We suffered through some truly lean years with LSU. We loved Cholly Mc and Arnsparger truly did know defense and would sometimes have a better offense which would get the team much farther.

My son has sent us photos from Tuscaloosa and northeast, even from Ringgold, GA which appears no longer to exist. The devastation to many of the smaller towns and rural areas appears total. My son, his wife, and numerous other volunteers, including special state law enforcement personnel are there helping all they can.

Pat Henry is the greatest college track and field coach ever! (we are prejudiced, but we really believe that as well). He is tremendous! We have never seen anyone do what he can do with men and women for their respective track teams and for life. He has a love for the athletes and all know it. He has such a knowledge of what it takes to win and has the tremendous respect of all! It saddened us so much that he returned to Texas (A & M this time), but Texas and LA seem to trade coaches alot.

I was about to remind you of that!

Except for the Arnsparger years, the ’80s and the ’90s until Saint Nick came were pretty miserable. Now it is such a big business production I have very little desire to go and am moving to Central Kentucky and will be following a Division III college playing football the way it ought to be played.

BTW, I passed thru Tuscaloosa on I-20 last week and wind damage was evident as well as up near Athens.

While I am at it, congrats to Pat Henry for his 32nd and 33rd NCAA Championships!

The better the teams are individually, the much better the contest will be, so we want all those teams with such great traditions to get everything functioning together (such as Mack Brown, we claim him in Louisiana since he coached at Tulane, and Texas with some of best recruiting anywhere the past few years but something falling short on the execution and results).

I think coaching today may be harder than ever because of the incomprehensible catalog of rules by the NCAA, pressures to achieve by the boosters and fans, and the management of a great pool of talented young men. We know numerous coaches and though they love coaching, they face internal concerns about “burn out” almost every year.

Miles is awesome ‘

As we drag ourselves out of the last three years, I’d enjoy seeing one or two more out of conference regular season powerhouse matchups, with both sides at full strength!

LSU, Alabama, USC, Auburn, Florida, maybe even Texas or Oklahoma… would be extrememly fun. We’d all enjoy a few more RED letter dates on the calendar.

We have written to Coach Miles and the AD several letters asking to schedule Michigan on a field on field, night at both fields. If that would be arranged it would be great. I know they wanted to arrange more games out of the SEC over the next few years and this would be great ones. We will see how the one against Oregon for the first game of the season this year will go and they may get confidence to arrange more.

Night games of college football are always the very best anywhere they are played and a night game at The Big House with a packed stadium and tens of thousands standing…what an atmosphere! It truly kicks up the excitement level and the fun everyone will have.

Even when these teams aren’t great they generally have exciting games against one another. The night game should be fun.

Winning against Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State (with the present problems notwithstanding), etc. would prove their national relevance, which would be a great thing for all college football. Give Notre Dame and Michigan another couple of years and they may well be there and may Ohio State get to the next level and USC back in prominence, given the strength of the SEC, and together with other teams scattered throughout the landscape, college football with its inter-regional rivalries and its traditions it will become more exciting than ever! That is our hope and our dream! We love college football!

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2011/6/10/2218252/notre-dame-michigan-football-retro-uniforms-under-the-lights-game

Even as a Wolverine fan, I enjoy when Notre Dame is on top of it’s game and the history of both programs. 124 years of excellent competition, even through ebb and flow.

I hope it’s a trench warfare/slugfest and both show some good defensive improvements.

We at Michigan are glad to have originally taught Notre Dame the pigskin game back in 1887 and they’ve carried the ball honorably ever since!

@bigirishphan – back off the caffiene – but I also hope to see Notre Dame in bowl game. I hope that means that Notre Dame is ‘rebuilding…if not… ouch. I believe Kelly will get them there.

The Big House will be overflowing on September 10th. It will give even more impetus to the additional expansion of the Big House. Both programs are rebuilding and probably need a few more years but this is good for all the fans and all football to have this game on the schedule. Wish we all were younger and could travel that far.