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INSIDE:
City League
volleyball title
up for grabs 4
t HIGH SCHOOLS 2
t RED WINGS 2
t UT NOTEBOOK 3
t TIGERS, INDIANS 3, 6
THE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO
y
T H U R S DAY , S EP TEM B ER 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
SECTION C
NFL
CELEBRATION TIME
MILLEN FIRED
Fans get
their wish
with GM’s
ousting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
Perrysburg’s Grace Ramsdell, left, and Jessica Coyle celebrate their win in No. 1 doubles at the NLL tennis tournament yesterday. The Yellow Jackets claimed their sixth
straight league championship. SEE STORY ON PAGE 2.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Wolverines still
play smash-mouth
Wisconsin runs in tradition of Big Ten
The Badgers run the ball as if
they are contractually obligated
ANN ARBOR — Terrance Tay- to do so, meaning Taylor and
lor talked this week about his the rest of UM’s defense will
Michigan Wolverines
engage in the type of
needing to do more
trench fight that could
than just stop the run.
erase any growing WolThe UM senior deverines stigma.
fensive tackle said the
But they have to man
Wolverines must halt a WISCONSIN up.
spreading rumor.
“It’s our livelihood
AT MICHIGAN
“I don’t know why,
on the line now,” sebut
some
people t When:
nior linebacker John
think because we run Saturday, 3:30 Thompson said.
the spread [offense], t Records:
The challenges facNo. 9 Wisconit’s gotten a little soft sin is 3-0; UM ing the Wolverines’
around here,” Tay- is 1-2
front seven include
lor said. “Nothing’s t Series: UM a punishing running
changed.
It’s
still leads 48-12-1 back in P.J. Hill and a
smash-mouth. It’s still t Favorite:
huge offensive line that
Michigan football. I’m Wisconsin by 6 featured all five linegoing to put my helmet t TV: 13
men weighing over 300
t Radio: 1560 pounds coming out of
in your face.”
All of that is why
spring ball.
Taylor is so excited to
Hill, who gets to run
go up against No. 9 Wisconsin behind those behemoths, is 5Saturday in the Big Ten opener
for both teams.
See WOLVERINES, Page 3
By JOE VARDON
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Matt
Millen insisted he would stick
with the tough job of turning
the Detroit Lions into a winner instead of returning to the
broadcast booth to make easy
money.
So the Lions got rid of him.
The Lions fired Millen sevenplus years after the acclaimed TV
analyst and Super Bowl-winning
linebacker took over as team
president for one of the NFL’s
mediocre franchises and made
it the worst.
“I have relieved Matt Millen
of his duties effective immediately,” Lions owner William Clay
Ford said in a statement yesterday afternoon.
Messages seeking comment
were left on Millen’s cell phone.
Millen’s teams won a leaguelow 31 games since he took over
in 2001, but his boss refused to
get rid of him.
Bill Ford, son of the team owner, said Monday he would fire
Millen if he had the authority.
Detroit was routed in each of
its first three games this season,
falling behind 21-0 twice and
21-3 once en route to lopsided
losses going into its bye week.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
“I am very disappointed with
where
we are as a team after our
Lions owner William Clay Ford stuck with team president Matt Millen for seven years and was
start this season,” owner Ford
rewarded with a team in tatters and a record of 31-84 since 2001, worst in the NFL.
said. “Our sole focus now is preparing for our next game against
Chicago.”
The 0-3 record dropped Millen
to 31-84 overall, giving the Lions
at least 10 more losses than any
His frustration boiling over,
enough to have Millen reaching other NFL team since 2001, one
for a suitcase.
Bill Ford Jr. became a typical
of the worst stretches in league
Or, just maybe, against all
Detroit Lions’ fan on Monday
history. They gave up a leaguehope, the old man would climb
when he said given the authorhigh 25.3 points and ranked 30th
down from his out-of-touch, au- with 18.3 points a game under
ity he would fire general managtocratic throne and banish the
er Matt Millen. He became just
Millen, according to STATS.
jester he’d been holding onto far
another auto worker sitting in
After winning just five games
too long.
the upper deck on the 10-yard
in his first two seasons, Millen
Amazingly, it worked. The
bristled when a reporter told
line holding up a “FIRE MILLions fired Millen yesterday. Bill him some people were already
LEN” sign for the cameras.
Ford Jr. should be everyone’s
predicting he would eventually
But I imagine it was a calcunew hero. Perhaps we should all walk away to get paid stress-free
lated broadside. He said it to a
AVE ACKENBERG
run out and buy a Taurus or a
millions as a broadcaster again.
couple of reporters at a Detroit
Focus
to
celebrate.
“Those people don’t know
business luncheon, then moved
It was intended for an audiMillen lasted seven-plus years me that well,” Millen said in a
on to the next group of reportence of two — his father, Wil2003 interview. “I can’t not finers and said it again. And when
liam Clay Ford, the owner of the and made some of the worst
ish something that I started.
asked if he really meant it, he
Lions, and Millen, the president, draft decisions and one of the
worst coaching hires imaginThat bugs me. I’ve got to get this
CEO and general manager.
repeated it a third time.
able. But, hey, you longtime
finished.
The younger Ford may have
His target audience, though,
Lions fans know seven years are
“This gray hair shows how
no authority despite his “vice
wasn’t the reporters or their
just a drop in the bucket for a
much I care. Look at me. I look
chairman” title, but perhaps
readers, viewers and listeners.
he thought his words would be
See HACKENBERG, Page 7
Not all of them, at least.
See LIONS, Page 7
Ford son not the family Tin Lizzie
D
H
THE END ZONE: Focus on college football
Maureen Fulton
[email protected]
Ryan Autullo
[email protected]
t’s rare for someone in Ohio to follow the
career of a Florida International football
player. But that’s the case with me and
FIU tailback A’mod Ned.
I saw Ned at his best in 2006 while covering
the Bowling Green beat. The Falcons traveled
to Miami to face FIU. Ned, then a sophomore,
had a career-best day for the Golden Panthers,
rushing for 169 yards and a touchdown. BG
escaped with a 33-28 win.
Later that year Ned reappeared, in a photo of
the University of Miami-FIU brawl. Ned was on
crutches, but hobbled out to the center of the
fray in his jersey and jeans as players shoved
each other and landed blows. The 5-foot-9
Miami native earned a badge of honor for his
loyalty from the sports blog Deadspin (Google
“Legend of Ned” for more info).
FIU, Toledo’s opponent this weekend, had
several close losses in its 0-12 2006 season,
including a seven-overtime heartbreaker to
North Texas. The Panthers lost their first 11
games last season before avenging the loss to
North Texas in the season finale.
When UT coach Tom Amstutz says, “(FIU’s)
level of talent is every bit as good or better
than ours,” I can agree after seeing FIU myself.
Back for his senior year, Ned is FIU’s leading
rusher. He and the Panthers won’t go down
without a fight.
very year, Bowling Green has the
same four goals — graduate its players, beat
Toledo, win a MAC championship and win a
bowl game.
None of those objectives will be in play Saturday when the Falcons visit Wyoming. Sort of.
We say sort of because to win a bowl game,
one first must qualify to play in a bowl game.
There’s many ways BG can go about
securing a second straight postseason bid, not
the least of which is determined by its record
against nonconference opponents. A year ago
BG won two of four games against teams from
outside the MAC. The Falcons would match
that pace with a win in Laramie. But should BG
stumble, its safety net begins to hang a little
lower. A cushion is important to have entering
an always unpredictable MAC season.
Are we over-analyzing things? Possibly. After all, if BG wins the East and has a winning
record after the MAC title game, a bowl game
is assured. There are other factors to consider,
including the possibility of a fourth bowl being
awarded to the MAC (there were only three in
2007).
So yes, a team goal is at stake Saturday
— taking another step toward reaching a bowl
as the Falcons hope to redeem themselves for
last year’s GMAC Bowl disaster.
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Matt Markey
[email protected]
T
hey named this the second season,
when the Big Ten finally starts playing games that impact its conference
race. Less than two months ago, the atrium of
the Hyatt in downtown Chicago was packed
with Big-Teners during their pre-season confab, and everyone was harrumphing that Ohio
State was the biggest and baddest dude
around, and Minnesota was the league‘s 98pound weakling.
Now we get to the first conference games
and greet a world gone mad. Minnesota is 4-0
and Ohio State has struggled to get to 3-1. This
is dogs lounging with cats, Hillary endorsing
Palin kind of stuff. A key injury, an early transition at quarterback and an often perplexed
defense have thrust the Buckeyes into a state
of flux. But curb the anxiety.
The best player from the state of Minnesota
still belongs to the Buckeyes (James Laurinaitis), and so does the best player from Ohio
(Chris “Beanie” Wells), and the best player
from Pennsylvania (Terrelle Pryor), and maybe
the best player from New Jersey (Malcolm Jenkins), and who knows — the best player from
South Africa (Ryan Pretorius). While they failed
in their western quest at USC, the state of affairs with the Buckeyes is not as bleak as some
have painted it.
Joe Vardon
[email protected]
W
ho is Paul Chryst, and why has
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez
been asked about him time and
again this week?
Easy enough. Chryst is Wisconsin’s
offensive coordinator, and was a graduate assistant at West Virginia when Rodriguez was a
volunteer coach there in 1989.
They’re friends. Got it.
But when it comes to offense, there’s no
relation. Rodriguez, who calls the Wolverines’
plays, uses the spread-option, where one play
almost never looks like the next. Chryst’s Badgers line up in that prototypical, I-formation
and pound away with running back P.J. Hill.
Over and over.
Maybe it’s boring, but so far, Wisconsin’s offense has worked. It’s averaging 34 points and
239 rushing yards a game, and Hill is getting
126 yards on 23 carries a contest. Rodriguez
warned that his ol’ pal Chryst would have a few
wrinkles prepared when UM and Wisconsin
meet Saturday, and even said he just hopes
Chryst takes it easy on his Wolverines.
Maybe Chryst will call for a few more passes, considering UM’s shaky secondary demonstrated ability to stop the run.
But the real stunner would be if Chryst
doesn’t try to bludgeon his friend’s team with a
bruising back and mammoth offensive line.
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9/24/2008, 11:09:31 PM