About that halftime "speech"

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.

Michigan posts first win over OSU since Feb. '04

After 4 meetings on the football field and 3 1/2 basketball seasons, the Wolverines finally got one. The last 'L' to Michigan came in the Crisler Arena on Feb. 29, 2004. The leading scorer for the Bucks? Tony Stockman.

Suffice it to say the victory was a big deal in Ann Arbor, with RichRod in attendance (taking notes) and the Maize Rage rushing, or should I say meandering, on the court after time expired.

Looks like the NIT might be the place to be for Matta's ragtag squad (despite previous predictions.) Since and including their loss to Purdue on Jan. 12, the Buckeyes are 5-6 and face what is almost certainly the toughest stretch of their schedule.

It would be impressive, to say the least, for the Buckeye ballers to reach Matta's magic 20th win, as it would mean victories over at least two of the Big Ten's best. The positive outlook being that this remaining schedule, if navigated correctly, could sneak OSU into the tournament.

Pur-doin' pretty damn well; CBS writer takes a cheap shot

It would appear that amateur hour is officially on hiatus in West Lafayette. Purdue's athletic program, recently marginalized in the Big Ten, is showing some serious signs of life, posting an 11-1 conference record (1st place) and is 20-5 overall (AP #19.)

Source/ESPN 2/14/08

Things are going so swimmingly for the PU ballers that star frosh Robbie Hummel has reached "Dead Hooker in the Trunk status."

After joining a non-exclusive club when they beat the Bucks last month, the Boilermakers have quality wins over Louisville, Wisconsin and Michigan State. A win over in-state rival Indiana on the 19th (with or without Kelvin Sampson) would nearly guarantee Purdue as the trendy pick from the Big Ten come tourney time (sorry, Wisconsin.)

OSU gets another shot at Purdue on March 4th, when I'll almost certainly recycle this post.

What's more, the football Boilermakers are quietly having a solid off-season. And by 'solid' I am referring to Joe Tiller naming his expiration date, hence giving the underachieving program something to look forward to and (hopefully) give the portly coach some motivation to win some games after September. JT also pulled in a decent recruiting class, including QB Caleb Ter Bush, the awkward, rangy type that Tiller has daftly molded into Draft-ready pocket passers in the past.

As for that basketball team from Columbus, and I don't mean the Quest, they got help from big man Kosta Koufos in their win over lowly Northwestern last night. Next up is another walk-through with Michigan (Sunday, 1:00PM) followed by a back-to-back dates with Wisky (Fe. 23,24.) Excellent.

Finally, I give you this late-hit on Tressel and OSU's recruiting tactics.

Abominable.

Doyel is a total jackass (contradicting to boot.) The angle here seems to be "I cover sports for a living but am just now realizing college recruiting isn't a tea party." Gregg, if you're going to focus on the ugly side of this year's Signing Day, waste more than a one breath on Urban Meyer or put Mack Brown under your Learn-and-Grow microscope.

If you're not compelled to tell this guy why you could do his job in 200 words or less, then check his hilariously modest bio wherein Doyel cites the two quotes by which he lives his life:

The first comes from My Name Is by Eminem: "I don't give a f---, dog. God sent me to piss the world off."

The second comes from The Rose by Bette Midler: "I say love, it is a flower. And you, its only seed."

photo/THE DISPATCH

Rich pulls a Hillary

Add RichRod to the list of people you shouldn't take to see Atonement. The Michigan Man had a sit down with ESPN's George Smith that ended on a weepy note.

The interview naturally led to questions regarding West Va.'s reaction to losing their native son to the Wolverines/a pile of money:



To Rich's credit, the whack-jobs who issued death threats to his family should be locked up in one of those all-mustard yellow WVU uniforms.

However, no UM fan can be pleased with the way their new coach is handling this situation, much less himself. In the two minute duration of this televised interview, Rodriguez displayed more emotion than Lloyd Carr on his wedding day. I feel that Rich's course of action should have been making a threat of his own, along the lines of Owen Schmitt, his former FB, tracking down these pranksters using little more than his primal instincts and one of the face masks he broke this season.

Use your imagination while watching the tail end of this clip aptly titled "Owen Schmitt beats self with helmet."