.footbal team is finally back home. Since the Wolverines don't
control their own destiny in the Big Ten, every game carries the
importance of a championship game for Michigan. Keep an eye
on the Nebraska-Penn State score - the Wolverines need to
pick up a game on the Cornhuskers.
Ben Estes, Zach Helfand, Stephen J. Nesbitt, Luke Pasch
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BEHIND ENEMY LINES: Taking a seat
to discuss the topics of the day with
with Northwestern junior Kain Colter.
LIFE AFTER FOOTBALL: Trying to move
past football isn't as easy as you might
think, a former national champion says.
BREAKDOWN: Whether Michigan has
Denard Robinson or-not, the Wolverines
should be able to pull this win out.
Cover illustration by JACKSON WAGNER and
GABRIELA VASQUEZ
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2012 Schedule
Alabama (Sept. 1): Michgan's memory needs to
be short after this one. It should be anyway with
some of the hits the Crimson Tide'dealt out.
Air Force (Sept. 8): Air Force ran all over
Michigan, but Denard Robinson returned the
favor to squeak out the 31-25 victory.
Massachusetts (Sept.15): Michigan thoroughly
dominated its weakest opponent, trouncing
Massachusetts, 63-13.
Notre Dame (Sept. 22): Robinson threw four
interceptions and Vincent Smith added another,
as the Fighting Irish barely scraped out a 13-6 win.
Purdue (Oct. 6): Kirk Herbstreit picked Purdue
to win the game and the Big Ten before the
game. He went tail-between-the-legs quickly.
Illinois (Oct. 13): The Wolverines had no trou-
IL IS ble dispatching the Fighting Illini, who were all
orange and no fight.
S
Michigan State (Oct. 20): Thank your lucky
brunettes. Brendan Gibbons kicked a game-
winning field goal to finally defeat the Spartans.
Nebraska (Oct. 27): In what Michigan repeat-
edly called a 'championship week,' Robinson got
injured and Russell Bellomy couldn't do a thing.
Minnesota (Nov. 3): With Robinson out again,
Devin Gardner took a stab at quarterback and
routed the Golden Gophers, 35-13.
Northwestern (Nov. 10): In a late season
matchup, we'll find out who scraps harder: A
wildcat or a wolverine.
Iowa (Nov. 17): It's not heaven. It's Iowa - the
utterly mediocre squad that handed Michigan
one of its two losses in 2011.
Ohio State (Nov. 24): The reincarnation of the
Bo-Woody dynamic, Hoke and Meyer will com-
pete in 'The Game' for the first time at the Shoe.
No.2 nsasStat (K) TCU
No. 3 Oregon (-27) at California
No.4 Notre Dame(-20)at Boston College
No. 5 Georgia (-16) atAuburn
No.6 Florida<(-27) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
No. 7 LSU (-17) vs. No. 21 Mississippi State
No.8 South Carolina (-15,5) vs.Arkansas
No. 9 Louisville (-3) at Syracuse
No, 10 Florida State -12) at Virginia Tech
No. 11Oregon State atNo.l14Stanford
No.12Oklahoma(-19.5)vs.Saylor
No.13 Clemson (-27)tvs.Maryland
No.16 Nebraska (-9) vs aPenn State
No. 17Texas(-9) vs. Iowa State
No.18UCLA(-19)atwashingtonState
Not9 USC (-10) vs. Arizona State
No. 20 Louisiana Tech (-20) at Texas State
No. 22 Texas Tech (-24) vs. Kansas
No.23Rutgers(-9)vs, Ary
No. 25 Toledo (-75) vs. BallState
Indiana vs. Wisconsin (7)
Iowa (-3.5) vs. urdue
Minnesota (-2.5) vs j lnois
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Alabama
Kansas State
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Florida
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"It's disappointing, but I'm not
going to hold any bad feelings or
anything, because this is still my
University. I still love Michigan
athletics, football is still my fam-
ily. It's one of them things that is
going to make me I guess tougher,
because it does - you get kind of
numb toward the rejection."
But inthe days after he found out
that he didn't get the job, Floyd took
to Twitter and voiced his frustra-
tions. His series of tweets read like
this:
"Moved back from Ann Arbor
three months ago because I was
promised a job in the Athletic
Department...I am a former stu-
dent-athlete and national champi-
on. After a promise and 3 months of
waiting and interviewing and wait-
ing more, they go and hire some-
one else...Leaders and Best? SMH.
Still, my loyalty is with Michigan.
I'll always support one of my favor-
ite people, Coach Hoke, any way
I can. There is serious disconnect
between the athletic department
and the athletic alumni and they
wonder why we don't come or give
back!"
Still, despite the setback, Floyd
remained resolute and confident
that he will find the job and career
he desires. He insists that he's at the
point where he won't be settling for
anything.
"It's just one of those things
where somebody's going to have to
give you a chance, and if they take
a chance on me, I won't disappoint
them," Floyd said. "I've never had a
job or left a job where, regardless of
what it was, they felt like I didn't do
a good job."
When cases like these emerge,
it's only natural to search for some-
one to point the finger at. But it
seems too complex an issue for any
one entity to shoulder-the blame,
Should the Athletic Department
or football program have done
more to help the men when they
were still playing? Floyd and Ray
stop short of saying that.
Floyd says that he had to fight
past some negative feelings about
his football mentors while strug-
gling in his post-football days.
"When my career ended, I
couldn't put together a resume,"
Floyd said. "I didn't have anything
to put on a resume but football.
When I was applying for these jobs
thinking Michigan should look
out (for me), that was me think-
ing selfishly, butat the same time,
I was very disappointed in myself
because I didn't prepare myself for
what I was going through."
Floyd also admits he wasn't the
most diligent student, doing just
enough to stay eligible but failing to
push himself academically and for
internship opportunities.
It's the same story for Ray, who
says he "ostracized himself from.
education." He doesn't blame any of
his coaches or support staff because
he says it wasn't their duty to make
sure he was preparing hinself for a
career. That doesn't mean the staff
was ignorant - former Michigan
coach Lloyd Carr told his star safe-
ty directly that he was an academic
underachiever.
Sword. also says "the only per-
son he blames is himself," since he
didn't take advantage of the oppor-
tunities that the University provid-
ed him. But he goes farther than his
former teammates.
"I'm not pointing the finger,"
Sword says. "I'm not trying to play
the blame game, because the Uni-
versity of Michigan gave me oppor-
tunities, took me places I would've
never imagined going ... but come
on man, you're talking about
18-19-year-old kids.
"I don't mean to be contradicting
myself, but there's got to be some-
thing that could've been done to
open our eyes about X-Y-Z."
If there's one thing the three
men agree on, it's that part of the
problem was their mentality. It's
one likelyshared by those following
in their footsteps across the coun-
try today.
To earn a scholarship to a Divi-
sion-I program, with rare excep-
tions, a. player has to be not only
talented but intensely dedicated
to the sport of football. And if one
has that combination, it's inevitable
that the game consumes most of
their lives.
When they finally do get to col-
lege, the necessary time and com-
mitment required only intensifies.
College football has developed into
a high-stakes, high-money sport,
with intense pressure on coaches
and players alike to be successful.
That means the latter group must
dedicate almost their entire lives to
the sport.
And when you are that good and
have spent that much time, why
would you think about doing any-
thing else after you leave school?
All three men say that all they real-
ly thought about doing was moving
on to the next level and playing for
a long time in the NFL. They con-
sidered nothing else - they were
football players. It was already
their job.
The sport has only gotten big-
ger in recent years thanks to the
influence of TV and other financial
interests. When asked at Michigan
media day about whether it wad
hard to imagine his future beyond
the daily grind of his sport, fifth-
year senior offensive guard Patrick
Omameh, a communications and
sociology double major, said that
it's "very, very difficult to think past
football," and agreed that it felt like
a full-time job.
The lack-of-time argument is
one that Shari Acho refuses to con-
sider.
Acho worked as an academic
counselor for the Michigan State
football team and then the Michi-
gan football team for 10 years, and
in her time at both universities, she
saw cases like Floyd -"lost souls,"
as she termed them. Acho said that
hearing those stories "drives me
every day (to) be passionate about
what I do (in) helpingthese kids."
That passion has manifested
itself ina relatively new program in
the Michigan athletic department
called the Michigan Career and
Professional Transition Program,
or M-PACT. Essentially the brain-
child of Acho that formed after she
noticed these issues developing, the
program received extensive sup-
port from then-new Athletic Direc-
tor Dave Brandon and others in the
Athletic Department.
M-PACT is now in its third year.
It's designed to help athletes dis-
cover their passions outside of their
sport, so that they will have more
of a plan and direction when their
playing days are over.
It's open to athletes in all sports
- Michigan football coach Brady
Hoke has made it mandatory for
his team - and has been very well
received by those who have partici-
pated.
Should M-PACT continue to gain
strength, perhaps those "souls"
won't ever lose their way.
"Then, when the success of the
game has been assured, and the
college course is finished, the man
who has been dined and feted has
to commence his life in the world...
The new clerk, who knows nothing
of business principle,-finds himself
far below men who seemed to look
up to him but a short time before."
- Harper's Weekly, Nov. 12,1892
It's Sept. 26, and Chris Floyd is
still in Ann Arbor.
He's still working days for Ann
Arbor Parks and Rec, and he's also
now an assistant football coach
for Skyline High School. He still
returns to work at the Blue Lep
occasionally, but the grind of foot-
ball season has made those shifts
less frequent.
Floyd isn't sure of exactly what
he'll do next - again - but he's
confident something will emerge.
He turned down an offer to return
to his old job in D.C., with better
pay, even, because he doesn't want
to concede a perfect fit elsewhere.
The former Michigan fullback
also still isn't thrilled with the way
the hiring process for the Athletic
Department position happened.
He attributed his decision to send
the combustive tweets, which have
since been deleted, to his lack of
knowledge about social media,
but stood by the sentiment behind
them.
"I don't take none of it back,"
Floyd said. "It is what it is. I sup-
port the football program and
Coach Hoke until the day I don't
support them no more. It's noth-
ing directed at him or football, but
at the same time, I feel like people
within the Athletic Department did
me wrong."
Floyd may be unsure of his next
move, but he remains resolute.
"I feel like as long as I continue to
network and put myself out there,
volunteer, or whatever the case may
be, I feel like something will come
in place ... I'm taking it as it comes."
Now, once more, Chris Floyd
must search for a path that's more
permanent. As many have discov-
ered, football isn't.
POP
O -s
.....................
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