3 Rivals a year is too many

Submitted by HireWayne on November 26th, 2018 at 8:16 PM

A lot of us have been speculating why we came out so flat on Saturday.  Some say it was talent gap, others say scheme, etc.

My theory is they were mentally and physically exhausted from having to "get up" for yet another rivalry game.  

From the lows of the loss of the opening game with Notre Dame to the highs of the MSU win and then going to Columbus to play for a chance to win the conference is just too much for any athlete.  

Putting Notre Dame back on the schedule was dumb.  They gain more than we do.  We have a conference that will give us quality wins.  They don't.  Fuck them if they are too arrogant, cowardly, or greedy to join a conference.  Schedule a home and home with a solid beatable program like Boise, Arkansas, VaTech, Duke, or somebody like that.  

Michigan State is and should be our true rival.  We share hate, location, and similar quality of talent/coaching with them.  This is the only game Michigan should have to "get up" for on the schedule. 

Sad to say but it's clear to me now that Ohio State, like Bama, Oklahoma, and Clemson in their conferences just is on a higher level.  We shouldn't EXPECT to beat them.  It will be nice to beat them every once in awhile but it's like Indiana or Northwestern expecting to beat us...It's silly.    

I think going into seasons with this mentality will help both fans and the football program.   

MGoBoard

bostonsix

November 26th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^

That wouldn't have fixed our problems with beating Ohio State. I honestly think if we didn't lose to ND we would have dropped a few more games. Sometimes you need a reality check. We came out against Ohio State the same way we came out against ND, too confident and stubborn instead of being mentally prepared. 

This should be a learning lesson for the coaches more than it should be on the shoulders of the players. 0-4 against Ohio State is on the coaching, not the talent gap. If Mark Dantonio can beat Ohio State then Jim Harbaugh should be able to as well. I think the coaches need to be self scouting more, and have a sense of self awareness when it comes to Ohio State and big games.  

Ohio State hates us more than we hate them. I honestly don't think we beat them until our coaches and players hate them more. It's a mentality issue first, and any game plan put forth without that mentality will fail.

FUCK ohio state!

 

 

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Navy Wolverine

November 26th, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^

I live in Ohio and I have to say that OSU hates Michigan way more than Michigan hates OSU. It's not even close. Meyer said they plan to beat Michigan 365 days a year. Harbaugh focuses solely on the opponent of the week.  Haskins watched Michigan film throughout the season....and it showed. In an interview, Shea said he didn't watch OSU film until game week.....it showed. OSU has a Michigan Monday blog.....Michigan has nothing of the sort on OSU. OSU players and fans know everything about Michigan......Michigan fans aren't nearly as familiar with OSU. The OSU students X out all the Ms on the campus. Michigan doesn't really seem to even care that much about OSU.....until they lose The Game.

It certainly looked like M had a lot more hate and animosity towards MSU than OSU. Maybe that is the natural sequence of things: put Little Brother back in their place and then we can move on to tacking OSU.

Totally agree that Michigan needs to drop ND from the schedule.

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MonkeyMan

November 26th, 2018 at 11:06 PM ^

"I live in Ohio and I have to say that OSU hates Michigan way more than Michigan hates OSU"

I have lived in Columbus 59 years and got 3 degrees from OSU. No- OSU does not hate UM more than the other way around. In fact, during the last 10 years the feeling has been more of pity and relief that a great rivalry is now a joke. 

Many on this blog seems to be in a contest to prove that UM is morally superior to OSU.

1. I read that OSU cheats (uh, Jim Tressel is long gone and RR was dinged for violations)

2. The Big Ten favors OSU (refs clearly helped UM more on sat.)

3. OSU has lower academic standards (nobody offers proof)

4. OSU spends all season obsessing about UM- that's why they win. UM is above it all and only gets ready for OSU the final week (we are so important that they spend all of their time thinking about us- how sad and how sweet!)

5. OSU only wins because of recruiting (yet teams with lower ranked recruits have played them much closer than we have)

Get over it people!!! This is why UM fans are viewed as snobbish, arrogant and entitled. You are not morally superior to OSU. There are over 200 players and staff members on the OSU and UM football programs each. Do you really think they are all a bunch of crooks? Are all the UM players and staff saints? Is this a den of sore losers?

Take a loss like a man.

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blue in dc

November 27th, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^

So I read through your posts trying to figure out if you are a Michigan fan or an Ohio State one (based on this post I would have assumed OSU, but I couldn’t figure out why you’d have more than 4000 points).   I presume Michigan as you seem to refer to Michigan as us and we in other posts.   If so, how do you get three degrees from Ohio State yet still root for Michigan?   If not, why would you possibly spend so much ti,e on a Michigan site?

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collards

November 28th, 2018 at 3:52 PM ^

If that reasoning holds true based on academic quality, I didn't need to bust my butt getting the Law Degree from the University of Chicago. I didn't need as high as LSAT score either. I could have skated through Michigan law. I guess everything is relevant.  It is top ten, but to get the really plumb jobs, you need to go top 4 or 5. I also guess the jokes depends on your perspective.

Joined: 11/26/2013

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bo_lives

November 26th, 2018 at 9:35 PM ^

I agree with your latter point, although I also think playing ND was stupid given the circumstances. We bent over backwards for them, just to give ourselves the hardest opening game in the country. Doh.

But yes, something went seriously wrong against OSU this year that can only be explained by bad scouting and scheming. It happens occasionally--OSU themselves got defenestrated by Clemson 2 years ago. But this staff is getting paid too much for it to happen in the most predictable game possible. The staff has got to know that nobody really cares about MSU, Wiscy, or PSU. Throw all your chips in the basket and get the OSU monkey off your back and then worry about everything else.

Joined: 04/10/2011

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Athena666

November 27th, 2018 at 4:47 AM ^

"The staff has got to know that nobody really cares about MSU, Wiscy, or PSU."

You are EXACTLY why the entire college football world abhors your fan base. 

Pro tip: Try having some humility for once. Because the kind of arrogance and hubris posted above should be reserved for teams that have actually won something in the last decade and a half. 

#62

Joined: 08/10/2018

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greendime

November 29th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^

So you’re back to “nobody care about wins over MSU “?  That’s priceless. 

 

You lost 5 games just last year including the 8th of 10 to MSU.  Congrats on beating a mash unit with your best team in a decade this year but this type of short-sightedness is precisely why you’ll probably never get to Indy.  

 

Joined: 09/02/2018

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DT76

November 26th, 2018 at 8:21 PM ^

All on the road in the same year annoys me. Course next year they all come to Ann Arbor.

 

Seems like M peaked during the 'gauntlet' then exposed Saturday. Fun while it lasted.

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father fisch

November 26th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^

It's like they went into hibernation mode after Ped State. Very conservative on offense, maintain on defense. They peaked, they let off the gas, and they couldn't turn it back on. 

It's hard to do anyway but when the playcalling is as boring and predictable as ours, it is near impossible. 

You have a pretty good QB and a ton of receiving options. Let's have some fun! But no, we have to prove our average line is stocked with NFL talent. And it isn't.  Good kids, mind you, but not as talented as other lines. 

Joined: 02/20/2015

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aiglick

November 26th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^

I agree Notre Dame has more to gain than we do from that series although that game was at the beginning of the year.

If Michigan was not able to get up for Armageddon II (sigh) then there’s something seriously wrong with the team.

I think our coaches were outschemed along with some execution issues. It was a complete failure by most members of the team with a few bright spots like the receivers. On to the next game but it was a huge letdown.

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mGrowOld

November 26th, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^

No shit.  Which is why NO other school volunteers to play 3 rivalry games in one year.

I said loudly here it was dumb when it was announced and especially dumb to put the ND game on the same home/away schedule as OSU and MSU.

But hey we're MICHIGAN so having the most insanely hard schedule in the countey just proves how tough we are.

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bostonsix

November 26th, 2018 at 9:59 PM ^

Agreed...  And to add to it, I think our team saw how bad Ohio State was against competition that we had previously played and thought it would be as Brian put it... "Your linbackers are cats and I have a Lazer pointer!" View point. 

Ohio State was Unfocused this year. Then they focused on us. Just like they do EVERY year.

The Revenge Tour was an example of what we can be if we truly embrace the Revenge, and focus on it. 

I honestly think that we didn't embrace the Revenge as far as coaches go. Don Brown won't sleep well, and I trust he shuts them down next time. But, will we see a change on Offense not letting teams hang around next year? Will they understand that it's almost certain we are going to be playing Penn State in a White out, while realizing that's not the main goal? Will they understand to stop watching Dantonio fail a few games before us, and think it's going to be walk in the park? 

It comes down to mentality, even Rich Rod said "I thought if I threw guys out on the field, it's going to be an 8-9 win season because that's the talent Michigan brings." Well,.... It's not, and it's not that easy. We are digging a hole with our arrogance and seem to not understand that we have made it twice as hard on ourselves to fill that hole back in. 

 We beat ourselves before we ever play games that matter. That is our problem right now. 

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trustBlue

November 27th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^

Doesn't Notre Dame play like 5-6 "rivalry" games a year? 

Our schedule is not that insanely hard - we played 3 teams this year that are currently ranked in the top 25.

But okay, lets cancel all rivalry games, move to the B1G West and then what? Should we just cancel all games against anybody with a winning record? 

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The Fugitive

November 26th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^

I wouldn't have had as much of an issue if ND was home but there was at least a 4 game separation between each of those opponents.  That should be enough time to regroup. And if you can't get up for OSU, then don't play anymore. Go somewhere else.

Next year ND, MSU, and ND are all in Ann Arbor along with Iowa.  Michigan has to travel to Wisconsin and Penn State but neither of those teams look like they're going to be anything Michigan can't beat on the road.

Should be an interesting season with all the tough games at home.

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G. Gulo of the Dale

November 26th, 2018 at 9:31 PM ^

Sorry for the ambiguity of my post.  It wasn't in any way meant to be a criticism of your post, and it was also intended in a joking manner. 

I just realized today that our home game against ND isn't situated between two early season cupcakes which would be more ideal.  Your post just offered the most detailed comment on the upcoming schedule--hence my "piggybacking."  I didn't mean to imply that you were being too naive or optimistic.  I was simply suggesting what you said in your final paragraph:  we've made our bed. 

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Newton Gimmick

November 26th, 2018 at 8:27 PM ^

"Putting Notre Dame back on the schedule was dumb.  They gain more than we do."

Yep.  Been saying that for years.  Best thing Dave Brandon ever did was get us dumped.

But no -- instead of an easy win over an SEC team (Arkansas), we had to go down to South Bend for yet another lucky-armpunt and PI-flag shitshow.  

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