How the TV Guide people have seen us

Submitted by jmblue on

I've DVR'd all of our games, and it's interesting to look back at the TV Guide descriptions of the games.  They offer a little window into how the nation views our program.  Here they are for the first four weeks (all emphasis mine).

Week 1:

Live.  Connecticut (8-5 in 2009) at Michigan (5-7).  The Huskies return 17 starters from last year, led by RB Jordan Todman and LB Scott Lutrus.  Michigan is coming off consecutive losing seasons under Rich Rodriguez. (Football.)

Week 2:

Live, Michigan at Notre Dame.  The Wolverines grabbed a 38-34 win last year on a TD pass from Tate Forcier with 11 seconds left in the game.  Rich Rodriguez has struggled so far as Michigan's coach, while Brian Kelley [sic] begins his first year for the Irish. (Football.)

Week 3:

Live, Massachussetts at Michigan.  (Football)

Week 4:

Live, Bowling Green at Michigan.  Dazzling QB Denard Robinson and the Wolverines look to cap off a perfect September against Bowling Green, which features the nation's receptions leader in Kamar Jorden.  Michigan is 26-1 against current MAC teams. (Football)

 

A bit of a change in the storyline, no?  We go from having them mention our embattled coach every time to focusing on our "dazzling QB" and talking about us like we're, well, Michigan again.  (They could have mentioned that that one loss to a MAC team happened two years ago, but that's no longer part of the storyline.)  The tide is turning.

michgoblue

September 27th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^

The media are like lemmings - they go where the tide takes them.  Coming into the season and even after UComm, the polular media sentiment was "hot seat coach" "strugging to maintain respectability" and "coming off of consecutive losing seasons." 

Now that Denard has captured the national spotlight, the media are all over Michigan again.  Denard is mentioned regularly on almost all of the national sports shows.  So now, the same people that were pronouncing us dead are talking about our turn around like they saw it coming all along.

lexus larry

September 27th, 2010 at 1:52 PM ^

Even the yellow tinged ink-stained wretches at the Freep have both been singing praises over the past couple days.

*NEWSFLASH* Michigan now has depth in offensive talent

*NEWSFLASH* Denard Robinson is something worth watching

*NEWSFLASH* Rich Rodriguez knows a thing or two about spread formation offenses

No longer newsflashy crap: What does the Boren family think? Is Rich Rod on the hot seat?  What is the status of the NCAA investigation into U-M practice activities?

Bo's Lasting Lesson about the media has never rang more true than over the past 13 months, has it?

MFan73

September 27th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^

The individuals stations enter their own program information onto a website database that sends the information to both the TV Guide Channel (Ch. 100 on Comcast Digital cable) and to the interactive program guides (again, on Comcast Cable).  So, this is how ESPN and NBC view Michigan (shouldn't be surprised by the Notre Dame bias on NBC), not TV Guide.  I know this since that's what we have to do for the four channels at Ann Arbor's community access center, Community Television Network.

MFan73

September 27th, 2010 at 3:26 PM ^

...but I would suspect that an intern or the like probably enters the info given to them from the programming dept.  In that case it is very common for typos and spelling errors to occur, especially if the person does not have much knowledge of the subject, this one being Notre Dame football.