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Yep, same amount for any…

Yep, same amount for any sale. I'm officially agnostic on method of purchase—up to you!

It's almost all about 2021…

It's almost all about 2021 in fact—just a bit of setup. The above is actually in the chapter about the Washington game.

Wrong, that was a GREAT post.

Wrong, that was a GREAT post.

Oh yeah, I should say, they…

Oh yeah, I should say, they got an OUTSTANDING voice actor to do the audiobook—he does a lot of noir and has a deep and intriguing voice that sounds nothing like me at all, in a way that I think is about 1,000 times better for listeners than if I had read it myself.

Hmm, might just copy and…

Hmm, might just copy and paste this into the book, thank you for doing my job better than I did

Sorry, yeah, didn't mean to…

Sorry, yeah, didn't mean to disparage these programs at all, to be clear! Should've been more explicit about it, but I was trying to kind of narrate how someone from MSU would feel about it in their head, doing the kind of generalization and exaggeration that we all do. I think there are many reasons for UM to feel good about its own community (which obviously I'm a part of; I identify with it more than the actual college I went to!) and hope to get into those at length not just in the book but in the tOSU dispatch later this month.

That's me—different one of…

That's me—different one of the tri-cities (Midland, not Bay City) but otherwise, yep. Good Midland High contingent around here, led by BryMac.

gotcha,

gotcha, thanks.

Question on the Braden mini-pull EMLOS

...the one that Johnson cuts outside after the linebacker overruns the play: What is it about the play that gets the LB to overrun? Why wouldn't he think he needs to be in that gap?

Brooklyn

I've had good times for games at Angry Wade's and Dram Shop in Brooklyn, but the former is more of a Wisconsin bar, I believe, and the latter is a free-for-all that can get quite crowded. Pork Slope is an unofficial Michigan place but I've gotten bad/surly service the last few times I've gone there. Anyone else have a Brooklyn spot they like to frequent for football that's unofficially an M gathering spot?

still watching

It's not up to the level of the last season but few things are. I get a kick out of the ridiculous things Vince Vaughn's character says and feel like they're overwrought on purpose. Also think Colin Farrell is doing an amazing job.

Ennui

The actual fulcrum of my ennui this season was probably when the game was 7-0 and Miller and Kalis ran past the only defender on the right side of the field (Jones) on the screen to Hayes. That happening in the second half of the season = offense not gonna "put things together." I was in California so soon after I headed for the pool, first ongoing Michigan game I've walked away from in...ever? 

n.b.

For reference, here are the rules governing Michigan public schools (primary and secondary).

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/hal_mhc_rms_local_gs2_171482_7.pdf

It would seem that correspondence with alums about department policies and personnel would fall under category 100 (which includes "topical correspondence" about "administrative analysis" and "programmatic activties" in areas such as athletics), which must be kept for two years _after_ the topic they cover "is of interest for ongoing administration." 

Though perhaps you could argue that they constituted transitory correspondence and could be deleted after 30 days.

I'm definitely NOT a lawyer

But I am a journalist, and I find the idea that a court would accept the notion that public records could fairly be deleted after one month (!) absurd. Is there any precedent for such a ruling? And on the nitpick front, I'm not sure how you would argue that emails older than 15 days-a month are "dated." There are any number of reasons someone could request documents more than a month old that related to an ongoing matter of public interest.

Spreeps

Spraps

I hope

There are some chants of players' names before/during the game.

I also hope someone would buy my row-60 tickets to the game for more than $10, but the former seems more likely.

Narduzzi

If you can't beat 'em...

I agree

Although his puntin' and manballin' would drive Brian insane

David Cutcliffe

Duke, Peyton

Les Miles

Hat, grass

Harbaugh (John)

Jeeeeeem ('s brother)

Harbaugh (Jim)

Jeeem

Totally co-sign this

As someone who occasionally writes Mich articles for a national audience. Yeah, you guys all already know. Doesn't mean it isn't useful or hackish for someone to sum up the hardcore fans' knowledge for others. If Hinton did this same kind of story about, say, USC, I'm sure I'd learn something.

I'm a fan of Bronx Blue and Hinton

Agree on the last graph about team giving up/body language interpretation, etc. You're gonna be bummed when you lose. Football lends itself to such interpretation tho. No one thinks NBA teams have given up because they're slumping at the end of a playoff blowout, because we know there's another game in two days and it's not at all rare to get blown out and then win a series.

But I disagree that the larger Hinton article wasn't worthwhile. I think malaise is a good way of describing the feeling of my friends who are fans, and mid-2010 is a good comparison. This doesn't mean we don't understand that ND could be an outlier and that the program has positive things going for it as well. We're not throwing tantrums and calling for firings. It just means, well, we've lost 6 out of the last 10 games in the same desultory-offense, mediocre-defense way, and we lost the one game that could've redeemed a lot of it (OSU) on a coin flip, and until we do something like pasting PSU at the end of a four-game streak, or giving MSU a real game, we're going to feel a little bleh. I thought the article conveyed this state of the program fairly in a way that other fans could learn from and relate to.

Honest question

What can a coach do to prevent meltdowns? What are some traits of meltdown-avoidant coaching? Because to me the 31-0 final score is 20% getting outplayed and 80% meltdown, specifically from Gardner. If Gardner has one turnover rather than four (the last INT doesn't really count but the 17-yard-loss on a recovered fumble does) we might still lose, but we aren't looking for signs of rot inside the program.

!!!

You're right...and I've watched this game on BTN, I think. Their quarterback gets pasted. Will correct post-haste.

True

You're right—it's a secondary connection, which was one of the things I was worried about when I was writing the piece. I think what I'd say is that M-App St. feels like the most egregious example to me because it's trying to contrive attention and relevance where there is absolutely none at all to begin with. When you've made M-CMU or M-EMU seem like a desirable alternative, something has really gone wrong.

I'm not complaining about the

I'm not complaining about the matchups, just that they take place in a stadium that isn't within 200 miles of the campus of any of the teams playing. and I didn't have room for it in the article but the fact that both the Chick-Fil-A game and the AT&T Cowboys Classic are technically nonprofit endeavors is pretty stupid too.

I enjoy

"The Post-Apocalytpic Oregon Game" and "The Horror (Remix)" among the descriptions I found on here.

I'm taking the downvoting as

I'm taking the downvoting as a compliment suggesting my characterization of the fanbase's reaction to this game is accurate.

I always forget

Where do the "expected values" on these charts come from?

Mich fan living in NYC

Been burned by the Knicks so much in the last decade that it's hard to completely get excited about THJ. To paraphrase and disagree with the poster above I guarantee they WILL squander him in the process of signing a washed-up 34-year-old at some point. That said, it's great that he looks like he will be a player wherever he ultimately ends up.

Jeremy Lin with a triple-double tonight for a 32-17 team. SMH.

Disappointed in this blog, the state of Michigan, and America

That this thread has three downvotes.

Definitely

I never thought Hoke was in real danger or believed that he should be on the "hot seat," but it was concerning that the team seemed to be tailing away a la the Rodriguez era. It would be worrisome if in his third year you saw a "lost the team" kind of ending. I feel like this game made clear that the players were still on board with Hoke and each other, and that's definitely a good omen going into bowl practices and the spring.

It was also the best game in the careers of Kalis/Magnuson/Glasgow as well as D. Smith and Jake Butt. That's great news given the loss of Gallon.

The flip side of next year's tough road schedule is that all seven home games are should-wins, and there's @Northwestern (losing Colter and Mark) and a road game against Rutgers that seems likely to be a Ryan Field East situation. So eight or nine wins seem like a good baseline. We'll have seven linemen who've seen the field on at least their third year in the program, plus Bosch and Kugler.

The big question of course is whether this is a sign that the players are capable of executing the kinds of plays that will give Borges' offense coherence. The use of Gallon, Hayes, Butt, and Touissaint on screens and misdirections — and Dileo on short routes — would seem to be just what the doctor ordered as far as keeping opponents off-balance to open up the power runs and long bombs that we know Al loves. Can I even dream that Norfleet will get some of those Dileo/Gallon/Toussaint touches next year? Of course, we've been burned before.

 

Data point

I would bet on Ohio State winning, let's say, 31-13, but given the pessmism on here I thought it was worth noting that the average point differential in home games under Hoke is Michigan +21.6.

 

But

Is the part that is "not" Pac-Man not in fact essential for creating the overall "Pac Man-ness" of the figure?

Strokes chin. Provocative.

grew up

on two acres on a country road in the sticks outside Midland then moved into the town when I was 12.

I SEE EVERYTHING

if you're looking for a more substantive read on CFB may I suggest:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/joelanderson/the-talent-factory-behind-andre-ag…

about a famous Florida tennis academy that's added a high school football program and already has Alabama and Penn State recruits.

Great post.

The psychology of fandom.

Great post.

The psychology of fandom.

I'll be the contrarian.

I feel the complaints about having to watch this team. I do, because I watch it every week.

But as a non-alum and non-season-ticket-holder, I've been paying well into the hundreds to go to games since 1999. $250 for end zones to ND '03, I believe.

The athletic department doesn't set the demand. The people do, because the program has had an unheard-of level of consistent success for 40 years. (Our highs aren't as high, yes, but the consistent level of competitiveness has been great.)

If you've had season tickets all this time, you are WAY, WAY ahead of the game.

Don't sell your ticket to the most important game of the season just because you don't like the offensive coordinator. Sack up.

The people who are doing this ARE fickle. Fuck 'em.

111

row 17. Rooting for players to rebel against Borges VARSITY BLUES style at halftime and call their own plays en route to an upset win.

Usually

I write something like my post above and then regret going too far. But then I read back through the entire thread and feel like I didn't go far enough. Seriously, you'd read this thread and think we went 0-12 with a team of 22 graduating senior starters and a 125th-ranked recruiting class on the horizon. Reasons for optimism? How about:

- Defense is 25th or so in the country, returns nearly all of its most important players, will have its most dominant playmaker (Jake Ryan) healthy for a full year.

- Defensive coordinator is widely respected and has improved almost everyone he's coached.

- Last year's recruiting class ranked #5 in the country. 

- Previous year's ranked #7.

- Almost all players from both classes have been retained by the coaching staff.

- Two of the best players in the country from future classes (Peppers and Campbell) already committed.

- Also the team plays in the biggest/best stadium in the country for one of the richest athletic departments with an athletic director who's overseen pretty consistent excellence in almost every sport.

None of this is to say that watching this offense doesn't feel like having a dog throw up on you. Or that pop songs on the PA system are distracting as hell when you're trying to get fired up in the fourth quarter. But how many national programs would you trade places with right now? If your answer is less than, say, 15 of them and you still feel entitled to more, then your expectations are the problem, not the program.

 

 

Like

What does everyone expect? Texas in the 2000s? Texas fans would love that right now too. There are times things don't go right and it's not because of sinister incompetence or character flaws. It's because no one is perfect and the competition at this level is intense.

Entitlement

People who are giving up: do you realize that the run of success from the '70s through 2007 was one of the most exceptional, maybe THE most exceptional run of sustained excellence in any sport in history? That Ohio State has had seasons of 6-6. 7-5, and 6-7 since 1999? That Alabama went 3-8, 4-9, 6-6, and 6-7 over that time?

It's depressing as hell to watch games like this weekend's. But giving up because the team doesn't give you everything you want all the time is pathetic.

Also, as someone who gets to go to one or fewer games a year — I hate "Build Me Up Buttercup" as much as the next guy, but the stadium experience with the band, the crowd and the team is still incredible, one of the best things in sports. Jesus Christ. Stop whining.

well put

"I have a problem with not even attempting to understand his perspective, why he called the plays he did, why he had the game plan he had, and acting like he’s so stupid that he has absolutely no clue while the obvious is so obvious that any and everyone else can see it."

thinking this way, even if you ultimately still think that doing X or Y was a mistake, is both more interesting and less frustrating as a fan.

I hope Coyote continues to post

Though one thing that's getting lost a little here is that 100% of college football coaches "know more" or have more literal knowledge about the details of football than any of the people posting or writing for the site. But that doesn't mean that some coaches don't fail or underperform, and it doesn't necessarily take someone with an equally detailed knowledge of offensive line foot positioning or coverage terminology to make a judgment about their success or failure or to make an insightful point about their style.

You don't have to know how to pick the right camera lens or have written a subplot to know that the movie you're watching isn't very good.

(FWIW, my own position, which I reserve the right to change constantly as events warrant, is that Borges is smart and obviously capable but a little too stubborn.)

Dominant D + killer offense at the same time

What about Florida under Meyer and Bama in the last few seasons? Trent Richardson, Julio Jones and all those linemen are certainly capable of slashing and burning their way down the field.

Maybe it's just because last week was so terrible

But I thought this game was relatively heartening. Offense played like a real offense and the D was going up against the ninth-best offense in the country per one of Football Outsiders' metrics. Obviously 500 yards isn't great, but a lot of those were just really nice plays by Indiana, and we had two INTs go through DBs' hands. In the big picture, the safeties got beaten up on, but that's an area where I feel like we know we have capable players and coaches, so you can expect improvement — it's almost good to see some of these problems exposed before playing against Northwestern and Ohio.

In other words, I feel like Mattison's D has earned the right to have an off game every now and then against a quality opponent w/o inducing panic. As opposed to, like, the offensive line being unable to block against UConn.

(You can tell from the double

(You can tell from the double post and the typo that I'm an internet publishing genius.)