The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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FROM OUR READERS be lauded for their "Rolling Out the Red Carpet" campaign, which en- courages students, athletes, staff and alumni to welcome visiting fans and make them feel respected at Camp Randall Stadium. A volunteer corps of "Fan Ambassadors" is instructed to welcome visitors with giveaways and relevant information. The cam- paign includes speeches from their athletics director Barry Alvarez as well as lighthearted public service announcements on the stadium video scoreboard during games. I would take this effort to the next SAY CHEESE, AND WELCOME Dear The Wolverine: The University of Wisconsin is to tality idea is a very solid one, although it would likely be spit upon in Columbus. In terms of giving visitors seats by the field, good luck. That's probably not happening in a huge block. ADs like to take care of their own first, and that's understandable. level and suggest to Big Ten com- missioner Jim Delany that at the next scheduled meetings he and the 12 athletics directors and their as- sociates explore promulgating new rules governing seating of visit- ing fans at football games. Visiting fans should be seated together in a block near to the playing field to strengthen comradeship with each other and with their cheerleaders and band if present. When I and my fellow Wolverines travel to Camp Randall, Spartan, Beaver and Ohio Stadiums, we abhor being seated at distant locations far away from our cheerleaders and band when pres- ent just as their fans equally loathe being seated hither and yon in our "Big House." Accomplishing this would be dif- ficult since each Big Ten athletic de- partment would have to redistribute seating allocations for season ticket holders as well as sales of individ- ual ticket seats. Nevertheless, I be- lieve this is a worthwhile pursuit. What Michigan fans would give-up in home-field advantage would be more than gained as visiting fans elsewhere and serve to improve the game-day experience of all Big Ten fans at every Big Ten venue. "What is good for the goose is also good for the gander." Roger E. Mayerson Morristown, N.J. Hopefully that means Badger fans will now eschew throwing coins or other- wise abusing opponents at the tunnel entrance at Camp Randall, a practice that at one point caused school officials to take protective measures. The hospi- Well, good for Wisconsin, Roger E. not Team 133. It is Team 135. The academic year, which defines ath- letic seasons, begins in late sum- mer. Michigan's first game was on May, 30 1879 (1878-79 academic year, Team 1). Their second game was on Nov. 1, 1879 (1879-80, Team 2). Their third game was on Nov. 5, 1880 (1880-81, Team 3). Their fourth, fifth and sixth games took place Oct. 31- Nov. 4, 1881 (1881-82, Team 4). Their seventh game was on March 12, 1882 (1882-83, Team 5). Their eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th games took place Nov. 19-27, 1883 (1883-84, Team 6). Why my count diverges from that Dear The Wolverine: I just got a look at the 2012-13 Michigan football T-shirts. The shirt displays some of the accomplish- ments accumulated by the reported 133 Michigan football teams: 11 na- tional titles, 42 conference champi- onships, three Heisman winners, 41 bowl appearances, most wins in col- lege football and largest stadium in America. It is a nice way to present the Michigan tradition in a way that ties the past to the present. Unfortunately, this year's team is A NUMBERS GAME From Our Web Site the showdown with Alabama, so which position groups are you the most concerned about? My initial thought was the D-Line, but after what I read by RC Blue in the Chat Recap, the secondary seems to have bolted to the top of the list. redraider_81 • Less than two months away from will make the secondary that much better. You would think with this coaching staff the DL will be solid, but Alabama will be tough to slow regardless. Along with our D-Line, our O-Line is very thin and if anyone goes down we could be in trouble. DNegs12 • If the D-Line can be decent, that all know both lines are in for a long day, but we can't dismiss Denard's performance vs. Virginia Tech (9-for- 21, 117 yards passing, 13 carries for 13 yards). Almost half of 117 passing yards came on busted plays too. He was great vs. Nebraska and OSU, but Virginia Tech was the best defense we saw last year and Alabama will be even better. My concern is that Denard is going • I would add QB, too. I think we of the media and public relations (MPR) department at Michigan is that they include both games in 1879 as Michigan football's first season and include the March 1883 game with the other 1883 games played in November. Michigan's MPR de- partment apparently does not recog- nize the Michigan men on either the 1878-79 team nor the 1882-83 team. This is not the first time that MPR misinformation has found its way onto a Michigan season tee. I am hoping that this does not become a part of the Michigan tradition. Smithson Valley, Texas Patrick J. Friedrich not differentiating between spring/fall squads, Patrick. You have the distinction of raising the first note of protest in this area, including those directly involved with those early teams. They are clearly going on years, and to press too much, take too many risks, and this time it will backfire. I am actually cautiously optimistic that we can hold Alabama to 21-23 points, so if Denard can play smart football and not give Alabama any cheap points off of turnovers, we might be able to make this a one- score game late, and from there any- thing can happen. Please don't take this anti-Denard. He is our best player and my favor- ite, and I think he is in for a crazy good season, but in this game he worries me. Big Ten Blue realistically knows that as of TODAY, he probably has an 8-4 or 9-3 team. He's not afraid to say that WR, TE and DL will be a work in progress this year until proven otherwise. The schedule this upcoming season will be tough, from game one through game 12. • Brady Hoke's a smart guy, and he mjt2317 AUGUST 2012 THE WOLVERINE 11