| |
| Superb start “as good as it gets” at The “Bigger” House |
|
Tom Crawford’s Blue Belly Blog But I have to say this – Saturday was about as good as it gets in “The Bigger House” as most of the record-setting 113,090 fans would agree. From the pre-game fly overs, to the first daytime fireworks I have ever seen in my life, to the Keith Jackson voice-over of the spine tingling video marking the rededication of The Hole That Yost Built,” Michigan fans knew this was going to be a special day early on. Yet that all paled to watching Brock Mealer, brother of Michigan offensive lineman Elliott Mealer, walk with his canes to midfield and touch the banner – which was a goal that Rich Rodriquez had personally set for him after doctors had given him a 1 percent chance of walking again. Brock was paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident on Christmas Eve 2007 – an accident that took the lives of his father, David, and Elliott's girlfriend. Now if you were in that stadium watching this as I was, and you were not rolling tears, you just don’t have one ounce of emotion in your entire body. It was an UNBELIEVABLE moment. Speaking of emotion, that Michigan defense played with a lot more fire than I saw at any point of last year. I am hoping that finally having the same D Coordinator (Greg Robinson) two years in a row will prevent yielding the 450 to 500 yards of total offense that we saw the last two years. That Michigan secondary with all of that youth certainly benefitted from some lofty throws from U Conn QB Zach Frazer and some timely drops from his receivers, but I do see marked improvement. But we are going to find out real quick next week in South Bend when Irish QB Dayne Crist tries to pick ‘em apart. Guarded optimism, Michigan fans – that is the way it should be until the Wolverines hunker down into the meat of Big 10 play – especially the back to back home encounters on Oct. 9th and 16th, against the Sparties and Hawkeyes, respectively. We will know a Hell of a lot more by then that is for sure. What will always A-Maize Me: The police-escorted coaching staff...most Wolverine fans probably don’t realize this, but Michigan Stadium is so cavernous, that the Michigan coaching staff members that are stationed in the booth during the game require a police escort (stuffed into a couple Ann Arbor Campus Police cruisers) from the press box entrance on Main Street at halftime to the locker-room. Down Hoover Street east bound they go and into the Stadium parking lot with the flashing lights and the goofy “here we come” sounds from under the hood. It’s funny seeing coaches with clip boards pile out of a couple large police SUVs and sprint into the tunnel entrance in fire drill fashion to jump into the halftime strategizing. How convenient Michigan Stadium has become…what a difference the stadium renovation provides! The concourses are wide open. There is room to move. The aisles are wide with hand railings. And GET THIS, the seats are wider. Yep, you heard it here first. At least my seats are in Section 2 – never been more comfortable The number of receivers the Michigan roster features…You ever check out warm-ups of the Wolverines, and see the number of receivers going thru drills. What are there – 12 to 15 wide outs on the team? You know the naysayers always dog Rich Rod’s recruiting emphasis for being too heavily towards landing every slot receiver imaginable. Maybe it’s justified. The efficiency of Denard Robinson on Saturday… He carries the ball a whopping 29 times for 197 yards and throws 19 of 22 for 186 yards. Toss in 14 of 19 successful third down conversions, and you have one stellar performance for D-Rob. We will find out a lot more about No. 16’s development next Saturday in South Bend. |