Here are the Decal Champions for Week 2 by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – I have watched a lot of Michigan Football over the years – coming up on 40 of them this year – and I have never seen a QB looked more poised, more comfortable and more in command of a Michigan offense in his 2nd career start than Wilton Speight.  That includes some great, legendary names down through the years and even when you look at Jake Rudock in Game #2 last year, he was nowhere near the efficiency that Speight is at right now. I get it that Rudock was only on campus for a few weeks this time last year, but let these numbers sink in: since his 1st throw/interception last week, Speight is 35 of 50 for 457 yards with 7 TD’s and 0 INT’s. WoW!!! I’m just gonna leave it at that – WoW!! DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Spread option teams can make ANY defense look bad and out of position. While UCF did gash the Wolverine D for a couple of big plays, Jabrill Peppers was all over the field once again. There was one particular play where Peppers tracked down UCF’s fastest player and did not let him turn the corner. If Peppers is playing in the defensive secondary, #5 would…

For Saturday’s edition of This Week in Michigan Football History we go back 22 years when one of the most over-hyped players in college football was knocked down a notch by the foot of one Mr. Remy Martin Hamilton: [display_podcast] As always, this segment will appear all season on 1050AM WTKA and 1330AM WTRX epic KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff prior to each game.  You can hear it live inside the Go Labatt Blue Light Victors Lounge starting at 8am Saturday.  Go Blue! You can listen to all of This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. Follow MVictors on Twitter script after the jump

Ira opened the WTKA Countdown to Kickoff broadcast talking about how the first home game is like a family reunion.  He’s spot on. I love the opener.  Everything about it.   You really don’t need to have Jordans, Jeters, and flyovers or even a great opponent to make it special.  You just need decent weather (it was perfect) and a nice win (it was near perfect). 23.  But since we did have Jordans and Jeters…I got this shot when MJ entered the field: They whisked him to midfield immediately where he chilled until the pregame festivities got moving.  This was a good plan knowing the sideline is already a zoo and a bunch of haoles would have been glomming around MJ big time. GOATs + Woodley.  Dude, we all love Woodley and he’s arguably earned legend status in these parts. But maybe he should have picked the UCF game for a triumphant return?   Via mgoblue.com, holy crap Lamar Woodley, Charles Woodson, Jim Harbaugh, Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter. Uniform Updates.  OK, obviously there are a bunch and the Uniform Timeline is updated with a few key items – more to come.  Thanks for the tweets and pings. This one was subtle – the two varieties of shoe including one that allows the linemen to tape up (called spatting) and not violate the NIKE…

Welcome back Meechigan football – and welcome back Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis.  Who knows the Bo-era better than Dr. Sap? Nooooo-body.  Here are the Rainbow Warrior decals for the season opener. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – It’s difficult to believe that Chris Evans is only the 3rd Michigan freshman running back to top 100 yards in a season opening game. The first time #12 carried the ball, his stature and running style reminded me of Jamie Morris, who just happened to set the Wolverine freshman season rushing record back in 1984 with 573 yards. But the more Evans ran, the more it dawned on me – he was the 3rd running back to carry the ball for the maize and blue against Hawaii. And just like that I realized that Michigan now has Alabama depth – in year two of Harbaugh. No, Evans does not equal Jamie Morris. Evans = T.J. Yeldon. Remember when ‘Bama had Eddie Lacy, Blake Sims and Yeldon was the 3rd-string RB as a freshman? That’s where Michigan is at right now with their offensive backfield. Deal with it, Paul Finebaum! DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Seeing that I’m testing your memory, let me ask you this: remember a few years back when Michigan linebackers were slow to hit the hole? When Michigan linebackers would get caught up in the…

To kickoff season VII of This Week in Michigan Football History we go back a mere 365 days to the official start of the Jim Harbaugh era.   Salt Lake City, Utah of all places was the venue, and no, it turns out Harbaugh didn’t have any pixie dust in those khakis.  But we saw enough to believe that things were about to change – dig it: [display_podcast] As always, this segment will appear all season on WTKA’s epic KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff prior to each game.  You can hear it live inside the Go Labatt Blue Light Victors Lounge starting at 8am Saturday.  Go Blue! You can listen to all of This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. Follow MVictors on Twitter

By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Forty years ago, Michigan Football Coach Bo Schembechler had open-heart surgery. With it being his second procedure in just over 7 years, people were wondering just how The General would respond. Being aware of what was happening around him, and to squash any rumors or negative recruiting talk about his health and his ability to coach, Bo did what he loved to do – he jammed it down your throat. He conducted an interview to show and tell everybody how good he looked and how great he felt. But to make his point more emphatic, Bo would do the interview while running! Former Michigan Replay host Larry Adderley recalled to me that it was one of the more unique interviews he ever did. “It was shot out of the back of a truck while we were jogging around the field. (laughs) It was shot for Michigan Replay when Bo was in the recovery stages of his heart operation. (Producer) Bob Lipson and I were always looking for stories on Michigan Football and realized that other coaches shows didn’t pursue the same kind of features and segments we did.” Adderley, a former MSU football walk-on, also told me that the interview “was Bob Lipson’s idea. I had actually done a series on running earlier in the…

Following the uniform reveal there’s been much chatter regarding the potential for a maize jersey.  @UofM_graphix posted this: I saw this and booted but quickly rallied (to type this post). Legend has it that this has been done before.  No, not in 1964 despite what this oft-referenced graphics depicts: Never happened: So that wasn’t real…but apparently, the world did see the Wolverines in an all-maize way back in the day.  According to the book produced by my pals Bruce Madej and Greg Kinney Champions of the West, it was November 10, 1928, when Michigan faced the Navy down in Baltimore.  Navy wore their traditional blue so U-M came up with the alternate maize design – and apparently, they were not too well-received (via the Uniform Timeline): While that’s a grainy B&W shot, you can clearly see one squad is wearing a light-colored jersey.  Add that in 1928 they certainly couldn’t produce the range of yellows that you see today, I’m guessing the canary was more of a dull yellow–but yellow nonetheless.  And P.S., the numbers were only on the backs of the jersey until 1930. Either way – puke.  Don’t do it.  And don’t even try to invert the colors on the helmets! More to come on the uni reveal.  Note that I won’t update the Uniform Timeline with specifics until we see…