The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN FOOTBALL "It is going to be a night game, again, which doesn't happen often, so it will be the highlighted game on the early part of the schedule. "I'd assume it's the same way for the players. They're going to be ex- cited for that one, especially after the way some of those games have gone in the past few years." Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly made headlines last year when he declared Michigan a "regional ri- val" but that's simply not true. "Having covered this game for the last 30 years, it's always the highlight of the early portion of the season," IrishIllustrated.com writer Tim Pris- ter said. "And the players feel that. If you ask them who the biggest rival- ries are, they're going to say USC and Michigan." While Maize and Blue fans may be anticipating U-M's matchup with ND more than its season-opening contest, the fan base from Appa- lachian State is giddily awaiting a return visit to Ann Arbor after the Mountaineers made college football history by becoming the first Football Championship Subdivision program to knock off a top-25 Football Bowl Subdivision team, in 2007. "From a fan perspective, they have been licking their chops for this game since we got back after the first one," ASU play-by-play announced Dave Jackson said. "Certainly, there will be a lot of build up, and the timing is impeccable, with the program's transition to the FBS. "For the most part, that win helped solidify some of those long-term re- lationships that got us our indoor practice facility and our 30,000-seat stadium and the things we need to check off to make the jump in divi- sions. Certainly, the notoriety helps with recruiting and fan development. The Michigan win helped us get to where we needed to be to make this jump." Michigan will also welcome Miami (Ohio) and Utah to The Big House this September, and the Utes pose the most dangerous threat. "If you were to go back and watch every game last year, you would see a team that was in almost every sin- gle game," UteZone.com managing editor Alex Markham said. ❏ RANKED Sporting News unveiled its ranking of the top coaches in college football for 2014, rating Alabama's Nick Saban No. 1, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier No. 2 and Ohio State's Urban Meyer No. 3. Michigan's Brady Hoke ranked 46th nationally and seventh in the Big Ten, with the author, Matt Hayes, explaining the ranking system thus: "It's a yearly breakdown that includes positive and negative trends and overall track records." "It fell apart in year three, a second straight season when Michigan underper- formed," Hayes wrote after Hoke's ranking. "This is what you get with Hoke; it's a FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK