Weekend Roundup - My AM is Your PM Edition: April 21, 2008

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​OK, lets get the old stuff out of the way first. My refusal to report the results of the Frozen Four debacle is something I should be scolded for. In my defense, it was only 50% laziness. The other 50% was heart wrenching disappointment. Unfortunately, in the wake of the Irish winning something, I was a bit remiss with regards to the good news from that weekend, Kevin Porter getting the Hobey Baker award. Congrats to Kevin, and in retrospect, congrats to the Wolverines on their unexpected run. Thanks for helping us all remember that we are really really good at all but one sport.

Speaking of Michigan Basketball, looks like there's a plan in place to bring the hoops facilities into the 1990's. The women's team actually practices at the IM building??? 
Dude. Way overdue. And let's not screw around for two years looking for a plan and funding. Just get this done Bill....right now.

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The Lloyd Carr lovefest knows no bounds. Lloyd was honored last week in Tennessee, receiving the Neyland Trophy from the Knoxville quarterbacks club. That's Neyland as in Neyland stadium. That's Tennessee as in ass-whoopin'-at-the-hands-of back in the 2001 Citrus Bowl. The "nice" article at Go Vols Extra does remind you what the legacy of Lloyd might be....forever.

His last season at Michigan was a difficult one. The Wolverines were upset by Division I-AA Appalachian State in the season opener and lost to Oregon in the second game. They won their next eight games before losing the last two regular-season games to Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Ya, I remember. Thanks.

And now some bullet points to ponder after you take the Where Are They Now quiz...

File This Under...

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​...things you always wanted to hear about the Florida Gators:

But the defense was downright humbled against Michigan.

The Wolverines racked up 524 yards of offense and scored on seven of 13 possessions. It could have been worse, too, had Chad Henne not thrown two interceptions and Mike Hart not fumbled twice near the goal line.

The Gators couldn't tackle Hart, couldn't pressure Henne and couldn't cover Adrian Arrington or Mario Manningham. Florida's coaching staff has shown highlights... lowlights, really... throughout the offseason to remind the players how much room they have for improvement.

Spikes wanted to turn away at times, but eventually decided to use it into a motivational tool."


It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine. Ahhh, but as I always say, the past is the past. For a look at the present, 

I give you Maize and Blog's Spring Practice Coverage

...first the good:

The offense involved a lot of quick rollouts and passes to the outside to one of the wideouts, mostly the slot guy which Clemons was playing. Threet was surprisingly quick and effective in these plays which made up most of the offense. The offense ran no-huddle the entire day, not huddling once during a series. Threet seems to be getting a great grasp on the offense very quickly leading the team in this no huddle. Most of those quick passes to the outside picked up about five yards and some broke for more.

OK, OK, sounds somewhat promising. My only issue is...what spread offense has ever had a problem with the Michigan defense. I kid! I kid! Some points of concern:

...offensive lineman (from LT to RT) Mark Ortmann, Tim McAvoy, Dave Moosman, Cory Zirbel, and Stephen Schilling.

Who? And this Navarre-esque tidbit:

(Threet) has about a 3/4 delivery which means alot of passes were and will be batted down at the line.

Good, because I've really been missing those.

And in "I swear I'm not bitter" news, Mallet hurt his thumb:

The sophomore struggled to move the second-team offense at the start of Friday's scrimmage, and he missed a considerable amount of snaps after injuring his right thumb.

So voodoo dolls do work! Well, he can't play this year anyway, despite his whining.

It's Me! Mario!

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Da da da da-da da...do.

It's seems the country club was serving a little more than steak and lobster the past few seasons. Vicodin and Mary Jane were also on the menu for Super Mario. Hey, I'm all for a gentlemen experimenting with some illicit drugs during his college years...I just have no respect for someone that gets caught. Getting caught with weed in your system means you are stupid, and I have little patience for stupidity coming from someone living a charmed college life. Listen, if you think that they didn't know when the test was coming, you're kidding yourself. Therefore, he either flat out didn't care and knew he'd be given a pass...or he was so caught up in the stuff he couldn't stop for a couple weeks. Mix that in for a recreational use of vicodin (which UMTailgate.com helped break the story on) and what you have is a troubled kid that should have been sat for some games....maybe his 3 catch, 0 touchdown performance against Appy State would have been a good one.

Listen, far be it from me to take away some of the great things Mario did here. From thePenn State miracle as a Freshman, to the leaping circus catch last season against MSU, there's no doubt he brought excitement to Michigan Football, maybe even won a game or two. But his inconsistency...might that be attributed to Thursday night game week bong parties on S. Forest? Ya, that's the story I heard but failed to report that seems much more plausible now. Oh, and if that's true, mix in a couple other members of your receiving core in attendance at the same party. And folks, that was just one night. One night that even I heard about. How many similar stories can be found without digging too deep? My guess is more than MM would like to admit.

But it's all in the past now. Mario left early. Arrington too. The question isn't about what is going on now, but it certainly lends more credence to theories of what went on in the past. We always stood by that even if they weren't playing to their Scout.com star potential, at least they weren't getting themselves in trouble. The coaches were at least creating men of character. And now it seems we were really kidding ourselves. Three strikes? Seems like Mario had nine lives, and that, if nothing else, is a disappointing essay on a coaching staff who let the game pass them by.

"The Hell With Notre Dame"

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​Wow, I've got some catching up to do.

For now, get ready for a rivalry on ice...tonight at 7pm...ESPN2. (UPDATE: That's 7pm local...9pm for us in Ann Arbor) The Godfather, who does his grocery shopping in South Bend, will be using tonights game to get past the weekday drinking restrictions imposed by the Godmother.

More to come.