Dann O’Neill, an offensive tackle from Grand Haven, has committed to the Wolverines. He’s pretty highly regarded, though not exactly OMG shirtless. Probably a 4-star guy.

Jim Stefani has him ranked as the #26 offensive line prospect, regardless of position. Stefani also calls him 6’7″, though there are a lot of conflicting reports about his size. Most credible sources have him at 6’5″. Also of note in Stefani’s post: Michigan targets J.B. Shugarts (#5), legacy Khaled Holmes (#17) , Kurt Wermers (#45).

O’Neill’s a very athletic big guy: he wrestles, and finished 7th in the state. He was a commitment waiting to happen, and once his wrestling season ended, he pulled the trigger on a visit to the first spring practice.

Posted under Recruiting

Currently being voted upon by student season ticket holders. Here’s a copy of the e-mail sent to students:

“M-Mail
University of Michigan Athletics

Football student season ticket holders for the 2006 season may vote to decide the winning design of the 2007 Michigan football season T-shirt. The maize shirts with the theme “The Team, The Team, The Team” can be viewed and voted on at [link redacted] until Wednesday March 14 at 5:00pm.

You can be part of the largest crowd to watch a college football game by ordering a student football season ticket for the 2007 season. The student season ticket sale begins next week. An e-mail will be sent by Monday, March 19 to all U-M students with ordering information.

Go Blue!

Marty Bodnar
Associate Athletic Director, Ticketing & Marketing”

And the options are:
#1

#2

#3

#4

Also, I am an idiot and don’t know how to prevent these images from breaking the tables. I’ll make Paul fix it later.

[Paul – fixed it]

Posted under Misc.

Present (W Basketball), potential (M Basketball), and future (Football). From the Detroit News.

Martin keeps and open mind.

Interesting tidbit for those who think Lloyd will hand-pick his successor (Debord):

Q . Would you like coach Carr involved in the process to find a successor?

A . I would say that I would seek Lloyd’s input, but I don’t think I would want a coach directly involved in the process. I think you need to be able to step back, take a long look at the program and decide what’s in the best long-term interest of Michigan football. There’s no question that that’s an absolute critical objective.

And more interesting-ness on playing App. State:

Q . A lot of fans have criticized the school’s decision to play Appalachian State in football next season. What’s your take on that and your philosophy about football scheduling?

A . We thought we had a Division I opponent up until the final moment. Now, we didn’t get it, but we had to get a game in place.

If you look at Appalachian State, they’re the two-time, I-AA champion. Ask yourself: Do you think they could beat half the teams in the MAC?

I anticipate that we will have one of the top five toughest schedules this year. Look at our home schedule. Everyone wants you to play the top teams every week, unless you’re a coach or athletic director. So you have to look at it from both sides.

Posted under Coaching

…and watch the first half of the game, so Paul can ever-so-valiantly bring you what I miss. If the first half isn’t over by about 12:50, you’ll miss out n the end, because I must must go to my 1:00 class.

There are few things more awkward than sitting in a classroom, waiting for class to start, and leaving because you have realized that Lorch Hall isn’t so keen on this “wireless” idea.

I’ll be doing work during the game since I’m skipping class, so my apologies if the liveblog isn’t teh awesomez.

Posted under Misc.

Per Brian (and creepily verified through FaceBook), today is the official Zoltan Mesko Birthday, which shall henceforth be known as Zoltan Day. In honor of the joyous occasion, I am wearing my Zoltan shirt (dutifully purchased from MGoStore), and sharing a fun anecdote that I have likely already told and am too lazy to type out in its entirety.

Place yourself in LAX airport on January 2, 2007. You may just spot yourself a Zoltan! If you are extra lucky, connecting to Grand Rapids through Cleveland, you may just find a Zoltan on your flight! (Mario Manningham and Prescott Burgess, too, if you must know). Luckily, you taught your parents the “Z” symbol yesterday at the Rose Bowl of Finite Pain. Unfortunately, they enjoy embarrassing you publicly. They convince the flight attendant to form said “Z” hand symbol in the face of the Zoltan! He laughs in her face, and you feel like an idiot for having taught your parents not only the hand thing, but also telling them that He was on your flight.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Posted under Personnel

http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI’m not one to quote pay sites (see: , which I generally agree with), but in this instance, I think it’s a matter of some importance.

Rumors have been perpetuated on the internet (including those damn bloggers -ed.*) that three players, whose names I will not drag through the mud until this rumor has been in some way substantiated, have been caught with drugs and kicked off the team. Per Tom Beaver, at least the aspect of getting removed from the team is false, and he also stated unequivocally that the law is NOT involved.

Other evidence I can provide, however trivial, circumstantial, or spurious it may seem:

1) I saw one of the players in question yesterday, still wearing his varsity warmups (as most players always do, since they get washed by team trainers), and appearing to show zero concern. Unless this is something that happened overnight or this morning, it is unlikely that he has been kicked off the team.
2) A player (who shall remain nameless, but is not one of the internet-accused) used to hang around my house during the summer, and described the process by which players can be suspended during the offseason. The general idea is that different types of violations charge you with “points,” and after you accumulate a given amount of said points in a time period, you get suspended from the team. Positive tests for marijuana, and getting caught possessing marijuana, were not enough (again, this was in the offseason, which is going on now) to warrant a suspension, much less getting booted from the team. Unless these guys were cultivating or selling massive amounts of weed, or were involved with more illicit drugs, I would doubt the credibility of a rumer that simple possession would get them completely booted from the team.

Thus, even if players were caught with illicit substances, the degree of punishment claimed by this rumor is inconsistent with what I have been told is team policy. As of now, I’d consider this rumor completely unsubstantiated. Updates provided when more news becomes available.

*Brent Musburger

Posted under Misc.

From the Free Press.

Obviously, Appalachian State (HOT HOT HOT L.O.L.!!!!!) was not the first choice for Michigan, fact which was readily apparent to everyone except Brent Musburger’s “bloggers” (i.e. bitchy internet people).

The far more interesting tidbits from that article are the not-so-subtle hints about future series (including away games) with Rutgers, Stanford, and a (slightly-less-obvious-to-discern-which)
team in Texas. Martin raises these “areas” in which he wants to play away games under the guise of playing close to large alumni bases (a laudable goal in and of itself), but it’s also quite clear that they would be huge for exposure and recruiting.

Posted under Misc.

…or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Vance Bedford Officially Announced as secondary coach.
Big ol’ Gift given to athletic department.

Posted under Misc.

Appalchian State to fill opening date on schedule.

Bonus linkage from App. State Site.

While there is obvious disappointment over the scheduling of a 1-AA team, several articles have made it quite clear that, of the group of 1-A teams with an open date to fill, none were willing to take on the Wolverines. Such teams denying the non-sexual overtures of Bill Martin included Hawaii (returning a Heisman-favorite QB, didn’t want to screw his chance, probably), Vanderbilt (needed another home game to balance the checkbook, scheduled a 1-AA team), and about four other similarly-prestiged teams.

With two top(ish) teams already on the non-conference schedule, the scheduling of a patsy is not as disappointing as it could have been. The final schedule is as follows:

Sept. 1 Appalachian State (Maize out)
Sept. 8 Oregon (Maize out)
Sept. 15 Notre Dame (Maize out)
Sept. 22 Penn State* (Maize out)
Sept. 29 at Northwestern* (Maize out)
Oct. 6 Eastern Michigan (Maize out)
Oct. 13 Purdue* (Homecoming) (Maize out)
Oct. 20 at Illinois*
Oct. 27 Minnesota* (Maize out)
Nov. 3 at Michigan State*
Nov. 10 at Wisconsin*
Nov. 17 Ohio State* (Maize out)

(Maize out existence and emphasis mine, only once for hilarity/truth).

Posted under Misc.

The Freep reports that Hawaii, thought to be an option for the season opener next year, has been eliminated.

Interestingly, the article also says that Martine tried to score USC for the first game at some point in the past.

As of right now, the most likely opponent is sounding like Appalachian State. I will demand my money back if we play a 1-AA team.

Posted under Misc.