The Daily [and MSC] noted earlier this week that the Michigan student section is going to attempt to form a block M within the student section at the game today: On Saturday, when Michigan plays Wisconsin, students and Athletic Department officials hope to add another tradition to the repertoire by coordinating a human version of Michigan’s iconic block ‘M’ in the middle of the student section. Volunteers from the Michigan Student Assembly will hand out several thousand shirts — some maize, some blue — to fans entering certain rows. I’ll join a few others in saying I’ll believe it when I see it. But best of luck. While the Michigan students have done a nice job wearing maize from week to week, I think we might end up seeing more of a smattering of blue dots that will loosely resemble a treble clef. The stunt is touted as a new tradition, but did you know Michigan students have formed block M’s in the crowd for nearly 100 years? From the cover of Historic Photos of U-M Football features the students at the 1916 Penn game doing their thing, not with t-shirts but with cards: And based on this postcard found at the Bentley Library we know the tradition dates back at least to 1908: UPDATE: Hey, they did it –…
-
-
Hockey Tickets Arrive
That’s right, the Webmaster is in with season hockey tickets. In Section 22, of all places, which is my favorite section in the Big House! Of note: Maize Outs: – Ohio State 11/1 – Miami 1/9 – Michigan State 1/24 Blue Outs: – Teddy Bear Toss (someone pls explain why this is a significant event): – Michigan State 12/5 Senior Night: (glad to see they’re respecting the older crowd – Ferris State 4/28
-
Angel on WDFN (audio)
Angelique Chengelis from the Detroit News on Stoney and Wojo, talking bye week, talking kick return game, talking Wisconsin: [display_podcast]
-
A Badger’s Prediction, and the Tyranny
Gilliam, a fellow prestigious Power Index pollster and die hard Wisconsin Badger backer passed along his prediction for Saturday. Somehow his cousin planned a wedding at 2pm [see below] so he won’t be seeing any live action. Either way, here’s his take on what’s going to happen: Our defense is weak, once you get through the line. We are BAD tacklers, especially the safeties. McGuffie should have a field day. Just run the typical “Michigan screens” (I’m not sure if that’s in Rich Rod’s playbook, but it should be), and get him into space on the corners, and buh-bye…. Unless your defense is horrible against the run (and you are playing at home, and desperate, so that helps), you should be able to contain us. Our QB is not bad….and our offensive coordinator is outstanding (especially making in-game adjustments), so we will put up points. Michigan 34 – Wisconsin 23 [Note: Gilliam, you’re defense better be really bad for M to roll up 34] In honor of Gilliam the Badger’s wedding situation I give you a selection from Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch: “As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive. Family and friends know, after long years of wearying experience, that…
-
Fire(d) Millen, and the Millen Day Mix
As if the Maize Rage didn’t have enough things to worry about To pump it up a little bit a little audio for you. It’s a mix I pulled together of drops, Mike ‘Stoney’ Stone, and callers into WDFN, Detroit sports talk radio drive time Stoney and Wojo Show just hours after the Matt Millen firing was announced: [display_podcast] . My favorite memory of the Millen era? I wasn’t actually there, but during that Millen Man march back in November 2005 before the Cincinnati game, a reliable source of mine confirmed spotting someone toting a sign that read, “WE STILL HATE AINGE” including a photo:
-
Rosenberg, Militzer respond to Observer post
There’s been a lot of attention on my post of James Militzer’s article in the Ann Arbor Observer, revealing that U-M agreed cover up to $2.5M of the West Virginia buy-out. Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg sharply criticized Rodriguez for his handling of the buy-out. He wrote to correct me on his position regarding the University’s involvement in the lawsuit and to reconfirm where all this puts Rodriguez in his opinion: Just to clarify: I never suggested that Rodriguez fought the buyout without the consent of U-M officials. In fact, I wrote that Bill Martin never had the guts to stand up and end this — he absolutely consented. So did Coleman. That was part of the problem. But I have zero doubts that a) Rodriguez and his lawyers were determined to lower the buyout, as they and Bill have said on multiple occasions, and b) Coleman stepped in when it was going to personally embarrass her. That last bit is based on well-placed sources within the university. I’m reading your last two sentences now: “Maybe that means Rich Rod was foolish and stubborn as a few writers have suggested. Given that Rodriguez’s exposure was limited, doesn’t this lend credence to RR’s side of the story – that he truly felt he was wronged by WVU and wanted to…
-
Carty, Adelson call in (audio)
Audio from around the local sports radio dial. Below you’ve got Jim Carty of the Ann Arbor News with his weekly Monday call into WTKA 1050AM (audio quality subpar, kind of slow), then there’s ESPN’s Eric Adelson this morning: [display_podcast] Carty’s takes: * Michigan State is a decent team, heavily reliant on Ringer, Penn State’s still a mystery. Conference in general is down. * Spartan coach Mark Dantonio’s kind of filled Lloyd Carr’s role in the league (as the guy that is going run at you, play hard D, go right at you). * Carty was asked about Schiano’s slow start at Rutgers, said “Schiano’s wishing he took the Michigan job right now.” * On this week, the Bye week couldn’t have come at a better time, team will be better particularly the passing game. We’ll see more Mathews and McGuffie in the passing game. * Carty’s curious to see what will happen with the veteran running backs (Grady, Minor, Brown). Me too. * On Carty’s take on the state of the Michigan football fandom – “it’s all over the map.” Adelson’s takes: * Talks a little Lions, thinks they could be at a turning point here and he’s speculating that Millen could be gone soon. * EA loves Les Miles, he was very, very, very impressed with his performance…
-
Power Index, Week Four – The Conference Schedule awaits
Ohio State and Michigan continue to dip in the Power Index with respect to their rivals. Notre Dame took a big relative drop this week after their performance in East Lansing and boosted Michigan State’s place in the conference. The Golden Gophers jumped out of the cellar and judging from the pollster comments people are clearly keeping an eye on last year’s conference laughingstock. The Big Ten season is upon us so we’ll certainly see some shake-ups and shake-outs in the next few weeks. Here’s the current index: The comments from the pollsters: Gilliam the Badger: “Did Michigan State prove something, or just confirm that the Irish suck? And did that nick the Wolverines self-esteem in Ann Arbor? We’ll see next week, when the Badgers roll into town. Apparently Iowa and Indiana are pretenders…or is Ball State just that good? Did CMU deserve to win? Should the Big Ten and MAC combine to form a super-conference? Do I only have questions this week?” Biggie the Spartan: “Looking forward to opening the Big 10 season next week. We will see if Minnesota is legit when they play OSU. Wisconsin and Michigan is a a intriguing match-up and the marquee game will be Illinois @ PSU. We should find out a lot more about how these clubs will stack up with one…
