Spring Football Bits Loses Spring Game
Usually this time of year you get some kind of spring game recap. Michigan had a spring game, but this is all you get.
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) April 12, 2021
Saturday was a great day to compete!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/XeYvWF9kfs
What sticks out, other than the uniformz, is the pathetically small amount they’re willing to share with the public. The fanbase’s reaction to this has fallen into three camps:
- I would have liked to have seen a spring game.
- Call me when they win something.
- I don’t want to think about football.
All three are valid. The second and third camps are the BPONE, and were bound to continue regardless of football’s existence. For personal and professional reasons, I fall in the first. If you haven’t skipped to the comments to post something like 2 or 3, you’re probably there with me, and wondering if there’s an explanation.
Lately if you want anything from the football team you have to listen to the Jansen podcast, where Jansen said this regarding why fans and media were not allowed to attend:
The State of Michigan is utilizing the Big House as a vaccine site. So they didn’t want the parking lot to be full of cars. They didn’t want there to be a confusion about where to go for people scheduled to get their vaccine on that Saturday.
…and this on why they didn’t broadcast it:
As I understand it the Big Ten Network had set a certain time that all of the programs needed to say ‘Hey, this is when we’re going to have our last practice.’ And with the uncertainty of the pandemic, with the changing schedules, Michigan just wasn’t able to meet that deadline because they had to move some things around, and it just didn’t work out.
If they wanted to keep it small for the vaccine site—or you know, because last weekend was the peak of the pandemic—that’s fine. That’s not the reason media were expressly prohibited, including those with invites through other means. It’s still more responsible than Michigan State’s decision to invite 6,000 people to Spartan Stadium tomorrow, and one I can support.
[Hit THE JUMP]
But that’s not the reason it wasn’t broadcast. I was watching BTN that afternoon. It was Michigan-Maryland in softball, Penn State vs Indiana in the soccer championship, then Gymnastics in the evening. As much as I like our softball team, if Michigan football wanted that slot, do you really think BTN wouldn’t have accommodated? If they couldn’t, do you think they might have aired it another time?
If BTN really didn’t want Michigan Wolverines football in mid-April, Michigan still had video cameras there, and the power to release far more than one minute and twelve seconds of close-cropped film literally passed through a maize filter. They have an entire media company—IMG—under contract for this.
The truth is you didn’t get a spring game because they didn’t want to subject the players to your negativity. Jansen admits “there’s not a lot to brag about right now” after a 2-4 season, and that’s the truth. Also true is the fanbase is out of patience for Harbaugh’s regime going into a year that’s going to require quite a bit of it. There’s nothing you can do about that but win, and you can’t win a spring game.
There’s nothing to lose either. Spring games aren't for the media; they're for the fans. In safer times, most go to take in the sun as much as the other thing they've been deprived of all winter. They wash over you, at most show you a guy to get excited about because of one play.
I’ve been to and written about spring games for bad Michigan football teams, and still fall for them every year. I saw the 2008 offense slosh around a wet high school and appreciated the defensive continuity. I saw the 2009 and 2010 defenses torched and memorized fan videos of the young quarterbacks responsible. Two years ago I watched the edge of the defense come apart and called Gattis a genius. No matter how bad they were, my reaction to this was going to be clipping plays that show how it might work. In college football, you reckon with reality in November; in April even Hoke springs eternal. The only way to lose is not to play.
The fact that this program somehow found a way to take an L in their own spring game makes me less confident they can beat Western Michigan or anyone after that.
If they’re terrified of having stupid slappies like us get a look-see, their house must be in worse shape than mine after 13 months of pandemic. The various types of interceptions from their various types of freshman quarterbacks must be worse than the ones the transferred former starter opened and closed last season with. The defense’s confusion at a new system must be so recriminating you could make a slideshow of linebackers yelling at each other. Every fade down the sideline must be a replay of Ricky White Day, except the overthrown passes are coming down out of bounds.
But that’s your spring game recap. The only thing we've learned is the football program itself agrees they're unwatchable. They don’t have everything locked down, so I’ll have a final football bits for you next week. Happy commenting.
Good Lord, we’re the Cubs.
April 25th, 2021 at 12:20 AM ^
Nah, the Cubs actually won something this millennium.
Its freakin April chill out. 90% of this blog is in the dumps about the program, how can you not be?
Come August the tune will change no question, so let all the folks who are in that state, be in that state.
Until we see any type of content to give the fans HOPE, then this will be the theme for all of Spring/most of Summer. Do yourself a favor and stop coming to the blog for a bit if this really bothers you that much.
Nobody is forcing you to read. If you just want nonstop optimism there’s always Wolverines Wire.
What is the best part about being a fan? Hoping that next year will "be the year"
This is incorrect. The best part about being a fan is knowing that last season you got to celebrate winning a championship, or beating your most hated rival, then looking forward to next season where you could win it all or repeat as champs or at least have a realistic shot at the BIG. Instead we are hoping that this will “be the year” that we can hopefully field a competitive team against Mel Tucker and the MSU Spartans transfer portal team brought to you by rocket mortgage.
April 26th, 2021 at 12:12 PM ^
How many national championships have you celebrated, in your lifetime? Unless you were born before 1949.....you have exactly 1/2 of ONE to celebrate (out of 72 seasons).
How many "outright" conference championships, since Bo took over (in 1969)? 9 (out of 51 seasons)
How many "shared" conference championships (which went away with introduction of the conference divisions and championship games, in 2011), since Bo took over (in 1969)? 14 (out of 51 seasons)
How many times have you celebrated "beating your heated rival", since Bo took over (in 1969)? 21 (out of 51 games).
So.......based on your logic......you must have lived a very miserable fan existence.
So, yep, I'll stick with what I said. Thanks for your input, though. LOL
I will have what you’re drinking.
Because, silly goose, we didn't fire a winning coach after one bad year under unprecedented circumstances and hire Matt Campbell, who as we know, is a blend of Ben Franklin's ingenuity and Mother Teresa's character.
Everything is negative. Everything is terrible.
April 24th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
lol winning coach. In 6 years what has he won exactly? A shared Big Ten East division title in which he got blown out by the team he shared it with? Whoopdeedoo. Mock Matt Campbell all you want but the program would have a lot more optimism surrounding it with him at coach than castrated Harbaugh.
How the hell am I supposed to be positive about 1 minute and 12 seconds of useless spring game footage? "Hey guys, did you notice Zinter was at center?"
I've been covering this team as positively as anybody with an ounce of credibility, and would have continued given an ounce of something credible to write about.
Seth, not looking for manufactured positivity. There's obviously plenty to worry about.
That said, this was an incredibly negative article. Don't really see the benefit of posting it. You and the team here at MGOBLOG didn't get what you wanted in the off season.
This is Harbaugh's season on the brink. Given your expertise with X's and O's--and I think it's a fairly commonly held view that you're really good at that piece--why not focus more on what they'll have to do to make it work.
I don't know what you mean by "didn't get what you wanted in the off season." I wasn't calling for Harbaugh to be fired. I've been saying I like that he used it to do what's best for Michigan. He added Bellamy and Hart and Courtney Morgan--guys whose loyalty is to Michigan not Harbaugh. He hired, promoted, and stood by excellent recruiters in Sherrone Moore, Josh Gattis, and Mo Linguist. He's turned Shawn Nua around as a recruiter, ostensibly by letting Nua be Nua. He's using his analysts the way OSU and Bama and Georgia do. He made sure if he doesn't make it through this season--and I thought it wasn't likely he does--that Michigan won't have to go through years of rebuilding, or watch Deon Johnson's kid in an Ohio State uniform.
He signed a top ten class with some much-needed parts, even if it lost its shiniest piece.
I don't care as much for the Ravens guys. Maybe Macdonald and Weiss really are geniuses on loan. Helow's supposed to be a great recruiter. I'm really informing that opinion more on the fact that I failed as a hot young "let's try something different" publisher when I was their age. And not sticking to any opinions on those guys because of it. If they're miracle workers, we'll see. If they're
I was fine with the offseason. I'm frustrated, as a fan, that we got no spring. And I was moved to speak out because people who want to cheer and obsess over this team weren't trusted to be fair enough to them.
Seth. I think you are a fantastic writer. I have enjoyed your input since you came aboard this blog. This particular piece wasn't necessary. Especially after the WTKA roundtable discussion and comments on that were posted already. This seems like a direct attempt to get the fan base even more pissed about the program. What happens this season? Do we go into every game going, "we suck, and won't win this". Then when we do.....we go, "We got lucky. We won't win the next one". What the hell kind of fandom is that?! Seriously? That is, essentially, what this blog is encouraging us to do, and that's ridiculous. That's the attitude of opposing fans.....not of the fans of the team.
Should they have (at least) let you guys go in and see everything, since they weren't broadcasting it? Probably, but the way this blog has been going......it's not hard to see why you weren't invited. How many readers are on this blog? A couple of million? That is a hell of a lot of people, and you are directly influencing the narrative of their opinions. I know if I was a coach, and this is the kind of coverage I was getting.....I wouldn't be so keen to keep you "in the know", either.
I’m betting the blog doesn’t have millions of readers. Moreover, you make it sound like they only excluded Seth. They excluded everyone they possibly could.
April 23rd, 2021 at 10:20 PM ^
Thanks man. I'm never going be an Insider. I don't sit in the press box. So what I do to my access to the program is mostly irrelevant.
It's you guys I'm beholden to. I was writing a football bits because I couldn't do a neck Sharpies and I was like what am I doing? They locked out the fans and I'm supposed to thank them for it? They negativity isn't going to stop or go based on what I say. People never needed my permission to voice their displeasure.
I feel like I've been trying to hold up some optimism, to be as fair as possible, against a deluge of negativity from the fans and my colleagues. And this just broke me. I waited all week to collect my thoughts, and couldn't get into the bits until I got this off my chest.
April 23rd, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
Your comments aren’t necessary. Seth’s post perfectly expresses my feelings about Michigan football and how completely mismanaged it is now. Only the willfully blind could think otherwise.
My read of the situation is that your piece went from a complaint about the lack of information made available to us to connecting that to the state of the team, whether we can beat a MAC team, etc. My two cents is that the lack of info is unfortunate but somewhat understandable given the desire to give the players and coaches some time to do new things without dissection. Regardless, I humbly submit that it does seem to be negative to draw a definitive causal connection between the amount of coverage and the ability of the team to win games. Thanks for reading and for doing what you do - very much appreciated.
April 23rd, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^
Seth, if it's okay to give my opinion, I think part of the downside of your profession is that there are certain things "fans" can do that seems better left alone from the professionals (I consider you guys pros at what you do).
In your recent WTKA interview you talked about the impact you think Heiko's interview with Borges had on our willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt for a bit. I agree with you on that, completely.
Imagine the fanbase as your Defensive Back Panic-Ometer; YOU actually have a lot of control as to where the needle is pointing, and I believe you know that.
The bias you have in this thing is the barricade of the spring game made your profession a lot more difficult. It did, and for as hard as you already work, that's pretty rough. I can feel that. I think the level you operate at your profession makes you forego the leeway to post that because of how much it will sway other people - even if it felt good to get it off your chest. I think that was KW's point.
I hope none of that came off as disrespectful, I still support all the stuff you and everyone else on this blog does.
You're lucky anyone on the blog staff can even tolerate talking about football right now. To come down on Seth, literally the only person responsible for keeping football in the site's zeitgeist (much to many people's dismay), for being too 'negative' on the team is absolutely hilarious.
April 25th, 2021 at 12:27 AM ^
This is NOT harbaugh's season on the brink. By having a lot of coaching changes, he has guaranteed himself another year or two for the program to "adjust and recalibrate, etc.'", unless he either a) quits himself, or b) we go 4-8. Anything else will be seen as an "improvement and a step in the right direction" by Warde.
I fucking want us to win just as much as anybody who is a Michigan fan, but I am not delusional as I see the wreckage that harbuagh has brought in 6 years and rational thinking would say we are in for more of the same under his "leadership", if you can call it that. Neg away!!!
Please, explain the "wreckage" that Harbaugh has brought in 6 years.
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Was he responsible for the loss to Appalachian State and the following annihilation by Oregon, in the very next game, in 2007?
Was he responsible for for the 5 losses to OSU out of 7 seasons between 2001-2007?
Was he responsible for the 5 losses in bowl games out of 7 attempts between 2001-2007?
Was he responsible for zero BCS games in the entire BCS history?
Nope....that was Lloyd Carr.
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Was he responsible for the 3-9, 5-7, or 7-6 seasons that we had between 2008-2010?
Was he responsible for the 3 straight losses to Michigan State between 2008-2010?
Was he responsible for the 3 OSU losses between 2008-2010?
Was he responsible for the blowout loss in 2010's bowl game?
Was he responsible for the local and national media jumping on the "Michigan cheated" storyline (for "Stretchgate").
Nope.....that was Rich Rodriguez
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Was he responsible for the 8-5, 7-6, and 5-7 seasons from the 3 seasons of 2012-2014?
Was he responsible for 3 blowout losses to Michigan State, from 2011-2014?
Was he responsible for the first shutout loss in 30 years (came at the hands of Notre Dame 0-31)?
Was he responsible for the 3 losses to OSU from the 2012-2014 seasons?
Was he responsible for 2 bowl losses and not even making a bowl between the 2012-2014 seasons?
Was he responsible for the national embarrassment that was caused by playing a player who CLEARLY had a concussion?
Nope.....that was Brady Hoke
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So....please, explain this "wreckage" you speak of, because I'm having a hard time seeing the Michigan program being a success, when he took over (at the beginning of the 2015 season). So much so that Harbaugh has "wrecked" that success.
Regardless of whatever stat you want to bring up, against Harbaugh's "success". Saying the last 6 years have brought "wreckage" is nonsense.
Three 10 win seasons, one 9 win season, and the worst (full) season had 8 wins.
2016 should have been a win vs OSU, and were on the cusp of a BIG championship and playoffs
2018 shared the BIG East title, and only had 1 loss in conference. On the cusp of another BIG Championship and playoff. If it would have been like it was in the Bo and Lloyd Era....Michigan would have won a share of the conference championship, because of their overall record.
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Has he gotten us to the level that we want to be? Nope.
Has he dug us out of a hole? Yep.
Has he caused "wreckage" to the program? Pure nonsense.
April 26th, 2021 at 11:56 PM ^
Is this Jim or Sarah???
The luxury cruise ship crashed on the rocks. The holes in that boat caused the boat to start to sink......during the Carr Era.
The materials were destroyed, in that crash....and the new Captain decided to burn all the materials needed to rebuild the boat....during the RR Era.
The next captain put together a boat that wouldn't float. It sank with every attempt to get it going....during the Hoke Era.
The next captain has built a Yacht. Got it to the point to where it floats, nicely. It just isn't to the point to where it can travel the entire ocean, yet. It isn't a luxury cruise ship. The passengers are pissed, because they remember when it was a luxury cruise ship, and want to travel across the ocean, like they used to....and how OSU's cruise ship has been doing. Not only that, but OSU has built a unsinkable Cruise Ship, that is blocking the path for our cruise ship to go further. Everyone forgets the fact that we didn't even have materials a few years ago, and expect the new Captain to have that cruise ship, instead of the Yacht.....during the Harbaugh Era.
The "wreckage" was what Harbaugh inherited....how about trying to remember that.
With that said.....it's now time for that Yacht to turn into that Cruise Ship.
When you guys are trying to sell Hail to the Victors this summer, will you be featuring this line in your pitch to your customers?
“The only thing we've learned is the football program itself agrees they're unwatchable.”
I'll buy ten copies if they put it on the front cover.
Not at all.
Spring Games/Practices inject positivity into the fanbase, most fans will always take the good from them and feed hope for the next year.
So like you said this is the second year without anything to show, leaving the fans only left with the bile of a 2-4 season and despair in their OSU quest. Basically the program is refusing to give fans positivity.
At this point we can only be left feeling negative. To be 'positive' just for the sake of it, despite all evidence, would be nonsesical
No more nonsensical than being positive because of something that happened in a meaningless spring game. The fact that we brought in new coaches who managed to bring in three DTs to help our biggest position of need makes me much more positive than anything that was going to happen in the spring game.
I hear you about the negativity on this board lately, but Michigan put themselves in this spot. I mean, what else is there to take away when the program, coming off of a 2-4 year, is turtling inward more drastically than ever for a Harbaugh program?
For a largely new staff trying to build positive culture, it seems like working hard to improve morale / fan support would be worth the effort. The fact there is nothing to promote or hype either speaks strongly about the state of the team relative to other spring games, or is just a relic of an old school coach exaggerating the "do more, talk less attitude". In either case, the trend of this program does nothing to build positivity out of this.
For a largely new staff trying to build positive culture, it seems like working hard to improve morale / fan support would be worth the effort.
But that's exactly the problem. The loudest and most negative segment of the fanbase would look for any excuse to criticize the team. The way to build fan support is to win games in the fall. A spring game wouldn't change anything.
Yeah, good point and I agree. Honestly I've been very apathetic to the football program since last year, just don't get dragging Seth for candidly talking about the lack of news when he's been the most steady / optimistic voice on this site.
I completely understand your apathy and I hope it didn't sound like I was being critical of your comment. It was tough to watch last season. But I'm one of the people that tends to think that that season was an aberration, where a number of factors had an especially large impact on our young team.
And I can see why some people would want to see a spring game, either to wash the bad taste out of their mouth, find some source of optimism, or just come out and have a good time watching the team. Seth falls in one of these camps and shouldn't be ripped for wanting to see the team.
The problem I see is that it could do more harm than good. There is a very loud segment of the fanbase that is extremely negative right now. Again, I understand their frustration, but find the negatively to be overboard. Imagine what they would be saying here, tweeting at the team/players, etc. if, for example, Gray got torched on a go-route, Hawkins messed up an assignment, or the offense didn't look too inspiring.
What grinds my gears is not the 2-4 record but how they earned every bit of it. They looked completely unprepared against MSU; MGoBlog literally wrote up a preview of how to attack them that was vastly superior to Harbaugh’s gameplan.
When a program is so dysfunctional that its millionaire experts look incompetent compared to sports bloggers — however studious in their research — the complaints about fan negativity rankle. Brian flatly said on a podcast that he expects the coaches to be smarter than him.
Instead, we all saw our beloved program run like some trust fund baby’s pet charity. That betrayal of trust naturally takes time to heal even if they had good things to show.
I'm pretty positive about things but this right here is my biggest complaint. What were we doing throughout the weeks to prepare for games because the average reader of this blog seemed more prepared for what they would see on Saturday from the opposing team than the team actually was. Which is both a compliment to this blog and and huge mark against the coaches and players. (I've learned a hell of a lot from Seth)
The MSU game for example, the one thing MSU showed they could stop the week before against Rutgers was Pin & Pull because they were so over playing it. It was obvious that they used summer practices to prepare for that play against us. And what do we come out and run...fucking pin & pull. And then after it is obvious that they are over playing it, we don't run any of the various counters off of it. It was mind numbingly stupid. That bothered me more than our corners making All-Americans out of MSU wideouts.
Last season was a constant "what are we doing" Gif
But with the pandemic and a younger, revamped coaching staff, I'm willing to find out if last years was the outlier or the new norm, which most people around here seem to be over it before it even starts.
There's more bitching about this article than there would have been about the actual game ??????
My hope is that this is exactly what Matt Weiss was brought in to fix. I would agree that the fact that Harbaugh and Gattis can’t fix it is a huge indictment, but if they have a plan to address it, that would be the type of progress I am hoping for.
Right on, dragonchild. This comment hits the mark.
This exactly. Also, people saying that we as a fan base will just be negative even if there was a spring game/practice aren’t paying attention. The writers of this blog have done an excellent job of highlighting the positives that occur during the spring game and very much focus on these things. After coming off of a 2-4 season, a spring practice would’ve given us something to look forward to. I would say the expectations would’ve been very low and we would’ve been very easy to impress at this point. Instead we are still only left with the bad taste of a 2-4 season. Also, I don’t need the mgoblog crew to go out of their way to blow smoke up my ass, I watched the games last year. I appreciate their candor.
I completely agree. I propose we stop posting football pieces on the front page, you know, because of the negativity, and post only about the Basketball team. Everyone's happy.
If implied negativity about not airing the spring game to protect players from strife, then that wasn't my intention.
In fact, I am unite enthused by the upcoming season. We have a gamer in McNamara, and we ridded the smallish front seven protocol, and got great young recruiter coaches. Now i wish Jack would move, because it seems when he moved to town, it coincided with Jim's program changing trajectory. Seems to me he has a weakness for mentors and listens too much to elders in replace of Bo. He deferred to Brown and we are where we are now. It was if with failure in dad's eye he was pushing it, like moving on from Speight, and hiring much elder coaches who can't recruit a lick. He had it right early on. He operated best with no perceived authority. Now we seem to be going back to early time, and although the defense might be scattered bouts of pain until we get spaceaters, i think we will be pleased.
Shut up.
April 24th, 2021 at 10:14 AM ^
Kentucky, I don't understand fans like you. You do know that is possible to believe Michigan isn't a very good football team and root for them at the same time? They are not mutually exclusive.
I think Michigan will have its worst two back to back seasons in perhaps 30 years. I don't think Harbaugh made the changes he needed to in time to save his job and right the ship quick enough. But I still hope he does. I still root for Michigan to win. It brings me no joy when they lose. But I'm not going to pretend that Michigan football is something that it isn't just because I don't have the emotional fortitude.
April 26th, 2021 at 12:29 PM ^
You can think anything you want about the upcoming season. You can believe we are going to suck, or you can believe we will be good. It doesn't matter, because we have no idea. Just curious....what were your expectations for the 2015 season? Did you expect a 10-3 season, after what Harbaugh took over? I bet you didn't, and if you say you did, then I'd like some proof of that; because I call bullshit. LOL
Bottomline, nobody knows what this season will bring.
There's zero reason to continue beat the dead horse of negativity. The time for that has passed. Bitching about the team, when we know nothing about it is simply silly. Bitching about Harbaugh and demanding he be fired, in an off-season that he was just extended......and before fall practice has even started......is nonsense.
I never said that people can't voice their opinions. I never said that everyone needs to see rainbows and sunshine, about the program. What I have said is quit with the nonstop negativity. If we look at your posting history, and you are someone that posts nothing but negative comments, then what are you bringing to the fandom?
If every single bit of news is "DOOOOOOOM", to you, then you need to step back and have a bit of perspective.
Again, the team and the coaching staff are what they are, at this point. All we can do is support them, during the upcoming season, and hope for the best. Nonstop negativity doesn't do any good, for the program. All it does is spur the media to continue to write shit articles.....which the recruits, their families, and the current members of the team read. How does that help them or add to the success of the team? I'll wait.....
While I can appreciate your fandom, what is there to be optimistic about? Did we:
- Finish last year winning 2 of the last 3....nope
- Did we beat OSU and bring a sense of rivalry back to The Game....nope
- Did we as an underdog win our bowl game....nope
- Did we have a top 3 recruiting class....nope
- Did our "near Heisman" finalist decide to come back for another year....nope
Tell me what am I supposed to be optimistic about?
There was no content after the jump, but nobody warned me. I feel deceived...
YOU'RE the content. (It was inside you all along.)
Maybe the content after the jump are the friends we made along the way?
Everyone on this blog is so fucking whiny, holy shit. How can anyone possibly care this much about the spring game.
Because it's something else to bitch about.
I feel like you're missing a whole group of us who would have watched disinterestedly, shrugged our shoulders, and moved on with out lives. We're not the ones who you hear from most of the time so it's easy to forget about us.
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