As JJ McCarthy’s pass sailed diagonally across the field, a truck pulled up to the gates of Michigan Stadium. Its cargo was approximately 110,000 cans of that sweet nectar of hype, hope, and expectation. Of course, you usually received your annual dose around the first week of August each year, but you know, COVID and all.
To the Sights and Sounds from Saturday. This is my gameday peek into events off the field on Saturdays, aka whatever you call the opposite of Xs and Os:
Great morning. Legendary M stadium PA man Carl Grapentine dropped this with his righteous baritone pipes an hour before kickoff, “GOOD MORNING, after 644 days…welcome back to the Big House…” and that caught many of us including Andy in the feels.
Radio Crew News. Upstairs just a door down from Carl, big news. Jim Brandstatter and Dan Dierdorf will retire from the radio booth on the Michigan Football Network after the 2021 season. Brandy’s been part of the football program forever, and Dierdorf a legacy back to the Bump Elliott days. They brought an unabashed love of this program and very biased maize-colored perspective to the air in the Ufer tradition.
I got to interview these guys (Brandy here, DD here) before their first year together (2014) for the game program and they were both gracious as all get out.
Speaking of Programs: The century+ old tradition of issuing an individual game program ended, I assume for good. While not as widely sought after as ticket stubs, programs were a cornerstone of many collections and personal game keepsakes. I get it, it’s a digital age, it’s costly to produce, and you don’t want or need to lug one around on gameday. Thanks a lot, Steve Jobs.
As a consolation, #1000SSS issued a “yearbook” this season, which contains the static content that appeared in each individual game program [$10 at M-Den].
Here’s to hoping paper tickets last at least several more years!
Uniform Timeline. Due to the announcement already made about the career-achievement helmet stickers, there are no new Uniform Timeline updates from this game. Hit the timeline for more. I did get a shot of the ‘C’ (indicating team captain) decal on the back of Aidan Hutchinson’s skullcap which I hadn’t spotted yet:
We also know that the players will receive a sticker after victory, and Saturday was all-time win #965. Hoping it does not look anything like this:
Never gets old. I know this happens a lot these days but it’s still crazy to watch people drop in a mile above the stadium:
Mood. Sweet, delicious MAC-blowout optimism for the week 1 Mood:
The majority of this week’s Mood bump happened within this 6-second span, didn’t it?
Nacho Fiasco. You should have got a drink with that pretzel. In an otherwise incredible afternoon, I saw and later, heard, from many that the stadium concessions were a mess. Long lines, food shortages, and frustration for many on a hot day. Yikes:
It sounds like many of the regular stations were closed I assume due to the same staffing shortages impacting the service industry? And/or this suggestion from Twitter., “I think most of the concession workers are high school student groups that are brought in to raise money for their club or team. I’m guessing due to COVID most schools are opting out this year.”
Also, some asking people to lighten up about this, sure. But have fun coming back empty-handed if you brought pee wees to the game.
Man of the People. Juwan ‘Big Nook’ Howard and many current and former players were on-prem and that’s just a good thing.
Drum Major #56. The man up front Walter Aguilar has the initials of last year’s seniors engraved on his baton:
Go Blue.
Elsewhere:
- Off and Running – Maize and Blue Nation
- Hot Seat Vibes: Doing Good Things is Fun – mgoblog
- Michigan 47 WMU 14 – Game 1 Recap – UMGoBlue.com
- The Pythagorean Theorem – Ace’s Bucket Problem
