(scroll to the ingredients photo to skip over the ramblings)

Even in the beatdown of a Power 5 team, our fanbase manages to create factions and nurture conflict.  There was booing Saturday Night at the Big House with a ten-point lead!

The social media complaints and the resident troll at 97.1, who unfortunately shapes Michigan’s fans opinions more than we would like to admit, seized on two problems with the Michigan approach.

A.   This passing offense will not allow them to beat X. (Wisconsin, PSU, OSU, MSU)

B.  Michigan won’t be able to recruit QB’s and WR’s with this offense

Yes, the passing attack is leaving something to be desired.  Almost everyone in the media, on the blog, friends, predicted between 3-6 losses.   Those losses had to include OSU, PSU and Wisconsin.  Everyone agreed this team had major flaws.  My friend had to talk me out of placing a ridiculous sized bet on Wisconsin -10 vs Michigan on a futures line in July.

So does a PSU-Wisconsin rock fight, an OSU loss, and a couple of good defensive efforts justify everyone changing their outlook from 4th place in the Big 10 East to a contender? 

Some of it is concern trolling, IE “ I’m worried about (blank), its going to cost us in the future.”   (Blank) can be any number of flaws the team has.  This team will lose some games and whatever your (blank) is, it’s probably going be a factor in causing a loss.  Pick your poison, passing offense, Defensive tackles, corners, the bloody voodoo doll MSU has, or OSU in its entirety are things that will lead to a loss.

The adjacent thought to this is that do people have to be “right”.  Does the power of being able to say “I Told you so” trump people’s ability to enjoy a blowout at night on national TV?

Second, you know what it makes it really hard to recruit?  Losing and having to fire your coach.

We’ve all see the results of these games go pear shaped.  Although, we dominated the first half, we were still only up 10 points, within what I call the “stupid zone.” The stupid zone is usually less than 10-11 points, where one stupid play, such as a turnover, dropped punt, ref decision, John O’Neill not knowing the rules, or a bad bounce, can get the other team in the game and lead to the loss. BPONE is just the expectation that it will happen.  Harbaugh has been the wrong side of his share in his time at Michigan.  MSU x 3, OSU, and @ Iowa.  So, I don’t fault him for paving Washington on the ground and keeping the win expectancy at 99%.

 

After Saturday’s game, I’ve come to the conclusion, the entirety of the fanbase is only happy with a certain type of win.  It’s simple, the Michigan fanbase is only happy with a 38-0 win over a quality opponent, with exactly 200 running yards and 250 passing yards. Anything more and the opponent was obviously not worthy.   I can’t remember a time…

                                                   Alright.. fine granted.

 

Cohasset Punch

                                                  Peaches come from a caaaaannnn!

When I Imagine students say they go to Northern Illinois, in Dekalb, people outside Illinois respond or assume,  that’s Chicago.  In my time in the south when I would say I went to Michigan in Ann Arbor, I would get responses so.. “Detroit.”  Dekalb sits an hour drive west of Chicago much like Ann Arbor and the dominant city in the respective state.

Dekalb was named after a French General who was assigned a division in the American Revolutionary War.  Layfayette was his protégé.  Killed at the battle Camden, he was greatly revered by his contemporaries.

Just like Dekalb is not Chicago, and Ann Arbor is not Detroit, Cohasset Punch is a cocktail that Chicago claims but actually originated in the Massachusetts bay town.  Gus Williams, a Chicago bartender, created the drink for a party thrown by a famous actor of the time.  Williams then sold the recipe to a bar on Madison Steet called Ladner Bros. , who built its business on the drink. 

Ingredients:

1.5 oz dark rum  (Appleton Estates is really good for dark rum for mixing)

1 oz sweet vermouth 

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 oz syrup from the canned peaches

1/2 oz Grand Mariner

2 dashes orange bitters

 

Place a canned peach or two in the bottom of an old fashioned glass or saucer champagne glass if you have it.  Half fill with shaved or crushed ice. 

                       Something rewarding about crushing ice during a football game

Take all the liquid ingredients and place in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Shake for 30 seconds and strain into the prepared peach glass

Garnish with another canned Peach.  I added the cherry for some color.

 Go Blue Salut!