I caught up with Michigan head Soccer coach Steve Burns on the field prior to the Wisconsin game in anticipation of the huge NCAA battle against Central Florida on Sunday. Dig it: MVictors: You’ve got Central Florida tomorrow and you went down and scouted them this week. What opportunities do you see and what worries you? Burns: They are a talented team. It was good to see them because they are a lot better than I thought they were going to be. Their strength is in their midfield–they run a 4-5-1. I think the biggest thing is that they’re a team that’s not going to beat themselves, meaning they’ve got discipline and they play within themselves. We’ve got to go out and beat them. It’s going to be a good game. MVictors: I understand that tickets are scarce (for Sunday). What kind of crowd do you expect tomorrow? Burns: It could be upwards of 4,000. The chairback seats sold out in about two hours and I’ve had a lot of requests for tickets. I went out and bought 50 tickets and..I’m out, I’m out! [laughs]. MVictors: What’s going to happen tomorrow? Burns: Well I’m hoping that it’s not like this [gesturing to the sunny sky]. I’m hoping that it’s gray, rainy and bitter. I don’t think it’s going to be…
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Wisconsin (Pregame Photos)
A few from pregame down on the field. The crew from Slippery Rock – they got a huge welcome from the crowd: I don’t have any audio but trust me, it sounded like exactly like this: “Wooooooooooo!” Ladies Field Hockey champions, the “Woo” girls The other champs—here’s Men’s soccer team captain Alex Wood with their new hardware: Troy Woolfolk looking well; walking around Ball! Ball! Ball! This is your AD Dave Brandon, chatting with a few students about the new lights and the test he did this week. Always a great performance by the drum major – here with the leap.
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This Week in Michigan Football History: The Student becomes The Master (1976 Ohio State)
Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before tomorrow’s battle against the Badgers. This time we look back to 1976, as Bo was set to face off with Woody Hayes in the 8th battle of their 10 Year War. Here’s the audio and it’s deeply laced with the voice of the great Bob Ufer and I love it: [display_podcast] A hat tip to the great WolverineHistorian who compiled this collection of clips with Bob Ufer calls overlaid. Watching Rob Lytle fly out of the backfield and break off those big chunks of years is a quite a spectacle: The sponsor of This Week…is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.
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Toasting Crazy Legs Hirsch (1943)
Have a look at this can of Old Style beer featuring the great Elroy ‘Crazylegs’ Hirsch of Wisconsin.
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Fun To Watch (Illinois Photos, Etc.)
It is fun to watch! Wow, what a wild day out there as the teams scored the most points since this happened over a century ago: The folks behind this door in the press box were crazy busy: Oh the difference between winning and losing. Folks this morning rejoice, when a mere bounce or drop could obviously have changed fortunes. Hemingway made some outstanding plays today and thankfully held onto the game-winning two point conversion: And he talked about it after the game: Then there was Easy Treezy who set the all-time receiving record. I hope he saved something for Danny Hope and Purdue: Greg Robinson just after the final whistle, clearly emotional The offensive line was outstanding today; here’s Lewan and a tiny, tiny little Vinny Smith behind him. Looks like he can fit in his pocket: Kind of reminds me of this: It was obviously frustrating at times, this was probably the scariest of the many defensive breakdowns. No one was even close: It’s always cool when the band drops and covers the ‘M’. Craig at the Hoover Street Rag found the full video of the Wizard of Oz halftime show video, and broke it down here. As part of the Wizard of Oz business, the band formed the Script Oh no (after a temporary script Ohio). If…
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NCAA Presser (Photos)
A few photos from the event
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Military Appreciation Day on Saturday: How You Can Help
A few cool things planned for Saturday as the athletic department honors the military during the Illinois game: Members of the Wounded Warrior Project and Gold Star families of Michigan will line the tunnel as the Michigan football squad takes the field. The MMB will play a medley of military sounds from each branch and will be flanked by two 65×120 foot flags, held by members of the U-M ROTC and Student Veterans’ Association. Four T-38s will perform a fly-over. How to Help At gates #2 and #8 on Saturday, folks will be collecting items for the Afghan families and troops: For Afghan families: they request new or used winter clothing, coats, hats, gloves, Michigan clothing (nice!), pens, pencils, crayons, notebooks, children’s books, generic bifocal lenses, blankets, small toys, stuffed animals. For the Troops: black socks (Jalen’s got those), deodorant, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, gum, protein bars, Ramen noodles, canned meat, trail mix, and new or used DVDs or video games. You can also leave handwritten cards and letters. If you can’t make it they’ll be taking donations in the lobby of the ticket office at 1000 S. State Street between 8:30am and 5pm starting Monday 11/1 through Friday 11/5. Tim Hortons is donating up to 720 pounds (46,000 cups!) of coffee. When they mentioned this I saw a big…
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Meeemmmmorieees
The crew and UMGoBlog interviewed me prior to the season, asking for a few of my favorites memories. You can check out what I came up with here. A snapshot: 2008 Spring game at Saline (really) 1990 and 2003 Ohio State games Getting to know the Little Brown Jug 2004 Michigan-Michigan State game The 1998 Rose Bowl experience including Morris Day, JMJ, Run DMC, and Chuck Wood. Here’s the full post.
