|
|
Some highlights regarding Michigan athletics three weeks into the new school year.
Hockey is just two weeks away. The Wolverines open up the 2009-2010 season with a pair
of exhibition games on October 3rd and 4th. Michigan returns a talented group of
players and brings in a new class that has the potential to nicely replace the few
Seniors who graduated last year. The usual College Hockey Showcase (this year played at
Yost Arena) and GLI tournaments are, of course, on the schedule. In February the
Wolverines travel to Madison, WI to play the Badgers in an outdoor game at Camp Randall
stadium; looking forward to that. If the Wolverines can make it through to the Frozen
Four this season they would most likely bring a home town crowd to the event as it is
being played at Ford Field in Detroit. That's a long way away with a lot of hockey to be
played, but it's something that fans can keep in the back of their minds.
I haven't had many kind things to say in the past about Big Ten officiating and three
weeks into the season all I can say is that Big Ten officiating continues to suck. The
only mitigating factor is that they suck equally for both teams; they just seem to be
bad. For those Notre Dame and Penn State fans who seem to think there is some grand
conspiracy among the officiating crews of the Big Ten to swing games Michigan's way, well
your nuts. Those officials just suck, that's all. You get some bad calls against you, the
other team gets some bad calls against them, generally over the course of the game the
badness tends to even out. I know officials take a lot of heat and what they do is
difficult, but I can't remember a game going back several years where they don't manage
to make one or two horrendous calls in a game, with another handful of border line
calls that just make you scratch your head. The real disappointment is that they don't seem
to make any improvement from one year to the next.
This weeks edition of the Michigan Athletics witch hunt centers around personal finances.
The article from the esteemed media of Southeast Michigan (and I use that term esteemed very, very loosely)
attempts to intimate some nefarious goings on because a number
of athletic coaches have taken out mortgages or lines of credit with the Bank of Ann Arbor.
That just so happens to be a local bank that the Athletic Director at Michigan holds stock
in and he also sits on their board. So the papers try to make the case that this is some
disastrous conflict of interest that would preclude the Athletic Director from making tough
decisions, should they be needed, involving any of the coaches involved. First I very much
doubt that Bill Martin is in any way involved in the day to day operations of the Bank of
Ann Arbor. He might know that some athletic department employees bank there and probably
a lot of employees at the University, but I doubt he knows the details of there banking
habits.
All that being said, here are my observations on this most current whack at Michigan
athletics. The paper that orginated this expose contacted an expert in conflict
of interest matters at Carnegie Mellon University. In their own experts words he
considers this to be a "garden variety" conflict, something that happens in a number of
settings in all walks of life. Their expert seems to be saying that while there could
technically be a conflict of interest, it's not of the type that would rise to the level
where it should be a real concern. Next you ask how do the coaches end up at the Bank of
Ann Arbor? Is Bill Martin directing them there? It would seem not; the Bank of Ann Arbor
aggressively markets their products, including mortgages, and will even send out letters
to new employees of the University encouraging them to consider B of AA for their banking
needs. All but one of the mortgages that various coaches had taken out were already sold
to other mortgage investors (as tends to happen with mortgages). The only mortgage still
held by B of AA belongs to coach Beilein. Bill Martin wasn't even aware of the lines of
credit and mortgages until asked about them by the paper (not unexpected since he is just a
board member and holds some stock). What it basically boils down to is another article
by the area media that tries to manufacture rather than report news. So that's this weeks
edition of the news that isn't news.
A poster (I don't remember which one) on the Victors board (linked to the left) put this
best. Never have 100,000+ fans come so close to collective heart failure as they did
yesterday when Tate Forcier went down in the third quarter of Michigans football game.
Initial reports during the game were that he just had the wind knocked out of him and
it changed to some bruised ribs after the game. Sounds like he should be OK, but it sure
drove home the point that Michigan's best option at quarterback is just one hit away
from not playing. Sheridan undoubtedly knows the offense better than the others and
Robinson has speed to burn, but lacks the depth of knowledge about this offense. Forcier
has benefited from getting to School in January and going through Spring ball, but
more than that he just seems to have that knack to get it done when it's crunch time.
To finish things off lets talk about Jabba the Weis, the Irish football coach who has a
book out titled "No Excuses". After last weeks Irish defeat at the hands of Michigan
what did Jabba the Weis spend the week doing? That's right, he spent the week making
excuses for the loss. First it was all the Big Ten officials fault (yes they were their
usual bad, but they were bad both ways - see above). Then it was all about a pseudo
punch by Jonas Mouton that didn't lead to a flag. The Michigan coaches, at least
publicly, said there would be no punishment for Mouton. The news came out Friday
that the Big Ten had stepped in and levied a one game suspension. First, the dog and
pony show put on by Jabba the Weis I guess accomplished what he was looking for; it
stopped all the questions being put to him about his horrible coaching decisions in the
final minutes of that football game. He made some decisions that
made it much easier for Michigan to mount there game winning drive so he was getting
hammered from all sides by that. Throwing Mouton under the bus got the press off his
back. Second, what Jabba the Weis didn't include in his dog and pony show, because
it didn't fit his agenda, was the shot to the back of the head by one of his players
that caused Mouton to take exception. Further he didn't point out that not one, but two
officials saw the entire altercation, separated the players, gave them a tongue lashing
but apparently decided that calling a pair of off setting penalties wasn't called for.
The long and short of it is that the no call was probably, in this case, the right call. For some
reason the ever politically correct commissioner of the Big Ten decided to bend over
and let Jabba the Weis and Notre Dame abuse his back side and then decided to step in
and suspend a player that two officials, that work for him, had decided didn't warrant
a penalty. For the sake of argument assume that a flag had been thrown and a personal
foul had been called. Would a suspension have been handed down? I tend to believe there
would not have been and if that is the case the suspension was unwarranted and nothing
but grand standing by the commissioner.
|
Summer's midpoint has come and gone, the Ann Arbor Art Fair has just wrapped up,
and that means we are roughly six weeks away from the start of another Michigan football
season. The next six weeks will most likely be a bit slow with nothing really going
on, unless your a football player of course. If you play for Michigan (or any other team in America) you'll be
running, jumping, lifting weights, and generally pushing yourselves hard to get ready
for the coming campaign.
The lack of any real activity of course means that the door is open wide for any
and all with an axe to grind, to blow even the smallest hint or smell of trouble way out of
proportion just to fill the dead air. Last year was not a good year. The transition
to a new coaching staff, player turnover that often comes with those coaching staff changes,
injuries, the introduction of an offensive philosophy that was about as
far away from the previous twenty years as you can get, and trying to run that new offense with players
that were not always the best fit for their position in that offense, all came together
in a perfect storm that proved to much for a relatively young and inexperienced team
to overcome.
For some last year was the coming of the apocalypse, for others the change was a long time
coming. If you can set aside those maize and blue glasses for just one moment, divorce
yourself from the tangled web of fandom, you come to realize that the football program had
become stale. There hadn't been a major change in that program in forty years, going
back to 1969 when Bo first arrived in Ann Arbor. From speaking with some who witnessed that
change, both from inside and outside the program, the upheavals were very similar to what we
witnessed last year. The new coaches were tough, driving the players harder than they were
perhaps used to under the previous regime. Routines were changed; things that were done a
certain way for as long as any could remember were no longer done that way or were simply done
away with. Of course time makes those difficulties less
pointed and easier to dismiss when you have these fresh disappointments to deal with. In addition
to the effect time has on history, it doesn't hurt that Bo's first team was somehow able to beat
the Buckeyes, in what was then and remains to this day, one of the most stunning upsets in
the long and storied history between the Wolverines and Buckeyes. Win that game and many
transgressions can be forgotten. It also doesn't hurt that in 1969 those changes happened
in more of a bubble than did last years. With the advent of 24 hour cable sports stations,
on-line blogs, and other web sites devoted to the Wolverines, nothing happens anymore that isn't
immediately available to anyone, anywhere. That's all good when things are rolling along. However,
when adversity strikes, not just a player, but the program itself the shear noise
generated by all of this instant coverage and minute by minute break down of the problem, can
lead to things looking like, well, the apocalypse.
Any fan, of any sports team, can be a little over the top in their devotion. It seems especially
true for those who follow college teams. It's one of the things I like most about college
athletics, you get invested in these teams, you follow them, you follow the players,
you revel in watching them win and in some small way, perhaps relive the days when you
were young and testing yourself against an opponent on the field of play. That makes a
year like last year all the more difficult, it's not just that you watched Michigan lose
a number of games that they would normally win, you felt the loss almost as keenly as the
players themselves. Of course as the losses mounted, the noise grew. Michigan was dissected
on national TV, they were shredded on the local call in radio programs, and the on-line outlets
were hardly kind. As the losses mounted the shrillness of the complaints seemed to grow
exponentially. Hopefully in the months since the last game was played people have had time
to calm down and perhaps come to the conclusion that while last year was not good, it perhaps
wasn't the apocalypse?
We now have a group of players who have a solid year within this system,
which can only help. While this year may still be difficult it's highly unlikely that it will
be as bad as last year. This team may even surprise some; I guess we'll know if there
were any real surprises in the middle of November. As we go through the upcoming season let
us not forget that while we as fans surely feel the pain of each loss, for the players inside
the program, that pain is even sharper. Those players have to forget about last year, they
need to look forward, to move forward. As fans, let us do the same, forget about last year,
look to the future, and do all we can to support our Michigan Wolverines.
|
(1) What does the average Michigan State player get on
his SATs? ..........Drool.
(2) What do you get when you put 32 West Virginia
cheerleaders in one room? ...........A full set of teeth.
(3) How do you get a Nebraska cheerleader into your dorm
room? .........Grease her hips and push.
(4) How do you get a Florida State graduate off your
porch? ..........Pay him for the pizza.
(5) How do you know if an Alabama football player has a
girlfriend? ..........There is tobacco spit on both sides
of his pickup.
(6) Why is the Kentucky football team like a possum?
......Because they play dead at home and get killed on
the road.
(7) What are the longest three years of a Miami ( Fla)
football player's life? ...........His freshman year.
(8) How many Texas freshmen does it take to change a
light bulb? ...........None. That's a sophomore course.
(9) Where was O. J. headed in the white Bronco?
.......... Durham, North Carolina. He knew that the
police would never look at Duke for a Heisman Trophy
winner.
AND FINALLY
(10) Why did Tennessee choose orange as their team color?
..........You can wear it to the game on Saturday,
hunting on Sunday, and picking up trash along the
highways the rest of the week.
|
For your reading pleasure, a little something by the immortal Bob Ufer. It was
Saturday, November 22, 1969, the first year as coach for Bo Schembechler and Ohio
State was coming to town to play the Wolverines, a game the Wolverines were given
no chance of winning.
That was Saturday, November 22, 1969,
the day Ohio came to bury Michigan.
All wrapped in Maize and Blue,
The words were said,
the prayers were read,
and everybody cried,
but when they closed the coffin,
there was someone else inside.
Oh the Buckeyes came to bury the Wolverines,
but Michigan wasn't dead,
and when the game was over,
it was someone else instead.
22 Michigan Wolverines put on the gloves of Gray,
and as Revelli played the Victors,
they laid Woody Hayes away!
|
|
|
