Wee-Bey Brice

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:26 PM ^

Sparty fans upset & demanding excellence after 4 years of relevance, they'd prob have committed suicide during the RR years. They dont have any idea what it's like to be in our shoes as M fans, this proves it.. How dare they be spoiled after 4 nice seasons smh

Noahdb

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:26 PM ^

The guy who wrote the "**** My Dad Says" blog wrote a good piece about sports and fans. During a tantrum during the Chargers' Superbowl loss in the 90s, he broke a pretty expensive bottle of hooch that his dad had been saving. After recovering from his anger, his dad reminded him that the players on his favorite team didn't give a damn about him. Why did he care so much about them?

I have to admit, several years ago, my mood was totally dictated by the fortunes of the teams I followed. Once, after a terrible loss, I had my weekend destroyed. It ended up destroying the next week and the following weekend. After the season, I realized that I envied people who didn't like sports. The losses hurt worse than the wins felt good. It had become a bad bargain. 

So...I've spent the years after that turning the volume down. I still like sports. It just no longer dictates my mood. It is, as someone once said, just a game. 

If you find yourself dressing up like a really crappy superhero and making hype videos where you talk trash to N. Dakota State...maybe you're not spending your time well. Maybe try taking a walk...get some exercise...get rid of those idiotic tattoos. Maybe try and kiss a girl once in awhile. Move out of your mom's basement and try getting a job too.

Hey, back in the day, I was a deadhead. Spent way too much time and money travelling the country and seeing the Grateful Dead. As Jerry Garcia said, "If the only thing you have in your life is the Grateful Dead, you don't have much."

Same could be said for football fans.

LSAClassOf2000

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:28 PM ^

"Since we've stopped playing football maybe the Big East will take us back." - UConn fan

I busted out laughing in a meeting because of this remark. Oops. 

I also recommend actually watching the Mike Sadler highlight reel. Michigan State punted 11 times in that game. The next highest total in the Big Ten was 7, Iowa's total. 

Ernis

September 4th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^

Solid performance. The length of the video is impressive -- just think how much experience Sadler is going to have coming into the big game v UM. Sparty will have the best punting unit around!

I would be downright scared of Sadler, if not for our demonstrated aptitude in blocking punts. That will truly be the matchup to watch for... Thomas v Sadler.

jmblue

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^

I'm curious: does Brian surf all these message boards himself to find the material or does he " farm it out" to other people?  If he's doing all this himself while also writing all the Michigan columns, man, his productivity is impressive.

lbpeley

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:42 PM ^

if staee fans go into every year expecting to go undefeated. Like, really undefeated.

You've got Bama, LSU, ohio, ND, USC, UF, Texas, and maybe UM fans with recent enough success (BCS and/or MNC game) under their belt to expect a little more (of course "delusional in spite of" might apply for some of those - UM not excluded). I wonder what it's like to be a rabid fan of, say Iowa or Purdue or Colorado or whatnot, where you live and die by each win or loss but it's mostly losses and diappointment. 

MileHighAnnArborite

September 3rd, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^

I can tell you (Colorado alum here) -- when I was in school (mid-late 90s) the losses hurt like Michigan losses still do, because our expectations were similar.  Now, though, the losing has caused a lot of numbness, and so they don't hurt nearly as much (and most games are expected).  On the bright side, the wins are a lot more happy than the losses are painful these days, so that's good.

jsquigg

September 3rd, 2013 at 4:37 PM ^

If you are a fan of a traditionally mediocre/bad team, you just have to get to the point where you hit the "off" switch.  I'm a fan of Detroit pro teams but I could care less about the Lions most of the time.  If that makes me a "bad fan," so be it.  I'm invested too much in Michigan sports to give too much of a damn about any pro team.  If you care about so many teams you gotta be some level of alcoholic. 

saveferris

September 4th, 2013 at 8:47 AM ^

I doubt Staee fans are expecting to go undefeated, but I think they were looking to make it to the Rose Bowl this season.  If you glanced at the RCMB during the offseason, Sparty was putting a lot of stock in the offense improving with the departure of Rouchar.  Now that Western has blown a massive hole through that theory, everybody is of course panicking.

With their defense and their soft schedule, Sparty probably felt they had a legitimate shot at winning the Legends and making it to Pasedena, even it they lost to OSU in the B1G Championship game, since Ohio would move onto the BCS title game.  Unfortunately, they would need their offense to be competent and right now they're getting godawful. 

I think the Spartan faithful hear the clock ticking down to midnight and realize they are about to turn back into pumpkins and they don't want to face the truth.  The run is over.

 

His Dudeness

September 3rd, 2013 at 3:57 PM ^

What does the Spartan fanbase think their team is?

I don't get it. It's like being a Jets fan and suddenly thinking your team is going to buck decades of futility and rise up to challenge the champions of football.

I mean, honestly, look in the mirror and understand what your ceiling is. You aren't going to win dick. Be happy with shittiness and the occasional upset of us once every 5-10 seasons or so. Until then, stop complaining and wasting everybody's time. You are what you are.

saveferris

September 4th, 2013 at 9:06 AM ^

You actually believed the hype? 

Here are the facts, when Michigan has it's shit together in football, MSU's record against them hovers around .250.  From 2008 - 2010, Michigan didn't have it's shit together.  Now it does.  Bottom line, Dantonio and the Sparty trolls can puff out their chests and gloat about "4 straight wins" all they want, but they haven't changed a single thing on the college talent landscape and ultimately that means they're going back to the days of hoping to pull out a victory over Michigan once every 3 or 4 years, suffering through the odd 5-6 year losing streak, and going to mid-tier bowls. 

You can talk about coaching up talent and claiming recruiting rankings are overblown, but the math disagrees with you.  Star rankings count.  Depth counts.  We have more.  Ohio has more.  It's science.  Enjoy your journey back to the middle.  Tell Iowa we said, "Hello".

markusr2007

September 3rd, 2013 at 4:51 PM ^

who grew up watching Michigan decimate the Big Ten, go 10-1 and then lose it all on national TV in California bowl games on January 1.

That was my "normal" growing up. It was great, but always ended in suck.

Some Buckeye fans say things like "LOL yeah, I hope they win all their games by 50 pts and then lose to us. Twice.".

Either way. It's all one giant world of suck whenever you're favorite team loses.

Michigan's win over CMU felt good, but it's over. Now I'm back to being a nervous Nelly about Notre Stain UTL and Tommy Rees' OMG that's insane week 1 QB rating and trying to convince myself that UM's OL and defense are both for real.

 

M-Wolverine

September 4th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^

The receivers might be the strength of their offense.

And where is the Zeta Tau Alpha house? I must have missed that place when I was in school...