No? Well, it sucked real bad. It was cold. It was stupid. And there's no doubt I will forget that it was cold and stupid when I load up the truck to do it again next year. Regardless, I owe you these pictures...which are courtesy of mounty-lover Derek.
I'll miss you Jake :(
You could spend the rest of the day crying in your beer about Jake Ryan and his torn Achilles, or you could just channel your sadness into working on the madness.
There's less than 24-hours until the tourney begins, so get your bracket and your *ahem* donation in soon. The bracket is here.
Don't have the password? Send an email to tourney2k13@umtailgate.com to see if you are worthy.
From the News...
We're a month away from the Spring Game / Tailgate Reunion...and it's St Patrick's Day. So...you know where I am. Stop by and have a Guiness.
Just when you thought we were done with football until Freshman arrival, Michigan made the news by having a point guard visit football practice. Greg Paulus wants to play football, and after visiting with the Green Bay Packers, he set his sights higher and knocked on RichRod's door. Listen, this ain't gonna happen. I'm really not interested in player rental, and RichRod shouldn't be either. Kinda makes us look desperate.
Rittenburg heard from Jason Forcier, grabbing this quote from a Tate to Jason brotherly phone call:
Tate is not worried about (Paulus's visit). Colt McCoy can be transferring into Michigan and it wouldn't faze Tate one bit. He is one of the most competitive kids I know."
My only hope is that Colt takes the bait and shows up on campus. I kid, I kid. He'd have to sit out and stuff. Then again, Paulus would have to as well, if he could transfer at all, unless he found a work around to reactivate the Ryan Mundy rule. Looks like Jason Forcier is trying that workaround too. But he's never going to play, so can't he just be a clipboard holding GSA? Anyway, if you mix Jason's quote with Tate's previous quote...
My goal is to be a little bit like Colt McCoy. It's almost nearly the same size and speed. It's possible I may have a stronger arm than him.
...you find that the Forcier boys are obviously Colt McCoy fans. Hook'em horns, eh?
Down. Dead. That's the story that sells the papers, the magazines, or has them clicking stories on the internets. Michigan's fall from grace is a happy tale for those outside of the fanbase. Many have been waiting a lifetime for this moment, pining for a chance to throw back into the face of a Michigan fan their years of pent up frustration. 3 and 9. It's akin to getting a handshake with one hand while getting a middle finger with the other as casual acquaintances that know your allegiance but barely know you give you the "Hey, how you been?!? What's up with Michigan football, huh?!?" And each transfer, for better or worse, is met with some sort of glee. "Hey! Saw that (insert quitter here) transferred to (insert Big 12 school here). What's happening to that program, huh? Bo must be rolling over in his grave." They don't really want answers. They really don't care. They just want to keep poking you with that stick. At 3 and 9...there's nothing you can say. "We'll be back." is simple enough, but citing evidence outside of the elusive stats of Rich Rod's 2nd year at other institutions is a difficult task. Plus, we're not sure we believe it ourselves.
But on one sunny Saturday afternoon, the believers and non-believers alike gathered to catch a glimpse of the uncertain future, hoping for some good news. A new quarterback that just 3 years ago didn't have a driver's permit appears to be leading this offense, and showed flashes of brilliance against a defense that by Spring Game rules was barely allowed to touch him. He did throw some good balls, and showed a decent pocket presence. He seemed to make decent decisions with regards to running when the line collapsed around him. Whether he can actually elude a hit...or more importantly take a hit...remains in question. What is not in question is his athletic ability, which seems to be a significant upgrade from what we saw last year. Put simply, in a vacuum, Forcier throws a better ball, is faster, and is more agile than either option we saw a year ago. But making assumptions that he will be better come gameday are probably premature. He saw a lot of action against a second team defense, the second team of the Big Ten's worst defense and the worst defense in Michigan history.
Outside of quarterback, everything else was equally tough to judge, which is to say it was tough to judge positively. Special teams? Meh. Kicking game? Ugh. We have no placekicker, and even Zoltan had the shanks.
But there was a positive...one that shined with certainty...and that was the event as a whole. People came in droves to tour the locker room, see past heroes play a game of flag football, and to watch the Maize face the Blue under the pretense of hope. Say what you want about the new regime, they created the hype necessary to pull off a successful event using tools that were previously reserved for the spreading of viral YouTube videos. Facebook, Twitter, and the like are now a part of Michigan Football. The old folks will have to adjust to the era of social media like a previous generation adjusted to forward pass. In the end, with a little help from mother nature by way of a beautiful Spring day, 50,000+ made the pilgrimage to the Big House. And that's a good thing. It spawned a spattering of good press, which while possibly counter-productive depending on how big Tate's head gets, still was the first positive press to make it's way out of Ann Arbor since Michigan's 20-point 4th quarter dispatched of the Badgers on September 27th.
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