general bloody-mindedness of the universe

Previously: The Story. Podcast 12.4A, 12.4B, 12.4C. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End.

Depth Chart

The reader probably does not have to be reminded that the previous two times Michigan has lost a Rimington-quality center to the NFL the subsequent season was a disaster. David Molk graduates; Michigan flops Elliott Mealer and Patrick Barnum the week before the season. Denard is murdered most foul. Mason Cole graduates; Patrick Kugler steps in. Wilton Speight and Brandon Peters are murdered most foul. John O'Korn starts the Ohio State game.

You're probably thinking "let's not do that again," and hoo boy you've never been more correct about anything in your life. Let's not do that again. Please, please, please. Oh cruel and malevolent gods of the universe, surely we have suffered enough.

CRUEL AND MALEVOLENT GODS OF THE UNIVERSE: no

what?

CAMGOTU: no one has ever suffered enough

maybe you could balance out the suffering some

CAMGOTU: get bent nimrod, ger berks

is that… go bucks?

CAMGOTU: ger berks

goddammit

Anyway, if there is a weapon in Michigan's arsenal that can possibly mitigate the fact that Cthulhu is real and wears an Andy Katzenmoyer jersey to formal events, it's Ed Warinner. Warinner instantly repaired Michigan's disastrous blitz pickup schemes under Tim Drevno, orchestrated the bar-none best-organized Michigan OL your author has ever charted, and is an advocate of making things easy to pick up. This press conference quote from shortly after his hire still stands out:

I just want to understand, ‘simplify,’ a little bit more. I mean, the guys have been talking about it since you got here. And you’re saying, offensive line is complicated. In your mind, what does simplify mean? The scheme’s not simple?

“Well just how you present it. Like, there’s a lot of things that can happen on every play. And nobody knows what, before the play starts, what of those are gonna happen. And realistically, I know there’s six things that could happen. If I give all six of those scenarios to a player, then he won’t play very fast. So I have to simplify that — what are the two most likely things to happen on this play, in this situation. And it’s A or B, and react to one of those two. And if he’s right 80 percent of the time, we win. Cause if the line grades out at 80 percent, we’re gonna win.

A quote from Chris Evans after Warinner arrived and Cesar Ruiz ascended to the throne sums it up:

“How it was last year, it’s like, no matter what, if he comes, you gotta block him,” Evans explained. “Now Cesar’s in there and he can adjust it and you can go at it like that."

Maybe. Maybe one goddamn time.

[After THE JUMP: one time!]

[Bryan Fuller]

The Question:

Biggest risk of not reaching The Game undefeated? Can be opponent or team issue

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The Responses:

Seth: My answers are low-score entropy, and the general bloodimindedness of the Big Ten universe. When Stribling fell down those who don't remember Bo-era losses must've thought "well that's what happens when you let a worse team off the hook." Those of us who do thought "Oh no, not again."

Randomness is the enemy of all favorites. When you're an offensive juggernaut with an okay defense, you worry about an injury to your dervish quarterback, conditions that take away something the defense couldn't, and staying on pace. When you're a defensive juggernaut with an okay offense, you worry about the one play.

We were given a treatment for the latter against Wisconsin. When facing a real defense, Michigan's just-okay offense will get bogged down. Michigan can mitigate the inability to kick a 40-yarder with better 4th down strategy, but this feeds the chaos engine.

Iowa brought back most of a great defense and could put it back together at night in Kinnick. Dantonio State will always play its best against Michigan. Indiana is probably better than either of those two and would be utterly terrifying if their chaos seed was just that rather than a curse. And out there on the Big Ten seas lurk the John O'Neill officiating crew, sworn enemies oddsmakers, favorites and ever calling holding unless it didn't happen, and capable of shifting an expected score by 28 points on the regular. When the deck is stacked in your favor, chaos is the enemy

[After THE JUMP: Respekt is earned.]

"When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise."

~ Winston Churchill

(h/t @willbrinson, @detnewsRodBeard)

Trey Burke works the ball up the court, and crosses mid-court with just under nine seconds left. Jordan Morgan sets a high screen on Oladipo, and in an instant the much ballyhooed pre-game narrative is wiped out of the picture. This will no longer be a symbolic battle for the Big Ten Player of the Year. Indiana's best defender is a bystander. Instead it is Cody Zeller on Burke 30 feet from the basket.

History may be written by the winners, but in sports the winners rarely read the history they write. For the victor, the simple fact of the victory can obscure whatever came before. The foibles and missteps were merely a part of the rich tapestry that was their inevitable triumph. It is the character-building fire that forges their mettle. It is for the loser, rather, to lament the components of their fate. Almost exactly a week before Jordan Morgan set his screen, Keith Appling was dribbling the ball up that same court, in a tie game, with the shot clock off, when Trey Burke stole the ball and turned the tables on all the percentages. And when a second Burke steal sealed the game, no one cared that Michigan had frittered away a ten point lead in the last four minutes, or that they had missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Michigan State one last chance. It was Sparty, rather, who spoke with the bitter tinge of "what if" of their blown opportunity to win on what should have been a final possession.

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Burke gains the corner on Zeller, but only by a bit. Yogi Ferrell starts to sag off of Stauskas, but thinks better of it. Ferrell knows full well that Burke is taking this one to the rack, but Stauskas is not to be left. Christian Watford is under no such restriction on the far side against Glenn Robinson III, and he helps down. Burke isn't going to leave this one in the hands of a jump shot from a freshman, no matter how talented that freshman may be. Zeller extends an impossibly long arm over Burke, who responds in kind with a fully extended flip of the ball. Jordan Morgan has reached the free throw line.

If you are anything like me, dear Michigan fan, then there is a part of you that is relieved that it got this far. The recent history of Michigan basketball is one of repeated crashes to reality. A first NCAA berth in a decade is followed by a 15-17 season. A first Big Ten title in centuries and a four-seed leads to an early exit against Ohio (YTO). So when Michigan came out of the gates this year as an unstoppable hell-beast, there remained a little voice in your head that urged caution. Like the slave used by Julius Caesar to ride on his chariot to remind him of his mortality, the little voice kept whispering in your ear, "they are not Gods. They are merely human." When Ben Brust hit a half-court heave and Michigan was run out of the Breslin Center and utterly collapsed in Happy Valley, those whispers became screams that could not be ignored. And when Michigan went down 10-3 early, there was a part of you that said, "please not this again."

[After the jump, not this again]