It was an amazing morning of food and friends and fun. But things went sideways from about 12:45pm on. The Wolverines end the regular season with 9-3 record and will face Texas in the Citrus Bowl.
Big city visits are the one redeeming factor of the addition of Rutgers and Maryland, so DC was on the menu for the weekend, and Michigan expat bar Ivy and Coney was the tailgate spot all day Saturday leading in to the 4pm kick. It was tremendous on all accounts. Met up with a bunch of the tailgate crew, met some new friends, and ate a very accurate replication of a Lafayette coney dog.
As Michigan dominated on the field and I was starting to dream of ways Michigan could beat Ohio State again, a random Maryland fan came up the aisle and felt the need to inform me that the game was rigged. I thought he meant that refs we’re making calls in Michigan’s favor, and was ready to provide 30 years of evidence to the contrary, but then he went off on a diatribe about how Locksley is somehow on the take, and just going through the motions so he can get to his steakhouse in the post game. “Come see me at GrillMarx” the fan said…I’ll tell you the real story. I laughed and chatted up the Maryland fans around me about this crazy conspiracy theory filled fan — and instead of dismissing him as a loon, a couple of them doubled down on Grillmarx. So, something is going on at Grillmarx. I did not go to Grillmarx for the real story. Instead I went to Stan’s Cocktail Lounge, where a record scratched as we entered akin to when Flounder and the boys stepped in to the Dexter Lake Club. Pours were heavy, food was fried, and music was the kind of late 80s early 90s R&B that makes a suburban Detroit kid smile. Success.
All things touristy and Chicago were consumed: Italian beef, Chicago dog, Italian plates bigger than serving platters. We pre-gamed Wrigley-ville, took in a majestic and historic venue, and walked it off with a field goal in a baseball stadium. Another survive and advance win for the Wolverines. Onward.
You remember this one, right? It’s the one after we played uninspired in an uninspiring place and doubled down on giving fans all the “we’re not at all good” feelings possible. We ate a lot of smoked meats. We played Purdue in November under the lights. We survived and advanced…which becomes a bit of a theme in this meaty part of the schedule.
Recovering from my rich tradition of petering out mid-season on posting, we’ve got some photos and stuff to catch up on. MSU “under the lights” 2025 was the quietest, saddest, and least satisfying game in the history of the series. Sparty fans were basically a no-show. The few that did couldn’t even muster up a dated “you cheated” diatribe. Michigan didn’t play particularly well, MSU played even worse, Spartan fans checked out to a basketball season that surely must be Izzo’s final one, and the stadium remained the concrete crap hole it has always been. But they added a drone show! Take some of that $401 million and tear that horrible eyesore down. Fitz doesn’t know what to do with good players anyway…so don’t waste your money on stars.
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