Wallpaper Wednesday: Denard Robinson

Believe it or not, I had this Denard wallpaper prepared before he ripped off 383 yards against UConn. As a result, he was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Offensive Player of the Week Sunday and picked up Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Hail!

113,090

I could not wait until Wednesday to post this.

Words can not describe how much fun I had on Saturday. Here was my view as the game was getting ready to start. It was as if I had been holding my breath for two years, and I was finally able to take a deep breath of fresh air.

I know we are a long way from "back" - but I won't let worrying about the future diminish the joy I felt on Saturday.

Go Blue.

Wallpaper Wednesday: 1995 Mercury Hayes

In my humble opinion, the most memorable season opener in Michigan football history happened on August 26, 1995. It was Lloyd Carr's first game as the head coach.

Michigan had slept thru the first three quarters of the game. With 12:55 to go, the Wolverines trailed 17th-ranked Virginia 17-0. Then the comeback began. We scored on a pair of drives to cut the deficit to 17-12, then got the ball back again, on the 20 yard line with 2:35 left. Somehow we kept making first downs. Time was running out. With four seconds remaining, freshman WR Tyrone Butterfield (wearing the #1 jersey) dropped a pass that would have run the clock out and sealed the victory for Virginia. But no... there was time for one more play.... and Mercury Hayes made a game-winning, fourth down, as time expired 15-yard touchdown catch from Scott Dreisbach to seal an 18–17 win in Michigan's greatest (at the time) comeback.

HT: 616goblue for reminding me of this great image captured by Erik Campos of the Grand Rapids Press and picked up by Sports Illustrated.

YouTube Highlights of this game HERE

Wallpaper Wednesday: Lens flare

Edit: after posting this, I decided I wanted a darker background. You decide.

Wallpaper Wednesday: Troy Woolfolk

The terrible news of Troy's ankle injury has me down today. We just lost our best player at a position we were dangerously thin at to begin with. I feel bad for the kid, I feel bad for the team, and I feel bad for us, the fans. The season has not even started yet.

If you feel like turning your depression into something else, take a couple of minutes and read the comments from Sparty on this thread. Pathetic. I have many life-long friends that root for the jolly green giants, so I refuse to characterize an entire fan base with a blanket declaration of hatred. But come on... 9+ pages of laughter and jokes celebrating an injury of a rival player? I can not wait to whip those mouth breathers again and listen to them cry and moan.

Five Questions

Actual football practice starts soon. I thought it might be fun to toss out a couple of simple, yet relevant questions to get the football juices flowing and the conversation started. The primary goal of this place for both T9 and me is to have some fun and continue the strong MZone community. Based on our web logs, I know we have a lot of readers; I am looking to pull some of you out of the shadows and open the doors for more participation. Don’t be afraid. All opinions are valid. You can answer any or all of these.

What needs to happen for RR to be Michigan’s coach in 2011 ?
As I stated a couple of months ago, I don’t think Rich Rodriguez will ever be successful here. He is the definition of a lightning rod, if by lightning you mean idiotic drama cloaked in an overcoat of controversy dripping in healthy layer of unreasonable hatred. The constant splat of bad news has worn me down -- and I don’t think it will quit. It is getting to the point where I am not surprised any more.

As a Michigan supporter, I want to win. I am tired of being the laughing stock of college football. For those of you that cheer against us because we are a bunch of arrogant pricks, please stop. Rest assured I am comprehensively and perpetually humbled. I just want us to be an ordinary successful college football program again.

That being said, I think three things need to happen to prevent Dave Brandon from holding a press conference and announcing a coaching change after the Ohio State game in November.

1) We need a winning season with a bowl bid.
2) We need to win two of the three traditional rivalry games (Notre Dame, Michigan State, or Ohio State).
3) There needs to be no more NCAA rules drama.

If any of those three things does not happen, we will be looking for a new coach and start this “re-building” process over. I no longer fear the prospect of starting over from scratch, again. You need to look no further than our new siblings in Lincoln to see that a once proud program can crash into the side of a mountain and eventually put the pieces back together again to be respectable. If they can recover from Bill Callahan, we can recover from this.

Realistically, how many wins will this team see?
I have looked up and down the schedule at least a thousand times – and I believe I spot seven.

If things go completely right (offense clicks and defense makes tackles) we may see nine wins. If things go badly from the start (like losing to both UConn and Notre Dame to open the season) we could be staring at another three win nightmare. At that point I will lead the campaign for a complete program meltdown.

UConn: We have no injuries and have better players.
Notre Dame: I never expect a win in South Bend.
UMass: Losing here would be worse than the loss to Appy State.
Bowling Green: We have another MAC win streak to protect.
Indiana: They played us very tough last year.
Sparty: Home game. Time to return things to normal.
Iowa: Who scheduled these giants for homecoming?
Penn State: By the time they play us, their issues will be fixed.
Illinois: My expectation is Ron Zook will be fired by this point.
Purdue: I can’t believe I want to beat Purdue so badly.
Wisconsin: Too much size and talent for our defense.
Ohio State: Our next win against these guys won’t be in Columbus

Opponent UConn Notre Dame UMass Bowling Green Indiana Sparty Iowa Penn State Illinois Purdue Wisconsin Ohio State

My Dream Win Win Win Win Win Win Loss Win Win Win Loss Loss 9-3

My Nightmare Loss Loss Win Win Loss Loss Loss Loss Win Loss Loss Loss 3-9

My guess Win Loss Win Win Win Win Loss Loss Win Win Loss Loss 7-5

Denard or Tate ?
I know this will sound corny, but my answer is both… we need BOTH at this point. The teams in the B11 are not getting any smaller or weaker. In this offense, the QB is going to get hit. A lot. Injuries are going to happen when you line up a bunch of smurfs against a bunch of monsters. We need more than one QB to make this work.

My preference is Denard. I am just giddy at the prospect of him running our full offense, he is just that damn exciting to watch. I would love to see him emerge as an accurate passer to go along with his astonishing running ability. Unless something changes drastically in fall practice, I expect him to begin the season as the starter.

On the other hand, I was and could be very satisfied with a productive and healthy Tate. There was no doubt he is an exciting and capable quarterback. Things turned sour last season when he tried to do too much and got hurt. The fact remains, he was a true freshman. Going forward, he needs to make healthier decisions and take care of the football better as a sophomore and beyond.

Did Troy Woolfolk cross the line at the B10 meetings when he called out Tate’s work ethic?

I have to admit, I was a little surprised when I read the comments this week. Senior leadership is an important and powerful thing. If Troy was a sophomore and Tate was a senior, I would be very very concerned with the chemistry on the team. Right now, with all that is going on with this program… whatever.

One thing to remember, he is a cornerback and they tend to talk a lot of smack. I honestly think he intended to highlight the off season efforts of Denard. The “diseased” comments that followed appeared to me to be the unfiltered ramblings of a college kid with a bunch of microphones stuffed in front of his face. He was expressing his feelings and doing what he felt was right as a leader. I can’t fault him for that.

Best case: Tate gets the message, starts to work harder and matures into a leader to match his talent.
Worst case: Tate continues to be lazy, loses his starting job to Denard, and transfers to Stanford.
Likely case: Tate tells Troy to “fuck off” under his breath after he throws at TD over him in practice next week.

Will we ever beat Ohio State again?
It took 40+ years, but Navy beat Notre Dame. Twice.
It will happen. Someday. Maybe. Hopefully.

Candidly, I don’t expect it in the next couple of years and it may not ever be against Jim Tressel again.
Right now, they are good. Really good. We are not. It is as simple as that.

When it does eventually happen… on that day I promise to smile a lot and enjoy it. I just hope I live long enough to experience it again.

Wallpaper Wednesday: Go Blue

Wallpaper Wednesday : Hail Charles Woodson

Wallpaper Wednesday: Ryan Van Bergen

Three days in a row with posting something.... woooo hoooo!

If you are thinking you may have seen something like this before, you are right, it was 364 days ago. Here is hoping that RVB individually has the same type of season Brandon Graham did last year.

Over scheduled

I don't need to tell anyone that visits here on a regular basis, but things have been a little slow. Not a lot of college football stuff to comment on and when you add in a real job that requires me to like.... work, and this place is becoming down right boring. I'd like to blame T9, but I know she has a job and a life also.

In an effort to fix, I decided to put together a schedule wallpaper. and then I had another idea. and another, until I clearly went overboard. Rather than choose just one, I thought I would share them all. Let me know which one you like the best.

Will Campbell

Darryl Stonum

Michael Shaw

Denard Robinson

Tate Forcier

Roy Roundtree & friends

Wallpaper Wednesday: Keep Believing

59 Days.

CWS wallpapers

I have missed a couple of Wallpaper Wednesdays. Here are a couple of cool wallpapers while I have been in Omaha.

Wallpaper Wedneday: Desmond Hall of Fame

Hold the Rope

HT to MGoBlog poster BlueinDC for pointing out this pretty cool official White House image of President Obama walking out of the Michigan Stadium locker room, presumably headed to give his Commencement address.

Regardless of your politics, it is pretty cool to have the sitting President of the United States come to your school. The image makes an interesting wallpaper also.

2010: The year of the pitcher

After years decades of offensive dominance, it appears as if major league baseball has dramatically swung the opposite direction. Welcome to the era of pitching dominance. Last night a previously unknown Detroit Tiger named Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game. 27 Indians came up to the plate over 9 innings, and 27 Indians made outs over those 9 innings. It was the third perfect game in the majors this season. Prior to the start of this season, there had only ever been 18 perfect games. Ever.

Pay no attention to what you saw. Pay no attention to what you read following the game. There should be no questions. If an official scorer can rule on an error made in the field by a player, it is perfectly logical for everyone to rule on an error made by an umpire. The kid pitched a no-hitter. The kid pitched a perfect game. That is all there is to it. Everyone was so happy they decided to allow one more Indian hit, just for the fun of it.

Nothing like this has been seen since the 1968 season. That was the year Bob Gibson and Denny McClain launched the game into the offensive rocket ship we have experienced most of my lifetime. Gibson had a microscopic ERA of 1.12 for the entire season. McClain won 31 games leading the Tigers to the world championship.

In response to the 1968 season, MLB lowered the mound and shrunk the strike zone to give the hitters more of a chance. A few years later, the American League added the DH, eliminating the easy out previously delivered by a pitcher at bat. The game was never the same, until now.

Maybe in response to the 2010 season, MLB will officially recognize the perfect game we all clearly watched last night and institute some expanded version of instant replay to ensure the human beings they employ to arbitrate the game get it right.

Wallpaper Wednesday: Ready & Waiting

94 Days.

Wallpaper Wednesday: Not that John Madden

Congrats to former Michigan hockey player John Madden. His Chicago Blackhawks have made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Because Madden is the only former Michigan player in the Finals, I will be cheering for the BlackHawks. During his four-years playing for Red, Madden set the NCAA record for most career shorthanded goals (23) and was a member of the 1995–96 championship team. In his final season in Ann Arbor, he was named to both the CCHA First All-Star and NCAA West First All-American Teams. He already has his name carved into Lord Stanley's Cup two times with the New Jersey Devils.

This wallpaper is from the impressive wallpaper collection at the Blackhawks official web site

Hail!

Wallpaper Wednesday: Mike Hart

I can not wait for football season to start. I can not wait for football season to start. I can not wait for football season to start. I can not wait for football season to start. I can not wait for football season to start. I can not wait for football season to start.

iPad background: Old stadium pressbox

My wife bought me an Apple iPad for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I love it. For those of you that have not seen one of these things, it has this awesome "rotating screen" to allow you to work both vertically and horizontally. The resolution of the iPad is 1024x768, but wallpapers need to be 1024x1024 to allow the image to fill the screen in both directions.

I took one of my all time favorites, cropped it and did some contrast and color enhancements. This great image was one of our first in the ongoing Wallpaper Wednesday feature (August 2008). From time to time, when the mood strikes me, I will share new iPad sized wallpapers.

The actual image was taken during the famous 2005 Penn State game. If you want to see more from the former Michigan student and Marching Band member (MightyBoyBrian) that took it, you can view his Flickr photostream here. Thanks again to Brian for sharing this shot with the rest of us. It is truly amazing.

Wallpaper Wednesday: Softball 2010

With one series at Iowa left to play, the #2 ranked Wolverine softball team sits firmly in the driver’s seat (16-1) for the conference title. Michigan is the two-time defending Big Ten champion and they are headed for an unprecedented Big Ten three-peat. This has never been done by Michigan. These girls have put up video game type numbers, with a .356 team average with 29 home runs combined with a 1.33 ERA with 155 strikeouts and just 52 hits allowed through 100 innings pitched.

Wow. Just Wow.