhaps Penn State’s handling of Juice Williams and Illinois means a little more know after the beat down the Illini put on the Wolverines last week. The index rating for Michigan didn’t change much, as mentioned last week I don’t think the Wisconsin win made believers out of anyone and M barely budged. Michigan State is holding strong and has entered a top tier of five teams followed by a huge drop off: Takes and comments from the pollsters: Biggie, of MSU: Illinois is back on track. Michigan still struggling with stopping the spread. Northwesteern vs. MSU is huge next week….one team is going to separate themselves as the possible surprise team this year in the Big Ten. Penn State vs. Wisconsin, another big matchup. Schlim, the Bucknut: “Illinois finally looked like the team most were anticipating before the season (unfortunately at Michigan’s expense) Penn State takes over the top spot on my ballot, them seem to have everything clicking right now.” “As far as Wisconsin, Seriously you suspend the BAND!?!! I don’t know what’s going on at Wisconsin…
