Definitely was a nice little weekend for me
Covered a football game on Friday between two longtime rivals that hadnt played in 18 years and then had the rest of the weekend off which I enjoyed.
Saturday I did a little shopping up in Ypsi-Ann Arbor and caught up with a few of my buddys. Cynthia went to the mall and ran all over Ann Arbor and Arborland with me and then i got to see my peeps Rach, Andrea and her boyfriend David and their roomie. On my way out of town I stopped at the football game for a few and hung out with Casey. Also got to holla at Eddie and saw Chuck, Lou, Bobby and the rest of them usual front row crowd at EMU sporting events. I even got a free t-shirt advertising the GMAC bowl - definitely can't beat getting free stuff even when your not in college.
As far as being back at Rynearson Stadium not too much has changed other than the turf and the product on the field. The Eagles look a lot more competitive and have a good defense but they still can't pick up a big win yet as they lost 24-23 because of a missed extra point in the final 30 seconds of the game. Tyler Jones looked solid at quarterback in his first start - have to like his speed.
One thing that definitely hasnt changed though is the attendance, as Saturday reminded me of a typical EMU crowd that I remember looking at from the press box in years past.
Today was a laid back day for the most part. Other than cooking i just watched tv. Jeff Garcia looked a lot better than Joey Harrington has looked at quarterback for the Lions and it was nice to see them beat the Browns to stay at the top of the NFC North with Chicago. Then the MHSAA state playoff selection show was on and five of the teams my paper covers qualified for the playoffs with four of them hosting games.
The matchups (teams my paper covers is in bold):
Southgate Anderson at Adrian
Onsted at Hillsdale
Napoleon at Addison
Madison Heights at Blissfield
Whitmore Lake at Sand Creek
Hopefully a few of the teams make long playoff runs
Monday, October 24, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
In the EMU news
wow i'm still finding my name mentioned in EMU related things even tho I've been graduated for about six monthe now.
Here is the latest:
(can be read online at http://www.emich.edu/focus_emu/101105/peoplecolumn.html)
* The Eastern Echo recently took first place in the "classified section" category and second place for "general excellence" among college Division I newspapers in the Michigan Collegiate Press Association competition.
"The big news is the second place for General Excellence in Division I," said Kevin Devine, manager of student media. "That speaks to the contributions of the entire team — writers, photographers, editors, designers, sales reps, classified staff, office assistants and even delivery staff."
The Echo also had a number of individual award winners. Nathan Bomey, managing editor, and Brian Calloway, who graduated in May 2005, won first place in the deadline story category with their article, "Frat Member Dead." Bomey also garnered a second in the non-deadline story category with his story, "We're the Ones That Wanted to Go" and in the investigative reporting category with his article, "Attendance Figure Scandal." Kurt Hunt took third in the non-deadline story category with his article, "No One Wanted to Be Near Me."
In addition, Drew Dorian grabbed first place in the "reviews" category with "A Saab Story: One Sweet Swede" while Jason Idalski walked off with top honors in the "columns" category with his column, "Kerry Supporters Not Welcome at Bush Rally."
Bomey won an honorable mention Michigan Press Association award for a series of light-hearted debate articles that appeared in The Saline Reporter. The honorable mention was in the "lifestyle reporting" category in the weekly Class C division. The Saline Reporter while Craig Watson, the Echo's photo editor, took second place in the weekly Class C division with a sports photo in the Chelsea Standard.
Here is the latest:
(can be read online at http://www.emich.edu/focus_emu/101105/peoplecolumn.html)
* The Eastern Echo recently took first place in the "classified section" category and second place for "general excellence" among college Division I newspapers in the Michigan Collegiate Press Association competition.
"The big news is the second place for General Excellence in Division I," said Kevin Devine, manager of student media. "That speaks to the contributions of the entire team — writers, photographers, editors, designers, sales reps, classified staff, office assistants and even delivery staff."
The Echo also had a number of individual award winners. Nathan Bomey, managing editor, and Brian Calloway, who graduated in May 2005, won first place in the deadline story category with their article, "Frat Member Dead." Bomey also garnered a second in the non-deadline story category with his story, "We're the Ones That Wanted to Go" and in the investigative reporting category with his article, "Attendance Figure Scandal." Kurt Hunt took third in the non-deadline story category with his article, "No One Wanted to Be Near Me."
In addition, Drew Dorian grabbed first place in the "reviews" category with "A Saab Story: One Sweet Swede" while Jason Idalski walked off with top honors in the "columns" category with his column, "Kerry Supporters Not Welcome at Bush Rally."
Bomey won an honorable mention Michigan Press Association award for a series of light-hearted debate articles that appeared in The Saline Reporter. The honorable mention was in the "lifestyle reporting" category in the weekly Class C division. The Saline Reporter while Craig Watson, the Echo's photo editor, took second place in the weekly Class C division with a sports photo in the Chelsea Standard.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
ramblings
Different questions I have posed to myself of late
Can the Detroit Lions win a game without the benefit of flags?
In both their wins (home games against Green Bay and Baltimore) their opponent commited a lot of costly penalties, most recently the Ravens having 21 infractions and completely losing their cool this past Sunday in their 35-17 loss to the Lions. Are the Lions paying officials to call insane amount of penalties on the other team. Because certainly their offense isnt gettin the job done without some help. But hey at least they are sitting in first place.
Charles Rogers?
The guy seems to definitely be in need of an attitude adjustment and needs to grow up. His four game suspension for violating the leagues drug policy is ridiculous. Perhaps he should quit worrying about catching dime bags and focus on catching the pigskin when it is thrown to him and actually run his routes.
And with Charles Rogers out other receivers need to be steppin up, but we have Roy Williams injured and Mike Williams sore - it seems like the injury bug always strikes the Lions key players, hindering them that much more (like they needed anything else to hinder their abilities)
Defense
The defensive unit seems to be the key for every successful team that boasts underachieving offense. The defense for the Lions came up huge with Dre Bly having two interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery last week against the Ravens. And the Lions usually get their points off turnovers. Even at the high school level I've seen the same parallel with the Adrian High School football team when their offense doesnt meet up to expectations and commits costly turnovers. Their defense bailed them out with a goal line stand at the end of last weeks contest against Saline, helping them clinch a spot in the state playoffs.
the craziness of fantasy football
Roy Williams going out of the game early killed me in my yahoo league this past week as I lost a game by 1.5 points, putting me at 2-3. Damnit! With him being the main receiver i'm sure he would have pushed me over the hump - but oh well.
In my ESPN leagues I have a team that is 4-1 and my two other teams are 3-2. Definitely not bad starts through the first five games of the season.
Another thing that made me mad this week was Tatum Bell's huge day - I have him on three of my four teams but havent started him b/c Mike Shanahan is so damn shady on which running back he is going to start from week to week - might be some prime trade material.
Recent stories/work stuff
While at work today, I saw a fax come in about the Adrian College women's soccer teams latest game. The fax was its box score from its contest with Calvin College. When looking at the box I saw that Adrian lost 10-0 --- definitely not a surprise. They recently lost a game 12-1 and the one goal they scored - they actually didnt score because it was an own goal by the other team. That is pretty much the kind of team they are and earlier this season they broke a 20 some game losing streak. Anyways when I examined the box I saw that the team got outshot 55-0 for the game. They must have counted everything under the sun as a shot but I doubt that it was a stretch because when I saw them play, they didnt look to good.
These are just various things I've gotten to write about lately - all were pretty good contests with the exception of the tecumseh-lincoln football game.
One of the things I've written about in the past 2 and a half weeks was a basketball game in which I saw a whole bunch of girls sobbing after a regular season loss. Definitely crazy but the Sand Creek-Clinton girls hoops game lived up to its billing. Sand Creek led most the way but Clinton hit some foul shots within the final 30 seconds to take the lead. Sand Creek had a few chances to tie them but their player who had been on all night missed shots when they mattered most. As a journalist, close games like that are definitely what I love to see
Clinton-Lenawee Christian hoops
Tecumseh-Ypsilanti Lincoln football
Hudson-Blissfield hoops
Hudson-Clinton football
Can the Detroit Lions win a game without the benefit of flags?
In both their wins (home games against Green Bay and Baltimore) their opponent commited a lot of costly penalties, most recently the Ravens having 21 infractions and completely losing their cool this past Sunday in their 35-17 loss to the Lions. Are the Lions paying officials to call insane amount of penalties on the other team. Because certainly their offense isnt gettin the job done without some help. But hey at least they are sitting in first place.
Charles Rogers?
The guy seems to definitely be in need of an attitude adjustment and needs to grow up. His four game suspension for violating the leagues drug policy is ridiculous. Perhaps he should quit worrying about catching dime bags and focus on catching the pigskin when it is thrown to him and actually run his routes.
And with Charles Rogers out other receivers need to be steppin up, but we have Roy Williams injured and Mike Williams sore - it seems like the injury bug always strikes the Lions key players, hindering them that much more (like they needed anything else to hinder their abilities)
Defense
The defensive unit seems to be the key for every successful team that boasts underachieving offense. The defense for the Lions came up huge with Dre Bly having two interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery last week against the Ravens. And the Lions usually get their points off turnovers. Even at the high school level I've seen the same parallel with the Adrian High School football team when their offense doesnt meet up to expectations and commits costly turnovers. Their defense bailed them out with a goal line stand at the end of last weeks contest against Saline, helping them clinch a spot in the state playoffs.
the craziness of fantasy football
Roy Williams going out of the game early killed me in my yahoo league this past week as I lost a game by 1.5 points, putting me at 2-3. Damnit! With him being the main receiver i'm sure he would have pushed me over the hump - but oh well.
In my ESPN leagues I have a team that is 4-1 and my two other teams are 3-2. Definitely not bad starts through the first five games of the season.
Another thing that made me mad this week was Tatum Bell's huge day - I have him on three of my four teams but havent started him b/c Mike Shanahan is so damn shady on which running back he is going to start from week to week - might be some prime trade material.
Recent stories/work stuff
While at work today, I saw a fax come in about the Adrian College women's soccer teams latest game. The fax was its box score from its contest with Calvin College. When looking at the box I saw that Adrian lost 10-0 --- definitely not a surprise. They recently lost a game 12-1 and the one goal they scored - they actually didnt score because it was an own goal by the other team. That is pretty much the kind of team they are and earlier this season they broke a 20 some game losing streak. Anyways when I examined the box I saw that the team got outshot 55-0 for the game. They must have counted everything under the sun as a shot but I doubt that it was a stretch because when I saw them play, they didnt look to good.
These are just various things I've gotten to write about lately - all were pretty good contests with the exception of the tecumseh-lincoln football game.
One of the things I've written about in the past 2 and a half weeks was a basketball game in which I saw a whole bunch of girls sobbing after a regular season loss. Definitely crazy but the Sand Creek-Clinton girls hoops game lived up to its billing. Sand Creek led most the way but Clinton hit some foul shots within the final 30 seconds to take the lead. Sand Creek had a few chances to tie them but their player who had been on all night missed shots when they mattered most. As a journalist, close games like that are definitely what I love to see
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
time to panic? i say no
I havent written in this thing for about two weeks now so a brief update on whats been going on - --- A whole lot of nothing. Been covering games, doing page design and watching the baseball playoffs (I'm glad the Yankees are out!) and football.
And speaking of football that is what a majority of this entry will be about it - so with that being said is it time to panic for UM fans like myself. I say definitely not. Michigan has three early losses this year, for the first time that I can even remember. People in Ann Arbor definitely aren't used to a .500 team at the midpoint of the season, and appropriately so. Expectations are high at UM year in and year out because of the great tradition of the program and the talented players that don the maize and blue each year.
Unfortunately that is just not enough to get over the hump and win football games. In years past Michigan tends to eke out victories in close football games like their latest loss to Minnesota (23-20) this weekend and their loss to Wisconsin on Sept. 24, but it just hasn't been so this year. They aren't catching breaks and opponents arent bowing down and rolling over for them.
There has definitely been a lot of firsts this season - like the first time in a long time that Michigan has fallen out of the Associated Press poll in addition to the .500 mark midway into the season and Minnesota has possession of the little Brown Jug for the first time since the 1980's (I thought the oldest trophy in college football had a permanent Ann Arbor address). But can Michigan overcome this? Most definitely.
Going back into history- well last year - I recall another team being 3-3 through six games. That being a bitter rival of the Wolverines - the Ohio State Buckeyes. Here is comparing their first six games with Michigan's first six.
2004 Ohio State
- Sept. 4 Ohio St. 27, Cincinnati 6
- Sept. 11 Ohio St. 21, Marshall 21
- Sept. 18 Ohio St. 22, NC State 14
- Oct. 2 Northwestern 33, Ohio St. 27
- Oct. 9 (No. 16) Wisconsin 24, Ohio St. 13
- Oct. 16 Iowa 33, Ohio St. 7
2005 Michigan
- Sept. 3 Michigan 33, Northern Illinois 17
- Sept. 10 (No. 20) Notre Dame 17, Michigan 10
- Sept. 17 Michigan 55, Eastern Michigan 0
- Sept. 24 Wisconsin 23, Michigan 20
- Oct. 1 Michigan 34, (No. 11) Michigan State 31
- Oct. 8 Minnesota 23, Michigan 20
The lone difference is that Michigan had a chance to win each of their contest in the final quarter while obviously Ohio State was blown out against Iowa. Also Michigan didn't get off to an 0-3 start in Big Ten play but1-2 isn't much better off. The Buckeyes overcame their problems and salvaged their season to finish 7-4, their lone setback coming to Purdue 24-17 a week before their matchup with Michigan. They ended their season with a victory over the Wolverines and then a 33-7 victory over Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.
While Michigan is definitely not having a Wolverine type year and another share of the Big Ten title appears out of reach (although the Nittany Lions are the lone unbeaten team in league play), they too can still make a solid season and it starts with topping a surprising Penn State team that is ranked eighth in the nation and has a talented freshman class of receivers and a very mobile quarterback in Michael Robinson. And they definitely are coming to Ann Arbor with a steam of confidence after upsetting Ohio State in Happy Valley last weekend.
But to my surprise Michigan is favored in this game - I woulda never known had a I not read Rosenberg's column in the Free Press today. So I guess this will be a good tell tale sign of how the rest of the season will go for the Wolverines.
And speaking of football that is what a majority of this entry will be about it - so with that being said is it time to panic for UM fans like myself. I say definitely not. Michigan has three early losses this year, for the first time that I can even remember. People in Ann Arbor definitely aren't used to a .500 team at the midpoint of the season, and appropriately so. Expectations are high at UM year in and year out because of the great tradition of the program and the talented players that don the maize and blue each year.
Unfortunately that is just not enough to get over the hump and win football games. In years past Michigan tends to eke out victories in close football games like their latest loss to Minnesota (23-20) this weekend and their loss to Wisconsin on Sept. 24, but it just hasn't been so this year. They aren't catching breaks and opponents arent bowing down and rolling over for them.
There has definitely been a lot of firsts this season - like the first time in a long time that Michigan has fallen out of the Associated Press poll in addition to the .500 mark midway into the season and Minnesota has possession of the little Brown Jug for the first time since the 1980's (I thought the oldest trophy in college football had a permanent Ann Arbor address). But can Michigan overcome this? Most definitely.
Going back into history- well last year - I recall another team being 3-3 through six games. That being a bitter rival of the Wolverines - the Ohio State Buckeyes. Here is comparing their first six games with Michigan's first six.
2004 Ohio State
- Sept. 4 Ohio St. 27, Cincinnati 6
- Sept. 11 Ohio St. 21, Marshall 21
- Sept. 18 Ohio St. 22, NC State 14
- Oct. 2 Northwestern 33, Ohio St. 27
- Oct. 9 (No. 16) Wisconsin 24, Ohio St. 13
- Oct. 16 Iowa 33, Ohio St. 7
2005 Michigan
- Sept. 3 Michigan 33, Northern Illinois 17
- Sept. 10 (No. 20) Notre Dame 17, Michigan 10
- Sept. 17 Michigan 55, Eastern Michigan 0
- Sept. 24 Wisconsin 23, Michigan 20
- Oct. 1 Michigan 34, (No. 11) Michigan State 31
- Oct. 8 Minnesota 23, Michigan 20
The lone difference is that Michigan had a chance to win each of their contest in the final quarter while obviously Ohio State was blown out against Iowa. Also Michigan didn't get off to an 0-3 start in Big Ten play but1-2 isn't much better off. The Buckeyes overcame their problems and salvaged their season to finish 7-4, their lone setback coming to Purdue 24-17 a week before their matchup with Michigan. They ended their season with a victory over the Wolverines and then a 33-7 victory over Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.
While Michigan is definitely not having a Wolverine type year and another share of the Big Ten title appears out of reach (although the Nittany Lions are the lone unbeaten team in league play), they too can still make a solid season and it starts with topping a surprising Penn State team that is ranked eighth in the nation and has a talented freshman class of receivers and a very mobile quarterback in Michael Robinson. And they definitely are coming to Ann Arbor with a steam of confidence after upsetting Ohio State in Happy Valley last weekend.
But to my surprise Michigan is favored in this game - I woulda never known had a I not read Rosenberg's column in the Free Press today. So I guess this will be a good tell tale sign of how the rest of the season will go for the Wolverines.
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