Weekend Roundup, Glass Half Full with Defense Edition: August 18, 2014

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It wasn't really all that fun, but for the football starved it wasn't a horrible way to spend a Saturday night in Ann Arbor.  It's was kind of reminiscent of what the Spring Game used to be, like 10 years ago.  So it wasn't great, but it was markedly better than the PNC sponsored bullshit they trot out in the current iteration each April.  Complaints?  I've got a few.  There wasn't nearly enough announcing of the play by play by bizzaro Grapentine.  New players, new numbers, constant substitutions...help a brother out!  Also, someone needs to clean up those ten million dollar scoreboards:  dirty, dead light bulbs, digital artifacts on the screens.  And finally, don't tell me to print off a bunch of free tickets and then tell me I don't need them when I show up.

I'm no rocket surgeon, so take my opinions for what they are...a few things I saw when I wasn't trolling twitter combined with everybody else's opinion from twitter.  

  • Simply put, the offense is the same suckfest as last year and when you see it go against the defense, it makes you think the defense might be serviceable.  
  • Northfleet has been thisclose to breaking one on special teams for what seems like 5 years...I think you'll get that same feeling all year before each time he's tackled at the 30.  
  • Peppers looks like the kind of athlete you want on the field as much as possible, and combined with the fact that he is a child maybe the only thing to get excited about going in to this stupid opener.
  • The offense line looked like disorganized crap.  But that's because it IS disorganized crap.  Glasgow is out for the opener, there's a true freshman that might start, Bosch has a hurt back....lots of in and outs is not conducive to the idea of a cohesive unit.  I think it might be best to reserve judgement until South Bend.
  • Punting and kicking looked as good as it has ever looked.

Here's what you missed around the internets when you bought a set of season tickets on woot:

Keep calm and Go Blue!

Weekend Roundup, All Blue Edition: August 11, 2014

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We are rapidly approaching our 15th season as a tailgate blog, and as you can see we're running out of room at the top of the page.  Over the past month I've remastered 2004, 2003, 2002 and most of 2001, so those seasons are now available at the top.  2001 and 2000 should be finished soon, which is the same thing I said in August of 2008, so "grain of salt" rules apply here.

I hope to add a bunch of other fun stuff too as the season goes along.  But I also hoped that by this point in my life I'd own a club or two in Las Vegas.  Things don't always go like we plan.

Here's what happened around the internets while the Tigers shit the bed against Canada:

  • There will be uniforms that don't look like the uniforms from when you were younger.  These uniforms will look weird to you.  You probably won't like them.  99 of 100 recruits will like them, that other recruit will go to Penn State.  Deal with it.  Don't like it?  Don't buy it.  But aside from the time I couldn't read the numbers at the Outback Bowl, I couldn't care less about what we wear.  MGoBlog covers the untimely release.
  • Maize and Brew covers Media Day at Michigan and Coach Hoke talks O-Line.
  • MVictors unveils the origin of Doug Karsh's nickname "Krash."
  • Know your foe!  Fall camp notes and thoughts from Yosef's Cabin, the "unofficial Appalachian State Fan Site."  Yosef is the name of the ASU mascot, and is actually backwoods hill talk for "Yourself."  I provide this information to piss you off even more about 2007, and the fact that we are actually playing them again.
  • Media Day coordinator quotes from The Michigan Daily.
  • Early returns on the running back competition have Green behind Smith and Johnson, so says The Detroit News.
  • Pick six season preview from The Worldwide Leader.

The Soccer Didn't Suck So Bad

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Man I wanted to hate this.  I'm on a streak of hating every Brandon decision since 2010.  But I cannot lie.  This was a great event.  Ann Arbor was alive and kicking for 2+ days with a completely different group of sport loving idiots, and while I don't understand them or their absolutely ridiculously boring sport, I appreciate their passion for their teams and for drinking copious amounts of beer. 

An informal survey of the tops of tailgate tents before I went nearly blind on Summer Shandy (shandy is for men damn it) resulted in an estimation that only about 30% of tailgaters were straight up Michigan fans.  The other 70% bought their tickets on stub hub and ebay from enterprising season ticket holders like myself, and many of those wouldn't know the difference between a "Go Blue!" and an "O-H" if given a pop quiz.  But it made for a unique atmosphere, albeit way too red.

We had a modest start of 10AM and a decent crew turned out for the tailgate. I dusted off the catering grill for one last hurrah before it is replaced to start the real season.  It performed admirably, serving up some sweet corn, burgers, and sausage and peppers.  It was a nice warm up before things get serious in a few short weeks.  Thanks to Derek for the bulk of the pics.