Maybe I'm still sore about OSU's poor defensive showing this afternoon but, with the prompting of this bit in The Advocate a friend forwarded, I feel like some lingering should be done on RichRod's halftime address.
Firstly, Rich all but publicly acknowledged that his appearance was a direct, albeit long delayed, retort to Tressel's introduction back in '01. A refresher:
Chilling.
Now, note that Rodriguez makes to sure avoid any such rousing remarks or predictions (the response to Tressel); he just promises that Michigan will be fielding a team and they'll play football and stuff.
“I’m not going to make any predictions just yet, other than one thing, if you come into the Big House when the Maize and Blue comes out of the tunnel, I guarantee you that they will play hard and they will play physical.”
Kudos to The Advocate for picking up on what didn't come through clearly on the broadcast:
During his remarks, several hundred Ohio State fans seated in the upper bowl of the arena began chanting “Tressel,” referring to Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel, and held up a sign that said “1,548 days,” which referred to the number of days since Michigan had defeated Ohio State in football.
Rodriguez turned to the Ohio State fans and told them, “I hope you guys up there enjoy your seats.” Wolverine fans than began counter chanting, “Beat the Buckeyes.” To that, Rodriguez said, “Amen. I hear ya!”
Hard to tell if Rich was being playful with the badgering Buckeye fans (heres the photo from The O-Zone) or was inches away from sprinting to the top of the arena and administering a West Va. style beat-down. Either way, if he wasn't going to attack his provokers, then the escaped cheetah on his wife's shirt was going to do something about it.
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