A New Season - A New Stadium - Everything but shoelaces!

Are you ready for some football? (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

U-Conned Me Into Thinking These Guys Were Good!  9-4-10

Ah, fall - or at late summer as the case may be – a time to put away thoughts of swimming pools, sun tans and days at the beach, and replace them instead with dreams of tailgating, pigskins, and big, smelly dudes in pads trying to rip each other’s heads off. Yes, it’s officially football season once again - a time that seems to carry more importance for American males than the right to vote. Everyone is an expert, and best of all they’re not afraid to share that expertise!

Michigan fans, oh how I miss thee. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

Sports radio talk shows are loaded with people sharing their bloated opinions, and the Internet is even worse. So once again, I thought I’d join in the fray and share my unique perspective on the game of football from my ever-changing perspective along the sidelines, in the tunnel, from the press box, and anywhere else I might venture during the course of a Michigan football game.

So here we go – year number two of “The Sideline Diaries.”

Here come the 2010 Wolverines. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

This year should prove to be a pivotal one for the Michigan. After two, let’s face it, rather crappy seasons under Rich Rodriguez, it’s time for the experiment that is “small and fast” football to take hold, or else the folks around here will be demanding a return to the “big, powerful, smash-mouth, Big-Ten-style football” that makes Bo Schembechler disciples pee in their pants.

A lot of things have happened since last season. Michigan has a new Athletic Director (Dave Brandon), a newly renovated stadium, new field turf, and a new starting quarterback, now it’s time to do something old –win enough ball games to go to a bowl game! First test; the UConn Huskies.

• Finally, all the years of tearing the hell out of the Big House have come to fruition. The place is officially finished. New suites, new club seats, new press box, and a new low for the treatment of photographers. Our once semi-convenient press parking lot has been given to the rich folk who will inhabit the luxury suites on game days, lest they get tired hauling their heavy wallets any further than 100-yards from the stadium. We photographers, on the other hand, now are parking next to the tennis courts at Pioneer High School, which, I’m not sure, but I think is in a different zip code. No matter, it’s only a half-day hike and it’s not like camera gear is heavy or anything!

The Big House's new press box - my last view of seeing the place before being banished to the field for the rest of the season. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• Normally it’s hotter than hell for the first few games of the season, but a cold front blew in for the opener, and when I say blow, I mean 30-35 mph winds, making it feel a lot more like October than early September. Overhead, a skywriter was doing his best to scribe “Go Blue” in the sky, but the wind kept blowing the word “Go” well out of sight before he even started the word “Blue.” Maybe he should have changed it to “Go Blew!” or better yet, “Surrender Dorothy!”

"Go ... Blew?" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• Of course, you can’t have a newly renovated stadium without a bunch of hullabaloo before the game to appease the half-million in attendance. There was a ribbon cutting, a passing of the torch from the old AD to the new, and a couple of flyovers (at least I think they were flyovers, the B-25 was flying so low it almost became a fly into!) before the coin was even tossed. 

"This is B-25 niner-niner, do I have permission to land?" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

• The best part of the pre-game, and I mean this in all seriousness, was seeing Brock Mealer walk across the field to touch the M-Go Blue Banner at the 50-yard. Mealer’s brother, Elliott, who walked with him, is an offensive lineman for the Wolverines. Last year Mealer’s father, and Elliott’s girlfriend, were killed in a car accident that also severely injured Brock. Brock was so severely injured in the crash, doctors gave him a 1% chance he’d ever walk again. After several months working out with the Michigan football team’s strength and conditioning coach, Brock Mealer defied the odds and walked across the field. It truly was an emotional moment.

Brock Mealer walks to the center of the field with his mom and brother. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

• The other best part about all the pre-game hype was the fact I wasn’t actually on the field for any of it. Instead, I was one of two photographers given the opportunity (and from what I was told, this would be the last chance for the rest of the season) to shoot the proceedings from the TV platform above the press box. It’s nice up there, I must say – no event staff yelling at you to stay behind the line, no cables to trip over, and no trombone slides whacking you in the back of the head.

• After months of speculation, I think a lot of folks were surprised to see Denard Robinson head out to the field as the starting quarterback in place of Tate Forcier. Last year, Robinson certainly was spectacular when he played, but not always in a good way. He ran like a rabbit, often eluding what looked to be sure tackles, but he threw like one too. For every good play he made, he often turned around and made three bad ones. But this year something was different. Denard looked smarter, and threw the ball much better. Before the game was over, he turned the UConn defense into mincemeat and the crowd had a new hero. Everyone seemed happy … everyone, that is, except Tate Forcier.

A star is born? (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• As often happens during a post-game celebration, things get a little crazy and it’s hard to tell what the hell is going on exactly. So, as a photographer, the best thing to do is pick a player, or the coach, and never let them out of your sight as the last seconds tick off the clock. Then, when the game is over, get your ass on the field before any other photographer, or the dreaded television cameras, and start making pictures. Sometimes you get lucky; sometimes you don’t. This time I got lucky and got both the coach, and the star player from the game, in the same shot without anything between them and me. One game down, 11 more to go.

"Hail to the Vic ... what the hell are the words to this song again?" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• One other side note from the game. The new suites were designed to try and maximize the volume in what often is considered one of the quietist stadiums in college football (given the size of the crowd, that is). I was very aware of this the entire game and I kept asking myself if it was, in fact, any louder. I’m no sound technician, but my honest opinion from the field is that it is no louder, just more annoying because the flat, slightly inward slant to the suite walls aren’t acting so much as a way to amplify, and keep the sound on the field, as they are echo chambers, bouncing around drum beats from the marching bands in a seemingly endless sonic volley, until it’s hard to tell what song the band is even playing.

Tate who? (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

 

"Jesus, Can I Get a Touchdown?" Notre Dame, 9-11-10

• This was my fourth trip to the hallowed grounds of Notre Dame Stadium. As much as they may hate to hear this, both Michigan and Notre Dame fan bases are a lot alike; very passionate, very steeped in tradition, and very wealthy. The biggest difference between the two is the insanely loud student section at Notre Dame, their crazy, little, Leprechaun dude, and the fact that they have God on their side. (Not to mention Rudy!)

• The last time I shot a game at Notre Dame, the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed through and dumped three inches of rain on the stadium in the third quarter. It was the most rain I’d ever seen in my life. This game looked to be no different, but what had been an all-day rain somehow blew out of South Bend right before kickoff, leaving behind a perfectly cloudy and cool day for a game of football between the two winningest programs in all of college football.

• The biggest pre-game story centered around Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier. Rumors were circling all week that Tate was pissed he didn’t start, and was pouting at the end of the Wolverine’s win over UConn to the point where he was thought to be ready to transfer. His demeanor during pre-game didn’t do much to dissuade those rumors, but who knows, he is just a kid, and people are probably making much to do over nothing.

"I could of been a contender!" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• There is little, or no room on the sidelines at a Notre Dame game. Couple that with the “Lucky Charms” guy nervously pacing back and forth in front of me the entire game, and it makes for one trying afternoon. For the record, the last Leprechaun Notre Dame had actually looked Irish – pale, red hair, freckly – but this cat looks more Latino. Oh well, I suppose it’s good to be diverse. Besides, aren’t most Latinos Catholic anyhow?  “El Luchador Irish!”

"Andale! Andale! - Arriba! Arriba!" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• It just so happens that the game was played on 9-11, so there was plenty of pre-game activity devoted to the memory of the terrorist attacks, and since the day now has been proclaimed "Patriot Day" both teams and their coaches, had American flags inside the letters of their block M’s and block ND’s on their hats. It was pretty cool, I must admit, but not as cool as the dude who brought his fireman’s helmet to the game and held it up during the moment of silence before the game. No flyover though – I was told the cloud ceiling was too low (they should have called up the B-25 pilot from Michigan, it didn’t seem to bother him to strafe the top row of a stadium.)

A nice salute. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

 • Denard was up to his old tricks again. The dude piled up five football fields worth of yardage to break the record he’d set the week before. Unfortunately for me, I was in the press box sending photos back to Ann Arbor when he busted off his longest run, an 85-yarder for a touchdown near the end of the half.  I was there, however, for his game-winning touchdown with less than a minute left on the clock. Now they’re starting to toss around Heisman talk. That’s hard to believe; one year he pretty much sucks, the next year - Heisman Trophy talk. Go figure?

"Catch me if you can!" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• How any football player makes it through a season unscathed is beyond me (I’m not sure any of them actually do). Notre Dame Stadium doesn’t have the luxury of a video screen on their scoreboard, so fans, and photographers, have to take official’s word for it on close calls, and we never get to see a replay of great, or controversial plays. Two plays, however, I did catch with my camera enabling me instantly to see that Notre Dame’s T.J. Jones had let go of the football before he actually crossed the goal line on what officials had called a touchdown. I also was able to see why Michigan’s Brandon Herron was writhing in pain following what looked to be an innocent play, but turned out to be a leg-twisting catch of the cleat in the stadium turf – legs aren’t supposed to bend that way - OUCH!

Ummm ... dude?  You're supposed to hang on to the ball until "after" you cross the goal line. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

One word - OUCCHHH!!!! (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• Notre Dame’s starting quarterback left the game after the first series and was replaced by the back up  - who basically sucked - and then by their third stringer, who just so happens to be Joe Montana’s kid. Holy crap, talk about a spittin’ image of his old man. But then he actually played football and that’s where the similarities came grinding to a halt.

"Hey Joe, whaddaya know?" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• After a super long day (Notre Dame home games are typically four hours plus because of NBC’s notoriously lengthy TV-timeouts) I walked back to my car parked behind the campus library – the same library emblazoned with a huge mosaic of Jesus on one side of it. In Notre Dame Stadium, the mosaic can be seen looming over one of the end zones, and given Christ’s arm gesture in the mosaic, it’s been nicknamed “Touchdown Jesus.” Whether this is sacrilegious or not is a great source of debate, but not nearly as controversial as poor, old “Incomplete Mary” and “Point-After Paul” located in other less-desirable spots on campus.

And Jesus said unto them "Let them score six." (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

UMass; No Mas! - 9-18-10

 

• Like a lot of other folks, I skipped this game. Turned out to be a pretty good one though, unless you were looking to see some of the backups playing.

 

Bowling Green Around The Gills - 9-25-10

• Following three straight impressive offensive outbursts, quarterback Denard Robinson now is reaching rock-star status on campus, and even nationally. ESPN paid a visit to UM to film a live Sports Nation show on Wednesday to fawn over Robinson and his trademark of not tying his shoes. This habit of running for several thousand yards on the football field with his shoes apparently attached to his feet by nothing more than centrifugal force has earned Robinson the nickname “Shoelace” which, talk has it, also may be trademarked soon by either Adidas or the University of Michigan (the same university who is making sure that nobody, and I mean nobody, will profit off of Robinson’s untied shoes, except, of course, them.)

Any reproduction, rebroadcast, use of this picture or the word shoelace, without the express written consent of Adidas or the University of Michigan is strictly prohibited. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• I like Bowling Green - my sister went to school there and they have the same color scheme as my favorite NFL team, the Cleveland Browns. Unfortunately, the color scheme isn’t the only thing they have in common with the Browns – playing bad football is another. The Wolverines thumped Bowling Green, 65-21, leaving me to shoot little more than file photos of second and third stringers. The only interesting part of the game came in the first quarter when “Shoelace” was tackled near the Michigan sideline and hurt his left knee. Now as a photographer, when the star player – a potential Heisman Trophy candidate at that – gets hurt, you probably ought to abandon the game action and get a shot of said star player receiving treatment on the bench. Sounds easy, and it probably would have been in the UConn game before Robinson became bigger than the President, but this game was different. As soon as he came off the field, he knelt down by the bench grimacing in pain. I shot a few pictures of Denard at that point, but once the event staff saw what I was doing, they started calling over assistants, water boys, and anyone else without a camera, to form a human shield around Robinson and block my view. Apparently, an injured star player is none of my business, at least according to the bench personnel. Had he been lying on the field with half a lung coming out of his mouth and a ruptured spleen spewing out onto the field, that would have been just fine, but a strained knee on the sideline is strictly classified.

Injured star = taboo picture. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• As near as I can tell, high-fiving has transformed into mid-level-fiving, and even low-fiving. Everywhere in the stadium hands were being extended at, or below shoulder level for an appropriate smack from anyone who wanted to smack it – little kids, mascots, band members - hell, even players on occasion. The only thing being done above the shoulders these days seems to be the “jump and bump” (a sort of variation of the chest bump, only with a half turn at the apex of the leap) and the “Look-at-me-daddy-I-can-fly” lift, also known as the “Dancing with the Stars” clean and jerk. It all leaves me to wonder whatever happened to the old “Good job!” smack on the ass?

"Gimmee five ... 10 ... 15 ... 20?" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

"Look at me Daddy, I can fly!" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

• Another observation about the modern-day football player. Apparently, it now is mandatory, or at least highly suggested, that every 300-pound-plus offensive lineman must adorn one, or preferably both meaty arms, with an impossible to remove, and later to be regretted, tattoo of something so trendy it will have them dousing their arms in battery acid, or using acetylene torches to try and rid themselves of said tattoos before they hit the age of 50.

"Ink - it's not just for sailors anymore!" (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

• The ever-popular “toss-a-relatively-light-female-student-into-the-air” ritual after scoring a touchdown (once for every point) seemed all fun and good in the first half of the game, but once UM hit 65 points, it started to look as if the girls being tossed might do a little tossing themselves - as in “tossing their cookies.”  Imagine a repetitive motion ride at Cedar Point that makes you a little queasy after only a few minutes, then multiply that several times by increments of seven. For the record, every girl who participated in the “up you go, down you go” ritual got pumped into the air 360 times before the game was over. Couple that with a morning full of drinking games before arriving at the stadium and … well, you get the picture.

 ... 51, 52, 53, 54, 55... blecchhhhh!!!! (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

• After Robinson went down with his knee injury, Tate Forcier, who didn’t transfer after all, came in and did a respectable job, going 12 for 12 on passing attempts, while regaining a little more swagger with a lot less pout. Of course, by the end of the game I’m pretty sure I could have gone in and thrown a completion against Bowling Green’s defense, but it was nice to see that UM might have some depth at quarterback. Hopefully enough to get them, and me, to a bowl game again.

Tate Forcier back in action. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

That’s it for now. A third of the way through the season and Michigan is 4-0. Of course, they were 4-0 last year through the same stretch and finished … ahem … 5-7.

Praying for good health ... and a better finish than last year. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

 

I’ll be heading to Bloomington on Friday. It’s one of two Big Ten towns I’ve never visited. Then it’s back home for Sparty and Iowa. We should know more about the Wolverines after that three-game stretch, and I’ll have my next installment posted during the bye-week.