OK Folks, Time To Return To Earth

Submitted by Enjoy Life on

Good to see Brian returning back to his analytical self (see his Defense UFR) instead of the unbridled optimism of the past few days. After listening to his podcast, I was sure he was suffering from "premature exuberance".

There are 13 steps for Michigan this year. Only 2 have been completed – 11 still remain.

I always felt the WMU game was a big one (even labeled it a “must win”), definitely in the top 5. It set the tone for the whole season and gave this young team the confidence they really needed after the year that shall not be mentioned and the story that shall never be spoken of again.

Saturday was only step #2. Bigger and more important than WMU without a doubt. It was a difficult one and a great victory but there are more demanding ones that still remain.

The next two steps look pretty doable. But as many of us can attest, even the smallest crack can cause you to trip and stumble if you’re not paying attention. As coach Rod said after the Notre Dame win:“I told them after the game, they gotta stay hungry and humble. That’s 2 wins - two good wins. They’ll get a lot of respect back but it’s still a long way to go. If they stay humble and hungry and we keep getting better, then some of that national respect that all of us want – our fans want and our players want – they’ll get it.”

I fully expect that Michigan will stagger and fall more than once somewhere along the way. I also fully expect them to respond like true Michigan Men and get back to work on the remaining steps.

Time to put all the talk of Hesimans, BCS bowls, and a 11-2 season on the back burner and enjoy the ride for a while.

da shiz

September 16th, 2009 at 7:04 PM ^

Why are you killing my buzz? Buzz killer!
But on a serious note, the fans and team need to focus on one game at a time and success will eventually come.

DocV8

September 16th, 2009 at 7:13 PM ^

Ah yes, with 11 of 13 steps to go (or 10 of 12, if you prefer), as one of our "mathletes" was quoted as saying this week, "there's more than 90% of the season left to play." He undoubtedly studied at the feet of Yogi Berra. :-)

Putting on my Capt. Obvious hat... Defense wins championships. An explosive offense means you'll be competitive in most games, and will win some.

The sense of foreboding I had after two games last year is not present this year. Barring injury in our key positions, I don't really dread the thought of watching any of the remaining games in '09. But I'm not looking for a B10 championship either.

raleighwood

September 16th, 2009 at 7:20 PM ^

I'm going with the 11 of 13 steps approach. I definitely think that a bowl game is in the cards this year. Now, if they can just bump that up to a New Year's Day bowl.....

OMG Shirtless

September 16th, 2009 at 7:47 PM ^

"Enjoy Life" is telling us to stop enjoying something. The only thing I've stopped enjoying is the Marching Band's Old School v. New School pissing contest. I'm at the point where I wouldn't even flinch if they pulled a Wisconsin and got the whole team suspended for the rest of the season.

Enjoy Life

September 16th, 2009 at 7:58 PM ^

Well, that is not the way I look at it. I will enjoy the rest of the season a lot more by having reasonable expectations. Setting expectations at a very high level is a pretty good recipe to be disappointed in the future.

BTW, did you read Brian's UFR on the Defense vs. Notre Dame?

http://mgoblog.com/content/upon-further-review-defense-vs-notre-dame-1

"It's time to get your pie-in-the-sky ideas about winning the conference out of your head, bolded alter-ego."

"I was hoping that the tape would show a huge array of awesome plays by Notre Dame that valiant Michigan defenders just could not stop because Tate and Floyd are future NFL receivers and Rudolph is awesome and so forth and so on. I didn't, really, especially in the run game, I just saw a ton of horrible play by Michigan."

psychomatt

September 16th, 2009 at 8:10 PM ^

What was Brian's preseason prediction for Michigan? Unless he is all-seeing and all-knowing, he does not have any better idea of how Michigan is going to do in the remainder of its games than the rest of us let alone the Vegas bookmakers. Let us enjoy his season our own way, say like not benchmarking off of last year's 3-9 record and actually looking at how the team is playing now compared to the remaining teams on our schedule.

OMG Shirtless

September 16th, 2009 at 8:15 PM ^

Yea, I read it. I actually understand your point of view also. I just thought it was kind of funny from someone with the name of "Enjoy Life" which I attribute to optimism. And I made a goofy joke about it and the Marching Band. Your post was fine, I see it was moved to the board where it belongs, but other than that it's valid. I don't agree with it but that's fine.

I was serious about the band though, I wish they'd stop fighting like whiny bitches, maybe they need an MGoBandBlog to fight on.

ATrain32

September 16th, 2009 at 8:49 PM ^

Valid points citing the UFR. I was concerned about the defense after ND game. I suppose the false hope that ND's uber offense was making plays sounded better than the alternative (i.e. M having issues on D).

Either way, I plan to enjoy the season and see where the ride takes us. I think all of us want to see lots of wins.

At this point I'd say let people predict away. Just keep in mind that when it began people were thinking 7-maybe 8 wins would represent a good step forward. Anything beyond that is good gravy. Point being that if the team falls short of 9-10 wins or better, I'm still happy to see us relevant and winning again. RR has us on the right track.

michman79

September 16th, 2009 at 7:50 PM ^

After Brians defensive analysis, people seem to be coming back down to earth. Please don't. I prefer to bask in the possibility of 10-2. I vocalize 8-4 to others (outside of this blog) but secretly only for supersticious reasons. I think ND had one of the best 3 offenses we will face this year (OSU and PSU the others) and we escaped with a win.

I am concerned with an away night game at Iowa, PSU and OSU, and our first road test at Sparty. If we can split those 4 games which is a distinct possibility, 10-2 is very reasonable.

At this point, I would have to say that 7-5 is the absolute basement with 8-4 or 9-3 the over/under line on wins.

Tater

September 16th, 2009 at 8:18 PM ^

....9-3. But Brian's analysis of the defense has me seeing the possibility of 8-4 and my optimism (read: giddiness) has me seeing the possibility of 10-2.

For a total with the bowl, I think 10-3 is safe. If they go 9-3, they get an easier team than they do at 10-2, making 10-3 a probability in either case.

SWFlaBlue

September 16th, 2009 at 8:47 PM ^

For most of the past year or so, things have been fairly dismal in most facets of life for a large portion of this blog and most people I know. If anything, these times should have taught us to squeeze the hell out of all of the positives that come our way and these past two weeks have been just the ticket. Right up until kickoff Saturday, I'm going to float in the moment of what just was, and hopefully, three hours after that, I'll have another week to keep floatin'.

nmwolverine

September 16th, 2009 at 11:05 PM ^

showed what we knew in August: the offense would be improved and the defense would still be questionable. But there is a fire with this team completely lacking last year. We have no right to win 10 games with the talent and experience we have. But we could win 10 by playing over our heads. Regime change. Don't bet on it. Just enjoy it.

The King of Belch

September 16th, 2009 at 11:19 PM ^

In writing crap like this, I completely miss out on it. Fans having fun after 19 months of hell? Wow, who'd have thunk it.

Thanks, moms.

Let the coaches warn the players. Let the media types look for faults and dissect the victory.

But sheesh, let fellow fans enjoy the ride. There isn't a whole lot of "perspective" with regard to being a fan, especially being a college football fan.

I spent some time on Earth during the off season. Earth sucks. I wanna fly in the clouds. Return by yourself.