2022 Wrecking Ball and Sand https://mgoblog.com/diaries/mgococktail-iowa-22

2021 Just for Mary https://mgoblog.com/diaries/mgococktail-big-ten-championship-iowa-2021

We'll remember this night when we're old and gray
'Cause in the future these will be the good ol' days   - The Script

When the historians talk about this era of rivalry, the only comparative will be the ten year war from 1969-1978.  I wasn’t alive for those games, and let’s be honest college football was not the billion dollar industry then that creates 24/7 worth of content.

In 2021,  it was pure unadulterated joy, of a team, program and entire fanbase getting the monkey off its back.  It was Walter White’s pure meth in a game.  Last year proved the first wasn’t a fluke.  This one was not pure joy but contained a splash of hate and vindication.

It wasn’t the snow. 
It wasn’t the flu.
It wasn’t five bad plays.
It wasn’t one bad half.
It wasn’t the signs. 
It wasn’t the vast network.

OSU, Day, their fanbase made this game a referendum on the last 3 years.  Lose and those wins do not count anymore.   Michigan won this game without its head coach, linebackers coach, and in the 4th quarter without their best offensive lineman and cover cornerback.  And it didn’t matter. 

                  Never Forget

This win ended the narratives.  It was the signs.  It was the vast network.  It was cheating.  Anyone who isn’t deep into the OSU cult, MSU trolls, or Paul Finebaum isn’t stupid enough to shut up.  Michigan won the game without its best lineman and still took 7 minutes off the clock by running the ball and controlled passing.

This era of college football is over.  No Michigan OSU game will as mean as much.  This was the last game where the winner has everything on the table, Big ten title, national championship, the loser goes home and looks at the future recruiting rankings and whines about a ref call and hopes the NCAA will vacate the wins.

OSU deserves all the credit they are a good to great team who just got beat.  But they played a good clean football game.  No personal fouls, no cheap shots, very little woofing (Wilson was probably worse), no sparting for calls from the refs at least from the players. 

Day is probably a good coach.  And maybe he didn’t organize the PI firm to snitch on the minor infractions.  But the man has to know, he or someone in the program tried to underhandedly tilt the field in their favor. If Harbaugh is held to the standard that he is responsible for everything that happens in the football program, so does Day.   But he is shook, he knows the pressure in on him.  He just lost the game and the referendum on the last two games to an interim coach, to a team that has less 5 star talent on the team than he does in the WR room. 

The record will show that Michigan won 3 of them, 2023, 2022, 2021 and OSU won in 2006 and 2016.  We were the only one to win on the road.  There will be never be a game between these teams with stakes this high, barring a National championship rematch, the next one of these with stakes this high will be played in some generic NFL stadium instead of a rabid home crowd. 

You will know these games by nicknames.
2006 The Troy Smith game
2016  The Spot
2021  The Hutch/Ojabo/ Haskins game
2022  The Edwards game
2023  Zinter? Corum? Signs?

Michigan won the series 3-2 without home field advantage.  See you in Columbus next year.  But nothing can take away the impact of this game. 

How did Vince dunk a basketball and football at the same time?

Bottom Shelf New York Sour by Edward Zee

Is there anything more bottom shelf than the Iowa offense?

Iowa is one horrible ref show away from being 11-1 while scoring the 2nd least points in Big ten play, 131 points in 9 games with an average of 14.6 points per game.  The most ridiculous team in college football went 7-2 and won the Big Ten West.  The silliest thing, is that they are the best team.  Any other team would have just as ridiculous.  The teams that finished 2nd and 3rd have 1st year coaches are in year 0 rebuilds and overhauls, quite literally in Northwestern’s case.

The New York Sour updates the Whiskey Sour recipe with a float of dry red wine. Reports trace the New York Sour back to the 1870s or 1880s, sometimes called a  Continental Sour. It’s possible that the New York Sour was created in Chicago, but as often the case lost to history.   This one takes the corn whiskey from Iowa and the same stuff we used for the Nebraska cocktail. 

Ingredients

• 2 OZ Mellow Corn corn whiskey
• 3/4 OZ simple syrup
• 3/4 OZ lemon juice
• 1 OZ  cabernet chilled (or your red wine of choice)
• Lemon or orange wheel and maraschino cherry garnish

Take your corn whiskey, simple syrup and lemon juice and put into your cocktail shaker with ice.  Shake well until ice cold.   Strain into a old fashioned glass with ice.  I’m using a large ice cube in this case.

To float the red wine on top, place a bar spoon in your glass so that it touches the side furthest away with the back of the spoon facing up. Slowly pour red wine on top and it should float on top.

Garnish with an orange slice on top and a cocktail cherry.