Dear Diary Was Always Here
I haven’t done one of these in awhile but with the bye week beginning and official content about to slow here it’s high time we revisit some of the excellent stuff our readership has been putting out.
Stop Beating Me to Neck Sharpies You Guys!
Because he’s Brian’s favorite poster on the board, Stephen RJ King was invited to be a mod this summer. He declined citing not enough time. Apparently he has enough time on Sundays however to beat me to every play I want to Neck Sharpies. Knowing I’ve got 2 weeks to fill off this one, yesterday he grabbed FIVE(!!!) plays to break down from the MSU game. Last week he got to Shea’s 81-yard run before I could. If he draws up Belly and/or trap coverage before PSU I swear I’m locking his account and he’ll have to apply for mod status to unlock it. Jerk.
Another recent film analyst trying to terk er jerbs is FanNamedOzzy, who’s been going through each game and offering his analysis with a little video. Again, if this starts to replace UFR we’re going to have to take some action.
Taking L’s
BursleyHall82 mentioned on the board that State is 0-2 in hoops and 0-1 in football against Michigan in The Year of Our Lord 2018. I know they’re 0-3 against Michigan (with a shootout) in hockey so far but that’s just three of 27 varsity sports fielded by Michigan, and 23 that MSU also competes in. M vs MSU in 2018:
- Men’s Sports: Football: 1-0, Basketball 2-0, Hockey 3-0, Baseball 4-0, CC: 2-0*, Golf: 2-1**, Swim&Dive 2-0, Wrestling 1-0, Track&Field 3-0**
- Women’s Sports: Basketball 1-1, Field Hockey 2-0, Golf 0-1, Gymnastics 3-0, Rowing 2-0, Soccer 1-0, Softball 2-1, Swim&Dive 2-0, Tennis 2-0, T&F: 2-0, and Rowing 1-0
* not counting an exhibition race in EL sans full lineups
** based on who finished higher in invitationals
So that’s 41-4 this year, maybe more because I couldn’t figure out women’s rowing (I have a text in to a member of the team) [UPDATED]. Men’s Soccer is tomorrow, B1G Tennis Tournament is this weekend. Volleyball has two games in November and the hockey weekend is Nov. 30/Dec. 1.
[After THE JUMP: graphs, conspiracies, Murderwolf, and all the other great things you've come to expect from MGoBloggers]
Nexpectations
An old diarist is back at his spreadsheets. Ecky Pting uses our favorite fancystat, S&P+ to create visual representations. Like this one of the division (from before MSU):
He Has Always Been Here
this gif has always been here pic.twitter.com/nAtGX2kQyt
— Scary Harry Anbender (@AceAnbender) October 23, 2018
In a world where Michigan has always had a mascot…Blue and Joe used an alternative history format to discuss some of the historical attempts to give Michigan a mascot. He also created a wallpaper version of Murderwolf dressed as the Paul Bunyan Trophy, which has always been that way.
The Armor Conspiracy Put to Rest
— BKR14 (@brumohr14) October 22, 2018
They might look silly and could be taken as menacing but they're not new.
An observant reader noted that it wasn’t usual for the Spartans to wear their helmets for the pregame march, at least as of last season. A little twitter assist confirmed the helmets do come out 1-2 times a year and have for a decade.
Not that unusual bud. My parents tailgate on their walk path. Happens 1-2 times a year I think. But definitely not strange
— Jerbear (@JD_Jerbear) October 22, 2018
THE_KNOWLEDGE’s Season Review didn’t age well
Michigan will not finish the regular season 10-2 or 9-3 as most people have been led to believe
.
Michigan is currently slated to finish the regular season 8-4 with losses to Wisconsin, Northwestern, Nebraska and Notre Dame
But there’s a twist.
Who’s the Psycho?
I don’t always get the new weekly segment this year by SMart WolveFan—the diaries are written in a sort of meandering, Punt-Counterpunt-ish style.
Luckily for UofM, DJ Durkin was suspended for this game and, consequently, without the fear of being eaten, the Maryland Offense was not able to get their running game going. Michigan's D kept the opponent below 100 total yards through three quarters and cruised to a 42-21 victory.
What does the fan base think about the win:
"OMG, THEY MAY BE GOOD!"
Etc. Keep reading Best & Worst weekly and go back to read Best & Worst: Preseason if you didn’t before. How to spot a football helmet in the wilderness. Every coach fired by a blue blood program. Amateur BBQist tries to fill the void while MGoBBQ was on hiatus. Check in on gamedays with our resident meteorologist. DonAZ was the student super of campus police at MSU in the early ‘80s. 10-year anniversary of the Factions. UMProud has weekly look-a-like threads for each opponent. Shredder on the Northwestern zebras. Visualizing UFRs.
October 23rd, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
Great start Seth in resurrecting dead features from days gone by. Always enjoyed this feature on Friday mornings while waiting for Brian's game preview to get posted.
Now....see what you can to bring back the weekly Blog Poll and get Brian to take the wheel back at TWIS and you can do a basketball and hockey Draftegeddon and I promise to not say a word.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^
i didn't see a '/s' after calling out the over-active bloggers, favorites or not. is there trouble brewing in mgoriver city?
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^
It was decidedly good-natured. Seth and I are definitely cool. (though he could definitely use mods and I feel bad for turning it down).
EDIT: But thanks for the tip on where to go next, Seth! /s
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^
cage match: seth v. srjk for all the marbles!
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
Sailboat race. It's up our alley.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:56 PM ^
PHRF or do you want some of this J?
October 23rd, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^
and in this sunfish, fighting out of the blue corner, the pastor of disaster, stephen r j kiiinngggg!
and sailing out of the maize corner, the joker of jibs, the barron of beam reaches, the one, the only, sethhhhhh!!!
suggested sail race referee: mike 'the pirate' leach
October 24th, 2018 at 7:57 AM ^
I do in fact have a maize laser. Only get to take it out once a year now. We leave it at my friend's Cottage on Lime Lake
October 24th, 2018 at 9:35 AM ^
I would expect nothing less my friend. You get a blue main sail and you will be the envy of the fleet.
October 23rd, 2018 at 8:34 PM ^
A one design class obviously makes for better match racing. However, in a PHRF race all contestants are happy—the winners, who won, and the losers, who are convinced that they’re REALLY the faster boat but that they got worked by the rules and/or race committee.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
SRJK scooping you - hilarious! Love both of your guy's material.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
For years, I read that name as Stephen King Jr. Then, thinking I was getting it right, I began processing it as Stephen Jr. King. Only in reading this post do I now get that it's Stephen RJ King. Boy, is my face red!
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
40-4 sure validates their inferiority complex.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
RE: Women's rowing.
It's a points system based on finishing positions in duels (though Michigan and MSU haven't straight up dueled recently IIRC - they just overlap at larger regattas facing common opponents). Usually 8s count more than 4s but it varies depending on the agreement between the coaching staffs.
Either way, Michigan has obliterated MSU on the water for the last 5ish years. MSU had a good run from 2008 - 2011 but fell off a cliff to a point where "Thank god for Rutgers" is all that is saving them from being the worst Big Ten rowing program.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^
A member of the team finally explained it to me. They were in the same meet last spring once; M finished 2nd and MSU last. So I counted it at 1-0 (raising the total to 41-4) with another meet to come in November.
October 23rd, 2018 at 3:50 PM ^
Yeah, it's kind of like a track/cross country meet, but sometimes it's 1 team versus another in the morning, then they face other teams in the afternoon.
Either way, Michigan has been a top 10 rowing program for the last half-decade. OSU and Michigan are far and away the top 2, then Wisconsin.
MSU is maybe top 25ish by way of there not being a ton of teams, but they're bottom 3 in the Big Ten who has 8 teams.
October 23rd, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
I like the vision of all Spartan fans looking in the mirror and saying "Thank God for Rutgers". Outstandingly well done, sir.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:11 PM ^
Fire the women's golf coach.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
Yes. We need the golf equivalent of Brady Hoke to turn that rivalry around. How about John Daly?
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Awesome! I missed the helmets in the wilderness post somehow and really enjoyed it.
FYI Paul is wearing a Schutt F7 nowadays, identical to one Khaleke Hudson wears oddly enough.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:56 PM ^
Mens soccer is actually tonight at 8pm and they just made it open admission to try to stock the stands and get a much needed win vs Michigan.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
(Kicks Dirt)...
-Everyone who thought they were Brian's favorite poster.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
If you plutonium poison enough of them eventually Brian will get to your name on the list!
October 23rd, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Polonium. He's not fueling flux capacitors.
October 23rd, 2018 at 3:31 PM ^
Polonium is slow acting...Vlad uses plutonium when he wants the job done fast.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:57 PM ^
It says something about how Brian would like the Board moderated that he would ask a Pastor.
And replying to that comment above, I always refer to him as Stephen Junior Viking.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:18 PM ^
Thanks for the shout out and don't worry I don't always get it either.
But I figured other bloggers have the math handled so I would do something that .....well .......wasn't math :)
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:30 PM ^
It has been confirmed that MSU wears their helmets on the walk through only in games when they expect to get their asses kicked.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
But that would be more than 1-2 per year. More than likely 3-9 times per year.
October 23rd, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^
One of my posts made it into Seth's Dear Diary. This might be the greatest day of my MGoLife.
That 40-4 record of Michigan vs. MSU in all sports this year does point out something else very important: Mark Hollis was a shitty athletic director. Before his career fell apart over Nassar, he was seen as this Athletic Director God because he got his basketball team to play on an airport carrier.
You need to judge an AD for the totality of the school's athletic programs, though, and in that regard, he was a shitty athletic director. MSU isn't just worse than us in most everything; they're overall awful in most everything. Most of their Olympic sports are terrible, and that's on Hollis.
October 23rd, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^
As entertaining as the _Knowledge was,
I say,
F The_Knowledge
Yes,
Said Mullen would be our coach
October 23rd, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
So speaking of mascots, one of my favorite things in the Daily was when their other humor writer (the one who wasn't Jon Chait) wrote something to the effect of
"Two student entrepeneurs began dressing up as 'Willy the Wolverine,' attending games, and promoting a coupon book, while arguing that Michigan deserves what every other major football school has - wealthy student entrepeneurs."
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