2023 MGoPhotos of the Game (Week 11): Maryland
David Wilcomes and Paul Sherman covered photo duties this week while I slept in and drank beer. Give them praise.
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Michigan football at Maryland 2023 (David Wilcomes)
Michigan football at Maryland 2023 (Paul Sherman)
I'm curious, of Michigan football's 1,000 wins, how many have you seen? On tv or in person? I'm only 31 but I figure I've seen about 150 of these wins, plus/minus five. And when I consider that in my 20+ years of watching Michigan football, which seems like a long time (to me, sorry folks protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act), that I've only watched 15% of their wins, it really brings into perspective just how long this program has been operating. Games from the 1940s sound like a fairy tale, but they happened! I know that Benny Friedman is a person who existed and played football at Michigan because I read about it in a book (ok, Wikipedia). I know these events happened but I don't really process them happening.1,000 wins is a thing we can understand but not really quantify, in the same way that I know a star is about 40 trillion kilometers from Earth but my brain can't actually comprehend what that means.
And yet here we are, 1000 wins later, talking about how Blake Corum might be the best running back in Michigan football history. Talking about how JJ might be the best QB in Michigan football history. Talking about how Mike Sainristil and Michael Barrett are the most dude Dudes to dude in Michigan football history. I haven't even mentioned Mason Graham and yet he'd make the cover of HTTV if he was on any team from 1879 til the 1970s. Oh yeah, Zak Zinter is a thing. How did this team get so lucky?
It would've been beyond poetic to get win 1000 against Ohio State, so poetic that I think it would be hard evidence that the writers for our simulation got lazy and penciled it in on a galactic Friday.
Instead we got it at Maryland, one of the expansion misfit teams that nobody in the Big Ten wanted and who is about to be considered a "legacy Big Ten team". Yeah, let that one sink in.
I was at win 900 against Michigan State in 2012. It was neat and we rushed the field after beating a 6-6 Michigan State team after scoring zero touchdowns (in the same season that the men's basketball team beat Michigan State without hitting a three pointer). At some point I thought "this will be more fun when they win their 1000th game!"
Instead, a few hundred Michigan fans rushed Marylan'd stadium (which rocks, more teams' fans should rush opposing teams' fields. Unless you're Ohio State and you do it against Michigan, then it's Not Funny).
The week leading up to this game, I already started seeing more buzz about Ohio State than Maryland. And arguably this was the second annual "we spent half the week preparing for Ohio State" week before Ohio State. We don't talk about last year, we don't talk about That Ball State Game, and soon we won't talk about this game. I get it, with this being the 3rd straight year of The Game having the biggest stakes of the rivalry's history, it was as hard to say "oh yeah bring on Maryland" as it was hard for Ohio State to say "oh yeah bring on Minnesota."
For now, let's just take a moment and reflect that winning 1,000 of anything is really damn impressive and doing so was really damn cool. Take it in for a while because what happens next is a lot.
Did we take it in yet? Ok, good. Deep breathe.
Existential Football Dread Week begins: now.
The Photographers
Social Media Accounts:
David Wilcomes
Website: davidwilcomesphotography
Twitter: @dwilcomesphoto
Instagram: @davidwilcomes
Paul Sherman
Twitter: @thedailypsherm
Instagram: @thedailypsherm
[FOOTBALL SQUIRREL after THE JUMP]
Next week: everything.
November 19th, 2023 at 8:37 PM ^
Excellent photos as always. I appreciate all the hard work that goes into this.
I have to ad, and I apologize in advance, but….
November 19th, 2023 at 10:04 PM ^
Ball State ? Do you mean Bowling Green ?
November 19th, 2023 at 11:27 PM ^
I'm wondering if he's referring to the 2006 game vs. Ball State, our last home game when UM was 9-0 and #2 behind Ohio. After a crappy start (I think we were down 9-0), we took command and were up 31-12 going into the 4th quarter. Hoke was coaching a 3-6 BSU team. All of a sudden, Lloyd decides to play the 2nd string D and we give up two bad TD drives. With our FG, it's now 34-26 and they drive deep into our end. We had to make a stop to save the game, and Lloyd hugs Brady after the game as if it was a great performance by BSU. That game should have been 38-18 (still a disappointment, only winning by 20).
It was nerve-wracking to say the least. It seemed like Lloyd was using a "close" loss by Hoke to prime the AD to hire Hoke when he left.
The Maryland game, though frustrating, at least had us playing a team with some players we'd like to have on our roster.
November 19th, 2023 at 9:40 PM ^
I was at the game. These pictures make me feel like I'm there again. It was a great day to be a Michigan Wolverine.
November 19th, 2023 at 9:40 PM ^
Love the pic where jaybaugh gets his glasses knocked off.
November 19th, 2023 at 10:49 PM ^
Great as always
I’m ready for another Big Nut scoreboard picture
November 20th, 2023 at 7:04 AM ^
I’ve watched every win (on tv or in person) since 89 except for one in 2020. That must be 300 to 350. That seems like a decent amount of 1000. A lot of people on here watched as kids and are older than me. Anyone in the 600s or above?
November 21st, 2023 at 4:50 AM ^
I saw their 800th win against Wisconsin
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