Steve and Greg hit on the mess at Northwestern, more on beer in the B1G, and NIL update (not great), and we close with insight on 2023 Michigan ticket demand.
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Sights & Sounds: Zero Tolerance (Michigan 38, Northwestern 0) 2015
Fans & pundits grasp to find historical context at times like these, but no matter what you come up with doesn’t really help you explain or understand what’s going on. It’s head shaking. Michigan is destroying these teams. This game felt over when Michigan went up 14-0 just a few minutes in. It was certainly all but done at 21-0. Teams aren’t even getting decent looks at field goals right now. All this said – State looks better than any of these teams we’ve crushed. Connor Cook is an outstanding QB. Despite this, at this point, it’ll be a big letdown if Michigan doesn’t win. Sights and Sounds: Opening Kickoffs – The last Wolverine to take the opening ball to the house was Coach Wheatley against Houston in 1992. Coincidentally the big board showed a few highlights from Tom Harmon’s performance at Cal in 1940 – and Old 98 took the first kickoff back in that game as well. Sadly #1000SSS didn’t show this highlight, Harmon’s TD run where the final “defender” was Harold Brennan, a drunk Cal fan. More on that epic run & incident here. TDs in 3 Phases: via #1000SSS, the holy trinity achieved: • The last time U-M posted touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams was 2003 against Indiana. Steve Breaston scored on a 69-yard…
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The Chicago Hustle (Michigan 27, Northwestern 19)
For good reason, we spend so much energy talking about offense and defense, but you have to take a moment and acknowledge what happened with the special teams unit on Saturday. Offhand that was the most complete special teams performance I can recall and if not, definitely the most significant as it relates to the outcome of a game. In the slippery & windy conditions, to cleanly execute all those kicks (save the long FG), punts catches, and coverage during the game was exceptional. If Northwestern blew this game by not hanging onto the ball, the difference for Michigan was the play of special teams. The coaches have taken a beating since week 3 so give STC Ferrigno and Hoke major credit for the military-style discipline and execution by the special unit throughout the game…all the way to the wire: Hoke called that one of the best single football plays he could remember. While we’ve seen several ridiculous individual plays over years (and Hoke was there for the best–Woodson’s ‘97 pick at MSU), based on the number of variables that had to cleanly function and fall in place in those few frantic seconds it’s hard to argue with him. You’ve heard now that Michigan practices that every week, & Gardner joked postgame that he appreciated that they finally got to…
