Establish the Run

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Buying in to the success of Saturday's game is dangerous. I'm pretty sure we are not going to be able to line up and smash mouth through the remainder of our schedule. Sparty and Buckeye are too developed these days to fall victim to the classic Wisconsin we are portraying here. But I'm optimisitic that we out-conditioned a Pac-12 squad with a pedigreed, albeit new, coach. Jimmy put these boys to work over the last 9 months, no doubt. I honestly do not remember the last time we pushed and watched our opponent buckle, even in our biggest of blowouts against the patsy-est of patsys. We've been a product of scheme and speed for a while now, clinging to a few gifted athletes with an ability to un-break broken plays. Spare parts of a defunct RichRod era that seemed to run out of the little magic it had right around the time Brandon and Brady ran out of excuses.

But Saturday? Ball control, leaning on a team until they breakdown physically, vanilla traps and a classic Lloyd reverse? It's like time travel. You may now return to your regularly scheduled Michigan-style complaints of 1993-2007.

I am conditioned these days to ask for very little, and to expect even less. When the game began with a surgical strike of a drive by the Beavers and a Ruddock turnover, simultaneous mutterings of "here we go again" echoed throughout the Big House, and I had already begun to justify everything with the obligatory "it's going to take time for Him to turn this team around" again. Mantras like this are necessary for survival in a post-TheHorror world, and don't let Saturday's success skew you in to thinking we won't use that one again...we will.

But did we get better? I think so. Even if Utah was the toast of the Pac-12 and Oregon State is a pile of shit, things were different. Hits were harder. 10 helmets on the ball was common. Smith ran with purpose. Jake managed the game and looked slightly less skiddish.

In short: We should have beat Utah.

Establish the Tailgate

The craft beer tailgate went over pretty well. Noon kicks have been a little rare over the past few years, so it's tough to get a rhythm going. But we have two more noon kicks in a row to improve our pacing, and that starts with this weekend's contest against UNLV. In honor of our friends from Sin City, the tailgate theme is Vegas. Not sure what that means for food, but I'm going to deal live $1-$5 blackjack from 10-11am on site.

See you there! GO BLUE!

That Time My Ankles Got Wet When I Tried to Walk on Water

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9 out of 10 college football teams wear red

9 out of 10 college football teams wear red

Utah. Gorgeous little stadium with a view that rivals even Husky in Seattle. Great bunch of "nice-guy" fans. Football knowledge? Notsomuch. Bearded weirdo next to me thought the game was ending at the end of the third quarter. The intricacies of time outs, replays, and penalties seem to be lost on them. I heard a good amount of questions that are typically reserved for that-young-drunk-freshman-chick's first game.

Oh well, it's better to be an uninformed winner I suppose.

The Wolverines fell 24-17 in the opener, and in many ways it felt like we were lucky to be that close, even though we were probably just a couple of corrected mistakes away from winning. Weird. The first iteration of the Wolverines under Harbaugh looked a lot like the last iteration of the Wolverines under Hoke. So the eye test was undoubtedly disappointing. But the hope I was full of is not dead. And that's a result of the unbelievable patience I have developed since Bo died...combined with the fact that I have no choice.

I was happy to give RichRod a pass on his inaugural year with the bare stable he inherited from the end of the Carr era. And in turn, one of my reasons for optimism for this season was the personnel. Quick turnarounds require talent, and this group is far from pedestrian on paper. We were told the recruiting classes that made up this team were solid, right? I just assumed that a Harbaugh kick in the ass would fix all that ailed these underachievers.

But watching them yesterday the weaknesses were apparent. We're missing athletes. There's not a player that touches the ball on offense that exudes excitement. The attributes that can't be taught, even by our "savior," are missing right now.

That's not to say someone won't emerge. As time passes, depending on the level of success, I think this team will be invaded by youth. And the answer we're looking for might be there. I think there will be a point this year, maybe several, where we criticize coach for not playing (insert relatively unknown young roster member here) sooner.

Ruddock is clearly here to play that Griese game manager role. That seemed to backfire in game one. I'm pretty sure Shane is not the answer, but if it's a risk reward situation, I'm all for risk. And if that risk brings in Shane or someone further down the depth chart, I've got no problem with that. Same for any of the other skill positions. Ate too many donuts while being coddled by Brady? There's a hungrier kid behind you that might get your spot, so either get tough, get better, or get out of the way so we can have a bigger recruiting class. If I am to criticize, I would say I'm disappointed that there are not more underclassmen already on the top of the depth chart, which is either a function of poor evaluation or upperclassmen loyalty, neither of which I have time for.

My expectation is development, and to beat one of the two asshats at home. I believe the former will happen, and I hope somebody will come out of that that can help the latter happen.

We head home now, to welcome Coach back to the Big House under a little less fanfare than we would have had he pulled this out. And that's probably ok.

See you next week. Noon kick. Bring craft beer. Go BLUE!

Craft Beer Party Theme Set for Home Opener Against Oregon State

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Oregon State at Michigan - Theme: Craft Beer Party

Saturday, September 12, 2015 8:00am 4:00pm Ahhhh the great Northwest. Little known fact: Bubba, Stephen, and Dennis once went on the field in Corvalis.

We will celebrate the homeland of Oregon State with a Craft Beer Themed tailgate. Bring your favorite small batch brew and we'll put it on ice and act pretentious and snooty about the flavor, discussing its place of origin and the brewmaster and whatnot. Why? Because a noon kick makes for a short tailgate, and a short tailgate is not long enough to get drunk and drink bad beer.

Pastrami hash for breakfast. Some skewers of random meats for second breakfast. Let do this. Seriously, bring at least a sixer of something tasty.

The remainder of the season's themes are here.

Day One is Done. I'm with Stafford.

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Solid amount of craziness in the early sessions, followed by some great finishes in the evening.  All in all a great first day in Bracketville.  Justin (AKA Mr. Princess) is at the top of the points and points possible leaderboard, which is about as good as it gets after a pair of 3-seeds go down.

I think we'll lose one of the 2-seed teams today, and I feel like the 5-12's might just go chalk, which I guess is a non-upset upset.

Of course, I only have one real rooting interest for today (and with me going 8 of 16 in my bracket who can blame me) and that's for the Bulldogs.  If you listen carefully you will hear the echoes of me bellowing out northern accented renditions of "Go Dawgs, Sic 'Em" nestled between chants of "SEC! SEC! SEC!."  I can't wait to see Izzo's angry little dwarf face.

Then the puck drops at 8pm at the Joe for Michigan-Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament semi-finals.  So there's that.  Go Blue.