Weekend Roundup, Now What? Edition: October 6, 2008

Here's what you might have missed around the internet while you divided your time between cursing the television and taking a candy bar quiz

• We lost, now take your medicine.  Here...and here.


• Beilein says there are better days ahead for UM basketball.  That's mainly because it cannot get any worse.


• But in his defense, we did get our third commit for the 2009 class, two of which are top 150 prospects.  It's a race to see which West Virginia coach pays off first!!!! Article with local flavor here.


• RBUAS writes like you wish you could...this time about a meeting with Coach Carr, TT, Mike Hart, the Wisconsin game, and finding people on this team to identify with.


• Rich Rod makes fewer excuses every week, putting responsibility on both the players and himself, and not using inexperience as an excuse...even though he could.  This week, he flat out says "we played soft."

A Carnival With A Dash of Hot Sauce

We were a tilt-a-whirl and a couple of carnies away from being able to sell tickets to this thing.  The carnival themed tailgate was once again our best showing.  Games, prizes, elephant ears, and a plethora of fried foods set the festive tone.  We blanketed the golf course in Cholula Hot Sauce, making friends with our tailgate neighbors and hundreds of passers-by along the way.  Special thanks to KT for creating the games and furnishing the prizes, from the duck pond to pin the sweatervest on Jim Tressel.  Thanks to KT (again) and Joe for making their way across the golf course to pass out sauce and recipe books.  Thanks to Julian Gonzales, Free Press photographer, for coming out and giving us some notoriety in the metro area.  Finally, thanks to Cholula for sponsoring our day and "spicing" things up.

Quick press linkfest:

• Article on Rich Rod's mom that is nestled next to an artsy black and white of your's truly holding up hot sauce bottles and looking like some kind of tailgate troll is here.


• Freep photos of the day, including two from our tailgate (#5 and #6) that include an action shot of steak sandwich building and our own Baby Beth and friend Drew in Cholula gear.


• Michigan Football Saturdays gives us a shout out...thanks.


• Our pics from the tailgate, courtesy of Tuba and Greg.

One more note...I'm pretty sure we are going to have an article on the tailgate pop up this week in the Freep, most likely in the Life or Food section.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to everyone for helping put us on the map!  GO BLUE!

With Every Passing Week, I Know Less

We all have expectations.  The problem with them is that they are ever changing.  Week to week...even game to game.  At halftime of the Wisconsin game, you expected Michigan Football to fold up shop for the rest of that game...and perhaps the remainder of the season.  At the end of the Wisconsin game, and moving into this week against Illinois, you had us improving our way through this transitional season, and sneaking ourselves into a Big Ten title chase like we snuck our way through that second half.  On the heels of the Illini's 42-6 run in the final three quarters of Saturday's game, expectations have changed again.  Admit it, you are worried about Toledo.  Ya, me too.

It's difficult to decide what is real, what is growth and improvement, from what is an aberration.  Was that ass-kicking we just endured the real 2008 Wolverines...or was that the product of a bad day, bad scheme, or over-confidence?  Was the amazing poise and fortitude we showed against Wisconsin the result of luck and circumstance?  If Wisconsin gave Ohio State its biggest scare outside of the Colosseum, can we make a game of it in Columbus?  Or with Juice racking up 431 yards in our house, can we expect Pryor to break an NCAA record in the Horseshoe?

We've played 20 quarters of football this season...maybe 5 of them could be considered complete or successful, but not quite completely successful.  That's 25% good, 75% bad based on my rough estimates.  Not exactly a bolstering of my confidence.

But if I told you we went toe to toe with an undefeated Utah team that is the second best flavor of the month in college football behind their neighbors in Salt Lake City and has clawed their way to a #14 ranking, and knocked off a team from Madison that was ranked #9 and by all indications was a challenger for the Big Ten title...maybe that would help.  Until Saturday (and thru most of Saturday) we found ourselves competing in every game.  And while we might be bringing a knife to these gun fights, we still are managing to get some good stabs in along the way.  I think we can play with anybody.  Unfortunately, I think anybody can play with us as well.  Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will find ourselves with the defense we saw keep us in the Wisconsin game exist symbiotically with the offense from the first quarter of Illinois game and the turnover margin from, well, some other season.

This is still worth waiting for.

UMTailgate Carnival...Brought to You By Cholula

A reminder to everyone that this week's theme is the UMTailgate Carnival.  Elephant ears, cheesesteaks, and assorted carnival fare are on the menu.  The fryer(s) will also be in action with assorted delights.  In addition, hotsauce mavins Cholula are sponsoring our tailgate, and we will be distributing Cholula (we've got a lot of it) and Cholula cookbooks to our guests, passers-by, and neighboring tailgates.

On top of all of that, the Detroit Free Press will also be in attendance, taking pictures for an upcoming article on tailgating.

See you there!

Aftermath

​How many times is too many when it comes to watching M v. UW 2008?  I think the line should be drawn at once per day, though I have watched the game in its entirety and chased it with a replay of the second half, but don't tell anybody.  It's been fun.  But the truth is that despite the amazing game that featured an amazing comeback, and the media's coining of this as a signature win for the program, there is still A LOT of things wrong.  There are still A LOT of questions.  We are four games in, and you don't know much about the 2008 Wolverines aside from that you shouldn't leave a game early that features a Barwis-trained team no matter what the score is.  In short, the heart is there.  The conditioning is there.  The passion is there.  These kids want to play for THIS coach, which is significant at this early stage in RichRod's tenure.  But none of that manifests talent where talent is lacking.  Threet is learning and improving...but he will never be Pat White.  The line is leaning and improving...but they will never be last year's left side.

The truth?  We stole that game.  Beating the #9 (overrated) Badgers was big, and unlikely.  And make no mistake, beating Illinois would be just as big, and is just as unlikely.  While everything you saw looked and felt like turning the corner on to the highway of Big Ten championships, it was really just a u-turn.  On Saturday, we have to go back and do it all over again.  That's the hard truth.  The easy truth?  Looks like it might be fun to watch, which is a far cry from what you thought it was going to be after 6 quarters and 11 turnovers.