11/26/13: the day that MGOEMO cratered.

Submitted by wolverine1987 on

I've been here over five years, which includes the depths of Michigan Football in '08, and as an alum, for the Horror and other sad occurences, but I'm thinking today may be the day that is the most Emo of all on this blog. Brian's post(s), the Peppers visits, the Hoke/Borges comments, the anticipated defeat/humiliation Saturday, have combined to put the emosity meter at somewhere between the Goth kids on South Park, Meat is Murder era Smiths, Debbie Downer from SNL, and that teenage girl who screams "I hate you," after Mom washes her jeans.

"Oh no," you might say, "after Saturday it will be even worse", and I will disagree. Saturday we expect to happen, and really there is no deflating scenario possible that we have not already imagined to ourselves.  But today? Today we hate everything, love nothing, and fear all things. We make plans for future Saturdays without Michigan Football, we debate the meaning of "fair weather fan" (J'accuse!), and we cast our envious eyes toward our rivals future this season. 

But boys, I'm calling the stock market bottom today. I'm making the decision that it's up from here, if too slowly for our pleasure, and with many false starts. I'm not falling for the "it will always be like this" mentality by God, sure times are tough, and sure, many of us are pussies, but Goddamn it, we can imagine being men right? Imagining is the first step to believing, which is the next step to accomplishing, which is the next step to... something, something tough and manly. So let's stop sniffling in the corner, hold our heads up, and march out the auditorium, because, as we know, it wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, and we're a good OC away from rising up. We can do it, who is with me?

Crickets.

Ok, I'll see you at the bowling alley Saturday.

MGoBoard
Football

alum96

November 26th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^

I have not bothered to read the multiple Peppers threads other than the OP of each.  I envision each comment section to simply be embodied by a Sam Kinison sceam.  For those of you under the age of 35, look it up - he was good. :)

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82289

GunnersApe

November 27th, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^

[after a female student answered correctly why America pulled out of Vietnam]

Professor Terguson: Is she right? 'Cause I know that's the *popular* version of what went on there. And a lot of people like to believe that. I wish I could, but I was *there*. I wasn't here in a class room, hoping I was right, thinking about it. [shouting] I was up to my knees in rice paddies, with guns that didn't work! Going in there, looking for Charlie, slugging it out with him; While [shouts] pussies like you were back here partying, putting headbands on, doing drugs, and[shouts]listening to the goddamn Beatle albums! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Thornton Melon: Hey Professor, take it easy. These kids were in grade school at the time, and as for me... I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover.

Professor Terguson: You remember that thing we had about 30 years ago called the Korean conflict? And how we failed to achieve victory? How come we didn't cross the 38th parallel and push those rice-eaters back to the Great Wall of China?

Professor Terguson: [rips a desk apart] Then take the fucking wall apart

[shouts]

Professor Terguson: brick by brick and nuke them back into the fucking stone age forever? Tell me why! How come? Say it! Say it!

Thornton Melon: [incensed] All right. I'll say it. 'Cause Truman was too much of a *pussy wimp* to let MacArthur go in there

[shouts]

Thornton Melon: and blow out those Commie bastards!

Professor Terguson: Good answer. Good answer. I like the way you think. I'm gonna be watching you.

Joined: 11/19/2009

MGoPoints: 6930

Wolvie3758

November 26th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^

Football team is BAD and we all know we are about to get Thrashed saturday AND the basketball team losing to Iowa St and NC Charlotte..teams that we SHOULD have beaten . Now the Peppers news..its been a VERY disheartining couple of weeks..I think fans are losing faith

Joined: 12/12/2010

MGoPoints: 6338

MLaw06

November 26th, 2013 at 4:34 PM ^

I wouldn't sweat bball though.  Bball is just about fighting for seeding... the tournament is where impressions are made.

For example, who had a better year last year Indiana bball or Michigan bball?

I would say Michigan bball, but you wouldn't know that if you stopped at the end of Big Ten season.

Joined: 02/29/2012

MGoPoints: 6223

alum96

November 26th, 2013 at 4:43 PM ^

I am zen like in the UM bball world, as I know we have a coach (and staff) who has proven he can take 3 star talent and create some fantastic results (i.e. Burke) and just about every player he touches improves drastically over his career at UM.  There will be exceptions and guys will stall out - that is ok in bball because I have seen what the staff has done with the majority of players.  Hence if UM bball loses early games to teams "they shouldn't" or drops a big game in February - I can see the larger picture and have comfort.  He has the track record now so whatever the individual year result I know the path is good, and the man has it under control and players will get better.

I wish I had those feelings about football; only Mattison creates any comfort.  Not that the defense is world beaters but at least there is the 2011 turnaround and individual sparks such as Henry this year.    The rest of the program there are so many open questions and we dont have a clue collectively what exactly we have with the staff - that is what causes so much dismayy.  If it was a proven group who had a 7-6 type of year, one would have much more zen and sort of say it is "one of those years".  Unfortunately we are not in that position.

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82289

taistreetsmyhero

November 26th, 2013 at 4:40 PM ^

there is a real possibility our program stays in a slump for another decade or more.

it's unlikely, and i wouldn't bet on that. BUT, just saying, we could go way further down from here.

Joined: 08/08/2012

MGoPoints: 39396

robpollard

November 26th, 2013 at 5:13 PM ^

And appropriate for a whole host of situations.

(Funny thing about that scene: Brando improvised the slap to get a reaction out of Martino, who clearly wasn't expecting it, as you can tell by his stunned/bemused look after it).

Joined: 06/03/2009

MGoPoints: 13939

IPFW_Wolverines

November 26th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^

You have not seen anything yet. Wait until Hoke announces that Borges will be returning next year.

Joined: 10/03/2010

MGoPoints: 2581

WolvinLA2

November 26th, 2013 at 5:34 PM ^

I agree.  This place, including its owner, has gone off the deep end.  I think I need an MGoBlog break.  Way too much complaining.  Lately, it has made being a Michigan fan worse. 

Joined: 11/13/2009

MGoPoints: 58191

STW P. Brabbs

November 27th, 2013 at 5:13 AM ^

This is the best way to put it.  Lately, MGoBlog has made a really fucking joyless season even harder for me to take.  It's some kind of weird self-flagellation for me to read it -- especially the comments.  

Does it make me a fairweather fan to take a break?  Does it make me fickle?  Will it make me realize just how fucking insiginifcant my little act of protest might be in the grander operation of the blog? (Looking at you, Staying Away from the Stadium Freedom Fighters.) 

Dunno.

 

Joined: 08/27/2008

MGoPoints: 3828

State Street

November 26th, 2013 at 6:33 PM ^

Our head coach shows zero emotion towards anything.

Why should I show any emotion towards anything?

I don't know about you, but since the PSU game I've kind of checked out.  I feel nothing anymore.  It's just a blaise coast until mediocrity ceases to be enough for Dave Brandon.

Joined: 07/09/2011

MGoPoints: 15316

MGoBender

November 26th, 2013 at 10:24 PM ^

Ditto.  People always mock me when I say the Oregon loss was worse than the Appy State loss.

App St could have been a fluke - a perfect storm of underrated, Armanti Edwards-fueled underdog upset of overrated, injured Michigan.

But then Oregon happened.  They came in to our house, shit on the kitchen floor, made us smell it, made us pick it up.  Then they pulled out the sledge hammer and pulled a less visible OSU, totally disrespecting Michigan and Michigan Stadium.  And we took it like dogs.  That was the day that we officially became mediocre.

And until further notice, we are just that - mediocre.

Joined: 03/26/2010

MGoPoints: 15128

Yeoman

November 26th, 2013 at 10:36 PM ^

I also agree that Oregon was worse than ASU. It had been a while since I'd seen Michigan competely outmatched. (1984 felt a little like that--maybe none of the individual games were quite that bad but there were a lot of them.)

But we also came back to win the next eight, won a bowl game against a good team. We'd seen the abyss but came back from it. Considering how beaten up that team was, it wasn't that bad a year.

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 21390

MGoBender

November 26th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^

This is true and I was immensely proud of the response of the team.  They earned the right to carry Lloyd off into the sunset with a win over Florida.

And when I say "mediocre," I don't mean it as a literally average FBS team.  I mean with respect to our expectations.  We are not elite from any perspective.  From the perspective of an elite - where we expect to be - that means we're mediocre.  At least in my book.

Joined: 03/26/2010

MGoPoints: 15128

Yeoman

November 26th, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^

That's fair.

To be honest, elite can wait a few years and  I'd be happy right now to firmly establish mediocre (by those standards). For a while there we weren't even that.

The thing is, you can only see any of this in retrospect. Oregon could have meant a season-long catastrophe; it didn't. 2008 could have just been the birth pangs of a new system, then we had '09 and '10. And we're still arguing about whether it was just three years of birth pangs.

Maybe I'll do a diary about this sometime. In the late 60s, say 1967, Michigan and Minnesota were in about the same place--two traditional powers at the very top of the all-time win charts, both on something of a down with one good recent Rose Bowl season. If you went back in time and told people that one of these schools had played in its last Rose Bowl of the century and the other was going to win 39 of the next 42 jugs, who would they have guessed? They'd have been shocked either way, it was a pretty even rivalry at the time. But State's program was at its absolute pinnacle, a true national power it seemed, and maybe Michigan would never find its way back? And Minnesota had won 6 of 8 against Michigan. Maybe....

I wonder how long it took Minnesota fans to realize their fortunes had really turned?

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 21390

Vasav

November 27th, 2013 at 1:16 AM ^

I don't think it's any coincidence that when Sparty played in their "Game of the Century" M was 4-6. Sparty had been a national power in the 1950s and 1960s, whereas M had gone to two Rose Bowls in the same period. Bo changed that, but there really isn't an "end of history" here. Sparty is up and M is down. We haven't been in this position since our parents were kids, so it's strange territory. But not uncharted. Ups and downs happen - heck look at Alabama between our last national title and Nick Saban. Look at Auburn last year.

Joined: 12/13/2009

MGoPoints: 19203

Pluto1600

November 26th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^

dark days indeed. a time like this is when we should stand and be counted. we all love michigan football, and i am not afraid of urban or his boys. as long as our guys give a good account of themselves (and bash some heads in), then i will (almost) be satisfied (a win will go a long way).

in the days to come when michigan has regained its place among the elite, we should come back to this time and remind ourselves that we never doubted the kind of men and women who represent michigan.

go blue

Joined: 02/25/2010

MGoPoints: 40

mGrowOld

November 26th, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^

I think it's safe to say the board in general represents a fringe element of Michigan fans (hyper-engaged) and the people on the far ends of the fringe element (probably like me) represent an even narrower view of what most people in the stands are thinking & feeling right now.  So I understand in advance my opinons on the team & season ticket renewals are mine and presumably mine alone.

But lets face facts.  The vast majority of people selling their tickets on Stubhub for Saturday's game are NOT MgoBlog posters.  They are the rank & file of Michigan fandom and they are disheartened and upset over what they see.  They have given up hope for a reasonable and presumably fun outcome this week and they're dumping their seats because of it.  That should scare the hell out of Brandon but I'm not sure yet he understands the depth of what he is dealing with right now.  

The fact that the place will undoubtably covered in red will not be the fault of MgoBlog readers IMO.  It will be because the ordinary Michigan fan, the guy who wouldn't know a bubble screen from inverted veer, has lost interest. Zealots (like me) who have checked out and should "turn in their fan card" as one other poster said I should do represent a hidden groundswell of discontent that will be visable on Saturday because those seats will be occupied by people wearing scarlet & grey.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212543

Bodogblog

November 26th, 2013 at 8:54 PM ^

giving up on your team is not making a heroic sacrifice. You keep going back to Brandon like your upset he hasn't done anything between the time you were happy - Notre Dame - and today. Do you think he's going fire Borges during the season, and do you think that would be wise? An don't talk about prices and Brandon greed, you didn't give a crap about that before the losses mounted. Somewhere after ND it became clear the offense is a mess... and that needs to be fixed (fire Borges). But you and others keep using that as an excuse - and have created this "program going in the wrong direction" meme - to project your anger over losing, and wallow in ennui. Lots of tickets for sale? Yeah, lots of people give up when things are tough. Is that a surprise to you?

Joined: 06/08/2010

MGoPoints: 26674