On This Date In History
I caught these two items and because
they are “round number” anniversaries, I thought it would be worth mentioning to
help relive the memories! Granted, I was only 3 years old on this first
one…
Tigers Win the 1968 World Series!
50 Years ago today, your Detroit Tigers won the 1968 World
Series! Man, how times have changed! Now we play WS games through November!
Having a father who was a baseball nut helped
on this one and its also fun now to go back and watch some of the old footage
of the Tigers defeating the Cardinals in ’68.
Michigan Comes From Behind In The
Twin Cities To Keep The Jug!!!
15 Years ago today, Michigan made one of the most amazing
comebacks in Michigan history! The game between a 1- loss
Michigan Team and an undefeated Gopher Team was the featured game in the B1G
and had to be re-scheduled from Saturday to Friday in order to accommodate a
Saturday night MLB Play-Off game.
Most Michigan fans had written the game off and
were calling it “over” with 14 minutes and change left. But hey, this was when the Gophers
were still playing in the “Magical Mystery Dome”! Nothing is over until its over! Michigan somehow came back from a 4th
quarter, 28-7 deficit to eventually win the game 38-35, scoring 31 points in the 4th quarter. The Gophers had a long shot at the end of regulation to get into Figgie range and a last second attempt to tie. Michigan
intercepted and the Comeback held!
TV Time-Outs – A Rant
The Michigan Scoreboard has a new feature
that “counts down” the TV Timeout while it’s in progress. Each TV Time-Out starts with 3:00 on the clock
and the fans are forced to endure each 3:00 countdown during each time-out. I have to admit, when it was just the guy in
the red hat standing down there, I never really knew how much of a fan’s life
was slowly, agonizingly wasting away watching…nothing. At least when I’m home, I can hit the
countdown timer on my phone, flip around and then head back once the countdown
is complete.
Granted, Michigan tries to fill
some of those time-outs by honoring other athletic programs and they also honor
the “Veteran of The Game” during TV time-outs. Still, at one point, I believe I had counted
14 TV Time-Outs on Saturday before I had left the game. That’s 42 minutes of extra “Game Time” that
everyone in attendance and watching is forced to endure. If you really want to shorten the games and
get them to under 3 hours, something needs to be done about the TV Time-Out.
Period. And much, much, MUCH Sooner
rather than later.
The Mailbag
I’m baffled by some of
the fans out there calling for Shea’s benching.
Have they been watching him play?
Have they seen him leading the B1G in passing the last two-three weeks??
You are correct. The mob mentality of some Michigan fans that are
demanding more playing time for McCaffery is slightly baffling. Yes, McCaffery is the QB in waiting
ever since he saw considerable time in the game against Western. And yes, I sort of get why you’d like
to have a QB “ready to go” at any given point in the season because every team
out there is one hit away from the 2nd string guy
(Clemson). But to suggest that Patterson
be benched for McCaffery is just plain dumb.
Patterson has shown me more in the last couple of games and there’s a
comfort level with Shea handling the ball.
His confidence is there and he moves when the protection breaks down,
which is often. The offense is coming
along nicely and I think we’re going to see better and better things as
we move through the season.
Was the “Razzle-Dazzle”
play, as you aptly put it, necessary against Maryland? Wouldn’t it have been better to save that for
an opponent where and when we really need it?
I don’t mind plays like that going on tape. But I know it gets a lot of people’s knickers
in knots. In my opinion, giving teams one
more thing to have to worry about defensively will take time away from
practicing how to stop Michigan’s bread and butter plays on offense. And that’s valuable to Michigan as the season
wears on. If you watch the Razzle-Dazzle
again, you’ll notice that it’s a formation that Michigan runs quite often. Meaning that defenses might make slight
adjustments to compensate for that play, opening something else up. And I think everyone keeps a little something
up their sleeve for when they need it.
Maybe that Northwestern
win looks better in hindsight?
I don’t know about that. Michigan has a road problem and until they
execute on the road like they execute in the Big House, I’m gonna’ be a nervous
nelly. And the fact that
Michigan’s next road test is in East Lansing, who just went into their “Beat
Michigan and everything is right in LNU world” mode, it’s gonna be a
tough test. Michigan will need
everything in its bag of tricks because, even with the worst offense in the B1G
right now, LNU will pull out all the stops.
Tai Streets Gave Cash To Bowen
This could be a problem.
Tai Streets started the AAU Basketball Club
Team the “Michigan Mustangs” and reportedly gave SuperStar Bowen’s Father a
payment of $5,000 cash. Unfortunately,
even though he last wore a Michigan jersey over 20 years ago, the I-I-I rules
consider Streets an “Agent” of the University of Michigan. I guess that means the MMQ is an agent also? Anyway, even if a former player has had no
direct contact with anyone at the university since he left, they still fall
under the agent definition.
What a crock of BS.
I’m curious as to how this breaks down for
everyone that’s getting called out in this trial and how it plays out via the
I-I-I. At worst, Michigan may need to
officially “dis-associate” with Tai Streets.
The I-I-I Reject Exhibition Game For Hurricane
Relief
This one is too appalling for words. In what seemed like a great, GREAT idea,
North Carolina and South Carolina coaches Williams and Martin got together and
said, “Let’s play a charity exhibition basketball game and allow all the proceeds to go
towards Hurricane Florence relief.
Michael Jordan agreed to have the game played in Charlotte,
about half way between to the two schools.
Everything was ready to go. Until
the I-I-I stepped in. the I-I-I rejected
the proposal as both schools have their “limit” of exhibition games this
season. The I-I-I can agree to waive the
rule of limiting exhibition games to two, but chose not to in this case.
And people wonder why I hate them and call them the “Idiots In
Indy”…
Wiscy Is DOWN Defensive Players
File under the category: Why I shouldn’t read. When you look at this article and see what
Nebraska’s Martinez was able to do to the Wiscy D that is suffering
from the injury bug, you start to get a little more comfortable when thinking
about how the game will play out on Saturday.
The secondary certainly
wasn't at its best against Nebraska.
Cornhuskers quarterback
Adrian Martinez threw for 384 yards and two touchdowns and wide receiver J.D.
Spielman had nine catches for 209 yards.
"Confidence is to be
earned," Chryst said of his defensive backs. "They have to have
something to fall back on and trust. And that’s when you have to trust the
techniques that are being taught.
For Comparison: Michigan held Martinez to 93 YARDS OF
PASSING for the entire game!
This is why you don’t read and start doing the A > B > C
comparison because every game is different!
But I’m liking the way this is looking for Saturday night!
This Week In Schadenfreude
You don’t want to be a Laters Fan or a man
named “Stoops” this week in Schadenfreude.
Especially in Norman, OK. That
fanbase, for good reasons, wanted DC Stoops GONE!
Bob needs to step up. It
is time. He needs to approach Mike and tell him “Mike, I have made you millions
of dollars here the last 8 years. It is time. You need to step down.”
Here
was a Concerned Sooner who worried that Stoops’ continual employment by the
football program was an embarrassment to the broader university community.
Honestly,
it is so bad and so obvious that it is a national disgrace. It is apparent.
Even fans of other teams are totally aware of it and yet, those who could
change it DO NOTHING.
This is
infuriating and has really caused me to reevaluate Riley. I have said it
before, but when the OU business school calls me for money I tell them I won’t
give a penny as long as Mike Stoops is still employed at OU.
I won’t give my hard
earned money to a university that allows totally incompetent employees to stick
around and getting paid over 1 million dollars to boot.
Yep.
There’s crazy fanbases everywhere that make demands about coaches that
are trying to do the best they can with 18-22 year old kids.
But, in defense of the frustrated laters, there is a large gap of
performance between the Offense and the Defense, and the Laters shouldn’t be
that bad on Defense. And here’s video
evidence that Jason Kirk put together of just how “Bad” the Later’s D could be. Soft Zone, ridiculous pass rush. Why not just let them score so you can get
the ball back?
It really does appear that Baylor
runs the same play 3-4 times in a row because the Laters are playing such soft
D.
