UM to practice at Ford Field on Wednesday for "distractions"
Detroit News reports that on Wednesday, the UM football team is heading for Ford Field in Detroit to practice for the season opener at Cowboys Stadium. It will be a practice, not a scrimmage. Hoke feels practicing at Ford Field will give his team a chance to get used to that dome environment.
Michigan will practice Wednesday at Ford Field with 'distractions'
In the article, Hoke states "(We will) practice with some situational, two-minute (drills), put the high-pressure stuff on them..."
"We're going to go down there and change up the environment a little bit,... and have some distractions that are built in when you do that. We've been doing some crowd noise. I think AC/DC was on today when we did some first-down stuff."
August 21st, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
Everyone is going to be in "aww" of Cowboys Stadium even if you go to Ford Field, but I think it'll certainly help.
Especially for the freshman, we could be relying on Rawls (a true sophomore), freshman WRs, TEs, Kalis, Pipkins and Bolden for big roles. Get some of the nerves and the kinks out now.
It actually won't be AS loud as you think because the stadium will be split. Also, the noisemakers can't afford tickets to the game. But you definitely want to get a feel for playing in a huge luxury NFL stadium.
This could be big for the kicking game as well.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:25 PM ^
I think you mean they'll be in awe of Cowboys Stadium . . . unless they think it's adorable.
August 21st, 2012 at 11:08 PM ^
Awww... Who's the cutest stadium??? You are!!!
August 21st, 2012 at 11:33 PM ^
August 22nd, 2012 at 8:55 AM ^
August 22nd, 2012 at 1:42 AM ^
They're going to be in "aww"...like feel sorry for it, mushy about it.
Kidding, good catch, would edit if I could.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:28 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:08 PM ^
IMO if Brady wants to really simulate the environment the team's going to face he needs to stop practice/scrimmage every 3-4 minutes and then have everybody stand around for two minutes and keep it up for about an hour. Then have everybody stand around again for 30-45 minutes and start the 3-4 minute of action followed by two minutes of standing around for another hour or so.
I think it's the constant stopping of play for extended commercials that makes playing a game like this so challenging, not the crowd and certainly (in Michigan's case) not the size of the stadium. These type of games seldom have any flow to them and the gameplay can turn out pretty choppy because of it.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^
Please never coach football.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:17 PM ^
Excellent points.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:30 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:31 PM ^
I'm going to disagree with you on that one. I don't think the extended commercial breaks and long halftime is anywhere in the top five, probably not even the top ten concerns of the coaching staff of either team heading into this one, nor do I think it should be. Even in basketball, as a coach, I don't mind extended breaks. You just have to help your team more than the opposing coach is helping his during the break.
August 21st, 2012 at 11:51 PM ^
...that they practice in the new terminals at DTW. Similar ambiance.
August 22nd, 2012 at 12:15 PM ^
I don't see why that would be that big of a deal. All of our games are televised as it is. The commercial breaks might be slightly longer, but otherwise the rhythm of the game will be the same.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:16 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:33 PM ^
To be fair, there are probably more future first round picks playing for Alabama than actual first round picks playing for the Lions.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:32 PM ^
August 22nd, 2012 at 1:26 AM ^
I was thinking more along the lines of sad but true.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:36 PM ^
Stafford and Johnson would carve up Alabama.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:39 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 9:34 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^
They could bus in a bunch of Buckeyes though, and that would be fairly close.
August 21st, 2012 at 10:02 PM ^
I heard the team is planning on flying down right before the game, like saturday morning type right before the game. Is this true?
August 21st, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^
I would be shocked if that was the case, given the potential things that could go wrong with travel delays, thunderstorms in the DFW area, logistics with equipment, etc.
August 22nd, 2012 at 10:11 AM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 11:15 PM ^
The latest they arrive in Dallas IMO is Friday afternoon and then have a walkthrough/practice late afternoon or early evening. The team needs to at least get accustomed to where the are playing before the day of the game.
August 21st, 2012 at 11:42 PM ^
If they follow the bowl template, they will be there early in the week. For this kind of circumstance they might show up mid-week?
August 21st, 2012 at 11:25 PM ^
August 21st, 2012 at 11:39 PM ^
One November afternoon a few years ago I was driving past the practice field. This was the week of the game (Thanksgiving Week). I sneaked up to the fence with my 4 year old son & we were taking pictures & watching for a minute before someone ran over to the fence and told us we had to leave. We did what any reasonable MGO father & son would do... we went over to the bridge to get a better & legal view.
RR was a fan of simulating distractions; the majority of the time we were there, the ohio fight song was playing... it just didn't feel right...
August 22nd, 2012 at 6:19 AM ^
August 22nd, 2012 at 8:49 AM ^
According to a few tweets from Angelique Chengelis last night, it is not open to the public (big shock, right?). I re-read the article to make sure, but this was not explicitly mentioned. That being said, I will be at a meeting this afternoon at our corporate headquarters (about a ten minute walk from Ford Field), so I may pretend like I have a reason to be over there at some point in the afternoon even though my chances of penetrating the Fort alone would be basically zero.
August 22nd, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
I've always wanted to see the Wolverines play in Detroit and Ford Field is a great venue. I know it's not practical for a regular season game but I've been keeping my hopes up for making the Motor City bowl for years now. Maybe this is the year! (unless, of course, we go to the Rose Bowl instead).