Spring Flings … Football in April.

  • BY Lisa Byington
  • 5.07.13

It felt anything but spring, for the “spring” football season.

In fact, “snow” fell on both Saturdays for the Michigan and Michigan State spring games.

I finally had time to compile a few videos of my favorite moments from both days:

Spring Football ’13 (Reporting)

QBs make prominent appearances in those videos, and in my thoughts …

For Michigan:

QB Personalities — Though Denard Robinson had/has an unforgettable smile, Devin Gardner has an undeniable spunk. Case-in-point, when he didn’t hesitate to poke fun at Denard for his botched “first pitch” at Comerica Park just days before the Michigan spring game. (see my spring game interview)

I like Gardner’s demeanor, some will debate whether it’s confidence or cockiness. If you win games, does it matter to Michigan fans? Maybe it’s the reporter in me, but I like a QB who has a little personality. Shows confidence and makes it more fun to cover. His style will advance this offense now to where Brady Hoke wants it to go. My colleague at BTN, Gerry DiNardo, made this point in that as talented as Denard was … his style impeded the growth of the Michigan program offensively. Devin advances that. Your thoughts?

For MSU:
Captain Kirk — The story was NOT that Kirk Cousins did well in his broadcasting debut for BTN. The story would have been if he had NOT done well. Cousins has the rare ability to be good at anything he puts his mind to — quarterbacking, broadcasting, becoming a doctor or politician.

By the way, if you haven’t seen the high school videos of Cousins singing, please check it out on my link above. And a special thanks to Cousins’ family (and to Kirk) for giving me access to those videos about 3-4 years ago. Those videos had only aired locally (on WLNS in Lansing) for a bowl-game preview show, before the Capital One Bowl between Alabama and Michigan State in 2011.

I thought it was time to give it a “bigger” stage, and to have Kirk directly react to it. He was, as usual, great about the blackmail. Here are some more fun links about how good of a “sport” Kirk is:

Washington Post: Teammates Tease Cousins on Singing Talents

And …

Detroit Free Press: Cousins Singing

See you in the Fall!

about the author

Lisa Byington has worked for BTN, FOX, CBS, Turner, and ESPN. She earned her BSJ and MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She also played four years of basketball and two years of soccer for the Wildcats.