ational championship season of 1948. Before all that we lead off with a quick look at two of Bo's more dominating performances over UCLA on this day in 1971 and Navy in 1976.
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Dr. Sap’s Decals | Leaving the Snake Pit and 2014 Behind
Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis bids adieu to a painful 2014 with a final offering of decals to a handful of seniors. But before that, did you catch ESPN’s GameDay on Saturday? It included a nice piece on the rivalry and the Michigan banner, including a short clip of the Buckeyes tearing down the coveted slice of canvas in ‘73 synchronized with Bob Ufer’s epic audio description of that dastardly deed. Guess who put that together and shipped it off to ESPN? That’s right..Dr. Sap himself! Here’s a low res version of the full clip Sap provided to our friends in Bristol: Those painful dekes: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN GARDNER? – We watched a gutty and gutting end to New 98’s career on Saturday. In between the first pass/interception of the game and the fumble that gave OSU the clinching score, Gardner played his heart out and did all he could to help UM win. Problem is, he also helped OSU win. Take away those free 14 points and we have an even ballgame. I don’t want to remember Gardner for his interception and fumble. I want to remember him for his courage for keeping UM in the game. I want to remember him for his compassion when he went over and consoled J.T. Barrett when he broke his ankle. Instead, I…
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Dr. Sap’s Decals | Terrapin the Tail on the Donkey Butt
[Ed. Bless you Sap for putting some heart into the final home decals of the year after…that.] OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN GARDNER – To me, New 98 is the LaVell Blanchard of the Michigan Football Team. Great kid. Smart kid. Face of the program for the past few years. Much like Blanchard, Gardner has been caught in the middle of a coaching change during his career. Caught in the middle of a program trying to find its way. Caught in the middle of a university trying to figure out what kind of identity they want their football team to have. Much like we do when looking back on the career of Blanchard, I’m sure we will say much the same for Gardner: “Oh, the Gardner years! Tough kid. Never quit. Never gave up. Sad that his record wasn’t better.” At the half, I saw no one on offense who stepped up to spark this unit. This offense rushed for almost 300 yards and only Gardner got into the endzone. You can see he’s feeling better, but he is obviously still a shell of himself, physically, and probably mentally. There’s an old Canadian hockey saying about a goalie that gets peppered with so many shots that draws a parallel to a QB in football who gets hit and sacked a lot: “That…
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Dr Sap’s Decals | Northworstern
Bless you Sap for serving up decals after that rough game. Here you go: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DE’VEON SMITH – Now you know why coaches like Bo and Bill Parcells loved to have a strong running game. When you can close out a game, or at least milk the clock, it puts pressure on the opposing team to either use all their timeouts late in the game or drive the length of the field to win. Smith has given the Michigan offense the strength and stability it desperately needs – especially when U-M’s QB is basically playing on one leg. DEFENSIVE CHAMPION FRANK CLARK – Finally a solid, break-out, statement game from Clark. Dude was the classic guy who came to play right from the opening snap to the final play of the game. I haven’t seen such a strong and steady big play performance from a Michigan defender since some guy wore #2 in 1997. SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION KICK TEAM – I don’t want to sound like an old coach, but don’t EVER take another extra point for granted. If Matt Wile doesn’t convert his PAT, the score would have been 9-9 instead of 10-9, and all Northwestern would have needed was a PAT of their own to win. I know, I know, Wile had one kick blocked, but…
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Sights & Sounds | Michigan 18, Penn State 13
A few sights and sounds from the 2014 Penn State game including blue pants, a lightshow, Roy Roundtree pregame and much more:
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Dr. Sap’s Decals | Butt Uglies Edition
Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is back this season with his weekly postgame helmet stickers. Sap would do a backflip if coach Hoke decided to reinstate this tradition that Bo brought to the team in 1969 (from Miami, OH, mind you). Until that day comes, Sap will bring you his game Champions who will be decorated, albeit virtually, with his helmet stickers. I’ll typically toss in the Fan Award and the Editor’s Choice: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION OFFENSIVE LINE – Kind of stepping out on a limb here but, Derrick Green does not run for 137 yards and 2 TDs without some holes being created by the O-Line. Derrick Green does not look like High School Derrick Green without the Big Uglies getting it done up front. I realize the opponent was a MAC school that hadn’t won a game in almost 2 years, but I saw signs of progress by the Hosses in the trenches. I had a feeling this line would show some addition by subtraction, and now that the 2 senior tackles have left, this unit is starting to gel. Again, I’m not talking B1G Championship here – just saying that when you gain over 450 yards of offense, the guys up front are something right. Doing it in September is one thing. Getting it done in November is…
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Sights & Sounds | Michigan 52, Appalachian St 14 (2014)
People needed an old-school toilet-paper toss style beatdown on someone, and I guess it helped a weensy bit that we dropped it on the source of our epic humiliation seven years ago. Still, we needed 48 more points to erase THE HORROR from memory and in fact, officially from the NCAA record books. Look it up. Beyond that, I loved seeing the gaping holes in the line, it was great to see the #1 out there and there was genuine excitement when Peppers was on the field. Looks like Jake Ryan is still getting used to the position and we need to feel him more next week. So the general sense out there—that was fun, but now let’s block & run against a real team. Check back in Saturday night. Historical Games Notes: Primarily via #1000SSS: Michigan improved its record in season openers to an impressive 111-21-3. With his three passing touchdowns, Gardner upped his career total to 37 and earned a share of the seventh spot among Michigan’s all-time leaders in the category. He is tied with Todd Collins (1991-94). Gardner also moved to ninth among U-M’s career leaders in total offense with 5,280 yards, passing Tom Brady (5,180, 1996-99). It is the 38th time in program history that U-M boasted two or more 100-yard rushers in a single…
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By A Hair!
(Actually, by about two feet) Go Blue!
