The State Of Our Open Threads: After East Carolina

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on September 3rd, 2023 at 4:00 PM

First and foremost, welcome to the 11th full season of this little football season feature. It's hard to believe that I've taken on what began as a humorous dare and turned it into something that some people enjoy, but also something that some people can't stand. In any case, it's here and we are still doing it, and I am sure all of us are glad that football is back in Ann Arbor. 

As usual, there's not much to really breakdown with only one game in the books. We do delve into the statistics as the season progresses, but right now, we're at that stage where, if I did that, I would be sitting here trying to expound on something where n=1, and that is hard to do sober (and of course, I am now sober for the duration, as some of you know). 

Of course, we had the Big Ten's new television and media arrangement to contend with as well yesterday, including millions of total minutes across millions of viewers spent watching a pale yellow circle spin at the center of the television screen in lieu of actual game action. The Peacock era is upon us, and it will undoubtedly inspire many to rediscover radio at this rate. 

As for the in-game stuff:

Overall, this was a quiet game for us, even by first game standards. There were only 19 fucks given the entire game, and several of those were about the portions of the game hidden from view by Xfinity's wondrous creation. The same really goes for the mere 24 shits given as well, although a few of those were from people who were already in mid-season form in the open thread. I do wish some of you wouldn't take the first game quite so seriously, but whatever. For a bit of contrast though, we managed 34 fucks and 30 shits in last year's Colorado State open thread, so by first appearances, we enter this season in a slightly more serene state, relatively speaking for Michigan fans. 

JJ was mentioned 98 times, and among tracked words and phrases, this was far and away the most of anything. Our coach in absentia was mentioned only 30 times actually, but then the terms of the self-imposed suspension were well-known, nothing was a surprise and we also didn't really have a desire to lean into that absence against ECU - Minter did just fine overall. "Offense" came up 39 times, for there were concerns, but I point to our history of somewhat lethargic (but successful) starts. 

"Suck" was used 15 times, as was "ass", but these were also largely directed at one of two things - Xfinity and the officials, who were officiating a completely different game than the one which they were working. It's funny how you can be in one place but your brain fools you into believing you are somewhere else, but that seemed to be the case yesterday. More than once, in fact, I asked myself which game they were watching as it couldn't have been ours, and this included the failure to call McCarthy for an illegal forward pass. 

Overall, there were 326 instances of tracked words across all of 1,204 posts. It was a small thread, far smaller than the 1,529 posts in last years opener, but then, home game threads tend to be smaller as more of us are there, and yesterday, many of us were trying to interpret the yellow circle and what it might be telling us about the game we weren't watching at that moment. 

You won't see charts until we get to conference play, of course, so these will be simple summaries until then. That said, hopefully you find them at least somewhat enjoyable. I know some are merely tolerating these, but then I do this for me, not you. 

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bdneely4

September 3rd, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^

I bet the state of OSU’s open threads would look a lot different than ours yesterday. 1st game and all but yikes that looked like a different team than we have seen in quite some time. Go Blue!

Joined: 01/06/2009

MGoPoints: 13935

Hotel Putingrad

September 3rd, 2023 at 10:46 AM ^

So I take it there were issues for many people watching from home? Interesting. 

I was able to watch the first half on my phone courtesy of Delta's WiFi, and it worked flawlessly. Didn't miss any action, and no buffering whatsoever.

Now, I had it on mute, so I can't speak to the quality of the broadcast itself, but I'm assuming Tirico was good and Simms was not good.

Regardless, thank God we won't have to repeat that experience this season!

Joined: 12/10/2014

MGoPoints: 212160

Jordan2323

September 3rd, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^

My tv only locked up one time on me and it was at an inconsequential time. It froze and I thought it would rebound so I just backed out of it and then clicked back on the game tab and it went right back to the game live. I didn’t miss any more game with that than I did with the announcers who decided to show the Mullings pass four times to make sure we all saw it. I like the other networks but it wasn’t a disaster for me either. I didn’t pause or anything so I don’t know how/if that worked. 

Joined: 11/09/2013

MGoPoints: 48921

AWAS

September 3rd, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^

I don't know if Simms dragged Tirico down to his level, but as a team they were awful.  Two things stood out:

a.  How do they breathe and talk at the same time?  There wasn't a moment of pause in the commentary.  They need to shut up once in a while.

b.  The fourth quarter was absolute amateur hour.  Instead of filling time with irrelevant back and forth dialog, try to just call the game!  Down and distance, ballcarrier name, defensive play participant names, rinse and repeat.  Identify the current players on the field.  We don't give a crap about your juvenile stories trying to prove your NFL bona-fides.

I'm especially offended for the ECU players and those deep on the UM depth chart, who had a once in a season opportunity to be highlighted by name during the broadcast.  I don't know if it was a suck ass production job or just lack of preparation, but I would rate this barely above B1G+ level.

 

Joined: 01/02/2018

MGoPoints: 9206

BakkerUSMC

September 3rd, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^

During covid the only sport to not add in “crowd noise” was the UFC. It was so quiet you could hear the fighters breathing, much less the screams from the coaches. It was so quiet the fighters could hear the commentary from the announcers and used it in the fights! I really wish other sports had done the same, it would’ve been incredible to hear football especially!

Joined: 10/04/2016

MGoPoints: 2724

Blue@LSU

September 3rd, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^

Thanks, LSA. Looks like we're out of practice.

Would it be too far OT to also have a weekly "State of Brian Ferentz's Contract" thread? 

  • Average PPG needed: 25
  • PPG after Week 1: 24
  • PPG more/less than needed to stay employed: -1  

Joined: 11/04/2016

MGoPoints: 80123

SD Larry

September 3rd, 2023 at 11:51 AM ^

Considering how inept Chris Sims and Terry were in analyzing calls and non calls, and the fact the game was streamed instead of "televised" this sounds like a relatively chill football game session.  Like many here, I have hopes for a special season and intend to enjoy every game and this  team's effort and chemistry as much as possible. 

Joined: 10/05/2014

MGoPoints: 40986

UgLi Eric

September 3rd, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^

I think the points per fuck (PPF) and points allowed per fuck (PAPF) mean more on this board.

Yesterday was a calm, decent Michigan day, which saw 30 points put up against 19 fucks, resulting in 1.579 PPF, and even more telling, 3 very sad points allowed per 19 fucks, or a 0.1579 PAPF. This ratio wouldn't have worked without the sad field goal, so papF you, Mike Houston. 

Joined: 10/09/2016

MGoPoints: 13989

GoBlue-Pittsburgh

September 3rd, 2023 at 11:45 PM ^

First time reader here, this cracked me up, I too have encountered some people panicking needlessly early about crud. Oh the kicker hysteria. But thanks especially for calling out Peacock. I actually really like Tirico so who knows what happened but between the mind numbing breaks and the lack of actual analysis about any of that insane officiating, I am seriously wondering if the B1G has lost its damn mind with this NBC contract.

Joined: 08/15/2023

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