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OK, I have 3 answers to this…

OK, I have 3 answers to this.

Best ever is Minibar in DC.  Inventive and fun, but most important the food was actually ridiculously good.  The chefs prepare the meal right in front of you and just push it forward 3 inches to where you are sitting, sushi-bar style.

Best BBQ is Franklin BBQ in Austin.  It was so good I felt like I was getting away with something.

Lastly, I just want to call out Bunk sandwich in Portland for having a pork belly cuban that was so good I judge all other sandwiches by it.

To be fair, I am actually…

To be fair, I am actually making fun of it...

Great one.

Great one.

He's an unequivocal maybe

He's an unequivocal maybe

Now here's to hoping…

Now here's to hoping Dwumfour is ready to go

20, mostly from the player…

20, mostly from the player/coach names

You go down a slide without…

You go down a slide without enough water, you get terrible rugburn.  

I hear they have pink locker…

I hear they have pink locker rooms for visitors, but we've never been, so it's just a rumor

Good read, thanks much

Good read, thanks much

There's a lot more money…

There's a lot more money than you would think from MSU alums ready and able to fire the cash cannon.

Don Brown has done very well…

Don Brown has done very well against Wisconsin.  Let's hope he keeps that streak alive.

Ahem

Ahem

Grand Rapids has hosted in…

Grand Rapids has hosted in the somewhat recent past.  It's a touch further away than Toledo, but the area is full of Michigan fans.

Try a find " " and replace…

Try a find " " and replace with "".  If you do that for all fields, it should work for a vlookup even with multiple word schools.  (i.e. "WakeForest" will be the same in each column.)

Is anyone else having an…

Is anyone else having an issue with the podcast feed on iTunes?  Not only does it not grab the latest episode, but if you manually go look for the episode it doesn't show up.  I'm having to delete the whole feed, reinstall it again, and then all the episodes show up.  I'm not having this issue with any other podcast.

 

I use Downcast, if that matters

Yes, but...

I don't think you should use an ancient clipping as support for "golden maize" when it also describes Michigan blue as "azure blue." 

51-3

51-3

 

What's the fastest way to own a small business?  Start with a large business and put a Spartan in charge of it.

More Slo-Mo

Yes, it is a positive.  More!

Sorry, one more

Brendan Morrison's OT winner in 1996 against Colorado College to win the National Championship / Frozen Four, where I think I hugged 3-4 people I didn't know.

Mercury Hayes 1995 Pigskin Classic

This one was the opener against Virginia (and Tiki Barber) in which Michigan went down 17-0, scored 3 TD's in the 4th Q and on the last one had to wait for a ref to signal whether Mercury was inbounds or not.  I may or may not have sprained something in the celebration afterward.

The Desmond Show

Desmond and "The Catch", and his punt return / Heisman pose against OSU.

My take

These are my take on the % chances of M winning:

Alabama - 20%

Air Force - 100%

UMass - 100%

ND - 45%

Purdue - 95%

Illinois - 95%

MSU - 70%

Nebraska - 60%

Minny - 100%

Northwestern - 85%

Iowa - 80%

Ohio - 40%

Expected value, 8.9 wins rounded up to 9.

BSD

This is the only truly acceptable response to the current situation from a Penn State sports blog right now (some derivation of these core concepts.)

1.  What happened was horrible and unconscionable

2.  Joe Paterno could've stopped it, didn't, and is therefore morally culpable in the single biggest test of his character he ever faced

3.  The Penn State community needs to perform a serious evaluation of the culture that got us to this point so that it never happens again

That's it.  Anything else at this time is pretty much unjustifiable. 

Also, I take zero schadenfreude in this situation.  Zero.  All I think through any of this stuff as I read it is "what if that were my son?"  There is no joy in any of this, in any way.

Not surprising

As long as you have a minimum price worked in somehow, it's the best way to extract maximum revenue.   I hadn't realized it was already being used though. 

This will be tried someday

Someday soon in our internet age, you will login to your account.  You will type in the largest amount you would be willing to pay for next season's tickets, along with everyone else.  The highest 114,000 per seat bids will get the seats in the order of $'s bid (highest $ bid gets 50 yard line, 20 rows up, etc.)

The end.

(We're headed there, deep down you all know it.)

Desmond Howard

Not to state the obvious, but Desmond's Heisman campaign was amazing.  I remember watching just thinking that every play should be run to him and he wouldn't ever drop a pass.  Grbac to Howard was the whole season that year.

Lone Survivor

Anyone interested in the Seals should read Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.  Great book about Seal training (these players got off easy!) and a mission that went wrong.  Highly recommended.

He is an excellent writer

I actually think this is the perfect spot for Albom to write.  He is a really good writer, and while he doesn't cover the day to day of sports very well he captures the whole of something like  Lidstrom's career perfectly.  Albom has perspective, and he can capture something human in just about any worthy story.  He couldn't do a UFR for anything, but he is certainly worthy to eulogize a life or a career.

Didn't think when I woke up today "I'm going to have to defend Mitch Albom a little", but there you go.

As a victim myself

Having your tonsils and adenoids removed is a horrible, hellish experience.  No joke.  You can't really sleep, can't really eat, can't take the pain meds you want to take (only Tylenol, no aspirin or Advil.)  Your throat bleeds pretty much constantly for a week... It really, really sucks.  I wasn't right for 2 weeks myself.  The no sleeping is the worst.

I thought the same thing before I got my surgery, "I'll just eat ice cream for a couple days, this'll be a snap."  Not a snap.  Horrible & hellish.  I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

On the bright side it does solve the problem of getting sore throats constantly, but don't hammer the kid for that.  It sucks.

You forgot

You forgot to mention "contact lens wearer" which I still find one of the most perplexing things ever.  How did/do we not test everyone's eyes once a year?  Dukes, York, Chesson, get thee to an optometrist please.

It's all about travel

I still say that a B1G fan who is facing (for example):

Indianapolis in early December for the B1G Championship game

Pasadena on January 1st for the semifinal

Miami on January 14th for the National Championship

or an SEC fan who is also facing

Atlanta / New Orleans / Miami

Isn't going to make all 3 of those games.  Unless you are retired, a 1%'er, and have an extremely accomodating wife, you aren't going to all 3 of those games.

TV ratings will be through the roof, but come on.  I was at the Sugar Bowl, and I couldn't believe that a 10-2 Michigan team playing in an awesome city after three years of misery couldn't sell out the building.  As much as I loved the experience, there's no way I could justify two of those trips in one year.

These AD's and conference commissioners are crazy.

 

IU

How is Indiana not #1?  They have nothing to be excited about, ever.  There is no joy involved at all.

While PSU is going through a tough time, they'll be back.  There is hope.  But IU?  Always sucked, always will suck.  (They don't even have a single football recruit at this point.)

It's a football disaster area.

Of course I would

In my opinion the health risks associated with football are being inflated by the NFL's current issues.  From Pop Warner to the NFL there is a vast difference of experience.  The NFL has the largest people on the planet hitting each other nearly continuosly through training camps, countless practices, 20 games, etc.  It's a lot more hitting than even college, by a lot bigger, stronger men. 

My son has zero chance to ever play in the NFL, and probably not much chance to play in college, at least under scholarship.  His risk of serious injury is virtually nil.  Of course I would allow him to play, and as far as his talent would allow him to progress.

The benefits of playing in a structured team sport, learning a role, discipline, etc. far outweigh any risk.

Wow

I clicked through just because I didn't quite believe the concept.  But it's even worse than you'd think.  She probably knows that there's no crying in baseball, but I think this other team doesn't realize that.

Bronze Uni's

Remarkable how well this mascot works with those horrid Nike Pro Combat bronze atrocities.

Rest in Peace

Given my pic, I figured I should add that I hope he has

Sailed off through night and day,

And in and out of weeks,

And almost over a year...

Vada Murray

Didn't Vada Murray suffer from lung cancer?  Apologies, but I didn't understand that reference.

We all know why

This is a classic case of using stupid reasons to justify the real reason that you can't say.  And that is that warm weather teams don't want to potentially play at a cold weather site.  They all currently mostly play near home and don't want to give that up.

I think the B1G should stand firm.  Home games are the only way.

One other thought, who would want to go see a Semifinal, then turn around and head to the Championship Game a week or two later?  People will wait and see if they can just go to the Championship Game and semifinals might actually not sell out (even though the TV ratings would be through the roof.)

 

He's doing a Hoke

Just as Hoke teaches the fundamentals every year and doesn't assume that everyone remembers everything, Seth is doing the same.  I say thanks, even as someone who has watched football for almost 30 years now I appreciated the refresher.

Just hope for...

Just hope we win the B1G title.  That's all you have to say.  However that works out, hey, stuff happens.

Plays too

Since the whole point of this endeavour will be to reflect back in a few years on what we have loved in Michigan sports, I would also suggest we strongly consider adding 3-5 plays as well as players.  The players need to be honored, certainly.  But consider the 2015 you looking back and reading a write up these specific plays (just off the top of my head):

2012 Football - ND v MIchigan - Robinson to Gallon - The Cloaking Device

2007 Football - Wisconsin v Michigan - Threet rumbles for 50+ yards

2006 Football - Michigan v Penn State - Branch destroys QB

2011 Football - Michigan v ND - Robinson goes 84 yards

2012 Football - Nebraska v Michigan - Mike Martin forces a pitch on an option play as NT

2012 Basketball - Ohio V Michigan - Trey Burke scores over Sullinger

Etc.  You get the idea. 

Again, this is not at all to take away from the players, but also to capture those specific moments that made us all giddy beyond belief.  I would probably go back and read that page once a month.

We could also include the UFR of the play to give it that MGoBlog connection (or have the best UFR description of any play.)

Air Force

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, climbing high, into the sun...

Coin flips are too arbitrary

It'll never happen, but the OT order should be decided by what yard line you are willing to start from (keeping in mind that the team to go first will start from the 25.)  So would you make it the 40?  Your own 35?  Removes the arbitrariness and adds another element of strategy.  How much is knowing what you have to do worth to that team in that OT?

The type of auction could be fun too.  It could be that each head coach gives their auction number to a different linesman who then communicate it to the head ref and the winner is the furthest back.  That would be my preference.  But a straight up back and forth between captains would also be interesting (it might take a bit more time which is why it's not my preference.)

The NFL OT could probably replace the OT coin-flip with a similar auction and still keep a sudden death OT going.  It would take luck out of it.

Record

I'm curious to know what Bacon thinks Michigan's 2008 record would have been if Lloyd had stayed.  Do Mallet, Boren, Arrington, etc. still leave?  Does that matter? 

No agenda here

But I want to point out that "the touchdowns are red herrings" is going against that whole "results based charting service" attitude.  You're clearly looking through some tinted lenses at that point.

And before you jump all over me, I want Borges to put out an offense as close to last year's as possible, so I am in agreement with the overall theme.  But you can't just say "ignore the fact that all our points came from under center."

Let me ask this...

I think this practice is despicable, but only because they yank the scholarship.  Frankly, I'd be fine with this:

1.  Coach brings kid into room and tells him he is off the football team as he's not going to see the field

2.  Agrees to continue a scholarship at the school, just not a football scholarship.  Also agrees the kid can be on the practice squad (or whatever is allowable without counting against the 85 limit)

3.  Has no problem (obviously) if the kid wants to transfer and try to make a team somewhere else.

Now there is a way that big-time boosters can put their money to work, scholarships for kids that tried but just couldn't make the team.

Am I a jerk for thinking that?  If so, why? 

Just a great post

Loved it. I'd add:

Michigan Football is the pack. The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

M Fans

M fans tend to be more independent and less into Groupthink than some other fanbases, at least when I went to school there. For example, it's easy to get ND students to ALL wear a green tee, they are open to Groupthink from the womb.

Michigan students, and particularly alumni, just tend to have a higher percentage that says, "screw your edict, I'm wearing what I want!" It's an independent streak that I happen to like. (Frankly, I'm amazed that the Maize-Outs have been participated in and as successful as they have been.)

Just my .02

Love the concept

How about:

A: Then why does it say "aksepted"?

B: EPIC FAIL

A rebuttal

I started typing "Uniqenam you ignorant slut" but just barely stopped.

Our mascot gets so many things right, here's a small helpful list:

1. It is unique. There aren't any other Wolverines in major colleges.
2. It actually has something to do with our state, the Wolverine State. It's not some generic "tiger" or "bulldog"
3. We don't have someone in a corked head running around, which is a good thing
4. A wolverine is a vicious animal with a mean streak, which is what you want in a mascot (you want a banana slug?)
5. It's my handle (enough said)

So I would counter that it's actually the BEST nickname in sports, or at least in the running.