Michigan is 252-67-1 in all games I have attended (all data is based on games I have attended unless otherwise stated) M is 0-2 in the 11th attended games of the season M is 8-9 in Bowl games M is 8-5 in January M is 95-23 vs. non-conference opponents M is 25-10 vs. schools from Confederate States M is 7-4 vs. schools from the SEC M is 1-1 vs Alabama M is 2-1 vs all schools from Alabama M is 41-20 away from Michigan Stadium M is 2-4 in the Rose Bowl M is 6-7 west of the Mississippi River M is 9-10 in stadiums that have hosted the Super Bowl M is 28-5 vs schools with colors in the name or nickname M is 81-28-1 on natural turf M is 68-24 in mid afternoon starts M is 4-3 when playing for their 11th consecutive attended win M is 164-32-1 vs. schools with mascots deemed lighter than a Wolverine M is 75-13 with Jim Harbaugh playing a leading role on the team M is 2-1 vs Nick Saban M football is 52-6-1 when Juwan Howard is a player or coach for the M basketball team M is 90-42 vs ranked opponents M is 3-1 when ranked #1 M is 2-0 vs teams ranked #4 M is 13-7 when ESPN Gameday is on site (I'm assuming they will be at the Rose Bowl - if not M is 239-60-1 without ESPN Gameday) M is 2-1 on Monday M is 128-44 when Hoot and I are confirmed to be in attendance M is 1-2 when jiMpossible and I are both at the Rose Bowl (sad jiMpossible is above with Bo at I believe the 1990 Rose Bowl) M football and M hockey are combined 0-6 in semifinal games when I attended
I had a bad feeling going into the play. Michigan has
not been a good short yardage team all year.
I didn't like the formation they came out in. I really
didn't like that they came back out in the same formation. John Beilein
would never do that with the basketball team.
After the fact, I think they needed to go for
two.
OSU had a dominant running game - without a turnover M
was unlikely to stop them
M would be using their back up kicker for any field
goals (his miss was saved by the timeout M called in the 3rd Q)
Gardner was hobbled.
As I said I didn't like the formation, I think it
limited M. I think OSU had scouted the film enough to be able to guess
what was coming.
That being said, I think if Gardner had been able to
get the pass off a split second earlier and Dileo could have reacted and
made the catch right as he turned it would have been successful.
When you're going for an all-or-nothing two point
conversion play - I think you need to pull out all the stops. It either
needs to be your best play that no one had been able to stop all year or
something you've saved for just this case - that is un-scoutable. This
play was neither.
Biggest problem I have with the decision to go for two
is Hoke saying he asked the seniors and they said "go for 2."
Well of course they did. If there is a player on that sideline that didn't
want to go for the win right there - they should be cut. Hoke and his
staff are paid a ridiculous amount of money to make those decisions. The
22-23 year-olds on the sideline are paid in tuition and board allowances.
Another way I've thought about the decision to go for 2
- what if the scenario was M was down by 3 and faced 4th and goal on the 3
with 32 seconds left. Do you take the field goal then? I feel like that
decisions might have been to kick, but why is it any different?
Alabama -Auburn
The extra second - I thought the clock in football was
different than the clock in basketball in that the on field officials need
to signal to stop the clock. It shouldn't be the split-second his foot
came down out-of-bounds but the split-second the official started to
signal to stop the clock.
If Alabama wins on this FG it would be an injustice - official has to signal to stop the clock - game should be over
— Mike Altese (@mpharmd98) December 1, 2013
boneg championship - Rose Bowl
I was happy until I realized that their loss probably
guaranteed MSU a spot in the Rose Bowl
Twitter seems to think I should root for MSU because
"Ohio (sic) is our real rival"
I know about 2 people who are OSU fans - I know
several MSU fans. I don't like it, but I'm not surprised when OSU is
successful and better than M. I do NOT like it when MSU is.
My best chance is a close OSU victory (preferably 7-3
with many turnovers) with an Auburn blow-out in the SEC championship game
dropping OSU behind Auburn in the BCS.
Modern Family premiered last night. At one point Claire Dunphy finds an old picture of she and Phil at the Rose Bowl (or Rose Parade - we don't see the picture). When asked about the game Phil says something like: "...we got pummeled by Penn State" He also mentions Angela Lansbury was the Grand Marshall.
I love Modern Family, but they mixed up their Rose Bowl years.
Penn State is 1-2 in the Rose Bowl. Their only victory came in the 1995 match-up against Oregon. However, the Grand Marshall that year was Chi Chi Rodriguez. Angela Lansbury was actually the Grand Marshall for the 1993 Tournament of Roses, where she presided over the Michigan victory against Washington.
I wonder if they just picked her so Phil could make the joke "...Good times, she wrote." If that was the case why not have the Dunphys be UW alums? To my knowledge they have no previous references to being Oregon alums. Perhaps someone on the writing staff is from Oregon or from Penn State and wanted to reference that game.
Either way, it seems Michigan's reign as the school that pops up on my favorite shows (Dharma Initiative on Lost and House and Cuddy on House) appears to have ended.
With M undefeated and ranked #1, the only reason I was able to get tickets was because students were guaranteed tickets. I made travel plans to fly to Vegas and then drive to Pasadena for the game. Then I found out I needed to pick up student tickets the day before I would have landed in Las Vegas. So travel plans changed to fly to Reno a few days earlier. The Northwest rep on the phone told me it was only like 300 miles from Reno to LA. She must have meant by plane. Driving was ridiculous, that included driving through mountain passes in the winter. One gas station attendant told me I would need tire chains - I was not buying chains for my rented Geo Metro...
Finally made it for the game. Charles Woodson was key again. M was trailing 7-0 in the 2nd when Woodson picked off a Ryan Leaf pass right in front of me in the endzone.
Midway through the 2nd Brian Griese hit Tai Streets for the first of his 3 TD passes. Midway through the 3rd Leaf connected on a TD pass, but James Hall blocked the PAT keeping M within 6 points at 13-7. On the ensuing drive Griese and Streets struck again, the PAT put M up 14-13.
Early in the 4th Griese finished his hat trick this time hitting Jerame Tuman for the 21-13 lead. After a field goal made it 21-16, M was trying to close out the game on the ground. Griese may have been at his best on this drive. He converted the first long third down on a scramble. A few more first downs ran the clock, but a pooch punt out of field goal formation left the Cougars 90+ yards away with about 0:30 left. A bomb (on a should have been offensive interference call) got WSU to mid field. A hook-and-lateral moved it down inside the 30, but without timeouts, the Cougars couldn't spike the ball in time to get another play off. Sitting in the Michigan section in a victorious - National Championship winning Rose Bowl is an experience I can't explain. No one wanted to leave. Finally, they made the MMB pack up and that got people moving. It is Great to be a Michigan Wolverine!
We had also gone out to the Rose Bowl the year before, this time we decided to stay in Las Vegas and drive in and out of Pasadena for the game. New Years Eve in Vegas is quite a party, when you add that 2005 marked the city's centennial, it made it even bigger. The entire strip was full of people watching the fireworks show off of all the major casinos. I've never been so overwhelmed by a crowd. When the show ended - everyone was just trying to get back to their casino - so people packed together wanting to go in both directions means no one moves. I could see over the top of the throng of people that if we could just get to the middle of Las Vegas Blvd, the crowd thinned out enough that people were moving, but we were essentially pinned to the wall of the Bellagio Lake. I truly thought someone was going to get crushed right there on the strip. It must have taken us an hour to get to a spot where we could move freely. All that time left us very little time to sleep before driving into LA in the early morning. We made the long drive in and got a decent parking spot near what I assumed would be an exit, more on that later. Melissa took a nap and I checked out the ESPN Gameday set until we were ready to go in to the Bowl at the Arroyo Seco. Oh the game was memorable too. You know that probably not quite as true as we think it is line that Michigan has always had trouble with mobile quarterbacks? If you're in that camp this game is likely exhibit A in your argument. Michigan had no answer for Vince Young, and yet they had opportunities to win this game. Freshman Chad Henne threw 4 TD passes, 3 to Braylon Edwards and 1 to Steve Breaston. If not for Young's heroics Henne or Breaston probably would have been the game MVP. Every time Texas scored (well almost) they had to to kick it back to Michigan and Breaston seemed to be bringing the kicks back into Texas's side of the field. The score went back and forth most of the way: Texas 7-0 on a Young TD run Tied at 7 Henne to Edwards Texas 14-7 Young TD pass Late in the half Michigan tied it on another Henne to Edwards pass Young started where he left off with a 60 yard TD run to make it 21-14, Texas Michigan answered with 17 straight points, 2 Henne TD passes and a Rivas field goal making it M 31-Texas 21 going to the 4th quarter. That last field goal was really a harbinger - Michigan started "settling for field goals", Texas - or really Vince Young - kept getting touchdowns. The first trade of scores left it M 34 - Texas 28. The next Young TD run (his 4th) made it 35-34 Texas. Michigan got another great Breaston return and mounted another scoring drive. On third and shortish Henne's pass for Edwards was high forcing another field goal attempt. Rivas hit the field goal and M went back up 37-35 with about 3 minutes left. WAY TOO MUCH TIME. Young moved Texas for their winning kick. Dusty Magnum's 37 yarder as time expired was the final score. But even that had drama, Ernest Shazor actually partially deflected the kick that then went right between the arms of Prescott Burgess. (photos from mgoblog) We slowly made our way back to the car and found that that exit I'd hoped for was still closed. There were two posts with chains blocking it. After waiting in non-moving traffic for about 10 minutes, I got out of the car and lifted the posts out of the holes, drove over the chains and got us on the road. Driving back to Vegas after 2+ hours sleep a long drive in a long emotional game, was a challenge. We were running on: We somehow made it back to New York New York and eventually I cashed in my winning bet ($20 on Michigan to cover the spread - yahoo...) For many reasons January 1 2005 is one of the longest days of my life.
The real question is whether there will be a viable internet/TV combo created before the total end of over-the-air sports. I'm thinking there won't, as they haven't even created a successful model yet. If the RB was what it was 10 years ago, this would be a sad day. The only real sad thing about it is that ESPN just gets more powerful. TV has told college sports when and where to play. Will there be a time when ESPN chooses who the Universities hire as coaches, etc. Or who they are allowed to recruit? That may sound far fetched, but if NBC told ND to fire Weiss or they won't renew the contract, ND would listen. Is ESPN getting that kind of power? We'll see.
Ernest Shazor actually partially deflected the kick that then went right between the arms of Prescott Burgess. (photos from mgoblog)