"Black and Blue" Showing

The Emmy-nominated documentary "Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game" will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday at Howell High School's auditorium. The viewing is free and open to the public. The film was produced by Brian Kruger and Buddy Moorehouse.

The documentary tells the story of Willis Ward, a talented University of Michigan football player who was benched in 1934 for a game between Michigan and Georgia Tech because he was black. Future President Gerald Ford was a teammate and close friend of Ward, and he originally planned to quit the team due to his friend's benching.

"It was very moving," said Kathleen Zaenger, director of the Howell Carnegie District Library. Zaenger played a key role in bringing the film to Howell. She said local libraries had just launched the Building Community Through Civility and Compassion program, which is aimed at engaging the public in discussing the importance of community, civility and compassion in their daily lives. Zaenger said the film seemed to fit the goals of the new program.

Although it's unlikely such an incident would happen today, Zaenger said race and other issues raised in the film are still relevant. She said the film highlights the importance of how we get along with one another and how we conduct ourselves around one another. The viewing of "Black and Blue" is sponsored by First National Bank, the Livingston Diversity Council, Bob Maxey Ford and Howell Public Schools.

In other words, the public needs to make an effort to come and view this landmark story.

Legends Patch Nominees: Gerald Ford

Since Desmond Howard became the first Michigan player to receive a Legends Patch, there has been much debate surrounding which players deserve the award as well.  In an effort to settle some of the debate, we will be breaking down a former Michigan football player that we believe should be analyzed as a nominee for a Legends Patch.  This does not mean our writers believe they should be formally nominated in some way, but only that their credentials should be reviewed. If you have an opinion please comment or contact our writers via Twitter.

Nominee: Gerald Ford
Ford played center and linebacker at Michigan.  During his tenure, Michigan won national championships in 1932 and 1933.  Not only did he play for two national championship teams, but he also was an avid leader for the Wolverines.  He once brought assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan to tears during a game because of his hard work.  His most iconic moment at Michigan was when he threatened to quit the team before their game against Georgia Tech because of Georgia Tech's racist policies.  His play and leadership at Michigan was exceptional, but he is most well-known for becoming President of the United States in 1974 after the resignation of Richard Nixon.  Not only is he the only Michigan alum to ever become President, but he is the only individual in history from the Big Ten to be President.  His number #48 jersey was officially retired in 1994 for his contributions, but the Athletic Department has now opted to un-retire its jerseys and consider them for Legends Patches.

Bringing Back Gerald Ford's #48 Jersey - Bad For Michigan

I woke up today to find out that in a few brief comments to the radio, Brady Hoke seemed to "spill the beans" regarding the newest addition to the Legends Patch jerseys.  Over the past few weeks, we've actually debated several players, including Anthony Carter, William Cunningham, and Jim Harbaugh, on whether or not they should receive the Legends Patch honor.

The jersey number discussed was #48, the jersey worn by former Michigan player and former President Gerald Ford.  The number's current status with the football program is retired.  No player has been allowed to wear the jersey for years.  However, if the hints given by Hoke are true, the jersey's status will soon change and a player will begin wearing the jersey next season.

Virginia Tech, Not So Bad After All

Now that we've officially established what constitutes a "Hokie" and talked about the significance of Michigan's BCS bid, we can get into some serious football talk. Most Michigan fans, including myself, admittedly probably don't watch a lot of ACC football. When's there are dozens of games every week, including Michigan games, there probably isn't a lot of time to analyze random out of conference opponents such as Virginia Tech.

However, that doesn't mean one can't go back and analyze what Virginia Tech has accomplished this season. Let's start with some basics.

Virginia Tech

• 11-2 record (ACC Coastal Champs - Lost in ACC Champ Game)
• 55th in Scoring Offense (28.5 pts/g)
• 38th in Total Offense (415.8 yds/g)
• 14th in Total Defense (313.9 yds/g)
• 7th in Points Allowed (17.2 pts/g)
• 29th in Turnover Margin (+0.46)
• 51st in Strength of Schedule

So from looking at those stats what do could one speculate? Well, defense seems to be their strong suit. Their offense is far from horrible, but when a defense only allows 17.2 points on average, the offense doesn't exactly have to do a lot to win the game. Virginia Tech held 8 opponents this season to less than 20 points, which is a significant accomplishment.  For instance, Michigan was only held to less than 20 points twice this year (Michigan State and Iowa).

Although the defense appears to be quite strong, 7th in points allowed, 14th in total yards, and 17th in rush defense, the team's stats have been criticized because of Virginia Tech's "weak" schedule.  When I first started writing this article, I was under the impression that Virginia Tech had not only played few quality opponents, but were also blown out in against those teams.  However, after I took a deep analysis of the stats and schedule, I can no longer believe this argument.

When looking at a schedule, tend to take a quick glance for the number of ranked and "big name" opponents on a team's schedule.  However, this method does not yield accurate results for a team's strength of schedule.  Just because a team isn't ranked doesn't mean they aren't a quality team.  For instance, Notre Dame is not ranked, but they received the most votes in the rankings of any team outside the top 25 (effectively making them ranked #26) and played an extremely difficult schedule this year.

Using this logic, I attempted to make a more accurate analysis of Virginia Tech's schedule.  I did this by judging the number of opponents receiving votes or ranked, the number of teams with at least 6 wins, and the margin of victory in those games.

Virginia Tech Schedule Performance

• Number of Opponents Ranked or Receiving Votes - 5
• Locations Against Ranked or Voted - 2 Home, 2 Away, 1 Neutral
• Record Against Ranked or Voted - 3-2
• Margin of Victory Against Ranked or Voted - 8 pts/g

• Number of Opponents With At Least 6 Wins - 10
• Locations Against 6 Win Opponents - 5 Home,4 Away, 1 Neutral
• Record Against 6 Win Opponents - 8-2
• Margin of Victory Against 6 Win Opponents - 12 pts/g

After analyzing the actual games played against decent and quality competition, it's hard to still believe in the argument that Virginia Tech has played "nobody" and beaten "nobody."  Sure, they were only 3-2 against opponents who were ranked or received votes in the AP poll, but they still ended up outscoring those teams by an average of 8 points per game.  Along with this, both losses were against the same team, Clemson.  Two  losses against quality competition in which Clemson outscored Virginia Tech by an average of 24 pts/g is hardly impressive or excusable, but one can't help but speculate.

Perhaps Clemson was just a bad match-up for Virginia Tech this season?  It is rare, but sometimes there just seems to be 1 or 2 teams that a certain team cannot beat just because of certain match-ups.  I'm not going to claim this was the case for Virginia Tech against Clemson, but the rest of their season and these two games just don't add up.  How does a team handle or blow out quality opponents at home and on the road (Arkansas State, Georgia Tech, Virginia) and then get blown out against #15 Clemson?  There are many reasons to explain this including a poor match-up, but I go with a different reasoning.

I think the reason Virginia Tech did so well against other quality opponents and so bad against Clemson is simply because they aren't an "elite" team.  Is Virginia Tech as bad as some of the pundits would make it seem?  Not even close.  Their performance this season against both decent and quality teams showcases their talent and ability, but their massive let-downs against Clemson also shows they are vulnerable.

Not only using my analysis, but using advanced stats provided by Football Outsiders, one can see Virginia Tech is at least a decent team.  FEI ranking, which is what Football Outsiders uses, analyzes not only wins and losses, but who and what causes each loss.  If a team loses to a bad opponent, they are punished in the FEI rankings much more than losing to a good team.  Basically, they do the type of break-downs I did above, except using a computer formula.  They have Virginia Tech ranked as #20 in the nation.  This is pretty far behind their #11 BCS ranking, but relatively near their #17 AP poll ranking.

After a long analysis, I think Virginia Tech falls in roughly this range.  They are a 15-20 ranked team that managed to make a BCS bowl due to some luck and flaws in the polls (Coaches had them at #11).  However, they are no push-over team.  They may not be "elite," but they will certainly pose a challenge for Michigan in the Sugar Bowl.  Just for a comparison, Notre Dame is ranked #21 in the FEI ranking.  So essentially, Michigan is going to be facing a team roughly as good as Notre Dame was this season and I think we all remember that game...

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