Turning This Thing Around...Right Now?

​The Pirates fell tonight by 3 to Grosse Ile. Pretty big game. Huron league title on the line...but we couldn't pull it out. So on the long trek back from The D.R. to Ann Arbor, I was pretty pissed. I couldn't find anything on satellite radio to listen to. The two CDs in rotation in my changer have run out of steam. I rotated between Lithium 24 and The Coffee House. The bitch of it is...I forgot Michigan was playing a basketball game. This is what it has come to. Fairweather? I guess. It's just that it has become so irrelevant. How horrible is that?

I arrived back in A2 with a halftime text message. Wolverines trail by 11. Not the end of the world, right? Well, what if Iowa only has 27 points? That leaves us with....wait for it....16 points in the first half. Disgusting. So I'm at home in time for the 2nd half, and as a special added treat, the game is on a non-BTN network, good ol' ESPN. Nice. Gotta be honest though, I considered not bothering. Hey, I had Lost in the DVR. But I opted to do the manly thing and settle in for some brutal Big Ten basketball.

What a pleasant surprise it was to find a Michigan team come out of the locker room swinging. They quickly closed the gap with Iowa, and controlled the pace for the remainder of the game. Anthony Wright, who before tonight I couldn't pick out of a lineup, hit a couple of big shots down the stretch with Manny Harris and Epke Udoh in foul trouble. Michigan pulled away, eventually outscoring Iowa 44-25 in the 2nd half, and winning the game 60-52. Iowa is no world beater, but they have managed to knock off Ohio State and held Michigan State to 36 total points on this same court. After a six game mid-season Big Ten skid, the Wolverines have managed to put together a couple of wins. We call that a streak folks.

What's the best case scenario for the remainder of the season? Not being completely embarrassed, I suppose. Maybe getting a little momentum going for next year. When they hit their shots, they are certainly watchable, so it may be time for you to get to know these Wolverines if you haven't already. Their next two are non-BTN too, starting with the Buckeyes at Crisler on Sunday (CBS) and a trip to Tubbyville on the 21st (ESPN).

And get your brackets dusted off....the 8th Annual UMTailgate.com Tournament Challenge is right around the corner. Yessir.

I'll end with a little housekeeping:

• Thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims of Thursday's senseless attack at Northern Illinois University. This college campus shooting crap has run its course. I just wish these assholes wouldn't be so cowardly as to take their own lives, so instead we can find a way to make them suffer.


• In political news, UMTailgate.com is officially announcing its support for presidential candidate John McCain.


• In college football rules news...they're trying to shorten games. Right, because in the 4th quarter of a college football game at Michigan Stadium, I'm always thinking about how I wish it would end as soon as possible. Whatever. For a funny take on said rules adjustments, visit EDSBS. It's worth a read...and you don't want to be the only one sitting in the stands yelling about how the clock is running before the snap after a play that ended out of bounds.

Spring. As in...warmer. As in...football.

​Seriously? I think EDSBS says it best with the title of their post: It's Too Soon to Talk Spring Practice Let's Talk Spring Practice. However, it's certainly worth mentioning that there's going to be a spread offense running plays in Ann Arbor in five weeks. That's right, the new era of Michigan Football in all of its adidas wearing glory will begin on March 18th. Barwis is going to have some sore players on his hands, being that they are going to now be going to lifting actual weights.

EDSBSdigresses...

Michigan begins practice on the sensible date of March 18th. With Lloyd Carr gone, we may assume the dogs and razor wire have been removed from around the practice fields, and the process may be a more transparent one as a whole for the Wolverines. DickRod may actually correlate reports of weather conditions, something Carr thought was for pinko commie sissypant dog rapists.

Well said fellas, I don't even mind the "DickRod" crack.

Of note on the Rivals.com list of Spring Practices...a Spring GAME date for Michigan. April 15th people...mark the calendar right now. Ummmm.....but that's a Tuesday!?!? Where? Your guess is as good as mine. Just be happy it doesn't interfere with THE season schedule. God I miss Jeremy Lesueur.

He's the Wiz...and Nobody Beats Him

​What do you know about Michigan Football? Not much. No, seriously. You may know stats, you may remember games, you may match numbers with players with the best of them...but what do you really know? Ever been to a practice? Probably not. When a player is dismissed from the team for "violating team rules" do you know what he did? Not for months. Did you know that Henne/Hart/Manningham was/wasn't going to play in (fill in 2007 game here) because they were injured? Nope. You were always guessing.

That's all going to change. It's time for funny. It's time for that great Michigan arrogance, and boy do we have a guy that is ready to put up that middle finger.

In a way that no leader of the Maize and Blue has in 40 years, RichRod opened up on WDFN this afternoon, responding to the comments of Joe Tiller last week:

I don't have any snake oil either. But maybe I'd be good at that, I don't know."

Then comes the obligatory backhanded compliment:

"(Tiller's) a great guy. Great coach."

He also covers a little game planning and strategy. My god, not the strategy! It's odd. We used to have a gameplan that I could recite to anyone in passing in about five minutes. I could routinely call the plays from the stands. Outcomes were easy to envision...minus that last bowl game.

Now we've got this complicated, unpredictable system...and we are willing to tell anyone that will listen. Hell, were even hosting a camp to teach our system to the locals.

Anyway, the audio is available over at MLive, which is where I stole the bulk of the above quotes from too. It's a good interview, worth a listen.

Jake Long on Sportscenter

​Projected top-5 pick Jake Long was profiled at combine training on the 6:30pm Sportscenter today. Jake is only the 5th lineman ever to be a two-time Big Ten offensive lineman of the year, and the first Michigan player since Trip Welbourne (Johnny Cleveland's favorite) to be a two-time All-American. I'm pretty sure that's because he should have gone pro. Jake's trainer at the combine made it clear that this is no ordinary man and that Jake has "mits the size of a polar bear." Which for starters is poor grammatically, but is probably not far off from the truth.

An interview moment with Jake shows that in his post-Gittleson life he has "leaned down a lot." He continues on revealing that the "lifting we did at school was all slow, pausing at the top." From the looks of the rigorous training regiment Jake was enduring, and the speed at which he was required to do it, I think it would be safe to say that Gittleson's methods don't translate well to the NFL system.

Jake goes on to say that he "thought he was eating healthy" before he arrived at the training. But they've got him on a stringent nutritional plan now, which begs the question: Do we not have nutritional plans in our program?

Weekend Roundup: A Time To Kill Edition: February 11, 2008

​What you missed this weekend while creating the ultimate pile of swine:

• The man himself speaks... RichRod on Sportscenter courtesy of Varsity Blue. Tears included, so beware if you are looking for your coach to be too tough to cry. Oh, and West Virginia is a bunch of assholes. Leave those kids alone.


• The most overrated recruiting class of 2008 goes to Michigan State. MGoBlog breaks down how what Drew Sharp calls "a great foundation" class is actually somewhere in the bottom quarter of the Big Ten.


• Stop the presses, as I somewhat agree with a Buckeye. Bob Hunter, who has no neck whatsoever, wrote a little article stating that we all may need to check ourselves and back off of Terrelle Pryor. Ya, maybe. As long as he agrees to stop calling press conferences.


• That limited legal skirmish you all know so well, Rod v. WVU, looks like it will be presided over by a jury of our coach's enemies. Despite motions to move it out of the backwoods and into civilization, it will take place in West Virginia. I hope he goes all Carl Lee Hailey on 'em. Yes they deserve to be coached by Bill Stewert and I hope they burn in hell.


• This class we got...this is some kinda class, with or without TP. From the Bleacher Report:

Ricky Barnum(OG) Rivals 5th Center, ESPN 4th Guard, Roy Roundtree(WR)  Rivals 44th Wide Receiver, ESPN 104th Wide Receiver. Michael Shaw(RB)  Rivals 7th Running Back, ESPN 77th Running Back. Barnum, Roundtree, and Shaw are three signing day steals by Rodriguez and the Wolverines. Barnum was set on Florida, Roundtree with Purdue and Shaw with Penn State.

• I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Michigan won a basketball game. Tarek says I'm fair-weather. Tarek also cheered the Spartans when they played against Wisconsin in 1996.