Unverified Voracity Opens Wide For Some Soccer
Hello: AFC Ann Arbor. We are getting a minor league soccer team that I am inordinately excited about, and tickets have just gone on sale. I already hate Oakland United FC for having both "United" and "FC" in their name. I bet their crest doesn't even have a tree. Or stripes. I do not know how these tossers deign to call themselves any sort of organization. Down with United Sporting Real FC Oakland Dinamo.
Anyway.
AFCAA has an eight game home schedule over the summer; in year one they're playing at Pioneer. Plenty of current and former Wolverines are on the team, and it sounds like they're importing some food carts (Mark's carts?) for games. I'll be at the home opener May 1st, stop by and say hi.
Jim Harbaugh has the best twitter feed. Tips for identifying good coaching twitter feeds:
GOOD: odd capitalization and grammar, random shoutouts to Cracker Barrel and Judge Judy
BAD: hashtags, motivational sayings, motivational sayings embedded in hashtags
Harbaugh is on the good side of the equation:
Michigan Nicknames Snake-Bubba-Jumbo-Flame-Soup-EasyEd-BigEd-BigHoss-Chunky-SirCharles-Bump & the ultimate nickname that became legendary Bo
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) March 27, 2015 Amongst many people saying "don't forget X" I declare Derek Moore the winner for reminding Harbaugh that he should not forget the legend of Tony Pape, AKA "Fat Elvis."
Spring Creaning time. A couple days after Stanford Robinson said "I'm not going anywhere" to media in the IU locker room, the university announced his transfer. Today he was followed by freshman wing Max Hoetzel.
This annual exodus has the same impetus all of Tom Crean's other annual exoduses have: someone must leave (or not show up) because Crean drastically oversigned. This year Indiana has zero seniors, a full roster, and two recruits. And they are still recruiting various players for the late period. To their credit, a lot of Indiana fans hate this.
Every coach is going to have some attrition from guys who don't work out. Few sign multiple guys in November knowing that this means someone on the current team is going to be forcibly ejected from the program as a result. And for what? For a ten seed because your incompetent self can't count or recruit a post player.
We poke at Tom Izzo around here because he's easy to poke at, but he is a legitimate coach and seemingly good dude; Crean is another level of detestable. For everybody's sake let's hope that buyout comes down enough to get rid of him soon. The Big Ten is ill-served by his presence at a basketball mecca.
I'm very disappointed in 61 of you. You guys are jerks.
should I quit blogging about Michigan and dedicate myself to UFRing episodes of "Coach"? RT for YES FAV for NO
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) March 27, 2015 Upon further review, there is not enough football in episodes of "Coach" to do this.
I guess this is official now? Or at least official-ish:
Michigan football: Legends jerseys are gone, helmet stickers are back. Imagine Bo and Canham would be pleased by both.
— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) March 27, 2015 247 and Rivals are confirming and I'm not sure this is a thing that gets a press release, so… done? Let's call it done.
I'd rather have the inverse but I'm not too bent out of shape about it. I like the clean look the decal-less helmets have and thought the legends jerseys were a good way to remind people that the Wisterts were great and Gerald Ford was an All-American. Hopefully they can do something for the retired numbers other than just put them back in mothballs.
Also semi-official? I can't remember if Wayne Lyons's transfer was already semi-official or has just become slightly more so, but the big news from Mike Zordich's press conference was Zordich accidentally letting the cat out of the bag about Lyons's imminent arrival. Except that Lyons himself said it in February and we already have a Hello post for him.
Nevermind then?
Spike was hurting. Spike Albrecht was not fully right last year:
Albrecht is wrestling with the decision whether to undergo off-season surgery on both of his ailing hips, procedures that would leave him rehabilitating for "probably four to five months, at least."
"That's a tough situation," Albrecht said. "I don't want to sit out, but I also don't want to go through another season like I went through this year, but if that's the only option and that's the best option, then I'll do it."
Apparently those surgeries have to be scheduled consecutively and involve—bleah—"shaving down an area of hip bone." A 4-5 month recovery period is likely, which would make him whole in August or September. Tough decision to weigh a lack of pain against whatever rustiness getting laid up like that would induce.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Zuniga evaluated Albrecht.
Gordon Bell, 1975. Via Dr. Sap:
Also Ufer calling a pretty spectacular Bell touchdown run against Purdue.
Etc.: Sauce Castillo. Sauce Castillo. Neeeerd baseball hits the Daily. On John Calipari. Tattoos ranked by how bad of an idea they are. Jack Miller's decision to quit football was about concussions a bit, unless it wasn't.
Down with United Sporting Real FC Oakland Dinamo.
Yes, this whole business of ripping off European names needs to stop. "Real Salt Lake" is the most cringeworthy, but it has plenty of competitors.
And man, was Ufer a walking encyclopedia of Michigan football knowledge. In that Gordie Bell clip he tells us immediately that it had been 11 years since the last halfback option TD, and who had thrown it!
That was my exact thought while watching the Ufer clip! How in the world did he have that little chunk of information in his head that he could just rattle it off that fast!?!? Freaking Amazing!!!
. . . the coaching staff told him ahead of time that they were going to run the play at some time in the game. Ufer would write down facts and tidbits of trivia like that on pieces of masking tape and stick them down on the table in front of him to use in the broadcast, then peel them off after he used them. Meticulous preparation. Not necessarily instant encyclopedic recall.
Ditto...
I have a buddy who is a D-I coach. Whatever he says to the local Fox sports guy during the week about the team comes almost verbatim out of the talking head's mouth on the weekend.
The new "Minnesota United" because we can call them MinU instead of ManU.
I wish US Soccer would stop copying European soccer stuff. The scarf things, the FC Real Ypsilanti, the chants, etc. Americans do sports different than Europeans. Let's just do our own thing instead of shamelessly copying them
I'd much rather people in the US adopt those things for other sports because they're good and fun.
While I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, I'll take anything that gets Americans to watch/participate in soccer-type things more.
Anyone know whatever happened to Patton's, err, Ufer's horn???
Gerald Ford wasn't an All-American.
The man was President of the United States. That is pretty legendary, no?
I love Gerald Ford. I was just pointing out that Brian said Gerald Ford was an All-American. He wasn't. His predecessor at center, Chuck Bernard, was, but Gerald Ford wasn't.
hip injuries? That is a first. You could tell he was in pain. He would crouch during timeouts and would always be like, I don't know, re-adjusting his legs to try to get comfortable. That sounds like it was probably a pre-existing deal that has been aggravated by years of strenuous activity I would imagine. Does not sound like an injury that would have resulted from one specific event.
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Does everyone get a participation trophy at the end of season banquet too?
My introduction was Denny Franklin in 1973. Leach, Lytle and Bell cemented the deal. I've been a rabid Meeeeechigan fan since.
I can still recite the starting defense from 1976. :-)
March 28th, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^
Oh how I miss Bob Ufer. His love and enthusiasm for Meeeechigan football was so contagious. Those Michigan team's of the seventies were my favorites. I think it coincided with being a teenager for sure. Emotional Saturday's for sure.
Manchester United F.C., Leeds United F.C., etc
Both 'United' and 'F.C.' in a name has been done before. But I'm not a fan of the bastardization of European club names for American teams.
Not to mention all the other stuff that's ripped off - dumb scarves, chants that attempt to mimic Europoean stadium experience, and everything else American soccer fans learned during their semester abroad in the UK.
How about we treat it like other American sporting events or give it our own flavor instead of pretending we're in Europe?
Because the only thing that's a remotely comparable experience to being in a good soccer supporters' section is being in a good college student section. All the stuff that makes those so much more fun than the boring people sitting elsewhere in the stadium is magnified. Then, add flags and banners gratuitously insulting the opposing team.
March 27th, 2015 at 10:55 PM ^
But college student sections don't appropriate European soccer cheers. It's possible to be raucous and generate great enthusiasm and also be original.
I like soccer, but I loathe the subculture of soccer fans that desperately tries to act as British as possible. Have some pride, people.
Yes, shout "you suck" and jiggle your keys like a true American.
Right, because those are the only things student sections do. And the only thing soccer ultras do is riot, right?
You're right. they also do one of two clap cadence cheers.
March 30th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
I'm not getting into a debate over whether local soccer teams should copy chants/TIFOs, etc. from europe, but I do think there are plenty of ways to use the rampant and nearly unending enthusiasm from europe's soccer clubs as an inspiration and adapt it for our purposes here;
example/random thought: back in the late '90's (yes, get off my lawn you whippersnapper) we used to really be able to get into other team's heads at Yost with a ton of chants that I haven't heard in the games I've been able to catch when I come back into AA, and those kinds of chants can be really fun (and don't necessarily have to entail vulgarity, although at times it is fun/useful, esp. if it is cleverly done) and by the end of the season, could be really effective; there has to be more creativity in the student body these days than simply ramping up the cursing to the Nth degree in old chants; for instance, given a summer and a full season of home games to perfect it, I bet it would possible to get at least the whole student section to sing a derogatory song about the buckeye defense, or make up some chants about opposing quarterbacks, etc.
that is one thing that I do think these local soccer clubs (see Detroit City FC, for example) have over UM student fans, is that they are really good about creating and organizing their chants/songs. Some may say that it takes too much effort, or is too hard to put all the pieces together, and I would simply remind those people that they will have ample opportunity to sit on the sidelines and then maybe later join in with the chants/songs and make themselves better after the winners have put it all together for them (#harbaugh);
you're free to downvote, etc., but just set aside your reflexive opposition for a moment and try to imagine the buckeyes or sparty entering through the tunnel and being greeted with something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw0lWaGADkE (minus the ACDC); or picture what it would be like to have the entirety of Michigan Stadium singing The Victors or incessantly making fun of Cardale Jones, etc. with chant after chant (without the band (btw, #IlovetheMMB) or any rawk music interrupting), over and over and over...
if you've ever watched the band, post-game, and joined in to sing the Yellow and Blue, you know there is something there... I, for one, think it could be cool to see what can be done with that kind of thing, and perhaps make our home field a menacing and mentally tough place to come play for opponents
The chants and music are cool. Been to Rapids games and the section where all that goes down is awesome. It goes on all game long. Kinda like a spirited game at Yost.
All that other stuff you state though, hell yes!!!
ESPNFC.com drives me fucking nuts: tables, fixtures, etc. Fuck you ESPN.
someone who tosses off - another name for a Wanker (one who suffers from chronic masturbation)
What does AFC stand for? Something football club?
Amateur?
Tosser
I think it's Association Football Club.
Association Football being futbol/soccer, as opposed to Rugby Football or American Football.
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball.
"Union football" = rugby.
just sayin'
I never really liked the idea of the Legends uniforms. While honoring the past is a great idea, what you're essentially doing is insuring no one from that point will have his own jersey number retired or honored. If some QB does great earns a legends uniform and wears number 98 while winning the heisman, that number is still going to be always associated with Tom Harmon. When I think of #21 I think Desmon Howard period, not Roundtree or Hemingway. Players should be able to have the right to put the own stamp on their own number. I dont want our legends from here on out just to be locked to 4 or 5 numbers and have to sort through who wore what.
March 28th, 2015 at 10:05 AM ^
You wrote that having Legends jerseys insures that no one from that point on will have his own jersey numbered retired or honored. Does that statement make any sense to you?
Two of the Legends jerseys honor past Michigan Heisman Trophy winners. Do you think that if Michigan had a fourth such winner that such a person wouldn't get honored by a Legends jersey? If the program had remained in place, don't you think it would have been logical that #2 would have also been honored as a Legends jersey once Charles Woodson's NFL career wrapped up?
You also say that the Legends numbers are uniqeuly associated with just one person, but that's not true either. #11 is actually with three individuals--Francis, Albert and Alvin Wistert. The three brother played at tackle at different times for Michigan in the 1930s and 1940s. So if three individuals can be connected to one number, why don't you think more than one individual/Michigan Legend could be associated with #21 or #98 in the future?
You say players should have the right to put their stamp on their own number, but then you say earlier that certain jerseys are associated with single individuals, i.e., Harmon and Howard. If the latter is true, then how could a person put their stamp on a particular number in your mind? Any number currently worn by a Michigan player has actually been worn by any number of individuals over the centruy of UM football.
I don't think there's too much problem sorting out who wore what number. There are rosters, pictures, names on the backs of jerseys, etc. It doesn't take a three digit IQ to figure out that Jake Ryan switched to #47 and wore Bennie Oosterbaan's legends jersey a couple years ago.
I guess I don't understand some of the consternation around this. While it's not a Legends jersey number, Braylon Edwards sort of made #1 the unofficial number for the team's top wide receiver. When Devin Funchess went from #87 to #1, it was no real big deal last year (although he did talk to the coaching staff about it), but it suddenly is a big deal when he want from #19 to #87 to wear Ron Kramer's Legends jersey.
I'm glad the legends jerseys are gone.
Honoring past legends was the great part of that idea. Using current players to do so was the bad part.
March 28th, 2015 at 10:12 AM ^
So how would you have honored Michigan's past legends? Some cheesy ring of honor painted on the press box at Michigan Stadium? A littler of statues around the athletic campus? What visible action would you have taken to honor them?
There are pictures of past teams and players around the Michigan Stadium concourse. Is that enough? Would you have unretired the numbers, but with no fanfare (and no special patches)? Would you have had a bandshow themed about the numbers that were unofficially retired perhaps?
While I can understand the rationale for brining the helmet stickers back given Harbaugh's background and past practices when he was at Stanford, I can't figure out why the Legends jerseys are being abandoned. In time, the best players on the team at that particular position could have been awarded the numbers (something we unofficially have with #1 and the WR position) as a matter of course.
Now, of course, come some of the logistical questions. Do the numbers go back in retirement? Do the lockers for those numbers get torn out and replaced? Does the display case in Schembechler Hall that talks about the players who wore those numbers get removed and replaced with something else?
The halo has already been tried and was terribly tacky.
Now that legends are gone, the next thing on the radar is to keep HailAndUnite's abomination from being played in the stadium.
" I bet their crest doesn't even have a tree. "
Nope, in fact, it has a sideways copyright symbol. Go figure...
would rather have Brady Hoke or Tim Beckman? Who's been the most least-successful of the two?
So Spike apparently has impingements in both hips? Ow. An impingement also sometimes results in a torn labrum. The shaving down of the bone isn't necessarily major in and of itself, but there's probably other damage in there, and the body does need time to recover from that along with the surgery itself.
(Source: wife who has had two hip surgeries, one of which included shaving down the bone)
Shaving down a bone is incredibly painful. In my opinion, worse than other breaks or surgeries I have had.
I had that done to my calcaneus because some surface protrusions shredded my lateral ankle ligament over time. When I woke up from surgery, I was in a shit ton of pain. They gave me a nerve block to go home with and I was popping both percocet and vicodin.
Spike -- get the surgery; you'll be thankful for it when you're 40. Be well!
but went to a bunch of Detroit City FC games last summer, absolutely fantastic environment.
boo the old style old stickers, hope they try something small & unique this time.
Man. The commentors at insidethehall firmly believe that all these kids leave on their own.
My ongoing efforts to get you to a Detroit City FC game have failed (as far as I know) and instead you're going to follow a team that doesn't even have an actual league? I get geographic loyalty and all, but you wouldn't go to EMU rather than UM games just because you lived a few blocks closer to Ypsi on Washtenaw.
As for your Michigan rooting interests, your Wolverine contingent for DCFC this season includes Colin McAtee, William Mellors-Blair and Andre Morris plus former greats Latife Alashe, Zeke Harris, and former UM captain and current Pioneer head coach Kevin Taylor. Maybe you can carpool?
(Oh, and the instant he graduated Sparty's former captain Ryan Keener fled Lansing United to come play for DCFC as well this season.)
regarding the retire numbers, but in a strict sense I don't.
Hopefully they can do something for the retired numbers other than just put them back in mothballs.
All of this I am sure is obvious to you. Either the number is retired or it isn't. Either the practice of "retiring a number" is anathema to you or it isn't.
It seems to me that you are against the practice of "retiring" numbers - then you should post against that practice. That is fine.
But you can't "retire" a number and then, well, have various guys subsequently, years later, wear that number. With a patch, or maybe without a patch, with permission from that player's descendants, or maybe not (and lets be real, the descendants look like shit if they don't "give permission").
Either do away with "retiring a number" and honor the guy with a patch or whatever, or actually, genuinely, honestly, retire the number. Saying that a number is on "periodical sabatical" doesn't quite convey the impact intended by those honoring the player like retiring his number does, though. Michigan (or any other institution, within the NCAA or outside like NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc) should either honor their award or do away with it with and relplace it with something else (ring of honor, hall of fame, whatever).
But Michigan shouldn't have it both ways and look so Dave Brandon marketing driven phoney.
March 28th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
A handful of numbers that had been unofficially retired were reintroduced with what I considered an appropriate amount of ceremony. All care was done to do it tastefully and with the consent of the individuals wearing the numbers themselves or their families.
I agree with Brian that having a quarterback wearing #98 was not only pretty neat, but it was also unique in college football. Also, instead of going the rather convention route, such as a Ring of Fame or a bunch of statues at the corners of the stadium, a very simple patch was put on the jersey. When a lot of the football experience, etc., has become homogenized, I thought it was a move in the right direction to have those players honored as Michigan Legends with patches on the jerseys and special lockers.
I would love to see the jerseys come back into circulation and players still wear them. They may not have the patch on them, but having #11, #47, #48, #87 and #98 back on the field certainly appeals to me. It may not be part of a formal Legends program, but in the few years they've been back, I've gotten used to seeing them (and perhaps unofficially, they will go to the best linebackers, best tight end, etc.,)
I don't understand Bacon's comment that Schembechler and Canham would have approved both the reintroduction of th helmet stickers and the end of the Legends jerseys. I can see the former liking the stickers coming back since he introduced it to Michigan in the first place (and I suspect a modern day version of Canham would love to see them at the MDen.)
I don't understand where he's coming from on the Legends jerseys though. I suppose it's kind of odd that Bacon has become the modern day spokesperson for two men who are currently dead. But beyond that, I don't know how either would object to a Legends jersey itself. Perhaps they would have a problem with reintroducing the unofficially retired numbers (especially since Schembechler knew President Ford personally), but Canham wouldn't have passed up the opportunity to market them if those numbers did make it back onto the field again.
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