Patrick Barron

The Edge Of Space Comment Count

Brian January 8th, 2024 at 11:34 PM

I wrote one of these eleven years ago, when Michigan basketball took on Louisville in Atlanta. It never saw the light of day because Michigan did not win that game, but it was titled the same thing. I had largely opted out of the great grim period before John Beilein was hired and so the post had undertones of apology to those who did not, those hardy folks who stuck it out through Ellerbe and Amaker.

I said that everyone was going to float that night, but the people who had invested more would find themselves lighter, and go higher. I said that the payoff here was proportional to the pain. And I still believe that.

Apply it to Michigan football, now: a slow degradation over the last few years of the Carr era, culminating in less than 100 yards of offense against OSU. Then a good-on-paper hire who Michigan sabotaged internally with a bullshit NCAA investigation. Then Rich Rodriguez did a pretty good job of sabotaging himself. This was followed by a hollow suit hiring Brady Hoke over Jim Harbaugh and telling us "all that glitters is not gold." This was followed by Brandon's unceremonious firing—Hoke exited soon after—and Jim Hackett dropping in with a single mission: hire Harbaugh. This he accomplished.

In some ways this was the worst part of the journey here. Harbaugh immediately improved the team to near-elite levels but could not get over the giant hump at the end of the season. After a two-year ramp up period Michigan lost in double OT with an injured starting QB; the next year the starting QB went down again in a game that anyone but John O'Korn probably wins. Michigan was so close they could taste it, and then OSU pivoted from being JT Barrett's team to one that would have a series of NFL-level passing attacks. The next year Michigan entered The Game with the #1 defense in the country and proceeded to give up 62 points. Ryan Day would infamously promise to "hang 100 on 'em" after 2019, when OSU put up 56.

This is the point where I more or less gave up hope. After all that—dumping Brandon and getting Harbaugh and being one nanometer away from the paradigm-shifting win—Michigan was once again playing football seasons that existed merely as foreshadowing for an apocalypse. I was not in a mental space to regard 2020 as fake, which it now clearly was, and wanted someone other than Harbaugh in 2021.

To go from that nadir to the last three years… I have experienced nothing like it as a sports fan and never will again. Because that all counts. Some years ago, when the site was small enough that I could only afford to have Paul Nelson and Tim Sullivan on part-time, I asked Paul to put together a weird highlight video set to Rilo Kiley's A Better Son/Daughter that spent its first half reprising debacles in black and white. A certain segment of the Michigan fanbase revisits it, or something like it, periodically, to the point where there is occasional backlash against that vibe. We have occasionally caught flak around here for being the type of site that puts up posts like "here are the worst plays of the last ten years whoops here's part two." The word "wallowing" could apply to fairly large swathes of our content.

Why did we do that? Because it hurt, and that counts. It hurt so badly that at times I swore this was the least fun program in America to follow, or wrote a column that was entirely about buying a new mattress, or tailed off in the distance trailing UFRs I would never get around to doing. Sometimes when we did do one—usually this was Seth—the comments section would be filled with people wailing "whyyyyy did you do this?"I dunno. It's who we are. We're not here to paper over holes in your heart. There would have been something dishonest about not wallowing during… all that. 

But then… this team. And the two before it, all part of the process of getting here. Aidan Hutchinson is on this team. Hassan Haskins is. Luke Schoonmaker, Olu Oluwatimi, Brandon Graham, Denard Robinson… every bit of hope chiseled out by a guy fighting so hard and so futilely before the breakthrough is on this team. Khalid Hill getting into the endzone by an inch on fourth and goal in Columbus. Devin Gardner putting the team on his back with a broken foot. None of that was enough, until it was. Until some wonderful idiot started waving chairs around and Michigan said fuck all that wallowing shit. The past is past.

This team took on Washington and Alabama and Ohio State and Penn State in the midst of the most ridiculous sturm und drang in the history of college football, and in the end they proved what I'd hoped back in August, a thousand years ago:

They run like my kids run. My kids do not have keys, or a wallet, or a phone. They do not have objects they carry around every day that represent demands, obligations, responsibilities. Mortgages, credit card balances, texts you have to answer from people you do not want to talk to.

Unlike my kids, they do have all of those objects, and all of those demands, obligations, and responsibilities. They've signed up for an order of magnitude more than their fair share by playing football at the University of Michigan™. But they do not seem burdened by it. They are joyful. They run like there is nothing in their pockets, nothing at all.

This is as good as it gets. I was planning to fly home tomorrow; I still will, but I won't need a plane.

Go Blue.

Comments

Jetsson68

January 8th, 2024 at 11:48 PM ^

Just amazing!! Pure joy! This place makes it so much sweeter. Love this team!!! So happy for the team and for some many people here who make my fandom so much more enjoyable. 

Joined: 06/28/2013

MGoPoints: 102

lhglrkwg

January 8th, 2024 at 11:49 PM ^

Congrats Brian. We're all really happy for you - what a road its been.

After we got mocked for the weak SOS to start the season, this team under intense duress from bullshit probably originating from Columbus rattled off wins

  • @ #10 Penn State
  • @ Maryland
  • #2 OSU
  • #16 Iowa
  • #4 Alabama
  • #2 Washington

What an incredible run. Undisputed national champions. Incredible to be here

BET

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 88117

Rmilkman

January 8th, 2024 at 11:49 PM ^

Hey guys. I haven't posted on here in 6 years. I just wanted to let you all know that I love you. I started my Michigan fandom during The Game of the Century in '06, and was with you all throughout the dark days of Michigan football. This one feels really fucking good.

Joined: 08/13/2010

MGoPoints: 1052

Bo Schemheckler

January 8th, 2024 at 11:50 PM ^

And to think I believed I was finished shedding tears tonight. I agree, I will never feel this way again. There will not be the same depth this came up from and the brick by brick feeling it feels like it took to get here. They did it!

Joined: 09/04/2013

MGoPoints: 37576

Mike Jones

January 8th, 2024 at 11:50 PM ^

So happy.  Finishing the last double pour of the Elmer T. Lee I cracked 11/27/21 after that amazing win.  Go Blue!

And watching post game ESPN - apparently a questionable holding call is now worth 3 touchdowns?  Like I care.  Go Blue!  

Joined: 11/10/2023

MGoPoints: 2367

LabattsBleu

January 8th, 2024 at 11:54 PM ^

Beautiful.

I remember how down Brian got covering this program (combined with other outside stuff), and I genuinely felt bad, as he sounded so...defeated.

Happy to hear these words, on this night of nights. For all the long suffering Michigan fans who dreamed of more, only to get their hearts ripped out by OSU, or their own mistakes.

This feels like a rebirth.

Floating on Air indeed.

Joined: 10/06/2012

MGoPoints: 16413

kehnonymous

January 8th, 2024 at 11:55 PM ^

Love.

Gratitude.

Joy.

These are the emotions I'm feeling.

If you asked asked me what my ideal dream scenario would've been, it would've been beat aOSU for the natty because they would NEVER live it down.  But now that we Did The Thing, I like it better that we beat a likeable Washington Huskies team that was the second best and was gallant in defeat.  Best to keep Third Base as an afterthought.

It's objectively silly to pin your emotional well-being on a sportsball tilt by men who Om now old enough to be father to, but so much of life is better when you let it be silly.  Especially with the dysfunction family that's the rest of Michigan fandom.  They say that sadness is lessened when shared by friends, and we've seen plenty of data points testifying to that.

But they also say that joy is multiplied when shared with friends and, my friends... it's time to do just that.

Go Blue Forever.

Bet.

Joined: 11/25/2011

MGoPoints: 33261

1VaBlue1

January 8th, 2024 at 11:55 PM ^

This was awesome already!  Must have had most of it queued up and ready to go, but so what?  Thanks for writing it.  I'm one of those guys that stayed through Ellerbe/Amaker, through Rich Rod and Hoke, I also wanted Jim gone after the fakeness of 2020.

The feeling now is different.  Tears?  Yeah, tears.  

WE WON THE FUCKING GAME!!!

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127829

TheLastHarbaugh

January 8th, 2024 at 11:57 PM ^

We've been through a lot. I've been reading since you've started this blog. I know that it's easy to narrativize life, as we are creatures who love stories, but man does this feel like the absolute culimination of....something...I don't think I can put in into words and I don't think I want to. I think I want to hold it inside and not let go of it until it inevitably slips away like all things do.....but this moment....man. This is something, ain't it?

Joined: 08/06/2008

MGoPoints: 10720

MGlobules

January 8th, 2024 at 11:57 PM ^

"Aidan Hutchinson is on this team. Hassan Haskins is. Luke Schoonmaker, Olu Oluwatimi, Brandon Graham, Denard Robinson… every bit of hope chiseled out by a guy fighting so hard and so futilely before the breakthrough is on this team. Khalid Hill getting into the endzone by an inch on fourth and goal in Columbus. Devin Gardner putting the team on his back with a broken foot."

All true, and a great call. You too, Brian. We appreciate you--all the best.

Joined: 11/17/2008

MGoPoints: 48086

dragonchild

January 8th, 2024 at 11:58 PM ^

It’s not even just a championship. The ugliest faces in college football converged and in some cases even conspired to prevent this. This was a triumph over a whole host of fanatics, ragebait whores, empty suits, and sociopaths who threatened to permanently kill my interest in sports.

They lost. They all lost. Every damn one of them. Michigan won. Fuck them all, go Blue, and bellow For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow if you have any voice left after screaming The Victors.

Joined: 10/13/2011

MGoPoints: 61494

MGoMike19

January 8th, 2024 at 11:59 PM ^

They fucking did it.  I love these players so much. What they all ‐and especially those who came back for this- have done...

....Excuse me while i get emotional

Joined: 11/13/2015

MGoPoints: 2460

WolverineHistorian

January 9th, 2024 at 12:00 AM ^

I was lower than low at the end of the 2019 season.  So much so that when the 2020 season was originally canceled because of covid….I was relieved.  Before the 2021 season, I emailed Sam and Ira at WTKA to give me something to be excited about.  Ira read my email over the air but their answers were underwhelming.  If you would have told me then that Michigan would then go 40-3 over the next three seasons and win it all…..I’m beyond happy.  I don’t think it’s hit me yet. 

Joined: 08/10/2009

MGoPoints: 55469