Horror Recap, from Ace and EDSBS

That was a good, if stomach-churning, read. Reminded me that my roomate (an Ohioan, no less) and our friend got me so drunk that night that we stayed up past midnight cheering for the Idaho Vandals to score a touchdown against USC. They did and we celebrated like the world was ending.

I remember on a late field goal attempt senior Shawn Crable blocked to the outside letting the inside man block the kick.  I think that was the final nail.

I tried to get to the end of that article, I really did. It's wonderfully written, but I still just couldn't do it.

I was washing dishes (HS Summer Job) all day that day. Not even paying attention to the game. Turned it on in the fourth quarter at work. Couldn't believe my eyes. Then I was rushing home to catch the end, listening to the shitty AM station that went out when I took my foot off the gas. I was driving. And Michigan was driving. Field Goal position and everything. Red Light. The station goes out. Green Light. Pandomoneum. The kick was blocked. And somehow I didn't crash my car for the last 2 miles I had to drive.

 

...I'm trying to avoid crashing into clinical depression.  I have plans this weekend.

Here's a fantastic write-up of one not-so-fantastic day in Ann Arbor, courtesy of @cjane87 & @AceAnbender: http://t.co/ayEeuWbqAj

— John Dingell (@john_dingell) August 27, 2014

I love the site but this is brutal. I find that i feel like im on LSD when I read the comments though.

Reliving the Horror=

Total trip to think back on 7 years ago, and all the context before/during/after the game vs today. Here's to hoping we take this chance Saturday to put The Horror in the past.

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2007/09/05/scene-lloyd-carrs-ga…

I'll never forget that day either.

I went to the video store later that afternoon.  I wasn't wearing any Michigan gear.  I live in Ohio.  The clerk said to me (without me providing any indication that I care about sports) "did you hear that Appalachian State beat Michigan"?  Random video store clerks were talking abot the game.  It was a resounding embarrassment.  I work in the manufacturing business, and there was a safety meeting with a skit a couple of weeks later.  The skit had a reference to the Appalachian State Michigan game.  If you were living in the state of Michigan at the time, then you are probably blissfully ignorant of the massive shock wave that the upset sent through the country.  You have no idea how much we were the laughing stock of the sports world. 

The only sports event that I have ever watched whose shock value exceeds this one was Buster Douglass knocking out Mike Tyson.  Our grandkids will be seeing that last field goal block in the year 2101 when ESPN is recounting the greatest upsets of the century.  Other upsets where the two teams were theoretically further apart will be forgotten about.  That is why this is the biggest upset in college football in our lifetime.  We were the first team with a pulse to ever lose to a I-AA team.  it was only 10 years earlier that you would be embarrassed if your school even scheduled a I-AA team, much less lost to one.

It was epic, disgraceful coaching fail. 

Excellent read. I was also a sophomore for that game. Personally, I remember 2007 fondly because the pain of those first two games, especially ASU, has diminished over time while that one shining moment of our team taking it to the vaunted overlords known as the SEC happened. It was even more awesome since less than one year earlier Meyer had campaigned for us not to get the rematch. In hindsight he may have been right but we really did take it to him that day. I was not an avid reader of this blog or really any blogs at that time but I do remember also thinking why couldn't we have always run the offense the way we did that game. I still do. I remember everybody saying we had no chance of beating Florida, Tebow, Meyer, and the SEC. I was sitting on the floor on Mason Hall and had a dream that Tebow would get up from the field with turf on his helmet. That Capital One game was awesome and is one of my fondest Michigan memories. I guess this is how I've ultimately dealt with Appalachian State: I viewed Florida as the ultimate possible redemption to end that campaign. Who knows what this year will bring but it's amazing to see the differing situations of both teams that took the field just seven years ago. May this game be the start of a new golden age for our program.

I was looking through the highlights of that game yesterday (not for fun, for work) and had the same "holy shit...this is really going to happen isn't it" feeling I had when watching the game the first time around.

Still not sure if it was good or not that game happened.  Michigan had been teetering on the edge of something like that for a while with their propensity of playing down to the level of their opponent.  That game exposed the rotten foundation of the program, and showed the need for change, but they've never really been able to fix it in the 7 years since.

What I wouldn't give for a typically bland 2-3 loss season again.

was of the Appalachian Students going to their own football stadium, tearing down the goal posts, and marching them through downtown Boone, NC.

On a more positive note, I recall the Bowl Game later that year.  We had an office pool to pick all the bowl winners.  I was the only person in the entire pool to pick Michigan to beat Florida.  I still have that hung up on my office wall.

I was sitting on my couch watching that game via ESPN GameCast on my dang computer that whole fourth quarter. I will never forget my reaction to reading the captions on that final play after refreshing the crap out of that thing just praying that freaking field goal would go in.

I can't imagine that it would have been more difficult and heartaching to watch that game live compared to how I was forced to keep up with the stupid game.. having to refresh the page over and over again in frustration while waiting for ESPN to update the dumb thing.

At least this time it's on TV! Ha.

I was dating a sparty girl and I had to live through that game while in East Lansing. I don't recall what happened after a certain number of beers but I remember being heckled by children. CHILDREN!!!!

I had tickets but sold them (so glad I didnt see it in person).  Had to listen to the game on the radio because my cable company hadnt got the Big Ten network yet.  Just a miserable day.  I remember seeing  a co worker (ohio fan) the next day at the county fair.  I thought it was a "hey, how are you doing, good to see you", but instead, his first and ONLY words were "How bout App State".  I just kept walking. so I wouldn't end up punching him in the face.

I'm proud to be a Michigan Alum. I often wear my Michigan hat and t-shirts, etc. But even with all the Michigan alumni in the Chicago area, that day was really crummy. Illinois fans, after all, wear a "Muck Fichigan" t-shirt. They see Michigan as a rival, and hate us. It was a nightmare that couldn't possibly have happened, and yet it did. At that time, I was still a stalker, and hadn't become a user at Mgoblog. The horror, the shame, still stings. Maybe the worst for me was going to Thanksgiving in Cleveland, with all of my wife's family being Ohio State fans. A few of them couldn't help but rub it in.

While the win against Florida was great, I think if I could do it over, I'd take the win over Appalachian State in a straight up trade for a bowl loss to Florida. I don't know. Those kinds of thoughts are stupid and pointless, but I hate the loss to Appalachian State, and really hate the rematch game. Not worth the money to me.

As difficult as it is to relive those memories, that was a really great piece of writing!

I could se DOOM looming and I decided I did not want to be a witness to history.

and completely missed the game. One of the few times ever, and it had probably added years to my life...saw the score at a sports bar passing thru O'Hare.

but then history finally caught up with all the miracles, under Lloyd Carr's watch.

I mean Lloyd 's 13-year HOF career as head coach began with one of those come-from-behind late August opening game sojourns that wrenched all the emotions possible, until Mercury caught that ball in the corner. And then on another scorching August Saturday, Phil Brabbs kicked the Big House into hysteria redeeming himself with a straight and true boot from deep that brought frenzy and sent the Washington Huskies home in a funk. 

Under Bo, there was rarely need for last-second heroics, except Wangler to Carter as Ufer went nuts with his horn, or Kolesar's killer catches against the Buckeyes. 

Sure, there had been the impossible nightmare loss to Colorado in 1994  better known as simply the Hail Mary game when a pass that seemed like a punt bounced off flailing hands and the ball found itself caressed by a wrong shirted guy in the Michigan end zone. 

But that was the Moeller era. Certainly, Lloyd's time would be different and less sad. And mostly it was. There were golden times and a season of Woodson, supreme defense and Griese. 

And then Michigan started coming up against spread teams and found that power football, control of the LOS and having fleet receivers who could get it all back in a few plays, didn't necessarily work against spread teams if you could only hope to contain but never stop them. Those who played fast and in space to take away your  power and leverage will steal championships or make you pay more dearly for them, we all learned. 

So, when Anthony Thomas, one of Michigan's all-time rushers dropped a ball he safely carried to a first down, almost certainly ending an offensive slugfest in Evansville, it was more  than a dong punch --but a precursor of things to come. 

I do believe what is described as the Horror and was coined by Brian Cook, which is a borrowed line from Francis Ford Coppola's epic Viet Nam classic, Apocalypse Now, with Marlon Brandon, whispering the words, "The horror, the horror," before his doomed refugee village is blown to smithereens through his command allowance--the loss to App State was a literal coda to the Lloyd legacy -- the great, the bad and the ugly. The Michigan empire came crashing down because the last second Lloyd magic finally ran out. 

The final moments against that team whispered all the last -second heroic performances Michigan had so often gotten --and maybe taken for granted in the past. Henne hit Manningham deep. It was almost a reminder of other great finishes -Braylonfest or Penn State revisited.Gingell would repeat what Brabbs had done, and turn a rollercoaster upset  into a heart-pounding but  sigh of relief win. 

But then, there was a missed block and the kick was blocked. And the bomb to Manningham was a glimmering afterthought  The same guy who had missed the block had been flagged late against the Buckeyes along the sideline with a personal foul in the Game of the Century only 10 months earlier. That was a tough hard-fought death.  We went from college football pinnacle to the dumpster doom of humiliation after another sad Rose Bowl. This doesn't happen at Michigan, or now, maybe it does. 

Anyone who knew anything about the makeup of App State and their qb Armanti Edwards should have been at least concerned. He was just like Troy Smith, except lefthanded, he could run and pass. He ran an offense that Michigan had never proven it could handle effectively.

It was a stunning loss. It was historic. Everyone said so, it had to be. It was awful.

And to me, I still think of it as one of the most entertaining games you'll ever see in college football. But afterward, Lloyd had to be revived by Noah, whocame from the Great Down Under to buck up the coach atter losing to Oregon as Michigan took revenge against Notre Dame in a battle of old gladiators. The win was nice. But the pain was still heavy.  

There is no doubt  "The Horror" transformed the program. So, here we are after Three and Out, Freepgate, the legend of Denard and now uncertain challenge of the Fergodsakes era we are here reliving the past and trying to make sense of a repeat visit by a small North Carolina mountainj school to the Big House on Saturday. What does it mean to play  this team again? Revenge, remorse, guilt, guilty pleasure, what? 

How about just another game and the opener for Team 135 and the first glimpse to see whether lessons are learned and players are ready for prime time and the chance to not redeem but reclaim a legacy. For those in their last go-around, how about showing up how those who stay will be champions. 

Oy...man it was brutal. I swear within a week, you saw more app st shirts for sale in the local malls than MSU gear. Lil brother will lil brother I guess.

The sunburn I endured from that game was a lasting reminder of the horror I had seen going into my first week at Michigan. 

That The Horror, Oregon, ND and Florida games were the same team in the same season. It was definitely the nadir of the program and the entry into this antechamber of Hell in which we find ourselves now. Hopefully that 2011 team showed us the way, and we can run to daylight and back out.

It's too bad the media won't acknowledge that App State was a legitimately good football team in 2007, ending the season with 5 votes in the final AP poll. By that metric, they were the 34th best team in the country.

So in hindsight, The Horror wasn't exactly THAT huge of an upset. But the extra 'A' to 'D-1A' made the loss look 1000x worse.

Those comments at EDSBS are laughable, it is just a bunch of trolls. I can't believe MSU and PSU fans talk shit about App St when they lost to Michigan that same year.

On that opening day of football vs App St. And sat in Caesars Sports Book and literally had to escorted to my room because I was almost in about 5 fights as I was so pissed off and ready to throw hands w all the hecklers! I love Michigan and outside of that game at the Rose Bowl when Navarre had to become our starting quarterback I sat there in 112 degree weather and watched UCLA of all teams beat us! Those were the 2 saddest Michigan football game days of my life.

The thing about that loss is that the expectations were so high.  It makes me physically sick that Henne, Hart and Long never beat Ohio.  My son was about 4 months old and he vomited all over the maize shirt I was wearing.  I don't know where that shirt is, and I don't care.  Like Dan Dierdorf, I just want Michigan to be "back" again, which for me is winning Big 10 titles and beating our rivals most of the time.  As has been said ad nauseum, it's been awhile since Michigan football was anything resembling fun, although we did get a taste in 2011.