The following are all just my personal opinions on certain pre- and post-game practices witnessed around Ann Arbor on the day of The Game this year.

---

Boren Listens to Creed:

(five saturn-punting zoltans out of five) I know you guys are on here. The awesome of your house continues.
 

---

You Honk, We Embarrass Our English Program (click for larger)
We played this game on East William, with legendary results. One of the reasons our parties were the shit, as opposed to, say, a handful of dudes standing outside, one half-falling into the street, was that we actually got the tense right. Starting a "U Honk; We Drink" site makes you part of a long-standing and great Michigan tradition. But this sign doesn't say that. It says "You Honk, We Drank". Fail. Take it from a UHWD veteran: make the sign before you start the game. Also: a keg works better than Natty Light or Beast. Your hearts are in the right places, but the execution is sorely lacking fellas. I'm expecting big strides next year. For now, you get one Saturn-punting Zoltan.

(Side note: how long was that girl dancing on the porch across the street from you guys? -- you can see the neighbors staring at her on the right side of the photo above. I kept getting punched by Misopogal, staring straight ahead for awhile, then looking back and she was still up there...)
 

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Sweet Caroline

Your song options are the following: something that is purely Michigan, or two things that are pop songs everyone knows the words to. You get to text your decision. How the fuck did we get "Sweet Caroline" instead of "The Hawaiian War Chant?" I'm fine with texting-based marketing campaigns by the Athletic Department, but c'mon, people, rig the vote and give us the War Chant. And then play "Temptation" because you can't have one without the other.
 

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Seven Nation Army

Every sports venue now plays this. Ohio State fans got all excited when we piped it in. This was after their band had played the song like eight times already. I've come over: piped in music at the Big House when the Michigan Marching Band makes as much sense as having Creed playing from the loudspeakers during a Phish concert.
 

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"Pryor Has Swine Flu"

Michigan is known for having really clever t-shirts, e.g. "Zoltan: Space Emperor (of Space)," "Charlie Weiss Tried to Eat Me," (suggestion: child-size t-shirt that says "Jim Tressel Tried to Touch Me.") But I don't get this: Swine Flu isn't funny. I had Swine Flu a couple of weeks ago. People die from Swine Flu. But that has nothing to do with this t-shirt. Because really, what does Pryor and Swine Flu have in common? Do people stay away from Pryor for fear of getting Pryor diseases or something? I don't get it. If there's something more interesting about this t-shirt than a 2nd grade non sequitur insult, please inform me.

Well, I’d hoped that we wouldn’t have to do the in-season awards for another month or so, but unfortunately the season is now over.  I also considered waiting on this, just to give everyone time to get over the emotions of the season, but I figured doing this now might help everyone move on.

Here’s how the nominations are going to work.  We’re going to use MGoPoints and comments.  It’s the best way I could think of.  Please submit nominations in a comment below.  Users will vote for the nominations by upvoting the comment, or if they can’t vote then reply to the comment and agree with it.  Please do not downvote any nominations, as that will skew the results.

I will leave this open for a few days, until the activity has obviously died down, then I will count the votes/positive responses to come up with 2-4 finalists for each category.  Then the nominees will be listed so that everyone can vote on them.

As these are just nominations, feel free to vote for more than 1.

For nominations in categories that are post related, please link to the post being nominated.

Here are the categories:

Best Diary (Analysis)
Best Diary (Humorous)
Best Diary/Post (recurring)
Best Post (Analysis)
Best Post (Humorous and/or OT)
Best Poster (as in user providing the consistently best posts)
Best Commenter (user providing the consistently best comments)
Comeback Poster of the Year (someone who got neg-banged but has since redeemed himself)
Best Troll (Rival fan who posts quality comments)
Best Avatar
Best Graphic Art (MS Paint, T-shirt mockups, photoshop work, etc)
Best divergent conversation (when the comments get way OT of the original post)
Biggest Meltdown/Negbang
Best Use of Google to Find Stupid Movie Quote, GIF or Snark to respond to idiot post
Most Memorable Quote by Poster

UPDATE 11/24: Brian suggested on Monday's Unverified Voracity that we get a Paypal account so you can donate directly. We do accept $$$, but for legalese reasons we much prefer in-kind donations, i.e., buy a gift.

An easy way to do this:

Buy it from Amazon.com

(if you use the link above you will give Brian credit for it),

and have it shipped to:

Mitch Albom Christmas Party
c/o Salvation Army/Booth Services
3737 Humboldt
Detroit, MI  48208

E-mail us the tracking info if you can.

Make sure it is unwrapped.

If you or your organization just want to give an online donation and be done with it, donate to S.A.Y. Detroit: https://drmm.org/donate1.htm

This qualify as a 501(c)3 organization for tax receipts.

It's Mitch's organization, which we can access directly for this event.

Also: Your best e-mail contact for any questions is to e-mail [email protected]. You will get Nancy Welber Barr, who was V.I.'s president, and is organizing the Booth Shelter Party (the one Mitch will be at). You can e-mail me, too, if you like.

/Update
-------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hi, I'm Misopogon.

You may know me from such incredibly long diaries such as The Decimated Defense, Data-Mining the HenneChart, and pre-OSU, Hamlet-inspired emo.

This is not one such diary. Rather it is attempt to trade in my good will and MGoPoints, such as they are, for some srsly help with a community service project now and up to the morning of Saturday, Dec. 5.

What U Talkin Bout?

The event is called "Adopt-a-Shelter."

 

and

This is a community service thing that I do every year to bring some holiday cheer to homeless kids. It used to be a signature event of Volunteer Impact.

Mitch Albom's Time to Help organization runs one of the shelters. He will be there, operating as a kind of Master of Ceremonies. Misopogal will be there, operating as a kind of Master of the Arts&Crafts and Cookie Decoration operation. I will be there, operating as "oooohhhh are you [Misopogal]'s BOY-FRIEND?"

We basically go to several homeless shelters in Detroit and give the kids there a Christmas party, complete with Santa, face-painting, pizza and cake, activities, and -- here's the operative part -- gifts.
 

Ah, a Point Emerges...

 

The gifts are all donations from Not-Living-In-a-Homeless-Shelter Metro-Detroiters and businesses. They're small gifts -- like $15 things.

They are new and unwrapped

The way it works is the parents go "shopping" for their kids' gifts while we keep the tykes distracted with face painting, and pizza, and dancing, and a short, jolly, obese, bearded elf in a red suit.

You also can just donate like $15 bucks, and that'll go directly into the big Toys R Us run. If you wanna do that, get it in to Julie Kroflich (248) 478-5168 before Nov. 30.
 

What Kind of Gifts?

Well, first of all, things that are NOT guns, swords, violent comic books, etc. No perfume, cologne, body sprays or mouthwash, or anything else containing alcohol of any sort. No nail files or any other sharp items. Nothing with stickers.

Second, they have to be new, still in the packaging.

If you have any used strollers in good condition, they would be most welcome for the new moms who often don't have the resources to buy a stroller and must constantly hold their babies. Strollers are in addition to needing gifts to stock the "store."

Michigan apparel is totally cool. You will probably make some kid blue for life.

If you've got a gift, contact Julie Kroflich -- (248) 478-5168.

As for suggestions, this being MGoBlog and all, I think that might best be shown in a ..

data table?

data table.
 

Infant/Toddler	Child (4-12 Years)	Teen	Parent
Diapers	Underwear	Underwear	Underwear
Sleepers	Sweat suits	Sweat suits	Sweat suits
Onesies	Socks	Socks	Purses
Socks	Hats	Hats	Socks
Hats/mittens	Mittens	Mittens	Hats
Coats	Coats	Coats	Mittens
	$15 Gift certificates for Payless shoes	$15 Gift certificates for Payless shoes	Coats
	Board games	Board games	$15 Gift certificates for Payless shoes
	Stuffed animals	Radio walkman	Resume paper and envelopes
	Activity books	Jewelry kits	Radio walkman
	Puzzles	Puzzles	Crossword puzzles
	Dolls	Books	Books
	Books	Notebooks/pens
	Toy cars/trucks

Update 11/25: Age Spread of Current Residents:

I got numbers on the ages of the kids who will be at the shelter, so you can decide for yourself what target to hit:

Age	Boys:	Girls:
Infant	9	6
2	2	2
3	8	2
4	4	4
5	3	0
6	3	2
7	1	3
8	3	1
9	2	3
10	3	1
11	0	3
12	0	1
13	0	2
14	0	0
15	0	2
16	0	2
17	1	0

So lots and lots of toddlers and infants. Very short on boys +10 (which sucks because we just got a lot of cool t-shirts). Teenage girl gifts are in short supply.
 

Okay, What Do I Do With It?

Contact Julie Kroflich -- (248) 478-5168.

OR -- you can bring it down yourself to the:

Booth Evangeline Shelter
3737 Humboldt
Detroit, MI 48208

Walk in and say it's for the "Adopt-a-Shelter" party on Dec. 5.

Is That All?

We also could use stuff donations: This is like, say, if you own a pizza joint and can donate pizza for 200 people, or orange juice/donuts/bagels for 200 people. Or cream cheese.

Or balloons, game prizes, arts&crafts stuff.

One year we had a Saturn Dealership give us 50 empty popcorn boxes (don't ask), and they were awesome. Another year we had paper crowns from a certain restaurant chain that kids decorated. You know what schlock you got.

We have the forms if you want tax receipts for the donations.

Or if you're a videographer, and could record and edit to create like a 3-5 minute video. Chances are it would be put on Mitch's Albom's website.

Volunteers: The Genesis II House (the not Mitch Albom one) still needs like four more solid volunteers. The Booth Evangeline Shelter could use more still I think. I will update as I get more info.

The gifts are what we need most right now.

If you can help, call Julie Kroflich at (248) 478-5168. You can also e-mail me, or Mitch's organization at [email protected].

Happy Holidays, and Go Blue!

Well now that we got the nagging question of whether we'll play in Detroit, Tempe, San Antonio, or DC out of the way (damn freshman being freshman-y), let's look objectively, without sorrow at the BCS&Big Ten bowl pictures...

First the BCS
*****************

Well I think this weekend cleared a lot up. What we know:

1) Fla/Ala winner and Tex are in the nat'l championship game as long as Tex keeps winning. Even a loss by Fla or Ala before the SEC championship game really won't matter as much as the SEC championship game is now essentially a play-in game for the nat'l title slot as either the #1 or #2 seed.

2) Provided TCU keeps winning, 3 of the 4 at-large slots are locked up. Fla/Ala loser, TCU, and a 2nd Big Ten team between Iowa and Penn St. Big East is likely only going to get one team (except for a scenario I'll outline in a second) and that will be the winner of Pitt/Cincy.

3) If Texas slips, it will become a voter free-for-all as to who gets the #2 slot in the title game. Right now, while TCU is ahead of Cincy in the BCS standings and human polls, a big time showing by Cincy against Pitt may be enough to vault Cincy ahead of TCU in human polls and the computer margin narrows to the point where Cincy goes ahead. But I also believe that we are staring right down the barrel of a TCU in the nat'l title game with one Nebraska upset of Texas.

So with that here's the predictions (special citation to Jerry Palm of CollegeBCS.com whose interview on Rivals radio on Friday reinforced some of my ideas) Reminder, only the Top 14 in BCS standings are eligible for selection as an at-large, and only two teams from a conference can be selected:

BCS Nat'l Championship: Fla v. Texas
Rose: tOSU v. Oregon (all but locked in)
Fiesta: Ok St v. TCU
Sugar: Alabama v. Penn St
Orange: Ga Tech v. Cincy

So here's how the selections went for me:
- Fla beats Ala to get the title slot.
- Texas beats Neb to get the title slot.
- Rose gets Big Ten Champ (tOSU) & Pac-10 champ (assumed Oregon, but could be Oregon St if they win next week); Orange gets ACC champ (Ga Tech)
- Sugar gets first at-large selection to replace Florida and they take slam dunk Alabama
- Fiesta gets next selection to replace Texas. While they could take TCU, I think they'll actually take a 2-loss Big 12 Ok St 
- Now we go to the actual "at-large order", and this year its Orange, Fiesta, Sugar. Orange gets first pick and they take undefeated Cincinnati out of the Big East
- Fiesta is next, and they get either TCU (who has to be picked) or an attractive 2nd Big Ten team. I'm going to guess this time they'll take TCU who being from nearer Texas and the populous Dallas/FtWorth area will be a better travel option.
- Sugar gets the remainder, and they take Penn St for a salavating Alabama v. JoePa matchup that will be the 2nd best TV game of the BCS series. Sorry Iowa, but PennSt travels better and has better cache in terms of TV ratings.

Other thoughts:
- Pitt with an upset of Cincy will get the Big East bid, but a loss probably means they knock themselves out of an at large bid unless both TCU and Boise lose, making a potential Fiesta Bowl of Pitt and Penn St a possibility
- A Texas loss will throw the whole system into chaos. Neb would get the Fiesta Bowl bid leaving Texas as an at-large selection to the Sugar or Orange. My guess would be that the Orange would prefer Tex over Cincy/TCU leftover (whoever doesn't get the title game birth), but the Sugar would love them some Alabama-Texas action. That would  mean then that Ok St wuld get knocked out BCS contention (2-team conference rule) leaving Penn St to glide into either Fiesta against Neb or Orange against Ga Tech.
- Clemson is still alive but they have to beat Ga Tech, and in that case, just swap out GT with Clemson in the predictions.

So with that settled, let's go to the Big Ten.

It's pretty much settled that the Big Ten will get a 2nd BCS team this year (either Penn St or Iowa-- my money's on Penn St as a better TV draw and hence more attractive). Big Ten also only has 7 teams bowl eligible, and with 2 BCS teams, will be left out of one bowl game.

Hence, the predictions:
Rose: tOSU
BCS At-LArge: Penn St
Capitol One Bowl (BT2): Iowa
Outback (BT3): Wisconsin
ChampsSports (BT4): Northwestern
Alamo (BT5): Mich St
Insight (BT6): Minnesota
Pizza Pizza (BT7): no qualifiers

About the only shenanigans here would be the Alamo&Insight swapping teams and really it's not going to make much of a difference. Not too much controversy either... NW / Wiscy is a pick 'em from resume standpoints, but Wiscy travels much much better so the Outback is an easy pick for them.

The biggest intrigue for Big Ten bowls, is actually regarding a non-Big 10 team. A 6-6 ND would get shut out of all their bowl tie-ins leaving them to search for a bowl game. The open games in terms of conferences not having enough teams to fill slots are:
- Pizza Pizza Bowl (BT, Detroit)
- Eagle Bank Bowl (ACC, Wash DC)
- Humanitarian Bowl (MWC, Boise)
- GMAC (ACC, Mobile)

Humanitarian Bowl probably is going to want a Western team just for travel reasons (6-6 Kansas if they win this weekend?), and barring that are going to have to fight tooth/nail for another Eastern time zone team to come out that way (hello MAC!). GMAC may be out if Duke beats Wake Forest and qualifies at 6-6 (this may be sketchy-- would a 6 win team with a conference tie-in get in over a 7-win at-large team? I don't know the rules on that). Pizza Pizza and Eagle Bank seem to be the likely choices for a 6-6 ND. The wrinkle is that a 6-win team can't go if there are 7 win teams available, so according to Mandel at si.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/11/23/bowl.projections/index.html) , Mid Tenn St and No Ill have seven, a Bowl Green win would get them to 7 wins, and if a third Sun Belt team qualifies (LA-Lafayette or LA-Monroe) with 7-wins, ND may not go bowling AT ALL.

Wow, what would be worse, us not going bowling after a 4-0 start roster limitations noted, or 5-Star Charlie's OMG AWESOME recruiting classes not going bowling at all in year 5??

Disclaimer: before anyone gets TOO excited, I'm not comparing Rich Rod with John L, but the way the seasons started and ended are eerily similar. Let's hope our 2010 won't be like MSU's 2006 Season (another bowl-less meandering that got John L fired).

During the Purdue meltdown, the announcers made mention of Michigan's fragile psyche and how the team seemed to collapse when a play or two went against it. Right about the time we surrendered the ill-covered on-side kick, followed by a 50+ yd TD bomb to a wide-open WR, I started thinking about what this Michigan team reminded me of.

Not exactly the 2005 UM team, Lloyd's worst team that finished 7-5. I only wished that we could have that team back again, at least their record. That team blew 2nd half leads to Wisconsin, Minnesota, OSU, and Nebraska in losing gut-wrenching games. Without the Henne-to-Manningham TD at the end of the PSU game and a great catch by Jason Avant in OT at Iowa (which set up the winning TD), we would have lost 6 games that we led in the 2nd half. But, that team still did deliver a few beautiful wins, including two on the road. (I was at both the PSU win and at Iowa for the OT win in back-to-back weeks.)

So...just who did 2009 UM resemble?

Well, consider the 2005 MSU team. They started with a few easy wins and then a thriller of a win at ND in OT. You might recall that a few zealous Spartan players promptly planted the S flag on the ND field (a mighty classless act that has NOT been duplicated by any RichRod teams in the past, even going back to WVU).

Sparty then rolled to victory two more times, including a blowout win at Illinois. UM stumbled into East Lansing a humbled 2-2, playing Sparty at 4-0. This was finally the chance to bury UM and possibly send them home without a bowl game at all. The game went back and forth, before UM blew a chance to win at the end, when Garrett Rivas shanked a short FG, similar to the Olnesavage shank yesterday vs. OSU. Sparty missed a FG (barely) in OT, and Rivas drilled the game winner.

Sparty proceeded to lose 4 of the next 5 games and then faced a must-win home game vs. PSU. Sparty played well but lost 31-22. Sparty QB Drew Stanton had a bunch of turnovers, similar to Forcier yesterday. Sparty ended home for the year, even though UM felt down after the season, losing an uninspired Alamo Bowl game to a Bill-Callahan-coached Nebraska team (Callahan = Ron Zook w/o the recruiting ability).

While NO bad season revolves around 1 or 2 bad plays, most seasons that turn sour seem to have a key southward-turning point. MSU's undoubtedly occurred during a classic John L meltdown at the end of the half vs. OSU. MSU had a surprising 17-7 lead and was trying a FG on the last play of the half. MSU had 10 men on the field and the FG was blocked and returned for a TD. MSU fell apart and never recovered. It seemed that the final blow wasn't the OT loss to UM, but the bumbled FG and subsequent meltdown at OSU. One play turned about an entire season. Once things bombed, morale sank to the depths of the ocean floor. Even a great coach would have struggled helping that team turn it around.

Our meltdown moment was that 1st and goal vs. Illinois, up 13-7, ready to go up 20-7. Nothing went right the rest of that game and, except for a quarter here or there of good play, we melted. Just like if Sparty hadn't blown the FG vs. OSU in 2005, I think they would have probably found a way to win enough to make a bowl game. Ditto for 2009 UM.

What needs to happen between now and September 2010 to avoid the "John L" fate?

Well, for one, RichRod should KEEP his staff together (as he stated he would). If improvement is only a matter of guys getting more time in his "system" then keeping the system the same makes sense, even if it isn't popular. I'm tired of change. All I want is improvement.

Second, RichRod needs to be more of a Dr. Phil in the off-season. Bo was always easier and supportive of his players when they were down. We don't really need anyone transferring out right now. Let's face it, Tate's unscripted text messages show how down he feels! Yelling has a place in this world of coaching (laziness, silly personal fouls, etc.), but this team seems (at least on the surface) to be together more than it is not.

Finally, enough of the "hey we're improving even if you don't see it on Saturday" comments! Be specific. If a guy is making great strides in practice, tell everyone who and what. After a game, mention the plays/situations where we made improvement from 2008-09. I'm hoping to here RichRod say sometime next year: "last year, Tate would have thrown it here and not waited for a another second or two, and that's why we got the winning TD today."

UConn will be ready to roll next year when we open up the new Big House. We have 10 months to get ready.

Well I thought I'd take this chance to share with you guys my first OSU Michigan game in the Big House. This year was my second game and of course my blood was rushing nand I was very excited to be attending. I left my house with my friend (an OSU fan unfortuantely) around 8 am and we began our journey to Ann Arbor. Traffic was fine getting up there and I fell asleep for a majority of the trip. Anyways we rolled into Ann Arbor on campus around 11:30. Close call right? The course was packed with the tail gate as expected and Pioneer was filled to the brim so we decided to park on somebody's driveway who was charging for spaces. We quickly moved out torwards the Big House and I had to bare witness to groups of buckeye faithful rolling in with those damn flags waving on their cars and magnets on their back bumpers and trunks. There was a ton of people making their way through the gates and our destination was section 18.

I sat in row 26 and he was in 39 which I didn't realize until I reached my seat that the section was four or five sections away from the OSU supporters. Great I thought I have to put up with these clowns for the game. I was shocked to my stance on how many Buckeye fans attended that day. The enitre top section that was about eight sections away was all scarlet and grey. I shook my head in digust and looked to the person next me and said "what can you do right?" He nodded and the pregame started and ended then it was kickoff time. Osu of course chose to recieve (typical). I sung when "The Victors" played and cheered "Let's Go Blue" when the band started playing it. I loved my view of the field though and I got a perfect view of Pryor's interception and Smith's touchdown. The rest of game play wise was tough to watch. Hearing the mimics when Tate threw those pics lit my fire and soon I started to kind of mimic back. When OSU fans started chanting O-H-I-O I interupted by chanting O-R-E-G-O-N. I can tell you that a lot of people got a kick out of it and yelling "How are those Browns doing?" also caught some glares. I couldn't help it because I like to even the playing field when it comes to insults. At the end of the game I walked up to my friend's section and stayed for "The Victors" then left. I will admit that I really didn't see any of the causes of the fan ejections. I saw someone in my section leave escorted by and usher and officer. He looked drunk by the way he was walking and he was of course a Buckeye. Despite the loss I had a great time. It's always great going to Michigan Stadium and talking with new people about the game and team. It's a treat to go to the Big House anytime you have a chance to go and even if it ends in a loss you can still appreciate the fact your there. I hope to go to more games next year and I'm hoping that I also will have the grades to transfer to the campus and go to the game every Saturday next fall! Untill next year fellow Wolverines I look forward to yet another year of Michigan football! Here's to 2010!
GO BLUE