By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Read the breakdown from Round 1 and here’s the updated bracket:   Here are the round 2 match-ups and winners, again, based on each running back’s signature game – all as selected by Dr. Sap: 1970’s Burton Region (#1) Rob Lytle  Season Opponent Att Net Yd Yd/Att TD Long 1976 Michigan St 10 180 18.0 1 75 (#9) Chuck Heater Season Opponent Att Net Yd Yd/Att TD Long 1972 at Illinois 29 155 5.3 2 15 This numbers in this pairing are surprising both players. Heater lugged the pigskin 29 times, gained over 150 yards and scored 2 TD’s in Champaign-Urbana. That’s solid! That being said, The Fremont Flash, as Bob Ufer used to call Rob Lytle, carried only 10 times against MSU in 1976, but #41 torched the Sparty D for 180 yards – an 18.0 yard per carry average (still a Michigan record to this day) – UNREAL!! Gawdy numbers all over the place, but Lytle gets the nod to move to Round 3. WINNER: ROB LYTLE   (#4) Russell Davis  Season Opponent Att Net Yd Yd/Att TD Long 1976 Stanford 7 116 16.6 2 85 (#5) Ed Shuttlesworth Season Opponent Att Net Yd Yd/Att TD Long 1972 Tulane 20 151 7.5 3 18 Another fullback matchup and this one is a doozie! Easy Ed…

Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Much like I did a few years ago with the Bo Brackets in trying to determine Bo’s best team, this time I decided to answer the age old question: Who was Bo’s best running back? There have been some great ones over the years and I thought it would be a fun look back on what these former Wolverines did on the gridiron.  Again, when looking back, I kept the backs in their own era or decade – this makes it easier when comparing stats and accomplishments. As a result, I put the best 16 backs of the 70’s on one side and the top 16 backs of the 80’s on the other side of the brackets.  I used the following criteria to help determine who would advance each round to become Bo’s Best Back: Round 1 – Best Stats (Yards Gained, TD’s, etc.) Round 2 – Best/Signature Game Round 3 – Best/Signature Run Round 4 – The Hypothetical Handoff. If you needed someone to carry the rock on 4th and goal on the last play to win the game, who would it be? Round 5 – Reader/Viewer Vote Alright, enough of the preamble. Below are the brackets: On to the match-ups!   ROUND 1 – ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS BURTON REGION (#1)…

From the Michigan Daily archives, Saturday January 19, 1901: The news was a little less fake a couple weeks later, February 1, 1901:

Check out this gem.  From February 1946 and the Michigan Daily digital archives.  Bill Mullendorf, an outgoing senior and Daily sport editor, composed what appears to be a farewell column. Instead of dropping a retrospective of the great sports triumphs during his days at the Daily, he chose instead to discuss an unplanned encounter a Michigan legend.  It turns out he bumped into Fielding Yost at practice in the fall of 1944 and he shared a few memories.  Amazing.  Give it a read – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed: Yost passed away few months after this was published. Follow MVictors on Twitter 

Thank you to the U-M Library, the U-M Bentley Historical Library for creating a searchable digitized archive of the Daily.   Within seconds I found a few never-before-seen nuggets on a few of my favorite topics like The Little Brown Jug and Willis Ward. Speaking of Ward, you may know a lot about the 1934 Willis Ward controversy that played out before the Georgia Tech game that year, either from this site or on mgoblue.com, or via the kickass and Emmy-nominated documentary Black and Blue.   I don’t think I had heard about this, though. It turns out more than a few folks raised a suspicious eye when, in May 1934 (yes, months before the Georgia Tech game mess heated up) the U-M track team failed to elect Ward captain of the 1935 squad.   Here’s one of the letters to the Daily in the May 25, 1934 edition: So nicely done, C.A. Blue. Thanks to a quick search in the new digital archive, I know that “Murmuring Michigan” refers to a piece that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, where the author described a few days on campus in Ann Arbor. As I understand it, he observed a movement of students on campus beginning to rebel against the established norms/biases of the day, like racism. He was right.  A few months later, the…

While the committee chairman’s words Tuesday night were promising, I still struggle seeing this happen for Michigan.  I think people agree the best scenario is Colorado winning on Friday night, opening the #4 slot in the playoff. First, via CFN here is how the committee selection process works: 2. Each member will list the best six teams, in no particular order. The six teams receiving the most votes will comprise the pool for the first ranking step. This is known as the “listing step.” 3. In the first ranking step, each member will rank those six teams, one through six, with one being the best. The best team in each member’s ranking will receive one point; second-best, two points, etc. The members’ rankings will be added together and the three teams receiving the fewest points will become the top three seeds. The three teams that were not seeded will be held over for the next ranking step. 4. Each member will list the six best remaining teams, in no particular order. The three teams receiving the most votes will be added to the three teams held over to comprise the next ranking step. We also know the committee values head-to-head and conference championships, but not necessarily more than the other.  And they only really look at these metrics when the…

I don’t see Michigan in play for a playoff spot no matter what happens.   If Washington and/or Clemson lose, I see the committee going for the B1G champ over Michigan and they aren’t putting three B1G teams in the playoff. The committee understands that if it takes Ohio State alone from the B1G, it will obviously ignore the conference champion.  The idealistic view is that the major conference champions more or less feed into the playoff.  They will debate taking solely Ohio State over Penn State should the Lions win Saturday – so much so that I could see Ohio State getting dropped out if Penn State wins.  The “only Ohio” scenario is less of a concern if Wisconsin wins for sure, but still a concern. Given the opportunity of a slot opening up, they will thankfully take the B1G champ. I think they signal this tonight by putting Michigan at #6, but even if they have them at #5, they will justify the B1G champ jumping them in the final rankings based on the championship win. So that leaves Michigan out.  But to me the consolation prize is pretty agreeable.  With the B1G champ in the playoff, the Rose Bowl has discretion and will take Michigan.  Under the scenario that Washington loses to Colorado to free up the…