Semester and Bowl

At last, the semester is finished and somehow I survived. What's more, my beloved U of M, after starting the season 2-4 rallied to win 5 of their last 6 and finish 7-5. We play this Friday--December 21st--in the New Orleans Bowl against Florida Atlantic coached by Howard Schnellenberger (best guess on the spelling), he who coached Miami to the 1983 Championship against Nebrasks before Tom Osborne discovered the need for speed on defense. Coach S also played for the Bear (the Coach for the Ground of Being and I'll concede that Bear is presently assisted by Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy) at Kentucky, which would make him at least passably plausible if he weren't lined up against Memphis. I'm hoping U of M can win, but even going to a game after last year's 2-10 "transition" is a large accomplishment. Too many folks on the Commercial Appeal's sports blog argued that our Coach West should be fired for the slow start, but I think they reflected our cultural tendency to want everything now (like a National Championship for a school that isn't even a BCS Conference) rather than giving his staff time to regroup AD (after DeAngelo). So I'm happy the semester is done and the U of M is in a bowl game. We'll go from there--