Happy 4th of July weekend

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.
I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
~Abraham Lincoln

Happy Birthday America.

Strong

A friend of mine sent me this the other day. Absent anything else to post today, I thought I would share. Semper Fi.


* There is no truth to the rumor Justin Boren enlisted in the Army during the off-season.

The Huskies are coming: 99

99 days (I think I got it right this time, check my math please).

Does anyone remember playing this game?

No announcers and the option for a 16 team playoff.
Of course it is available on eBay.

Thread Jack: These are the days of our lives......

yeahya
how many of the Spawn Posse roll like dat????

Gone Fishin...

I could not let a full week go by without posting something....

In honor of the now defeated Detroit Red Wings

Wallpaper Wednesday: Michigan Panthers

We are only a couple of weeks away from the spring football game. Ahhh, spring football... what a novel idea. For those of you old enough to remember, there was a spring football league for a couple of seasons in the mid 1980's. It was called the United States Football League. I was a big Michigan Panther fan back in the day. Primarily because they had Anthony Carter AND they had the best looking helmets in professional football. I remember the night they won the inaugural USFL Championship game like it was yesterday. Good times.

Eagle Globe and Anchor

This has nothing to do with Michigan, college sports, or semi-naked women -- but still nothing short of pure awesomeness. I received this from a friend of mine and had to share:

A living Marine Corps emblem comprised of 100 officers and 5000 enlisted marines taken at the Marine Corps Barracks in Parris Island, South Carolina in the 1920s.

For those of you that have ever served in the Marine Corps... just try to image the amount of bitching that went on as this photo was been set up. Wow.

NFL Combine Time

ZOLTAN

A great day for America

Yesterday was a great day for America.

Two of our service academy football teams played in bowl games... and won. Both teams faced opponents that were bigger, stronger, and more athletic. Neither team was expected to win... but they still won.

Air Force played in the Armed Forces Bowl against the University of Houston. At one point this season Houston was 3-0, ranked in the top 20, and had beaten both Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. They finished the season with 10 wins after the loss in the Conference USA championship game to East Carolina. Their QB had thrown for more than 5,000 yards for two straight seasons. It didn't matter because he threw 6 interceptions and Cougar run defense sucks. The Air Force ground attack pounded them for over 400 yards. Air Force wins 47-20.

Navy played Missouri in the Texas Bowl. I have to admit, Navy is a lot of fun to watch play. They run that option attack offense with such precision and passion, you have to basically hate America to not appreciate it. Missouri did not hate America last night. Navy wins 35-13.

God Bless America.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our loyal readers.

It has been a rough year any way you want to measure it for Michigan fans. Our football team suffered thru another losing season and lost to the Buckeyes + Sparty again. We missed a bowl game for the second straight year. Our hockey team is bad and the basektball team sucks. Despite it all, we have had some fun. Here is a toast to better days ahead.

Go Blue!

Black Friday Bargains!

Need a solution for that unwanted backhair???
Try the ManGroomer, available at Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Amazon, and other high-end retailers.
With it's 135 degree angled design (patent pending), it allows you to reach all areas of your back. The 1.5 inch cutting edge blade enables close results without ingrown hairs! It's discreet and compact design also allows for an extendable and lockable lengths--to get to those hard to reach places.
At $39.99 (with whatever coupons you can find) this is a tremendous deal !!!

In fact, Fat Charlie is a fan.....

maybe he'll buy one for Jimmy Harbaugh after tomorrow's game??????

Elizabeth Lambert: Pony-tail-pulling-bad-ass-THUG

Ok, I know that this is soooo not cool or funny (really) but this Lobos Soccer player takes no prisoners! OUCH

New Mexico player's rough tactics lead to ban

Posted using ShareThis

Lame Know Your Foe: Purdue (Redux)

My apologies, but the real world and it's requirements have not allowed the creation of a KYF this week.
Luckily, my buddy Andy has already done all the work and I can just copy......

blogwriter fail.

Carlos Brown broke my camera

I went to the game on Saturday. It was a great day. I was more than pleased with the enthusiasm and offensive improvement from last year. As I did last year, I carried my camera inside the stadium to capture some images. For those of you that don't know, I am a pretty serious photographer. I have some nice gear. The camera I used, while a couple of years old, is still very good. I estimate I have shot over 100,000 pictures with this body over the last 4 years. Never had a problem.

So I am sitting in my seats in section one in the second quarter. Michigan gets the ball after an EMU punt at their 10 yard line. I turn to my friend and jokingly say "I think a 90 yard Carlos Brown burst would be nice right here..." and aim my lens and start shooting....

1. Tate hands the ball off to Carlos Brown.

2. Carlos Brown speeds through the massive hole created by the OLine untouched

3. EMU's saftey (#4) comes up to provide run support

4. The run supporting EMU saftey realizes he has taken the wrong angle

5. The run supporting EMU saftey is on the ground while another EMU defensive back attempts to help

6. It doesn't matter, Carlos Brown is fast

7. Really fast

8. REALLY REALLY fast

9. As Brown crosses the goal line, it appears as if his super-sonic waves have entered my trusty camera...you can see a white streak on this image

10. The problem gets worse as the shutter continues to churn

11. The mechanics inside the camera start to disenegrate as I unknowingly keep firing away

12. Hello new camera

Free Jonas Mouton

If you have not been to a home game this season the market explosion of unofficial t-shirt sales at Michigan football games continues. I was disappointed in the lack of new stuff I saw this week. The standard "Rudy Sucks" or "Worst State Ever" versions have worn out their welcome. Of all the shirts I saw on Saturday, the winner was definitely the simple yet cutting "Michigan Practice Police".

If any bold entrepreneurial minded pirate t-shirt maker is out there and wants an idea, you are welcome.

Mr. Robinson's Defense

Poor Boubacar Cissoko. Wow--talk about out matched. I find it interesting that I have only empathy and love for Boo-Boo, while Morgan Trent still evokes only vitriol. Maybe it's because the W(S)LA has brainwashed me like Patty Hearst???? Nah. Mainly it's because Trent was obviously wrong wrong wrong, while poor Boo-Boo was just beat beat beat. And major props to the kid for NOT quitting and NOT backing down. He may be my new favorite player just because.


What I saw from the stands was a defense with lots of heart and fight and fantastic conditioning. The detnews found the silver lining too. The other thing I saw was the confidence in them shown by their coach who punted the ball back to ND late in the 4th. I was all for that move even though many weren't.
But I also saw that the deep support is absent and the linebacker play atrocious.

Here are the numbers courtesy of mgoblue.com
No surprise, but this was a heavyweight fight with the two teams going toe to toe. M scores 14 in the first, but then gives up 17 in the second. Gets 7 in the 3rd (while allowing ND only like 24 yards of offense?) and then allows another 14 points in the 4th. Mano a Mano all game long.

Check this out: (ND on the left, M on the right)

TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........      490      430
Total offense plays.........       72       71
Average Gain Per Play.......      6.8      6.1

wow.....490 yards given up to the opponent yet we still win????
I'll let someone else discuss the watershed/awesome coaching moments that got us over the top, and I'm still basking in the sweet joy of victory, but um....well, we gotta talk about the elephant in the room.

Run Defense: ND rushed for a net 154 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Ick!? Only Stevie Brown and Brandon Graham got TFLs but even then, they only backed them up for 8 yards.
but the real damage came on the....

Pass Defense: 336 net yards thru the air, with Jimmeh going 25-42-0 with 3 TDs. Average yards per attempt? EIGHT. Average yards per completion? THIRTEEN. And you wonder why Fat Charlie was throwing late into the game??? Why wouldn't you? You were getting first downs with almost every toss. Jimmeh was sacked only twice for a total of 9 negative yards. (oh, but how about a BIG shout out to our O line...Tate was not dumped once in the back field for a sack)
While Floyd and Tate killed, a few other receivers racked up catches as well...

Receiving        No.  Yds   TD Long
-----------------------------------
TATE               9  115    2   27
FLOYD              7  131    1   37
RUDOLPH            3   38    0   24
ALLEN              2   24    0   19
EVANS              2   15    0    8
GRAY, J.           1    7    0    7
KAMARA             1    6    0    6
Totals...         25  336    3   37

GACK!!!

So what to do??? Luckily we don't face Golden Tate and Michael Floyd again. Golden Tate is listed at 5' 11", 195 pounds and Michael Floyd is like 12 feet tall and all muscle (6'3", 220#). Poor Boo-Boo (5'9", 177#) was looking up to him head and shoulders all day long. Coach doesn't have many other options in the secondary.
The linebacker core is comprised of mainly freshmen and sophomores with Stevie Brown (!?) as the only senior LB....
Basically I think that the defense is at least a year or two behind the offense and that Mr. Robinson needs to take the trolley to the Land of Make-believe for solutions....

Bottom line?? An EPIC win for a young young program. I don't buy the #25 ranking and I think that we still have a lot to learn, prove, and show. I'm thinking we are going to see lots of offense from the opponent this season. But I have a LOT of love all the way around, and I truly expect Mr. Robinson to figure it out.

Good thing we can score at will!!??

Block M at the stadium

Even the Lions can't wipe the smile I have after the game on Saturday. I thought the student section "block M" this year was a vast improvement over the previous attempt. Moving it out of the corner helped. Nice job to those that organized this, it looked great on my HD TV.

Directors' Cup, bitches, Directors' Cup

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics recently announced the Directors' Cup Winners. Stanford once again (actually for the 15th year in a row) takes home the hardware for Division I, but note the top five finishers if you will....and the school in the 10 slot. Yep, we're in the fifth slot behind some not too shabby athletic institutions. Our champs include (clockwise from top left): men's gymnastics, men's golf, women's water polo and softball.

Grand Valley State won it's 5th straight Directors' Cup as well in Division II.


Directors' Cup Division I Final Standings 2009
1. Stanford 1455.00
2. North Carolina 1184.25
3. Florida 1172.75
4. Southern California 1137.75
5. Michigan 1131.80
6. Texas 1105.50
7. California 1072.00
8. Virginia 1059.00
9. Louisiana State U. 1029.00
10. THE University of Ohio State 1015.80

Um, I don't know, what do you want to do? Um I don't know, it's cool

Summer is upon us and of course, Andy and I had the "hey, how do you think Spawn is going?" conversation....
and I was all like, " I think it's ok, it's just like kinda slow without football you know?"
and he was all like, "yeah."

And then I said, "well, like, I think we should keep at it and just, you know, um, post stuff as it comes up, cuz like, well everyone else knows that it's like slow now. right??"
and he's all, "uh-huh."
And I'm like " I mean even Brian is posting like soccer stuff." And Andy was like, "yeah, but he's uber-cool-beast!-Brian." and I'm all like "word".

But in the end, we decided to just keep it going, you know. Just like being real casual about things and stuff. So like if we miss a day or something, like don't freak out ok...we are just like doing other things or stuff or don't like have much to say or something. Ok?

Ok. Cool.

DC wallpaper

Happy Independence Day !

It is my turn to share something patriotic on the 4th of July. I was in DC all last week. Yesterday afternoon (before the rain arrived) I took this picture from the Lincoln Memorial looking back to the National Mall. I have looked at this view hundreds of times and it never gets old to me. The image is sized it to 1280x800 and looks pretty cool as a computer wallpaper.