Full Album Links: Michigan Football vs UNLV 2023 (Patrick Barron) Michigan Football vs UNLV 2023 (Bryan Fuller) By now you've seen the smiley faces everywhere that JJ McCarthy has branded, the reminder to just go out there, have fun, and smile more. It was a beautiful little gesture that took a seven year old to remind us. A friend that I tailgate with brings an extra sharpie just in case anyone would like to draw their own smiley face for the game. After all, it's just sports, right? At the UNLV game, for JJ, it was about more than just sports. Rest in Peace, Ryan Keeler [Patrick Barron]Yesterday, JJ McCarthy replaced his signature smiley face with something more powerful, the number 47 to honor his childhood friend, Ryan Keeler. Ryan died of arrhythmia this past February at the age of 20. JJ and Ryan played football in high school together and Ryan would go on to commit to Rutgers and eventually transfer to UNLV for the 2023 season. Saturday was supposed to be a fun reuni
Full Album Links: Michigan Football vs Illinois 2022 (Patrick Barron) Michigan Football vs Illinois 2022 (Bryan Fuller) Last year I made the observation that every Jake Moody and Brad Robinson field goal celebration was like a pair friendly cats saying hello to one another. Every Brad Robbins/Jake Moody field goal celebration ever is like two friendly cats greeting each other. pic.twitter.com/Vjn20rg3Tf Patrick Barron (@BlueBarronPhoto) November 7, 2021 (I know the whole point of last week's MGPotG was that I don't remember a thing from that Indiana game but go with it). Even last year's Nebraska game, a game that ultimately ended in a field goal to tie the game and another one to win it, there was no spectacular celebration. Just a head bump and acknowledgment that "we have done our job. We shall now reconcile on the sideline. Please leave a summon sign when we are needed again." Alex/Brian wanted celebration shots of Jake Moody for their gamer/columns and
Full Album Links: Michigan Football vs Nebraska 2022 (Patrick Barron) Michigan Football vs Nebraska 2022 (Bryan Fuller) Alex mentioned this in his gamer and on Twitter, but there's always one conference game per year that is extremely non-memorable. This was. probably that game for 2022. Seth and Bryan mentioned Maryland Amnesia in previous years (this year's Maryland game was, uh, eventful). But this game was. fine? I had fun. But as I got back through my photos I keep thinking "oh yeah" to things I will forget about in a few days. Just a routine day of generic beat-down football. Several people pointed to last year's Indiana game as a parallel to this Nebraska game, including myself. I genuinely cannot remember 99% of that game. It was a night game and people were very much annoyed about it being a night game in November. I think there were a lot of media timeouts. Oh and Haskins hurdled a fool. Any excuse to relive a Haskins Hurdle [Patrick Barron]Not only t
Full Album Links: Michigan Football vs Michigan State 2022 (Patrick Barron) | Flickr Michigan Football vs Michigan State 2022 (Bryan Fuller) | Flickr Well, that was an event. I will retell the post-game as best as I can recall from my perspective. I wasn't in the tunnel during the incident (I was mostly on the field) but I entered the tunnel shortly after it happened. This game was about 20 minutes away from being among the less dramatic Michigan vs Michigan State games of the last decade or so. I really didn't get the impression that there was much chirping or shoving throughout most of the game itself (no more than a typical rivalry game). Maybe others saw stuff on tv I didn't notice. There was no major on-field scuffle like in the Ohio State game. There were some personal foul calls here and there, which, ok. With about a minute left I secured all my loose items to get ready for post-game celebrations. Shortly after the clock hit zero the shoving began on the fiel
Full Album Links: Michigan Football vs Penn State 2022 (Patrick Barron) | Flickr Michigan Football vs Penn State 2022 (Bryan Fuller) | Flickr Once upon a time in Michigan Stadium, the announcement for a maize out would be somewhere on your ticket stub (see Wisconsin and Michigan State). There wasn't much fanfare surrounding these announcements or neat social media graphics, just a general reminder that "on Wednesdays we wear pink, also wear maize to this one. But just this one." The stadium was maize, but apart from the student section it was a maize-ish. It's like driving around the mid-west a week after the leaves hit their peak fall colors. Up close there are still some spectacularly vibrant yellows but zoom out far enough and the entire forest becomes a weird brown that you convince yourself is still vibrant if you squint and stare at it. This was especially true for maize-outs in October. At some point, you wake up before sunrise to go tailgating, your outdoor