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14 years 3 months
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TBH, a Wilton Speight…

TBH, a Wilton Speight without his head up his ass gets us the win in 2016. The truth is Speight single-handedly lost that game with a fumbled snap on the Ohio State 1, a pick-six, and another pick deep in M territory that led to an Ohio State touchdown two plays later.

And lay off the damn refs already. Michigan would have won going away, by at least 24-3, if Speight didn't shoot us in the foot three times. The game had no business going to overtime 17-17, and that was 100% on Speight.

Not to mention that J.T. Barrett DID validly earn that first down. I watched it like 50 times on my DVR, with my natural bias toward Michigan and against Ohio State, and it eventually became clear that the ball's maximal forward progress did break the plane of the 20-yard-line-ward edge of the 15-yard line. Given the ball's position when an overtime starts, with the nose of the ball on the 30-ward edge of the 25, the spot described in the sentence before this one does constitute a first down. All Harbaugh did by blaming refs there was show himself to be a damn fool.

He might be the actual human…

He might be the actual human version of Eric Cartman for all we know. I'm not sure whether his ass just caught fire from the couch, or is now no longer on fire after flamethrowing the couch. Chicken and egg I guess ...

Lost in the argument about…

Lost in the argument about the Seahawks is the fact that they have appeared in more playoff games at Ford Field than the Lions ...

Given the spelling, he/she…

Given the spelling, he/she is likely from Wyandot County, Ohio. For the unfamiliar, Wyandot County is in northwestern Ohio at about the halfway point of a Toledo to Columbus trip.

Big East didn't have to "book it before us"

They've had a long-standing contractual arrangement with MSG to hold their tournament in the week immediately leading up to Selection Sunday, going almost back to the inception of the Big East. Delany, thinking that Rutgers actually registers on New Yorkers' radar screens, decided to put the B1G tournament there anyway. So we had to go a week before.

Add an account age restriction instead

As a long-time lurker and infrequent poster here (account almost 8 years old but only 90-odd MGoPoints), I disagree with raising the point threshold too high. There are better solutions already in use in places like Wikipedia, which as you all know has its own problems with vandalism.

A better idea would be to add some kind of time-based restriction(s) to the 100-point threshold. For example, an account must be 30 days old and have 100 points to make posts, or something like that. This could also be done with stepped thresholds as well: for example, 500 points/7 days, 200 points/14 days, etc..

Alternatively, here's one the mortgage-loan-officer crowd can go for: some percentage of the 100 points must have been held for at least a week or two. As I said above, there is a reason loan officers usually want 60 days' worth of your bank statements; the thought is that anybody needing to borrow a large portion of the down payment is courting trouble, so they want to see that you've had the money for some time. So maybe something like "at least 50 of the points must have been held for two weeks" could be viable.

The poster's sign-up date is already displayed on every post he/she makes, so I can't imagine this would be too hard for Brian and/or the hamsters to implement. What say you, MGoCommunity?

A spike was not an option after a no-TD call

... because it would have been fourth down, and a spike would have given Atlanta the ball on downs if any time remained.

Reason for 24-second shot clock

Actually, Danny Biasone (owner of the then Syracuse Nationals, today better known as the Philadelphia 76ers) arrived at 24 seconds because he thought the game flowed best with about 60 possessions per team per game. 48 min / (2 teams x 60 possessions) = 24 sec per possession.

The dog behind Sparty in #7

The dog behind Sparty in #7 is "Zeke the Wonder Dog," a mainstay of Spartan Stadium halftime entertainment for nearly 30 years. Zeke and his human handler perform acrobatic Frisbee tricks to delight the crowd.

Currently, they are on Zeke III, the first golden retriever to serve as Zeke. (The first two Zekes were Labradors.) I know all of this because Zeke III and his handler are neighbors of a Michigan season-ticket-holding friend of mine in Grand Haven, and Zeke and my friend's greyhound have bridged the rivalry with a couple of shared walks in the past.

I'm pretty much as Big House OCD as you

You left out section 19 in the list of sections that do not reach the field, but had every other one nailed in your list.

All of the sections that don't reach the field use the same row numbering as the remaining sections. I'm almost certain that Row 21 is as low as the non-field sections go; anything from A up to 20 does not exist in those sections. To answer the question, from Row 21 on up, yes, Sec 5 Row 21 is right next to Sec 6 Row 21, for example; but from Row 20 on down, in that corner, Sec 4 Row 18 is next to Sec 6 Row 18.

Or, to put it another way, from Row 20 on down to Row A, walking clockwise around the stadium, starting at the tunnel, you go through the following sections ... (irrelevant sideline), 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, (irrelevant sideline), 26, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40, 42, (irrelevant sideline). That list only contains corner and end zone sections and ignored the sidelines.

And, for what it's worth, the west side lower concourse, the only concourse at each end, and the east side upper concourse all lead to stadium entrances at Row 72; the east side lower concourse entrances are at Row 55; and the west side upper concourse entrances are at Row 96, the very top.

Or more accurately ...

More accurately, some people will have that different path or philosophical approach chosen for them -- certainly when we're talking about K-12, and possibly beyond depending on the helicopteriness of one's parents. Few actually get to make these choices for themselves.

Try this app on your Android devices

One of the more useful apps I've ever run across will help you with at least knowing your Android devices' 5GHz capabilities. It's called Wifi Analyzer and can be found on Google Play. Look for a square that says "2.4G" as you swipe sideways through the screens, and tap it to change to "5G." If you see any networks, your own or otherwise, the Android device in question is 5GHz capable.

No red zone trips allowed since UNLV

Not an advanced stat, I know, but the play-by-play box scores available online indicate that UNLV was the last Michigan opponent to visit the red zone, let alone score.

In fact, only two drives combined through the last three games have even crossed the 50; BYU had one early on, and the other was Northwestern's missed FG drive that stalled at the M 25 yesterday. Maryland did start one drive at the Michigan 28 because of a Michigan fumble, but the Terps immediately proceeded to move backwards and go three-and-out.

Can't say mine is real clever, but it should get me posbanged :)

OHowIH8OhioSt8

Just the other night ...

... a partially-eaten chicken wing landed on the pitcher's mound at the Arizona-San Francisco baseball game. It was believed to have been dropped by a passing seagull.

Re: Hatch's future

Looks like I paid a little bit closer attention to the SportsCenter feature "Miraculous" than most. They discussed his injuries in more detail than I had ever seen before, and I can't imagine they did so without Austin's approval -- to do otherwise would be a massive violation of HIPAA, for one thing.

Specifically as it concerns basketball, they noted that the traumatic brain injury (TBI) he suffered did damage to a particular area that handles processing of visual stimuli and the body's responses thereto. He's obviously way ahead of where he was in the days and months following June 24, 2011, and for that we are all grateful; but by Austin's own admission, he's way behind his peers on the court and has trouble processing things at game speed, and may never get that back.

Yes, he played a few minutes this year, and it was awesome when he hit that free throw against Wayne State. He most certainly should stay close to the team in some capacity if he does go the medical route, in my opinion. Hell, I still plan to name my hypothetical future firstborn son Austin in his honor. All that being said, though, he may just never be able to get the visual-processing mental parts of the game back enough to be competitive at the college level, and a medical scholarship might end up being best for everybody.

Re: First vs. last names

A good friend of mine is an eight-year season ticket holder, and I get to 3-5 games a year with his second ticket when time permits. I'm about as connected as it's possible to be without being a diehard, and I'm well aware that first names and nicknames are a big thing in the culture of softball.

But that's Alumni Field and this is MGoBlog. Much as it's often said that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, the exclusive use of first names or nicknames belongs at Alumni Field or in small group face-to-face conversations where the context is obvious. I must therefore join the chorus, and politely ask MGoSoftball to at least find a middle ground -- maybe FIRSTNAME LASTNAME on the first mention of a player and then only first names thereafter?

It's a respect thing, really, for the majority of the MGoAudience. Please, don't force 98% of your audience to check the roster on the MGoBlue mother ship just to have any idea who you're talking about.

Forgive me this admittedly pedantic nitpick

... but I feel the need to explain Latin suffixes on words starting in "alumn__."

Alumnae, as you used it, refers specifically to females in the plural. This would be proper when discussing former sorority members who have graduated from Michigan, for example, but not for all such people.

You were looking for "alumni," which is used either for all-male or mixed groups. "Alumnus" is male singular, and "alumna" is female singular.

Harbaugh really needs to start this

If OSU players can go sing "Carmen Ohio" in front of the student section, and Notre Dame players can do likewise with "Notre Dame, Our Mother," there's no reason our players can't sing "The Yellow and Blue" in the student corner at the end of our games. Harbaugh should emulate the only good thing Tressel ever did and make this a reality.

Early 20th century and interesting fight song stuff

The first decade or so of the 20th century was a very interesting time for fight songs in general, not solely in Ann Arbor. Bet you don't know the story behind "On, Wisconsin": it was originally composed for and submitted to a fight-song contest held by Minnesota, with lyrics identical to its current form except for every "On, Wisconsin!" replaced by "Minnesota." It was eventually rejected in favor of "Minnesota Rouser" in that contest. Undaunted, the writers changed all the Minnesotas to "On, Wisconsin!"s and pitched their song to UW, and the rest, as they say, is history.

US Airways Flight 1549 and Teterboro

Remember Captain "Sully" and the ditching in the Hudson River? The radio record between him and New York City TRACON indicates that he briefly considered Teterboro's small airport as his emergency landing site, before realizing about 30 seconds later that he had insufficient altitude and had no choice but the Hudson.

During my student days

... in the late 1990s, the band was in section 41, on the east sideline. At least going back that far, they've never been in an end zone section.

Ohio byes in 2002

They faced Texas Tech in the Pigskin Classic on August 24, took August 31 off, and then played 12 straight weeks after that.

Re: Ohio 13 RS games in 2002

I tracked down the answer for you, with some help from cfbdatawarehouse.com.

Everybody in I-A was allowed to play 12 games in 2002 rather than the then-customary 11 because of the old rule permitting an extra game when the Saturday of Labor Day weekend fell into August. I only checked Ohio, Michigan, Iowa (randomly selected non-M, non-Ohio B1G team) and USC (randomly selected non-B1G "power 5" team), but all of them played 12.

Ohio got to play a 13th game because the Pigskin Classic, in which they hosted Texas Tech in 2002, didn't count against the limit. Brutus and Co. did not face Hawaii that year.

And then obviously the 14th game was the Fiesta Bowl against Miami (YTM).

Got one I'm selling

I have one ticket out of my four available. My group purchased them from the UM Club of Greater Detroit back in May, before we found out later that our fourth wouldn't be able to go.

This includes a bus round-trip from Dearborn, a game ticket, and a small bagged lunch on the trip back. Asking $150 for the whole thing.

If anything

They'll think you're a fool rather than a jerk or asshole. 11-2* in the last 13 meetings has had a tendency, in my experience, to make the bucknuts scoff and laugh at the mention of Michigan instead of become angry. ---- * = includes Tatgate, I'm not pretending the game never occurred

It does flip

You're correct, the Lions and Cowboys alternate turns on Fox and CBS each Thanksgiving. However, it looks like you missed the NFL's change in that rotation (akin to the B1G changing rotations so we have to go to MSU and OSU). Fox will have the Lions for a second straight year in 2014, so it should be CBS' turn in 2015. CBS being the broadcaster of a Lions home game means an AFC opponent, so assuming no more NFL fiddling, it'll have to be Oakland or Denver -- likely the latter.

You've been listening to Jim Price too much

Throw in an "arsenal" or two and a few mentions of what a "nice area" Taylor is, and I'll have to extend the Jim Price drinking game to MGoBlog and get smashed. :-P

Featured page is on a schedule

It changes every day at midnight UTC, or, during our Daylight Saving Time part of the year, 8:00 pm Eastern time. A good friend of mine has something like 20,000 page edits and has shepherded about a dozen articles to featured status, so that's how I know this (admittedly useless) stuff. ;-)

Patent foramen ovale

And it's not something that forms later on in life, but rather the failure of the hole to close on its own during fetal development. Some people who have it can go their whole lives never having a clue, while others might drop dead on a basketball court at far too young an age. There's just no way to predict who will have problems with it.

Got some factual errors

Hayes didn't retire after losing his last three games against Michigan. He was fired the day after the Gator Bowl for his punch of Clemson's Charlie Bauman.

The score in 1969 was 24-12, not 22-14.

I'm sure if I read further, I would find others.

Firing Glen Mason has to be up there

Mason had Minnesota going 7-5, 8-4ish most years, and making at least semi-respectable bowl games. But that wasn't enough for the powers that be, and the Gophers have been a raging tire fire since.

2010 at Purdue

The sun was out on my drive down, and it was a beautiful if somewhat chilly morning. The sky began to cloud up over central Indiana, though, and that was just a preview of what was to come. Almost exactly at the start of the second quarter, the wind picked up and the rain arrived. I spent the next 2+ hours with a driving rain and 30-mph wind soaking me from behind. Michigan won, 27-16, in a game marred by ten combined turnovers.

Greenfield Village's Motor Muster

is also this weekend. My father had his '69 Camaro SS over there on display yesterday. I always find Motor Muster interesting, because they cover a lot more ground than most of the cruises -- they have much more than just the huge fin and muscle car eras. A lot of pre-WW2 cars and wartime (small-J) jeeps are on display every year.

Minor nitpick

"The Eyes of Texas" is UT's alma mater, not its fight song. I do agree with you as to its awesomeness, though.

A couple that haven't come up yet

Two that I kinda like are Florida and Oregon, especially "Mighty Oregon." It's a nice easy melody, catchy enough, and (AFAIK) unique at least within FBS. Also, as a one-time-wannabe band dork, I have to give props to "Texas Fight" for all the trombone glissandi (smooth up-and-down notes made by moving the slide without stopping the air supply).

HS stealing college fight songs is common

And interestingly enough, B1G fight songs are some of the most commonly stolen for high school use. "Minnesota Rouser," "On, Wisconsin!," and "Go U Northwestern," in that order, have to be the top three in that category.

Airport HS in Carleton, in whose district I used to live, uses "The Victors" as its fight song -- albeit dropped a few keys and at about half speed. My alma mater, Detroit Catholic Central in Novi, uses Texas A&M's fight song as one of its two fight songs.

As once did

Minnesota, before they moved to the Metrodome. IIRC, a small portion of an outer wall still stands as one wall of a newer athletic building.

Also NOAA weather radio

Certain automotive radios, and almost any scanner available, can pick up NOAA's weather radio service. For the immediate Metro Detroit area, KEC-63 is on 162.550 MHz, and other transmitters covering parts of southeast Michigan can be found in (at least that I can remember) Adrian, Lansing, Clio, and Bad Axe.

Who else remembers the Jay Edwards buzzer-beater from 1989?

I can still see it in my mind's eye like it happened yesterday, and I was 9 when it happened. I bring it up because I recall Frieder protesting it to the B1G office, saying that the Assembly Hall clock read :00 before Edwards got the shot off, and that shot resulting in the adoption of tenths of a second on the game clock two seasons later.

Mike Tyson after a whupping from Lennox Lewis

One of the questions Tyson was asked post-fight was about what he planned to do with his future. He responded, "I'll probably just fade into Bolivian," malapropping it when he meant oblivion.

It became an MGoMeme referring to god-awful negative MGoPoint totals shortly after Brian started the blog, and the rest is history.

I'd be just as afraid of Urban Meyer

getting any ideas from those pants. Are those guys even aware that they're wearing Ohio colors?

There's a book about the 1966 Crimson Tide ...

... which discussed the friendship between Bear Bryant and Duffy Daugherty, and how Bryant personally steered several talented black players to East Lansing because he couldn't recruit them to Alabama. In particular, it tells the story of Charlie Thornhill in great detail.

The 1966 national title is a matter of some controversy, as Alabama finished undefeated and untied while MSU and Notre Dame famously tied each other; yet the Tide finished #3 in both polls. The book detailed this as a sort of "punishment" for Alabama's still-racist policies.

College football history is definitely fascinating ...

Poking Smot? Evan digs dudes?

Couldn't resist. ;-)

Let it be noted before you neg me to Bolivian that I'm not taking a shot at him for transferring. Truth be told, I would rather Smotz actually was gay -- I think he's cute. :)

Look closely at McLimans' right hand ...

Is it just me, or is McLimans giving Lloyd Brady a bit of a pinch to the nipple? Hard to tell ...

11 seeds beating 6s

That's actually the most common first-round upset since the NCAA went to the 64-team format in 1985.

11s beating 6s

Statistically, that's the most common first-round upset since the NCAA went to 64 teams in 1985.

Rivalries as I see them

I think it has a lot to do with the historical quality (or lack thereof) of the schools in various sports. In football, Ohio is the much bigger rival, because they've almost always had good teams and Sparty can really only hang its hat on the 1950-1970 time frame. In most other sports, Sparty is the bigger rival because they've historically had successful programs while Ohio has been a late-comer to success.

Has to do with the TV contracts

CBS had the doubleheader this weekend, so Fox only got to show one game. By rule, in the Detroit market, this had to be the Lions -- thus, Fox wasn't allowed to show Detroit anything at 1pm.

Pic #2 is my work

I can say with absolute certainty that pic #2 is from the 2008 MSU game, since I am the person who took that picture. The dead giveaway for me is the winged-helmet hat worn by a young man immediately in front of me. I can remember having to do a little bit of work in Photoshop to remove a ray of glare caused by the light from the back of his hat.

Original is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrysphatpage/3014624073/ .