Today I am both excited and disappointed. Excited for the future at my beloved University of Michigan. Disappointed with how far the Lions have fallen in six weeks.
This morning the Wolverines announced Rich Rodriguez as their new head coach and I am about as happy as a fan can be. I’ve wanted them to pursue him since Lloyd Carr announced his retirement, and I was frustrated that they hadn’t even considered him more than three weeks into their coaching search. I was very excited on Friday when the news broke that Rodriguez met with Michigan officials for 6 hours. Then as the news reports continued throughout the weekend, there was no indication that Rodriguez had told the Wolverines that he wasn’t interested. Then the news broke yesterday that the deal was done.
Not only is Rodriguez bringing a dynamic spread offense with him, he may be bringing the best high school football player in the country with him. Terelle Pryor is the #1 high school football player according to rivals.com and Pryor is a big fan of ”Coach Rod”. With a versatile athlete like Pryor combined with a potent passer like current Michigan QB Ryan Mallett, the Wolverines could have a combo like the Chris Leak/Tim Tebow tandem that won a national title last year with the Florida Gators. I expect big things in years to come from Coach Rod, even if the next couple of seasons involve some growing pains. This is a major step forward for Michigan by going in a completely different direction than they’ve had for 40 years. I think the potential is there for this to be as big a moment in Michigan Wolverine history as when they hired Bo.
On the other hand, the Detroit Lions were embarassed yesterday 51-14 by the San Diego Chargers yesterday which dropped them to 6-8 on the season. They’ve lost 6 straight games since I professed my new-found confidence in them. I feel so stupid for getting sucked in by this team. I should know by now after a lifetime of cheering for the Lions that this kind of collapse was on its way. I can’t believe that I actually was talking with people about the Lions’ playoff chances just a few weeks ago. I wish I could say that I don’t care anymore, but that would be lying. I just hope that I can see a Lions team with a winning record before I have grandchildren.
Tomorrow is the best day of the year, and like the previous three years, I will not be able to enjoy it fully. Tomorrow is the game of games, the biggest rivalry in sports, the hate between the states.
It’s the Michigan/Ohio State game.
Tomorrow is the 104th meeting of the mighty Wolverines of Ann Arbor and the redneck loser Buckeyes of Columbus. This game is always big, but tomorrow could be one for the ages. It isn’t going to be special because a shot at the national title is on the line, it’s not. It’s going to be special because it is the last game for Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Jake Long and maybe even the last for Mario Manningham, Adrian Arrington, and Lloyd Carr. There have been a lot of rumblings that Lloyd will announce his retirement either after the game or early next week. I believe that if the players know this is Carr’s last game, they are going to come out and play some inspired football. I believe that Ohio State is the better team coming in to the game tomorrow, but that matters little in this rivalry.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to watch the entire game for a 4th year in a row. We will be in Chicago for the weekend and we will be eating lunch at the Walnut Room tomorrow, as is the tradition in Cassie’s family. They always go downtown the Saturday before Thanksgiving and have lunch and do some Christmas shopping. Since I love my wife (and because I’m no longer allowed a say in these matters) I will be there eating some good food and walking around in the cold. Thankfully I will have my super-sweet smartphone with me and I’ll be able to stay up to date with the scores. Plus, the ABC studio is near Macy’s downtown, so I will probably be standing outside watching the game on one of the TVs they have facing the street. I will try to update my thoughts during the game on my Twitter page.
GO BLUE!
The Final Four is this weekend and I can’t wait to see the games. This is about as good as it gets when it comes to matchups. You have two historic powers in UCLA and Georgetown to go along with two up and coming programs in Ohio State and Florida. I am the most excited to see Greg Oden vs. Roy Hibbert on Saturday night. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Hibbert so far in the tournament and Oden is a great player, plus they’re both 7 footers who play in the post which you don’t see very often anymore.
The Tigers begin their season on Monday, which also happens to be my birthday. I’m very excited to see what this season has in store. Last year was such a magical one, I don’t think this year will be able to match it. I do expect the Tigers to do well and contend for the playoffs. Their pitching staff is still the best in the league, and their offense should be much improved with the addition of future hall-of-famer Gary Sheffield. I’m not like a lot of Tiger fans that have adopted the position that anything less than a World Series title is unacceptable. I know that they will do well and if they turn themselves into a perennial playoff contender, I will be very happy.
Last night was one of the best nights of college basketball that I’ve ever seen. All of the games were hard-fought and most of them were very close down to the end.
I was rooting hard for Texas A&M to win, but Memphis made clutch free throws and Acie Law missed a layup which would have iced the game for them. It’s kind of surprising because Law has been a big shot-maker all season long.
I actually went to sleep early into the second half of the Ohio State-Tennessee game because Tennessee was up by 17 and I had to get up early for work. I was shocked to see that OSU came back to win by 1 point. I can’t believe how many times they’ve squeaked out a victory when it seemed they were done for. I admire their toughness and ability to fight to the end, but they’re not going to win a championship if they keep playing like they have been.
I’m pretty proud of myself after day 1 of the NCAA basketball tournament. In my main brackets that I filled out to win big prizes I picked 14 of a possible 16 winners. The most frustrating thing was that I changed one of my picks yesterday morning from Butler to Old Dominion because a lot of people were picking ODU to win. Well Butler won and I was kicking myself. The only other pick I got wrong was Gonzaga over Indiana. I picked VCU to beat Duke and I was right.
We’ll see what today brings…