You may have caught this during halftime of the Notre Dame vs. San Diego State game. Apparantly Braylon Edwards ran into Michael Phelps this summer as they were working out in Ann Arbor. Phelps was working out at Canham; Braylon with Barwis Here’s Braylon on WDFN (bottom of post) talking about working out with Barwis; he didn’t mention Phelps. Here’s the specifics from Peter King’s piece in Sports Illustrated: MARCH 17 ANN ARBOR, MICH. OVER A St. Patrick’s Day lunch at the Brown Jug, a University of Michigan campus hangout, Braylon Edwards, the former Wolverine, picked the brain of one of his off-season workout buddies: current Wolverine Michael Phelps. Swimming, Phelps told him, is the ultimate cardio workout. A light went on over Edwards’s head: You can’t sprain an ankle in the pool. You can’t wear down your joints. Edwards quizzed Phelps on setting up a workout. “This is what I’ll do to stay in shape between minicamp in June and training camp in July,” Edwards said. — —————– JUNE 26 ANN ARBOR, MICH. THANK YOU, Michael Phelps. In the second week of his pool workouts at Michigan, Edwards alternated track drills in the water—high-knee, hurdler motion mostly—with swimming laps. One day track, the next day freestyle; one day track, the next day breaststroke; one day track, the next day…
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Lords of the Ring
M’s finest, gearing up for Notre Dame with a little rough housing and a Sean Astin film festival:
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Good Enough, Michigan beats Miami 16-6
Another beautiful day in Ann Arbor as coach Rodriguez got his first win at the helm of the Wolverines. The 16-6 win was far from convincing or complete, but this win over Miami, OH was plenty good enough after last week. They were supposed to win, they did, but I think many folks were relieved to get this one in the books. The offense made some strides, the defense kept the RedHawks out of the endzone and that’s what we needed to see. Everyone can take a breath and as the Blue get ready for Notre Dame next week. A few takes:* You saw a few glimpses of what this offense, and perhaps this team, is capable of if they can get players in space. That wasn’t Big Ten talent on the other team but you can see some damage being inflicted on anyone if they get the right guys in the open field. It was much more fun to watch this game, despite being up only 4 points in the fourth quarter. * Threet missed three guys in the first half that were basically wide open and could have gone for six. That hurts. No, they weren’t the horrible tosses we saw from Sheridan last week but these guys should be able to make those throws. * Sheridan looked…
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Honorary Captains, Miami OH game
Slight of hand by Pete Elliott as they prepare for the Gophers I was looking for this, here you go via The Hoover Street Rag: * Pete Elliott, 1945-48 Bump Elliott’s brother, a QB. Later head coach at Nebraska, Cal, and Illinois and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 1994. * Ron Simpkins, 1976-79 A 1979 consensus All-American linebacker, Simpkins posted 150+ tackles in three consecutive seasons, including a mind-boggling 174 in ’78 and another 168 the year after. * Dick Caldarazzo, 1968-69 Caldarazzo only lettered two years, but he blocked for Ron Johnson (Original Recipe) as he broke most of Michigan’s rushing records and helped Michigan to its first Big Ten title in five years. That photo above? I just bought it a couple weeks ago on eBay. It’s Pete Elliott at practice before the Minnesota game in 1948, showing a little deception with the rock. Here’s a larger size photo. Full release from mgoblue.com.
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Major Biochemistry
Michigan senior cheerleader Kristy Bojazi made the big time: she was featured Friday on Sport Illustrated’s SI on Campus ‘Cheerleader of the Week’. Here’s the full photo gallery of the biochemistry major, you love it.
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Remember Last time?
Do you remember the last time Miami, OH came to town? Maybe not right off the bat, but that was the opener of the 2004 season when Lloyd Carr made the (perceived) last minute switch at quarterback, deciding to go with the freshman. Check out this ancient post on the game which was held September 4, 2004: First off, Lloyd Carr starting a true freshman (Chad Henne) blew my mind. The whispers around the program indicated that Henne was tearing it up during camp and pre-season practices. We’re still not exactly sure what happened to Matt Gutierrez I was up North on vacation and I remember hearing the word on the Michigan radio network a few hours before the game. I’m sure Eerhole was on it on the message boards. There was also a brief mention of a new running back, nickname compliments of WTKA drive time host Dennis Fithian: True freshman ‘Michigan’ Mike Hart looked really good on his 3 carries – I wonder if we’ll see him vs. ND. Those three carries went for 20 yards that game, and Yep, we saw him against the Irish for five more carries and 17 more yards. He made his first start in game #3 against San Diego State and blew up. Related: Spawn of M Zone’s has its Know Your…
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eBay Watch: 1976 Orange Bowl Stub
Next installment of eBay Watch features a somewhat unique piece of memorabilia from the Bo era, a ticket stub from the 1976 Orange Bowl game where Michigan faced Oklahoma. Here ‘s the auction, with a starting bid of $9.99 waiting for a taker, and here’s a snapshot of the stub being auctioned: For what it’s worth, here’s a cleaner version of how the ticket looked thanks to ticketmuseum.com, you can see they got a jump on the bicentennial craze right off the bat (1/1/76): The game holds a historic significance as the first non-Rose Bowl invite in Big Ten history (in the modern era). Under pressure from the Big Ten, much due to the dominance of Michigan and Ohio State over the past few years, the Big Ten decided that teams in the 1975 season would be allowed to play in a post-season game other than the Rose Bowl. The lock at the top by concerned the Big Ten, as these rivals cornered the market on recruiting pitches about bowl games. For Michigan fans, the game pretty much sucked and paled in comparison to the masterpiece put on in the 2000 Orange Bowl by Tom Brady and Alabama. Freshman Ricky Leach and the Wolverines lost 14-6 in a defensive battle struggle dominated by OU’s Selmon brothers, Leroy and Dewey, who…
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Larry Lage on WTKA, WDFN; Inside the Program (audio)
Freep.com – This won’t make sense unless you read the article or listen below A great segment on WTKA yesterday; you may have missed this as it was sometime just before the end of the show at 10am. Here’s Larry Lage, AP sports writer who covers the state of Michigan, on his week behind the scenes with the coaches and team. He wrote an excellent 3000 word article on the experience, check it out here. Contrast his observations with those of Michael Rosenberg, check out my interview– a little different take on Rodriguez. Lage: “He never wants to change. He still wants to, at the core, be the guy that’s leading Glenville State. I don’t think he wants to feel like he’s ‘big timing’ people.” And his final thoughts: “I like a lot of people had a ‘jury is still out’ gut feeling about Rich Rodriguez. After spending this week with him, I’m convinced that he’s a good guy, a good coach, and tries to be a good husband and dad. And I didn’t have that feeling for sure before spending that week with him.” [memo to Andy Evans, please don’t finish the sentence of the guy you are interviewing with a cliche’ unless you want to end up on ‘a reservation’]. Here’s the audio from WTKA yesterday, and from…