The Day Of

It's Here!!!

We made it.

It wasn't easy...especially for all of us Michigan fans, but the off-season is over!

Tonight, live at 7:30 on ESPNU, Vanderbilt and Miami of Ohio take the field in the first televised game of the season. Followed closely at 8:00 on ESPN, NC State and South Carolina. And, if that's not enough, on ESPN2 Oregon State and Stanford kickoff.

I must say, from the moment the last second ticked off the clock in the 4th quarter against Appalachian State last year, this has been one of the craziest years I've ever seen, not only for Michigan football, but college football in general. We've covered so many topics and news stories over the past year.

A quick rundown...
• Appalachian State
• Michigan starting off 0-2
• Mike Hart guarantees his team will win against the Irish, and they do
• Chad Henne's bum shoulder
• Mike Hart's bum ankle
• Michigan's heart-stopping wins over MSU and Illinois
• Going 8-0 after an 0-2 start
• Lloyd's retirement announcement
• Another loss to tOSU
• Les Miles and his "have a great day" speech
• The endless head coaching search and Bill Martin's sailboat
• Greg Shiano's non-interest in the job
• Secret meetings in Toledo
• Rich Rodriguez's bolt from WVU
• Totally new offensive scheme
• Terrell Pryor and The University of Ohio State
• Rodriguez's $4M buyout
• Manningham's weed
• Jake Long goes #1 in the NFL draft
• Mike Barwis, the rockstar, cleans out the weightroom
• Justin Boren cries to Jim Tressell
• The spring game at Saline HS
• Deposition after deposition
• New unis
• Stadium renovation
• New practice facility
• Offensive linemen dropping like files in summer camp
• Kevin Grady drunk, caught passed out at the wheel of his car
• No clear-cut starting QB
• Michigan unranked in pre-season AP poll for the first time since the Polk administration
• Rodriguez allows more media access to the program than in the past 15 years combined
• Michigan replay gets replaced with new show

What's next??? I mean at this point, we may on a collision course with night games in Ann Arbor!

It's been a roller coaster. All I can say is that blogging this off-season has been one helluva ride. And we're just getting started.

Many, many, many thanks to the blogs you see on the far right side of the page...my fellow Michigan bloggers who have endured all of this right along with me. Expect to see some great content from those guys on this site over the course of this season.

Now, I can see no better way to end this post than the way we did it last year right before the season started...with a little poetry from MaizenBrew Dave.

Go Blue!