How Bad Are We?

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As the prognosticators stake their claim on the 2005 football season, Michigan again gets the dubious honor of being highly touted and highly doubted. It's tough not to rank us in the upper echelon of this year's teams, because you don't want to be the guy caught leaving Michigan out of your top 10 when they make a play for a Big Ten three peat. But it seems you need also to take shots at them to cover yourself if they fold. This is definitely a deja vu moment for Michigan followers, who see similar reports every year. A bridesmaid since 1997, the Michigan Wolverines have done nothing to impress the national media, who live in a what-have-you-done-for-me-today world.

Forgotten is our nation leading run of 30 straight bowl games, the longest in the nation. By the way, in the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd years we had a combined record of 30-2, screwed by the Big Ten on several levels including keeping us from the Rose Bowl by way of a shady vote, and not letting any team go to any other bowl game other than the Rose.

Forgotten is our run in the national polls, not falling out of the top 25 since October of 1998, by far the longest run in the nation.

Forgotten is our history, our tradition, and the way we have usurped Notre Dame as the greatest college football team of all-time.

Forgotten is coach Lloyd Carr, who is 5th among active coaches in winning percentage, just barely behind Bobby Bowden, and ahead of Joe Paterno, Lou Holtz, and Mack Brown.

More recently, forgotten is that last year we replaced a senior quarterback and Heisman trophy runner-up running back with two true freshman in what could only be classified as a rebuilding year...on our way to a second consecutive Big Ten Championship. Going back-to-back is feat rarely accomplished by any team in the Big Ten, other than Michigan. And while the second championship was a tie, the team we tied with (Iowa) suffered a 30-17 loss in the Big House.

Forgotten is Michael Hart, the Big Ten's leading rusher that didn't play until week 3, and ran for 200+ yards in three consecutive games.

It seems that the banter that is tossed about is about how we are "worse off", and everyone else is "better off". While Chad Henne and Michael Hart are poised for Sophomore slumps, and we can't recover from the loss of Braylon Edwards, there's no doubt about the definite improvement in Drew Stanton and Drew Tate. And Iowa, who didn't have a single player rush for over 227 yards, was last in the Big Ten (11th) and 116th out of the 117 Division I teams in rushing will be a force to be reckoned with. No sophomore slump for Ted Ginn, who is perfection personified, and will score a touchdown every time he touches the ball.

Texas is a national powerhouse. Clearly worlds better than our Wolverines. But if a field goal had twisted just a bit more at the end of the 2005 Rose Bowl, would the world even know who Vince Young is?

So the pundits post predictions (that's called alliteration) and we summarily post them on the message board. They talk of heart, drive, paper champions that can't get "off the paper." We're not hungry. We're not driven. We're spoiled, over-recruited athletes. But these same idiots also claim that we will win the Big Ten, the consensus best conference, for the third consecutive year.

I only know what I know, and it's not based on statistical analysis, positional matchups, or coaching styles. Michigan will have somewhere between zero and three losses, that's 0,1,2, or 3, which in my gorilla math equates to a 25 percent chance that I'll be celebrating victory in Pasadena on January 4th. But with 23 days to go until life begins again, I think I just might be getting ahead of myself. I'll leave the business of making predictions to the idiots.

 

The Waiting Game

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It's summer. The weather is tolerable (albeit humid) here in the great state of Michigan. Barbeques, sunshine, swimming, drinking, and pastimes. More importantly, America's National Pastime, alive and kicking in Detroit. The Tigers, floating around .500, are slowly but surely making their way back into the hearts and minds of the locals, who remember clearly that Detroit was Baseball Town long before it was Hockeytown. Championships won at Michigan and Trumbull will be forever cherished for their impact to the Tiger follower in 1984 and their social impact on a city in ruin in 1968. I sit here now just pining for the rivalry with the Blue Jays and playoff run of 1987. But that was nearly twenty years ago, when there was just an American League East and American League West, when Wild Cards were reserved for reruns of Card Sharks, and the upper deck at a Tiger game was closer to the field than current seats behind home plate. Yes, but, the past is the past. And our Detroit Tigers have a beautiful new facility...and if you build it, they will come.

Enter the Midsummer Classic, the 2005 All Star Game. In Detroit for the first time since 1971, and full of more fluff than ever before, the All Star Game brought hope. Hope that downtown can be alright, hope that traveling to a big city for a weekend night doesn't necessarily mean you are heading to Chicago, and most importantly, hope that baseball is not dead in the "D", and championships will soon be arriving at Witherell and Montcalm.

We rounded up some familiar faces and spent two straight summer evenings at Comerica Park. First for the Home Run Derby, which in many ways surpassed, at least in entertainment value, the game itself, meanwhile proving that our Yosemite can be overcome with some left-handed power. The eight of us drew numbers in good old fashioned UMTailgate.com pool form, each number representing a participant in the derby. Godfather pulled number 1 like a Dogan, garnering him Bobby Abreu, who put up record numbers before knocking off hometown hero Pudge, owned by infrequent tailgater and Sparty apologist Wayne, in the finals. Wayne's loss continues right through this weekend, when he will give up single life for the first daughter of Riverview.

The All Star Game itself had all the pageantry of a bowl game, with famous anthem singers and stealth bomber flyovers, moments of silence and long lineup introductions. Though it felt over for most of the game, with the American League posting seven unanswered runs in the first six innings, the National League made a game of it with five runs of their own in the last three innings. A storm hit quickly in the ninth on our way out of the game that gave the A.L. home field advantage for the World Series, and continued dominance in this midsummer match up by way of a 7-5 victory.

Though the $8 beers flowed freely while in the park, we still found time for "extra innings" in the Delux Lounge, which was packed on both nights and proudly served Captain Morgan. Performing to the best of our ability for the off-season, and tailgating with out actually involving a vehicle of any sort, we persevered in the face of adversity, and got comfortable with the city in the process. Of course, we stuck to the road most traveled, the extent of which was Brush St. from the CoPa to Greektown. But you could see that area as acceptable for hosting an event of this kind. There is work to be done before the Super Bowl, but the outlook is not nearly as bleak as many once believed.

So what was all this for? Well, it was the All-Star Game, which may not return to the area for another 35 years, when UMTailgate.com Stadium adorns the downtown area. Though I do love baseball, it's an event you have to go to whether or not you love it, just for the sake of the event itself. It was also a great excuse for a mini reunion, or in the Godfather's case, another excuse to not drink Captain and Coke alone. But most importantly, with just days separating us from our corner of the golf course and an opening weekend with a 3:30 kickoff, it was a practice. Practice makes perfect. And for the best damn tailgate in all the land, perfection is something we strive for on a week-to-week basis. There's 43 days to go. I hope your practicing too.

A Little Spring In Our Step

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It was "quality, not quantity" at the Spring Game tailgate. That is to say, this tailgate was about as much a tailgate as the Spring Game is actually a game.

Everybody seems to be too busy to make their way out to Michigan Stadium between the wedding showers, birthday parties, and being in labor. The upcoming Winter (now Spring) Reunion also put a damper on the turnout, with several tailgaters holding out for next week and the arrival in Ann Arbor of the Godfather. Stay tuned to the message board for a detailed schedule of this event which will occur on Saturday, April 23.

In the parking lot, it was Captain Michigan, Janet, Bloomfield, and the Webmaster. Just drinking a few beers, watching the limited edition DVD of last season's tailgates, and telling stories of tailgates past. As far as the Spring Game itself, you couldn't have asked for much more. The best weather of the year thus far, a large crowd in the stands, and the back-to-back Big Ten Champion Maize and Blue on the field. Enjoy the photo album by clicking the picture above, and we'll see you all soon (some of you next week!).

GO BLUE!

The Webmaster

Time to Mess With Texas

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The most all-time victories, the highest winning percentage in the history of college football, the richest tradition, and the most conference titles...for any team in any conference. But 18-17 in bowl games, and 8-10 in the Rose Bowl. It's our kryptonite, our proverbial achilles heal. Great season after great season, and just short of half of them ending in a loss. Unacceptable.

And now we are headed for what many see as certain doom. Michigan is said to be outmanned, and enter their 9th consecutive New Year's Day bowl as 6-point underdogs.

The worst part about it? From Thanksgiving to Christmas, you haven't really cared. Shame on you. The pundits claim that the 2nd best team in the Big 12 is nearly a touchdown better than the best team in the Big Ten, and you seem to just be waiting around for Vince Young and Cedric Benson to run all over us.

It's time to wake up. The importance of this contest has ramifications that will stick with Michigan for years to come. This is the Rose Bowl, and everybody will be watching. If the Wolverines are tamed and fold up shop, the message will reverberate yet again that Michigan is always good but never great.

We cannot afford to let this happen again.

So when the Wolverines take the field on January 1st, they're going to need everything they have, including you, to pull off the upset. Put on some yellow socks, don a jersey, and cheer Michigan on to a monumental victory.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Go Blue!

The Day That Didn't Matter

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I heard all of the pre-game hype. About what this game meant, about how Michigan had everything to lose, and the Buckeyes had nothing to lose. About how the Big Ten Championship and a BCS bid was on the line. But then it was gameday...

They did it. They beat us. For the 5th time since 1988, the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Wolverines, and in dominating fashion. We had no answer for the offense that they created just for us. They practice to play us each and every week, even weeks when they were scheduled to play Northwestern, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Purdue. They don't just look ahead to Michigan during the season, they look ahead to Michigan as their season. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we don't. We play all of our games. That leaves Ohio State as a game in our season, not our season as a whole. And this year, that wasn't enough for us to compete.

It was difficult to leave the horseshoe, even when we fell be behind by 20 points. The Wolverine faithful, with leftover miracle hope from the MSU comeback, just wouldn't give up. But the team on the field didn't have the magic that day, and more importantly just didn't have the gameplan to solve Ohio State. Troy Smith ran through our defense as the NCAA ran through files in the Buckeye athletic office, and the Wolverines suffered their first Big Ten loss.

Disappointment? Yes. Buckeye fans rushing the field as if they had just clinched the National Championship is enough to make any Wolverine fan's blood boil. But the thought had to cross your mind...what are they celebrating? Yes, they certainly should be happy that they pulled off an upset, but are they so far gone that they don't realize they finished behind Northwestern in the Big Ten, and are slated for a bowl game that occurs before the new year?

Michigan is the Big Ten champion, and will be going to the Rose Bowl for the second straight year. Had Michigan won instead of lost on Saturday, they would be the Big Ten champion, and would be going to the Rose Bowl for the second straight year. So what did Michigan-Ohio State mean this year? It meant about four hours of wondering about the postseason before everything fell into place.

Perhaps you are disappointed in the season as a whole. Maybe you thought Gutierrez and Underwood would be the cornerstone in a National Championship season... but then again, you thought Gutierrez and Underwood were actually going to play, so what do you know? I guess this was a rebuilding year, and if that's the case, what a great one it was. Replace the Heisman trophy runner-up and 5th year senior quarterback with two true freshman, and win several close and exciting games on the way to a second consecutive Big Ten championship. You may have accepted that fate before the season started, and you certainly would have accepted it after Notre Dame.

The ebb and flow of college football. Coming out of the non-conference schedule, you pointed to Iowa, Minnesota, and Purdue as very possible losses. How would we stop the vaunted rushing attack of Minnesota? How would we put Heisman trophy shoe-in Kyle Orton in check? We beat them all. And now they're all looking up at us, wondering how they let us slip by, in a year where our team wasn't a dominating powerhouse, but a group of men trying to learn the system in a sport where every game counts... except for Michigan vs. Ohio State.

So the 2004 regular season comes to a close. Thanks again to everyone that played a part in our tailgate that celebrates the greatest team in college football. I hope we can have a great bowl game turnout and an active off-season for UMTailgate.com. See you all soon!