It came down to lack of depth. We don’t have the depth to replace the key injuries and just didn’t have the talent on defense to hang with the big boys. We were exposed. But we’ll be back with more guys. Harbaugh and crew have done a remarkable job this season with what we have. At kickoff today of the final game of the regular season we were in the B1G and even playoff discussion. Sights and sounds: Honoring Legends: Talking with those involved, sounds like #1000SSS did a great job taking care of the families of the Legends this morning and for the game. Here’s the Oosterbaan crew including my man Ben McCready (47), godson of the great Bennie O.: Again, the Legends program did a great thing by putting these great players in the forefront. The other bonus was building new relationships with the current families and in certain cases, with the student-athletes who got to wear the coveted jerseys. McCready shared this note he received recently from Capt. Jake Ryan: “Ben – I just wanted to write and tell you it was an honor to wear the #47 jersey at Michigan. I was excited when Coach Hoke asked me and I wanted to represent Bennie in the best way on and off the field. Thank…
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Poof Goes the Vest?
The saga continues on the Big Ten all-time coaching statistics. Readers of this site know that at the urging of a pesky blogger, the Big Ten officials updated their records last season to reflect the time Michigan left the conference from 1907-1916. The result was a boost to Fielding Yost’s lead over Jim Tressel in conference win percentage by coaches from .833 to .888 (here are the current numbers, through last year’s bowls): Mark Snyder discussed the ramifications of the Ohio State self-imposed vacated wins on the all-time records in this recent piece, & note Mark corrected Yost’s official win pct last night ;) As Snyder points out, I think we can assume nothing is official until the NCAA/Big Ten complete their investigations. I asked the Big Ten offices to confirm and I’m guessing they will say it be resolved when the investigation is completed. [Update July 11] I got the expected response from the Big Ten’s Scott Chipman: My question: Scott, is there an official ruling from the Big Ten on how the Ohio State sanctions/vacated wins affect Tressel’s conference win percentage? Or is this all pending the final NCAA/B10 rulings on the sanctions? Chipman’s reply: Greg, As of right now, that’s all TBD. I see a few possible outcomes that could impact these records once again: Final Punishment…
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Jim Mandich of ‘69 on WTKA (audio)
[Ed 4/27/2011: Originally posted November 19, 2009 – bumping up this interview with Ira and Mandich because you should hear it.] Excellent interview this morning on WTKA 1050AM, as Michigan legend and current Miami, FL radio personality Jim Mandich dialed up Ira Weintraub to discuss Ohio State, 1969, the current team, Bo, Chad Henne and Jake Long on his Dolphins and much more. Gotta love that he’s flying up to the big game on Steve Ross’s luxuriously private jet. Definitely worth a listen: [display_podcast] . You can hear all of the WTKA podcasts here, anytime.
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Getting Pantsed
One nugget in the Ohio State/Tressel tattoogate Notice of Allegations [full version] released today concerns the Ohio State gold pants - the little charm OSU players get if they beat Michigan.
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eBay Watch: Gold Pants Galore !
Oh man, word is out that Terelle Pryor hocked his ‘gold pants’ charm, the prize Buckeyes get if they beat Michigan in the big one. The tradition started in 1934, Gerald Ford’s senior year, when then coach Francis Schmidt told his men not to fear Harry Kipke’s Wolverines because: “They put their pants on one leg at a time, the same as we do!” –Francis Schmidt, March 2, 1934 There are four sets of the gold beauties on sale right now: 1967 click to view 2009 click to view 2007 click to view 2008 click to view The pants include the year, the score and initials of the player who originally owned them. As a Wolverine this is funny but as a historian/memorabilian this hurts – really. That a guy would toss this out on the market while he was still in school? I almost understand a ring to the BCS game, but brother, not the pants! Ed. 12/24 – Sure enough, the auctions above were pulled from eBay :{
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Beat Ohio!
Cover of ‘Ohio Sports Forum’ magazine, December 1976 (on eBay now) Go Blue today in Columbus. (P.S. Nope, Woody couldn’t stop Bo in ‘76 or ever again).
