September 9th, 2012 at 5:56 AM ^
"Is it an attempt to squelch the "you suck" chant?"
Seemed like it to me.
Which of course, the students repsonded by yelling "you suck" even more.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:34 PM ^
Scotty B decided to add it in last year
September 9th, 2012 at 7:03 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 8:22 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
Easiest fix: play those last 2 notes and get the other 80,000 fans not doing the "you suck" chant to shout "GO BLUE!" Then it won't matter what 25,000 students do. Maybe it'll even catch on...
September 9th, 2012 at 1:05 PM ^
"Go Blue!" would make a lot of sense - and would get more fan participation in the chant. If the entire stadium chants "Go Blue!," that would be more intimidating than one corner chanting "You suck."
September 9th, 2012 at 10:03 AM ^
Not saying I disagree with you about the chant, but saying it's beneth our fanbase is exactly how we get a reputation of being arrogant because we think we're better than everyone else.
95% of the people chanting "you suck" is the student section. Is it also beneth our fanbase for those same students to be under age drinking, or smoking the wacky tabacky before games?
Now, if there is a down in front guy chanting you suck, then yes, classless and beneth our fanbase. Students? Let them have some fun. It's hardly the worst thing they could chant.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:56 AM ^
Is it beneath our fanbase to spell "beneath" without an a?
September 9th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^
um...we ARE better than everyone else.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:15 AM ^
isnt it the student section that does the you suck?? stop crying about some 17-21 year old KIDS do a you suck chant. they are college kids,what do you expect?
September 9th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
Have you not been to a hockey game at Yost? "you suck" is one of the nicer things said there :)
September 9th, 2012 at 9:15 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 9:40 AM ^
Also, the band shouldn't play it for anything but a three and out. Going back to the RR days, it's ridiculous to here "you suck" after the opponent just jammed the ball up our asses for 65 yards only to settle for a FG attempt. Or when the go for it and pick up the first.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:17 AM ^
Someone did try implementing "Defense" in place of "You Suck" at the Big House viewing of the Bama game. It failed miserably.
September 9th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
They subsequently enjoyed a fine evening at "UMix."
September 9th, 2012 at 1:17 PM ^
The chant should be "Go Blue." It's a two-word chant, and it's something we're already conditioned to say 50 times a game anyway. Do that, and it'll spread quickly.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:37 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:19 AM ^
The issue according to some friends in the marching band was that the mics would always pick it up so it was louder than it used to be. The solution last year was twofold, a)band played an additional note to hopefully drown out some of the you suck and b) trying to convince people to say "Hoke smash." The latter never really caught on perhaps because only mention of it was in personal conversation and the fact that it is irrelevant.
Anyone know when the chant first started?
September 9th, 2012 at 11:25 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:32 AM ^
Why there's never been a push to end the chant with "Go Blue" I'll never know.
September 9th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
There has been. over 2000 people joined this group to try and stop the chant by changing it to Go Blue. By the sound of the game yesterday it didnt seem like it made much of a difference
September 9th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^
You can hear the "You Suck" on national television, which makes us appear even more classless than we're accused of being by every other fan base.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:22 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 1:08 PM ^
I think the bigger issue is that non-students don't get involved in the chant as it is. At Yost, it doesn't matter because it's such a small building (and indoors). But at Michigan Stadium, if only one corner of the stadium chants something, it doesn't work that well.
September 9th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^
Keep in mind that hockey culture is recently descended from gladiatorial pit fighting and best summarized by the cult classic Slap Shot.
Football calls for more elegant crowd chants, for a more civilized age.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:51 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 2:44 PM ^
Wisconsin's chant is "Fuck you, eat shit". I don't think "you suck" is classless at all.
September 9th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^
And like Michigan, no one outside of the student section chants it.
It's not the content of a chant that is intimidating. It's the sheer number of people doing it that is.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:59 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^
I really don't get why folks are so worked up about the "You suck" chant. Yeah, it's not especially clever. Neither are most chants. It's hardly the most offensive thing you'll hear at a UM sporting event (just try Yost if this one bothers you). I'll agree that it's a little silly when we do it right before an obvious go-for-it 4th down or after a long drive ending in a FG, but that's on the band for playing it at the wrong time, not the students. Seems someone's wine has turned to vinegar and their cheese has gotten moldy.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:13 AM ^
I think we have other things to worry about instead of you suck. God forbid a bunch of 18-23 yr olds having fun at a football game.
The fact that this fanbase is worried about what other people think is the bigger problem for me. I mean who cares it's a freaking college football game if some young people yelling "you suck" bothers you then perhaps they should stay at home and watch figure skating.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:21 AM ^
Might as well light couches on fire all through Ann Arbor, invade dorms and beat down engineers and women, and finish off by rioting in the Diag so hard we all get tear gassed on a weekly basis, right?
I'm ashamed to have you as part of our fan base.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
So I take it you don't go to the hockey games.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
Those chants aren't being screamed into microphones and the viewing audience is considerably smaller.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
So wait, it's not even about being better people, it's just that we put on a fake smile when other people are watching to protect the whole Michigan Man meme?
September 9th, 2012 at 1:08 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 1:23 PM ^
I miss the marshmallows. And the toilet paper.
September 15th, 2012 at 10:56 PM ^
We need to change it by not playing it for a good 4-5 years to break the habit. I've been thinking about writing a letter to Brandon about stopping it. It's not "only in the student section". I'm in Section 3 and there are an embarrassing number of people doing it there too. I've started to yell "Defense" but I just get a soar throat and frustrated. Today, my 21 yr old daughter who's a student elsewhere looked at me surprised when it was done the first time and said "Is that new?"
(Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, for today anyway!!!)
September 9th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
You can hear them on the radio.
When a student tells the opposing goalie that he's adopted and his real mom didn't want him, 1/2 of Yost can hear him.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
Yeah, those are charitable analogies to chanting "you suck."
I'm sorry that our chants make it harder for everyone to act smug on the interwebs, but yeah, we're going to keep doing it. Because it's sports. The whole point of sports is that it's a "distraction," a place to get away to and let some energy out. Are we being dumb if we paint our faces too? Or is sports maybe a different animal than real life?
September 9th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^
It's more about glass houses. The vast majority of the Michigan fan base has a sense of superiority over the less civilized fan bases (such as Sparty). I feel it's entirely justified, but only if we continue to justify it. I don't want to be Sparty.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
Hence the whole "making it more difficult to act smug on the interwebs" quip.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:58 AM ^
On the TV broadcast you couldn't hear "you suck" at all thanks to the band. It was awesome.
September 9th, 2012 at 12:34 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
"Chump, Dick, Pussy, Douchebag, Asshole, Prick, Cheater, Bitch, Whore, Slut, Cocksuckerrrrrrrrrrrrr. Skipolerrrrrrrrrrrr. Shakeweighterrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!" Is an appropriate, famed, and beloved chant but "You Suck" is not.
Okay!
September 9th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
I haven't been to a Michigan hockey game in a while, shame on me, "Shakeweighter" is a new one to me :)
September 9th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
For the record, I'm pretty sure that hockey band tries to cover that up too.
September 9th, 2012 at 1:24 PM ^
"You suck" is just lame. It sounds like something you'd hear at a wannabe football school, like Purdue. But the big problem is that the alumni aren't into it, which kills its effectiveness. Hockey can pull it off because that sport attracts a different kind of fan. Football fans, at this school at least, aren't into those kinds of chants. Change it to "Go Blue," and it'll finally spread beyond the student section. The students by themselves can't give us a homefield advantage. We need as much alumni participation as possible. The alums need to be conditioned to use their voices as often as they can.
September 9th, 2012 at 1:29 PM ^
The band starts playing Temptation after failed conversions, because it sounds awesome. Many years later, the student section decides to start putting "you suck" to the music. The university doesn't like the "you suck" chant (screw anyone who refers to Temptation as the "you suck" chant). They tell the director that they are considering stopping Temptation because it's not classy and alumni are complaining about it. The director doesn't want to ruin a long-standing tradition, so in an attempt to keep it going he agrees to try to cover it up with a two-note tag ending. The student section yells louder. Multiple facebook groups are made to get people to stop yelling "you suck," but only a few people actually care. A new group is made every time we play an opponent that we shouldn't yell at (yes, there was a group for Air Force), but it doesn't matter. Every year the same argument pops up, every year there's some stupid argument in the Daily, and every year nobody really does anything about it.
Future prediction? No attempts to stop it work despite seemingly obvious solutions presented to a student section that doesn't give a shit, and whoever is in charge kills Temptation. It is revived years later, and the cycle starts over.
Obviously I'm on tradition's side. It's hard for me to side with the student section when they're the only ones who aren't doing the right thing in the scenario. The only argument they have is "it's fun." Everyone else is just dealing with it, trying to make the rest of the fanbase happy.
(Negative posts sometimes try to pull it back with a "Go Blue!" or something, but I'm not going to conform.)