A few photos from Saturday before, during and after Michigan's 31-20 win over Indiana. Nice work by Mark Kolanowksi.
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Sights & Sounds: Michigan 48, Indiana 41 (2 OT)
via mgoblue.com Heading into the season we figured Harbaugh was the answer but that he needed time. We hoped that time would be short, even just maybe something would happen this year. We hoped that under his tutelage, a quarterback would emerge to lead this team. And we hoped somehow we’d muster a running game and the defense would come together. So here we are in mid-November with much on the line and with the events of the past few weeks—very hopeful. Rudock looked like a different cat out there, with a new level of confidence and toughness. At times he looked a bit like a young coach Harbaugh himself with the fierce runs on third down and balls to fire the pigskin over the middle. And as Sap said, the passing game is starting to click. The concerns for these 2 weeks are obvious. A winless in B1G team in IU won the line of scrimmage and the “yeah but Glasgow” excuse turned into this. We still couldn’t really run the ball and in space the first “man”, meaning mainly an Indiana 19 year old kid, took us down. The penalties were horrible. The linebackers were ineffective at best. We missed a bunch of tackles. But you are hopeful, aren’t you? Despite all that stuff Michigan is a really…
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Sights & Sounds: Michigan 31, BYU 0 (2015)
Whoa. What happened? Based on my straw poll of the press box, most media folks had BYU winning this one. So call BYU a good, at least a decent, team. That was a mercy kill. Offhand, that was probably the biggest beatdown of a good team since, what? 38-0 Vol. I over Notre Dame in 2003? Rudock made good decisions with the pigskin. Smith missed a couple of holes but it didn’t matter because he’s a beast. The defense was relentless and finished tackles. Special teams were sound. The playcalling was straight money and clearly, the playbook is being cracked open to the later chapters. Maybe there is magical khaki dust after all. Assuming we handle Maryland on the road, heading back home to face Northwestern will be fun to watch. It feels good man. To the sights and sounds: DER-EK JEET-AHH. The Pope could have visited Michigan Stadium today and no one would have noticed – here’s Derek Jeter: Above there’s Derek Jeter killing it in his Michigan hoodie, with suite ticket in pocket (does he really need a ticket? to anything?) with Sarah Harbaugh on the left. Any fool who tried to get too close to #2 had to deal with Big Tony, aka The Captain’s Cleaner: Coach Edwards. I strolled over to the opposing team suite (it’s…
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Beaver Beatdown – Sights & Sounds (Michigan 35, Oregon State 7 – 2015)
“I GUESS I HIT THAT HOLE YOU NERDS!” (via Michigan Daily) Following another Smith score to put U-M up 26-7, Harbaugh personally called for the 2 point conversion. He gave some kind of signal to the celebrating players – it looked like a bear claw from the press box. He sat hunched over outside the team area basically begging for Rudock and a few other guys to get the message and line up—flashing the bear claw gesture as hard as he could. Rudock and crew eventually got the message, lined up, and successfully executed the 2 point conversion to put U-M up 28-7. On the trot back to the sideline Rudock tried to slide back to the bench with the rest of the unit but Harbaugh put his hand in Rudock’s chest—stopping him in his tracks. There was a quick chat between QB and coach, I assume something along the lines of maintaining composure even after a TD and paying attention. After the chat, #4 delivered a pair of hearty butt slaps and Rudock went back to the bench. Here’s the deal – Harbaugh is in absolute control (most of the time) of the sideline and what the players are doing on the field. The only other way he’d have it is if the rules allowed him to play a…
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Freshman Quarters
Via a piece in the Portland Tribune: In the bowels are meeting room, training rooms and team locker rooms. The Wolverines have separate locker rooms for the freshmen and upperclassmen, a throwback to the Bo Schembechler era. “Bo wanted the freshmen to be by themselves for a year so they could become a very tight group,” Ablauf says. “The idea was, that would benefit them by the time they’re seniors and leaders on the team. We got away from that when the renovation happened in 2010. When Coach Harbaugh came in, he re-established the separate locker rooms.” Interesting. Don’t think I’d heard that, and despite personally being in the in the bowels (including the main locker room) for media day, I don’t recall seeing a separate area. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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TWIMFbH: Let’s Finally Play (Most of) A Football Game. Fergodsakes. (2011)
Brady trots out of the tunnel for the first time (& leaves headset in locker room by mistake) To kickoff the sixth season of This Week in Michigan Football History we dip back to 2011, to the official start of the last glorious period of redemption for Michigan football. Yes, our friends from Kalamazoo visited the Big House for a bizarre and historic day, when an otherwise obscure figure in Wolverine history made history as did Mother Nature. Dig it: [display_podcast] Don’t forget to catch the whole KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff on WTKA starting 4 hours before each game, and of course live in the Bud Light Victors Lounge when they lace them up in Ann Arbor. For those so inclined, here’s a little more from my 2011 post on the history of games ending early: It’s certainly not the first Michigan football game to end before the planned allotted time. Most notably two of the most famous games in college football history ended early: The 1902 Rose Bowl (the first bowl game ever played) ended with plenty of time on the clock because Yost, Heston and crew were putting a colossal smack down on Stanford. From the Bentley: With eight minutes remaining in the game, Stanford captain Ralph Fisher approached the Wolverine bench and offered to concede; Michigan consented.…
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The Game: Illustrated
Ann Arbor-based uber Michigan memorabilia collector Ken Magee has been busy on a couple of fronts. First, as a follow-up to their successful book The Little Brown Jug that covered the history of the Michigan-Minnesota rivalry, Kenny has partnered with Jon Stevens again to produce The Game: The Michigan-Ohio State Football Rivalry (Images of Sports). Like the LBJ book The Game run downs season by season in the rivalry using classic photos, clippings, and memorabilia as a backdrop. Stevens put a nice little FAQ together here. It’s worth a spot on the bookshelf next to the personal Wolverine shrine in your den, office, bedroom or basement (yes, I know you have one). While I didn’t contribute nearly as much as I did in the Jug book in The Game, Ken and Jon did use a photo of mine from Harbaugh’s opening press conference…but sadly not this one:
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Dechanalia – Potential Helmet Sticker Designs
Helmet decals. Honor badges. Or how about “performance stickers”? Call it a gut feeling but I think we’ll see them on the winged helmet following the Utah game but we’ll see. A primer on helmet sticker history can be found here. Naturally Dr. Sap has been pondering their return and he has mocked up a few potential designs for your review, poll at the bottom: 1. adidas logo 2. 1969 old school maize 3. 1969 high maize 4. Bo 5. Block M (Inside Oval) 6. Swoosh 7. Pebble grain retro 8. The Team x 3 9. HTTV 10. Mid-1970s Added: 11. Blockhams Bo (submitted by Scott from The Blockhams) Added 12. Plain Block M (requested on Twitter and mgoblog) Added 13. Via comments, Jumpman (2016?) Which one do you like, or do you have your own design? Send it over or hit me on Twitter. [poll id=”73″] Follow MVictors on Twitter
