Wingless Helmets

Again, I don't want to be all "I hate everything RR does", but I don't like the idea of having M helmets with the wings. I get his point of requiring them to earn his wings, but I guess if they were recruitable, as players and as people, they deserve to wear wings. If they aren't worthy of going on the field, then bench them or kick them off the team.

For the first time ever, I read portions of the Bacon / Bo book. And the more I read, the more I though "RR doesn't do that". It makes me uncomfortable the more I see that RR's philosophy is different than Bo's. I should be 63, not 43.

Comment #2

The other thing I want to mention has to do with woolfolk’s comments. I’m not talking about the comments he made about Forcier, but rather the comments that he pays attention during films rather than listening to his ipod or texting or whatever he said he used to do. I don’t like being one of those guys who finds a bad thing to say about RR whenever something is mentioned about the team, but this comment startled me. I know times are different, but I’m pretty convinced Bo would have made sure there were no ipod’s or cell phones on in the classroom, and maybe not even on in the building (which would result in a group of guys standing just outside the door texting, I’m sure). It took Mark Messner (I believe) as a guest to comment that he didn’t like the players using their headphones when getting off the bus for RR to change his rules (but I still have seen them with headphones on when going from bus to locker room, so maybe that really didn’t change). I admit I am an old fuddy-duddy about some things, but that comment by woolfolk really does reinforce the difference between Bo and RR. Woolfolk may have brought his device in during the Carr era, too, of course, but Lloyd has given me evidence that he is a Michigan Man as I want the M coach to be. Rr hasn’t done that yet.

Countdown to Kickoff - 33 days

November 25, 1989, Michigan 28 - OSU 18

The first two posts in this series were just that, firsts. This game turned out to be a last. The last game I attended with Bo Schembechler as head coach.

Michigan came in 9-1 ranked #3; the Buckeyes were 7-2-1 and ranked #20. Michigan's ground game carried the day, in true Bo fashion. Hoard, Bunch and Jefferson all scored on the ground added to a Bunch TD catch from Michael Taylor.

It was 14-12 Michigan in when a 4th quarter (M was ahead 14-0) Todd Plate interception (not sure who Frye was throwing to) followed by a 40 yard Hoard run gave M some momentum for a quick score. OSU marched back down and scored again. The PAT was blocked by Tripp Wellborne, keeping the score at a field goal. Vada Murray had blocked a FG earlier, was there ever a better pair for blocking placekicks at Michigan?

With 3 minutes left and still a 3 point game, Plate picks off his second Frye pass near midfield. This leads to the final classic Bo, fullback dive for the final home TD of his coaching career.

Lloyd troubles

I'm not going to argue with your basic point that Lloyd had a not-quite-squeaky-clean program. But, RR has only been around for a year and he has one very very very big one. That's is not a good average. Lloyd may have had a good number, but if you put a value on each one and divide up the number of years, he has a pretty good average. RR's average needs to go down. We'll see what happens.

When I was in college, I knew of a player that was a starter as a sophomore (maybe a jr, I don't remember). The next season, he was gone. I don't remember ever hearing/seeing a story about it in the media. I found out during the season that he had tested positive for drugs and was off the team. He had to go through some drug program, I heard.

I don't really know why I told that story, but I think there are two reasons:
1) I wanted to mention something that most people don't know
2) I think it shows that even if RR was as clean as Bo, there would probably be a blogger who would find out about something.