The Mysterious Case of the Not-Shutout Streak

(Author's note: Like our friends at MVictors, we love a good Michigan mystery, or Mich-stery, as it were.  This is not so much a mystery but trying to account for an extra 12 games.)

October 20, 1984.  Michigan loses to Iowa at Kinnick 26-0.  This is the last known date that a Michigan football team failed to score in a Division I-A or I-FBS football contest.  Since that date and including this season's two games, Michigan has played 352 games and scored points in all of them.  This puts them within striking distance of BYU's record of 361 consecutive games with points.

There's just one problem.  The NCAA record book already thinks Michigan has the record, except where it doesn't.

This is a link to the NCAA FBS record book for 2013.  Buried deep within the book, on Page 117, you will see a header that says "Longest Streak of Games Without Being Shut Out" and you will see it says 362-Michigan.  This is 12 more games than the Bentley archive credits Michigan with during the streak.  Oddly, it makes no sense, as Michigan's streak before the 1984 Iowa game extends back to 1977 and the "We're #1, no wait" Minnesota debacle.

But wait, go back to page 18 of the record book.
MOST CONSECUTIVE GAMES WITHOUT BEING SHUT OUT
361—BYU, Oct. 3, 1975, through Nov. 15, 2003 (ended with 3-0 loss to Utah, Nov. 22, 2003)

So, the records conflict, but the front of the book is accurate.

Trust me, I want Michigan to get this record, it's one of the few things that ties every era of Michigan football in my lifetime together.  But I want it to be legitimate and the fact that game 361 to tie it would be Iowa and 362 to beat it would be Ohio State would make it all the better.  But the current number is actually, really 352.

Light in the Dark

(Author's note: Apologies for a lack of game column last week.  I was on a special assignment which I hope I can talk about soon, oh and I am trying to sell my condo.
But UTL requires a column.)

Devin Gardner: New 98. (Photo by Eric Upchurch from the MGoBlog photo stream.)

In the end, the lights were on, and someone was home.  For a sixteenth straight occasion, Michigan's football players walked off their home field in triumph, having first made their way to the student section to share the moment with their peers.  There were gimmicks to be sure, Michigan Stadium's first thank you tifo, lasers, flyovers, celebrity cameos, the most underutilized giant disco ball in the history of mankind, but they were ephemeral to what was a Michigan football experience at its core, dread, hope, more dread, still more dread, and finally relief.

Zach Helfand wrote a tremendous game column on how Gardner's teammates rallied Gardner and the team back after the darkest moment of the night, the moment where things could have gone all Achebe* and would earn Michigan a place in the pantheon of NBC Sports Network replays of Notre Dame classics and would have strangled the hopes of the nascent 2013 season in the crib.  Recent history, which is to say those days under the leadership of Brady Hoke, would tell us that we need not worry about the disasters of the past, that a steady hand at the tiller on the Michigan sidelines will find a way to guide the result into a soft landing and a Michigan win in the Big House.  But the past lives in a Michigan fan's heart, that dread encoded into our DNA both as birthright and as mutation wrought by the losses of the past where fourth quarter leads set like the early autumn sun over the press box, leaving just blood-stained skies and deeply held anguish.

*-To go Achebe-When things fall apart.  From the 1958 novel of the same name by the recently passed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.

But while the past is instructive, it is not destiny.  Just as they had done in 2007 in destructive fashion, 2009 in comeback fashion, 2011 in destructive comeback fashion, Michigan once again found a way to remind Notre Dame that while they may be parting ways for a while after next season, you can't ignore the history built up between the two teams.  No one has won a greater percentage of their games than these two teams.  (Notre Dame has fallen to third in FBS all-time wins behind Texas, but with the Irish playing Purdue this week and the Longhorns hiring Greg Robinson to fix their defense, I suspect the Irish may be back at #2 sooner rather than later.)  They have played a lot throughout my lifetime, with the renewal of the rivalry coming just a month after I was born.  But it is not to be.  There will be other big games, there will be other big moments, but it won't be Michigan/Notre Dame, which is a shame, because it should be.  Even if it was four years off, two years on in a rotation with Michigan State and Purdue, it would be something, it might even be more of something.  But pride, money, and hurt feelings are in the way for now, so we will wait.

In the meantime, Michigan takes the New 98 and Snoop show out for a couple of more games against competition not to be overlooked, but that should be handled if Michigan plays to its potential.  The chances for more great moments, for more highlights, for more legacies will be there.  The lights are on, we're definitely home.

Photo by Geoff Zmyslowski and a pretty accurate assessment of where we were sitting Saturday night.

MGoMix 2013

We're back!  After a no news is good news summer, we're back with our breakdown of our new playlist for the 2013 season.  We tried to mix it up a bit while following our rules, no more than 80 minutes of music, make every effort not to repeat non-Michigan songs from previous years, and try to capture the upbeat mood of driving to Ann Arbor and walking to Michigan Stadium.  With that in mind, here we go:

  1). "Can't Hold Us" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Ray Dalton)

.@umichband You have one month to make sure "Can't Hold Us" is a stands tune for holding penalties. Don't let an SEC band do this first.
— Jeremy Bronson (@jbrons) July 31, 2013

When Jeremy's right, he's right.

  2). "Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire
I like Arcade Fire anyway, but the upbeat nature of this pushes me toward happy, and the older feeling vibe helps set the tone for the rest of the playlist.

  3). "It's Beginning to Get to Me" by Snow Patrol
Denard's gone and it's beginning to get to me.

  4). "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra
The official "I need to be in a better mood now" song of everyone, it's also an aspiration for Michigan Stadium weather hopes for at least September and October.

  5). "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie
I don't know if we want to talk about this, but Michigan hasn't been to the Rose Bowl since 2007.  That's a while.  I don't know if there's any pressure, but maybe a little pressure can be a good thing?

  6). "No Church in the Wild" by Kanye West & JAY-Z (feat. Frank Ocean) 
"We'll make it out alive, alright alright, no church in the wild."  Plus, the backing track is just so so good.

  7). "The Payback" by James Brown
A little old school JB to remind us that there are payback games this year against Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Ohio State this season.  Payback, revenge.

  8). "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
Pro tip: You can rarely go wrong with JB and Stevie Wonder back to back.

  9). "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Hey, so it turns out that Commander Cody has a BA and an MA from Michigan, so you get a classic rockabilly track with a Michigan connection.

10). "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind & Fire
So my two year old son loves The Muppets, so to save our sanity, we added Muppets from Space to the Muppet rotation this summer.  While not a perfect movie by any means, it does have an awesome classic soul soundtrack.  Another one for the "oh man, just feels good to hear" pile.

11). "Right Place, Wrong Time" by Dr. John
Also known as the official anthem of fumble luck.

12). "Mountain Sound" by Of Monsters and Men
For the record, I love every track on My Head is an Animal so it was hard to choose, but I went with the most upbeat and peppy of selections.

13). "Feel Again" by OneRepublic
Yeah, it's Year 3 of Brady Hoke's tenure and this song sort of captures the feeling of "back to feeling something familiar."  Pasadena would help that more.

14). "Glad All Over" by The Dave Clark Five
Yes, my theme with this year's playlist is clearly happiness.  Crystal Palace's official anthem is this Britpop classic (also the Muppets used it in Muppets: Letters to Santa.  We have watched a lot of Muppets in this house in the past year.)

15). "Battle Born" by The Killers
I love this song anyway, but Tim Thompson did amazing video introductions for Stanley Cup playoff games for the CBC this spring, so when he used this track from The Killers most recent album, I was just agog.  I don't care if it's yet another Brandon Flowers' ode to his native Nevada, it's soaring, amazing, and epic.  Love it. "Cause you can't stop now."

16). "I Can't Turn You Loose" by The Blues Brothers
17). "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" by The Blues Brothers
"We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight and we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of the Big Ten officiating community who have chosen to join us here in the Michigan Amphitheater at this time. We do sincerely hope you'll all enjoy the show and please remember people, that no matter who you are and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there're still some things that make us all the same. You, me, _them_, everybody, everybody."

18). "I Can't Turn You Loose" by Michigan Marching Band
And suddenly, I am craving cake and electronic dis-co.

19). "M Fanfare" by Michigan Marching Band
20). "The Victors" by Michigan Marching Band
21). "Temptation" by Michigan Marching Band
22). "Hawaiian War Chant" by Michigan Marching Band
23). "Varsity" by Michigan Marching Band
24). "Star Spangled Banner" by Michigan Marching Band
All from A Saturday Tradition, of course, because you have to respect the classics.

We hope this season is worthy of the happiness that this playlist tries to convey.  We'll see you back very soon.

Regulate, by Gordon Gee f. Frank Dogg

Gordon Gee and Frank Dogg will regulate higher eduction in Ohio and the final resting place of your soul.

[Gee:]
Regulators
We regulate any stealing on the Olentangy
And we damn good too
But you can't be any geek off the street,
Gotta be handy with the football if you know what I mean, earn your keep!
REGULATORS!!! MOUNT UP!

[Gee:]
It was a dark gray night, a scarlet moon
Gordon Gee was on the streets, trying to consume
Diet Dr. Pepper for the eve, so I can get some funk
Just rollin' in my ride, chillin' with Urban

[Frank:]
Just hit the Eastside of the B-1-G
On a mission trying to find Mr. Gordon Gee.
Seen a car full of girls, promised not to score
All you nuns know what's up in the 614

[Gee:]
So I hooks a left on the 5th and Summit
Some brothas fillin' paperwork so I said "Let's do it"
I jumped out the ride, and said "What's up?"
Emmert made some allegations so I said "I'm stuck."

[Frank:]
Since these girls peepin' me I'ma wash their feet
Social justice for the poor would keep them off the street
Turn their lives around like nabbing a pick-six
Then I see my homies and some suckers all in their mix

[Gee:]
I'm gettin jacked, I'm breakin' myself
I can't believe they taking Gordon's wealth
They vacated my rings, they vacated my Rolex
I looked at Urban and said damn, what's next?

[Frank:]
They got my homies hemmed up and they all around
Ain't none of them seeing if they going straight pound for pound
I gotta come up real quick before they start to clown
I best pull off my hat and lay them busters down

[Gee:]
NCAA's got guns to my head
I think I'm going down
I can't believe this happenin' in my own town
SEC speed would let me fly
But twelve and oh won't let me pull rank
Then I glanced in the cut and I see my homey Frank

[Frank:]
Sixteen rosaries in the clip to help my clientele
Frank Dogg is about to send some demons back to hell
Now they droppin' and writhin'
It's a tad bit late
Frank Dogg and Gordon Gee had to regulate

I laid all them devils down
I let God's love explode
Now I'm switching my mind back into virtue mode
If you want to help the poor sit back and observe
I just left a gang of those over there on the curb

[Gee:]
Now Frank can't be trusted and that's a known fact
All of them Papists are on the wrong track
But that's OK, back up cause it's on
F R A N K and me
The Gordon to the Gee

[Frank:]
Just like I thought they were in the same spot in need of some desperate help
The Frank Dogg and the Gee-child were in need of something else
One of them dames was desparate to flow, she said "O-H" and Urban said "I-O."
She said "my car's broke down and you seem real nice, would ya help me get to go?"
Popemobile's full of girls and it's going real swell, the next stop is Gee's house on North Drexel

[Gee:]
I'm tweaking B-1-G into a whole new era
Gee-Funk, step to this, I dare ya
Funk on a presidential level

[Frank:]
64K for bow ties cause the ties are worth the trouble

[Gee:]
Ties
Suspenders
We brings
Spectacles
Gee-Funk
Where argyle is socks
And socks are argyle

[Frank:]
If you know like I know
You don't wanna step to this
It's the Gee-Funk era
Funked out with a papal twist
If you burn incense like I burn
Then you high like everyday
We're the Knights of Columbus
614 will regulate

Thanks to Craig, Michael Davies, and others for suggesting particular couplets.

Improper use of the new Michigan logo

The U-M Global Communications Office has just released a new logo, complete with a new custom font called "The Victors," and a new set of logo guidelines. Due to space limitations, they were not able to list all the ways to misuse the logo. We list a few more in this post.

1. To protect the logo from abuse, DO NOT let the logo anywhere near the Rutgers Athletic Department.

2. DO NOT use the logo as part of a fundraising drive to purchase a video of a prominent Canadian politician smoking crack.

3. DO NOT incorporate the logo into animated GIFs involving animals owned by members of the football team.

Above all, DO NOT create presentation templates for students and faculty to use when presenting their scholarly work. The Brand cannot be tainted by association with the academic mission of the university.

Heart's terrain is never prairie

Every so often, things can come full circle.

My daughter turned four months old Monday. The day she was born, I sat down behind her and took a picture of her with the hospital TV in the background so it looked like she was watching the Michigan-Arkansas game. Forty-eight hours later, I had forgotten about any notion I had that I knew anything about raising a child because that's what you do when your child's three days old. Every day is an adventure we just try and make it through. No matter how much she cries on any given day, when she smiles and giggles it's all worthwhile. It's love.

April 8 was a crazy day like every other one I've had in 2013. Doctor's appointment in the morning, half-day at work trying to finish a report, boiling in my office because it's that time of the year after the temperature shoots up but before the building switches on the AC, coming home to take an insanely important phone call, going out to get subs for dinner because that's crazy, helping give my daughter a bath and then, finally, settling down to watch a basketball game with the sound turned low so we don't wake up the baby.

What's the point of telling you all that? At halftime, John Beilein talked to Tracy Wolfson about story lines - how Spike Albrecht found the Invincibility Star hidden in the Georgia Dome, how Luke Hancock found it again a few minutes later, how the "unwanted" guys were putting on a show. Michigan basketball had no shortage of story lines. Some we couldn't get enough of: the shocking rise of Mitch McGary. The fall and redemption of Jordan Morgan. Crafty Coach Beilein, out-scheming Billy Donovan's logistics and Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone. Some we wanted to go away: Trey Burke maybe going pro. Tim Hardaway Jr. maybe going pro. Whoever has a great game maybe going pro. Some we hoped people would stop talking about: Chris Webber and the Fab Five. The late season troubles. Anything involving Bo Ryan.

That's a ton of story lines for one team. There's just one problem. They don't add up to a story. Stories aren't supposed to end that way. Once Spike Albrecht goes crazy and puts Louisville down 12, it's all supposed to be dénouement. Michigan coasts to the win, Kate Upton comes rushing down from the stands to kiss him, John Beilein smiles to himself and says something wise. Fade to the credits (which conclude with "and introducing Mitch McGary as 'Wes Unseld.'")

Stories are supposed to have bad guys. Dirty players like Elijah Johnson or the Icelandic hockey team that get their karmic comeuppance. Trash talkers like Brandon Triche hoisted on their own petard. It was supposed to be like a video game. Level 1: Nate Wolters. Level 2: HAVOC. Level 3: Withey. Level 4: Kenpom. Level 5: The 2-3 Zone. Level 6: Louisville, the final boss and big bad waiting at the very end.

But sports are life, and life doesn't have a classic story structure. The Cardinals turned out to be the worst villain ever. We have a Spike Albrecht? Well, they have a Luke Hancock. It's been 24 years since our last championship? It's been 27 since theirs. We're the good guys who play the right way and treat our opponents with respect? They're the guys who say stuff like this after the game:

@nstauskas11 love you bro .. Ur time is coming n it's coming real soon !! #StayPositive
— Russ Smith(@Im_TheMyth) April 9, 2013

Roy Hobbs hits a walk-off home run or he strikes out. He doesn't - he can't - give the New York Knights a lead that Al Fowler blows in the bottom of the ninth because the Pirates have a Roy Hobbs of their own. It doesn't make narrative sense. There aren't supposed to be other protagonists out there fighting against us not because they're evil, but because they don't know they're part of the same story. But that's life. We're all protagonists. That's sports. Every team is someone's favorite team.

Even in an event as tightly structures as March Madness, you can't cram everything story line into a coherent, comprehensive, narrative with a well-defined dramatic structure. You either have to just be straightforward: our team played their hearts out and came up a little short. We're proud, but we can't help but be disappointed. Or you have to let it all go in a stream of consciousness about the block and the trey and the charge and the blarge and the goaltending and spike going nba jam and the big puppy making no-look passes and tim hardaway staring at elijah johnson's nut shot and josh bartlestein going crazy on the bench and chane behanan getting all those damn offensive rebounds and nik stauskas going ham against florida and jon horford's tea with honey and the death of otto the orange and just let it loop forever in a gif at 30 frames per second and i know it's over and oh it never really began but in my heart is was so real.

Loving sports is like loving the rest of life: it rarely builds up to a climax and rarely gives you a clean, cathartic, ending. You could say fiction exists because this is inherently unsatisfying. Happiness is a moment before you need more happiness. One big win just leaves you wanting another big win. Every life, every day, everything worth living for, everyone worth living for is better sometimes and worse sometimes and you can't ever really hope to fully understand why. You can just hope or pray or work your butt off or do whatever you possibly can so that the good memories outnumber the bad ones. Loving a person, a child, or a team is living the up and downs, not living until you end on a high note.

That's what this team has given us. So many good memories. So few bad ones. The last one was no high note, but it almost never is in basketball. But there's reason to believe more good memories are on their way and they'll become etched into our lives. We'll remember the sadness at the end because we'll remember all the crazy and amazing and wonderful things we saw along the way.

Last night, I read Hippos Go Berserk to my daughter. Why did the hippos go berserk? Because the beast brought subs to their party. Sixteen years from now I hope to still be making references to crazy subs and embarrassing the hell out of her, because that's what dads are supposed to do.

Precipice

From that magical fifteen minutes when we shared Spike with an incredulous nation.
Andy Lyons / Getty Images

If you have noticed, or maybe you have't, I haven't written anything about the Michigan basketball team this season.  This should not indicate a lack of interest in the sport, or some grudge against the team, because it is neither of those things.  The lack of comment comes from a knowledge that I personally lack a depth of understanding about basketball to write about it with what I feel is a competence with which I feel comfortable sharing with the world. A man's got to know his limitations, after all.

Basketball will always rank fourth with me of the four major North American sports, and really, its probably fifth behind soccer.  That's not saying I don't enjoy the tournament, because I do, it's just the nature of my particular model of sports fandom.  One of my friends has suggested that my issue with basketball is that I place a personal premium on scoring, wherein the more difficult to score, the more I enjoy the game.  I can see this.  Basketball, even when played well defensively, has something in the nature of 20 to 30 made field goals for each team.

But I do know what I like in basketball.  I like outside shooters.  I like smart.  I like hustle.  I like adaptable. But mostly I like humility and teamwork.  The small size of basketball teams makes it more likely that the players on the team will feel more like a family, a brotherhood, than other sports.  So when players talk about how much they care about each other, you can believe it, because it's a small band of brothers and you get to know them.  Michigan's game has so many of the things I like that it leads to Nick Hornby's Arsenal conundrum*, only a positive one.

(*--As stated in Fever Pitch: "See after awhile it all gets mixed up together in your head, and you can't remember whether life's sh*t because Arsenal are sh*t or the other way around.")

And so I came to know this team on a first name basis, because it was always about Trey, or Tim, or Mitch, or Glenn, or Nik, or Spike, or Jordan, or Jon, or Caris, or Matt, or Josh.  It because about Nik and "CTRL-V" when he hit a three.  It became about the Trey Burke layup where he goes up, puts everything on the line, hits the deck, and goes to the line for the and one.  It became about GRIII hovering in the air like a glitch in The Matrix.  It became about The Big Puppy playing with an Novakian enthusiasm for life and the game.    It became about missed free throws and what felt like missed opportunities.  But it also became about hope.  It was a basketball version of Team 133, restoring something that had been gone, but we knew could be again.  It became about a coach who would never make it about himself, who carried himself with dignity, grace, and class, who noted just how amazing the first half had been as he's being interviewed on his way to the locker room.

In the end, we can probably go back and pinpoint the small moments that made the difference.  We were trying to do it on Twitter last night and we were more wrong than we were right, because there's no penalty for being wrong about something like that on Twitter.  We can argue about strategies, coaching decisions, rotations, and the like, preferably with our facts straight, but it won't matter.  It doesn't change the outcome, it doesn't really numb the pain.  The heart aches a little, because the moment was there and it slipped away and if the last quarter century has taught us anything, it's that you never know when those moments will come again.  But for now, know that Michigan has been in six national championship games, a loss to a Wooden UCLA team in 1965, a loss to Bobby Knight's undefeated Indiana team in 1976, a classic victory over Seton Hall in 1989, a loss to Coach K's back to back Blue Devils in 1992, a loss to Dean Smith Tar Heels in 1993, and now a loss to Rick Pitino's Louisville team in 2013.  A combined 21 titles for opposing coaches, 4,066 victories among them, all in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  Hopefully the next one will be better.  Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

My thanks to you 2012-13 Michigan basketball team.  You were fun, talented, and classy.  That may not be all that you can ask for, but that's a pretty darn good start.

Hockey Previews 2013: Midwest

Huntington Center - Toledo, Ohio

St. Cloud State tied with Minnesota for the WCHA regular-season title, so seeing them as the 13th overall seed is kind of strange. But the Huskies were swept at New Hampshire and split with RPI, so that'll tank your Pairwise ranking. St. Cloud was reasonably consistent in the regular season before falling to a Wisconsin team on a mission in the WCHA tournament semifinals. Drew LeBlanc (13-37--50) and Nic Dowd (14-25--39) are both scoring at better than 1 ppg, while Jonny Brodzinski (21-11--32) is the goals leader. Ryan Faragher (2.29 GAA/0.914 SV%) is your netminder here.

Minnesota State is the contrasting case to St. Cloud: They went 1-0-1 versus RPI, beat Brown and UConn at the UConn Hockey Classic, and swept Providence to get a big Pairwise bump. Otherwise, they're in the logjam for 4th in the WCHA, tied with DU and Wisconsin. The dangermen for the Mavericks are Matt Letner (17-30--47) and Eriah Hayes (20-16--36), with Stephon Williams (1.96 GAA/0.925 SV%) handling most of the goaltending duties.

Miami won the CCHA's final regular season championship, but fell hard to Michigan in the tournament semifinal, 6-2. This edition of the RedHawks isn't quite as high-powered as years past, but Riley Barber (15-23--38) and Austin Czarnik (14-24--38) provide plenty of spark. Ryan McKay (1.37 GAA/0.948 SV%) and Jay Williams (1.94 GAA/0.924 SV%) have split time down the middle. McKay got the starts in the conference tournament, but was yanked after giving up 4 to Michigan, the first time he gave up more than 2 all season.

Notre Dame finished just 3 points behind Miami in the CCHA, and won the final Mason Cup in a textbook suffocation of a Michigan team that had caught fire at the end of the year. The Irish played an aggressive nonconference schedule, splitting with North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth earlier in the year. Anders Lee is still around (how is he only a junior?!), and leads the team with a 20-18--38 line. Junior Steven Summerhays had a couple of bumps in the road in February, but has kept everyone else to 3 or fewer goals, carrying a 1.94 GAA/0.922 SV% line.

Hockey Previews 2013: East

Dunkin' Donuts Center - Providence, R.I.

Canisius finished 12-13-2 in Atlantic Hockey, and have earned the program's first *ever* tournament berth via a Cinderella run through the conference tournament. The Griffins are on an 8-game winning streak, trouncing Mercyhurst 7-2 in the tournament final. Junior Kyle Gibbons (20-22--42) leads the Griffins in all major offensive categories, and no one is within .25 ppg of him, and Tony Capobianco (2.35 GAA/0.930 SV%) has been the guy in net all season.

Union is your ECAC tournament champion, defeating brown 3-1 in the final after lighting up Yale 5-0 in the semis. The Dutchmen had an aimless December through February, but got it together for the tournament. Senior Wayne Simpson (16-17-33) is your G/P leader, though junior Daniel Carr is close behind at 16-10--26, and three different defensemen have 18 assists. Colin Stevens (1.62 GAA/0.931 SV%) has seen significant game action, but Troy Grosenick (2.06 GAA/0.928 SV%) has been in net for the big moments.

Boston College finished second to UMass-Lowell by a single point in the regular season and dropped the semifinal of the conference tournament to hated crosstown rival BU, but it's useless to talk about things like this when it comes to the Eagles. What really matters: BC has won 2 of the last 3 / 3 of the last 5 national championships. Parker Milner is lugging around a pedestrian 2.59 GAA/0.912 SV%, but he won a national title last year. Johnny Gaudreau (20-30--50), Steven Whitney (26-19--45), and Pat Mullane (16-27--43) are your biggest dangermen.

Quinnipiac finds itself in the unusual position of leading the nation in the Pairwise. They went 1-0-1 against Ohio State, swept Nebraska-Omaha, and eked out a win at Maine while dominating their ECAC schedule. It's a pretty good way to get the #1 overall seed. KRACH has them at #2 overall, so it isn't all smoke and mirrors, but they still have something to prove in the tournament. The Bobcats will try to do that behind senior Eric Hartzell (1.52 GAA/0.934 SV%) in net. Quinnipiac doesn't score a lot of goals -- senior Jermey Langlois 0.79 ppg (12-18--30) is scoring at the fastest clip, but they really don't let in many either. Should be interesting to see this play out.

Hockey Previews 2013: West

Yale comes into the tournament scuffling. They had a 5-game losing streak in February, then lost to Union and Quinnipiac in the conference tournament. Their best result all year is probably a 3-3 tie with BC. But KRACH still has them as the #13 team in the country so...? The Elis are top-heavy in their scoring, with Kenny Agostino, Andrew Miller, and Antoine Laganiere the only guys with 10+ goals, and only three more guys (including defenseman Tommy Fallen) with 10+ assists. Senior goalie Jeff Malcolm has been putting up a 2.42 GAA / 0.914 SV%, so nothing extraordinary there. Yale doesn't look like a tough out on paper, but a senior-heavy team shouldn't be overlooked.

Niagara finished 7 points ahead of runner-up Air Force in the Atlantic Hockey regular season before coming up short to underdog Canisius in the tournament, and a win against the Falcons is probably their most impressive result. Ryan Murphy (15-21--36) and Giancarlo Iuorio (21-13--34) are by far the offensive leaders, and Carsen Chubak (1.91 GAA/0.939 SV%) is the guy in net. The Purple Eagles didn't play a name-brand non-conference schedule, so this is a wildcard.

North Dakota wasn't a dominating machine at any point in its schedule, but showed flashes of brilliance, like a 6-1 demolition of Denver at Magness. The Fighting NoDaks feature a high-powered offense lead by seniors Danny Kristo (26-26--52) and Corban Knight (15-33--48). Clarke Saunders (2.26 GAA/0.916 SV%) and Zane Gothberg (2.46 GAA/0.920 SV%) have split time in net, with junior Saunders getting a few more games than the freshman.

Minnesota tied for the regular season WCHA title with St. Cloud State, along the way becoming the #1 team in the country in KRACH and #2 in the Pairwise. They came up short to Colorado College in the seminfinals of their final WCHA tournament, but have had a solid season throughout. Erik Haula (16-35--51) has a massive number of assists, while Nick Bjugstad (21-15--36) is the goals leader. Freshman Adam Wilcox (1.88 GAA/0.921 SV%) is the clear #1 netminder.

Hockey Previews 2013: Northeast

Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester, NH)

Wisconsin finished tied with Denver in the WCHA, and with a better overall record than the Pioneers, but the vagaries of the Pairwise make the Badgers a 4 seed and the Pioneers a 2. Wisconsin struggled through a very slow start and were winless through October and November, excepting a lone 2-0 victory at Minnesota. But they put together a North Dakota-like late season and are now on a 6-game winning streak that included the WCHA championship. Junior Michael Mersch is by far the leader in goals, with a 23-13--36 line, with fellow junior Tyler Barnes trailing at 15-15--30. No other Badger has more than 10. Mark Zengerle is the assists leader (9-23--32) and super-frosh Nick Kerdiles is the assists leader at 10-22--32. Sophomores Joel Rumpel and Landon Peterson have been splitting time in net, but Rumpel has been the go-to guy down the stretch with a 1.85 GAA on a .933 SV%.

Denver started strong, but had a rough patch of an 8-game winless streak in late November/early December. The Pioneers have been more up than down after that, but still lost in the first round of the WCHA playoffs to Colorado College. If anything, they'll be well-rested, having not played since March 17. Six different Pioneers have more than ten goals, and the leader in that category is senior Shawn Ostrow (15-11--26), while junior Nick Shore is the points and assists leader (14-19--33). Sophomore goalie Juho Olkinuora is the main netminder, with a 2.28 GAA and 0.929 SV%.

New Hampshire finished tied for third in Hockey East and lost a hard-fought three-game series to Providence in the Hockey East quarterfinals. Still, they're hosting in Manchester, so to Manchester they go. Kevin Goumas (10-32--42) has a pile of points, with defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk (8-25--33) not that far behind. Three different UNH players have 15 goals -- Grayson Downing, John Henrion, and Austin Block. Casey DeSmith (2.24 GAA/0.924 SV%) handles the tools of ignorance.

UMass-Lowell had the most extraordinary season in team history this year, capturing both the Hockey East regular season title and the tournament crown as well. The first couple of months of the year weren't anything special, but the River Hawks were very strong down the stretch. The only caveat on their season is that they were 1-2 against BC, and didn't have to face the Eagles in the Hockey East tournament. Five different Lowell players are at 10+ goals, and 11 have 10 or more assists, so the scoring is pretty balanced. Riley Wetmore (15-11--26) and Scott Wilson (15-19--34) are your goal leaders and Joseph Pendenza (13-23--36) is your points leader. Freshman Connor Hellebuyck (1.39 GAA/0.949 SV%) and junior Doug Carr (2.79 GAA/0.897 SV%) have seen a nearly equal amount of game action, but Hellebuyck is almost certainly the guy for the tournament.

Too late...

There are those who are, angry, frustrated, upset, that Michigan's 22 year Streak of NCAA tournament appearance has ended.  I get that.  It's a natural reaction.  There are others who would rather celebrate what was rather than examining the particulars of how and why it ended.  I get that too.  The nature of history calls for that.  There are still others who want to focus on the redemptive aspects of the run at the end of the season.  I get that, try and find the positives in what is, ultimately, a negative result.  Ultimately, our reactions to this hockey season will be a mirror to who we are as both people and fans.

So my reflection is going to be a mirror of myself, as a high school teacher.
Little known fact by many of you, but the provisions of the Michigan Merit Curriculum say that even if you fail both marking periods of a course, if you pass a district approved (and state required) Common Assessment/Final Exam at 80%, you pass the class.  You don't get a grade, but you get the credit for passing.

Some of you already see where I am going with this.

I have seen many many talented students over the years.  I have seen many lazy students over the years.  You know what, lazy is unfair.  I have seen students who lack outward signs of motivation and engagement towards their academic success.  The scariest, most maddening type of student in my experience is the talented but undermotivated student.  They do exist.  And this kind of student is a nightmare, because you know that the student can do it, you know that the ability is there, but you need to understand why this student doesn't have the motivation.  So for the first three-quarters of the semester, you watch the student and you see the student doing work that earns a D- or E.  The student fails the first marking period.  So, responsibly, you have interventions, the two of you talk, you cajole, you try different motivational techniques, and as much as you have tried, nothing appears to be getting through.  So at that point, you keep fighting, but you have read this story before and you know the way the book ends.

Then suddenly, as if out of nowhere, our student friend has what our Southern friends refer to as a "come to Jesus" moment.  Call it an epiphany, call it a near death experience, call it a flash of insight, but the student has that moment where he or she understands what the stakes are, and he or she realizes that more than likely, he or she has blown it, but by the same token, he or she does have one shot to pass, if he or she passes the final with an 80%, he or she can still earn credit.  He or she would pass.  So the student makes a good faith effort, a truly sincere effort.  The student is showing you progress, the student is listening to your advice, the student is doing now what you always knew the student could be capable of the entire semester.

So then it comes to the final exam.  You believe in the student.  The student believes in his or herself.  The student uses the entire 100 minutes.  The student answers every question.  The student double and triple checks the answers.  The student turns the test in.

You grade it.  78%.

How do you react?  What is your conversation with the student at that point?

On one level, more than anything else, you must acknowledge that they did not reach the end goal.  If you want to call this a failure, you would be within your rights to do so.  No one could disagree.  But is that the main point here?  There will be consequences for the failure, ones which will need to be dealt with.  Or do you focus on the fact that this is a learning moment, that while the effort in the last five weeks may have fallen short of the ultimate goal, no one can take away the work put in, no one can take away from the student.  You focus on the idea that going forward, the lesson is that you can never trust everything on continuing to roll sevens every time you need them to come up.  You don't waste your margin for error until you have no margin left.  You woke up too late and there is a price to be paid.  So you pay it, you pay the price and you move forward to the next thing, hopefully smarter and wiser for the journey.

So, was it a failure?  Yes.  Did the team redeem themselves down the stretch?  I guess that depends on your threshold for redemption.  I will say yes, others have the right to disagree.  But as I wrote this piece, I was reminded of something I wrote five years ago, under circumstances that were both hauntingly similar and completely unfamiliar:

It's a scar, but a well-won scar; earned in battle in part because we stayed until the last man. Our numbers were diminished, but they were there. The loyal remained, the faithful held fast against the sweeping currents of reality and negativity. We could not change what had happened, we could not spin the results as hard as we tried. We looked to where all of college football lives, the past, and the future. The present is so fickle, so transient that meaning is lost as soon as the moment passes. So we examine what has been and what we hope shall be. We look for meaning in the past in a dire attempt to draw parallels to the future. But the past cannot change and soon this season shall reside there. We will tell the stories; sometimes when prompted, other times with motivations never necessarily clear to us, of what transpired this season. We will remember this season, in a context of which we are unsure now and may not know for a while, however long a while is anymore. But somewhere along the line, the memory will seep in and you won't even realize it was there until after it was gone. All you're left with is a scar, and a story about how you got it, and perhaps in the telling of the story, you can find peace with whether or not the scar was worth it.

RIP The Streak: 1991-2012

2013 NCAA Hockey Christmas Challenge

Is your NCAA Tournament bracket busted? Has Hockey Christmas quickly turned into Hockey Passover?  Is your state not in the tournament for the first time since 1979? Well, I present the 2013 NCAA Hockey Christmas Tournament Challenge.

Instead of picking a bracket, which you can do and I am sure someone, say, Mark Coen, will be more than happen to accept your bracket, in this Tournament Challenge, you pick four schools. Any four schools in the tournament. You want to pick all one seeds? You can do that. You want to pick four schools all in the same region? You can do that? You pick four teams. For each round that a team wins, you multiply their seed by their round score. Round scores are:

Regional Semi-Final: 1 point

Regional Final: 4 points

National Semi-Final: 8 points

National Championship: 32 points

So, if you would like to play, just submit to me, via message, in the comments below, or by some other means, by Friday at noon, your four teams. No money, no prizes, just for pride. Also, please, by all means, tell your friends.

Enjoy, and a Merry Hockey Christmas to all!

NORTHEAST (Verizon Wireless Arena - Manchester, N.H.)

(NE1) UMass Lowell vs. (NE4)Wisconsin

(NE2) Denver vs. (NE3) New Hampshire

EAST (Dunkin' Donuts Center - Providence, R.I.)

(E1) Quinnipiac vs. (E4) Canisius

(E2) Boston College vs. (E3) Union

MIDWEST (Huntington Center - Toledo, Ohio)

(MW2) Miami vs. (MW3) Minnesota State

(MW1) Notre Dame vs. (MW4) St. Cloud State

WEST (Van Andel Arena - Grand Rapids, Mich.)

(W1) Minnesota vs. (W4) Yale

(W2) North Dakota vs. (W3) Niagara

The Northeast and West brackets will open play on Friday, while the other two uncap the semifinals on Saturday. Winners in each bracket will advance to the Frozen Four, which will be held April 11 and 13, for the first time at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

West and Northeast play in one National Semi-Final, East and Midwest play in the other.

Presidential College Football Draft

[Actual editor's note: This started out way funnier as an argument/discussion than as an actual post, but I put too much time in this to just let it go to waste.  So be warned, it has its moments, but not enough of them.]

Welcome to the Presidential College Football Draft.  The rules are very simple: each president will select one college football program with which to be associated.  All FBS football programs and the Ivy League schools are eligible.  No school may be repeated and we will go in Presidential order for our draft order.  With all of that said, the presidents are assembled, so let's get started.

With the first pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, George Washington selects
the Washington Huskies:

"They say the name on the front of the jersey is more important the name on the back, and while that's true, when the name on the front of the jersey is BECAUSE of the name on the back of the jersey, all bets are off."

With the second pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, John Adams selects
the Harvard Crimson:

"Sorry Johnny, but age has its privileges.   Fair Harvard holds sway."

With the third pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Thomas Jefferson selects
the Virginia Cavaliers:

"What's that?  Mr. Jefferson's University?  Why I am a Mr. Jefferson.  Thank you very much.  Wahoo!"

With the fourth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, James Madison selects
the Princeton Tigers:

"And the Tigers come at night, with their voices soft as thunder.  And they tear your hope apart.  And they tear your dreams to shreds."  Yes, I am singing a song from a musical written centuries after my death about events that happened years after my death.  Princeton also didn't have a football team in my lifetime.  Deal with it.

With the fifth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, James Monroe selects
the Virginia Tech Hokies:

"You know, I was on the Board of Visitors for UVa.  I'm just saying.  I mean, I guess I could have picked Marshall, but no, forgot you John Marshall.  Fine…I'm a Hokie.  Era of Good Feelings, indeed."

With the sixth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, John Quincy Adams selects
the Massachusetts Minutemen:

"Whatever, dad.  Whatever."

With the seventh pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Andrew Jackson selects
the Tennessee Volunteers:

"So, wait, you're telling me that I can have my home state's school, nicknamed for my men who fought alongside me at New Orleans, and we can play a team called the Seminoles?  In."

With the eighth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Martin Van Buren selects
the Syracuse Orange:

"New York is still one America's population centers, no?  We still have fine college and universities  in this state that enjoy the game of football?  But this, THIS, is New York's team.  Fine.  What the hell is that that large orange mass?  Never mind, some things are better left not being known."

With the ninth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, William Henry Harrison selects
the Purdue Boilermakers:

[editor's note: After noting he selected the Boilermakers for their proximity to Tippecanoe, one of the sites of his greatest triumphs, Mr. Harrison's remarks went on for approximately four hours, a solid 90 minutes of which was extolling the virtues of a school courageous enough to make an inanimate form of transportation as its mascot.  He then walked off the stage, collapsed, and was never heard from again.  So Purdue was a perfect fit.]

With the tenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, John Tyler selects
the Texas Longhorns:

"Well, since none of you seem to want to annex the Longhorns, I will select them.  That's a little annexation humor.  Very little.  I should go now.  Someone named Mack Brown is offering me as a safety."

With the eleventh pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, James K. Polk selects
the Boise State Broncos:

"I know many of you are expecting that given my fervor over the Oregon Country, I would naturally select the brave Knights of Eugene.  But, I am scared to death of Ducks.  Therefore, I, instead, cast my lot with another team from the great Northwest, one also frequently referred to as a "dark horse", one with a horse as its mascot.  Boise State it is."

With the twelfth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Zachary Taylor selects
the Stanford Cardinal:

"I have been told that I have many fine choices available to me.  I have the Louisiana State Tigers from my adopted home state of Louisiana, coached by a man also considered by many to be a little off-kilter.  I could select the "War Hawks" of Louisiana-Monroe.  But no, in honor of my victory at the Battle of Palo Alto, I will select another Palo Alto victor, the Stanford Cardinal.  Now where's my bowl of cherries?"

With the thirteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Millard Fillmore selects
the Buffalo Bulls:

"Hey, did you guys know that I founded the University of Buffalo.  Wait, University AT Buffalo, AT Buffalo.  I always screwed that up.  I can't believe they still haven't fixed that.  Guys?  Guys?  Wait, come back!!!"

With the fourteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Franklin Pierce selects
the Dartmouth Big Green:

"As the Young Hickory of the Granite Hills, I must represent the fine people of my home state.  Plus, given my love of a good drink after dinner, I give high marks to the school's unofficial mascot."

With the fifteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, James Buchanan selects
the Penn State Nittany Lions:

"We Are!  Why are you booing me?  Come on, We Are!  That's it, I'm outta here!"

With the sixteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Abraham Lincoln selects
the Illinois Fighting Illini:

"While I was flattered by the good people of Nebraska's point that their stadium resides in a town called "Lincoln", I must stick by the good people of my home state.  And seriously, it's not like any of you would pick Kentucky or Indiana football if you had legitimate other options.  Now, I've been told that my school plays for a 'Land of Lincoln' Trophy.  Can I see it?  Oh, it's in Evanston.  Maybe I should have given this more thought."

With the seventeenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Andrew Johnson selects
the North Carolina State Wolfpack:

"Got to stick with my Raleigh dogs!  [resigned expression] Look, it was this or Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt made it clear they didn't want me."

With the eighteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Ulysses S. Grant selects
the United States Military Academy Black Knights:

"Feels good!  Feels good!  Beat Navy!"

With the nineteenth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Rutherford B. Hayes selects
the Ohio Bobcats:

"I wanted to select a school that has represented the great state of Ohio with pride for many years.  Thus my selection of the University of Ohio, a school nearly as old as the state itself, a source of joy for my people for many years.  Why are all of you chuckling so loudly?  Did I screw this up?  Harding, what did you do?"

With the twentieth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, James A. Garfield selects
the Kent State University Golden Flashes:

[editor's note: the joke is there, make it yourself.]

With the twenty-first pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Chester A. Arthur selects
the Rutgers Scarlet Knights:

Vermont's lacking in FBS teams.  Canadian teams don't count.  New York City doesn't have a team. A good team. So we'll go with Rutgers, because, yes, New York City market.  Yeah.

With the twenty-second pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Grover Cleveland selects
the Cornell Big Red:

"It was the last option we had in upstate New York."

With the twenty-third pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Benjamin Harrison selects
the Miami University RedHawks:

"What? I went here.  Cradle of Presidents too."

With the twenty-fourth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Grover Cleveland selects
the Cornell Big Red:

"I'm getting a feeling of déjà vu.  It'll pass."

With the twenty-fifth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, William McKinley selects
the Akron Zips:

"Hanna told me to pick them.  Sort of a front porch team for me.  Plus, Terry Bowden and I went to school together."

With the twenty-sixth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Theodore Roosevelt selects
the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen:

"Great White Fleet, Naval History of the War of 1812.  Yep, the Middies are my team.  Plus, seriously, I love the triple option."

With the twenty-seventh pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, William Howard Taft selects the Yale Bulldogs:

[Editor's note: Taft proceeded to sing "Boola Boola" for approximately 20 minutes.  He also claimed the only words in the song were "Boola Boola."]

With the twenty-eighth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Woodrow Wilson selects the South Carolina Gamecocks:

"The League of Nations will likely need to take a long look at whether weaponizing Jadeveon Clowney constitutes a grave risk to world peace.  But for now, he's with me, and I'm off with HBC to play 18."

With the twenty-ninth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Warren G. Harding selects the Ohio State Buckeyes:

"The Buckeyes of Ohio State represent everything my administration was, free of corruption, cronyism, and generally considered to be a pillar of strength in his history of this great land."

With the thirtieth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Calvin Coolidge selects the California Golden Bears:

"What?  My name's right there on the helmet.  See."

With the thirty-first pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Herbert Hoover selects the Iowa Hawkeyes:

"Three reasons: 1). I grew up minutes from Iowa City in West Branch.  2). America needs farmers.  3). Amazingly, I'm still more popular than Ferentz."

With the thirty-second pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Franklin D. Roosevelt selects the Georgia Bulldogs:

"During my time in Warm Springs, I got to know many of the good people of Georgia and they do so love their Dawgs.  I select them with the knowledge that Mark Richt has lost control of well, everything."

With the thirty-third pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Harry S Truman selects the Missouri Tigers:

"The mascot is named for me.  How was this not going to happen?"

With the thirty-fourth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Dwight D. Eisenhower selects the Columbia Lions:

"Since I can't select my beloved Black Knights of the Hudson thanks to ol' Sam Grant, this will have to do.  They were good.  Well, they were not terrible, when I was their President."

With the thirty-fifth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, John F. Kennedy selects the Rice Owls:

"Why does Rice play Texas?  Seriously, let's call John Tyler and schedule a game." 

With the thirty-sixth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Lyndon B. Johnson selects the Texas State Bobcats:

"Back home again in the Hill Country."

With the thirty-seventh pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Richard Nixon selects the Southern California Trojans:

[Editor's note: The entire room bursts into a knowing laughter and Nixon proceeds to do a furrowed brow, shrugged shoulders look.  He mutters something about "You won't have the Trojans to kick around anymore."  Somewhere, Lane Kiffin smiles.]

With the thirty-eighth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Gerald Ford selects the Michigan Wolverines:

"Why does this jersey say Morgan on the back?"

With the thirty-ninth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Jimmy Carter selects the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets:

"Of all of the schools I attended, this was the most difficult academically.  And that was before I had to figure out Paul Johnson's triple option attack."

With the fortieth pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Ronald Reagan selects the Notre Dame Fighting Irish:

"Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper."

With the forty-first pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, George H.W. Bush selects the Texas A&M Aggies:

"You know, even with this, they still won't let me keep the dog out of my library."

With the forty-second pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Bill Clinton selects the Arkansas Razorbacks:

"Woo. Pig. Sooie!"

With the forty-third pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, George W. Bush selects the Southern Methodist University Mustangs:

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in back in the 1980s at SMU was called 'walking.'"

With the forty-fourth and final pick in the Presidential College Football Draft, Barack Obama selects the Hawaii Warriors:

"It was this or Kansas.  I'll take Norm Chow 100 times over Charlie Weis."

This concludes our draft.  Thank you for attending.

An incomplete inventory of Brady Hoke's Office Bookshelf

Based on this video
An incomplete, but hopefully accurate list Things on Brady Hoke's Bookshelf: 

• A replica of a Navy SEAL Trident
• A copy of The Big House: Fielding Yost and the Building of Michigan Stadium by Robert M. Soderstrom
• A copy of the Michigan Football Vault
• A copy of Jim Brandstatter's Tales from Michigan Stadium
• A photo of Charles Woodson's LEAPING Interception vs. MSU 1997 
• A photo of a real wolverine in the wild
• A photo of the Rose Bowl marquee
• A copy of Michael Rosenberg's War As They Knew It
• A photo of the offensive line in the trenches vs. MSU (year unknown)
• An Under the Lights stadium poster
• A photo of Charles Woodson with Heisman Trophy
• A photo of Desmond Howard in Heisman pose
• A photo of Jake Long
• A replica helmet from 1950
• A replica Ron Kramer helmet from 1956
• A replica Don Moorhead helmet from 1969
• A replica 1997 helmet 
• An original redwood seat from Michigan Stadium 
• A photo of his daughter 
• A poster of the 1/2/98 Detroit Free Press front page 
• A Personalized Michigan license plate that says THETEAM
• A photo of Charles Woodson's INT vs WSU in Rose Bowl
• A photo of Jerame Tuman
• A 100th Game Game Ball from OSU 2003
• A paper cutout of the Michigan helmet wings, side view
• An additional game ball
• 1997 National Champions hat (navy blue)
• A copy of the Sports Illustrated 1997 National Champions commemorative issue.
• A copy of the Alabama Game Week plan.

In addition, photos on the wall adjacent to the bookshelf, Team 133 congratulating Brendan Gibbons after his Sugar Bowl winning kick, a sea of helmets picture, and some others.

I will say, Brady Hoke's office is like the dream version of what I would want my office to be.