I think the staff saw PSU tendencies (before and during the game) we the average fans do not see that they felt confident would result in a win. Not a pretty win, but a win. If PSU changed tack, then we would have.
Also, I think it was fairly obvious the staff had everything on their in-game plate they could handle without Coach Harbaugh at the helm. They did amazingly well on short notice. But times they struggled to get plays calls in, used timeouts at less then opportune times, etc. Me thinks considering when records were likely to be broken would not have been on the radar.
Such a satisfying win, not just because it was a win, but because of how well the coaches and players competed and represented Michigan.
Point 3: I think someone already said this, but has to be GhostofJermaine... doesn't it? With all those sneaky codes he uses to dish out insider intel? I'm too lazy to figure out the last time he posted or look at the rest of his posting history.
Sounds like it's all been resolved... I didn't read the original post, but wonder if he meant 'thanks' by his usage of 'cheers'? Like 'thanks for reading.' May not have been an attempt at celebration.
Yeah, we definitely 'bought high' when the tickets first went on sale. (had tickets for the game that got cancelled before the pandemic as well) Oh well, once in a lifetime event for us!
I've been waiting to post this thing I just thinked. But I can't yet because nobody will know that I thought it with all the other threads on here. And there's a pretty good chance the coaches haven't even thunk it yet. I don't want them to miss it.
Just kidding! Fun to hear what the vibe is inside SH. And I actually like your secret code format GoJ.
BTW...did Jim notice a few of his picture frames and trophies are a little worse for the wear after being quickly scraped up off the front lawn or did the staff get away with it? :)
I was growing ok with the reality of him leaving. He doesn't owe Michigan anything he hasn't already given. But sure am giddy he's back.
I can understand why you would say this...loads of terrible things have been done in the name of religion/God.
But I think it's a pretty narrow view of history to chalk 'religious' people up as being 'almost exclusively small-minded and self-natured'. There are thousands of examples of 'religious' people sacrificing their own comforts (and lives) in order to bring much needed medicine, education, etc to others who needed it.
I know you were saying this in the context of religious people's views on whether or not life exists on other planets...
Thanks for your post. I went and watched a video of his reaction, which I wouldn't have done if you hadn't mentioned it. It's so moving! Everybody needs to watch it.
Talks about vastness of space, life and death, is there something more, etc. A real 'what does it mean??' moment, which I think is really important. And reminds us how unique and special this little home of ours truly is.
Brian, I'm not sure if you have to battle a voice in your head saying, 'should I include personal things in my post or not?' But I think it's great you can share a little snapshot of your reality and in some small way trust this little community enough to be vulnerable.
Memories are difficult. Though I haven't gone through a divorce, I found re-writing future anticipated memories was even more difficult whenever relationships broke up.
And speaking of writing. MAN, YOU'VE GOT to find some other things to write about in addition to Michigan football. You are so gifted. And I think you have this 'the world should be better than it is' perspective that - can be melancholic at times - but could also be really powerful. I'm sure you will not respond to this post, but would love to hear what you would write about if it wasn't Michigan sports. You already have the platform to get published. I'd buy it and read it!
Give the OP a break everyone. It was just a simple typo.
Christ, Ian and Erson just committed to Michigan's Bocce Ball team. Big signing day for them. Glad that someone is giving air time to the lesser known sports.
But we either do not like doing that or cannot do that or for some other secret reason that we have yet to uncover, we will not do that. How many times have we gone into these games and everybody knows what you have to do to beat team 'x' and we just don't do it? Then half the board spends the following week arguing about the logical reasons why we didn't or couldn't. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I'm fine if we fight hard, have a solid game plan and end up losing. But that's not how we have tended to lose these big games. Please let the QB(s) throw, LOTS. Please let the QB(s) run.
My take is that they are not saving the playbook as much as the QB. If we don't have to run the QB to win a game, then we will not run him. In the second half against Rutgers, we left several easy points off the board and had several bad wide-open passes that would have kept drives alive. Enough to win the game comfortably.
Maybe Harbaugh is trying to keep our number 1 QB healthy this time around until we play the big games. I can't blame him if he's being protective after all the past seasons of injured QBs.
Edit: That doesn't explain the lack of sideways action using other players.
I like this post! I have very similar thoughts. I agree that 2 out of the three you listed would be a very good season.
Actually, I could still be happy if we lost two out of those three if we looked like we had a decent plan and fought hard. Like this coming Saturday. I'm ok if we take a good punch or two and lose, but could we not have our trousers pulled down to our ankles as well?
Does anyone feel that creating a paid league for high school graduates who were truly bound for the NFL and requiring college football players to be true student athletes would fix things? I know it's been talked about here and there on the board in the past. Would the play be quality enough to watch? Do we need the players to be the best in the country at this sport for their age in order to really enjoy it? What pros and cons are there to this type of setup?
Cue the Weird Al 'Living with a Hernia' soundtrack! In all seriousness, hope you recover quickly and that your 1.10am post isn't a sign of pain induced sleeplessness.
Great questions. This isn't an answer to any of them, but I have been wondering if all the love and focus that Juwan has been receiving will lead to a friendlier whistle for PDFT?
(and also wondering if Juwan's growing reputation as a coach and Michigan's standing in the Big Ten will help us in years to come to have a friendlier whistle)
I grew up in the States, but my wife and I live in a different country and both of our girls were born here. This country is very safety conscious, does not have any deadly animals nor danger of any real natural disasters. I often feel I need to up their 'danger quotient' before I can release them into the world some day as mature adults.
Anyways, family trip of a lifetime to some the best National Parks in CA, UT, AZ. We book campgrounds six months ahead of time and start preparing. Buy the tent and take a few practice runs in our country. We talk about the need to pack all of our food into 'bear boxes' so that the bears don't bother us. Girls start getting VERY worried and fear for their lives. After many conversations about how we don't have to worry, most fears are calmed.
First National Park is Sequoia. We got away from the airport, hotel, camp store in SF a little later than we wanted to, which means we are arriving to the campground closer to dusk than I intended. No problem, right? Pull up to the ranger station at the entrance. First thing my girls see is a huge yellow sign that says '7 bear incidents in the last week'. The picture of the bear probably had huge fangs and sharp claws. I can't remember. But 'bear incident' to them meant certain death. Somehow we successfully talk them back off the ledge.
Drive down a few windy roads and find the car park for our campsite. I had lucked into a really good one, quite secluded and down by the river. By now it's even duskier than I wanted it to be. Start hauling stuff to our tent pitch. Visitor from next campsite over swings by just to tell us 'we did see a bear come through here not long ago quite close, so just look out!' Thanks, I call back with a smile on my face. Turn to the wife with with a very different look on my face. Turn to the two girls who have VERY different looks on their faces.
Get the tent pitched, dinner cooked and eaten, and any item that a bear may sniff and even think it may resemble food put into the bear box. All tucked into sleeping bags, saying prayers for peace and safety, further reassurance that everything will be ok because anything that has a scent or resembles food to a bear is packed neatly away in the bear box. Everyone finally fast asleep!
30 minutes later woken out of a dead sleep as the eldest pukes her guts up all over the tent, sleeping bags, cots, duffle bags... So much for packing all the food away in the bear box.
Now praying the bear just eats us and puts us out of our misery.
(epilogue: it did turn out to be the trip of a lifetime! epilogue, epilogue: the last night in the tent in Redwood also ended in a puke fest - sigh)
The longer this goes, the more I think Warde doesn't have a decent coach lined up to replace Harbaugh. Then if Harbaugh bolts for the NFL, things could get really interesting.
My comment is buried and probably nobody will respond at this point. But my take on the culture is that Harbaugh has not been able to create an environment where guys love to be part of the team. So Michigan gets really good recruits to commit because it's still a good pathway to the NFL. But the first chance they sniff, they are gone. Any credence to this theory about the culture?
Was just looking at this recommended list yesterday. It's really comprehensive and list games that are good for families of all skill levels. Give it a look!
I have read about the science side of things and watched a couple videos in the last few days. But things seem to make much better sense when connected to Michigan sports analogies :).
And just think of all the new disease related illustrations the football team has given you to work with!
Really appreciated your Covid Sharpies posts! Any chance you are working on a Covid vaccine post? (pretty please?)
We are not anti-vaxxers, but I'm aware this is the first time this kind of vaccine has been administered on humans. So would love to understand the science better and where things could go wrong in a worst case scenario.
Also, what do you see as the next stage of vaccine advancement after this mRNA development?
I'll take my lumps everyone on my OP! I really wasn't trying to pile on the negativity or be clickbait-y. As you can see from how long I've been around here and lack of points, I'm mostly a lurker. (and based on this attempt maybe should stay that way!)
I just hadn't seen this article linked yet. Tried to summarize the two points that surprised me. I can see how it read out of context. Reading the full article still surprises me, though. And it feels like something is off in the expectations and preparation during practice and not just that players are not executing on game day.
I'll take the feedback Moleskyn. Said something similar above, but I wasn't sure if Wolverines Wire was an accepted source around here so I didn't want to cut and paste from the article.
And I still think it's pretty surprising to hear that the last Thursday practices were laid back. So I guess I don't feel that comment was out of context.
It doesn't seem right to me that a team who was dying to play this season and who got their butts kicked by MSU would lack focus or intensity.
Recent Comments
Grew up in Michigan cheering on the Maize and Blue. Lived in England the last 20 years cheering on the Three Lions.
This video strangely has brought those worlds together.
Between the Wolverines and the 'blue' Lions, does this mean England in 2026?
At the moment he's…
Neither.
At the moment he's still sitting on the pot and making us wait.
No. But he is Billy the Bigmouth Bass' lesser known brother. You know, Jeff Fish.
Great…
That. Was. Stunning.
Great story-telling with the edits, music, sound effects.
First recap that made me feel like I was there.
+1's all…
Thank you sirs!
+1's all around
Do you have a link to that? Just not sure where the 'cinematic recap' is.
…
Quit drinking and go to....
Wait, no! Raise a glass. To you and all the mods.
And to all of us as we face our glory or our death.
Hear, hear!
btw, how did you post this in the future?
I'd go the other way. Let Ryan know that his record against Harbaugh will remain 1-2, no matter the outcome, unless Harbaugh is on the sidelines.
Edit: ...obviously looking ahead to who we credit win 1001 to :)
I think the staff saw PSU tendencies (before and during the game) we the average fans do not see that they felt confident would result in a win. Not a pretty win, but a win. If PSU changed tack, then we would have.
Also, I think it was fairly obvious the staff had everything on their in-game plate they could handle without Coach Harbaugh at the helm. They did amazingly well on short notice. But times they struggled to get plays calls in, used timeouts at less then opportune times, etc. Me thinks considering when records were likely to be broken would not have been on the radar.
Such a satisfying win, not just because it was a win, but because of how well the coaches and players competed and represented Michigan.
Go Blue.
slay
Ricky Bobby
Missed opportunity to go dressed as an Astros player.
Point 3: I think someone already said this, but has to be GhostofJermaine... doesn't it? With all those sneaky codes he uses to dish out insider intel? I'm too lazy to figure out the last time he posted or look at the rest of his posting history.
Speaking of which... did we ever get the final installment? I either missed it or I've been waiting for it for three years now!
Those were 'Opponent Watch' level satire that I happily used to teach my daughter about biology and Michigan football at the same time.
Sounds like it's all been resolved... I didn't read the original post, but wonder if he meant 'thanks' by his usage of 'cheers'? Like 'thanks for reading.' May not have been an attempt at celebration.
Good thing Santa is up for doing a bit of 'Manuel's labor' in the offseason!
MGrowOld may take you up on that in order to help him settle his other debts :)
Yeah, we definitely 'bought high' when the tickets first went on sale. (had tickets for the game that got cancelled before the pandemic as well) Oh well, once in a lifetime event for us!
I've been waiting…
I agree!
I've been waiting to post this thing I just thinked. But I can't yet because nobody will know that I thought it with all the other threads on here. And there's a pretty good chance the coaches haven't even thunk it yet. I don't want them to miss it.
jk. It is pretty crazy in here right now!
That Juan.
Guess I don't have to do WORDLE today.
Just kidding! Fun to hear what the vibe is inside SH. And I actually like your secret code format GoJ.
BTW...did Jim notice a few of his picture frames and trophies are a little worse for the wear after being quickly scraped up off the front lawn or did the staff get away with it? :)
I was growing ok with the reality of him leaving. He doesn't owe Michigan anything he hasn't already given. But sure am giddy he's back.
I actually prefer to wander in the dessert to find meaning in life.
I can understand why you would say this...loads of terrible things have been done in the name of religion/God.
But I think it's a pretty narrow view of history to chalk 'religious' people up as being 'almost exclusively small-minded and self-natured'. There are thousands of examples of 'religious' people sacrificing their own comforts (and lives) in order to bring much needed medicine, education, etc to others who needed it.
I know you were saying this in the context of religious people's views on whether or not life exists on other planets...
Agree. I was thinking it's fun to hear Brian and Seth giggle like a couple school girls. But 'kids on Christmas morning' works too!
Edit: Double post. Both meant to be a witty reply to the parody comment above!
I guess this website runs out of HUEL during heavy traffic.
I don't think there's been enough. I, for one, would have preferred a release of Spaceballs II rather than Dune.
/s :).
You make these in your kitchen!?
/s
Very Nice! Looks like they chose the right person.
They needed to call you when they did this:
Thanks for your post. I went and watched a video of his reaction, which I wouldn't have done if you hadn't mentioned it. It's so moving! Everybody needs to watch it.
Talks about vastness of space, life and death, is there something more, etc. A real 'what does it mean??' moment, which I think is really important. And reminds us how unique and special this little home of ours truly is.
Brian, I'm not sure if you have to battle a voice in your head saying, 'should I include personal things in my post or not?' But I think it's great you can share a little snapshot of your reality and in some small way trust this little community enough to be vulnerable.
Memories are difficult. Though I haven't gone through a divorce, I found re-writing future anticipated memories was even more difficult whenever relationships broke up.
And speaking of writing. MAN, YOU'VE GOT to find some other things to write about in addition to Michigan football. You are so gifted. And I think you have this 'the world should be better than it is' perspective that - can be melancholic at times - but could also be really powerful. I'm sure you will not respond to this post, but would love to hear what you would write about if it wasn't Michigan sports. You already have the platform to get published. I'd buy it and read it!
Give the OP a break everyone. It was just a simple typo.
Christ, Ian and Erson just committed to Michigan's Bocce Ball team. Big signing day for them. Glad that someone is giving air time to the lesser known sports.
Wow! Now that's just low-hanging fruit...
Because we will have to pass to beat them.
But we either do not like doing that or cannot do that or for some other secret reason that we have yet to uncover, we will not do that. How many times have we gone into these games and everybody knows what you have to do to beat team 'x' and we just don't do it? Then half the board spends the following week arguing about the logical reasons why we didn't or couldn't. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I'm fine if we fight hard, have a solid game plan and end up losing. But that's not how we have tended to lose these big games. Please let the QB(s) throw, LOTS. Please let the QB(s) run.
My take is that they are not saving the playbook as much as the QB. If we don't have to run the QB to win a game, then we will not run him. In the second half against Rutgers, we left several easy points off the board and had several bad wide-open passes that would have kept drives alive. Enough to win the game comfortably.
Maybe Harbaugh is trying to keep our number 1 QB healthy this time around until we play the big games. I can't blame him if he's being protective after all the past seasons of injured QBs.
Edit: That doesn't explain the lack of sideways action using other players.
I like this post! I have very similar thoughts. I agree that 2 out of the three you listed would be a very good season.
Actually, I could still be happy if we lost two out of those three if we looked like we had a decent plan and fought hard. Like this coming Saturday. I'm ok if we take a good punch or two and lose, but could we not have our trousers pulled down to our ankles as well?
Appreciate the thoughtful post!
Does anyone feel that creating a paid league for high school graduates who were truly bound for the NFL and requiring college football players to be true student athletes would fix things? I know it's been talked about here and there on the board in the past. Would the play be quality enough to watch? Do we need the players to be the best in the country at this sport for their age in order to really enjoy it? What pros and cons are there to this type of setup?
I would be interested to hear people's thoughts.
Cue the Weird Al 'Living with a Hernia' soundtrack! In all seriousness, hope you recover quickly and that your 1.10am post isn't a sign of pain induced sleeplessness.
Great questions. This isn't an answer to any of them, but I have been wondering if all the love and focus that Juwan has been receiving will lead to a friendlier whistle for PDFT?
(and also wondering if Juwan's growing reputation as a coach and Michigan's standing in the Big Ten will help us in years to come to have a friendlier whistle)
Perhaps wishful thinking on all fronts!
Hey, no politics! :).
I grew up in the States, but my wife and I live in a different country and both of our girls were born here. This country is very safety conscious, does not have any deadly animals nor danger of any real natural disasters. I often feel I need to up their 'danger quotient' before I can release them into the world some day as mature adults.
Anyways, family trip of a lifetime to some the best National Parks in CA, UT, AZ. We book campgrounds six months ahead of time and start preparing. Buy the tent and take a few practice runs in our country. We talk about the need to pack all of our food into 'bear boxes' so that the bears don't bother us. Girls start getting VERY worried and fear for their lives. After many conversations about how we don't have to worry, most fears are calmed.
First National Park is Sequoia. We got away from the airport, hotel, camp store in SF a little later than we wanted to, which means we are arriving to the campground closer to dusk than I intended. No problem, right? Pull up to the ranger station at the entrance. First thing my girls see is a huge yellow sign that says '7 bear incidents in the last week'. The picture of the bear probably had huge fangs and sharp claws. I can't remember. But 'bear incident' to them meant certain death. Somehow we successfully talk them back off the ledge.
Drive down a few windy roads and find the car park for our campsite. I had lucked into a really good one, quite secluded and down by the river. By now it's even duskier than I wanted it to be. Start hauling stuff to our tent pitch. Visitor from next campsite over swings by just to tell us 'we did see a bear come through here not long ago quite close, so just look out!' Thanks, I call back with a smile on my face. Turn to the wife with with a very different look on my face. Turn to the two girls who have VERY different looks on their faces.
Get the tent pitched, dinner cooked and eaten, and any item that a bear may sniff and even think it may resemble food put into the bear box. All tucked into sleeping bags, saying prayers for peace and safety, further reassurance that everything will be ok because anything that has a scent or resembles food to a bear is packed neatly away in the bear box. Everyone finally fast asleep!
30 minutes later woken out of a dead sleep as the eldest pukes her guts up all over the tent, sleeping bags, cots, duffle bags... So much for packing all the food away in the bear box.
Now praying the bear just eats us and puts us out of our misery.
(epilogue: it did turn out to be the trip of a lifetime! epilogue, epilogue: the last night in the tent in Redwood also ended in a puke fest - sigh)
Thanks for the thoughtful - and graphically pleasing - reply!
The longer this goes, the more I think Warde doesn't have a decent coach lined up to replace Harbaugh. Then if Harbaugh bolts for the NFL, things could get really interesting.
My comment is buried and probably nobody will respond at this point. But my take on the culture is that Harbaugh has not been able to create an environment where guys love to be part of the team. So Michigan gets really good recruits to commit because it's still a good pathway to the NFL. But the first chance they sniff, they are gone. Any credence to this theory about the culture?
Maybe you should try putting some clothes on your feet before shoving them into your boots :).
If this isn't deserving of muppets, then I don't know what is.
Was just looking at this recommended list yesterday. It's really comprehensive and list games that are good for families of all skill levels. Give it a look!
https://www.taminggaming.com/search/category/Work+Together+to+Thrive
Thanks for the reply! Will wait in anticipation.
I have read about the science side of things and watched a couple videos in the last few days. But things seem to make much better sense when connected to Michigan sports analogies :).
And just think of all the new disease related illustrations the football team has given you to work with!
Really appreciated your Covid Sharpies posts! Any chance you are working on a Covid vaccine post? (pretty please?)
We are not anti-vaxxers, but I'm aware this is the first time this kind of vaccine has been administered on humans. So would love to understand the science better and where things could go wrong in a worst case scenario.
Also, what do you see as the next stage of vaccine advancement after this mRNA development?
Replying here so it's near the top.
I'll take my lumps everyone on my OP! I really wasn't trying to pile on the negativity or be clickbait-y. As you can see from how long I've been around here and lack of points, I'm mostly a lurker. (and based on this attempt maybe should stay that way!)
I just hadn't seen this article linked yet. Tried to summarize the two points that surprised me. I can see how it read out of context. Reading the full article still surprises me, though. And it feels like something is off in the expectations and preparation during practice and not just that players are not executing on game day.
(recommence lurking...)
I'll take the feedback Moleskyn. Said something similar above, but I wasn't sure if Wolverines Wire was an accepted source around here so I didn't want to cut and paste from the article.
And I still think it's pretty surprising to hear that the last Thursday practices were laid back. So I guess I don't feel that comment was out of context.
It doesn't seem right to me that a team who was dying to play this season and who got their butts kicked by MSU would lack focus or intensity.