Whatever Comment Count

Brian

1/1/2018 – Michigan 19, South Carolina 26 – 8-5, end of season

25571735278_77424b6741_z

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

I don't know how people get mad about this shit still. I just turn off, because for the last decade Michigan football has been either a disappointment or in a brief interim period that sets you up to be disappointed. But yes many many people still get fucking furious about Michigan football for some reason.

I'm tired of talking about it. I'm tired of this cycle that always seems to be at the bottom. I'm tired of this toxic-ass fanbase screaming at stuff. I could muster some takes, I guess, but I've already said them and anyway they seem beside the point. December was nice since it lacked football. 2018, so far, is bad because it had football.

In a situation like that I'd rather not talk about football. Especially because I have nothing left to say. Maybe it'll be better next year. Maybe it won't. Either way it's a meaningless distraction on the way to the grave. Eat at Arby's.

Comments

Epic-Blue

January 3rd, 2018 at 2:14 AM ^

Football in your life. You and 98% of this blog don’t know where they shit last when it come to anything football. I’ll break it down for you and make it real simple to understand. Spread teams do not have a full time dedicated fullback. Michigan is the only team in your said list that plays a fullback.

Amaznbluedoc

January 2nd, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^

Apologists can rationalize, and haters can hate, but the reality is stark and difficult to deal with.  There is a lot to work to do and this past year hasn't been kind for the Harbaughs either - Crean fired, John chokes and blows a playoff birth, and then Jim's mess.  Let's hope for a better year.  Right now everything in my life sucks; my kids, my job, and my beloved M team.  It can only go up.

jpo

January 2nd, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^

Sports should never be more than a diversion, and its glory as well as its anguish is always fleeting at best. Still, it’s an odd entry for a person whose job it is to write a blog largely dedicated to the game of football. You’re not exactly inviting engaged readership with this post.

RobM_24

January 2nd, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^

We aren't going to find a better coach than Harbaugh, and Harbaugh won't have worse QBs than JOK and Speight. I think we're fine. Fine means we find ourselves in contention late in seasons most years. The expectation that you can just find a Saban/Meyer because you're a large program is absurd. We're better off hoping that Harbaugh slowly molds into one. Otherwise, you end up just hiring and firing guys and messing up recruiting classes ever few years, which makes the next coach's job even more impossible. We've done it for three coaching cycles now. Tennessee keeps doing it, Texas is doing it, Florida is doing it, Oregon is doing it, Notre Dame and so on. What makes people think that we can fire Harbaugh and just dredge up an Urban Meyer clone? People want a new coach, because a new coach will give them hope, even though in reality it's a Hail Mary attempt. I'd rather place my faith in Harbaugh and ride out a bunch of decent to good seasons -- with the hope that it'll mold into greatness. He'll get good to great recruiting classes, so the cupboards should be stocked. He's got a network and coaching tree to pull coaching talent from. Let him find time to find the right mix. He's clearly obsessed with doing so. I'd take 10 years of Harbaugh trying his best, over a revolving door of unknowns.

Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^

is the best QB Harbaugh had thus far at Michigan, yes better than Rudock.  To say that he was awful is wrong. Speight does more for Michigan offense than Jake Rudock that the offense had to be pared down midsesaon in order to get Jake going. See how the offense played out on the field, it's impressive the way how Speight was able to take on and still play at a high level in 2016 season.

RobM_24

January 3rd, 2018 at 2:34 AM ^

Speight did have a stretch where he was very good. We were in the National Championship hunt at that time. Then he got hurt and was never the same again. Even when he was "healthy" this season, something wasn't right. Maybe he was still injured, shell-shocked, over-coached, or all of the above. His "Big Ben" style pocket presence was gone, his throws had less zip, everything was overthrown, and he couldn't hit a deep throw to save his life. He was no longer a game changing QB. Then the Purdue injury happened and put an end to any hope. Harbaugh had a solid stretch with Rudock. He had a solid stretch with a fully healthy Speight. Neither guy was a big time talent, and both had injuries. Harbaugh will be fine once he finds his QB, and that QB stays healthy (and obviously OL play is tied to that). There's a good chance he has that QB on the roster now.

kaz

January 3rd, 2018 at 10:11 AM ^

I'm not sure I can see Speight was that much better than Ruddock, but it's definitely arguable that he was comparable.

It's going to happen though that as you also pointed out Ruddock kept getting better while Speight fell off a cliff.  It's not unreasonable that people are going to remember more how they played at the end.

Remember as well that Ruddock could have beaten both OSU and FSU.  Our play calling went into a shell and in the case of OSU they got gift after gift in the fourth quarter and OT.  There was the phantom pass interference call against us that helped OSU tie the game.  Our WR got mugged in OT, no call.  Then of course The Mark

The FannMan

January 2nd, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^

It was a crap performance in a crap bowl at the end of a crap season. There was no stability at all on the offensive side of the ball all year. Next year will be better. So, yeah, whatever.

HollywoodHokeHogan

January 2nd, 2018 at 4:56 PM ^

Does mean the blog won’t be devoting weeks and weeks to Draftgeddon? Because if a genuine Michigan football game merits a a whatever, surely a meandering walk through the depth charts of teams like Indiana as part of a fantasy draft doesn’t even merit discussion.

Always a silver lining.

babarblue99

January 2nd, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^

Hands down, the best closing two sentences of any post on this blog. I'm on the same page. Time to move on to anything else (except GLI).

"Either way it's a meaningless distraction on the way to the grave. Eat at Arby's."

BmoreBlue

January 2nd, 2018 at 6:00 PM ^

Although there were very obvious flaws with how the bowl game went, we have a coach and coaching staff that run a clean program for a university that I love. I think there will be improvement as time goes on, but even if it doesn’t, oh well. Go Blue.

MgoBlueDevil

January 2nd, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^

I keep seeing posts throughout that hint at the program being fine. I hope you are right but I am very very worried at this point. Next year our Offensive Line needs to be fixed, our WR need to go from well bellow average to good, we need to find a QB that can make progressions and smart decisions... and well not shit the bed. The coaches need to find a rhythym on offense and consistently be able to move the ball. By consistency I mean... where is McDoom? When RB starts to take over in a game why do we go a few series without them in the game? Better play calling that doesn't kill drives over and over again. 

Can this all be fixed... certainly. Will it all be fixed in 8 or 9 months? Doubtful. 

I really hope I am wrong.

KTiloveMI

January 2nd, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^

on Michigan football. I also try to believe that this level of emotional attachment to something I can’t control is ridiculous and hopefully fleeting, but it’s not. And I don’t have anything financial riding on it except my season ticket price. How can you pad your bank account and preach this doesn’t matter? I’m not criticizing, just asking...?

DonAZ

January 2nd, 2018 at 7:56 PM ^

Hope springs eternal ... when spring practice rolls around we'll all be back, throwing our two cents into the conversation, and this blog will lead the way with reports and content.  

One never truly gives up on Michigan football.  I've got 44 years of it under my belt.  I'm coming back, despite swearing up a blue storm I was done with it after yesterday's game. :-)

Don

January 2nd, 2018 at 8:06 PM ^

But I'd bet a big box of cash that if what had transpired this season and especially in Tampa had occurred under Brady Hoke, Brian wouldn't be saying "Whatever... it's a meaningless distraction on the way to the grave."

Jonesy

January 2nd, 2018 at 8:06 PM ^

Worst part about this loss are the dumbass fans who can only see win or lose and think in delusional absolutist terms like 'beat OSU or you suck.'

 

Our OL has sucked all year and we played this game without 2.5 starters. Our QB has sucked all year and still does after a month of not playing. The fact that the OL and QB sucked in the game isnt surprising given that. Losing to a shitty south carolina team sucks but it looked pretty much the exact same as every other game this season and I don't know why anyone would expect anything different.

Hotroute06

January 2nd, 2018 at 9:38 PM ^

Im simply amazed at how bad people on here are with quarterback evaluations.  I personally didnt watch one single South Carolina game this season so the night before the game I decided to watch some tape of Jake Bentley and the SC offense.  I came away totally confused about why people thought he wasnt any good.  And on the flip side people were feeling so cocky because Peters was going to start and weve only seen him play "solid" at best for times before the concussion.  After the Minnesota game I had some big concerns with what I saw from Peters and people callef me crazy.  

From Devin Gardner,  to Jake Rudock earlier in the 2015 season to Wilton Speight and Brandon peters.  It just seems that people on here are horrible at judging quarterbacks and need to get their eyes checked.  

And now... this Brian guy.  Why the fuck do people actually listen to him?  Hes been over hyping Michigan players for years and seems to only use statistics about why so and so will have a huge game coming up.  I feel like ive been rolling my eyes for years about many of his player evaluations and still people keep praising him.  

 

Ive been hearing for a long time now that the Michigan fan base is one of the most despised groups in sports and I think this last game is whats finally done me in with this board and 90% of this fan base.  Obviously im not talking about everyone and theres really a lot of amazingly bright people on here who really know how to talk football.  But my god... theres so much smug elitest arrogance around here and if thats you then go fuck yourself and get some better instincts about football.  Bunch of cunts...

 

Im now officially concerned about if Harbaugh will ever take us to the pronise land and we all better PRAY tbat either Patterson or Mcaffrey will live up to the hype or next year will be very depressing.  Can we just atleast beat state for fucks sake?

Rant over

bronxblue

January 3rd, 2018 at 7:37 AM ^

You won't read this because we are in the catacombs of comments on this thread, but I'd love to know what SC games you watched this year that showed Bentley was a good QB and how any analysis on this site recently could be construed as saying Michigan's passing offense was anything above sub-functional. Like lots of rants around here, this is the usual combination of hindsight letting you feel superior (you said 4 weeks ago "Peters showed enough accuracy and touch on his passes that we should get excited about.  But there was many plays where he had that deer in the head lights look and seemed frozen.  This makes me very concerned about his decision making. ", which is basically what anyone who follows this team with any semblance of knowledge about football has been saying) and needless combativeness to make you sound passionate and not, you know, someone who just wants to yell loudly and be heard over the din of everyone else.

Show me someone who properly analyzes players correctly every time? You can't, but because you've been waiting here for years and Michigan lost, all of a sudden the main writer on said blog knows nothing and we should all ignore him.

So in conclusion, either try harder next time to come up with useful commentary, or find something else to do.

ItsHarambe

January 2nd, 2018 at 10:17 PM ^

Please don't let the "toxic-ass" fans represent the silent majority of people who read this blog religously for its content and quality. We still want (read:need) your great posts and insight. Don't let the comment section or twitter trolls deter you from continuing the great work you do. 

kaz

January 3rd, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^

Yep, the haters speak for themselves, not remotely the majority of us.  They're the loudest and the most hysterical.  That doesn't make up for their relatively low numbers.

The future is bright!  The rest of us know that.  And it's just the type of people they are in the rest of their life too.  It's EASY to bitch and moan, there's no virtue in that

BluCoast

January 3rd, 2018 at 12:42 AM ^

On so many levels the obsession with college sports can go haywire! My motto: Life is not a Spectator Sport! Spend more time DOING and applauding others that DO same...win or lose!



PS...And can somebody knock that TURD out from under Saban’s Nose!

ctm0224

January 3rd, 2018 at 10:41 AM ^

the Summer has ended...I'm certainly embarrased the way we've played, and knew this would be a down year..it doesn't make watching it play out the way it did hurt any less (especially the bowl game where our Defense played lights out for nearly the entire game minus maybe 4 or 5 plays). 

Let's say Harbaugh wins that game against MSU with the punt debacle....we are STILL underperforming by a mile when it comes to big games...our biggest win in the Harbaugh era was the Wisconsin game last year..a 14-7 victory that even in that game it looked like we were just dying to give the game away on offense but played lights out on defense...the answer is simple.

 

WE Need a freakin competent QB ...I'm also a Raiders fan, and i've seen all the coaches, RBs, WRs, CBs come and go...but the one thing that made us a much better team was the QB position..once a good QB is in place, the defense looks better (shorter fields), the WR's look better (catchable balls) the TE's and RB's all seemingly upgrade overnight and the coach seems better too...I'm not saying anything we don't already know, but a HALF way decent QB will bring this team back to being a at minimum 10-win per season team...Good lord I pray Shea is that man or else we are f*cked