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.

Please Exit the Bandwagon in an Orderly Fashion

​My biggest concern is what the State of Michigan will do now that Michigan State choked like a bitch in the championship game.  Poverty, homelessness, joblessness...they were all coming to an end.  The bad economy was to be carried out on the shoulders of Tom Izzo and some dude from Bosnia, but now our woes will continue.  Why?  Because somebody decided to embrace this "Michigan State is saving the world" bullshit, and forgot that there was a basketball game to play.

Ha ha, I couldn't be happier.

The press wanted this to be bigger than what it was.  Izzo and East Lansing took the bait, and set several championship game records of futility.

And for the Michigan fans that decided to Go Green for the weekend, I will chalk it up to you latching on to a winning team with some type of close proximity to where you live, to the fact that maybe you know a Sparty or are friends with a Sparty, or that you got lucky with one of the prostitutish coeds during your formative years.  I believe that you wouldn't have even blinked if they were ousted in the first round, in fact you probably would have chuckled a bit.  I think by halftime you were chuckling tonight.  They call that the bandwagon.  Don't feel bad, we've all jumped aboard a bandwagon or two in our lives.  I forgive you.  Even you Lloyd.  It's probably the right thing to do for someone in that position.  Just remember it for next time.

Because I promise you that you will never hear Dantonio praise John Beilein.

Weekend Roundup, You're Either With Us, Or You're With the Terrorists Edition: March 30, 2009

​Lots of talk around the 'sphere about whether you, as a Michigan fan, should have been...or should be...pulling for Michigan State during their run in the NCAA tournament.  The simple answer is: you can do whatever you want.  I'm not your dad, so if you want to get all teary-eyed when you recreate memories of the Flint-Stones, bump chests with your buddy over the dominating play of war-torn Bosnia survivor Goran Suton, embrace ESPN's assessment of Michigan State as the team that saved the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit, or even name your first kid Mateen...I really don't care.  If you want to play the Big Ten unity card, that's awfully nice of you.  GO BIG TEN!  Wooo hooo!  In the end, what you are really asking is if being a fan of Michigan State basketball, or rooting for them in some capacity, makes you less of a Michigan fan.

Yes, it does.

You can slice it any way you want to, you sleep with the enemy.  Pardon the old joke, but you should have three favorite teams: Michigan, the team playing Michigan State, and the team playing Ohio State.  And if the Big Ten sucks, or the perception of it sucks, there is a simple solution...you root for YOUR OWN TEAM to win more games.  You don't root for Sparty or the Buckeyes to make it better.  And when Sparty and the Buckeyes take the field, court, wrestling mat, or ping pong table to play each other...you root for injuries and recruiting violations.

Pulling for Michigan State is the easy thing to do.  It's exciting, this Final Four.  And it's right down the street.  The word "Michigan" is in the name of their school!  But Michigan is not there.  And you shouldn't be either, unless you've got UCONN gear on.

From Genuinely Sarcastic:

In the end, it's all equal. There is strong dislike on both sides for the other, and personally, I think it's an abomination for a Michigan fan to cheer for Michigan State to get to the Final Four. Not because of anything that may come of this in recruiting, but because MSU fans aren't going to do the same for UM. I cheered for Kansas, I cheered for Louisville, and I'll be cheering for Connecticut. I'm a Michigan fan, not a Big Ten fan,and a Michigan fan doesn't cheer for Michigan State.

This debate covered en masse and other stuff from the internets...

• Anti-state weigh-ins: MSC, Genuinely Sarcastic.


• Pro-Sparty positions: WLA, Maize and Blue Nation


• CJ Lee posts his final words of the season on MGoBlue's Court Vision.  Best wishes CJ, you were one hell of a walk-on.


• Denard can't get here fast enough to shore up the QB depth.  Actually, he probably could get here fast enough...if he ran.


• 11 questions for Big Ten spring football from the Chicago Tribune, including: Can Michigan survive with another green quarterback?

Confirmed...and Sorta Confirmed, but Shady

Hockey confirmed in the great outdoors.  MSU confirmed as the opponent.

Maurice Clarett's blog confirmed as his, but there seems to be some question as to how the words actually appear on the webpage, as there is no internet for inmates in Toledo Correctional.  Word has it that he dictates it to a relative that keys it in.  Sounds shady, but at least it explains the lack of misspellings and the grammatically correct prose.

We Laugh At Your Attempts At Hockey Crowd Records

​Hard to believe, but Michigan played Michigan State in hockey, outside at Spartan Stadium, over seven years ago.  They billed it as the Cold War, and it drew 74,554 fans, eclipsing a record (55,000) held previously by an area that played a part in the real Cold War...Moscow.  It was an amazing event (minus the cement laden venue in hell on Earth) right up until the end, where it ended in a tie.  Everybody knows a tie is like kissing your sister, and in this case it was even worse because it was like kissing your little brother.  So epic, yet so unsatisfying.

Enter the Wisconsin Badgers, who have decided to drum up a limited skirmish in Madison next February featuring the fair Wolverines.  The contracts are all but signed, and let me tell you, as Madison is my imaginary second home, that they will fill that stadium.  The drinking abilities and spirit of that town, coupled with the rabid traveling posse that would follow the Wolverines anywhere...even Columbus...and you've got yourself a recipe for a record crowd watching a hockey game.  That's going to take the record away from Sparty, and there's nothing wrong with that.  They'll be left with their record low number of Big Ten football titles, so ya, nice.

While we the Wolverines will have enjoyed participating in the two largest crowds ever to witness ice hockey, we also enjoy filling our own stadium with 100,000+ every football weekend.  Ahem, that's every weekend since 1975.  So we've decided that we will allow Badger Stadium to enjoy their record crowd...for 10 months.  After 10 months, when we're coming off of a seven game home football slate showcasing our new stadium, and making plans for a BCS bowl game, we will host our own hockey game, capacity 108,000.  When the ice dust has settled, Michigan will once again be #1, and unbeatable until they find a way to host a hockey game at MIS.  Michigan will have played in front of the #1,#2, and #3 largest crowds in ice hockey, which basically reminds the sports world that WE ARE THE SHIT.