We get 26 more games with #16. My god, that is awesome.

I'm with you Brian about the stadium experience thing, however, I look forward to a cultural shift in the fan bases expectations because of our "3 year experiment".(this has been covered before in depth by Brian so stop reading if you don't care to hear another first-hand experience regarding GET OFF MY LAWN types)  I am the least articulate guy on this board so try and hang with me.

I grew up going to games sitting in setion 37 about 320 rows up.  My Grandpa had tickets from his Dr. friend(UofM alum) who lived in SC and couldn't make it up.  My first game was Long Beach State. I was seven.  I will never forget the lady behind us.  NOTHING ever went right.  It was either the coaches fault, QB's fault, or ushers(NTU) fault.  I remember JM's long run and his shoe falling off, but I remember this angry, grumpy woman more.  We would endure another 20 years of her.  It made going to the stadium less fun.  But it never really took away the joy of being there.

Our tickets were taken in 2007 because the Dr.'s kids had moved to the area and now used them.  Luckily, I ran into a friend who wanted to split a set of two for the season and seasons to come starting in 2009.  MUCH BETTER SEATS!  The tickets we have are from a larger party that wanted to split their six.  The guy who "owns" all six tickets is about 70 years old and sits on a seat cushion with his Members Only jacket, khaki slacks, gold rimmed glasses and binocs around his neck.  And if I didn't know any better, I would say he was a former All-American and in the Football Coaches Hall of Fame.  I think he might have reffed in the Super Bowl a few times too.  Get my point?  He thinks everything that happens should be the opposite and when it is the opposite it isn't good enough.  Oh, and multiply that by 10 because RR is the coach.  

At age 31, I really don't enjoy going to the games because I know all I'm going to hear is how bad things are.  Last year during the MSU game I finally turned to the guy and asked him how he got up every morning with such a bad attitude.  I then explained to him, without letting him answer, that there were about 31 freshman or walk-ons on the field and they all wanted to win the game more than him.  I also told him that I was sure RR didn't want DR to throw interceptions...that wasn't in the playbook.

I told you I can't articulate.  The point is that maybe the last three years were so bad in the eyes of the Old Lady and the Old Man that their expectations have finally dropped and they won't bitch the whole game.  Unfortunately, I will have to drive three hours one-way and spend $200 to find out.*

*Please don't read this as me being ungrateful in regards to attending games.  I am not taking the Michigan Stadium experience for granted.  There is nothing like the entrance of the band.....my favorite part of the whole day.......maybe because that is one thing you can't bitch about!  The drive there and the drive home with friends and family are what make the day an experience, oh, and moments like Penn State 2005.

I have come to accept, yet not fully understand, the love of Rich Rod, but do not understand the criticism of Dave Brandon.  The facility updates at the Big House and Crisler will pay dividends in recruiting and fan support for years to come.  In addition, he did the ballsiest thing any of us will ever do by bringing in a relatively unheard of coach to head up arguably the proudest football tradition in the country.  Since that time, this unheard of coach has said all of the right things, brought in the right people, kept all important player pieces from transferring, and to this point, has been a perfect hire.  

Granted, no games have been played and we cannot predict what will happen.  If it turns out that Hoke was all talk (I find this highly unlikely) and we go 6-19 over the next 3 years in Big 10 play, then it would have been a disastrous hire and we can all criticize Brandon then.  As of now though, the guy has been a perfect AD who gets things done, and despite his steep student ticket prices that I highly disagree with, the guy has done a terrific job and deserves praise.  

Generally speaking, "The Story" is my favorite annual tradition of the blog. It has a very unselfish way of putting everything in perspective. 

Marriage seems to suit you well.  Have really enjoyed this prolific burst of late, some of your finest work.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as the critics are sounding off, all is right in the MGoBlog.

Brian,

You are not an old guy yet.  I'm not basing this on age, but on the lack of wisdom and perspective in your writing.  Not that your writing completely lacks wisdom and perspective, but that both are still too narrow for you to have had the life experiences to claim the title of "old guy".

Denard is awesome.  Denard is a rare talent.  But that is why we have sports teams and why we idolize them.  Because we know that Denard is still human and we are human, and thus watching him makes us feel like we can achieve unbelievable things also.  But clearly you haven't lived long enough to understand that in the future there will be another Denard, and more shockingly, that you do not believe there has been a Denard in the past.

All of Michigan's Heismen trophy winners were Denard's before there was a Denard.  I know from reading your posts for more than three years now that you are still too young and emotional to realize that Charles Woodson was the star on a team that continued to underachieve, until one season when Lloyd Carr made them read a book about climbing a mountain.  One season where "Mr. Ohio" had tolerated enough, and declared that there would be only one team goal, "just win".

I highly suggest you read anything written about Tom Harmon.  You will soon realize that this Heisman winner was like Charles and Denard AFTER him, I clearly talented athlete who could do it all.  He also tried to deflect that attention he got and constantly pointed out that his teammates worked just as hard as he did, and that he only achieved what he did through their efforts.  Then after college he went into World War Two, got shot down and survived.  It is very unlikely that Denard will have a life experience that challenges him like that.  But then again you never know.

AND that is why I watch this game of football each and every year.  Because you never really know who is going to make the most of their opportunity.  Who is going to use their talents and hard work to achieve the unbelievable?  But one thing I guarantee will happen.  There will be another star like Denard Robinson.  And I'm going to watch him too.

There's an awful lot of guys on this team who are very easy to root for and you learn a lot about a team's character when the chips are down.  Putting all of that aside and just focusing on athletic ability, being able to watch Denard week in and week out is a privilege.  He's one of those transcendent athletes who leaves you with the feeling that anything is possible once he takes the field.  In my lifetime, I've only come across 3 of those types of players on the teams that I root for.  Pedro Martinez, Tom Brady, and Rajon Rondo.  Denard may or may not go on to have the same professional success as those guys but the experience of watching him compete is the same.  You grow to appreciate each performance independent of the game that surrounds it.  We are lucky.

I can't help think that the worst part of the stadium experience isn't the impending onslaught of marketing or the curly fries; it's the entitled fans. I don't understand why grown men (people) don't understand the relationship here: we fans are supposed to cheer on the team, regardless of whether they're winning or losing. It's one thing to be disappointed. It's another to disown, disavow, or otherwise diss the players who 60 minutes prior you loved. That's just plain wrong. 

And for the record, if you hire a marketing guy as the AD, you're going to get marketing. You just are. 

Link or it didn't happen.

I sometimes have a problem following your lines of thought (or are they flights of ideas?)...

It's no secret I've been one discontent blogger ever since the Mississippi State game transpired. In retrospect a lot of my criticisms don't make sense. I thought Michigan should keep Rodriguez after the Ohio State game and fire him after the bowl; I ripped David Brandon for not firing Rodriguez before the bowl if he was going to do the deed.

Dave Brandon is not perfect. But neither was Rich Rodriquez. Or Lloyd Carr. Or Bo Schembechler.

I was right with you all through last season, at least up until the Mississippi State game, that RR should be given a fourth year to see if he could improve a relatively young defense enough to make the experiment on offense work. I still wonder from time to time (and probably always will) what might have been had that happened. But the reality is, RR had three years to put together an entire team. He is the one who chose to rip apart what was, claiming he could do it better. He was the one who hired and fired two "questionable" choices for DC while keeping virtually every one of his former WVU colleagues on staff. He is the one who simply said "We will win when we deserve to win," while the defense steadily declined from bad in year one to awful in year two to the absolute worst in Michigan history in year three. And, I know it's hard to comprehend, but the kicking game was even worse. Not just missed and blocked FGs, but all too frequent kickoffs out of bounds at key moments.

Mississippi State was the last straw for me. No rational person can objectively look at the previous three years that culminated in the 2011 Gator Bowl and convince themselves that RR had us on the right track and would have been successful if only given enough time. The evidence simply is not there and, in the end, that was the decision Dave Brandon had to make. Not whether it was fair or unfair to fire RR (let's face it, he was paid handsomely) and not whether RR "deserved" a fourth year, but whether we were on the right track back to winning championships and being Michigan. The offense was great and, equally important, exciting to watch. Denard is an amazing player and an even better person. But football is much more than just offense. Hopefully, RR learned some valuable lessons about himself and his own limitations during his time in AA and will use what he learned at his next stop. Still, Dave Brandon made a very reasonable decision, for both parties, to end the experiment after three tough years and move on.

Like you, I also ripped Dave Brandon for the "Process", for exactly the same reasons you did. Why not fire RR earlier? And, if he was going to fire RR in January, how could he already not have Harbaugh or Miles or some obviously elite HC already locked up? It seemed unconscionable and borderline incompetent to terminate a HC in January and not have a top tier replacement already lined up. When the announcement broke and it turned out the new HC was Brady Hoke, I was in shock. Even before you, the first thing that came to my mind was "We have just officially become ND." I doubt we will ever really know the true story behind the "Process". We have Brandon's publicly disclosed side of the story along with a few tidbits here and there that are mostly rumors and likely half-truths. That is how life works. It was Dave Brandon's decision. It was his job to make the decision and run the process how he thought best. He is the only person on this earth who knows the real truth about every aspect of the the decision and the "Process", and it is a waste of energy and time and accomplishes nothing positive to get stuck analyzing it over and over ad infinitum.

A lot of positive things have happened since January. Hoke salvaged what he could of the 2011 class. It was not as strong as it might have been, but he and his fledgling staff got to work quickly and did a solid job. Dave Brandon opened the checkbook wide to lure Greg Mattison back to AA, and he deserves credit for that decision. And Hoke, well, as been nothing short of amazing ever since. Hoke is recruiting like a madman. He is saying all the right things, almost to the point of them sounding sappy except they just don't sound sappy coming from him. The existing players seem to have all bought into Hokeamania and virtually every recruit/prospect we want seems to be in a rush to commit for the 2012 (and, yes, 2013) class before it's too late and all the spaces are gone. I cannot think of one single thing that Coach Hoke has said or done that is even close to a mistake since he has been hired. I don't want to jinx things, but IMO he has been just about perfect.

In the end, I don't know if Dave Brandon is a genius or if he just got lucky, but, really, it doesn't matter. This feels right. The apprehension that I've had for virtually all of the past three years -- wondering, hoping, praying that the team can hold it together long enough to squeak out six or seven victories and become bowl eligible -- is gone. We are on the right track. I just know it. Whether we will be as exciting as Oregon or rip off six B10 championships in a row, I don't know. But we are back to being Michigan. We will compete for the B10 championship every year. We will have a shot at a MNC now and then. We will play defense. We will no longer really worry about Sparty when we go through the schedule and make our predictions and write a W or an L next to each game. And we will do it with integrity, with players and coaches who we can feel proud about when they are mentioned in the media. We are Michigan and that is what it means to be Michigan.

It is unrealistic and unfair to expect more than that. No other team has ever been able to do more than that (most never even come close). Not Florida. Not Texas. Not Miami. Not Oklahoma. Not Auburn or Alabama. Not USC or Oregon. And, no, not Ohio. As one of the world's greatest universities with an elite athletic program, we are at the top of the list. No other school puts it all together quite the same way and that is what is so special about Michigan. I know that was hard to see the past three years, but even through all the hell, it was there. Hoke understands that. I think the players are beginning to understand that. And it's time that we, as alumni and true supporters of the Maize & Blue, realize that too.

<blockquote>Michigan is never going to recruit anyone like him ever again.</blockquote> 

Brian, I share your deep respect for many of the recruits brought in under RRod and a growing paranoia about the marketing culutre of the Athletic Department.  However, that statement is plainly ridiculous.  Michigan has an incredibly long history of bringing in great kids from underprivelged places that existed long before RRod and nothing Hoke has done yet leads me to believe we would never again take a flier on a highly ranked athlete and see what we can do with him.  While we may be recruiting Florida less strongly now, Hoke seems more than willing to reach outside the region when possible and there are plenty of other Pahokee towns out there with kids we'll be celebrating for their athletic and personal qualities.  As you have strongly pointed out elsewhere, RRod was not very different than most of our great coaches in the past and I will gladly give Hoke the benefit of the doubt that he too will be able to continue bringing in great kids who are attracted to the tradition, education and opportunites to showcase athletic talent instead of the free tattoos or booster cash sacks that other school have to offer.