Paul Bearer: “This is Paul and Paul is my friend. I will hold him and hug him and squeeze him and love him..” Much of the postgame chatter naturally focused on the personal fouls. My take—State’s mostly meaningless penalties kept Michigan in the game, kept drives alive, and the yardage from those penalties was U-M’s most consistent offensive weapon. M rushed for 82 yards while picking up 124 thanks to the maize flags. Was it dirty? Certainly a few plays were cheap and Will Gholston will be sitting a game (ok, or three) after the Big Ten reviews the game. But Michigan lost because they didn’t execute on offense and there were plenty of opportunities. It’s on Michigan. At times guys were wide open—we’re talking 20 yard radius open—and Denard either didn’t have time or didn’t see them or tossed a bad pass. I give State credit for those blitz packages but mainly for bottling up the running game. If this is going to work, M must get more production out of the backs. Hoke said it, “…We had 82 [rushing yards]. That’s pretty much it.” Quoting Dr. Sap quoting Bo, “AND WE HAD NO BLOCKING AT THE POINT OF ATTACK!" Now, on the pfs I’ll say this–if Michigan finished a game with six personal fouls, I’d be really pissed…
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Bo Enjoys Beating Spartans (1974)
I love this wire photo of Bo Schembechler that popped up on eBay recently. A photog caught Schembechler in the final few minutes of the 1974 game against Michigan State. Bo is hunched down and he appears to crank out a slight grin as he gazes up at the stadium clock. Love it: Let’s hope we get a similar grin from Coach Beilein at Crisler this afternoon.
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Welcome to Missourah
Before the season most expected Michigan to lose four to six games (me) this year so sitting at 5-1 at this point shouldn’t be shock. But when drilling down at each game, losses vs. UConn or Notre Dame or even at Indiana were stomachable. But if you insisted during preseason that one of those losses would be to MSU you’d get a little cringe from anyone, definitely from me. That hurt. Monday I wrote, "you could argue that the future of Michigan football is in the balance" on Saturday’s game. That was admittedly a tad strong but given the manner of the result, the scales just tilted against the future of Rich Rod in Ann Arbor. There’s plenty of opportunity, starting Saturday, to tip things back. This morning you’ve got a fanbase of M fans, as in Missourah, as in ‘show me’ this team can hang in the Big Ten. Sights and Sounds Check out my pregame photos here. I’ve been trying to post these just as the game starts so if you like this kind of thing, head here early in the first quarter during home games if you want to check them out. Includes former captains Mark Messner, Jim Conley, Denard and more. One of those pregame shots included the Screaming Eagle parachute drop which I think is…
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Michigan State (Pregame – Photos)
I’ll post a few here, my favorite first: The legend Mark Messner no doubt recalling his epic battles with Tony Mandarich, here with his two sons before the game: 1964 team captain Jim Conley says ‘Hail!’ Off topic, it was an incredible day there for tailgating. Here two wild and crazy guys lost their football in the 18th hole pond and took an unprecedented means to retrieve it: The Screaming Eagle dropped in pregame: