Newt Loken passes - M legends are dwindling

Newt Loken, Father of Michigan Men's Gymnastics and longtime leader of the Cheerleaders - the real cheerleaders - the guys in the Maize sweaters* that Dave from the short hallway was in - passed away this week.

A year or so ago I was in line behind Newt at the ACE hardware - he was charming the uninterested cashier to the point she almost enjoyed her job.

The first I'd ever heard of him was when my family used to go to the Go Blue Brunch prior to the homecoming football games in the late 70s - early 80s. Thinking back now, those were so packed with Michigan legends it is hard to believe. Newt was just one of many legends that would speak:

Wally Weber - long time freshman football coach
Bob Ufer - no introduction needed - just in case
Millie Schembechler - Bo's wife
Hazel "Doc" Losh - legendary astronomy professor whose grading system included "A for Athletes, B for Boys and C for Co-Eds"
Don Canham - AD extraordinaire

With Newt's passing there is a definite dearth of Michigan's living legends. Who would you consider M's greatest living legends?

Bob Chappuis
Bump Elliott
Cazzie Russell
Red Berenson
Anthony Carter
Rick Leach
Jerry Hanlon
Don Dufek Sr

Is it sad that I don't consider Lloyd Carr a legend? Not sure if it is because he's retired so recently or because I'm disappointed in his lack of obvious support for his successor. Am I too old to consider Tom Brady, Desmond Howard, Charles Woodson or the Fab 5 legends?

I guess it also points to the void in Michigan's "greatness" from the late 40s to the 70s.

*How is it possible that the interwebs do not have easily accessible images of the old maize sweater-ed cheerleaders?

Uniforms

I realized what I don't like about the 'Legacy' uniforms. At first I thought maybe I was being an old curmudgeon and didn't like change, but that doesn't make sense because I do like the helmets/facemasks.  Then, I thought maybe it was that I don't like the stripes, but that isn't so because I think stripes do have a 'retro' look that is kindof neat.  What I really don't like about the jerseys is the color.  More specifically 'colors'.  The stripes give me way too much yellow (maize) on a beautifully navy (blue) jersey.  I don't know if they could have made the yellow stripes thinner, or had fewer of them, but I just don't like the amount of yellow they give to the great M jersey.

Oh, the other complaint I have about the jerseys aren't in the look, but in the function.  As in, the function of my eyes.  With those little numbers on the front, I will have to wait for players to turn around to see their numbers.  I like the block M in front, though, so I think I can live with adjusting my view to the big screen or to my device if I really want to know who did something on a play.

Throwback jerseys part 2

Looks like Throwback Jerzegeddon is close at hand. As we discussed a while back the Freep stumbled upon these as the likely throwback for the UM- Notre Dame game.

Today the mgoblog community came across this on an MDen page - it has since been removed... even more damning evidence hovering brought up the words "Adidas Throwback Jersey...Night Game"

I think they over did it with the striping. I think a better look would be to limit the striping to three maize stripes - limited to the shoulder area no the sleeves. The 3 stripes would be similar to the 3 stripes on the football helmet (assuming Adidas could get the color right...)

Here's a side by side comparison:





















I think this is quite an improvement!

How should we track the Trophy through USC's sanctions?

USC has vacated 14 wins between 12/4/2004 and 1/4/2006. Unfortunately this affects the All-Time College Football Trophy.

On 1/1/2004 USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl to take possession of the trophy. They reeled off 25 consecutive wins before losing to Texas in the Rose Bowl in 2006. However the final 14 of those wins have been vacated.

I've thought of a few different scenarios (see poll below).

1. USC keeps the trophy throughout the vacated wins - but are given credit for only 11 wins not 25. The most similar precedent to this is when Auburn did not field a football team in 1943 do to WWII. In the official record they maintained the trophy throughout their hiatus. I like to think the importance of the trophy is the main reason they started a team again in 1944.
2. The team USC played in their first vacated game takes possession of the trophy as this is the first game USC officially "cheated". In this case UCLA would be given the trophy (praeter emendatum in) and we would track forward from there.
3. The first game played/completed after USC's last non-vacated victory would be determined to be the new "Trophy Game". We would go back and determine which school was the next team to win a game after USC's victory over Notre Dame on 11/27/2004 and track forward from there.
4. Other ideas? Leave suggestions in comments.
   

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OSU coaching futures

In case you hadn't heard, Jim Tressel resigned yesterday. They've promoted Luke Fickell to interim head-coach (he was already slated to coach the 5 games for which Tressel was suspended). But I don't think anyone expects Fickell to be the long term coach.

Yahoo Sports, among others, looked at the potential replacements for Tressel. After watching the pains Michigan has gone through TWICE in the past 4 years looking for a head coach, I think OSU landing Urban Meyer would be a huge blow to Michigan's esteem.

In 2007, Michigan was turned down by Greg Schiano and depending on who you believe Les Miles. They "settled" for their third(?) choice - Rich Rodriguez. For numerous reasons (see mgoblog circa 2008-2011) this did not work. The next search appeared to have Jim Harbaugh as the primary target. I'm not convinced that David Brandon ever even talked to him or Les Miles and we ended up with Brady Hoke as the head coach. Prior to the debacle in Jacksonville against Mississippi State, I said I would prefer keeping RR to hiring Brady Hoke. Afterwards, I agreed with jiMpossible, that RR had to go.

For Michigan with no sanctions hanging over them to end up with a coach with a 47-50 record at schools like Ball State and San Diego State and OSU to end up with Urban Meyer (104-23) at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida (+ 2 MNCs) while their coaching search goes on during what we can only assume will be MAJOR sanctions, would be ridiculous.

I hope Brady Hoke is the most successful coach in Michigan football history, but his getting the HC job with Meyer in Columbus, really shows how much the Michigan name has lost luster in the past 10 years...

Desmond Howard OMG!!!

Former Michigan Heisman trophy winner Desmond Howard spoke at the Black Coaches and Administrators Convention last night. His main topic was the feeling of "Entitlement" he thinks current players have. He does not like their recruitment being treated as a major news story - like an individual player could make or break a program.

He used Denard Robinson in the coaching turnover as an example.

"I'll give you a perfect example: Michigan fires coach Rich Rodriguez. All the noise in Ann Arbor is, 'Is Denard Robinson going to stay or leave?' I'm like, 'Hey, if the kid wants to go, don't let the door hit you on the way out.' You looked fantastic for five games against nobody. That's what you did. I'm not going to deny his talents, but you ain't won nothing in Ann Arbor, son! Not so much we need to worry about if you're going to be here next year or not."

This has caused quite a stir on WTKA, AnnArbor.com and MGoBlog.

Callers and commentors were not happy with Desmond. Questioning if he was jealous of Denard, wondering why he never says anything nice about Michigan. I felt like it was almost tipping towards the way Buckeye fans have forced Kirk Herbstreit to move away from Columbus because of all the complaints and threats he was receiving.

Is anything in that quote not factual? I don't think so. I've seen DRob do some amazing things but his performance was not up the same level against better quality teams.

Is Desmond being somewhat hypocritical - after all he left Michigan early? Michael Taylor e-mailed the show hinting at that in his message. At least he could argue he had WON big games at Michigan - he had won the ultimate individual award.

Ira on WTKA was mostly upset that Desmond had chosen Denard as his example and not Justin Boren. Later Sam defended Denard and to some degree any player who would contemplate leaving in a coaching situation. I wonder if Boren falls under that umbrella? I would guess not...

Here's to hoping that DRob's decision to stay was the right one for him, but more importantly the right one for Michigan.

Throwback jerseys

Are you kidding me? Could the addidas logo be any bigger? At least there isn't an Arby's logo like the Big Chill jerseys...