I Swear This Blog Isn't Closed

Remember me?  

Ooof.

I write here, occasionally, which is a sad state of affairs for such a high level and classy URL.  UMTailgate.com deserves better, even if it is May.  I mean, we are a mere 105 days from football.  That's not very much time.  And there's so much to catch up on since the last meaningful post here that there's really no point in dwelling on the past.  

So let's move forward shall we?

Lloyd Carr will be Michigan's 6th coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame...so pretty much every Coach except Mo and RichRod are in the Hall.  I had the honor of crashing the Griese-Hutchinson-Woodson Golf Outing party last Saturday.  [BLATANT SELF PROMOTION ALERT]  Did a lot of palm pressing, and a lot of man-on-man jersey chasing.  Definitely hugged it out with A-Train like we were long lost brothers.  Might have overstepped the personal space of Jalen Rose, but he'd never say anything as he is quite possibly the most gracious and outwardly nice celeb you'll ever run into.  Tailgater Tarek was with me, and we were able to speak to Coach Carr for a bit after breaking the ice with the classic "hey! we're from Riverview too" move.  Coach is getting to be old, but he's still all there, and he's becoming the Bo figure for this era of Michigan Football.  His legend continues to grow, no matter how you might feel about his waning years as coach, and his induction is well deserved.

Things are really happy around here now.  It was all smiles.  These guys are 100% behind Brady Hoke.  I think Amani Toomer was on campus for the first time since he played his last game here.  Rifts with Lloyd and not wanting any part of the Rodriguez debacle kept him away, but now he's back for Brady.  Everybody is back for Brady.  Maybe they weren't here the way they should have been for RichRod, maybe the lack of support made for a no-win situation for him and his staff.  But I can't think about what I wanted or what could have been anymore.  Michigan has never been more Michigan than it is right now, and Hoke's team hasn't even seen the field.  It's in the atmosphere on campus.  It's evident in the recruiting.  

Everything is going back to the way it was, good or bad.  

This team has to know its importance...this season's importance.  Eight home games.  Ohio State reeling....

...Nebraska arriving.  Sparty looking to make it 4 in a row.  Notre Dame under the lights.

Ya, so I hovered around the Heisman Trophy Winner and current Super Bowl Champion cornerback like a 5 year old.  The man that covered 2/3 of the field on every play for Michigan in 1997.  The man that almost single handedly put Carr in the Hall.  I waited for the right time, nearly 2am, and then...

Ya, that's a big smile.  It's OK to have heroes at 34 isn't it?

Here's to building a new set of heroes in 3 months...

GO BLUE.