Member for

12 years 11 months
Points
155.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Excellent post. Thank you for

Excellent post. Thank you for pausing your lurking long enough to share.

I went to the game two years

I went to the game two years ago. I recommend booking parking in advance. The lots are small and scattered about. Google Maryland football parking and you'll find the site to reserve prepaid. 

Also, they sell beer at the stadium, including some craft brews. Something to keep in mind.

I will be making my

I will be making my first-ever visit to Madison this fall as well. Taking my daughter and making a Michigan/Packers weekend out of it. Still looking for Badgers tickets -- current plan is to wait out the prices a bit on StubHub. Any advice about possible areas to avoid sitting as an M fan at Camp Randall are appreciated. 

Seconded. 2014 felt like the

Seconded. 2014 felt like the entire program was careening off a cliff with no bottom in sight. I wondered if/when Michigan would ever be relevant again.

Thanks for the blast from the past

Great piece that brings back some fantastic memories. I was a student from 1990-94 and had hockey season tickets all four years. In 1990-91 you could see it building, but 91-92 on those games had the best atmosphere of any UM sporting event -- even better than football. Games at LSSU, the free-pizza blowouts, it was amazing. I recall fans throwing pizza on the ice after one free pizza-clinching goal. Aaron Ward started wrist-shotting some of the pizza slices back up into the crowd, and nailed my roomate with one, which we all found hilarious. 

I had the good fortune of being in Nashville for the Stanley Cup Final this year, and to hear their crowd do modified versions of the goal chant just gave me all the feels. 

Can't wait to read the rest of the series.

I asked Bacon this on Twitter

I asked Bacon this on Twitter when it was announced and he said it's not available separately as an e-book. I may buy the udpated Kindle version anyway.

Good news for the game, which

Good news for the game, which now looks like it will have nothing more than some passing showers. Hope everyon in FL/GA/SC stays safe. This storm looks like a monster.

FWIW, last year's Maryland

FWIW, last year's Maryland game reschedule was announced on Thursday:

http://www.umterps.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210384103

I would think that's as late as they could go before annoucing a game time change. We should know a lot more by tomorrow about the storm's path. 

Looks like Wednesday will be

Looks like Wednesday will be the key day. By then we should have a much better idea if the storm is indeed going to come up the coast rather than veer off into the Atlantic. If it still looks like it's headed for NJ, I wouldn't be surprised at all if kickoff is moved up. 

I liked a LOT of what I saw

I liked a LOT of what I saw last night. Starting with: general competence. Michigan lost games last year when they just looked utterly inept. Never had that feeling last night. Also, M took more "free" yards on bubbles last night than in 4 years under Hoke. I have a feeling they are going to be a lot better as the year goes on.

Yes, the INTs were bad but for sure one was on a true frosh WR and I don't think he helped Jake on the pick-6 either, drifting to the sideline and allowing the corner to easily undercut him. I have confidence those things will get corrected.

It was a night game, in an opener, on the road, against a good to potentially very good team. They hung in, gave themselves a chance. Brady would've said "we just didn't execute," and for once he would have been right.

I have a feeling this result won't look bad as the year goes on. M is probably a 7-8, maybe 9 win team, but they're going to be in games, they're going to make adjustments, and they're going to be coached up. I'm not discouraged at all.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
That Patterson article could

That Patterson article could create PTSD flashbacks for some of us around here. It's amazing the position we are in now as opposed to this time last year.

This is the case in pro

This is the case in pro sports, too. Behind the glitz and glamor and huge player salaries are a lot of people working very hard and making ... not very much.

Patterson article...

That article is fascinating. You could search and replace "Patterson" for "Brandon" and "Texas" for "Michigan" and I suspect a lot of folks around here wouldn't notice.

That said, does Chip Brown have an editor? The piece is a mess. Reads like paragraphs were cut and then pasted randomly back in at different spots. It's a shame because he obvioulsy did a lot of original reporting and has a ton of info.

Age? 43Occupation? Digital

Age? 43



Occupation? Digital web production for the NHL



Location? New Jersey



Alum? LSA '94



Most Michigan thing? Many to choose from. Blaring The Victors while driving up and down High St. in Cbus at 4 am on the way to 1996 Frozen Four.



Was lucky enough to play in a pickup game on the Winter Classic rink at the Big House in Dec. 2013. Knelt down and kissed center ice before leaving.








Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Here's what gets me

In 1996 bad PR over domestic violence allegations all but forced the New England Patriots to walk away from their draft choice of Christian Peter. IIRC, the club dubiously claimed it wasn't fully aware of his background when they made the pick. In all likelihood, they just didn't anticipate the huge negative backlash and pulled an about-face when that became clear.

Here we are almost 20 years later, and after a season from hell with bad PR and domestic violence a hot-button issue for the league. It sure sounds like the Seahawks are trying to pass off a dubious claim of a thorough investigation and are caught off guard by the negative backlash.

It was stunning when it happened in 1996. I don't have a word for how stunned I am in 2015.

He was a 4th-round pick in

He was a 4th-round pick in 2013, and as has been mentioned, is reporting directly to the Jets to play with the NHL club in the thick of a playoff race in a hockey-mad city. He's also on a three-year, two-way deal that pays him almost $1m/year at the NHL level.

It certianly could be a condemation of Michigan's prospects for next year. It could also be a player realizing he has a chance to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three weeks and not wanting to wait to see if the same opportunity materializes next year.

Wings on the hockey helmets

The winged hockey helmets definitely pre-date B-Mo. They were wearing them when I got there in 1990, and I'm pretty sure I recall reading somewere that they debuted them for a game against MSU in the mid-to-late 1980s. Pagining John U. Bacon for the answer.

Day/Night hoops-hockey doublheaders are fairly common

Prudential Center had one yesterday with Rutgers-Seton Hall at noon and a Devils game at 7. Takes about three hours to complete the changeover. MSG does it several times a year. Usually basketball comes first, and it leads to somewhat crappier ice, but then again the ice is almost always crappy in multipurpose arenas.

Nailed it.

I'm so sick of our meathead coach and or MBA flacky-run program mismanaging everything it comes into contact with. They can't all get fired soon enough.

Hackenberg

I think you're on-point with the Hackenberg '14/Gardner '13 comparison. He looked better at the beginning of the year, but all that running for his life, all the hits, etc. are diminishing him as a player. His accuracy is down, he sometimes senses pressure when it's not (yet) there and he forces balls while being dragged down.

He and Gardner are fellow members of the "PTSB" (post-traumatic blitz disorder) club. Its founding member is New York Giants-era Kurt Warner.

I still think we'll see a lot

I still think we'll see a lot more Michigan fans that that. Rutgers ticket dept. worked with local alumni groups from all their B1G opponents to arrange blocks of tickets. There are a lot of alumns in the NYC area and in the past 20 years, we have had incredibly few opportuntiies to see Michigan play without a flight or an all-day drive. Bad year or not, I bet there's a sizable Michigan turnout tomorrow.

Leyden

I saw Tom Leyden's "This is not Michigan" on-air commentary the other day. I don't think he's going to lob softballs at Brandon. He said today he specifically wants to know what Hoke knew and when and how Hoke could have been sent to Monday presser with info that was later contradicted.

Re: Dakich

Dakich is easily my favorite color guy. Having never played organized basketball, I know nothing about strategy. Every time I watch a game he calls, I feel like I learn something.

I'll watch, and this Saturday I'll go

... because Michigan is playing in my home state for the first time ever and I want to celebrate that fact by taking my son. He's been to three Michigan games in his life, and somehow emerged still having an interest in going to a fourth:

2009 vs. Purdue (huge come from ahead home loss as RR's second season went off the rails)

2013 vs. UConn (we can't really be this bad, can we? We might really be this bad)

2013 vs. Penn State (Dad, why don't they just kick one of those field goals THROUGH the uprights?)

I'll go because despite the ongoing gong show I can cheer for Devin Gardner and his fellow upper classmen that have been through this @#$%storm and still come back for more.

I'll go/watch because for 25 years, it's what I've done on Saturdays. To not do so just feels wrong.

I'll go/watch because despite have zero expectations for Saturday's outcome, maybe, just maybe Michigan will give me something to cheer about, something to high-five with my son over. And if they don't, then I'll be happy for my neighor, an RU grad who has been a fan since Rutgers was the worst team in college football and a great guy. He was kind enough to jump on one of my extra tickets when a friend bailed.

I'm really unhappy with the state of things, but when they tee it up on Saturday night, I'll be hoping against hope for a positive outcome.

That's a lawyered-up statement

No way that came from BH or DB. Guarantee a bunch of UM lawyers huddled with them all day to come up with that. It's CYA time at Ft. Schembechler.

Oh God. Somebody stop that

Oh God. Somebody stop that fight before it starts. BH wouldn't stand a chance.

Just watched the piece. It

Just watched the piece. It was not a good visual for Hoke or UM.

They have to answer for this, at the very least there needs to be some sort of CYA response about putting new protocols in place to make sure it never happens again.

I suspect our coach and our AD will go into further lockdown Fort Schembechler mode. Which is weak.

End this charade. Cashier them both.

I don't believe purposely

I don't believe purposely left him out there with a probable concussion, but I do think BH is woefully behind on concussion awareness and protocol. I found his postgame comments shocking and disturbing. He suggested that since Morris didn't ask to come out, he was OK to go.

It's 2014. Concussions have been a thing for a while now. To have the head coach of our program have such a blase attitude about head traumain this day and age is absurd.

Fire him. Today.

Never been this angry

We love to talk about doing things "the right way." We have a coach that claims to love his school and his players.

And then he risks the health of an unpaid teenager out of, what? Stubbornness? Ego? Some misguided love of Bo-style "toughness"?

That was a lower moment than The Horror. I am disgusted. I am embarrassed that that man is leading this program. I knew he was fired after last week. This week I want him fired tomorrow.

What year is it? Has nobody on his staff heard of a concussion? Is there no medical protocol? That was shocking, stunning, sickening.

Fire him for abdication of responsibility to protect the student-athletes entrusted to his care. Make Mattison the interim and then figure out what the hell to do. Brady Hoke is not fit to lead this program.

2 Tickets @Rutgers

I have two seats for the game at Rugers that I'm trying to unload. Details here:

http://www.tiqiq.com/tiqiq/p2p/p2plandingpage.aspx?lid=14692220641&sid=…

I have PDFs and can email the tickets. Contact me through TiqIQ if interested.

The 1999 NFC Championship game

appreciates that score prediction.

That number has been

That number has been fictional for a long time, at least by turnstile count. 

Live sports attendance is under all kinds of pressure. The cost and hassles of attending go up every year, while the cost and hassles of watching in ever better quality at home go down.

Having 109,000 seats is a major source of pride, but it's also outdated. There's a reason (outside of Jerry Jones) they don't build NFL stadiums that big, and ballparks and arenas have frequently gone down in size over the last 20 years.

Brandon is pursuing every last nickel of revenue, that he doesn't need, while alienating fans with his "wow factors," and a crappy schedule, all while the team is struggling.

I opted not to renew after having had tickets since 1990 this year. I'm an out of towner who comes in once or twice a year, but I kept the tickets because I always wanted to be able to go to the big game. I sold off the rest on Stub Hub.

Well last year the Notre Dame game cost well north of $300 per ticket because virtually everything else was worth well below face, and even Ohio State only nominally above face. No more. If I want to go to the PSU game this year, I'm pretty confident I can get in for less than $300.

Nice post

I have been pushing UM sports on my kids with limited success. I live in NJ so opportunities to expose them to games in person are rare. But I've had each of them to Ann Arbor once and those trips were just awesome. I will never forget the site of my kids getting caught up in the crowd at the big house and singing along with The Victors. It gets all dusty whenever I think of it.

Fitz

Oh man, that Fitz injury looks awful. Hopefully it was a clean break and not of the Tommy Prothro variety.

My first year at Yost, which

My first year at Yost, which was 1990-91, aka the first year of the current tournament run, the crowd was still finding its feet.

I used to sit opposite the student section and will never forget an old women who use to greet every ref with a chant that went something like "HEY SHEGOS. YOU'RE A FIRST CLASS RAT! [dramatic pause] AND THAT'S THE ONLY FIRST CLASS THING ABOUT YA!" She was my hero.

The next year I moved to the student section O, and I do believe that's the year the current student shenanigans were born.

Michigan Stadium on a beautiful fall Saturday is one of my favorite places on earth. But the atmosphere at Yost for a big rivalry game is better.

Go Blue! Bring it home for Red.