Optimism, and Pessimism

Submitted by Jebus on

I am impressed with the tone here at MGoBlog, for the most part. Most of the posters/commenters acknowledge that Rome was not built in a day, and that given ample time, Rich Rod will be able to implement his offensive system. I thought that the defense played particularly well yesterday. To that point, any of the MSM writers who believe that Tressel took it easy on us are missing the point- that WAS Tressel-ball. That is how they play, under Tressel. They do not seem to have the quarterback necessary to run up the score, or the coach/mindset required to do so.

HOWEVA, I do want to call out a certain segment of the U-M "fanbase". If you sold your tickets to a Buckeye yesterday, please go straight to Hell. There was entirely too much red in the stadium. If you didn't choose to go to the game simply because you thought we would lose, also please go straight to Hell. Either you are a fan, or you are not. If wins were guaranteed, they would be meaningless. It is the possibility, and the unpredictability that makes being a fan great. The idea that sometime in the 3rd quarter, a victory was possible over OSU gave me hope. Sure, we would up losing. It happens. This just in- Michigan will lose another game at some point. That doesn't mean you don't go. If you sold your OSU ticket, why did you buy them in the first place?

One of the better parts of yesterday was after the game. My seats are down near the wall, and Brandon Graham's folks were shaking hands with students and alumni, and fans. I told his father that "Regardless of wins or losses, it has been a true pleasure to watch his son play football for Michigan." Which it has been. It has been a privilege. Thank you seniors.

BlueTimesTwo

November 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 PM ^

Some of my reasons for optimism are:

1) We went toe-to-toe the two best teams in the Big 10 (OSU and Iowa), and gave them a run for their money despite some (hopefully)youthful ball security issues. Ideally, experience will help us take better care of the ball.

2) Two of our three blowout losses (PSU and ILL) were against teams that will be losing 17th year senior QBs that gave us fits. Their offenses will not be as good next year.

3) Wisconsin's size advantage over our younger and smaller defense forced us to over-play the run, which opened up the pass. Guys like Roh and Campbell will be bigger and/or stronger next year and should have a serious impact, as should even mediocre safety play.

4) MSU will be at home, and they lose more senior talent than we do.

5) Notre Dame will likely lose a lot of offensive talent, which is the only part of the team that was really all that imposing.

There are a ton of other reasons to be hopeful, but most of them have been covered already by other posters. I am excited about the future. Go Blue!

KinesiologyNerd

November 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 PM ^

Yes I still want believe but, man oh man it hurts. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. Like a lot of the students who poured out of the student section after the last INT (I stayed till the bitter... bitter end), I was left questioning why this has to happen when I'm at Michigan.

Is Rod a terrible coach/bad fit? I hope not, I'm one of the biggest RR fans you'll find. Do I find myself questioning my support? sadly yesterday I was left thinking to myself that if Les or Harbaugh or whoever could give a winning season and good bowl, I'd take it. But that won't happen. It hurts that 90% of my friends cheer for OSU and hate RR...hurts a lot. My self-esteem is pathetically tied to our football team... yeah the last two years have really sucked.

I think we'll have a winning record next year, there are plenty of positives this year: Tate playing like he did, Vincent Smith's emergence, I cannot say enough about how much I like Roundtree, Stonum on kickoffs, best of all every one of those players has several more years here. I've never worried about our offenses future. The defense has another year to work under gerg and we have good players coming in and some good players coming off redshirts. Will it be smooth seas? not at all. Will it be fun and will I be at every home game? You bet your ass!

Let's not forget about Tate pulling a Tim Tebow... they haven't lost since! lol

Now let's recruit our asses off, heal up, get stronger and get redemption next year!!!

BILG

November 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 PM ^

RR will bring us a winner. Patience my friends...Next year may be a surprising BCS run....
Remember how "bad" the 2005 team looked at 7-5, only go undefeated and all the way to #2 the following year into the OSU game? The line between winning and losing is often so fine, a turnover here, a dropped ball there. With majority freshmen and sophomores you just can't have the leadership or experience to expect to consistently fall on the right side of that line.
The offense was hugely improved this year...with a a freshman qb! I will totally miss Graham...awesome leader and player, but the defense will improve next year, especially if Warren returns and takes a leadership role.

Seriously, this team only got beat down twice....PSU and Wisky. We are not that far away. The tide will turn next year.

victors2000

November 22nd, 2009 at 5:22 PM ^

I think 1/5 of the people in attendance were Buckeyes. I was astonished at how many were there and that they were seated all over the stadium. That was my first UM/OSU tilt and it was fun, you could feel the passion for the rivalry from the start. I met a nice Buckeye girl; the complexion was off, the moles and the toothy smile didn't help much, but she was nice. She cackled when she laughed but she was nice.