Brian,

I like you and your writing generally, but this column sucks on so many levels, I hardly know where to begin!

First, stop acting like a 13 year old Michigan State fan who can't remember past the mid-point of last season!  What makes Michigan Michigan is an alumni and fan community who remembers that we are a world class University, and a world class athletics program (not just a football team) with a decades long legacy of consistent distinction.  Yes, the last decade has been epically bad for football, by our standards, and there were cracks in the foundation even before then.  We've weathered periods just as bad and returned to succeed the way we expect.  We are MICHIGAN G-D it!  We have a football All-American who went on to be President of the United States.  Present and former Michigan students comprised 2 out of the 6 pairs who skated in the finals of the 2014 Olympic Ice Dancing competition.  When I was a student, a visiting international law professor told me that the international law section of the Michigan law school library was third in the world (behing Heidleburg and Harvard) in his opinion.  While other schools are dropping wrestling and men's gymnastics as varsity sports, Michigan is winning national championships in them.  A Michigan student who was a volunteer, assistant coach for the swim team just became the most decorated athlete and most prolific Olympic champion in history during the 2012 Games.  Current Spartans and Buckeyes, you want to know who your boss is going to be in 10 years?  You might want to get familiar with the current student body in the Michigan Law, Business, Engineering, or Medical Schools.  That may be arrogance, but it is also THE TRUTH!

Second, you write an article LIKE THIS less than a week before the season opener?  We know precisely jack-____ about how the football team will play during the season, and we're about to get some actual information within days if not hours, but you're already making the "Wait til Next Year!" signs?  Let me remind you, college football is one of the least predictable sports.  The sample size, 11-14 games, is tiny.  Kids whose average age is under 20, and many are away from home for the first time, are major contributors.  You want to know a reason why our team's performance has been so lack-luster?  Here's a big one that no one wants to acknowledge; we've been extraordinarily unlucky (except for 2011, which explains why it stands apart from the seasons before or after).  There are a million reasons why our O-line was a dumpster fire last year, while still having two seniors who got drafted at the tackle positions.  He's a big one; we were extraordinarily unlucky that the 4 and 5 star athletes recruited to play the interior line positions all failed so spectacularly.  This year we've lost our two senior tackles, true, but all the other guys are a year older, and each season is a new roll of the dice.  Which leads me to my next point, Michigan men and women DON'T PANIC, especially in the absence of relevant information.

Finally, to the extent I can make heads or tails out of your "memory of butter" meme, I profoundly disagree.  No, one does not have to recently taste butter to believe your organization can produce some dang fine butter, even though its recent efforts have been lackluster.  Michigan women and men are courageous and confident.  We are courageous enough to look at the past, both recent and distant, and own up to how it really was, warts and all, and not some sentimentalized, factually false horse crap.  At the same time, we are confident enough to know we can, and will, be really good; we just need to keep doing the right things the right way, and we will overcome the obstacles in our path, using Edison's formula of 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.

So, buck up!  Get your...self back on the firing line, and stop worrying the other troopers!

You can spread whatever you want or punch whomever, if it makes you feel good. All things being equal, I'm feeling pretty good about this team, and I knew after last year that I would. I just don't know how well they will perform on the road, and unless that happens, this year is just like last year and the year before that, marginally successful, an ode to margerine and a reminder of butter in the before time or from 1969 to whatever year you think the downfall occurred. 

 

 

I feel more optimistic than I ever felt with RR. I know the schedule isn't easy, but this automatic writing off of tough road games just because they're tough road games has to end. And I think it does, with a win in either Columbus or EL. I also think this team has better leadership than 2013's and won't beat themselves and lose games they shouldn't. Let's get to it. 

is that over the entirety of his tenure he was the second-winningest coach in college ball. When he left and people complained about 9-3 seasons I said that people would end up wishing for 9-3 seasons once more.* It may or may not be possible to do too much better than that over the course of a career that also carries the kind of stability that Michigan the institution wants and probably needs. If it goes with good academics I am totally for it. 

Nine and three seasons mean ten and two seasons and eight and four seasons as well. In the new playoff configuration. . . well, you probably have to add a game, anyway. But losing a game or two during the season and one or two in a playoff is going to come with the territory. Not only can't sane people not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, they can't get perfect, anyway, and likely not--over the life of a coach who is a real human being (C ya Nick, C ya Les, C ya Urban, C ya plenty of people), willing to punish criminal behavior or not recruit it/perform it in the first place, get closer than a few steps from it averaged on an annual basis.

We know that Brady Hoke is a good guy. We know he can recruit. The lurking fear--and I can't be the only one feeling it--is that a mediocre year gets him another year and that year gets us to decent and then we have a long, very long stretch of uninspired ahead of us.

The people who wasted so much oxygen complaining about 9 and 3. . .

Many of us looked at this year's schedule and said that this team might be better but still not improve much winwise. Things are setting up to make Hoke and the team's road a little easier. Get to 9 and 3 and I, for one, will be very happy.  

*Yes, the thing had grown stale. Yes, Lloyd could drive you crazy going to the run after gaining a lead. Yes, he did turn out to have something of a petulant carrot up it. I was a strong RR backer, btw, so it had nothing to do with antagonism toward him. 

We have been "starting over" for years now.  The foundation of Michigan football is gone.  It was blown up when Lloyd left and we've had two different guys trying to build a new one as they envision it should be.  Hoke has rebuilt the talent base that was sorely depleted.  The next building block is "a tradition of winning".  Hoke has to make that happen.  If he does, we will have completed a new beginning and will experience new memories from a new tradition  Otherwise, we kick the foundation blocks down again and start all over.

It feels like the worst is behind us, and the guys in those uniforms have the talent to compete for championships. Calling last year the low point seriously casts Brian's credibility into doubt. Must have had some really great drugs during the Rodriguez years.

I’ve always enjoyed a well-written piece that elicits strong opinions.  Brian, you are an excellent writer, and this is a beautiful piece – and I could not disagree more strongly with most of it.

First, the present: Maybe living in California leads to wearing rose-colored sunglasses, but I feel cautiously optimistic about this season, and almost giddily enthusiastic about the future.  The OL problems are baffling, but that roster is loaded with quality depth everywhere. I don’t recall the last Michigan team featuring fully 10 guys who seem poised for break-out seasons. Sure, it won’t happen for all, but there are a bunch of budding stars on this team.

Now let’s look back:

"2008 had an obvious explanation and novelty; 2010 was GERGtastic but man I can't get that mad at a season containing the 2010 Notre Dame game."

That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it, but wha? I’ve been addicted to Michigan football since the magical ’69 game; that means I’ve been around long enough to experience life’s ups and downs – relationships, jobs, you name it. About the only things I could absolutely count on were family, friends - and Michigan football.  2008 shattered that, and it hasn’t been the same since. 

No Michigan team should go 3-9.  I was chasing the sun in Europe in the fall of ’84, blissfully unaware of the 6-6 disaster (ah, those simple, pre-internet days).  It was impossible for me to imagine a Michigan team that couldn’t muster a winning season.

Transitions, “bare cupboards”, blah, blah - 2008 was an unmitigated disaster.

Yeah, last year kinda sucked, but while many here have apparently erased them from their memory, I recall some real highlights.  Despite the worst play ever, Devin’s game against ND rivaled Vince Young against USC (and us) as the greatest QB performance I’ve ever seen. I get to attend only one game per year, and saw a pretty convincing rout of an ok Minnesota team. We fought OSU to a dead heat, and damn near pulled it out. 

That leads me to two of your thoughts about perspective:

"We've learned that it's worse—so much worse—to know that you have absolutely no chance to score points than to have absolutely no chance to prevent them"

'We' haven’t learned that.  This 'we' never felt more hollow after a win than 67-65.

"This Is Michigan is fiction. This Is Michigan has rarely meant anything better than 9-3 since the 80s ended"

Again, your opinion is valid; I completely disagree.  To me, This is Michigan means a team that wins most of the time, but just as importantly, it’s a team that doesn’t cheat, whose players attend and pass classes, that plays hard every down, and that never quits.  9-3 is a .750 winning percentage – is that good enough for me?  Hell yes it is.  Sure, the occasional amazing season is a treat, and it’s nice when those wins include our rivals, but how spoiled is a fan base that expects to win more than ¾ of its games, especially while trying to play by the rules in a cesspool of corruption?

In 2009, Michigan beat exactly one BIG team. In 2010 Michigan won 7, but got clobbered by every decent BIG team, and for the first time in all the years I’ve been watching, they quit – both against OSU and in the din of cowbells. C’mon, you knew it, I knew it, even he knew it – RR had to go. He lost his team. Michigan flat gave up against our biggest rival.  It doesn’t get worse than that.

This year is gonna be fun. I'm as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve - visions of touchdowns dancing in my head!

Great piece as usual.  I think I'm in Brian's camp when I say that I think last year was worse than 2008.  In 2008, even though it should never have been that bad, I had a feeling that it would be a rough year and things would get better.  Offensively UM steadily became a machine while every shred of defensive competency fled.  The frustration (for me) with 2011-13 was that while Mattison and Hoke revitalized the defense, the coaching staff scoffed at the very offensive formula that would have brought them more success.

There are different degrees of pain, and I will never insult another fan who hated the Rod years more than the more recent past, but for me it is torture to see a team that had the talent to do more and were so close only to see (in my opinion) the coaches fail them.  Michigan isn't alone in this.  Coaches on one side of the ball or the other are often guilty of putting square pegs in round holes.  It just has seemed more extreme in our case as Michigan fans since 08.  Anyone with eyes can recognize that playing Craig Roh at LB is literally one of the dumbest things ever.  The same can be said for seeing Denard Robinson try to impersonate a pro style QB.

Personally I think whatever happens these next 2-3 years is all on Hoke.  Borges was fired.  Nuss appears competent.  If the offense doesn't get better everyday from last spring practice on we just may have to face the fact that this might be the new normal.  I don't think Michigan can handle another transition unless an obvious elite coach becomes available and the administration is willing to accept that coach if he isn't a "Michigan Man."  I lean towards liking Hoke but he completely dropped the ball on the Gibbons fiasco.  No more excuses.  Put up or shut up.

The comments in this thread are very depressing --> Hey let's debate which season was even more horrific than the other.

As for the "9 wins is cool" remember there is 1 more game nowadays than in the old days.  I go by losses not wins.  2 losses or less is an elite season.  UM has only had 2 such seasons in some 20 years.  OSU has had a number of them.  And now MSU has had three 11 win seasons out of 4.  If 2 of your top rivals are doing 10-11 wins regularly and you are content with 9-4 (incl bowl) which many seem to be, that is not good.

We are improving our non conf schedule but I will repeat what I say a lot.  Generally you have 2 baby seals in non conf.  Then you play 2 cellar dwellars in the conference.  That is 4 wins a season ( of your 12 games).  You have 1 other non conf versus a "quality" opponent like a BYU who a program like UM should beat 9 out of 10 times.  Not the current UM but a nationally relevant UM.

So that gets a program who has its shit together 5 wins every year - 2 baby seals, 2 crap conf teams, and 1 mid major type team in non conf who you play at home.  That leaves 7 games a year.  For those advocating 9 wins as pretty cool, all it means is you went 4-3 against teams who have a heartbeat.  A very good football program would go 6-1, or 5-2 with some years (young QB, key injuries) going 4-3.  That would lead to 11-1, 10-2, 9-3 outcomes.  If you do anything less than 9 wins it means you went 3-4 or worse against teams with a heartbeat.  It also assumes you then go on to fart away your bowl game.

So I don't find 9 wins acceptable most years if UM is a top 15 program in the nation.  It currently is not.  But when we do return there double digit wins should be the floor every year, while realizing every 4th or 5th year there will be an outlier year.  When your 11 win year is your outlier rather than a goal you have become Notre Dame over the past 15 years.  Which we have.

on the dystopian/apocalyptic side of the bed this morning.  Dark, man.  Dark.

But loved reading it.  This is the writing you can't get anywhere else in the Michigan universe.  To borrow one of my favorite lines from the George C. Scott portrayal of General Patton, gazing out at the carnage of battle.... "God, how it love it so."

9-3 is not the Leaders and Best. Yost, Crisler, and Schembechler would not have stood for consistently going 9-3.

Michigan Football is Elton John, and its song is for you:

Well done.

I can't motherfuckin believe it's not butter yet, because Lord knows we've been beating the absolute shit out of this cow.

 

This Is Michigan has rarely meant anything better than 9-3 since the 80s ended, and the program is now 1-5 against MSU and 2-11 against OSU since [insert year here].

There is a point where prolonged mediocrity or underachievement becomes dangerous. It happened to Colorado after McCartney left, Washington and Syracuse in the 2000s, and it has been happening to Miami for about a decade. What are the biggest differences between their struggles and those of what would be considered a "blue blood" program? When Oklahoma, OSU, USC or Alabama were down, they weren't down for long and at least every few years they would have a relatively good season.

Michigan isn't teetering on irrelevance in college football because it has a large enough fanbase (like ND, OSU, Alabama) to generate its own hype. Louisville, Oregon, Colorado - they don't have this. Within the UM fan bubble it can become easy to point at 7-6 and say "THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR MICHIGAN" and call for Hoke's job but sadly seven wins is about average for the last 10 years and those occasional good years have been followed by a thump the next.

The only thing that can smooth that out and sustain success is stability.

Not going to weigh in too much on 2008 vs 2013 except to say 2013 was better simply because of less humiliating losses. Some here find the games entertaining, while I sometimes feel that way (mich 58, minn 0 or mich 59, CMU 9), most games are much more competitive and my "emotional investment" in Michigan precludes me from feeling entertained. A crushing loss, to me, like last year s Ohio game, no matter how exciting, was not entertainment. For me, it was over 3 hours of tension followed by extreme disappointment. Great wins. Case in point UTL I was also hours of anxiety and tension followed by a couple of hours of....a great adrenalin high. Just the way I roll for all teams I root ( strongly ) for Including M Basketball. KU win was an unexpectedly ecstatic feeling, last years loss to Louisville was a 2013 Ohio experience. Wish I could just find each game entertaining, win or lose. Those that do are fortunate indeed. And maybe better adjusted. And I should be old enough to know better. Put it this way, I remember M football before Bo.

Let's be honest: we should have known something was off when Hoke said that a Big Ten championship, and not a national championship, should be the program's ultimate goal (Drew Sharp's douchebaggery notwithstanding). Can you imagine Urban Meyer talking like that?