Group Therapy Time: Your Worst Moment
So my wife admitted last night that with HARBAUGH on board, hopefully leading us out of the wilderness, she's a little worried that I will revert back to watching Michigan games as a raging lunatic in the way that I did when the team was relevant. I think she has secretly enjoyed the last few years as I've become more and more detached, watching out of a sense of duty more than any real hope of a return to glory. The discussion led us to my lowest moment, the Crable hit on Troy Smith in the epic 2006 game. I had invited my parents over to watch with us, and my poor mother is still embarrassed by what I yelled at Mr. Crable. SO...at what moment did the team make you lose your mind the most? Come on, it'll help to talk about it!
was sitting when Tim Biakabutuka gashed OSU for 313 yards. Naturally, my hatred for Michigan began on November 25th, 1995.
And of course 2013 Penn State- literally couldn't believe my eyes. Thank god I was alone for that one by some miracle. iPhone- stupid formatting
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The Gator Bowl vs Mississippi State.
It was the final nail in the Rodriguez coffin, a hopeful experiement wasted by the mistakes of many.
The team had given up, and it was obvious.
After 3 struggling years, Michigan still hadn't gotten where they needed to be and it was all going to be blown up to start over. I had no confidence in Dave Brandon, and there were no real rumors of a coaching savior on the way.
I knew Denard would never reach his potential, everyone would have to circle the wagons, grit their teeth, and support whomever showed up. But Damn.
App State was shock, and a bit of anger/embarassment.
After the beatdown of a directionless Michigan 52-14 (and it wasn't even close)
I was just depressed.
My college buddy was kicked out of that Gator Bowl - I escorted him out. Didn't matter much at that point.
Reason thought it'd be
Smart to go to the bars after the 2011 MSU UM game (live in Grand Rapids). I usually never fight but I remember getting thrown out of MoJos for getting into it with a few sparties. Punches were almost thrown outside the bar with us but luckily my
Friends convinced me to just get in a can and call it a night. I was nearly blackout drunk so i was Probably acting like a fool
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My two are:
1. MSU 2001, Spartan Bob game. I threw items across the living room and actually hit my mom with an empty Mt. Dew can.
2. MSU 1990, Desmond getting tripped in the end zone. I cursed as a youngster at the TV and my dad did not even get mad at me. It was the first time in my life that I swore in front of him and got away with it.
Here's one I don't believe anyone has mentioned, the only time I remember ever throwing something at the end of a Michigan game: 2000 vs. UCLA. As I recall, I whipped a shoe across the living room when Navarre threw a pick at the end.
For this same reason, I made sure to put my phone in a safe place during the last minute of the 2013 Akron game.
As far as eras go:
Bo years: 1985 @Iowa 12-10 loss
Moeller: 1990 MSU Desmond being tripped game
Carr: 2001 MSU Spartan Bob game
RichRod: 2010 MSU game
Hoke: Nebraska 2013 @home
2013 Nebraska game where we lost 17-13. Tied10-10 Michigan is punting, Nebraska guy muffs the punt, Michigan picks up the ball runs it into the endzone! I'm running around my house screaming and getting in the face of all my family and cousins since they are Nebraska fans. Head back to the basement where I was watching with my dad (also a Michigan fan) and learn the garbage rule the punt returner must have posession of the ball and then fumble for it to be picked up. Next thing you know the TV remote is broken and there is a black mark on the wall... I'm not sure from what but probably the remote. Few words were said by me that would have not been tolerated but yet my Dad didn't care, and the only thing he was mad about was that game, not the remote or walls. Still angers me.
Watched the game at a bar in Windsor, Ontario and had a solid I.V. of Guiness flowing the whole day... losing the game by one point and not being able to stop Vince Young was too much for me to take...
The bouncer advised it was time for me to go...
For me, Utah 2014 was when I noped the f--k out of last season. In truth I might've still watched the Minnesota game next week but had a prior committment, so let's just say Utah was my breaking point. It wasn't even the worst on-field performance (the defense gave a B-plus effort) I can't really say why Utah was when I tapped out, especially on the heels of the 31-0 jailsexing we took the previous week against a team I hated much more.
But the kicker is that I have read every one else's worst moment in M football fandom and can't really disagree with any of them. Does it really matter when your exact breaking point was? When a tree is felled by a lumberjack, it is the final swing of the axe that topples the tree or the thousand blows that preceded it?
I was a student at the time and I remember this game. We were having a great time and I think wheatley returned from injury, we seem to have the game in hand, then the hail mary. The whole stadium went dead quiet. It was painful.
I wonder if the younger crowd on this board knows how good of a program Colrado had from late 80s into early 90s. That was a HUGE game and we had it in hand. If memory serves correct, we outplayed them until the some boneheaded mistakes in the 4th. Colorado finished #3 in the polls that year I beleive.
I remember being there as an 11 year old and aside from the stadium growing eerily quiet, I remember walking back to the car with my dad and uncle and hearing them complain about how we were going to have to watch highlights of that "for the next 30 years."
I was there as well.
Todd Collins bomb just a couple inches away from Toomer was almost as bad that year against penn st.
Really good team and an unlucky year.
Don't kick it to him again in the stadium.
By the time Elvis hit that fat linebacker square where his Lamar Latrell half shirt didn't cover his fat hairy gut... I lost it, started tearing up our rental.. Had to be restrained by roommates. I just snapped.
I spent time in the stadium drunk tank during the 2009 Delaware State game. It was my senior year, we went 5-7, lost to Ohio State for the fourth time in my student years (saw 3 in person). I drank a lot that year.
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Close second...2013 Football against MSU. Couldn't stand the play-actions on 3rd and long.
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'86 loss to the Gophers at home. Michigan was #2 in the country and Miami the number 1 team lose a game the following week. Michigan would have been #1 going into the Rose Bowl against ASU. May be just a bit more motivation to win that game! It was Jim's final year and everything was setting up to be one of those special NC teams for Bo! But no, the team did not take the Gophers' seriously until it was too late.
2002 at ND. #6 Michigan at an ND team that hadn't beaten a top 10 team in like 5 years (Ty Willingham era). I think we had 4 turnovers, were getting hosed by calls, and, despite that, UM was in position to win. My housemates at the time made the drive from AA to South Bend and after the INT to end the game apparently said, "I bet 'BarronVonB' put a hole in the drywall." They were half right... it was plaster and not dry wall.
1. 1978 Rose Bowl. As Marksur2007 correctly points out - a PAC10 referee somehow misses the fact that the three yard line is NOT the end zone, overrules a BIG10 ref, and gives USC the game 17-10. I literally cried myself to sleep that night.
2. 1987 Rose Bowl. I was there and watched the Jim Harbaugh/Jamie Morris led #4 team in the nation jump out to a 15-0 lead only to let ASU somehow come back and win 22-15. Bo sets a single game record by calling the draw play to Morris 612 straight times once we got the lead. I threatened to shove a pom-pom up an ASU fan's ass after he shook at me walking out of the stadium.
1990 Rose Bowl - Bo's chance to go out a winner is stolen from him one last time by a crooked PAC10 ref who acknowledged after the game he wasnt about to let "that sonofabitch" win his last game with a phantom holding call on a brilliantly executed fake punt. Bo loses his mind, gets a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and USC wins. I've never been so mad at an official in my life. My ex-wife had to leave the house with our four year old cause daddy was saying so many bad words.
1991 Michigan - Michigan State - That is until 9 months later where I again got to witness first hand a game get stolen from Michigan. The very famous Desmond interference/ trip which denied the 2 point conversion and knocked us out of #1. Again, almost got in a fight with a mouthy sparty walking out of the big house.
Reason.
Thank you I enjoyed reading that.
2012 Ohio State
F*ck you al borges
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The FG by Lantry was good. The ref's call otherwise meant the Wolverines got to stay home for the holidays again, completing a three-year span during which Michigan went 30-2-1 and didn't go to a single fucking bowl game.
1972: 10-1; Outscored opponents 264-57; recorded four shutouts; No bowl game
1973: 10-0-1; Outscored opponents 330-68; recorded three consecutive shutouts; No bowl game
1974: 10-1; Outscored opponents 324-75; recorded four shutouts; No bowl game
You young punks have no clue what true frustration is.
The Lantry field goal was indeed good and the look on his face as the game ended (a classic WTF) tells it all. I watched that game not too long ago and the color man in the booth was none other than Joe Paterno and even was baffled that the refs waived it off as no good.
That was in the old days when the hash marks were very close to the sidelines so kicks came in from an extreme angle and that kick was ungoodly high and coming in at a sharp angle so the refs missed it. But it was good.
Like you said Don - anybody under the age of 50 really doesnt know the pain of Michigan fandom. All many of them have had is misery and it's relatively easy to disengage when the team sucks. Hard to not care when you're 10-1 every year with a legitimate shot to win it all only to fall short time and time again.
Those losses stay with you.
You got that right. I was at the 10-10 game in '73, and the stunned disbelief that we missed two FGs in the waning minutes was like a thick cloud over the stadium.
I met Mike Lantry in a business situation in 1978 and the sales guy with my company introduced him as a player for the Dallas Cowboys, where he had a short stint. Mike had sort of a haunted look on his face like the last thing in the world he wanted to discuss was football. Even though I knew all too well what his Michigan career included, I kept my mouth shut and my head down.
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2007 Ohio State: The offense never showed up and neither did the offensive line at the point of attack.
I almost lost it at the Michigan bar in DC at the end of the game. Plus, it was the end of a season that saw The Horror and Oregon--Carr's unfortunate sunset, so a lot of frustration came out.
2014 Minnesota: Concussion-gate. When I watch games on TV with friends, I'm OK. When I watch by myself...I'm yelling and screaming. A lot of yelling and screaming, a lot of pounding the coffee table, happened that game. The fact that nobody on that staff could figure out Morris had a concussion or even attempted to take his helmet away was unconscionable.
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one that sticks out I don't see is 2001 OSU. Beginning of the end
Another one to add to the list would be Notre Dame 1987. Bo's playcalling that day was Al Borges like. First game of the season and we were blown out at home 25-7. Fortunately, I was still quite young so I was able to dis engage myself quickly from that loss.
2001 msu - walked outside and punched a tree.
1999 msu - put a hole in my bathroom wall.
2010 msu - RR officially lost me, was in a shouting match on the phone with family - like VERY, VERY UGLY.
I was numb during the RR years, but that was frustration boiling over.
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To watch the offense get completely stonewalled in the 2nd half and watch the defense slowly get worn down by Hyde, and then watching that shit eating grin of Meyer as the seconds went down was brutal.
Also, MSU 2013. As the TFL's and sacks accumulated it was like getting cut by razor blades, and then reading the final stats with a -48 in the rushing column made me sick.