There are...

Seven is a number I can deal with.

I love these, and hate them - all at the same time.  The countdown reminds me just how long 7 weeks is.  But yet it seems so close...

Damn you, "There are..." guy!!

Love watching Grant Perry play. He has a confidence and awareness that separate him from others. Have a feeling we will see special things from him over the next few years.

Or, only 5 middle east failed coups attempts until Roshon blows up the Rainbow OL. Yeah, of all the things to see, I cant wait to see this young man in action.

ESPN keeps tweeting the daily countdowns to the first Thursday, but they are wrong because the season officially starts the prior Friday in Sydney. I don't know why people keep discounting the Cal/Hawaii game. Those are two FBS schools. If it were something like Alabama vs. Texas (just as an example) in Sydney on that opening Friday, you know they'd be tweeting the number to that game instead of the first Thursday.

 

I can't wait!!! Great year coming up! Go Blue!!

 

1946 season

Chappuis returned to Michigan after being discharged from the military and played football in the spring of 1946. He returned in time to join the Michigan baseball team, where he played in the outfield, led the team inbatting, and helped them win the Big Nine championship with a 26-game winning streak.

When football season arrived in the fall, Chappuis was one of many veterans who returned to college and the gridiron after serving in the war. Many of the returning veterans were not in prime football condition at the start of the 1946 season, and Coach Fritz Crisler “predicted it might be November before ex-servicemen were adjusted physically and mentally to play their top game.” Chappuis later recalled that he was 23 years old when he returned to school, and some of the returning veterans “didn't know if they could get back into the rah-rah of college football, but Fritz took care of that. He really whipped us into shape.” Despite any difficulties in re-adjusting to civilian life and football, Chappuis broke Otto Graham's Big Nine Conference record for total offensive yards during the 1946 football season. Though reports differ as to Chappuis' total yards gained, University of Michigan records show that Chappuis gained 1,284 yards in 1946—734 yards passing, 501 yards rushing and 49 yards receiving. Chappuis set the new offensive mark in 1946 with a fractured bone in his wrist that he did not report until after the season had ended, at which time an operation was performed. Chappuis later said he knew the x-ray would reveal a fracture, and he would be benched before he even began. He delayed the examination until the season was over because “the time to break into the lineup is prior to the first game. If I hadn't, there were so many capable candidates around who could have made good behind our front wall that I'd never have become a first-stringer by returning in the middle of the season.” Accordingly, Chappuis played the 1946 season with a fractured wrist and without even bothering to tape the wrist. He was later drafted in December by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round of the 1947 NFL Draft (26th overall pick). But Chappuis opted to stay in school to finish his collegiate career.

1947 season

Given the off-season wrist surgery, Chappuis was questionable for the 1947 season. As the season got underway, Chappuis said the wrist was “not as loose” as it was in 1946, but he felt it was "loose enough." In the end, Chappuis broke his own Big Nine total offense record by gaining 1,405 yards as compared with 1,284 yards in 1946. He completed 48 out of 84 passes for 976 yards, including 11 touchdown passes. He also scored 5 touchdowns and gained 544 yards rushing. In the season opener against Michigan State, Chappuis scored three touchdowns in a 55–0 victory, as Michigan outgained the Spartans 504 yards rushing to 56. Michigan finished the 1947 season with a 21–0 victory over Ohio State. In his last game at Michigan Stadium, Chappuis set a Michigan single-game record for total offense that would last 20 years. Altogether, Chappuis accounted for 307 yards, rushing for 90 yards and completing 12 of 27 passes for 217 yards. This stood as a school single-game total offense record for over 20 years. At the end of the 1947 season, Chappuis was named a unanimous first-team All-American. He also finished second to Johnny Lujack in the 1947 Heisman Trophy voting, with Lujack receiving 742 first and second place votes to 555 for Chappuis. Despite the glowing adjectives heaped on him, reporters noted that “Chappuis can still wear his regular size seven headgear.” Chappuis gave credit to his line saying, “Anyone passing behind the protection that line gave me could have done as well.”^[13] In another sign of his modesty on a team with only two two-way players Chappuis said "You have to smell where to go on pass defense—and my sniffer's not too good." when asked why he does not play both ways.

In addition to having the most accomplished season of his collegiate career, Chappuis was a leader on campus. He was elected president of the Michigan Alpha chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity whose membership included a number of his teammates and prominent University of Michigan athletic alumni such as Tom Harmon, Bob Ufer, and Harry Kipke. Chappuis appeared on the cover of the October 28, 1947 issue of Look magazine which featured pictures of him on the football field and at the fraternity house. In the magazine, Chappuis and his future wife were also featured about the Michigan campus. He expressed an interest in first playing professional football for a few years before going into the porcelain business with his father.

Look magazine devoted over a dozen pictures to showing Chappuis play in the offense. In the 1940s, the offense was perceived as gimmicky and magical and the magazine described how the offense used various fakes and delays to gain the advantage in timing by concealing the point of attack and the attacker. The contemporary football lingo described the basic attack as a "fullback spinner cycle with the backs deployed loosely." It described an alternate formation as a single-wing formation with direct snap from center to lefthalfback (Chappuis' position). The article also describes T maneuvers, lateral passes and end-around plays as part of the offense.

Passing “specialist”

Chappuis drew considerable attention in the national press for his abilities as a passer, one of the game's first passing “specialists.” In November 1947, Time magazine ran a feature article about Chappuis and the 1947 Wolverines (with Chappuis' photograph on the cover) called “The Specialist.” The Time article focused on the new era of specialization marked by coach Fritz Crisler's decision to field separate offensive and defensive units in 1947. The article focused on Chappuis as Michigan's “prize specialist,” who was described as “Crisler's triggerman.” “His job is to throw forward passes and there is no one in 1947 collegiate football who does it better. … In Michigan's first five games, Specialist Chappuis was on the field less than one-third of the time, but of the 27 passes he threw, 19 were complete – five of them for touchdowns... When Chappuis fades back to pass, he is a slow-motion study in coolness and concentration.”

Crisler said Chappuis was “the finest passer I have ever handled and probably one of the best I've ever seen. He plays as though he had ice water in his veins.” Crisler felt that “great passers are born,” and the difference between a great and a merely good passer is in the eyes. Time noted that Chappuis had great field vision for his downfield receivers and for oncoming defenders. “Like a good baseball catcher, he throws the ball off his right ear, with a snap motion. He throws what the coaches call a ‘heavy ball.’”Another writer noted that Chappuis was “endowed with a passer's sixth sense, ‘split vision,’” and an ability to “pick out his receiver after one glance over the field.”

Time also noted that Chappuis was unlike his predecessor, the “hail-fellow” Tom Harmon. “His snaggleteeth and sharp features earned him the nickname ‘Bird Face’ when he was a kid.” Time also reported that Chappuis “learns easily, just as he does in the classroom, where he makes a C-plus average seemingly without ever opening a book.”

When Chappuis graduated, he held numerous school records, including most touchdown passes in a career with 23, a record that was not broken until 30 years later by four-year starter, Rick Leach. He also held the record for most touchdown passes in a season with 13, a record that was tied by Leach in 1976. He also held the school record for most career total offensive yards with 3,487, a record broken in 1970 by Don Moorhead.

1948 Rose Bowl and All-Star Game

Chappuis played his last game for Michigan in a 49–0 win over the USC Trojans in the 1948 Rose Bowl. Chappuis ran for 91 yards, completed 14 of 24 passes for 188 yards, was named the Most Valuable Player, and set Rose Bowl records for total offense and pass completions. The Long Beach Independent reported: “Bob Chappuis was every inch the All-American he has been tabbed. Running, faking and pivoting beautifully, he averaged 7 yards a crack for 13 carries and completed 14 out of 24 pitches for 188 yards … which gave him a new total offense record of 279 yards for the classic.”

A sidelight of the Rose Bowl was the Rose Bowl Queen nomination of Ann Gestie, the future wife of Bob Chappuis, which was against the tradition of having a queen from Pasadena, California. Buck Dawson, the manager of the Michigan Yearbook who would go on to marry the daughter of Matthew Mann, was the proponent of the nomination. Although tradition was upheld, Gestie's photograph appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times along with the caption "Overlooked Michigan Beauty."

Chappuis was also selected to play for coach Frank Leahy on the College All-Star squad against the Chicago Cardinals, who were the 1947 NFL Champions. In the 15th College All-Star vs. NFL Champion match, the Cardinals scored the biggest victory to date with a 28–0 victory. Among the collegians were Lujack and Chuck Conerly. The professional athletes included Paul Christman and Charley Trippi. Supposedly, the 1947 class had a void at fullback, which may have been the problem with their offense in the All-Star game shutout.

Celebrity

He became a celebrity of sorts at Michigan. He was mentioned in several issues of Time Magazine, and his wedding was even announced in the magazine. In addition, his time at Michigan defined an era in a way that became a permanent reference because his contemporaries would say that they were at Michigan in the Chappuis years. In 1988 he was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Can someone explain that last picture the OP posted to me? It's the same one Harbaugh has on his Twitter handle I believe... What is it?

Sweet. I must have overlooked previous references. Thanks

We are so close to having n

Nike Ambassador Michael Jordan?