Dear Coach...

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Hey.  How are you?  I often think about how tough this must be for you, riding this out, knowing what you know, and trying to find a way to articulate it at press conferences without betraying the previous regime or belittling the current players.  I think about how the words "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit" is on the tip of your tongue, right next to "if you assholes would just be patient and let me do my thing, I will take you to the promised land in a couple years."  But you can't say those things.  You need to pretend to live for today, even though you pine, like those of us that understand, for tomorrow.

We the fans have stood by as things have started to unravel a bit, the latest chapter being the unspeakable loss to a bad MAC squad.  But as complicated and rabid Michigan fandom is, our needs our very simple.  We don't work with people from Toledo.  We rarely spend quality time with folks from Champaign.  I've never met anyone from Utah.  However, Sparty Alums are everywhere.  We see them in our offices (cleaning up the trash), we see them in restaurants (serving us fries), we bump into them occasionally in social situations (starting fires and jumping on police cars).

They have been a dominant force in college basketball for several years now, while our program has seen the ultimate demise.  And we hear about it, usually starting sometime after the 1st quarter of the Michigan - Michigan State football game and going through to March Madness.

On the flipside, we have the best football program of all time, and they have less Big Ten championships than Northwestern.  This is where we own them.  Where we have always owned them.  Where we need to always own them.  You can fix THIS season coach....and it starts by understanding what this game means to all of us.  While the Big Ten championships and National Championships will require a year or two of work, the state championship requires only 4 quarters.  Simply put Coach...BEAT STATE.  I promise you that if you win, you can do whatever you want until November 22nd.  It is then that we'll have to have another conversation.  See you then.

See You in 2020

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It's not easy to accept, but losing to Penn State every 12 years is something I'm willing to deal with.  In addition, now that the game is over I have no problem putting my money behind the Nittany Lion horse as they attempt to get Grandpa Joe one last championship.  This is especially true since we have a stake in Penn State football as WE STILL OWN THEM.  One win is not going to change all of that.

Once again, flashes of the team we all hope that Michigan will become made a brief appearence in the first half, just as they did against Illinois...and Miami of Ohio....and the second half against Utah.  We've played some half-games this season, just no full ones.  We're gonna need a full one this Saturday against little brother.

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The Hammer: I'll Keep It Simple

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I'm glad to see our website and message board maintain some of the dignity in which this institution was founded on. (Even if we've lost a little bit of it on the field). The most unflattering trait in a person is dishonesty. And what permeates from many in our fan base is the John Kerryish flip flopping of their loyalty. And if your booing and calls for Rich Rodriguez's job are defended by your definition of loyalty you need to check out Webster's online dictionary. I hear one side of the argument yell "with the talent Michigan gets how can we be 2-4" and the other side of the argument yell back in an echo "where's all the talent we used to have." You're ping ponging your impatience and your petulance across the internet and my inbox. Does your pride lack inflation? Do you not like the taste of humble pie? Is your instant gratification quotient not filled by the general saturation of sports and their television broadcasters? Are you embarrassed? Or simply losing bets? What is it that makes you stand up and boo? The fact that Lloyd Carr and Mike DeBord would have done better with this team?!

This is the first pancake in the batch my friends. No one eats the first pancake. And if you keep this up you're not getting any.