A final edition of Sap’s decals for this brutal season, once again I supplied the editor’s pick and the fan award. I’ll do a final tally of the decals later this week. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION JEREMY GALLON – Nine catches for 89 yards and a nifty two-point conversion pass – all in a night’s work for the school’s #1 receiver. Other than a win, it was a nice way to go out for #10, I mean, #21. DEFENSIVE CHAMPION NONE SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION MATT WILE – While I wanted to see two touchdowns instead of two field goals in the first half, it was nice to see there was no drop-off in the kicking department without Gibby being there. Looks like Wile can more than handle the job next year. HUSTLER / SPARKPLUG TAYLOR LEWAN – Offensive lineman typically don’t flash their 40 times, but I gotta tell ya, it was impressive to see how fast(?) Lewan tracked down the K-State defender on UM’s only interception of the game. His (5.3??) speed may have been fueled by anger, but nonetheless, #77 never gave up on the play or this team. EDITOR’S PICK SHANE MORRIS – If you offered me that performance before the game, I’d take it in a second. I wasn’t sure about this cat heading into the season let…
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Sundown (Kansas State 31, Michigan 14)
At least there was this > A few final thoughts coming out of Tempe: Morris > Heading into the game I expected KSU to win, but mainly because I figured Morris would struggle and Wile would send a couple kicks into some kid’s ear well outside the posts. I was pretty damn impressed with #7, especially in the first half when the game mattered and of course Wile went 2-2. Morris showed poise, seemed prepared, showed some athleticism and smarts with the pigskins, and wasn’t the reason Michigan lost the game. And that makes this loss harder to take/understand. After seemingly pulling things together for the Buckeye game we reverted to a mess. Leadership? > The team just seemed splintered (guess so, see mgoblog) and sadly in the second half they were disinterested on the sidelines. The Michigan bench went church mouse. So this year is done and we’re onto the next. Look man–Jake Ryan will be a senior and presumably the leader of this team. He needs to start with seniors, set the story straight with the incoming freshman and get the rest of the team on board and help the coaches build a true cohesive squad. Coaches > Of course a big part of creating that cohesive unit is on the coaches, and this season was of course…
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Views from the Abyss (BWW Bowl Game Photos)
I’m working on a couple hours sleep after the game and hopping the first flight out of dodge, but here are a few shots from that brutal game. A huge thanks once again to MVictors photog Kelley Kuehne for getting it done on Saturday night. As usual I encourage reuse and republication, I just ask you give credit and a link. If you are looking for a higher resolution copy (Mrs. Lewan), send me an email. when KSU stole our cloaking device :( I have no idea Lewan and his moms after the game, grabbing her baby boy above, Lewan giving her his helmet below. Here’s a montage. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Welp
Update: All the pre-, during- and postgame photos are here. THE MODERATOR: We’ll have Coach Hoke make an opening comment. COACH HOKE: You know, we’re proud of the seniors who played their last game of football for the University of Michigan. There’s a lot of those guys, like the ones sitting next to me, who taught a lot of lessons to a group of young kids, and we’ll always remember that. But we didn’t play well enough today in a lot of areas. Third down conversions on both sides of the ball, in the red zone we didn’t play well enough. When you don’t do that and your offense can’t get on the field, you give up a couple big plays in there defensively. Also I don’t think we did a great job in some of the kickoff coverage. They hurt us with field position. This was a field position game. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you talk about the trouble that you had staying with Lockett, in the first half especially. COACH HOKE: I think, number one, you got to give him credit. I think he’s a good football player. Secondly, you know, I think Waters did a nice job of putting the ball in the right place. Yeah, you got…
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Early Sights/Sounds (BWW Bowl)
Just a few from pregame, much more later. More later and follow MVictors on Twitter
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Sap’s Salute to Frank Beckmann
[Ed. Saturday night is of course the final call for longtime play-by-play man Frank Beckmann. I’ve offered up a couple of salutes on these pages around the Ohio State game, but this week Dr. Sap shared a few touching thoughts on Beckmann that I wanted to pass along.] Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Before Frank Beckmann took over the reins from Bob Ufer as the “Voice of Michigan Football,” Frankie cut his teeth on the radio broadcasts by doing the locker room interviews. As a Michigan Fan who grew up with Bob Ufer, I gotta tell ya, I did NOT like Frank’s style initially. There was no horn blast after every TD.There was no, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 TOUCHDOWN MEECHEEGAN!!” call. Ufer’s passing marked the end of my innocence for Michigan Football. It would never be the same again. Sure, I was 16 years old at the time, but to me, Ufer WAS Michigan Football. Who was this Beckmann guy, anyway? Frank’s tenure as the Voice of Michigan Football would signal a change in my Michigan fanhood. During Frank’s run, I grew up as a person and as a fan. Sure, I would continue to follow the maize and blue, but the result of the games would no longer determine my mood for the remainder of the…
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Practice Quotes / Borges & Mattison
If you are reading this tonight – congrats, you are a diehard. Speaking of diehards, I’ll be at the game with bells on with a man on the field taking photos so check back in here starting Friday for updates from Tempe. Via BWW Bowl media relations: Michigan Practice Quotes / Chaparral High School / December 24, 2013 Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Al BorgesUpdate on QB situation? “Devin (Gardner) is still day-to-day, but if we played yesterday, it would definitely be Shane (Morris).” What is (Morris’) comfort level? “We’ve had a lot of time to get him ready and take the No. 1 reps, which he’s never done before. He’s come along nicely. He’s studied hard. He’s really worked at it. It’s showed up because he’s improved a lot from the first day we started bowl practices to today, which is natural because he has had the reps.” Not having practiced since November, how much could Devin Gardner play? “Who knows? He knows the offense. That’s what’s good. If we could get him a few practices, I think he would become very functional because Devin’s smart and he stays on top of things pretty good.” Do any young players stand out in practice? “Not really. The biggest thing is that we don’t have any disappointments. In recruiting, when you start playing…
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No Passing Fancy
On today, Jim Harbaugh’s 50th birthday, a nice time for another guest post from Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis. While it’s no shock that Bo Schembechler didn’t like to put it up in the air, check out this breakdown by Sap. Guest Post by Steve Sapardanis Woody Hayes taught Bo Schembechler a lot of football lessons. One that resonated with Bo was the importance of running and possessing the football. The thinking was establishing a powerful ground game would almost certainly ensure victory, because by the end of the game you would be able to impose your will on your opponent. When that happens, your opponent will have been morally and physically defeated. Besides, when you throw the football, three things can happen, and as Woody liked to say, two of them were bad. You think Bo forgot this? I pulled the passing stats for every game during the Bo era at Michigan (1969-1989) to see if there was any statistical correlation to Bo’s disdain for throwing the football and losing. Sure enough, I found something. In the 21 years that Bo coached at Michigan, his teams only attempted more than 25 passes just 23 times. The Wolverines lost 20 of those games. And before Jim Harbaugh arrived, Bo had lost 17 straight games when attempting more than 25 passes. In…
