BTN Game Highlights

Roy Roundtree

Roy Roundtree came back for a short pass to make a great grab in the endzone to win the game vs Notre Dame. Yet another exhausting, emotional roller coaster ride of a game. These outlandish finishes have become par for the course in this long rivalry and quite possibly has taken many  years off of my life.

There is a lot of growing to be done on this Michigan team, but I loved the play calling attitude late in the game and the never give up gutsy play of the Wolverines.

Go Blue!

35-31 Win in the first night game at the Big House.

Makin' Records in Notre Dame Stadium

Game Highlights

Michigan at Notre Dame Highlights

5:18 of SWEET!!!!

Video Compliments of MichiganSportsCenter

...nasty Wolverine encounter

"...and nine plays later irrepressible freshman quarterback Tate Forcier hit Greg Matthews for the winning four-yard touchdown. Thus began a run on torch-lighting material in South Bend."

LATimes.com Brian Hamilton

Tate takes it to the House!

A Rivalry Thriller at the Big House in Ann Arbor. QB, Tate Forcier takes Michigan down the field in the final two minutes and refuses not to find a way to win.

Michigan 38 Notre Dame 34

Can't believe it? See it with your own eyes. BOXSCORE

Oh the pain, the pain

Looking forward to the Bye week. I know I need it, not sure if it will be a good or bad thing for the team, actually I don't think it will make any difference.

No, I am not all gloom and doom, I just see the reality of the situation. This Michigan team just isn't that good of a team.

Like I have said before, it will take a few years (at least) to get top notch athletes into this program that will flourish in this system.

Two bright spots this past weekend were, Sam McGuffie is the man! and I got to sit and relax and watch tOSU crash and burn and get absolutely embarrassed once again in Prime Time on National TV.

Notre Dame beating Michigan was really not a huge surprise, but many felt that tOSU was going to actually give USC a game. Once again Pete Carroll out coaches and out athletes another Big Ten "Powerhouse". The Big stage just doesn't seem to suit Jim Tressel. Hmmm I think I remember many Bucknut fans talking that way about Lloyd Carr. I mean sure Michigan got punked by Carroll a few times but, hey at least Michigan actually felt the turf in the end zone a few times.

Well I am not going to pull any hair out about this season, although every loss hurts, I could never stop supporting the Michigan team and program. Looking forward to better times.

Cheers, have a great season of Tailgating and GO BLUE!

Michigan v Notre Dame Week

"To Hell with Notre Dame"

1989, The Big House, on a rainy September 16th. This game and the two kickoff returns by Rocket Ismail sealed my hatred for the golden domers. Although this wasn't my first game at the Big House, it was one of my first memories as a teenager and a young burgeoning Michigan fan.

I can still hear the pitter patter of the rain hitting my parka and every time Michigan beats Notre Dame I feel it is just one more step in the redemption they have to pay for ruining one of my first Big House experiences.

This season both teams come into this game looking like dogs that need to be put out of their misery, but as the years have taught me, this rivalry brings out the best in these athletes. the stats, wins and losses all mean nothing when the whistle blows this Saturday at Notre Dame.

Some recent History of this Rivalry. Article about Wies and "To Hell with Michigan", and highlights from last years game.

2002 M 23 ND 25

2003 M 38 ND 0

2004 M 20 ND 28

2005 M 10 ND 17

2006 M 47 ND 21

2007 M 38 ND 0

2008 TBA

Nothing like a hairy viking growling, GO BLUE. Think he trains with Barwis?

Context

Blogging From Space

Has TD Jesus gone Blue?

Words can not contain the feeling I have right now. Sure Michigan beat a really bad Notre Dame team, but, Michigan WON !!!!!!!

Who the heck would ever think that the ND game would be a warm up for the Penn State game.

Mike Hart.

All I can say is MIKE HART! He called it and Michigan backed it up.

187 yards and 2 TD's of shear narly guts, hanging out all over the turf. There was no way #20 was going to let ND get into that game. Mallet can thank him later.

Ryan also had a great game. (the future looks bright for this young Michigan man).

Ron English (not as a second language) got his D UP! for this game and they came through with flying bodies.

Michigan 38 Notre Dame ZERO (echo echo echo)

GO BLUE!

*I hear "Space age love song"

Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry chronicled in book

By Kevin Wright, Michigan Daily
September 14, 2007

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- One comment changed the course of my week and opened my eyes to the story behind the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry.

I have Michigan coach Lloyd Carr to thank.

During the football team's weekly press conference, a reporter asked Carr what made the rivalry special for the coach, who's been a part of more than half of the games the two teams have played against each other (13 as an assistant, eight as a head coach).

Carr's response was memorable.

"This guy, John Kryk, who I think has written a wonderful history of the Notre Dame-Michigan game, I recommend you find his book and read it," Carr said with a hint of sarcasm.

Lloyd was probably just trying to muster a few laughs. I took him seriously and read it.
I found the Kryk's chronicle "Natural Enemies" at Barnes & Nobles and settled into a cushioned chair to skim the 298 pages for an hour (I'm a college student -- I don't read what's not required).

And wouldn't you know it, Carr was right. I learned exactly what went into one of the oldest college football rivalries.

Here's a recap.

Michigan taught Notre Dame how to play the game. Seriously.

The Wolverine players took a train to South Bend, Ind., on Nov. 23, 1887, offered some individual instruction sessions, won 8-0 and then hopped back on a train to go play in Chicago.
George DeHaven, a member of the Michigan team who was instrumental in setting up the game, put it best.

"We played gently with them that day."

From that point, Notre Dame always looked to Michigan as an icon. The problem was, the Wolverines didn't feel the same way.

In 1910, Michigan coach Fielding Yost wanted to cancel the game after Notre Dame won the year before. Yost complained the Fighting Irish didn't adhere to the Western Conference rules by playing freshman and students who had already used their eligibility.

Kryk describes the Michigan mindset as an older brother who felt the Fighting Irish shouldn't always get to hang out with the older crowd.

It probably didn't help that the Notre Dame coach in 1909 was Frank "Shorty" Longman, who had played fullback for Yost at Michigan. Longman lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the time and made every effort to brag about the win.

The series didn't resume until 1942 after a 32-year hiatus, and it stopped a year later. In 1943, No. 1 Notre Dame beat No. 2 Michigan, and the series was cancelled again.

The two storied programs didn't return to the same gridiron again until 1978, 35 years later. The Wolverines won 28-14.

The annual matchup became a fixture after 1978, and many of them were named after a game-changing play. There was the Miracle Field Goal (1980), Rocket's Returns (1989), the Catch (1991) and the Tie (1992).

One of the most interesting stories surfaced in the 1985 game. Michigan coach Bo Schembechler had come off a 6-6 season and hadn't won 10 games in four straight years. Kryk said critics questioned whether the game had passed Bo by. Hmm. Sounds familiar.

Michigan, quarterbacked by Jim Harbaugh, won 20-12, and Schembechler led that year's squad to a 10-1-1 record, including a win over Ohio State.

Maybe Carr's thinking this year's Notre Dame game can have a similar effect on his team.

Back to the history. Michigan leads the all-time series 19-14-1, but since the rivalry resumed in 1978, Notre Dame leads 12-10-1.

Throughout the years and the squabbles, Notre Dame continued and the Wolverines were always the one at a distance. Schembechler even said he won't put the Golden Domers on the schedule "if they got down on their hands and knees and begged ... to hell with Notre Dame."

The controversy is still strong. The latest episode developed this summer. Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White said the Fighting Irish would play Oklahoma in place of Michigan when the Fighting Irish's contract with the Wolverines expired after 2011.

The two teams quieted the media storm. The historical rivalry is supposed to go through 2031, but who really knows what will happen.

So maybe Carr wasn't just joking when he told the media to read the book. It just might take 298 pages to explain the rivalry.

Former Michigan Player, on Saturday's Game

Today on XM Sports Nation, College Football Coast to Coast. When asked what he thought about the pressure on both Notre Dame and Michigan and the possibility of going 0-3 the former Michigan Wolverine, Matt Elliott says; "If there are not 120 puke bags full by kickoff of Saturday's game, there is something wrong".

Notre Dame Week

Every year the week leading up to the Notre Dame game is nerve racking, invigorating and filled with jawing and trash talk on forums and radio talk shows from coast to coast. For years this rivalry game has had national implications ummm, not this year. The two winning est teams in college football history have become the laughing stock of college football and the butt of jokes and scorn of sports writers and college football fans nationwide. Both (0-2) in embarrassing fashion.

The only reason Notre Dame's laughable start hasn't gotten much media attention is because Michigan has had a hysterically laughable (or sobbing for some) bad start that makes Notre Dame's troubles look almost like heaven in comparison.

The "genius" Weis and his Irish have not scored an offensive TD and have settled on putting the freshman qb Jimmy Clausen in the drivers seat. Lloyd and the neutered Wolverines were forced to put in their freshman qb Ryan Mallett, not because Michigan was so far ahead of Oregon in the 3rd quarter, but because Oregon actually tackles and tackles hard and Chad Henne was on the end of one too many of those.

So here we all are, Notre Dame faithful and the Michigan faithful, and faith seems to be in low reserve. The usually proud and almost arrogant (according to many fans of opposing schools)fans of both programs are now quietly sulking around offices and malls around the nation.

It is hard to even speculate what will happen in this game. These games are always hard to call and usually I would give the nod to Michigan since it is a home game but, Michigan has been run out of their house two weeks in a row.

Now Mike Hart has gone Rasheed Wallace on us, so not only do the fans have their tailgate menu to worry about, now they have to worry if Michigan and Hart in particular, will have to eat a menu of Crow served up by Clausen and Weis.

I have no doubt that Weis is going to use the spread against Michigan. Sure Clausen is not a running qb but, I do believe Weis has many offensive plays hidden away just for these occasions. I do not see him going ultra conservative, because at this point what is there really to lose? Neither team can afford to be 0-3.

Both coaches have a great deal to prove here. They have both taken some really heavy gut punches and which of the two are going come out in this round still swinging? I don't have faith that Lloyd will open up the offense with a freshman qb. What would ever make me think that? Definitely not anything in the past.

I may not be as excited as usual for this match up as in past years, but no matter what, I always want to beat the Irish. And you know every eyeball in the nation will be focused on this game to see who will flop down on the ball last and win this game.

Domer News

Jimmy Clausen cited
Irish QB, gets misdemeanor for transporting alcohol

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Freshman Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen has entered a pretrial diversion program after receiving a misdemeanor citation for transporting alcohol as a minor,

*The thought of getting a Brady Quinn style smack down from the Michigan D is really taking its toll on the #1 recruit.