The 34-32 loss puzzled football experts and fans, and now 5 years later a former player has revealed the team was high the morning of the now infamous loss.

After a talent-filled team partied away the 2007 summer, players continued to drink and smoke during the school’s “Welcome Week” in the days leading up to the season. So confident in their ability to beat the FCS Mountaineers, many players got high hours before kickoff to “see how bad we can beat ‘em up if we are stoned.” In an article by Ace Williams being released in November, the former player said:

“The night before the game, everyone was smoking pot and having fun at the team hotel, no coaches were bothering us. The next day, (game day), one offensive player in particular was the ring leader and was messing around trying to convince all the other guys that we could beat these guys stoned and how crazy it would be to be all messed up and still ‘drop 50 on these fools’. For some reason, there was a ton of people who joined in. From what I saw and was told afterwards, 6 defensive starters and 3 offensive starters smoked up that morning. One guy in particular who I know did is the one who made the biggest error of the game and cost us a chance to win. ”

It has been 5 years since the loss, in which the Wolverines failed to qualify for a Bowl game in two of those seasons. Last year, under new coach Brady Hoke, the Wolverines finished with 10–2 and beat Ohio State for the first time in 7 years. In 2014, Michigan will get their rematch in the Wolverines’ home opener against Appalachian State in what fans hope will be the end to hazy era in Michigan football.

“We’ve had enough experience with names and expansion and development of divisions that we know that you rarely get a 90 percent approval rating. But to get a 90 percent non-approval rating was really surprising. It showed that we didn’t connect with our fans in a way that we wanted to. It’s humbling, to say the least, because we’re trying to build fan bases, not push them away.

In the interview, Delany revealed the names “Great Lakes” and “Great Plains” were considered as possible alternatives, but they would not have accurately described all of the schools geographical locations. Another name was also “Stars” and “Stripes” but was turned down because it was too general.

Special congrats to Greg Jarrett who interviewed Delany. Greg is a great friend and a former boss, when I interned on his show at WGN. Greg is the only person I know who would ask the commissioner if Legends was a Gentlemen’s club. To hear the full interview click here.

A sample of the lyrics are below:

And here’s to you, Denard Robinson, Rich Rod helps more than you will know (whoa, whoa, whoa). Rush if you please, Denard Robinson, the Big House is the place for those who play (hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey).
We’d like to see you keep on playing Heisman Trophy-style. We’d like to hoist a trophy on the shelf.
Look around, and you will see us bleeding maize and blue. Don’t get injured, or we will surely lose.

Cool song but Thejerseychaser.com doesn’t think that Denard listens to Oldies!

Related links:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2010/09/report_denard_robinson_to_star.html

Nebraska Athletic Director, Tom Osborne said: “We certainly don’t have anything against anybody in the Big 12. This decision is not going to be based on animosity or petty jealousy. You’re talking about something that could maintain for the next 75 to 100 years.”

Texas is a major player in the expansion of the mega-conferences. Texas is expected to join the Pac-10 and bring its big revenue with it.

These four conferences are already the dominate conferences in college football, winning the most championships and dominating television markets. However their emergence as a mega-conference poses threats to conferences left out like the Big 12 and Big East. Other college football traditionalists are also worried about rivalries becoming extinct with the creation of mega-conferences. Below are the teams rumored to be joining the mega-conferences.

Pac-10: Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M & Colorado
Big 10: Nebraska, Missouri, Maryland & Rutgers
SEC : Clemson & Oklahoma
ACC: West Virgina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse & Connecticut

* What is interesting is Notre Dame is not listed as one of the teams who will join a mega-conference. Currently, Notre Dame is independent and does not belong to any particular conference. By being independent, Notre Dame can negotiate exclusive TV contracts, which means big money for the school. However, with the expansion of college football to mega-conferences, Notre Dame remaining independent is not as exclusive as it once was. The Big 10 is desperate to lure over the Fighting Irish, and along with it the Big 10 would get Notre Dame’s $15m contract wit NBC.