It is the unforgettable scene concluding the classic sports movie “Hoosiers.” Long after the excitement has faded, and the students have left school, and those who viewed it have grown old, there is the gym. The boy shoots a basketball that is too big for his hands, barely clearing the rim. Over and over.

The noise is gone, but the echoes remain.

I’ve seen you guys can shoot, but there’s more to the game than shooting! There’s fundamentals and defense.

The boys and I are getting to know each other, see who we are, and what we can be

Let’s be real clear about what we’re after here, alright? It’s team, team, team. Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit, ok? No one more important than the other.

I love you guys

*****

It is not merely a game. It is the culmination of a three-year epic.

The first episode begins small, granular: establishing the cast, building the world, outlining the context in which the heroes live and work. The wizard that nobody believes in gathers a motley party of misfit heroes and embarks on a quest. The early conflicts are small, but prove the mettle of the heroes. The episode concludes with a dramatic and satisfying victory over the dragon, the active villain that serves the greater evil.

The second episode sees the heroes fully realized, but the true stakes are now revealed. They are stronger now, even as they have lost some companions and gained new ones. The dragon, at the height of his powers, nearly defeats them, but they exert their strength and win. But, finally, a crushing defeat throws all for which they have fought into doubt.

Then the final episode. The heroes are at the height of their powers, dispatching with ease enemies that once seemed implacable. But there is a new conflict, one that attacks their very foundation, as the powers of the universe try to destroy everything they build. They are bruised and battered. They are hated and rejected by those whom they would champion. Alone, with only each other, they soldier on as the universe seems to crumble around them.

The dragon, evil to the last, pushes them to within an inch of their lives. One hero falls, his life sacrificed. But as the darkness closes in, another hero rises, and the dragon is slain. At last, the true goal is visible, the true evil fully faced. It is an evil that dominates all that come before it.

The conflict is hard and tense and dangerous. The outcome is in doubt until the very end.

Good triumphs.

***

One may enjoy such literature for different reasons.

It may be the plot: a ride that takes you through life and death and into life again.

A team seemingly at a breaking point, with many fans (including me) looking for a different leader. This site’s preview predicted an 8-4 record in 2021; many feared much worse. That team bested even the most ridiculous of expectations, beating Ohio State and making the playoff.

The next season was more of the same, delivering a dominant victory in Columbus and a real chance at a national title, mercilessly quashed in gut-wrenching defeat. And then the final year, a procession toward coronation diverted to a gallows erected by our greatest rival and an army of media determined to derail our best season. They emerged through all of it victorious.

You may enjoy such epics for the events described, the action. The moments are beyond counting:

2021, the rise from the ashes. Dominating Wisconsin and jumping to their music. A hard-fought game at Penn State won by a clutch touchdown pass to a tight end. The amazing snow-kissed afternoon against Ohio State. The hurdle. The offensive line. The amazing roar as the team chased Ohio State up the tunnel. A rivalry-defining dominant performance by Aidan Hutchinson.

2022, a national power. Scything through Iowa’s elite defense, Blake pantsing Jack Campell one-on-one. 400 yards of rushing against Penn State. Trouncing Michigan State and surviving their retaliatory assult. The astonishing come-from-behind blowout in Columbus, entering the enemy’s lair, striking deep, stealing his will to live. I still yip whenever I see one of those long touchdown highlights.

2023, the road to the national championship. Two months of utter dominance, unlike any we’ve ever seen. But then the scandal came, and all seemed lost. Tony Pettini suspended coach Harbaugh while he was flying to State College to play the first true test, in the most hostile environment imaginable, against the elite defense of Penn State.

From there, the action was unending, intense, gut-wrenching, glorious. Blake Corum to seal a win in State College. Blake Corum with the run of his career, the play after Zak Zinter’s Michigan career ended, a run that would define everything he means to Michigan… until New Year’s Day. Taking on the titan of the sport, Nick Saban’s Alabama, in the sport’s greatest setting, going to overtime in the Southern California Twilight, getting the touchdown, getting the stop.

There are so many moments. Three years of them.

One may enjoy the action and the plot of a good epic, but what truly keeps us coming back for more is the characters. They are not merely actors moving along the plot, but friends to whom we grow attached, whose fates we care about more deeply than even the universe they fight to save.

And there are so many. They will live forever in our minds, legends of the program. Hutchinson. Ojabo. Turner. Mazi. Dax. Steuber. Oluwatimi. Hayes. Haskins. Bell. Schoonmaker.

And: Graham. Grant. Colson. Barrett. Moore. Paige. Johnson. Moore. Zinter. Keegan. Loveland. Johnson. Wilson. Edwards. McCarthy. Corum.

An enjoyable epic will give each hero, great and small, moments of triumph and glory. And so they have: Keon Sabb closing and tackling a Bama receiver at the line on the key defensive drive. Jaden McBurrows de-cleating an Ohio State receiver. AJ Barner with huge blocks and vital turns as a receiver. Tyler Morris tight-roping down the sideline, outracing the Crimson Tide secondary.

And the big-name heroes? Will Johnson faced the two best receivers in the country and utterly jailed them, nabbing an interception in each matchup. Mason Graham, Kris Jenkins, and Kenneth Grant were forces of nature, wrecking every team that faced them. JJ McCarthy running for key first downs and making crucial, incredible passes. Edwards contributing big play TDs when we needed them most.

And Mike Sainristil. To close upon and thwart a touchdown from Cade Stover. Big hits and interceptions, including a magnetic tackle to force a kick in crucial early moments of the championship game and, perfectly the interception to seal the title.

And Blake.

In 2021, the speed back. In 2022, the workhorse, an injury cruelly thwarting a realistic Heisman campaign and handicapping us against TCU.

And in 2023, coming back for one last climb of the mountain. He didn’t always seem to have the same top speed. His stats didn’t look quite as good.

But in a generation we will speak in hushed tones of Blake Corum making the game-sealing touchdown runs against Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, and Washington. The Ohio State and Alabama runs as important and electric as any other play in the history of this program. When Michigan needed a champion to emerge, Blake Corum stepped forward. And around. And through. 

The heroes shined. The pages shall never be erased. 

***

One thing I like about “Hoosiers” is that the grouchy men who wanted to fire Norman Dale were there with everyone else from Hickory in the stands at Butler fieldhouse, full-throated cheering for their hometown team. I used to think it was neat and all; but now I realize it's more personal than that. They are the many of us who bailed on Harbaugh. We are the barber, or the sheriff, guys who didn’t believe when the few stayed by coach Dale, guys who voted against him and then changed their mind when Jimmy Chitwood committed to return if Dale stayed.

We were wrong, coach was right; but the joy of sports overcomes such errors, reuniting in community those who disagreed about something as petty as a game played by young men. We all remain loyal to our team, shoulder-to-shoulder with each other, happy fans of a team that we are proud to call our own. A team of Jimmy Chitwoods. Men of character and love for each other. Men who came back, for each other or their coach or their school.

Epic heroes who triumph.

***

The portrait will hang from the wall of a practice facility or a garage or a family den. A boy will play there, tossing a football to himself, imitating the sound of an announcer calling a game. He’ll speak of new heroes, new players, a new generation. He'll remember, vaguely, as his father or grandfather speak of names like McCarthy and Sainristil and Graham and Corum.

But the portrait will hang on the wall all the same. Time has faded its edges; dust sits on the frame. The players have gone to other things. Those who saw it happen have grown old.

The noise is gone, but the echoes remain.

Attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind!

I want all Michigan fans to do this. Take 3 deep breaths... And have faith. Faith that every single Coach, player, employee in that building is doing everything they possibly can to be great.

We are the storm

Let’s go Zak

Bet

***

I love you guys