Tuesday October 5, 2004 sports.michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily. corn Secondry duo bonds on and off gridiiron By Gennaro Flilce Daily Sports Writer When the hours hit the a.m., sophomores Leon Hall and Ryan Mundy are no different than any other Michigan student. "We'll probably play 'Madden' all night," Mundy said. Hall mans the Buffalo Bills, while Mundy runs with the Jacksonville Jaguars - they've both agreed to choose teams with an overall game rating below 80. "The games get pretty intense," Mundy said. "We might be messing around sometimes, but when we say we're going to play for real, the games get really intense." While Hall plays the silent assassin role, Mundy - a Wilkins Township, Penn., native - lets it all hang out. "If I'm losing, I don't like that, so I'm gonna start yell- ing and screaming," Mundy said. "But if I'm winning, I'm gonna start talking trash and everything, getting in his head, and then he'll get all mad." But at the end of the night, the games are just that. "That's my boy, Leon - we're pretty much like this," Mundy said as he crossed his fingers. "We're next-door neighbors in the dorm, so if you find me, you find Leon. "(He's) real laid back - he's a fun-loving guy. He really enjoys life, and that's why I can relate to him, because I'm the same way." Mundy and Hall bonded last year when they both logged playing time as true freshmen. "Not every freshman travels, and we were in the same class, so we had to stick together," Mundy said. "We really didn't know what was going on. We became really close during our freshman year." During the season, both players learned from the elder statesmen of the Michigan defense. "I just kinda learned from (Marlin Jackson) along with the coaches, really, just how important it is to get the little things," Hall said. "It's really all been done through (Ron) English," Mundy said, complimenting Michigan's defensive second- ary coach. "He's an excellent coach, and he really knows how to get the best out of you. We really realized the opportunity we had coming in here - we talked about it a few times together. We knew we could do big things if we worked hard." Best friends off the field, Mundy and Hall currently share additional time on it as members of the Wolverines' UIbe atidean&ziiag SPORTS 11 -- -- - - ------------ ------------------ - --- ----- - - --- - - - ----------------- ------ -, -, - - - - ------ Booyah! Stu Scott is ruining my ESPN DANIEL BREMMER Garden State of Mind Wen I sit down to watch my TV, there are certain things I can bank on. When I put on E!, I know I'm going to see celebrities. If I tune to CNN, I know I'm going to get the news. But nowadays, when I put on ESPN,.. I don't know what the hell I'm gonna get. Lately, the self-proclaimed "worldwide leader in sports" is losing its credibility - as evidenced by the decline in the network's flagship show, SportsCenter. SportsCenter used to be about hard- hitting sports news. But now, it's the TV equivalent of the loser in high school, who thought that if he called himself cool enough times, he would be. C'mon ESPN - don't be that guy. Anchor Stuart Scott is the personifi- cation of this problem with SportsCen- ter. Years ago, he used to be one of the better anchors they had. Now, he spends more time thugging out his writing than thinking about whether or not he even makes any sense. To prove my point, I sat down and watched ESPN's 2 a.m. SportsCenter on Sunday night. Here's a rundown of the disappointment I witnessed: 2 a.m. - SportsCenter introduction. Less than 30 seconds into the show, and Stuart Scott has just referred to the audience as "dog" for the first time (or is it "dawg?"). This is the first of what I'm sure will be many Stuart Scott "let-me-be-as-unnecessarily-urban-as- I-possibly-can-be" moments. I can only imagine how painful this is to watch for people who actually talk like that. 2:01 a.m. - Too bad my watch doesn't have a second hand. Less than a minute later, and Stu just called the audience "son." Much like his "dawg" comment, this one is quite forced and awkward sounding. You think Dan Rather uses "son" on the evening news? 2:02 a.m. - After the intro, the camera cuts back to Linda Cohn sitting next to Stu. Before I even have time to think of another sarcastic remark, Stu declares,'Alongside L. Co - Linda Cohn, I'm double-S, Stuart Scott." Did that really just happen? What the hell is an L. Co? Someone should tell Stu that J. Lo 's (I'm assuming this is the bad reference he was trying to make) career is almost as much of a joke right now as his own. Two minutes in, and already, I don't know if I can take much more of this crap. 2:08 a.m. - Just as we get to the fourth quarter of the Patriots-Bills high- lights, Stu hits us with this call on a Tom Brady touchdown pass: "Play action. Holla at a playa when you see him in the street. Brady to Daniel Graham." Which part of this line is worse? The whole "holla at a playa" to describe a touchdown? Or the "when-you-see-him- in-the-street" add-on? I'd have an easier time trying to translate one of Sean Paul's raps into English than tell you what Stu was trying to get across with "in the street." 2:09 a.m. - I've never been so happy to see a commercial in my life. It's like a two-minute-long Advil in the midst of my Stuart Scott headache. 2:14 a.m. - Stu and Linda team up for this blockbuster commentary during the Atlanta-Carolina highlight: Stu: Muhsin Muhammad on the reverse. He's hit, and he (cough, cough). Linda: Want a lozenge? Stu: No I'm good. Muhsin coughed it up, though. Ah, I get it. Instead of just saying "cough," Stuart decided that he'd actu- ally cough. That's clever. 2:15 a.m. - Less than a minute later, Stu says Kevin Mathis was "drinking some Hater-ade" on an interception. I'm speechless, wondering how Stuart Scott still has a job. 2:32 a.m. - We come back from commercial to the announcement of "the Ultimate Highlight." First of all, why don't they just call it what it really is: a below-average music video. Do we really need to see this crappy compilation of See BREMMER, Page 12 Safety Ryan Mundy (21) and cornerback Leon Hall (29) have become friends playing real and virtual football. No. I defense. While Mundy has started at free safety all season - recording 23 tackles and two picks - Hall earned his starting status just two weeks ago. He had been pushing senior Markus Curry all year for the job before Curry was injured prior to the Iowa game. Hall snagged a highlight-reel interception against the Hawkeyes and, fill- ing in for an injured Steve Breaston, returned a punt for a touchdown last week against Indiana. While Hall has turned many heads in the last two weeks, one person who is not surprised by the Vista, Calif., native's explosion onto the scene is his coach. "He started some games a year ago," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "We learned a lot about his toughness, about his competitiveness. He's a guy that has unbelievable presence, poise and confidence - he had that from the first day he got in here. He represents this program just the way you would want it to be represented." Mundy mirrors Carr's words: "(Leon's) work ethic is unbelievable. He works as hard as anybody on the team. He's a technician. Once a coach tells him something, he goes out and he executes it on the practice field." Playing football's version of center field, Mundy fre- quently communicates with Hall during games. "I see things that he doesn't see, and I get him lined up," Mundy said. "Formations and formation shifts - it's the safety's responsibility to get the corners aligned. And if the corners bust the coverage or blow the cover- age or don't know the coverage, then it's pretty much the safety's fault." Both 19-year-olds try to take the rare opportunity of starting at such a young age in stride. And, while each of their schedules is currently swamped with film sessions, meetings and practices, in the second semester, the players plan to go full throttle on that other form of football. "We get some pretty good (video) games in, but we're really not going to perfect it until after the season, when we have some more time on our hands," Mundy said. TONIGHT, LEARN HOW YOU CAN LEAD THE MOVEMENT TO END EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY. Tuesday, October 5, 7:30 pm - Michigan Union, Pond Room Elections 2004 The Risks of Computerized Voting Dr. Barbara Simons Tuesday, October 5, 2004 4:00-5:30 p.m. Whitney Auditorium, School of Education, University of Michigan 610 East University Avenue, Ann Arbor Dr. Simon was a member of the National Workshop on Internet Voting and participated in the Security Peer Review Group for the U.S. Department of Defense's Internet voting project. She is a Fellow at the Association for Computing Machinery's Public Policy Committee and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Elections 2004: Too Long, Not Nice, Not Cheap A Panel Discussion featuring Dr. Michael Traugott Friday, October 22, 2004 3:30-5:00 p.m. Pendleton Room, Michigan Union 530 South State Street, Anti Arbor Michael Traugott is Chair of the U-M Dept. of Communication Studies, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, and author of numerous books on politics and the media, most recently The Press, the Polls, and Democracy. Other panelists are Vincent Hutchings, U-M Associate Professor of Political Science, Research Associate at the Center for Political Studies, and author of Public Opinion and Democratic Accountability: How Citizens Learn About Politics and Bill Ballenger. Editor of Inside idsagttht% %>~ Cnn Students InLOWe Times essLkYo Graduate Vrol ''llteThfteig4U -CPeers InC nodV C ar6 0p$ 7' aV 2/ < 1kepV * ,S 2 R . 3" F OUR GENERATION MUST TAICFflN THIS 15511k I