About the Fans
I'm probably going to be negbombed to Bolivia, but I have to get this off my chest.
I am a Michigan alum, and a rabid Wolverine for the past 8 years. I did not grow up rooting for the Wolverines, but I live & die by the Maize and Blue with the rest of them. Hell, my first game in the Big House was The Horror, and I'm still here so that has to count for something.
I was at The Game today. Honestly I can't blame the coaches and players too much. They are operating within the constraints forced upon them by situations outside of their control. They gave it their all, and for that they should always have a special place in the heart of Michigan's Faithful.
The biggest element I found lacking was the fanbase. From the start, the stadium was at least 25-35% Buckeyes. I know it's Thanksgiving weekend, but you won't see Ohio selling that many tickets to us when we're playing in Columus.
But even worse to me was the fact that the atmosphere just plain wasn't there. You could hear a pin drop on most Ohio downs. When they were running tempo, you could clearly tell that our fanbase was not prepared and had no idea about when to get loud. In full honesty, when they annouced the Slippery Rock score there was a bigger reaction than on Ohio third downs when our defense needed it the most. Not to mention the fact that the stairs were fully occupied with Michigan fans leaving from the beginning of the fourth quater onward at full tilt.
I don't mean to denegrate our fans, I honestly don't. But to put things in perspective, I went to the Alabama-LSU game this year and the difference is night and day.. If we ever want to be a "Great Team" we need to secure our home field advantage. It's one thing to have a great team, a great coaching staff, great traditions, a great campus. But if we can't turn the Big House into a place that strikes fear into opposing teams' hearts we will never truly be elite.
I hate people pointing out issues without proposing solutions, so I will propose a few. First, we need to stop selling tickets to opposing fans. How we do that in the age of Stubhub is a difficult task. The Mgoblog ticket list is a good start, but we need to do so at a larger scale. Maybe the Athletic Department could work on a fan-to-fan sales system where they could take a cut but still ensure tickets end up in the hands of Michigan fans.
I also agree with Woodson -- The Game needs to be moved to 3:30 or a night start to encourage fans to get rowdy. The atmosphere shouldn't be like an afternoon picnic. It needs to be fierce and intimidating.
Lastly we need to take measures to get people loud when they're in the stadium. Encourage the people next to you to yell! There are times for talking (TV timeouts, halftime) and there are times for yelling (every down on defense). If we can't make use of the largest crowd in America then we are throwing away a vital advantage for our boys in Maize and Blue.
I may be preaching to the choir, or I may be pissing people off. Regardless, this is a message that needs to get out and be discussed seriously. It blows my mind that we can have a better atmosphere for a Penn State night game last year than we did for our most hated rival in a meanginful situation and Harbaugh's first year. Let the Team work on the X's and O's, but let's make sure we bring the heat and get back up our defense with the best damn home field advantage in all of sports.
Honestly our fanbase should be ashamed at the support we provided the team today, and we need to get real about fixing things.
-GS
November 28th, 2015 at 9:05 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 9:13 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 9:22 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 8:49 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 9:54 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 8:55 PM ^
got rolled.
So responding to that is kind of deliberately missing the point.
November 28th, 2015 at 8:56 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 9:04 PM ^
Don't get me wrong. The Team deserves support all the time. Regardless of the situation. But you have to agree....it's difficult to support this team given their record this past decade. We are flat out AWFUL against Michigan State and Ohio State. Even Brady Hoke's teams didn't lose this badly against Ohio State...in all of his years combined.
As a defense, our #2 ranking is WORTHLESS. Our linebackers are shit, our tackling is shit, and as a result, our defense was shit today. Over the last 8-9 years, I have started forgetting what it even feels like to beat Ohio State or Michigan State.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:05 PM ^
They took the crowd out of the game. Pure and simple. And guess what? It happens to every team/fanbase in this country when they're dominated at home.
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November 28th, 2015 at 9:32 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 9:33 PM ^
however, Michigan Stadium and its fans have NEVER been known to be intimidating. I think some of the UM faithful believe it's not dignified to act and sound like a hooligan! We weren't obnoxious jerks in 1997 and yet won the NC.
I've been going to games for a good number of decades and my pet peeve for The Game has ALWAYS been the number of OSU fans in OUR seats. I've gone to Columbus (which I refuse to do anymore) and see 4-500 M fans in attendance. I was told back in 1976 when Rick Leach, Rob Lytle and Co. shutout Ohio State 22-0 that if I wanted to cheer for Michigan to go over to the other side and sit. I told the well-dress lady who uttered the ignorant phrase, "Ma'am, there is NO other side.
The seating is such a huge undertaking I don't think it can becontrolled. As obnoxious as they are, I think OSU fans are just more gung ho about their beloved Buckeyes.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:30 PM ^
and really don't want to see changed at Michigan Stadiums....But, the selling of tickets to Buckeyes is SHAMEFUL.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:53 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 10:20 PM ^
Oh, other fanbases say that? I hadn't heard. Please expand on that thought. Should I refer to us as scUM too?
We got beat today. Badly. The crowd was not the issue.
November 28th, 2015 at 9:57 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Glasgow was a huge loss there is no doubt about that.
November 28th, 2015 at 11:13 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
If only fans could tackle...
November 28th, 2015 at 10:34 PM ^
I'm highly introverted by nature and growing up, I honestly was never all that loud or rambunctious. Turns out, it's an awesome trait to have when I have to focus to solve a really tough problem. But, yes, it has its downsides, too - one of which is that I may appear disinterested at times by those around me during a really big game against our arch rival.
I can tell you this, though: my heart is in the game and the team. At times, I can be vocal (i.e. during the phantom "roughing the kicker" penalty today). Other times, I'm quiet because I'm focusing on the play and making a bunch of calculations simultaneously in my mind. I like analyzing the tactics the coaches employ. I enjoy doing a quick risk assessment in my mind to figure out the optimal play. Sometimes, I just want to soak in that amazing feeling of being in Michigan Stadium on a Saturday afternoon to watch Michigan Football.
Our fanbase, like many in college football, is diverse. Some folks are quiet; some are loud. We might just be experiencing the game in different ways. And, honestly, I think that's ok.
The other option is to turn away fans by disparaging them for not fitting the mold of a "perfect gameday fan". Personally, I'd rather welcome people in than turn them away.
Really, big picture-wise, we're pretty good. We come to games in record numbers. We pull together when a member of the community needs help. We care about the welfare of our student athletes and generally frown upon the use of tactics that undercut them (i.e. pulling the scholarship of an underperforming player). We still pull in high television ratings. We support the Athletic Department by buying tons of merchandise. Fans of other teams (even our rivals!) generally don't have to fear for their safety to come watch a game in Ann Arbor. Maybe we're not the rowdiest bunch when our team is losing by 20+ points, but things could be worse.
November 28th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^
This was my first year of season tickets as a non-student, and while I wasn't expecting anything close to a student section experience the fan participation in my section is terrible. I'm in 34 right behind the uprights and nobody ever wants to stand and only like 5 of us are generating noise on defense. On our first defensive play today I was yelled at by multiple people to sit down and that this isn't the student section. It's our first defensive stand of The Game! Be a fan!
November 28th, 2015 at 11:19 PM ^
seriously, as surely as someone throwing ice balls at the refs should have season tickets revoked, those people should be ID'd and get two choices: shut the FUCK up and recognize you've chosen to attend a football game (and that you're occupying a seat in a place where fans actually can be heard from the field) or get your seats exchanged with someone in the far reaches of the stadium. Go be quiet where no one can hear you.
You didn't buy seats to the Philharmonic, ffs!
I am quite certain we can still have a lucrative program and insist on having better fans ringing the field.
Michigan "fans" who actively discourage their fellow fans from expressing passion for the team are fucking horrible.
November 28th, 2015 at 11:08 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 11:09 PM ^
Noon game is lame. Fans need time to tailgate & drink. Weather is a horseshit excuse. They play night games in green fuckin bay in December & January.
House parties for noon games are lame as well.
3:30 at the earliest.
November 28th, 2015 at 11:18 PM ^
November 29th, 2015 at 12:22 AM ^
November 29th, 2015 at 1:07 AM ^
fuck every last person who can't be stirred to make noise.
Fuck every last person who shushes someone at a game, who asks for someone to sit down. Fuck you.
Fuck every last person who doesn't tell every last one of those pedantic shitbags to shut the fuck up.
Fuck everyone who thinks that just showing up means anything.
Fuck everyone who is too fucking meek to ask his fellow man or fellow woman to pipe the fuck up and especially fuck you to every above it all, ridiculously precious and pretentious douchebag who looks askance at the guy who's trying to get the crowd involved. He doesn't have three heads. He isn't uncouth. He's passionate and without passion the fucking hell with it all.
Because this is about Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh is only interested in passionate people. If you don't have passion Jimmy wants not a fucking thing to do with you. Jimmy wants a fanbase as passionate as he is, a fanbase ready to take a leap of faith with him, a raucous, roiling crowd to ply his mad trade in front of. Jimmy has no interest in performing to a library.
Don't you fucking see that YOU are the difference between Harbaugh fulfilling only the terms of his contract or staying for 15 years and building a dynasty here? Don't you all remember the letter his family wrote to 49ers fans, asking them to show some passion for the team? Don't you remember why he left there? He had no interest in people who weren't all in on Jim Harbaugh.
This is the most miserable fucking stretch I can imagine. I remember when we used to beat those fucks like a drum - sadly, this new stretch now dwarfs that run. The only thing that can right this wrong is Jim staying for a long time and not only beating those assholes, but beating them with soul crippling regularity.
But Harbaugh's going to be looking for the next passion project if he feels he's just performing to a fickle, bloodless lot of gate counters - who knows if he feels burned already by the pitifully pessimistic Michigan fans who have lost faith in year fucking one of this thing? Would you feel loyalty to people who proclaim you the savior one day and overrated the next, at the first sign of adversity? Don't you understand what a guy like a Jim Harbaugh is like? He's got no fucking use for you if you were only with him when the sun was shining. He remembers that shit, and it will matter when he's deciding on his next move.
This is year one. The fact is that between the RR and Hoke years, the gap between us and OSU grew massive. And that can't be fixed in a day. Today sucked, but it's over and it's time to move on.
Jim can make this happen. But it's symbiotic. And if we want him to stick with us, we need to stick with him, and we better bring some blood, and heart, and balls or some ovaries, if those are your chromosomes, to this equation.
Who's got it better than us? No one, if you actually think Jim is going to put down roots here. Show some faith and some passion and those fucking assholes with their clever banner are going to regret their hubris. Because remember this - Ohio State fan has very little in his life besides Ohio State. I honestly don't think their fanbase could handle a Cooper years stretch in the internet era. Let's make their stupid fucking banner a funeral shroud because above all else FUCK THEM. I can't wait until the one thing that animates their miserable shitty lives becomes a source of misery for them.
Jim can make that happen if you would just believe and be a participant, not a passenger.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:54 PM ^
Yeah I'm sure while getting steamrolled by OSU in the 3Q Harbaugh was analyzing the particpation of the crowd.
This is idiotic. I have zero issue with wanting the crowd to be more involved. But choosing a game in which Michigan got crushed in the second half and the wind was out of the sails to make a point is stupid.
Did these issues exist when we played BYU? Or Northwestern?
Winning solve things. UM made good progress this year but this wasn't a hole we were getting out of in a single year. And I have zero concern Harbaugh is leaving because the fanbase wasn't loud enough in a blowout.
November 29th, 2015 at 8:44 PM ^
the point reaches FAR further than whatever did or didn't happen in that game. And if you think you don't read a whole bunch of "show me and then I'll get behind you fully" on this board and on other Michigan boards, you can't read very well.
Harbaugh isn't sensitive, per se, but if there's one thing both his exit from SF and his decision to come here show you (it's blazingly clear in Endzone) it's that JH likes to be appreciated.
December 6th, 2015 at 10:57 PM ^
November 29th, 2015 at 1:08 AM ^
That are over 50 and have been spoiled by UM football their entire lives. It's hard enough to get the elder crowd to get loud but a lot of them are(And this doesn't apply to all) spoiled and entitled pricks. They make shitty comments whenever something doesn't go our way and bitch and moan about the dumbest things. Then when things do go right, they say something like, "Finally, my god I've been telling you idiots to do that all game!". I love seeing us play night games because it seems like the older crowd is likely to stay at home and younger people are more likely to show up. The atmosphere is night and day when comparing a noon to a night game.
November 29th, 2015 at 2:42 AM ^
The old blue hairs would sit on their hands all game, yell at us young folks for standing and cheering all game. Now these young folks that were all around me in the 80s have turned in today's old blue hairs who sit on their hands all game. I wish more fans in the big house would make more noise but as it was in the past and now in the present the older fans don't like to hoot and holler or stand during the game.
November 29th, 2015 at 7:41 AM ^
November 29th, 2015 at 7:05 AM ^
Yeah, some of it is not so loyal fans selling tickets to get some of their money back. But a lot of it is the fault of corporations owning blocks of tickets and giving them to customers that happen to be for the other team.
November 29th, 2015 at 8:35 AM ^
First Time Poster Here. Always enjoyed the passion on this site. Ohio State also has a problem with not cheering, complaining, and interested season ticket holders at the Horseshoe. I guess the difference is they dont unload them in mass for "The Game" I made the trip to AA for the 07, 09, and 13 versions of "The Game" and was treated very nicely by M fans each time. My borthers and I had an outstanding time tailgating with wolverines in the Pioneer High School parking lot. Our fan base has a 5% fringe that ruins the reputation for all of us. AA is college town on Thanksgiving weekend, and Ohio State has an extremely large, loyal fan base who love traveling to big games. Theres not reallty a whole lot you guys can do about keeping buckeyes out. There was maybe 15% red in there yesterday, not really a big deal if you ask me. How do think I feel when your Red Wings come to town and the crowd is literally 50-50.
November 29th, 2015 at 8:58 AM ^
What makes Michigan special is how the traditions of our University are passed down from generation to generation. We like to frame this conversation in youth vs. elder so I'll do the same, although I'm a recent grad so I'm one of those odd men out. Many of the elder, quieter, "down in front" fans have been season ticket holders for 50 years. They've contributed a lot to the school- both financially and through their loyalty. Frankly, Michigan is what it is today because of them: We wouldn't be able to afford top coaches and facilities without their contributions, and if Michigan stadium wasn't full, that would impact our recruiting. I am grateful for them, and I am grateful that they continue to come to the stadium. Their consistent dedication is something to cherish; and stands in stark contrast to the vast component of the student body who didn't even bother buying tickets last year. Where would we be if they followed the same approach and just gave up under Bump Elliott? Rich Rodriguez? Brady Hoke? All the four loss seasons under LC before 97?
This is the approach I take. I don't believe standing helps the team in the slightest. So, when the 85 year old woman behind me who has sat behind me since I was a toddler prefers to sit, I do too. When we are on defense, I make as much noise as I can. I've never been asked to quiet down when we are on defense. There is a balance here, but being polite and considerate to our most loyal fans who have supported this team for 2,3,4 times as long as some of us have been alive is not only proper manners but also aligned with continuing to strengthen our Michigan Community- which means something to a lot of people. And hey- I miss my four years in the student section where I could stand, stomp my feet, drop f bombs at the refs and opponents and take in that college experience, but part of growing up is understanding the time and the place for that.
Regarding the strong showing by MSU and OSU in our stadium, it is what it is. Often season ticket holders invite fans of other schools as their guests as that was the thing to do back in the day. But really, it seems to me the aftermarket demand for tickets is much stronger with opposing fans than it is ours - yet another reason to appreciate those 50+ year season ticket holders who have kept their spots blue for so long.
November 29th, 2015 at 9:28 AM ^
The first half was pretty loud. Once the game got out of hand, it was quieter. The fans would get loud for the defense, then the defense would let them down - happened over and over and I think the fans just gave up on it.
I think another factor is the noon game time. The crowds for noon games are just more quieter overall then for 3:30 games and definitely quieter than night games.
November 29th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
This was my first game at The Big House, and honestly it wasn't as loud as I thought it should be. I've been in 50,000 seat stadiums that were in the same range as far as crowd noise. That being said, I don't think anybody on this board is at fault for that. The real fans are cheering their asses the whole game. I think OP has some valid points, but these aren't the people you should be upset with, man.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^