Kritik und Anregungen » ault, + 1.99517. Pascal Wehrlein, M

The most popular item in Bill McCartneys basement full of memorabilia from a long and well-decorated coaching career is a picture of his Colorado teams 1994 victory at the Big House: The Miracle at Michigan.Theres a little button in the corner of the frame that when pushed summons Keith Jacksons unforgettable call of Kordell Stewarts 75-yard Hail Mary pass on the final play of the 27-26 upset over the fourth-ranked Wolverines. Derek McCartney, Bills grandson, lived next door growing up and would gather up his grade-school buddies on a weekly basis to bring them downstairs and give them all a chance to press the button.We wore that thing out, says Mike McCartney, Bills son. There wasnt a time we went into the basement where we didnt play it.Derek is now 22 years old and a defensive lineman for the Buffs, who will travel back to the Big House this season for another underdog matchup against a Wolverines team that is once again ranked fourth in the nation. Bill will be there to watch. It will be, he says, his first time back in the stadium that has meant so much to his coaching career since he left victorious 22 years ago.The visit will be an important trip for Bill, who worked for eight seasons in his home state as an assistant at Michigan before building a national champion from scratch at Colorado. The 76-year-old coach was diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimers disease this summer. Hes still physically fit and socially sharp, but his short-term memory has started to falter. Friends and family say he has trouble remembering conversations from earlier in the day. He can recall with clarity, though, practicing the Hail Mary pass from Stewart to Michael Westbrook the day before beating Michigan.It didnt work on Friday; the ball fell to the ground, Bill said. We didnt deflect it properly. So, its true that we got a little bit lucky, but we also felt like we prepared properly.An instant classic like that produces a thousand different stories from a thousand different perspectives. McCartney would probably be OK with hearing them all.Jerry Hanlons version starts in Miami, Ohio, where the longtime Michigan assistant was being inducted into Miamis famous Cradle of Coaches on that September afternoon in 1994. He says its the only home Michigan game he hasnt watched from inside the Big House since he started with the Wolverines in 1969.I watched it in the press box (at Miami) on the television and damn near jumped out of the box, Hanlon said.Hanlon was part of Bo Schembechlers staff in Miami that followed him up to Ann Arbor. Schembechler struck up a relationship with Bill after hearing that he had won football and basketball state championships in the same school year at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Shortly thereafter, Schembechler asked McCartney to join his staff and coach the linebackers at Michigan.McCartney grew up across the street from a high school in Riverview, Michigan, a few miles west from where the Canadian border dips down into Lake Erie. He would sneak over to the school and watch football practices, where he says he decided as a seven-year-old that coaching football would be his vocation.He shared an office with Jack Harbaugh for the majority of his eight years in Ann Arbor. During their first week in Ann Arbor, McCartney sent his boys down the street to meet Jacks sons, John and Jimmy. They had the best cereal of anyone in the neighborhood, Jim recalled earlier this week.McCartney eventually worked his way up to being the teams defensive coordinator. McCartneys monsters, as radio man Bob Ufer dubbed the defense, didnt allow a touchdown for five straight games (three of them shutouts) to help lead the 1980 team to a Big Ten title and Schembechlers first Rose Bowl victory.McCartneys allegiance to and reverence for Schembechler is the tie that binds Michigan and Colorados football programs. McCartney modeled much of his tough-love formula that made the Buffaloes successful after what he learned while coaching for the Wolverines.We tried to do things a similar way, McCartney said. I tried to duplicate that, although I wasnt Bo.Shemy Schembechler, Bos son, was a graduate assistant on Michigans staff when McCartney returned with his Buffaloes team in 1994. Shemys job after the final play of the game was to go and collect the prospects in town for the days game and bring them back to the locker room. It was as long and devastating a walk as he can remember having in the Big House.While on his way to retrieve the recruits, he bumped into Elli Uzelac, a former Michigan assistant who had joined McCartney in Colorado as offensive coordinator.He comes up behind me and says, Shem turn around, Schembechler says. He said, Sorry buddy, but we still love you. It was almost just like my dad. They had the same mantra of jubilance in winning a game like that. It was almost like it was the Michigan of the West.Colorados coaches agree with that description, almost to a comical fault.Whatever Schembechler did, Mac did, says Gary Barnett, a long-time McCartney assistant and eventually a head coach at Colorado. He did it to the point where we got tired of listening to all the Michigan stuff. It was Michigan this, Michigan that. Bo this, Bo that. He was in Bos corner all the way.As former Colorado coaches, Barnett and McCartney bump into each other frequently at charity events and golf outings. Those days usually come with a few stories from their time on the same staff -- knocking off Oklahoma State with a fake field goal in 91 or the year before, when Barnett replaced Gerry DiNardo as offensive coordinator a month before playing for a national title. McCartney called over Barnett to deliver news of his promotion. He said, OK, Gerrys leaving. Youre the coordinator. Figure out how to win the game. End of meeting.Barnett did. Colorado beat Notre Dame 10-9 in the Orange Bowl to wrap up an undefeated season and a national championship. A few years later, Barnett was the head coach at Northwestern and sitting in his office after a game when he flipped to ABC to catch the end of Colorado-Michigan. He saw the Buffaloes were down to a final play and walked away figuring they had lost.Barnett said as he remembers the play, it was actually Westbrooks job to tip the ball to another receiver. Their routes got crossed up near the goal line, so Westbrook was a little out of position when he caught the game winner. The coach says now that he should have known to expect the unexpected after working alongside McCartney for so long.Two months later, McCartney announced he was stepping away from coaching at age 55 to spend more time with his family. Barnett was shocked again.He was always going to do something or say something that was off the wall, Barnett said. For us, that one came out of nowhere, but it was kind of fitting.Mike McCartney has a version of the story, too, of course. He was working for the Chicago Bears at the time and made the trip back to Ann Arbor to see his dads team play in their old hometown.He remembers standing in the tunnel of the stadium late in the second quarter and seeing Les Miles, then Michigans offensive line coach, who was headed down from the press box to talk to his players during halftime. The Buffs had the ball and were going to try a deep pass to score before the break. McCartney leaned over to Miles, who was part of McCartneys first staff in Colorado, and let him know that Stewart had the arm strength to hurl 75 or 80 yards in the air.Les talked to me later on, he said. On that last play (of the game) he was in the press box telling Michigans coaches, Hey, McCartney told me Kordell can throw it 75 or 80 yards. You better back up. Can you imagine if they wouldve batted it down because of something I said? Luckily, it worked out.Mike McCartney called that weekend an emotional one, and he expects the return trip this time around to be much the same. Dozens of former players and coaches are planning to meet in town Friday night to relive glory days and tell their own versions of one of the many stories theyve shared together.As Bill McCartneys disease starts to eat away at his memory, those unforgettable moments become more important, his son said. They talk more now about old coaching stories than they ever have before, and calling them to mind lights up the old coachs face in a way few other things do now.Im 76, so Im over-the-hill Bill, but (this weekend) Im wired, fired and inspired, he said. We havent seen each other for a long time, but theyve got all stories. Those stories are funny and theyre also revealing. Im sure theyll be some of that. Theyll say, Do you remember this? and Ill say, No. Remind me. Patrick Willis Super Bowl Jersey . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. 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Hamilton set laps 0.004 and 0.013 seconds shy of Vettels early benchmark but was unable to dislodge the Ferrari from the top of the timesheets.Ferrari havent won a race in over a year and had only previously headed a Friday timsheet this season at the Chinese GP in April. We had a very good day, Vettel told Sky F1. Lewiss lap didnt look particularly good so I think he has more in the pocket, so tomorrow we need to be realistic.But perhaps more significantly world championship leader Nico Rosberg, who will secure the title if he wins this weekend and Hamilton finishes 10th or lower, struggled and was almost half a second slower than Vettel and Hamilton on his qualifying simulation.Earlier in Practice One, Rosberg had been nearly eight tenths slower than his Mercedes team-mate and championship rival when they both ran on medium tyres and Hamilton was fastest from Vettel. This years event is only the second Mexican GP staged since the race returned to the calendar twelve months ago after a 20-year absence.The track is feeling better than it did last year and I feel a lot more comfortable in the car than I did the first time we came to this circuit, said Hamilton.Rosberg narrowly avoided hitting the wall when he ran wide during his first Practice Two supersoft lap but had already been slower than both Vettel and Hamilton in the first sector.We have a lot of homework to do tonight, the German admitted. Ferrari seemed very quick, so they will be a big threat.Mexican GP talking pointsThe session saw a large divergence on tyre strategy as the field grappled with the tricky Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit. Although featuring a series of long straights, the tracks corners are almost invariably slow, a configuration which appears to have at once both highlighted the weakness of the Red Bull package and nullified its aerodynamic strength.Having emerged as Mercedes closest rivals since the summer break, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen lacked the pace of both the Silver Arrows and Ferrari and ended the day just fifth and seventh respectively, split by the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. The lap time of the Renault-bound Hulkenberg was all the more impressive for being set on soft tyres and nearly a second better than the best effort of his team-mate Sergio Perez.On an afternoon to forget for the two Mexicans in the field, Perez was just 15th while compatriot Esteban Gutierrez, fighting to keep his seat at Haas for 2017, was last. For McLaren, still aiming to end the year as the fourth-fastest team, Fernando Alonso just snuck into the top 10, ttwo places ahead of Jenson Button.dddddddddddd The Formula 1 Gossip column All the latest rumour and speculation in the paddock Mexican GP Practice Two timesheet1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:19.702. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, + 0.0043. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 0.4354. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 0.4695. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, + 0.6586. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, + 0.7847. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, + 0.8298. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 0.8399. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1.18410. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, + 1.21311. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 1.40312. Jenson Button, McLaren, + 1.40813. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 1.53614. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, + 1.65215. Sergio Perez, Force India, + 1.78916. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, + 1.99517. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, + 2.19018. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, + 2.20719. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, + 2.24720. Romain Grosjean, Haas, + 2.31521. Esteban Ocon, Manor, + 2.50822. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, + 2.618* All times set on supersoft tyres except for Hulkenberg and Perez on softs. Alex Zanardi talks to Marc Priestley about his life changing accident. Watch the full version this weekend during our Mexican GP coverage on Sky Sports F1. Can Lewis Hamilton keep his title dreams alive? Watch the Mexican GP live on Sky Sports F1 on Sunday, the race begins at 7pm; Watch the whole race weekend with a NOW TV week pass - £10.99, no contract Also See: The Formula 1 Gossip column Whens the Mexican GP on Sky F1? Talking points for the Mexican GP Get a Sky Sports weekend pass ' ' '