Death March Madness Finals! Six thousand votes later you’ve picked your man. In a bit of a surprise the winner of the 2007 Death March Madness tournament to determine Michigan’s next head football coach is Jon Gruden of the Tampa Bay Bucs. You can see all the final results in the bracket here. The Tampa Bay coach took an interesting path to get here, facing many of the men that have been directly engaged by Michigan in the search. Gruden started with a bye as the #2 seed in the Yost Region and easily defeat current defensive coordinator Ron English in the second round with 67% of the vote. Next he faced the odds-on favorite Les Miles on the day after word got out that Miles was staying at LSU. Popular Wolverine opinion at that time was that Miles manipulated Michigan to get more money from LSU. That, I believe, was enough to push Chucky past Miles and into the Final Four. If you replayed that match-up today, just a week later, my guess is that Miles would beat Gruden in a landslide. Gruden’s biggest challenge came in the semis when he just squeaked by Rutgers coach Greg Schiano who earlier this week rejected Michigan’s interest. Chucky took the title by tallying 56% over from CMU and current Cincinnati coach…
-
-
Shand v. Martin update
As if Bill Martin didn’t have enough on his plate, he’s still in the midst of working through the suit filed by former WTKA morning host Dave Shand, who claims Martin had him fired. Per Shand’s attorney Nick Roumel, Martin’s motion to dismiss the case that was originally scheduled for late November has moved to January 23rd. For all the posts related to Shand, click here.
-
The Best of the Les Petition
There’s no doubt the online petition to Save the Miles is making an impact on State street. The cleverly titled the ‘Les Go Blue’ effort to organize fans to convince Bill Martin to get LSU coach Les Miles in Ann Arbor has gathered over 800 legitimate signatures so far. Forget unreturned phone calls, I’ll got out on a limb and predict that this could be the difference in this whole mess. The petition asks for name, email and a pledge amount to the athletic department if Les Miles is hired (default is $10). A quick scan of the signatures to date yielded a few beauties: * #659 Joel Jackson – Pledged $10,000. Hey big spender! * #607 Edward Martin – The posthumous funding source of the Fab 5 gave no specific amount but offered “money and cakes if Les is hired”. * #231 CCBIV -tied some conditions “$100 if it’s Miles, $0 if it’s ferentz, debord, grobe, pinkel” We’ll let the accountants sort that out once this is over. * #472 Dave Paton indicated some bitterness in his offer: “$10 in pennies–and they won’t be rolled”. That’s old school retribution, baby. Nice work. * #277 Stacey guaranteed she give “Whatever is left of my will”. How generous! * Mike Hunt. This name shows up on many petitions for some reason…
-
Did Martin have permission to speak with Schiano?
This keeps getting better. Yes, it looks like the administration is keeping tabs on Death March Madness and took notice when Greg Schiano made it by Urban Meyer and into the Final Four. He interviewed with Martin in New York & looks like a deal is afoot. Jim Carty has a relationship with Greg Schiano from his previous job and recounted a story he told on the radio this week. And the gloves are cleary off for Carty. He couldn’t resist throwing this blow at our athletic director: It’s interesting to note that Martin, who insisted earlier this week that returning a phone call to Miles’ agent would have been a huge ethical breach of his obligations to LSU, didn’t ask Rutgers for permission to talk to Schiano. Turns out, Barnacle Bill can swim with the sharks when he wants to, huh? Ding! JC better watch out or Martin may try do him like he did Dave Shand earlier this year. UPDATE: Over before it started, various eports just after 9am that Schiano turned down the opportunity.
-
Miles Signs with LSU
Just released from the Free Press
-
Vegas Skeptical of Michigan, Big Ten
Oddsmakers have the Gators coming as a 10 point favorite over the Wolverines. As you might have expected underdog role is going be a theme for the Big Ten this year as six of the eight teams are getting points: Purdue 8½ over Central Michigan Boston College 3½ over Michigan State Penn State 5½ over Texas A&M Oklahoma State 5 over Indiana Tennessee 3 over Wisconsin Florida 10 over Michigan Southern California 14 over Illinois LSU 5 Ohio State
-
Jim Carty, WTKA from this morning (audio)
As posted on MLive.com today, here’s the audio of Ann Arbor News columnist Jim Carty on Sam Webb’s Michigan Insider show this morning. Obviously he talks about Bill Martin, Les Miles, the agent, etc. He’s pretty darn critical of the AD, perhaps rightly so. I think Carty does a great job for the Ann Arbor News and I really enjoy his time on WTKA, but drenching us with sarcasm and mocking Bill Martin was a bit over the line IMO. Judge for yourself: UPDATE: More from Carty. Just posted on his blog, some details of a conversation this afternoon with LSU’s associate athletic director.
-
Kill Bill vol. 3! The Martin Man March
Callers were freaking out on WTKA this morning. The Martin Man March to be scheduled soon. Suggested protest MMMarch route: – Start at corner of Stadium and Main (outside the Big House) – Wind down to State Street in front of the athletic administration building – Head over to Main Street and park it a Conor O’Neils for a pint. Then we’ll sort all this out. I’m working on picket signs. A few suggestions: 1. MARTIN SHORT (sighted) 2. At least we have hoops season 3. Let’s get Moeller’d 4. Now I know why the AD hasn’t returned my calls. 5. Michigan Sailing Rocks! 6. DeBord DeBlows 7. Hey Ferentz, you’re next! 8. Cancel Christmas 9. MSC: Maize doesn’t necessarily mean Corn 10. Did Pep make the NBA? 11. New recipe: Les Miles, Less Martin 12. Can Dave Shand come back now? For context read on why all the former players, alumni, bloggers, and columnists are furious, please see Jim Carty in the Ann Arbor News, and Michael Rosenberg in the Detroit Free Press.