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We won. Or am I missing

We won. Or am I missing something? Who gives a rats ass about this. They spent a shitload of time looking at it. Replay official made the call. Game over, cue the Maize confetti guns. 

Rules aren't perfect. Refs aren't perfect. Replay isn't perfect. None of them ever will be. Except in the Android Football League coming sometime this millenium.

Look. Controversies like this are a part of sports. Every team has somewhere in its history calls like this, both ways. Stop whining.

 

 

 

 

Indy or Chicago? Indy or

Indy or Chicago? Indy or Chicago? 

Yeah, ChiTown wins that one every damn time. Having tons of time in both. Indy is the most boring city I know. 

That grand in ChiTown gets me a lot more than those two bills in Indy. 

I thought it was funny.

I thought it was funny. Tasteless, but funny. 

But the guy's a dick for doing this, and costing his team the game. If this was after a game winning score, or they were a zillion ahead, fine. But with the game still on the line? Assinine. 

Urban's new graduate ass

Urban's new graduate ass istant.

Take the professor to the

Take the professor to the game.

Seriously, you get dropped if you miss the first class? Seriously???? I can't even remember anyone taking attendance.

I really really like this

I really really like this guy. A class act. And a good coach. With a good coaching staff. They may have RR's kids, but this coaching staff made them the team they were in this game.

A few years of this guy and we might just be asking, "Bo who?"

Seriously, what would turn

Seriously, what would turn the light on?

Which part of the ball "breaks" which part of the "plane"? Technically, if one atom of the ball is beyond one atom of the front of the goalline it's a touchdown. That's a bit precise.

Where do you put the sensors in the field? Some magnetic strip running the width of the field?A field with 22 angry men running around tearing it up? And how high would it need to reach? Remember, that "plane" is infinitely high. I could jump 6 feet, 8 feet, however high I can above the line.

Where do you put the sensors in/on the ball? You'd need to completely cover the ball, a ball being kicked, thrown, spiked, and otherwise violently handled.

If it was, like soccer, the whole ball completely beyond the whole line, maybe. But I don't think there is a technology that can be as precise as the rule requires. 

At best in this play, a few millimeters of the ball are somewhere over that strip of chalk marking the goalline. I don't believe any part of the ball is beyond the goalline.

Still a crappy call.

Can somebody explain o$u

Can somebody explain o$u spiking the ball on 3rd and 6, after wasting 15 seconds or so? IS there any explanation? I cannot think of any. 

Amen to that. 

Amen to that. 

58-43-6

No need to brag.

58-43-6

No need to brag. We're Michigan. But if it makes you feel better, go ahead. 

Happy as I am, on so many levels, this was not our best game. This game should never have been close. Worst Buckey team in a decade and this was too close all the way to the end. If not for that stupid spike on 3rd down, this might have had a different ending.

But this was a great game for Hoke and the whole program. 10-2 (coulda shoulda been 11-1 / 12-0), beat OSU, probable BCS bowl. And exorcised a whole lot of ghosts.

Thanks Brady. Hoke Lives. Go Blue.

 

 

Never

Never has there been a group of Michigan seniors that has battled through such adversity and prevailed. Never has Michigan produced a better group of guys. 

They stand, today, the greatest group of Michigan Men. Ever. 

Thank you to all of them. And best of luck to all in their future.

Go Blue!

Big Wherever. Waiting for the

Big Wherever. Waiting for the Catholic bball teams to bail and start Big East Classic. And leave this monstrosity to be Big East Zero.

The Big East is a basketball conference faking it as a football conference. Kinda worked when VT, BC , and Miami where in it. Would've worked if ND wasn't as arrogant, self-righteous, and greedy as they are.  

 

Cuz he was a West Virginia

Cuz he was a West Virginia guy.

There are a lot of differences between here and there that he didn't understand. And didn't seem to bother to figure that out. He assumed that what worked there would work here, without bothering to understand the differences and figure out what he needed to do differently. 

What did he do here? Success at WVU got him the job. Success at Michigan was needed to keep the job. Michigan was above his level of incompetence.

Bo ran the AD more than the AD ran him. Bo made sure shit got done and he had what he needed to win games on the field. Bo knew he needed to worry about more than the X's and O's if he was going to win games.

I like RR much better after reading the book, so far anyway. But his inability to understand and adapt to the environment around him, to simply keep doing what he'd always done, doesn't score high on the Darwin Scale. Adapt or get your ass fired. Welcome to the Big House.

Nice guy. Great football guy. But wrong fit for Michigan.

Haven't finished the book

Haven't finished the book yet; not quite up to the Illinois basketball on turf game yet. I thought the book, because Carr and others weren't/refused interviewed, left somethings to conjecture. Epecially why Carr, after trying to get RR to come, became anti-RR. Why he let/pushed kids to transfer, etc.

I skip the RR debate. But it seems to me that RR's problem was he didn't understand that being a head coach is a bigger job than the X's and O's, breaking down film, or recruiting. Managing the program is a big part of it, and he had no interest or talent for it. It was all, "I just want to coach football, I don't want to deal with these distractions."

Wrong. It's about developing and running a program. That means dealing with administrivia, like paperwork on how much time your kids are practicing. It means dealing with past players and coaches. Dealing with alumni and donors. Fundraising, instead of begging for assistant pay raises and better practice facilities. Dealing with media, good and bad. Dealing with all kinds of crap that have nothing to do with X's and O's, but a lot about the quality of the program. A lot about winning happens off the field.

Bo understood that. I think Carr did. RR did not.

Charlie Weiss didn't either. Lots of great coordinators can't make that leap from coaching to managing a team. It's not just about the X's and O's, it's about the program.

Big Ten needs a Hall of Fame.

Big Ten needs a Hall of Fame. A trip all B1G fans, of all sports, should make kind of place. We got the best history across all sports of any conference. I'm thinking some place on State street. Just a thought.

Nice post, Sparty. For what it's worth, the MSU game was always more of a fun thing than "hate 'em and throw dog crap at 'em" kind of game (who brings dog crap to a game?). Too many of us knew too many of them, we're friends of too many of them, to cross that line. Not that it didn't get heated; but it was more of a "brother borrowed your car and didn't gas it up" kind of thing. 

 

 

Ending the year in the top

Ending the year in the top ten would be sweet. A BCS bowl game even sweeter . Winning out and playing in the first B1G championship the sweetest.

Given that few people think this is a great team, that this doesn't fee like a top 10 team,  makes me very happy about our future. This is a team that is winning games now. And getting better. Getting more experience in Hoke & Company's system. With more talent coming. 

This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end........

 

Party at the game. Hell I

Party at the game. Hell I knew people who could study at the game (for pysch majors it counted as a field trip). Eat nails and shit real bricks, too. (-:

Most of those alumni are the reason the drinking age went back up to 21 and you can't drink at the game anymore. And don't let them tell you different. 

But, you're right. We had no out-of-state students until 2008, or so, so there's that. I blame RichRod for bringing in all those out-of-state kids.

The weather was always perfect. It never rained, sleeted, or snowed in Ann Arbor for several decades, like Texas today only worse. Preparties were banned. And trooping out to watch, say, Michigan beat Navy, or somebody, 70-14 was real exciting. Good thing it was such a short walk from Markley. 

Classes? Never had one. Study? In engineering school? Are you kidding me?

Look we know it isn't in your DNA the way it is for those of us who grew up with it and thought The Victors was a lullaby. And still hate O$U for going for two, and always will.

And we were always there before kickoff, even the out-of-state engineering students who lived on North Campus. Because it was Michigan Football. And there was no other place you had to be, wanted to be, or needed to be.

You don't know what your missing.

I've got a couple rolls of Woody Hayes toilet paper for you. If you're interested. And can show up on time for a game.

There are 10 kinds of people

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

 

Meh

Student section ain't what it used to be. Alas. Mostly the team's performance the last few years, maybe, has taken a bit of emotion out of it. That and it appears it's now frowned upon to consume certain beverages, and other things, that might enhance some emotions. 

I have taken a goalpost or two down. Even tried to take O$U's down one glorious day, back in the day. Back when the winning streak in the series was our winning streak. Had a pleasant chat with an Ohio trooper carrying a big stick about it. I agreed to leave his goalpost where it was, he agreed not to hit me in the head. All in for Michigan.

So I know something about makin it happen in the student section.

But, here's my $.02

We invented the f'in wave we'll do it when we feel like it.

Here's an idea. Try going vertical with it; you know up and down your section. That would be inventive and cool. And, you'd get to stand up for 0.5 seconds, and we can watch the game. 

I'll wear whatever damn shirt I want to wear. Thanks. That's not a Michgan thing, that's copying somebody else's thing.

The alumni section sucked in 1975 and it sucks today. Get over it, kid. Someday you'll be an alum and you'll be sittin with the rest of us. And you'll suck, too.

Show up on time for godssake. We're gonna start sitting in those empty student seats someday. And show you how it's done. 

 I will say this. Arguing about this shit is a lot more fun that complaining about what's happening on the field. Finally something trivial to fight about while we ALL enjoy the game. Next year, at this time, we might even be arrogant asses again.

Go Blue.

 

Sad. I've noticed that the

Sad. I've noticed that the last few years, since I started trekking back for a game a year, or so. 

If you can't juggle school, football, and partying you don't belong at Michigan. 

The volleyball play-by-play.

The volleyball play-by-play. Seriously, you'd think a conference with over 100 years of football tradition and excellence could get better play-by-play and studio talent. Are these just guy who live around Chicago? 

Dinardo is a pompous blowhard. Martin is seldom right, but never in doubt - I scream everytime he starts that "as a player, which I was,..." crap. Mason's not too bad , but he comes across like an insurance salesman. The play-by-play calling is generally mediocre, even worse than Brent Musburger. 

But, to the earlier point. It is a very new network and this is part of the growing pains, I guess. 

We will look back at these

We will look back at these guys in a few years like we do the '69 seniors. Or at least I do. Guys who stayed through adversity and became champions. Champions when nobody expected it; nobody thought it could happen. 

They were seniors who didn't play before 100,000+ week after week. Didn't play with national championship expectations; hell they played without B1G Championship expectations. Even beating MSU was a big deal; when MSU was the premiere program in the state. History and tradition were a burden, and they were disappointment.

Their HORROR was a buttwhiping in Columbus in '68. This November Brady will go for two after a late TD puts us up by a gazillion, because he can't go for three. O$U's thieves, cheats, and liars will drag themselves off the field; their tatoos a sign of shame and dishonor. 

The '69 guys were the foundation for 40 years of greatness. The 2011 seniors are the foundation for the next run of success. We'll savor this, and be more humble, because of the last 4 years; at what these guys have gone through.

Mike Martin is the new Jim Mandich. Though I don't think anyone's carrying him off the field in November.

In a few years 6-0 won't raise an eyebrow. A #10 ranking will be a bit of a disappointment. MSU just another game. And O$U will still be recovering.

Sorry, some of you didn't get to experience North Endzone when Bo ruled the world, drinking age was 18, pot was legal, and Woody Hayes was a face on a roll of toilet paper - and one punch away from retirement. I stood on field in the Horseshoe after the game in '78 engaged in a conversation with an unamused Ohio trooper with a very big stick who didn't like what I was doing to his goal post. My bucket list has me doing it again. Soon. And this time I'll bring a roll of Woody.

There's always grad school. Those who stay.....

Go Blue!

Because that HC is Ron Zook

Because that HC is Ron Zook

Looks like my mother-in-law

Looks like my mother-in-law

Methinks you're right. He

Methinks you're right. He knows it, too. Their President is even worse; weasley little twit.  E. Gordon Gee, as "gee I didn't know anything did you Gene?" He's holding the bucket of white wash while Smith wields the brush.

Accountability? Integrity? Sportsmanship? F that, I guess. Show me the money.

Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude.

From what I see so far

From what I see so far removed from AA, this is the biggest difference between this team and the last few years. Much better fundamentals; which was always the hallmark of Michigan football. The defense especially.

Players actually seem to know where they're supposed to be, get there, and do their job when they do get there.

Spread schmed. 335, 411, 911, 666. I-form this, T-form that. None of that matters if the players don't understand their assignments or execute them.

Blocking and tackling, and hitting open receivers. Oh, my.

 

Depends on what question OP's

Depends on what question OP's asking? September? Or something else?

Either way, a looooooong time. 

These crooks make SMU look

These crooks make SMU look like Girl Scouts. D-E-A-T-H P-E-N-A-L-T-Y. The AD and that idiot President of theirs too. A fish rots from the head down.

They are an embarassment to the B1G. Can we vote 'em out of the conference? We could replace them with Cincy, or Miami of Ohio.

 

 

1970, looks

1970, looks like.

Lions:

 

 

Week 1   Sep 20 W 40-0 at Green Bay Packers
Week 2   Sep 27 W 38-3 vs Cincinnati Bengals

 

M

 

Arizona   8/- 09/19 H W 20-9 80,386
Washington 10/- 09/26 A W 17-3 57,500

 

Or, if you accept unbeaten and untied, it's 1975. M had two very ugly - I was there - ties in September.

 

Lions '75

 

Week 1   Sep 21 W 30-16 at Green Bay Packers at Milwaukee, WI
Week 2   Sep 28 W 17-14

at Atlanta Falcons

M

 

Wisconsin  2/- 09/13 A W 23-6 79,022
Stanford  2/- 09/20 H T 19-19 92,304
Baylor  9/- 09/27 H T 14-14 104,248

Michigan didn't even play in September in 1939. In fact September games were rare or non-existent until the 50's for either team. Football didn't really start until after baseball.

You can double check the Lions here: http://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/teams.nsf/histories/lions/

And the Blue here: http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/misc/fbrecord.htm

 

I could be wrong after all. Eyes are getting old.

 





I like it. The

 


I like it. The relagation thing would bother and confuse a helluva lot of people. Too european, especially for some people we could talk about. 

What I like:

* Gives Notre Old Dame the special consideration due their actual achievements on the field. None. When they're the winningest program in history, I'll think about it.

I've had enough of this Disney fairy tale world they want us all to live in. Knute's dead, get over it.

* Actually gives most of the schools that play football and somehow didn't pay--to-play in the Bogus Championship Series so they could be automatic qualifiers, whether qualified or not, a chance - chance mind you - to maybe compete for a national championship.

The college sports world is changing. Just as ND no longer deserves the special place in the sun it never deserved in the 1st place; schools like Boise, TCU, USF, who knows, that nobody ever heard of (or didn't exist) when ND was maybe/kinda good will continue to emerge as national population demographics change.

Championships should be won on the field. Butler and Gonzaga play D1 Bball with the same rights and chance to play for a championship as everybody else in D1. Football should be the same.

But I'm old school. (Can we bring back Chicago? I really miss playing the Old Maroon.)

I like the Big10/12 the way it is. We're the only conference thinking about academics and culture in all this. Except maybe the Ivy League.

That means something. It's one reason our schools are so big, why we have some many alumni. Our degress mean something. Our brand means something. We're not watching future felons running around winning at any cost and hoping not to get some slap on the wrist compliance sanctions. (You listening Ohio?).

The world's changing. We don't want to become irrelevant, like the Ivy, by holding on too much to our traditions. But playing Rutgers, TCU, or Whoever U (in any sport) just because they fit in some TV land footprint or were gonna get swooped up by a prison team conference? No thanks. 

16's just a random number. Besides 42 is the answer to Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything anyway.

We are the Big 10. 

Just my $.02

ND Won't If BC Does

ND likes to think of themselves as THE Catholic College and wouldn't want equality with BC. Wouldn't play them in football for years because of that. Also why they didn't join Big East, Catholic schools. Basketball, fine. Football? Never.

BC is interesting, though I think doubtful. Pitt and Cuse - especially Cuse - would have been sweet. 

Show me the money

This whole realignment clusterfk is about money, period. Honor, tradition, academics, integrity, etc. have nothing to do with it. Everybody's putting their souls on eBay. The decision maker in all of this is Benjamin Franklin and some dead Presidents. 

What all of this has to do with providing quality higher education in this country escapes me.

Our beloved Big 10 is no different. Watching that idiot in the bowtie masquerading as the President of Ohio State slobber all over the morally bankrupt douche bag coach and his cast of future felons was not enlightening. Almost as bad as the IU idiot that shredded his dignity to keep from firing his psychotic basketball coach a few years ago.

If there was any justice in this world somebody would have arrested both teams last week when Oh Shit played Miami and sparred us all the fake NCAA "enforcement" BS.

As for ND? They're two vodka martinis way from starring in the remake of Sunset Boulevard. It ain't bragging if you can do it; but they can't do it anymore. Frankly, who cares about ND, except ND?  

Somebody needs to take the crack pipes away from the these college presidents and lock 'em in a room without the networks, moneychangers, and lawyers. When we're grillin' brats for the Little Ceasars Pizza Bowl, or the Papa Johns Bowl from Dunkin Dounts Stadium or whatever, somebody has snorted a whole lot of something.

I am not stupid or naive enough to believe in any "purity" of college sports or "student/athletes". There is way too much money in college sports for that anymore. And nothing will change that as long as we are willing to buy tickets or push buttons on the clicker. 

But... is this really what we want college sports to be about? Just askin'

 

 

This is why Coach Bill and

This is why Coach Bill and Tom Brady are both married to babes and get the big money. Denver '03(?) Belichick took the safety (on the 4th down punt attempt) while trailing, the Pat's punter kicked it 65 yards, they got the 3 and out, Brady threw the TD to win. Netted a zillion yards in field position, and still had 2 minutes and a timeout to work with. (2 minutes and a timeout and Bray could cure cancer.). Course if the Denver returner had, well, returned the freekick things coulda been different. But we're talking Bradychick.

This year, two games in a row, Brady passes on 1st down from his own 1; one for the 99 yard TD, the other to start a 10 play drive for 6. Both brack breakers and game winners.

You win when you play to win. Taking points off the board to give yourself a chance to put more points on the board or - barring something freaky or stupid - taking time off the clock and still getting the original 3 points back seems like a no brainer playing to win kinda thing to do. Then Jimmy could marry a supermodel, too.

 

 

I was hoping for Pitt and

I was hoping for Pitt and Syracuse, and not just because my daughter go to 'Cuse and the other one might.  Both have decent football and basketball programs, are decent academically - though 'Cuse deeply regrets dumping '50s decision to dump the Med School which is killing the research dollars. Plus 'Cuse breeds sportscasters, especially the ESPN guys. Would have give Penn State some old rivals back as well. Plus some some other sports, especially lacrosse (I know, an east coast game, but hey what the hell).

Would that bring in ND? Dunno. Frankly, I am sick and tired of ND getting special treatment in football. IMHO, there brand's right up there with Olds and Pontiac.

Great post. Stunning to actually consider something truly important, like academics and research on things like, say, cancer in all this crazed moneylust morally bankrupt college sports landscape; where, too often, prison teams like Oh Shit State and the SEC get the glory.

I was hoping for Pitt and

I was hoping for Pitt and Syracuse, and not just because my daughter go to 'Cuse and the other one might.  Both have decent football and basketball programs, are decent academically - though 'Cuse deeply regrets dumping '50s decision to dump the Med School which is killing the research dollars. Plus 'Cuse breeds sportscasters, especially the ESPN guys. Would have give Penn State some old rivals back as well. Plus some some other sports, especially lacrosse (I know, an east coast game, but hey what the hell).

Would that bring in ND? Dunno. Frankly, I am sick and tired of ND getting special treatment in football. IMHO, there brand's right up there with Olds and Pontiac.

Great post. Stunning to actually consider something truly important, like academics and research on things like, say, cancer in all this crazed moneylust morally bankrupt college sports landscape; where, too often, prison teams like Oh Shit State and the SEC get the glory.

Condolences

I am sorry for your loss. Your Dad was a great guy. 

I do remember my first trip to Tiger Stadium with my Dad. And - having relocated many years ago - I remember - and cherish - taking each of my daughters to their first Fenway games. And many trips since. 

I also cherish taking each of them in recent years to the Big House for a game. Even if wasn't the Michigan football we had in my younger days, it was still football at the Big House. 

Sports binds us across the generations like nothing else. My grandfather watched Ty Cobb play. My father George Kell. We all spent the Summer of '68 with Ernie Harwell.

My father is ill. I've been back and forth to Michigan to be with him. Every day/night it's the same ritual, "turn the game on". And we watch the game; some game, any game. Hockey. Basketball. Baseball. Football.

I have watched many games with my old man. And now I am the old man that watches the game with his kids. Wouldn't miss either.

Go Dads. Go Blue.

 

 

So, in theory it should work. But in practice....

Or to quote some old Yankee catcher:

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. "

Dunno. To me you need to fit the system to the talent, not the talent to the system. It's about the team, not the coach and whatever system fad he's riding at the moment. If you don't have "the talent" to play some system, find one you do have the talent to play. That's what always bugged me about RR, claiming he didn't have the talent to play his system. A blame the players first mentality. 

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Good coaches adapt to the talent they have. That's why they make the big bucks and the players get tattoos.

But that's just me.

 

 

I was there

Probably the ONLY time the Indiana game was exciting. Ernie Harwell. George Kell. Bob Ufer. We were so spoiled.

This was great, but the '69 OSU game (also on a sad anniversary date) was better Ufer. And a better game. But that's just old geezer me.

I am shocked! Shocked!

Fox racist? Never. This post is just a lamestream gotcha insult to the real 'muricans that watch Fox.