Media Day Happenings

Saturday I decided to make the trip from Toledo to Ann Arbor to get a look at the 2003-04 U-M football team. After a little bit of a delay due to traffic I got to Ann Arbor ready to mingle with some players, snap some pictures, and get some autographs.

After seeing the circus inside the stadium, a friend I was with came up with the idea to wait for the players leaving the tunnel on the outside of the stadium.

This was definitely a brilliant move and gave us the opportunity to talk with many of the players and coaches along with getting a few pictures. As soon as the team picture was done Marlin Jackson left the stadium with a coach but I was lucky enough to get a picture with him very quickly, and another guy that saw him ran over and asked him “Marlin are you going to play this season?” Marlin looked a little perturbed that someone would ask that question but he said, “Yeah I’m playin”.

Earnest Shazor was next out of the stadium. He was very upbeat about the season and looked like he could be an absolute monster at safety. I also got a chance to talk to Ron English and he said he was very impressed with Jeremy LaSeuer and Markus Curry. I decided not to ask him about the safety situation because he’s probably tired of people asking about Marlin Jackson.

After the coaches I spent a good amount of time talking to the Ohio guys and Braylon Edwards. Pat Massey was the first Ohioan to leave the stadium so I went to say hi. He was not as big as I thought he would be in terms of thickness and he is nowhere near the 290 LB mark as has been reported. We talked briefly about how his off-season was and he told me he worked hard to improve his game. We talked about his brother Mike and I asked him about us being dropped from his list in the last few days. He laughed and told me that he’s just waiting for an offer and then we will be back in the thick of it for Mike, although he wants to decide soon. We also talked about how St. Iggy’s team would be this year. Willis Barringer was the next guy out from Ohio. He grew up here in Toledo, where I’m from, so we had a good talk. I asked him about his reputation for running his mouth and what his best line was and he said he couldn’t comment on that, but then I got a taste of his sense of humor. I told him I graduated from St. John’s Jesuit in Toledo and he laughed and said, “Ha that sucks”. He said things are going very well at safety and he would be disappointed if he didn’t get plenty of reps during the game. Pierre Woods was next. I asked him how he liked the move to LB and he said “I like doing whatever it takes to help the team” which sounded very positive to me. He looked to be in great shape and I don’t know how he was ever listed as a DE because he just looked like a LB to me. He told me the team is really focused on beating Ohio State this year and kind of laughed when I asked him about the Maurice Clarett situation. The other Ohio guys I talked to were Prescott Burgess and Shawn Crable who were both very excited to finally be in Ann Arbor. Prescott presented himself well IMO and he looked like he could come in and play a lot from day 1 just due to his intimidating size.

The last guy I spent some time talking with was Braylon Edwards. I went to Schembechler Hall after the team left to try and get Chris Perry’s autograph when I saw Mr. And Mrs. Edwards waiting around outside. I went up and said hi and asked them if they remembered me from meeting after the Ohio State game. They did and we talked for a few minutes waiting for Braylon to come out, which was when Stan told me that Braylon WILL be coming back for his senior year. Braylon came out and I got a quick picture with him shaking his hand and talking to him about how track went. He was pleased with his progress and excited about wearing the #1 jersey.

Click here to view my photos from Media Day 2003.