Unverified Voracity Tears Down Their Goalposts
Woody-punchin'. WH provides the 1977 Game, which Michigan wins 14-6. Woody Hayes punches the camera at about 11 minutes:
Griese could be good at the TV. Not that Griese, the other Griese. I'm now holding out vague hopes that we could be getting something a little bit like NFL Matchup out of ESPN's Thursday night CFB preview show:
Griese, Mark May and Scott Van Pelt will preview the weekend's top four or five games.
"I'm going to use game film to illustrate what the keys are to look for," Griese said in a telephone interview."That will be fun for me. I like teaching people about the game."
Griese, who led Michigan to an unbeaten 1997 season and national championship and then played in the NFL, hopes to exercise his game knowledge from years and years of digesting game film as a player.
"That's where I like to live," Griese said of being a student of football film breakdown. "From people I talk to, there's an insatiable appetite to understand the nuances of football. I don't think there's any better way to understand the game than to watch it, but to watch it in a way that's informed. I want to give people things to watch for that maybe they wouldn't have known to look for, and look at it from an insider's perspective. I want them to watch and at the end hopefully say, 'Brian alerted me to this, and that's what happened in the game.'"
I know, I know, Mark May. You can't have everything. And we have seen technically-minded guys get swallowed up by the great dumbing-down over and over again. Let me have my candle in the wind.
Lacy still extant. Message board trolls started telling folks that Alabama starting tailback Eddie Lacy had torn his ACL and was done for the year, which doesn't appear to be true. He did give his ligaments the business at an inopportune time:
Alabama starting running back Eddie Lacy sprained his ankle and a knee in Saturday's practice.
“Not a serious thing. Probably going to be day to day but probably be a little bit slow next week," coach Nick Saban told AL.com. "I think in five to six days he’ll probably be ready to go.”
And I can't find anything on the internet that confirms anything about the ACL except for the one random guy in the comment section from the mgoboard post.
The sprain was two days ago, so his availability for Michigan is not in question unless a coach is lying about an injury, which is of course totally possible. If Lacy can't go—sigh—Dee Hart, the former Michigan commit, is supposed to take over top duties.
Beard update. Mealer's beard gathers a couple of quality quotes in a Daily article, one from Jeremy Gallon, who is apparently an aficionado:
“He has a face full of straight, perfect, beard hair,” redshirt junior wide receiver Jeremy Gallon told ESPN. “You don't find that everywhere. I mean, look at it, you can’t even put it into words. It's amazing.”
And the second from Navy SEALs:
When Mealer and 21 other seniors took a trip to Coronado, Calif. for a three-day leadership trip in late May to train with Navy SEALs, he was told by the SEALs that he was sporting a true “Afghanistan beard.”
“We take pride in that,”one of the SEALs told Mealer, he recalled.
But the SEAL left Mealer a stern warning: “If we find out the season comes along and you've shaved that, we’re sending the team after you," he recounted laughing.
Also receiving six points is the Daily staffer who slapped this headline on the story:
Mealer, beard battle for starting spot on offensive line
ESPN gets four for…
Wolverines push follicle limits
…by the way. M-Live gets zero for "Michigan Wolverines linebacker Jake Ryan's hair is like Clay Matthews, now wants similar game." STEP YOUR BEAR/HAIR HEADLINE GAME UP, MLIVE WOOOOO
Probably the best thing to ever happen in Minnesota. Faint praise, sure, but BHGP's countdown of the top 25 Kirk Ferentz wins hits the top ten with that one time they clinched the Big Ten for the first time in twelve years and tore down the goalposts… at a road game:
There has not been a fan pwnage since that comes close.
This was dumb, but known. The guy who voted Michigan #1 defended himself by saying "I have never heard of this 'defensive line' thing you keep bringing up," but he'd announced he was voting M first a couple months ago, so, like… yeah. It even came with a picture of Ron Zook. I was going to write more about this but then I realized we were talking about a preseason poll and decided not to.
This is dumb, and was not known. Penn Live has various bits from the Posnanski book on Paterno, and one is relevant to your interests:
Following PSU’s controversial 27-25 last-second loss at Michigan in 2005, the Lions’ only blemish on an 11-1 season, Paterno was furious that officials put a few seconds back on the clock, possibly allowing Wolverines QB Chad Henne enough time to throw the game-winning TD pass on the final play. According to Posnanski, Paterno told friends he was considering pulling the Lions out of the Big Ten as a result.
Someone should check to see if there was frequently-used BWI handle that went dark six months ago or so.
The thing that makes this so ridiculous is that Paterno had literally just badgered the refs for two extra seconds on the previous drive—and got them. The one second hanging on the clock at the end of that game was just as much Paterno's as Lloyd's.
This is dumb, and also dumb. Former Spartan Jim Miller thinks there's an RGIII-Kirk Cousins quarterback controversy after Cousins tore up the second half of an NFL preseason game.
Random hype video. A little repetitive, but it serves its purpose:
What a good idea to bring this up again. Appalachian State's coach had a press conference just to talk about the Horror. What a good idea for the person who won that game. I'm just glad we'll never have to think about it aga—
/Ace shows Brian 2014 schedule
/Brian makes thirty-fifth appointment at Lacuna, Inc. since announcement of Horror II
Walking sans canes. Via Tom, here's Brock Mealer walking without assistance:
Etc.: Michigan alumni clubs sing the Victors worldwide. ESPN has a segment on Alabama linebacker play. Corn Nation joins the Big Ten division names boycott. Playoff details sound about like what you would think. UNC is going to go back and find out if their academic fraud is really as bad as all that. UMHoops recaps Mark Donnal's summer.
August 20th, 2012 at 3:48 PM ^
Seriously got chills like 3 times at my desk watching that Mealer video.
Absolutely awesome.
1%
August 20th, 2012 at 4:33 PM ^
Brock is an absolute animal. I honestly wonder if I could do what he has after all he has been through...then again, with Barwis barking motivation the way he does, I'd be afraid not to. This story will never become old to me. Bless them both.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
Jesus -- that caught me off guard. God bless Brock, his family and friends, Rich Rodriguez and Barwis Methods.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:07 PM ^
God missed his chance when he forgot to protect him in the accident.
August 20th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
Pure class, that.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:27 AM ^
You would think that you would have read all the posts regarding the Brock Mealer video below this thread and could have anticipated the reaction to your response.
In my business, we call that S.A. -- Situational Awareness. And you have none.
August 22nd, 2012 at 4:44 PM ^
My situational awareness is fine. I know the story as well as anyone else who read it. I just don't understand paying lip service to a God that allowed that accident to occur in the first place. "God Bless" my ass.
August 21st, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^
Me watching Mealer video.......is there a ninja chopping onions nearby! dang!
August 20th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^
because he hasn't done that well as a color guy so far, IMHO. And Bob? I continue to be baffled as to how he keeps his job. Two Great QB's and people, but one is terrible at announcing, and the jury is out on Brian.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:04 PM ^
Imagine the backlash that would happen today if a Head Coach punched a camera man on the sidelines of a nationally televised game.
It is good to hear Keith Jackson's voice in the video. In a recent interview, he said that his 2 favorite stadiums to broadcast games in were Michigan Stadium and the Rose Bowl.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
of old musty press boxes.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^
There are times I really miss the look of the old press box. Granted, I was never inside of it but it's the Big House that I knew when I was just a little UM football fan.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^
This was Sports Illustrated recap on the punching thing... (dated November 28, 1977)....
Without a yard marker to beat up, Woody slammed down the headset he uses to communicate with his coaches in the press box. He did this with his left hand. He then went into a series of facial contortions which, in any other context, might be interpreted as the result of stomach distress. Then he turned and spied the threatening figure of 52-year-old, 158-pound ABC-TV cameraman Mike Freedman. Freedman was taking Woody’s picture, as he had been all afternoon. Because he knew Woody’s sideline reputation, Freedman was using a long lens so he "wouldn’t have to get too close." But his job, he said, was "to take faces, not the back of heads," and that was what he was doing.
When Woody bore down on Freedman, who was focusing his mini-cam with both hands, he could only get his elbow in the way of Woody’s fist. The blow, slightly resembling a Kid Gavilan bolo punch, was delivered by Woody with his right hand. This shows that when it comes to exercises in childishness, Woody is ambidextrous.
August 20th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^
... and this was my first UofM-OSU game. I remember Rick Leach stretching to get the ball across the goal line while still holding it with two hands to prevent it from being stripped.
Good times ...
August 20th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
Mine too. Somehow that night, I was helping carry part of the goal post through West Quad. I'm not sure how it got there....
August 20th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^
Your video of the Iowa fans carrying the goal post at Minnesota brought back TERRIBLE memories of Sparty doing the same thing at the Big House in 1978 and parading one upright up the Section 6 aisle. I still am ashamed of myself for doing nothing, but I was as beaten as the team by then.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^
Cried. Absolutely Beautiful!
What a courageous man. Great to see.
Thank you for posting. And thank you Mr. Barwis.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
In that ann arbor . com article about the AP guy who voted Michigan #1, Kyle Meinke mentions Michigan's difficult schedule in relation to their preseason ranking. I don't understand why nobody in the MSM gets the point of these polls. This poll is not meant to be "who do you think will play for a national title?" This is as much a reason as any that these polls are so broken.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:41 PM ^
I'm 50 year old guy blubbering at his desk.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:50 PM ^
I can tell it had a very profound effect on you, considering you have been a member for 3 years and this is the first time you decided to post anything.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:03 PM ^
I was about to post some comment about how much of d-bag Woody was and then boom! Triumph of the human spirit time.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^
an uppercut.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
Incredible. Inspirational. Awesome. Words don't do them justice.
I know there is supposed to be no religion on the blog and all, but God bless those guys.
Like Coach says, you stay with it Brock.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:42 PM ^
That. Is. Fucking. Awesome.
Well done young man.
And thank you Mike Barwis.
August 20th, 2012 at 5:46 PM ^
St. Petersburg times article:
"I was at the right place at the right time and I caught Woody showing his emotion."
August 20th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^
The blockquote in that article is wild in retrospect:
"I think Woody was done more damage than I was. How is a parent going to allow his son to be recruited by a man like this when there are coaches like Joe Paterno and Bear Bryant around?"
August 20th, 2012 at 6:07 PM ^
Re: the hype video, Frank Beckmann is underrated as a play-by-play guy. He's much less famous than his predecessor (Bob Ufer), but at this point he's been calling games almost as long and has had his share of great calls ("Charles Woodson down the sideline!" "Denard Robinson, shoelaces flopping in the wind...") over the years.
August 20th, 2012 at 6:08 PM ^
Love Mealer's beard.Kinda reminds me of the interrogator in the movie "ACT OF VALOR'.
August 20th, 2012 at 6:44 PM ^
Don't know if you want to add this, Brian, but the Daily came out with a longer story on Brock Mealer this afternoon. He's going to be walking down the aisle at his wedding in December.
August 20th, 2012 at 6:46 PM ^
I wish I could somehow make that Iowa-fan-pwnage.gif my Facebook profile picture.. *shakes fist at technology*
August 20th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
...advertising in the stadium at the 15:23 mark?
August 20th, 2012 at 7:05 PM ^
Is Minnesota-Iowa really that heated of a rivalry? Tearing down the goalposts in an opposing team's stadium after a road win strikes me as asshole behavior, particularly if the win was a blowout.
Having said that, how pathetic is Minnesota for letting Iowa's fans get away with that?
August 20th, 2012 at 7:17 PM ^
Iowa-Minnesota is a pretty big rivalry, but one that has been pretty one-sided for the last half a dozen years or so. And yeah, pretty lame of Minny fans to let that go down. It was because of the blowout, a lot of Minny fans had bolted already, or did so as soon as time expired, so they didn't even see that all go down.
August 20th, 2012 at 7:59 PM ^
A lot of Iowans move to the Twin Cities after they finish school, as well, so it has that neighborly proximity thing like the MSU/UM rivalry. I think Minnesota has some kind of "Stand up if you hate Iowa" cheer that they do at non-Iowa games (along the lines of OSU's "We don't give a damn" song).
It's pretty annoying that the Big 10 split up the elegant Minny-Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry triumverate. Yet another way that strict geographical divisions would work far better for the conference's traditions (and now, competitive balance).
August 20th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
Also, Minnesota and Iowa play for a bronze pig, which is pretty cool in and of itself:
August 20th, 2012 at 10:57 PM ^
Between Floyd of Rosedale, Paul Bunyan's Axe, and the Little Brown Jug, Minnesota clearly has the best collection of trophy games of any college team.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:14 PM ^
Yes, Minnesota has a great collection of trophy games, while their opponents have a great collection of the trophies.
August 20th, 2012 at 8:35 PM ^
That was the only time in their entire history that Iowa went 8-0 in conference play, I believe. So I think it had more to do with that. I do remember seeing the clip on ESPN and I too thought it was an asshole move by their fans. I would be livid if visiting fans had ever done that at the big house.
Ohio State fans tore down a goal post in Bloomington in 1996 when they wrapped up their first Rose Bowl lock in 13 years. Indiana football players and fans surrounded the other goal post to keep Buckeye fans from taking it down.
I do remember hearing many thank you's from Hoosier nation when we beat them in Columbus the following week.
August 20th, 2012 at 9:30 PM ^
Sparty did that to us in 1978. See above comment.
August 20th, 2012 at 7:19 PM ^
August 20th, 2012 at 7:22 PM ^
UGH, why scott van pelt? On other sports he is ok but for CFB he is a complete SEC homer... it stands out, even on ESPN which is saying alot... his college football knowledge extends as far as, "ESSS-EHHHH-SEEE! derp derp KING OF THE HILL derp derp" It's pathetic.
August 20th, 2012 at 10:08 PM ^
August 20th, 2012 at 11:45 PM ^
I am aware of that as are most people who have listened to him because he brings it up rather frequently when talking about basketball and collge basketball. What does that have to do with anything? He even admits he's an SEC homer... most of the people at ESPN didn't go to SEC schools, yet they almost to the tee expound upon the greatness that is SEC football. You try to counter with an irrelevent point and then down vote me? wow.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:29 AM ^
Also, the SEC wins a lot of BCS Championships and frequently field the best teams with the best players, so a bias in that direction I feel is understandable (albeit annoying).
August 20th, 2012 at 9:24 PM ^
1. Woody Hayes was an ass-bag. A temper-tantrum-throwing ass-bag. May Urban end his career as gratiously as Woody did.
2. SO happy for Brock & his family!
3. Tore down a home goalpost my freshman year at WMU. My dorm floor would carry it to parties around campus as a badge of honor. /semi-lamestorybro
4. SVP DOES have that whole Scott Van-melt sandwich thing going for him.
5. There are NEVER enough pig trophies around. Now we need a bearded pig trophy.
6. Dave Brandon was absent the day they taught "football scheduling" at Michigan.
August 20th, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
wrong place
August 21st, 2012 at 1:10 AM ^
AstroTurf: as awful as Keith Jackson is awesome.
Men's Michigan cheerleader sweater: where can I get one?
Toilet paper: I remember being so confused as a little kid when they made me throw away my roll and bag of marshmallows away at the gate the first time.
Beards: there's a great one at (some time o'clock in the video) in the stands a few current players would be jealous of. (But not all...)
Rushing the field after beating ohio: always tremendous.
August 21st, 2012 at 3:20 AM ^
Shouldn't a hype video...get you hype?
There's a difference, IMO, between a hype video and a highlight video.
August 21st, 2012 at 7:32 AM ^
It was nice to see the video of the OSU game from 1977. I watched that game at home with my family (I was in high school). However, I never saw the first 7-8 minutes when Michigan stopped OSU and forced the first field goal. Why? Because the beginning of the game was preempted by breaking news out of Israel, with live video showing Anwar Sadat's arrival for his first visit. Instead of watching Woody and Bo, we were forced to watch Sadat and Golda Meir.
My father was apoplectic. I wasn't very far behind.
August 21st, 2012 at 9:37 AM ^
I mean, at least they got all the problems over there all cleared up...
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