Meet the Future

The Grass is Always Blue-er

And so it begins. Public address announcer Howard King welcomed thousands into Michigan stadium on Saturday, warming up his pipes for the first three games of the season, all of which will be played at home. The band CD blared over the PA system as we all got our first live glimpse of the newly installed field turf, and were then invited to walk upon it. I'd like to think of myself as a traditionalist and I'll tell you this...screw grass. The field is amazing...period. It has an amazing feel, almost spongy, as the ground up previously-expoding Firestone radials take the place of dirt. I felt as if I was ready to show Coach Carr my 40 time. The new field is capped off by the return of the block 'M' in the center of the field, in perfect bright maize and outlined in Michigan blue.

The team took the field at around 3:15pm to a round of cheers from Wolverine faithful, making their way to the stands for the team picture. Marlin Jackson WAS on hand, but not available for autographs or interviews. The Wolverines obviously are taking the 'ignore it, and it may just go away' approach to the Marlin Jackson situation. And with a little luck, it just might go away, or at least delay itself until it doesn't matter anymore.

Lloyd Carr and marquee players had autograph tables set up. These included Braylon (only the 6th player in Michgian history to wear his newly inherited #1 jersey), Tony Pape, John Navarre, Chris Perry, and a few others, while the freshman players hung around the stands. I made my way to meet Jerome Jackson and Lamar Woodley, former teammates at Saginaw High, now teammates together at Michigan. A sizable crowd had surrounded them, getting a peak at the unbelievable size of Woodley, who will turn just 19 this November.

The Polls, the Polls, the Polls

Sports Illustrated : 13th

Athlon Sports : 10th

Street and Smith's : 4th

Sporting News : 4th

Phil Steel : 4th

Lindy's : 4th

Football Time : 10th

ESPN/USA Today Preseason Poll : 7th

Only Street and Smith's picked us ahead of Ohio State, ranking them 5th. So, while the national consensus seems to be that we have top ten ability, they all seem to think that Ohio State is going to beat us for the third straight year.

Special thanks to Camp Counselor Lisa for being my assistant at Media Day, helping me steal enough schedule posters and scheduling magnets to wallpaper my apartment and cover my refridgerator.