Road Warrior

After narrowly defeating Indiana, in a game I didn’t shoot, Michigan was off to its first road game of the season at Michigan State, followed by another road game in Iowa, then back home for Delaware State. Here are my sidleline observations from that trio of games:

Party for Sparty, 10-3-09

 • Maybe it’s just me, but there is definitely more of a vibe at other Big 10 stadiums than Michigan Stadium. Spartan Stadium certainly qualifies as a place with a “vibe.” Of course a lot of that has to do with their hatred of Michigan. Regardless, it’s hard to describe the sense of excitement the players must feel when they’re playing in one of these rivalry games. I know I feel it, and I’m just down there taking pictures.

 

Another lovely fall day in Michigan.

• Shooting games in iffy weather is just part of the job  - and the weather in East Lansing was iffy! Rain, sun, clouds, wind … rain, sun, clouds, wind … wash, rinse, repeat. Keeping expensive camera gear dry can be a challenge, especially if it’s raining and windy – which it was during the last 4 minutes of the game when Michigan was driving for the game-tying score. Want to know what makes bad weather even worse? Field turf. Sounds crazy, but if I’m shooting in rain, I’d like my photos to reflect that. Field turf eliminates any chance of getting a photo of a mud-covered player … which I like – seems more like real football.

 

• Watching Michigan State nearly blow a two-touchdown lead in the waning moments of a game they dominated was extremely interesting at field level. You could see it in the player’s faces – on both teams – as the momentum did a complete 180. If the Spartans had lost, I fear they would have been done for the season. But they didn’t and now they seem to be on a roll.

 

• I was front and center Michigan’s game-tying drive. The game should have ended on a Forcier interception the pass before he hit Roy Roundtree in the back of the endzone. The ball was deflected up in the air and seemed to hit three or four players before falling incomplete on the turf. Ironically, Forcier would be picked off in overtime on nearly the exact same play.

Tackle? ... anyone? ... anyone?

 

• How did the Wolverine defense not tackle Larry Caper on his game-winning touchdown run? Caper ran right at me on the play, I took several photos of him as he appeared to be stopped by Troy Woolfolk, the next thing I know he’s running past me into the endzone – game over!

 

Whoa ... Lookout! ... Paul Bunyan almost hits the turf - or worse, me!

• What’s up with the Paul Bunyan trophy? The Spartans treated that thing as if it were the Holy Grail. At least until one of the Spartan players nearly clocked me with old Paul as it slipped from the player’s one-handed grip while parading it around the field. I wonder if it would have busted into pieces had he bounced it off the turf?

 

"Tate, this is your father ... give in to the dark side Tate."

• NCAA football games are starting to look more and more like Star Wars conventions. Everywhere I look I see Storm Troopers and Darth Vaders invading stadium student sections, not to mention all the marching bands seem to play Vader’s theme song on every third down play.

 

IOWA – Field of Nightmares, 10-10-09

• Iowa City is a lot like Ann Arbor. But then so is West Lafayette, Bloomington, Madison, etc, etc. - still, it was my first trip to Kinnick Stadium and Michigan’s first night game of the year. I always enjoy shooting night games, but this one was more challenging than most for a couple of reasons.

1)   They didn’t bring in enough lights.

2)   Iowa ordered a “Black Out” for the game, meaning all the fans dressed in black. Not exactly the most reflective color.

 

Back in Black!

• What’s up with mid-October road games? For the third time in four years I’ve gone to road games in the middle of October that featured record-setting low temperatures, Penn State in ’06 and ’08 - and now Iowa this year. It snowed the morning of the game, and it didn’t get much better the rest of the day! With temps in the low 30’s at kickoff and in the mid-20’s by the end of the game, it was the second straight week where weather made it difficult to get good shots. Rain wasn’t the problem, numb fingers were. It’s hard to take pictures when the dexterity is gone from your fingers.

 

Dazed and confused.

• I was surprised to hear all the controversy over pulling Tate Forcier late in the game. I knew he had a concussion on his last play from scrimmage when he got absolutely tattooed by a pair of Iowa lineman. When he got up, he was staggering like a prizefighter that just pulled himself off the canvas. I remember turning to the photographer next to me and saying, “he’s done.” Then I went to the Michigan bench to see if I could get some shots of Forcier receiving medical attention. He was there, all right; parka on, eyes dazed – looked a lot like Sam McGuffie from last year’s team. To hear that Rich Rod had no idea that his starting quarterback was hurt was kind of startling.

 

• It was nice to shoot a game where no goofy trophies were at stake. No Brown Jugs, no Paul Bunyans, just a win or a loss.

• Vader and the Storm Troopers made their way to Iowa, this time with the flying wing on their respective battle helmets.

May the Forcier not be with you?

• One thing no one other than a photographer ever sees - the bowels of a Big 10 stadium. A lot of stadiums let the photographers use the press box as their working space once the game is over – not so with Kinnick Stadium (and a few others). I like the stadium, but the photographers are penned into a pair of internal storage rooms under the concourse for their workstations. No windows, no bathrooms - no time to get gas from the lousy food you ate on the way to the game! At any rate, if you weren’t friendly with your fellow shooters before the game, you will be before you leave.

 

• I’ve shot a lot of Michigan wins over the years, and, to be honest, a fair amount of losses. Michigan looks like every other team when they win - they do what you’d expect … almost a canned emotion. But when they lose they are the most boring team in the world to photograph. No emotion – I mean none! It’s okay to look depressed when you lose a close game. You fought hard, you came up short, go ahead and wear your emotions on your sleeve. It will make you feel better, or at the very least, it will make for better pictures!

 

Delaware State of disbelief! 10-17-09

A storm of controversy?

• What can you say about this non-game? Both teams should be ashamed of themselves - Michigan for scheduling such a tomato can, and Delaware State for accepting the $550K for playing in the game, thereby forfeiting one of their own conference games in the process. 

This game should be nothing but a blur!

 

• Oddly enough, before any ball was snapped, kicked, handed off , or thrown, both teams looked the same. There were guys in pads wearing red and white who were just as big and looked just as fast as the guys in pads wearing maize and blue. They looked like athletes, they dressed like athletes – how could they be so bad? And they were bad. In my 15-years of walking the sidelines with a camera at Michigan Stadium, I’ve never seen a worse game.

Where is everybody?

 • Where were the students? Apparently the game was so bad, a third of the students decided to stay home and sleep off their hangovers rather than show up at the Big House. I felt sorry for any fan who paid good money to come and see this game.

 

• I will give kudos to the students who did attend the game. As they always do, they take even the must mundane of contests and turn it into something halfway interesting with “the wave.” Other Big 10 venues may have more of a vibe than the Big House, but nobody, and I mean nobody, does the wave better than Michigan Stadium.  The place was practically invented for such a feat. Seeing it done to perfection from the field - in the round - is a thing of beauty. I especially enjoy the slow-motion version. I was behind the Delaware State bench when the wave started and even their players stopped watching the game and started watching the crowd.

At least their band was good.

That’s it for this batch of games. Michigan now stands at 5-2, about what I expected at the beginning of the season. Now, of course, they run into some actual competition with Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State remaining on their schedule. I guess we’ll see how far they’ve come from last year in the next few weeks.