Fort Sumter

That the bowl streak's importance is not playing in the bowl, but the additional practice time that the team would get in December for playing in a bowl, and a lack thereof if it did not happen?  I know that Minnesota, for example, seemed to recover OK from not having that extra practice time, but is the former related to the better in 2009/2010 notion?

And Brian, I'm with you, a short haired preppie in my case, but fighting the good fight of patience.  The snowball finally caught us.  It had to happen eventually, it's happened to every other "football school" in recent memory, it's finally happened to us.  The difference is not how bad this year is, but how we come out of it in the future.

This is awesome! We should try to lose to Toledo every year so everyone can be happy with this level of play and accept it. This is great fun. We can let o$u have a rivalry with u$c and we can start up a rivalry with Toledo. Acceptance!

The internet is definitely the place to tell people not to express their opinions. Certainly. In my mind Michigan is 6-0!!! We destroy all Toledo Rocket powered schools on our way to a dominatingly acceptable 12-0 National Championship! Hooray for us, we are acceptable!

I was waiting for someone with some form of sanity to realize that it isn't physically possible to "adapt" to our current level of talent. My head is going to explode if I see another internet comment/blog screaming for this. How do you adapt any system to a QB that can't hit a wide-open receiver only 10 yards down-field when your OL can't run-block? Well, let me tell you... YOU CAN'T. So stop with it already. If you want to argue that we might still have Mallet and other OL if we had gotten a different coach, then fine, but at this point we are going to have to live with what we got and prepare for the future. However, Brian, I disagree with your "pre-hab" debunked comment. It would take more than one off-season to completely undo the "conditioning" program from the previous regime.

“I have no idea what the stock market is going to do next month or six
months from now,” Warren Buffett told CNBC on Friday. “I do know that
the American economy, over a period of time, will do very well, and
people who own a piece of it will do well.”

I was at a study abroad program in Europe, flush with Michigan pride after our national championship. I used to regularly talk football with another American in the program, and often made fun of him for his school's continuing football ineptitude. IN Fact, I even went as far as to nickname him "6 and 6" for his team's record the previous year, which had meant they had failed to go to a bowl. And his school was...

USC (as in Southern California).

 The message in this? Football moves in cycles, we were bound to suck sometime, and this will not last forever. 

It doesn't matter how many yards you give up to this guy or how many catches that guy had, points win games. I'll take giving up 1,000 yards of offense and holding a team to 6 points anyday.

My guess is Shafer is employing the "bend but don't break" philosophy (see Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears). It actually works to our defenses advantage. Don't get burned on the big play (our weakness at safety) and let the field get shorter playing into our strength (D-line and run defense).

It sounds crazy, but again, six points.

Thanks Brian, glad you pointed out that we wouldn't be that great even with our offense in the I-formation running iso plays all the time.  This should shut up a large contigent of the complainers out there saying that Carr or Miles or Hoke would be running a good offense with our inexperienced and attrition-heavy team.  I don't understand why people keep complaining? What good is it going to do? Vent a little and then let it go. LET IT GO.

I will definitely stop because you own me and what I think and what I do. You own me, what should I do next chitown blue? You can't say "kill yourself" either, that has already been offered. Please tell me what I can and can't feel. Please God, allow only thoughts and opinions of chitownblue to be relevent so this world can become a bunch of bloggers who are narcissistic and self-bloviating even though they don't coach or play football and know nothing more about football than what they have read, yet still believe their opinions mean anything to anyone other than themselves and further more are vastly superior to anyone elses thoughts about the game. Please.

Thank you, Brian.  I've hated hearing people tell me what is "acceptable" by their standards for some time now.  Take that, Michigan Football, Mr. Angry Fan just gave you an F. 

If this season ends 2-10 I will still appreciate it for having culled the fanbase.  Some fans love Michigan.  Some just love winning.

I would really have liked to see the bowl streak continue, but oh well.  I am confused less by the offense, as they are young and obviously overmatched.  I am very confused by the defense tho.  Shafer needs to get this group shipshape or he might be the one to get the axe to appease the rabid alumni after this disaster of a season.  I am still solid for RR.

Hard, I know.  You'll be back.  I'd be more worried about losing some recruits this year than anything long-term.

that I think are separate. The first is about the future of Michigan football and how well RR will do in 2009+. The second is about how he is doing this year.

My thoughts are that we will be average in 2009 and amazing in 2010+. I understand the cyclicality of football and the fact that we were mediocre the past ~10 or so. Also, I understand that RR's system and philosophy take patience and time.

All of this sort of makes losing to Illinois-like teams sort of OK (well as OK as losing can be). However, losing to a bad MAC team like Toledo (led by a Rivals 2* QB) means that RR is doing a bad job this year. There I said it and mean it. That doesn't mean he should be fired, or his system canned. It's similar to Shaffer admitting that he was out-coached. So, RR's being out-coached this year and may be in over his head. Due to his past success and our current recruit class, I think this will be solved next year and we will be very excited in 2010!

Go Blue!

I believe someone said this earlier this year (Dex maybe?).  But I am done reading the message boards.  It is impossible not to get sucked into the flamewar, mostly because of the maddening nature (IM OLD!  I GIVE MONEY!  I DEMAND BETTER!  FIRE DICKROD!).

Until i get bored, at which point I will probably wander back over to tear my hair out.  Masochism at its best.

Thanks for calling this out Brian.

You have severe psychological issues, and I'd strongly recommend you seek help.  No joke.

 And amen, Brian.

There's nothing to see here.

Please move along.

This kinda gave me wood. Is that wrong?