Confessions of a Michigan Football Fan
11 Warriors has an interesting piece on their site where they "invite you (their readers) to spill your sins, real or perceived, against Ohio State athletics." It makes for a fun/entertaining read and I thought we Michigan fans probably have plenty of interesting thoughts to spill as well.
So I guess I'll start with my 3 confessions:
-I love Ann Arbor to death, but I don't think it's the best college town in the Big Ten. I think that privilege goes to Madison.
-I'm a Hoke fan, and I love Mattison and think Nussmeier was a great pick up, but State has the best all-around football staff/coaches in the Big Ten. Hands down.
-Here's my big one... Had we played Nebraska in a BCS Championship-like game back in '97, I think they would've won.
Bonus: I LOVE the movie "Rudy" and have no real negative feelings toward Notre Dame at all.
11 Warriors Link: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-athletics/2014/06/36200/ohio-state-athletics-confessional-2014
I married a born-and-bred Columbus raised Buckeye fan, proposed to her in front of the M at the Big House (in 2011), and I wouldn't trade that kind of chemistry for anything.
I blame Lloyd Carr for sinking our program. Not Brandon. Not RichRod. I think Carr had his finger plugged in the leaking hole and as soon as he retired, he removed it and watched as it sank, while handing RichRod the wheel and letting him take the fall.
Stories of Harbaugh, Henne, Griese, etc. flood this board yet the old alumni still worship Carr. He won and brought in talent, but at what cost? The culture of a program starts with the head coach.
2) besides boning the students with ticket prices, I like Dave Brandon. He's creative.
3) Urban Meyer and Dantonio are the perfect personalities for our rivals.
4) I'm glad our athletic department is financially independent. I could not imagine my tuition going to fund the football team.
5) the non-students in the big house suck. It's like watching a game at a country club.
6) the impatience of the older fans is embarrassing.
7) Our offense held us back from a 10 win season last year.
8) Hoke is on the right track to bringing us to averaging 10 wins a season (and hopefully beyond).
9) Most importantly, you should all know who my avatar is.
1. How is Dave Brandon creative? Honest question, I'm not trolling for something to bitch about. I'm looking for your viewpoint.
2. As someone who is now a few years removed from the student section: The non-student section is not nearly as fun. But there are many fans that are just as rowdy. The problem is, if 50% are rowdy, then half of that 50% will be subdued by the old people around them. Suddenly only a quarter of fans spread out amongst sections are standing, loud etc. And to be totally fair, my hardcore stance on fans lack of rowdiness changed when I sat near a friend's dad who literally couldn't stand and sit and stand and sit for the entire game. I used to think "don't go to the game then," but when you see it in person and you know that person, you instead think "nobody should be denied a chance to watch this great Michigan of ours."
This rowdy fan has a PhD and listens to NPR.
Do you call into sports radio?
I think watching a game at a country club sounds lovely.
Alternate uni's are always brought out for the big games, aren't they? I don't just mean at Michigan.
They'll continue using alternate uniforms for the high-profile games because fans are more likely to buy a commemorative jersey if it's a significant game they want to remember. They'll sell far more jerseys featured in the UTL night game against Notre Dame than jerseys worn in a 12pm matchup against Bowling Green.
Dantonio has been to MSU what Alvarez was to WI, although I don't know if it will last there simply because it never has. With NE being a right handed offense, I don't know if they could have solved the problems of what would have been Steele and Woodson and we would have been able to cheat so much defensively in regard to disregarding - if you will - our normal defensive backfield, and I don't know if they could have adjusted. But even there, I'll give you your right to state your opinion.
But as to "Rudy." It could be a generational issue or simply the guy who played him.I was actually more moved by Knute Rockne, All-American which I watched in black and white while growing up than this movie. I don't know if it was poor acting, the artistic liberties taken such as having the players pretend to turn in their uniforms, etc., but I took nothing from that movie as far as inspiration and I really do believe that was the intention of the movie maker all along. But again..................
1. Agree with OP. Loved Rudy despite my general hatred of corny scripts. A great story, well filmed. Also, young Vince Vaughn cameo.
2. Touchdown Jesus is awesome. Like the 1812 overture, too.
3. Respect the hell out of them for their football player graduation rates year after year. Jealous about that.
Tried really hard to think of something good to say about Sparty but just couldn't come up with anything. Dantonio and Narduzzi can coach like hell, but that's pretty well accepted by most denizens of this board and not exactly a confession.
Can't think of anything good about OSU. Kinda root for them against SEC, though, just because of the unyielding "SEC speed" horseshit. Oh, and if we throw in MBB, I don't get the hatred of Aaron Craft. As far as I could tell, the only thing he was guilty of was giving too much effort at all times. Maybe I missed some infamous quote or something.
I don't think anyone really has anything against Craft, it's the announcers fawning over him that annoyed people, not just Michigan fans.
I would put that into the Tim Tebow bucket, then, i.e. someone I never really had anything against except for the ridiculous fawning. I may not follow non-Michigan MBB closely enough to know if there was anything similar with Craft in terms of media hype, I just know that the boards always seemed to be raging about the guy.
other than maybe getting away with a few more reach-ins than the norm, most of the animosity against Craft was media/announcer generated. Tebow brought on much of the backlash against him by himself.
i read 3 and Out by john bacon this past winter and i now find myself wanting to root for arizona football instead of michigan football this fall. i have been a michigan fan all my life (only a college kid) but i have no connection to the school other than watching the football team. since reading this board i have learned that between the snobby alumni, stupid rivalrys, and arrogant attitude in general...i find myself cheering for this team less and less.
It's "rivalries."
Sincerely,
Snobby Alumnus
p.s. I'm rooting for RR, too, at Arizona or wherever so long as not playing Michigan
shoot, youre right. that was funny lol
Sheesh, I hope you never read Mein Kampf.
- I'm sometimes annoyed by the arrogance of Michigan fans.
- It's spot-on when writers talk about Michigan fans living on the glories of the past.
- Having said that, it hasn't been THAT long since we were good, so I'm also annoyed by people saying surely we'll never be good again.
- RichRod certainly created a lot of his own problems, but the way he was treated at Michigan was deplorable.
- Brian's writing can be amazing and is obviously one of the reasons I gravitated here, but also it's sometimes just confusing, he has quite a few typos, and he obliquely references a bunch of things in a way that I can't understand. I used to sometimes wonder if I was just too dumb to get it, but this doesn't seem to happen with basically anything else I read. A Clockwork Orange was fine to read, as an example, although what makes that quirky is certainly not the same as what makes Brian's writing quirky. Perhaps I'll get it if I read a David Foster Wallace book...or maybe it means I shouldn't read one of his books.
- Frankly, I used to hate most of Seth's writing, but he's gotten much much better.
- I'd hate to have to hang out with Dantonio, but there's no doubt he's a damn good HC. As someone mentioned above, that might not be much of a confession anymore.
- I guess I can understand that people like to follow good kids playing football and all that, but I think it's lame how much some people get wrapped up in recruiting. I could not care less what some 16 year old thinks, especially a 16 year old with about a 10% chance of coming to Michigan. The fact that Will Campbell jokingly choosing another team's hat became a story is sad enough. I don't read anything about a recruit until I see his "Hello" post.
- The "You suck" 4th-down chant...sucks.
- I love Bo, but no one likes to mention that Bo had a terrible Rose Bowl record. I'm too young to really know about those games, but I guess he was too damn stubborn about running to open up things like he needed to outside of the Big Ten. I would have been at least as frustrated as that Capital One Bowl against Tennessee where Carr ran it up the middle 6 straight times for 2 3-and-outs to start the game, or the 2007 Rose Bowl against USC.
"You suck" sucks. Yes I did it as a student. Yes as a dumb freshmen I loved it. By senior year, when we sucked, I realized how fucking dumb it was that we chanted "You suck" when the other team was lining up to go for it on 4th down... and got it. Or how we chanted "you suck" when we were down 14 points.
And, chants I enjoyed more as a student:
The fight song - remember that one?!
The first down hand thingy
Blues Brothers!!! The best!!!
Go! Blue! Split right down the middle of the student section pre-game. I wonder if current students would even know what I'm talking about since the student section is empty before the games now. The idea that students would rather have an extra beer than be part of that is worrysome.
My problem with the chant isn't that it's hostile, it's just that it's lame and unimaginitive.
2. I'm ashamed at how everyone at Michigan never gave RR there full support ad if they had, we may have been surprised at the outcome.
3. Michigan fans in general are very forgiving, sometimes to nice to the opposite team or fans
4. Ashamed at how this board and the fan base buried Lloyd Carr on his way out. I would take more of him then some of the crap I've seen the last 7 years.
5. I still think were soft compared to other BIG 10 teams. And it's showing.
6. Harbaugh will somehow end up in Ann Arbor when Hoke finally turns it around and everyone will turn on our coach and praise Big Jim like the second coming of Bo. Pretty sad IMO.
7. Meyer is and will always be a major Duechebag whether he is coaching OSu or not. Hate that dude but he can coach.
Similarly, I get really annoyed when people say a player isn't ready to make the jump to the next level. People were chastising THJr for leaving early. Swearing up and down he wasn't ready. Same for GRIII and even Nik. Just shut up. You're trying to walk a fine line of not thinking he's good enough to leave, but selfishly, you're really just saying that because dude is a stud and you'd love him on YOUR team for "one more year".
When we hired Beilein, my first reaction was "We will never make a Final Four with JB as our coach. If our team has one off shooting night in the tournament we lose."
I sometimes wish I was born an OSU fan so I could enjoy the last decade plus of heated rivalry football.
I wish Dantonio was our head coach and that he would lead us into battle against our rivals with the same swagger, confidence, and chip on his shoulder that he leads his teams into battle against us with.
- I miss throwing marshmallows at games.
- I don't care if the team wears uniformz, even the ones with the stripes. I'll watch Michigan playing in pink if that's what they wear. Just win games.
- I like Hoke and want him to succeed at Michigan, but I don't know if he's a good enough coach to win in the Big 10. I'm also not sure the smash-mouth football brand he wants to bring back can be consistently successful in college football these days.
- I think DB cares too much about selling the Michigan Brand and not enough about the quality of that brand.
- I think we gave up on the spread too early.
- I want Mattison to leave. Teams always win a championship the year after he leaves.
its a little different than just straight up wearing pink uni's, but we do wear pink in october......lol
I hate the whole "Legends Jersey" concept Michigan has going on...bringing out the numbers is cool, but putting the name of the person and years played who made that number legendary is stupid IMO. If they are going to do it take the legends patches off cause most if not all Michigan fans know who made that number legendary.
I HATE when Michigan fans bring up the overall records of the rivalries with OSU and MSU. To me, stop living in the past and look at what your team has done in the past 7-10 years which is not good.
I feel if UM ever has to go through a football coaching change again, the only candidate that will only be good enought for "old" Michigan fans and "new" Michigan fans is John or Jim Harbaugh. Anyone else and their would still be fractions in the fan base.
Michigan State has found their "Bo" in Mark Dantonio and I'm jealous of that.
And I'm too sometimes annoyed by the arrogance of Michigan fans...
Texas didn't offer, did they?
they didn't. Not even close. Dantonio's name was only mentioned when there were 20 "candidates". This has been a weird post with so many (over)praising Dantonio. Usually, anything positive is (wrongly) derided.
I lived in Austin for 2 years.
Fuck Texas.
Sorry, but I have to agree with BRBlue. He's been rumored for a number of jobs and yet he has signed two extensions with MSU. Mark Dantonio has no reason to go anywhere else with the success he has had at MSU, has arguably the best AD in college athletics in Mark Hollis, the chance to play in the Rose Bowl, and a appreciative fan base. I would be shocked if say a Florida or Oklahoma came calling and Mark Dantonio left MSU. Hell, their d-coordinator has had a dozens of head coaching opprotunities and he's still there.
To my knowledge, the only head coaching opportunity Narduzzi has turned down is at UConn. I don't think it's a stretch to say that football is the 3rd biggest sport at that school (men's and women's basketball 1/2 in either order) and if I were Pat, I'd rather stay another year at MSU and hold out for a better opportunity than that.
RE: Dantonio, I have no doubt that he has a deep love for MSU, but it isn't and will never be a blue blood program (or even the most nationally relevant in the state of Michigan) no matter how many Rose Bowls they win. I believe that for an opening at a top-10 all time program, with the multi-million dollar raise that would entail, he would leave and if he continues to be successful, such an offer is coming sooner than later.
And Hollis, "arguably the best AD in college sports"?? WHAAAA. I have no idea how you could even begin to think that. Unless tweeting at Trey Burke is an important thing.
Most offers are rumors since very few are ever made public (no one knows if Texas actually offered Saban) so it's tough to gauge. I've read that Narduzzi was offered a couple of MAC jobs and others in similar level conferences. He also turned down a lot of money to go to Texas A&M to be their D-coordinator.
Dantonio won't leave for anything. He's almost 60 years old and makes close to $4 million per year with his new contract. Not many coaches make a move that late in their careers and he is already making good money. Personally, I think he would rather make a legacy at MSU and has stated the MSU is a destination, not a stop. I don't see
Hollis was largely responisble for the creation of outdoor hockey games with the "Cold War" as the asscioate AD under Mason and was the point man for hiring Dantonio from Cincy since Mason was retiring soon. Right now their athletic department is bringing in more donations than ever before and under his direction they have imporved the facilites for football, baseball, softball, and soccer. Right now they are doing a renovation on Munn and major work on Spartan Stadium. As goofy as some fans may think putting MSU on the aircraft carrier it put their program front and center and that was also Hollis.
Tweets are never important but what his actual accomplishments are.
Agree with a lot of what you wrote, but you either stop living in the past or don't. 7-10 years ago is pretty far in the past. No gmail ten years ago, no iphones, no Netflix, the US had only been in Iraq a year, Revenge of the Sith wasn't even made yet (and too bad it ever was) and Kate Upton was only twelve.