For those of you who want to revel in the VBe-B, it can still be found here and the source file for the MIDI version of The Victors is here.

UPDATE: Greg from MVictors has his write up and video of the speech. Check it out.

Last night Tim and I went to Rackham to hear John U. Bacon give his ideal last lecture as the winner of the 2009 Golden Apple award.  Tim took his clas on the history of college athletics and I have had friends who have taken his class on the rise and fall of the American sportwriter, and the response has been almost universally and ridiculously positive.

Unfortunately, I never had the chance to take one of his classes, which is the plight of many students since there is usually a waiting like two or three times the class’ capacity. After hearing him speak, I definitely recommend trying your hardest to get into either of his classes.

His ideal last lecture was titled “What I’ve Learned – Despite My Best Efforts” and had a great mix of unflappable confidence and honest self-deprication.  The full speech will be up on YouTube in the next few days (we’ll try to let you know and drop you a link), and I really recommend watching it. He walked us through his personal history will bringing in professional successes and failures as well as plenty of anecdotes about Bo Schembechler.

At the end of his speech he moved from narrative to argument showing his faith in the individuals and his confidence in the current generation to take on the problems of the day. He had four themes (of which I can regretably only remember the last three), lose your fears, drop your hatreds and connect with people for the sake of connecting. By the end of his speech, all of his anecdotes, interesting enough on their, fit nicely to show how his life has defined these themes.

We’ll make sure to have a link to the speech when it goes up on YouTube, for now, here’s a What Not to Wear style surprise ambush on John U. by S.H.O.U.T. (the student org. behind the golden apple) to let him know he won:

Posted under Media

In this blogcast we talked to the excellent Tim Williams of The Blog That Yost Built, the place to go for Michigan hockey information.  We discussed Michigan’s season and their draw in the NCAA Championship Tournament among other hockey topics.

Enjoy:

 

 Blogcast with YostBuilt [23:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Blogcast, Hockey

From the mouth of Rod:

• 1st full scrimmage will probably take place on Saturday.
• One of the reasons Rich wants to have a big spring game (in terms of fan attendance) is to help young guys get used to playing in front of an audience, so they aren’t as nervous when they see crowds of 100K+ in the fall.
• Brandin Hawthorne, though he sometimes has been practicing with the safeties, is going to play outside linebacker.
• Steve Watson’s move to defensive end has gone well. He is competing well enough that he will get some real playing time if he keeps it up. The depth at TE (Koger, Moore, Webb all doing well) allows him to play there. If they need tight ends, he’s a smart enough player that he could move back.
• Will Campbell will be a big help for the team, because the depth at DT is pretty thin. He still has lots of learning to do.
• Steve Schilling is at guard for now, and he’ll probably stay there for the time being. He looks good at the guard position, and shows good leadership on the field.

Observations and E-pinions:

• Starting defense appeared to be a 3-4 set with the following personnel: DL – Van Bergen, Martin, Graham. LB – S. Brown, Evans, Ezeh, Fitzgerald. S – Williams, B. Smith. CB – Warren, Cissoko.
• 1st team backfield featured Nick Sheridan, and often had 2 RBs (Minor at FB, C. Brown at RB) in. Moundros was the starting true fullback, in front of Grady and with Forcier as the QB.
• The starting offensive line looked to be (L to R): Ortmann, Schilling, Molk, Moosman, Omameh. 2nd team: ? (green jersey), Barnum, Khoury, Ferrara, Dorrestein. In individual drills for the offensive linemen, either Barnum or Omameh (the only 2 black O-linemen having 56 and 65, respectively, was confusing) appeared to be by far the quickest on the team. I think it was Omameh.
• Practicing taking direct snaps at QB with rollout runs: Feagin, T. Robinson, C. Brown.
• An observation from the Oklahoma Drill (or the “Wolverine Drill” or whatever they call it here): Brandon Minor looked like a man among boys. He trucked a couple defenders, was able to spin off a couple more, and run by one or two (not easy in a 5-yard-wide playing area). We should have video of at least one of the impressive runs. Vincent Smith is super shifty, as can be expected of most tiny backs.
• GERG Robinson has amazing silver hair, which he partnered up with a gray sweatsuit. Lookin’ fly.

Random (and not so random) people spotted:

• Skyler Schofner, William Gholston, Teric Jones, Rick Leach (more of “heard.” He also sat behind us at Friday’s baseball game), Michael Taylor, Johnny Thompson, recently fired EMU coach Jeff Genyk.
• I didn’t notice Toney Clemons in attendance, but I may have just missed him.

MGoBlue report on the entire first week of practice can be found here.

Video:

 

 Spring Practice Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Football, Media, Spring Coverage, Video

In the wake of Michigan getting into the NCAA Tournament, I called up college basketball Jamie Mac from MGoBlog Diary Fame.  We discussed the recent history  of Michigan basketball and what exactly this bid means for the program.

Enjoy!

 

 Big Dance Podcast 09 [30:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Basketball, Blogcast

First of all, if you haven’t already checked out the video Dylan posted, you should take some time and do so now.

Done? Alright. A few people have asked me how full Crisler was. There were probably between 1500 and 2000 people all sitting in the lower bowl on the East sideline. That area was pretty full, a few seats here or there, but fairly packed. Apparently, Beilein dind’t originally intend on doing a big event, but as he walked around and saw the cheerleaders’ and managers’ and students’ excitement, he realized that this meant a lot to the entire Michigan community. I’m glad he came to his realization, because it really was a special moment, and it was awesome to experience it with that many other people.

Our good friends at WOLV Student Television were there covering the event. For those of you who don’t know, this blog started out as a companion blog for the show Tim produced about Michigan football. Luckily, we’re still close with WOLV, and they were nice enough to share some pictures:

Furthermore, if you’d like to see some video of the celebration and some interviews, WOLV’s very own Kaitlin Urka put together this piece on the Selection Show event:

Thanks to WOLV for the media, and if you’re in the dorms you can catch original WOLV programming on channel 55.

Posted under Basketball, Photo Album

In this Blogcast, Tim gives you an overview of all the new Wolverines. If you have any ideas for future blogcasts, let us know in the comments.

 

 Varsity Blue Podcast for 2/25/2009: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Blogcast, Personnel

When Will Campbell was being interviewed they had him step off the stage, so he wouldn’t be too tall for the cameras.  Will’s personality, his bubbliness and goofiness remind me a lot of Terrance Taylor.

 

 Will Campbell Signing Day Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Personnel, Video

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a shoving match in order to get to Mike Jones. Apparantly he seemed hesitant or nervous on WTKA, but he sounded comfortable and excited here. I apologize for the lack of good questions. I was sort of a one man show at this point:

 

 Mike Jones Signing Day Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Personnel, Video

Move over Soulja Boy; Big Will Campbell has a new dance for y’all:

Hopefully there will be an instructional YouTube video in the near future.  Formerlyanon suggested this, but if anyone with LSUFreak like skills wants to put Will Campbell’s upper body on Warren Sapp’s legs from Dancing with the Stars, you will be my hero forever.

Posted under Media, Personnel

Michigan 2009 WR/LB commit Cameron Gordon and 2010 QB prospect Devin Gardner in the MHSAA Division 3 championship game.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Recruiting, Video