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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Minor relief. Michigan Sports Center is reporting that WXYZ, channel 7 in Detroit, will also carry the Michigan-Minnesota game.

America! Fuck Yeah! Whenever there are flybys at football games, it's impossible not to get the above-mentioned song stuck in your head. I mention the above-mentioned because there was possibly the sweetest flyover ever -- fuck yeah! -- at the Illinois game:



Only competition I can think of was an A-10 flyover a couple years ago at Michigan Stadium.

Press conferencing. Attempting to limit youtube embedding these days so Macs (boo) running Firefox (woo) don't implode, so just links to this week's press conferences before the Minnesota game:

Worst ever. Right, as mentioned in UFR:
Gophers football coach Tim Brewster admits it makes him a little nervous, but he announced Tuesday that he will start three true freshmen in the defensive secondary Saturday at Michigan.

Kyle Theret has moved from safety to cornerback and will replace senior Jamal Harris, who was benched for the second half last week. With Curtis Thomas at free safety and Ryan Collado at right cornerback, the Gophers will start the three freshmen together for the first time this season.

Normally this is where the desperate plea to throw the ball, by golly, goes, but, yeah...

#PlayerNoGainLossNetTDAvgLong
1Shamen Washington1707077
2Pat Paschall129038707.318
3Ryan Parsons1404044
11Steve Walker6168801.310
28Pete Blincoe52902905.813
40Tyler Roehl22266326311277
198 Team204-40-20
Totals49412183941

...given what NDSU did to them, Mike Debord can call the same play 80 times and it won't matter.

Shouldn't you be grading things or something? Crotchety Michigan faculty have weighed in against the stadium renovation:
The University of Michigan Senate Assembly, the elected body that represents faculty, passed a resolution Monday evening urging the university to reconsider the $226 million renovation to Michigan Stadium in light of serious concerns raised by more than 600 U-M faculty and staff.
The concerns:
They're concerned they weren't adequately consulted about the major plans of the iconic stadium.

"In short, U-M administrators behaved more like oil company executives evading environmentalists than stewards of this university community," said Keith Riles, professor of physics at U-M, who supported the resolution.
Why wasn't Keith Riles, professor of physics, consulted about luxury boxes at Michigan Stadium? Uh... perhaps because he's a professor of physics? These complaints arise from the regents meetings wherein the stadium votes were added to the agenda late -- after the public comment slots had been filled. So, like, whatever. Have another vote and let the Hero of Tiananmen Square and physics professors have their say and vote on it again with the same results.

I've made the case for luxury boxes before; no need to rehash it. Until Pollack and others can provide some hard numbers on how concerned the citizenry is about luxury boxes they have no ground to stand on.

Hey, whoah. Normally sunny Angelique Chengelis gets in some not-so-oblique shots at Ryan Mallett in her latest Detroit News column:
....if you saw the Illinois game on television, the ABC cameras picked up a heated exchange between Carr and Mallett on the sideline after a Michigan offensive series.

Mallett put his head down and tried to move away, but Carr, who clearly was not finished with his "advice," pulled Mallett back and finished the lecture.

What does this indicate? Plenty. Quarterbacks and players rarely jaw at, ignore, or laugh in the faces of their coaches. I have heard from numerous sources who say Mallett simply needs one more ingredient to begin to fulfill his potential of being a great quarterback at Michigan -- he needs to mature. ...

Mallett is engaging and a treat for media to interview, but he needs to grow up fast if he's going to lead this team next season.

Also worth noting in this line of criticism is Carr's terse response to a Mallett question after the Illinois game:
“He’s got a lot of things he needs to improve on,” Carr said.
FWIW, I've also received a couple notes along these lines, one about as well-sourced as these things get. The situation here is precarious; without a major attitude adjustment things could be very sketchy at quarterback next year.

Historian. Again, trying to cut down on the embeds. Wolverine Historian has clips from the 1983 OSU game and the '91 ND game (featuring the Desmond Howard catch).

Etc.: Michigan Monday (yes, I know it's Thursday); TV assignments delayed for the MSU game; would not be surprised if, as long rumored, Michigan-MSU is on the BTN.

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