Dear Diary, There Is…

...more day until the Michigan Wolverines run out under their banner into the hallowed field with a single goal. The field will be Yost's. The helmets will be Crisler's, the philosophy Kipke's. They'll come, athletes with the grace of Oosterbaan, the decency of Elliott, the humanity of Carr, and the heart of Bo.

This team was built by the game's greatest living engineer, who failed in part because he didn't pay homage to the foundation he was building upon. It is now led by a man who married the only girl he ever wanted and after he took the only job he ever dreamed of, she asked him how much he will make and he realized he hadn't even thought to ask.

What legacy will Brady Hoke leave at Michigan? What attributes will he contribute to this program so great that its fans are best known for their arrogance, and that each time Fielding's giant room is expanded, nobody need bother to ask if they can fill it? You are welcome now to ask if the variegated bricks left by Hoke's predecessors are truly attributes you'd choose, or if the moral relativist landscape of college football makes all this talk of morality pure hypocrisy. You probably think Kipke's "the best offense is a good defense" needs to be simplified to "score, and don't be scored upon," in much the same way as Aristotle's "it wants to be on the ground" got dropped for Newton's "everything falls."
Those bricks are set; they are part of the edifice's charm, and those perceived as trying to change them will be dealt with severely. They are our traditions, like Denarded being there when the bell tolls to let us know how long until the Michigan Wolverines run out on the field again.

The 19th bricklayer leads the 133nd team into its 132nd season. Each of those players are here because they chose to be. They wanted to play in that stadium, to wear those helmets, to follow that philosophy. They wanted to be counted among the great athletes, the good guys, the smart guys, the victors, the best. They came for the system; they came to become legends. As much as we may click our tongues at mention of the nebulous "Michigan Man," this is what they have come here to be, and this is what Brady Hoke has come here to define. This is our team. Hail them.

Diaries

Your Diarist of the Week WolverSwede with a sing-along, No Laces Tied.  It may speak for itself:

Look at me, look at me
Scoring and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be alive and top
My speed's unrivaled
My likeness, a blur
My moves are humbling
My passing is pure

It's also kind of ironic since the Flobots song is about arrogance and how it can corrupt you, while Denard is the least arrogant thing about our whole operation. I still loved it.

I also loved this personal Wolverine history of gobluehtown:

Things were never the same after that trip to Eugene. Rumors about Lloyd’s health. Chris Webber in federal court. Tommy Amaker. Antonio Bass’ knee. My freshman, sophomore against Ohio St.  Football Armageddon. Bo gone. Freep Derp. My senior year was the worst. The Horror, Oregon, Losing Chad, Wisconsin, and Ohio St. The rain, the score, Tressel: it all was a massive dong punch.

Co-sign!

That's it for the emotional stuff. Now for the helpful: NStank made a trip to Canton to watch Michigan RB target (and OSU commit) Bri'onte Dunn, coming back with the best scouting report I've yet seen on him. He even got us some video.

Last week Bocheezu was writing up summaries of Brian's WTKA show in the thread and in this space I suggested he do a weekly write-up. And dude—he listened! Awesome follows. There's some good stuff in there that hasn't been on the main page.

stubob is back with his Ugly Game of the Week. With so tune-up games against bodybags that pretty much means the whole schedule. This is where I mention I'm pissed I couldn't get the 'Cuse/Wake game last night – it looked pretty exciting on my sports app.

I wrote an addendum to Ace's Thursday Recruiting to predict who would get left out of Duane Long's Top 50 players in Ohio. Spoiler: Wormley and Kalis are probably in, Gant no.

UPDATE: JAMIE MAC'S BACK!!!!! Also: TK.

Best of the Board

IS IT DA NA NA NA NA NA NA or DUN DA NA NA NA-NA?

Bdsisme is trying to get the cadence right for the bell cheer:

Is it tap tap tap taptap taptap tap tap?

I've heard it so many different ways in different parts of the stadium but I agree it sounds like a beat's missing there. Anyway you gotta love a thread where this is peoples' replies:

Side question: For the last verse are you in favor of the seven-hit version:

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun

Or the the nine hit version:

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun-dun-dun, da-dun.

I've always favored the simple seven hit version because I think the last rendition is aimed at getting the fans to clap and shout and I don't like the cowbell taking away from it.

THE MICHIGAN DIFFERENCE

Michigan's got by far the best school ads to play during games – I actually walked down the aisle at my wedding to that xylophonic version of The Victors from the hospital commercial. M-Wolverine found the new ones for this year.

SCOREBOARD!

Scoreboard.

THE ART, THE ART, THE ART?!?

Whatever shall you make your wallpaper this year now that monuMental has chosen to have a life instead of making cool backgrounds for us? It took two more threads but the MGoDenizens have managed to create a gallery of options:

HOW THE BIG TEN BREAKS A TIE:

Thank Everyone Murders for finding out how the Big Ten will decide divisional ties, and then fixing it when Alton discovered ESPN had this totally wrong. How it breaks down:

1. If it's a 2-way tie, Head to Head. In a three-way tie:
2. In-division record (so beating Ohio State doesn't count as much as beating MSU /shakes fist)
3. Compare records against next highest placed teams (so beating Iowa matters more than beating MSU)
4. Records against all common conf. opponents
5. Highest team in BCS (first one at end of conference season /shakes fist at SEC coaches who use their votes to manipulate things)
6. If the two highest teams are ranked next to each other it's the team with the best winning % not counting "excluded games" which I think means MAC teams count but FCS schools don't so DON'T SCHEDULE FCS TEAMS
7. Random drawing (i.e. they pick the team that'll get higher ratings)
8. 

WATCH THIS: