Martin to M Fans: Throw Stuff & You’re Gone ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 Michigan fans threw crap on the field after the refs reversed a couple of calls against the Wolverines in favor of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here’s a note from Bill Martin: During Saturday’s UM/ND football game, a number of objects were thrown onto the field from both student sections. The throwing of objects onto the field is dangerous and unacceptable. A golf ball narrowly missed a reporter on the sidelines, while a photographer was not as lucky. He was hit in the head with a bottle and taken to the hospital. The action of a few has disappointed and embarrassed the entire University community. We will eject any individual throwing objects onto the field. The resulting actions could lead to possible criminal penalties as well as revocation of your right to purchase season football ticket(s). Bill Martin Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
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Irish Prevail over Bumbling Wolverines 2005
First clever ND drive, poor Henne play stop #3 BlueANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 11, 2005 There were certainly a lot of questions going into the annual rematch with Notre Dame. The Irish were coming off a decisive win over ranked Pitt, and Michigan’s defense showed some holes in their win over Northern Illinois. But in one of the most baffling performances in recent times, the Wolverines stepped on themselves leading to their first home loss since 2002. To show you how dumbfounding this game was, check out the table below. To the left, the conventional wisdom on the street before kick-off. To the right, what actually happened during the game. Some of the pre-game hype was validated, but most left you scratching your head: Pre-game conventional wisdom/What Actually happened The game would be a shoot-out. The over/under was just around 60 points.Both offenses struggled for the most part, in the 17-10 score. The Notre Dame win over Pitt was meaningless. On Friday night Pitt lost to Ohio.Notre Dame scored at will against Pitt and moved the ball right down the field in one of the most impressive opening drives witnessed in Michigan stadium (12 plays, no third downs!). That said, the Pitt game wasn’t meaningless – Notre Dame has talent. Notre Dame couldn’t stop Michigan’s brilliant offenseNotre Dame stopped Michigan’s…
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M Downs Northern Illinois, D Struggles
Long run, sustained drives bring memories of 2004ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 Michigan took down a solid Northern Illinois team on Saturday but questions remain on the defensive side. Whether is was coach Bo Schembechler at halftime or talk radio after the game, the word on the street is that the defense does not appear to have the solved the problems that plagued last year’s end of season. On the bright side, the offense looked great, converting when it needed to. You had the feeling Michigan could have ran every play. Freshman Kevin Grady looked good in his Wolverine debut. His acceleration through the holes, and awareness on the field was impressive. Mike Hart still looks strong and M is obviously looking to use him more as a receiver. Surprise punter Ross Ryan looked pretty good; we’ll see where that goes this season. But the missed tackles, assignments, and in some cases, just getting beat by the man across the line (Gabe Watson!), won’t fly this week against Notre Dame. I heard Coach Carr’s press conference immediately following the game. He seemed oblivious to the defensive struggles – telling the press that they shouldn’t expect to keep teams’ offenses completely down anymore. He drastically changed his tune on the weekly Monday call, which they actually held this Monday (Labor…
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The Road Game Blues
Wisconsin Looms; Can M Buck the trend? Wolverines Struggle in first road game each season SALINE, MICHIGAN SEPT 21, 2005 Five seasons in a row Michigan football has headed into its first game on the road undefeated with sights on another national title. 5 straight times the Wolverines have stumbled. That said, heading into the Wisconsin game, Michigan has two positive trends on its side: M has won 6 straight against the Badgers (Lloyd Carr has never lost to Barry Alvarez) and get this: the Wolverines have not lost a Big Ten opener since 1981. Unfortunately, that loss was to the Badgers. Taking it back to 1998, Michigan has actually dropped 6 of 7 road openers. Here the summary: Year Opponent Result 1998 @ Notre Dame Loss – 36-20 1999 @ Syracuse Win – 18-13 2000 @ UCLA Loss – 23-20 2001 @ Washington Loss – 23-18 2002 @ Notre Dame Loss – 25-23 2003 @ Oregon Loss – 31-27 2004 @ Notre Dame Loss – 28-20 There’s no positive spin. This is a team that has and should have national title aspirations and basically they’ve been derailed right off the bat in all of these seasons. If there’s a good side it’s that Michigan has rebounded in these years, winning Big Ten Titles in four of these seasons. The…
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Michigan Ticket Holders Groan
2006 Season rounded out by Ball State SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 23, 2005 Yikes. Fresh out of 1000 South State Street, Michigan announced it is rounding out its football schedule with Ball State. Ball State. Along with Central Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, MSU and Iowa. OK, so MSU is always a big one, and Iowa will be a test. Traditionally Michigan has scheduled a major conference opponent in one of the slots. Shame! All this said, with the adding of a 12th game in 2006 Michigan still can make this right by getting in a big school. We’re watching.
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Michigan Football Preview 2005
What you need to know about this squad SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 18, 2005 Expectations are high once again for Michigan. Here’s this season’s look at the upcoming season and this team. Before Looking Ahead . . . – Any year with a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl berth can’t be look upon unfavorably. It was a great season. The Texas game in Pasadena was one of the all time greats. That said, the fact is the team lost 3 games, and easily could have lost five (Michigan State and Minnesota were squeakers at home). The lingering bad taste from the last four games is due to the inability of the defense to stop the run. M gave up nearly 275 yards on the ground in these games, and finding a cure for this is at the tip of the tongue of all of the preseason talk. Tickets – This year’s theme is ‘consecutive Big Ten championships’, featuring photos of old coaches, rings, etc., celebrating Michigan’s success in the conference. Michigan has won two straight championships and five in the last eight years. Replay of MSU game – The Michigan Ticket department did a good thing this year. For those who renewed their tickets using an ‘eCheck’, they supplied a free copy of the MSU 3OT game. I reviewed…
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The 2005 Tom Brady NFL Draft
Tom Brady, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, Tom BradySALINE, MICHIGAN APRIL 24, 2005 Day One of the NFL draft is complete and I’m pretty sure they need just to rename the whole thing the Tom Brady annual NFL draft. I’m serious…if someone is calculating the number of times Tom Brady has been mentioned this weekend please Fedex your piles of data to me asap. Tie this into a drinking game and the ER will be short on stomach pumps. It is ridiculous. ESPN even has two commercials running featuring Brady with the theme “who will be the next Tom Brady?” in the draft. At this point, I think we can drop Tom and save time by just calling him “Brady”. By the way, I think one of the spots is a re-run from last year where they say Brady has “two rings”. Hey ESPN, last I checked he is up to three now but since when is ESPN concerned with statistics? Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who lives for references to Michigan and its players. Buckeye fans and Patriot haters must be going nuts. In case someone is wondering why they keep mentioning him, he was drafted in the 6th round and is the poster child for the potential value of late-round picks. Other takes:– Speaking of…
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Michigan Announces Big House Renovation Plans
Michigan To Expand Michigan StadiumNew levels, luxury boxes, wider seats, and more for $200M!SALINE, MICHIGAN JANUARY 21, 2005 Obtained by the Ann Arbor News via the Freedom of Information Act, plans to renovate Michigan Stadium are out of the bag. Click to enlarge on the artist’s rendering pictured left depicting the general goal of the renovation (apparently orange is a favorite of AD Bill Martin). Completion is desired by 2008-2010. So what does this mean and what is the initial word on the street? Here’s what I’ve heard:– Many fans are concerned about the price tag but it will be funded through the existing preferred seating program, set to begin next season.– A few fans feel that the basketball arena should be the primary target of renovation. The typical response is that revenue from the suites and additional features will fund other projects at the U.– The report in the Ann Arbor News indicated there might be a seat reduction of a few thousand seats, putting Michigan below at least Penn State and probably Texas A&M as the leader in capacity. AD Bill Martin and others have already made statements confirming that this is a concern and will be addressed. (Translation: They’ll figure out a way to not reduce the capacity size.)– They would like to add an additional inch…
