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

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 9th, 2024 at 12:20 AM ^

Sometimes, I feel like having two college teams is cheating.  Like, if one loses on Saturday but the other wins, I'm happy.  I get a second bite at the apple.

I've been paying for it on Thanksgiving weekends when both teams would lose their rivalry games, over and over and over.  That sucked.

There are some uncanny similarities between my two teams.  Like, at Michigan there is the BPONE.  We have a similar thing at UVA called Rule 2(b), which is defined as the unwritten rule in the rulebook that says "at all times, screw UVA somehow."  Rule 2(b) was excised in 2019 much the same way BPONE is a distant thing today.  I think 2019 was the best national championship story the tournament has ever produced, because of what happened the year prior.  I spent a whole year cursing the very existence of UMBC and now I root for them and the UMBC game doesn't hurt.  It's part of the story now.  Likewise, Harbaugh's suspensions this year are no longer an irritant.  They're part of the story.  So is everything else that happened this year and in years prior, just as Brian said it is.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

JLC21

January 9th, 2024 at 12:22 AM ^

I teared up a few different times earlier tonight but now I'm bawling. Thank you, Brian, and thank you everyone who has ever been part of the MGoBlog universe. 

Joined: 02/26/2009

MGoPoints: 53

jdraman

January 9th, 2024 at 12:23 AM ^

When will this win feel real? I was at the Rose Bowl. I felt that oh so familiar sinking feeling when Alabama went up by a touchdown in the fourth quarter. All hope seemed lost then. Just like it had all my life. Unlike many here, I've grown up with the Michigan program being a fabled story; nothing tangible that I could ever experience first-hand. For me, they were like a prime fighter from the old days that ancient barbers would exalt at the only place in town with an actual barber's pole. My dad finished grad school at Michigan a few years before the 1997 championship. In 2020 I wanted Harbaugh gone, and I honestly still believe that it would have been deserved if he had been fired. I had grown up conditioned to believe in nothing but painful Michigan moments. Yet this team, this amazing group of players and coaches, has finally unshackled me from that cynicism. This program dented that pessimism with the unbelievable win over Ohio State in 2021. They quelled my doubt with that fateful 4th quarter drive in the Rose Bowl to send it to overtime. And now they have completely shattered the attitude I carried about this program my entire life. Thank you team 144. Go Blue. 

Joined: 10/23/2019

MGoPoints: 12122

MGoClimb

January 9th, 2024 at 12:24 AM ^

Much love Brian. We are here because of you. Much like the way Harbaugh built Michigan into a championship team, you’ve built this place into the best sports blog anywhere. To you, Seth, Alex, David, BiSB, and everyone who has made this space so special, my heartfelt thanks and gratitude for giving us everything over the years. 

Joined: 07/31/2012

MGoPoints: 9031

Medic

January 9th, 2024 at 12:24 AM ^

This is the bond we all share. Even before Carr left, it really did feel like the program died with Bo. Michigan wandered in the dark for almost a decade and Brian sums up the frustration perfectly.

The pain. App state, Oregon, the Northwestern ice game of infinite misery, and on and on. All washed away with this incredible, amazing, spectacular team. God bless those kids. I'm just so grateful. Grateful for Brian and his blog, his staff and what they do here that NO ONE ELSE does.

Grateful for the most unique sports poster community anywhere and seeing you all rewarded for your fandom and support of the school. Wonderful. Just wonderful. All of it.

Joined: 10/24/2008

MGoPoints: 2172

Wolverine 73

January 9th, 2024 at 12:24 AM ^

Yes, this is as good as it gets. I lived through many a Bo team losing a Rose Bowl, or getting inexplicably upset by an inferior MSU team to subvert a possible championship. And all the achingly close OSU games of this century. The generally awful late Carr through Hoke years. The BS “give Tom some love” co-championship. They make this all the sweeter. These guys will live forever at Michigan. 

Joined: 08/03/2009

MGoPoints: 27532

jabberwock

January 9th, 2024 at 12:27 AM ^

What a great night.

I can't hear a thing because i went full redneck and went outside and fired off my shotgun in celebration a few too many times.

My head is ringing and i don't know if it's the sound, the whiskey toast, or the stress release of the last few hours.

i know i won't sleep a wink tonight and i just don't care.

Maybe i'll fire up a couple OSU games, and then rewatch what i just watched a while ago.

 

Joined: 07/04/2008

MGoPoints: 51146

tubauberalles

January 9th, 2024 at 12:28 AM ^

Thank you, Brian.  You and your MGoBlog team have cultivated and nurtured a whole lot of feels about Michigan sports and our individual and collective experiences of them.  It's been a journey!

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3169

Electron Erectshon

January 9th, 2024 at 12:34 AM ^

Thank you so much Brian. It's hard to put into words what your writing has meant in the 20+ years I've been reading your blog. You deserve the feeling this championship brings all of us as much as anyone. Go Blue!

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 34

M-jed

January 9th, 2024 at 12:34 AM ^

Man, this guy (Brian), this site, this defense, this team, this win. Wow, I’m so good with everything right now guys. Brian so glad you got to post this one!

Joined: 10/09/2010

MGoPoints: 3078

Denard's Pro Career

January 9th, 2024 at 12:35 AM ^

Brian, I've been reading your shit since middle school. I still have a printout of the post-game article from the '09 game at Iowa--the one where Denard came in and couldn't pull out a win in a last-second drive. You spoke of the fanbase's zeitgeist. How about the zeitgeist now? This site--and more recently, Sam Webb and company--has made the experience of being a Michigan fan not only more bearable but less lonely as well.

I grew up in central Ohio (in middle- and high-school during the lean years from 2004 to 2010), I was at the 2014 UConn game, I was outside in the cold for Jim Harbaugh's introductory press conference. I can tell you when major events happened in my life based on Michigan's concomitant schedule (i.e. I know my family moved in 2005 because we lost on homecoming to Minnesota that October). 

This team has made up for ALL of that. Love you all. Thank you, Brian, Seth, and all for the years of support in this horrible lifestyle. It finally paid off. Go. Fucking. Blue.

Joined: 01/27/2014

MGoPoints: 1132

MGoblu8

January 9th, 2024 at 12:36 AM ^

I stopped posting on MGBlog because I thought that I was bad luck. I punished myself for the benefit of Michigan Athletics. It has been absolutely brutal. I have missed you all. Tonight, my heart is full. I grew up in a buckeye family, and he endured bullshit for so many years because I root for Michigan. tonight I endure no more. I get to revel in this victory with all of you. I don’t even know what to say. I love you all. I am sitting here on my patio on a windy night in South Florida having a victory cigar, knowing that we are in this together  Go Blue. 

Joined: 08/19/2010

MGoPoints: 7373

Navarre for Heisman

January 9th, 2024 at 12:37 AM ^

Ive been reading this blog since it started.  Ive been a fan since 2000 when I received my acceptance letter to LSA class of 2005.  Like everyone else here, Ive been waiting so long for this moment. Go Blue!  We are champions!!!!

Joined: 04/04/2012

MGoPoints: 20

mgobleu

January 9th, 2024 at 12:37 AM ^

I don’t want to be a parade pisser; this game wasn’t the celebration for me that I was expecting. I think that was really last week.

Washington showed a lot of heart but they ultimately did what I expected. I can’t show a post to prove it, but my score guess was Washington either 14 or 21, and Michigan somewhere in the 35-40 range.

In the end they are a downright likable team, and I am a legit Penix and DeBoer fan. I wish them all the success until they bump into my team again. 

And I don’t know if I expected some grand catharsis to exorcise all that bullshit; JT’s infinite shortness, The Horror, The loss to Toledo, Wisconsin running literally the same play, in our house what; 27 times? And not being able to stop it once. Vincent Smith’s beheading at the hands of Jadaveon Clowney, poor damn Fitz Toussaint and 23 for 23, Shane Morris muttering something about applesauce on the sidelines and then being handed his helmet to go back in…

All that still happened and curse the football gods for inflicting one program with all of that and more, but I guess sometimes, when you’re on, you’re really fucking on.

Hail to The Victors. 

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 38428

jdberkley

January 9th, 2024 at 12:37 AM ^

Aside from the team itself, there's no one I want to congratulate more than you, Brian. Everyone here is saying you deserve this, and everyone is right.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 151

illwagon

January 9th, 2024 at 12:41 AM ^

I’ve been a member of MGoBlog for 15 years and 6 months. Followed religiously, never commented, but still felt part of this amazing blog’s community…sharing the heartache and joy of every season with authors and readers I would never know. I raise a glass and say congratulations to all of you, to Brian and his staff, to Team 144, and to the fans everywhere who bleed the maize and blue. It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine!!!!

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 23

inshallah

January 9th, 2024 at 12:45 AM ^

So much of what you say echoes with me Brian. My first ever game my freshman year in 2007 was THE HORROR. I didn't even quite know the rules but I found an emotional connect. For various reasons I couldn't return for my sophomore season and never got back to Michigan but I've always been watching and following the maize and blue from around the world. There were many days I used to set alarms at 2AM or 5AM for kickoffs. So many terrible memories but those few shining lights made it worth it - just like that black n white when you're fucking on (genius video that needs a revamped version now btw).

I remember so much. Nate Sheridan, Jordan Kovacs, getting drilled by Ohio state, Toledo, Maryland but those bright spots of under the lights, ever smiling Denard (my favourite wolverine), Junior Hemingway, Roy Roundtree, Jeremy Gallon 800 million yards vs Indiana, Tate Forcier the next big thing losing in OT to Michigan state, that first sweet taste of victory vs Ohio st. So many many more memories. Eventually life progressed and I couldn't quite keep up with watching games at odd hours, the I didn't have time to read UFRs and then couldn't even read post game posts. I lost touch with all my Michigan friends as Facebook became a dead platform. But then then last 3 seasons have been magical. As you said some kid picked up a chair and pumped it up. Mr Brightside. Harbaugh. It all happened and I was swept in again.

What a journey it's been for 16 seasons. Go blue always and forever. HAIL. National Champions 2023.

Joined: 01/17/2009

MGoPoints: 380