September Was Perfect

​It's been a wild ride.  A defense full of holes, over and over their backs against the wall, bad snaps, freshman mistakes...and victories.  I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  This is new for all of us, this rebuilding.  It's from the ground up.  But it seems that the men brought in to lay the foundation, to be the foundation, are not here to wait or to settle for anything less than Michigan Football.

When the season started, one of my biggest fears was the prospect of a losing attitude.  When you lose 9 games, you get used to losing.  Losing becomes an option.  I thought that if this team found itself in a situation where the breaks were not going their way, when they turned the ball over, when an assignment was missed and the opponent began to put big points up on the board, that they would give in to the fact that they just aren't good enough.  Compounding my fear was the negativity from disgruntled players that will never see the field, the press, and the fans that pine for Les Miles to show up make things Lloyd-like all over again.

So far, all of my fears have been debunked.  I mean, sure, we probably aren't actually good enough to keep up this modicum of sucess, but we have a certain something.  Maybe it's that most of the team is too young to know better.  Sure it's a chiche used by teams that suck, but I am proud to say there is something about this Michigan team that cannot be measured, that doesn't show up on typical stat sheets.  Like the fact that we are probably the best team in the nation when it comes to allowing long drives that end in field goals instead of touchdowns, or that if the NCAA tracked poise under pressure, we'd be the consensus #1.

Whatever it is, however it happened, we should embrace it.  We don't know what the future holds, we only know that we already eclipsed last season's win mark, and that along with the assumption of Delaware State, we are a single victory away from returning to post season play.

That victory will likely occur this weekend, when Michigan travels to East Lansing to take on Michigan State.  Because Michigan State sucks.  Michigan State always sucks.  They are the tied with Northwestern as the 2nd worst team in the history of Big Ten football after Indiana.  They are an embarrassment on the field of play, where they routinely find ways to lose games that they have in hand through penalties and poor playcalling, and where they lose to far inferior (on paper) opponents.  They are equally embarassing off the field, where their players are best known for ruining their professional careers through drug use and shooting themselves in the leg in New York clubs.  They are inferior, less than human, and for lack of a better term, stupid.  Yes, they're stupid.  Everybody that follows them is delusional.  Their coach is overrated.  Their players are weak.  And in what will be a new setting, a road setting, for a group of Maize and Blue clad freshmen, the Spartans won't have a chance.

The Roundup, Indiana is Also Undefeated Edition: 9/22/2009

• MVictors talks of Little Brown Jug lore, and opens the question of whether or not the one we have now is the original one.  They also like my shirt.  I wish I had a nickle for every time I was referred to as a gym rat.


• When you're winning, press conferences can be downright fun.  RichRod's presser this week included some stand up comedy about his knowledge of lawyers.  AnnArbor.com reports.


• Michigan basketball landed a consensus top 100 recruit for 2011.  Welcome Carlton Brundidge.


• Center David Molk is out for the next 4 to 6 weeks with a broken foot.  At the same time, David Moosman is returning, and will likely be making the snaps.  In our shotgun-happy offense, this really freaks me out.


• Michigan landed the Big Ten Offensive player of the week award, our second straight.  Following Tate's heroic performance against Notre Dame, Carlos Brown turned in one of the best individual running back performances in Michigan history against Eastern with 13 carries, 14.4 yards per carry, for a total of 187 rushing yards.  Impressive even after factoring in the 90 yard touchdown run he had in the second quarter.


• Maize and Brew reminds us that the more things change, the more things stay the same.  Michigan abandoned the forward pass last Saturday, channelling Fielding H. Yost and amassing 380 yards on the ground.

From Oh Crap to Ho Hum

​You don't like to find yourself some stupid lucky play away from being tied at half with a far inferior opponent, but it's important to keep in mind that after EMU tied it up at 10-10, Michigan went on a 35-7 run to finish the game.  They also gashed the Eagles for 380 yards rushing, the most since 2003.  Tate was rarely called upon to throw, and I'm inclined to believe that the focus on the ground game was intentional and calculated.  The ground game keeps the boys grounded.  In short, we won't be having another week of Tate is Jesus press conferences.  Though he might actually be Jesus.  Oh, and Denard is still really fast, and still really a quarterback, he just can't throw so well....yet.

The defense was again, timely, but left a little something to be desired, especially early on.  However, the third quarter continues to be our quarter.  Michigan has given up zero points in the frame following halftime adjustments.  For the Western game, the Broncos had two third-quarter drives, one that resulted in a turnover on downs, the other ended in an interception.  The Fighting Irish had three third-quarter drives, a fumble and two punts, and a total of 22 yards.  Eastern had four drives in Saturday's third quarter, two ending in punts, one interception, and one turnover on downs.  So, ya, I think that means something.

In the end, it wasn't like we were all sitting around at the half, worrying about what would have been the ultimate disaster.  That fear is waning.  We were just all looking for something a little better, a little bit more "last week."  Call it Irish hangover, or lack of inspiration going into a meaningless game.  Whatever.  While we're not quite in a position to be looking past opponents, that's what we did, and we still won 45-17.  So there's that.  And that's enough as we transition to conference play.

Weekend Roundup: Earth Rotating in the Proper Direction Again Edition, 9/15/2009

It's time to get back to being Arrogant Michigan Fan.

We won.  You lost.  We won because we're better than everybody else, on and off the field.  We are the greatest college football team of all time, representing the best academic Univerisity of all time...the rest of you can get in line behind us.

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee...Central Michigan beat Michigan State.  Compounding my glee is that it came on the day that Dantonio's extension was announced, and just a couple weeks after Michigan State signed up to play directional Michigan in a round robin fashion for many years to come.  Little brother will never learn.  No matter what you do, no matter who you get to lead your band of misfits, you will still be dumb.  You're dumb.  There's nothing you can do about being so damn dumb.  From stupid penalties to drugged up quarterbacks to having your heroes shoot themselves in the leg...literally.  That is who you are, and that is who you will always be.

Sure, the events of the final 30 seconds all broke in the Chippewas' favor.  But we'd been outplayed by a significant margin for the 59 minutes and 30 seconds that preceded those 30 seconds--outgained by 74 yards and outconverted by 8 first downs.  And when it mattered most, we couldn't stop them.  Central gained a total of 147 yards to reach the endzone on both of its final two non-onside-kick-commenced drives.  We were lucky to be in position to win the game with 30 seconds to go.

And you're lucky we continue to let you participate in Big Ten football, as you have less Big Ten titles than the University of Chicago.

This feels great.

And you, OSU, who have taken advantage of the worst years of the Big Ten, have shown time and again that you are built only for this conference, and only when it sucks.  With the coach you have, a sweatervested god in your world, you have reached your peak.  You will forever live off of that single National Championship in 2002 that required the participation of a future felon that took money from a booster.  Cue Dr. Saturday...

Ohio State's failure to beat a quality opponent since defeating Michigan to punch a ticket to the national championship game in 2006, Tressel's teams have been outclassed, outsmarted, outplayed and outprepared in every big game they've played.

More, more, more!

This was a giveaway game, one the Buckeyes absolutely should have won. But it wasn't the kind where the quarterback makes a boneheaded play at the end of the game, or where the runningback fumbled, or the cornerback slipped and fell, or the kickoff coverage broke down. It was a game where the coaching staff let everyone down by asking its team to execute a rubbish gameplan.

And from the SF Chronicle, and article titled "A Better Choice - Ann Arbor" infers that Pryor made the wrong choice...

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit and some other national experts say that the No. 11 Buckeyes proved they can play against the nation's elite. If by play against, they mean play not to lose and handcuff their exciting quarterback with conservative play calling, then yes Ohio State proved that.

Did I mention how great this feels?  One more shot from Black Shoe Diaries...

Congratulations, Ohio State. You have a five star quarterback that can't read defenses. He stares down his receivers, throws off his back foot, and forces passes he has no business throwing. On top of that, he's an inarticulate headcase who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut leaving one to suspect he has some self esteem issues he's trying to mask.

Ok, enough.  Here's some links about us...

Tate Forcier and Darryl Stonum were named big ten players of the week.  Sports Illustrated said this about the last spot in their Heisman watch list...

Heisman-o-meter: There are a number of players who could've landed in this spot. Along with the aforementioned Gilyard, Pike and Spiller, Purdue's Ralph Bolden, Notre Dame's Michael Floyd, Alabama's Mark Ingram (who battled the flu last week) and even Michigan's Tate Forcier are among the multiple contenders.

Ya, well, no.  But, ya. In other news, 

Charlie Puddingpants whined about officiating, but we later found that pictures don't lie.  Troy Wollfolk walks soft and carries an empty leash.  

About his dog  (BTW things seem to be awfully fun at pressers these days)...

"I kind of like to walk him in the dark because he's black and he can't be seen, so it's like I just have a leash," Woolfolk joked.

The Wolverine talks of Euphoria

Coming for you, Ron English...GO BLUE!!

Things Are Different Now

​Going into Saturday's game, I really had no opinion on the outcome.  I didn't know, on any level, what was going to happen when Michigan took the field.  I mean, I knew what I wanted to happen, but I was probably more preoccupied with what I didn't want to happen.  I didn't want the euphoric feelings I felt after Western Michigan to be erased by a loss at the hands of the Irish.  Overcoming the adversity of practice-gate and the anti-Rich Rod rhetoric by way of a 31-7 victory was a really big deal.  But people don't want to hear about what you did for them yesterday, they want to hear about today.  I thought a lot about what people would think following a loss to Notre Dame.  I would have certainly been an apologist:  Notre Dame has a good team...Michigan is young and when they get more experience watch out...Next year is the year, maybe the year after that...yada yada yada.  But I don't have to worry about that anymore.  Because a group of very young men and a coach under fire have decided they don't want to wait.  They want it all...right now.

Though I don't do it very much in my day-to-day life, and I attend religious services about as often as I root for Michigan State, I find myself praying sometimes at football games.  I literally look to the sky with my hands folded, thinking there's some higher power that isn't busy with famine or disease or world peace that has time to fix a football game.  I was just in the middle of of something along the lines of "if you let Michigan win I'll volunteer at a..." when my connection was interrupted by Seven Nation Army and an entire section of students whipped into a frenzy.  This whole piped in music thing is so simple, so effective, that I can't believe we waited so long to implement it.  But that is just one of the many New Michigan Traditions.  The Victor's Walk, the honorary captains, and the team immediately sprinting towards the student section following a victory to sing The Victors, were brought here by Rich Rodriguez and are designed for one thing: FUN.

Michigan football, everything about it, is fun, perhaps for the first time.  From the play on the field, which is like some kind of wild circus of speed and trickery with a ringmaster that would've gone to prom four months ago if he didn't have spring practice, to the players seemingly as intent on getting us into the game by flapping their arms and pointing to crowd as they are with making the next play.  Rich Rodriguez, whose recruiting prowess grows with every early signee, made a pitch to the most stubborn of prospects.  And though two games, by showing what can happen when the right personnel runs a system, by saying all the right things, and by shedding a few tears, Coach has landed the biggest recruit in Michigan Football history...us.  We are on this team.  We are the 12th man.  We are All-In.

"Everybody kept saying a freshman couldn't do it," Michigan quarterbackTate Forcier said. "I did it."

Michigan is now ranked, which, as I discussed earlier in the week, changes the chemistry of the situation.  There are expectations now.  We are all assuming 4-0 going into Michigan State, and following Sparty's celebration of Mark Dantonio's contract extension by losing to Central Michigan for the third time, things are looking pretty good for our afternoon in East Lansing.  But we need to remember that despite Tate now being college football's poster boy for "freshman poise under pressure," he has yet to have his back against the wall with a stadium of people that want him dead.  The plus side is that we seem to have two consecutive cupcakes in front of us, which means that Tate...and please don't forget Denard...are going to be three weeks older, three weeks better, with two more games worth of plays and film analysis to help them.

But I'm here to tell you not to get ahead of yourself, to remember that while they are fearless and talented, they are still kids...and it's a long long season.  So let's just relax and enjoy these next two weeks, and revel in this miraculous start.

"I told them after the game, they have to stay hungry and humble. It's two wins. They'll get some respect back, but it's still a long way to go. If they stay humble and hungry, then some of that national respect that all of us want, our fans want, our players want, they'll get it." - Rich Rodriguez