Most were surprised how easy that went Saturday for Hoke and crew and Michigan together the most complete half I can remember. The biggest factor was the poor play of highly-rated QB Ryan Lindley, who seemed out of sorts all day. The U-M defense deserves some credit for that for sure but Lindley didn’t get a lot of help from his receivers who ran poor routes in many cases. Here’s Lindley trying to connect in the end zone in the fourth quarter and his receiver has a step on Countess – the ball is too high, off-target and just sailed: Commence the Miscellanea: Since I’m not going to tell you anything about how Denard fared on the field that you didn’t see with your own eyes Saturday, try this: Laces on Lockdown Denard’s “Xs” – In the postgame Denard talked about a recent trip to the lanes. He told the media, “I did all right,” and shared that he bowled the 200-160-170 series. The “X” in Denard’s Twitter handle stands for strike, and use can use an X to mark one thing off the list of things that you thought you could do better than #16. Switch to Schutt – Some nerd I asked Denard about his switch of helmet manufacturers this year. I was half hoping there was some…
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BTN to air Big Ten Coaching Icons
It’s official now. The Big Ten Network will continue its Icons series this fall, this time looking at the iconic coaches in the league. It’s not a countdown this time, rather, they just selected a legend from each school: The 12-episode series will stretch into the winter, and profile one coach from every Big Ten school, including Illinois’ Lou Henson, Iowa’s Dan Gable, Indiana’s Bob Knight, Michigan’s Bo Schembechler, Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote, Minnesota’s Herb Brooks, Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, Northwestern’s Kelly Amonte-Hiller, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, Penn State’s Joe Paterno, Purdue’s Gene Keady and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez. I did get interviewed for the Bo piece so my goofy mug might be in there. (And maybe in Woody? That would be a treat.) As far as the other selections, Lou Henson is a bit of a surprise. I guess I would have went with Bob Zuppke but ok. I’ve got a big issue with the Jud Heathcote choice, however. Without getting too far into this, I grew up in East Lansing watching Jud and I went to his hoops camp and I have nice memories of the man. And I get that the show can highlight the 1979 title and his grooming of Izzo & it will make for a quality show. But brother, Jud would be pretty far down on…
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Marketing Chief: Ads in Michigan Stadium? No Chance, Ms. Lance
At Sunday’s media day event, a few of us were huddled on the field beneath the mammoth new video screen on the north end of the field. The inevitable topic came up—would Michigan place ads on that beast? WLBY’s Lucy Ann Lance recently interviewed Michigan Chief Marketing Officer Hunter Lochmann and they discussed the matter: Lucy Ann: Will there ever be advertising inside Michigan stadium for a football game? Lochmann: No. I’ve learned from Dave Brandon that you ask your fans what they want. They don’t want to see a lick of advertising in Michigan Stadium. I think my resume would be updated if I ever allowed it in there on my own. It’s not going to happen; I think there are enough opportunities emerging in this digital world and other inventory to satisfy partners. Lucy Ann: But you have over 100,000 people in there, glued to it. You have the television coverage. Lochmann: Sure. It’s a great opportunity. Lucy Ann: There are elementary schools which have incorporated corporate advertising in their programs. Why not Michigan Stadium? Lochmann: You know, it’s a great opportunity and anyone who doesn’t say it is, isn’t telling the truth, but the fans don’t want it. You listen to your fans and if that’s their number one issue then we can come up with a…
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A Nice Day for Football (Photos)
A few shots from practice today: Troy Woolfolk looking fit working with the DBs The boss was keeping a close eye on the kickers Open punting try-outs (not really) Denard grabbing the snap Denard hitting TE Steve Watson Related: Heading to the Third World Media/Fan Day – Photos Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Little Brown Jug Club +1
Congrats to collector Dennis Dail for joining the official Jug Club. His painstaking work paid off, wouldn’t you agree? He joins Eric Mierzwiak (2009 story) and Mark Foster (2010 post) in the elite group and between us girls, I understand we may have a fourth member soon. Here’s Dennis’s story in his own words: I wanted to shoot you a note to let you know my Little Brown Jug is finally complete and being displayed in my Michigan Cave in my basement….took me several months of late evening work, but I wanted to make it exactly like the Real Jug. I’m not sure if I have shared all this, but I found this “1905 5-gallon Red Wing Jug” (that’s what it said on the bottom) several years back at an Antique Shop, the big one on the South side of I-94 just over West of AA, that is now closed. I pulled it out awhile back here and started the transformation process from a brown, ugly jug to the newly painted Little Brown Jug as we know it today. It took many hours of planning, measuring, supply purchasing and thinking before the project began. With help and tips along the way from fellow Jug maker Eric Mierzwiak and several visits to the local Sherwin Williams store, the painting began. First…
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Michigan Legacy Throwbacks Revealed
As if you hadn’t heard(!). I’ll say what I said before—I wish they had more specific references to history. The guy from adidas basically said that they trolled through the old team photos and found some stripes on the 1890s-era teams, and AD DB suggested that the stained glass (I think Ira has that trademarked now) design is indicative of stitching on the old block M uniforms. Fine. I would have had a design that pointed to specific elements from uniforms for a specific team or era of Michigan football history. That being said, I really like the helmets and the gray throwback facemasks. And—the jerseys definitely look much better on the players and over the shoulder pads. I think having Denard wear it for the unveiling helped—the dude can make anything look kind of cool, right? And it’s not just that they look better on the players. The shoulder-pad fitted “sleeves” are shorter on the actual uniform than in the version that the public can purchase. Thus, there are about half as many stripes and it deemphasizes that aspect of the ensemble (as do Denard’s dreads): Here’s RVB’s helmet: those are RVB’s forearms, not mohair extensions on the sleeves It’ll be interesting to see if those number decals stay on the helmet. I’m guessing a few will be displaced…
