Incredibly Anecdotal Observations About This Year's Team
I apologize for the anecdotal musings I'm about to put forth but with the board temoporarily deep-sixed I figured some might find this interesting. If not, please feel free to neg away or delete if need be.
I work at a restaurant that gets a lot of athlete traffic, specifically from the football team. Last night was proceeding as a usual summer Sunday until around 10:00 pm. A couple starting offensive football players who are regulars walked in limping (looked DOMS induced not injury). I made a joke about their limping and one replied with, "we've been in a submarine." The other said, "this has been the hardest 10 days of my life." At that point a defensive player walked in looking equally exhausted, dapped up the two other guys, ordered food, and then sat down with them.
What followed next is something I have not seen in my five plus years of working at that restaurant. Over the next 20 minutes a horde of football players poured in (at least 20 players), offensive and defensive alike. They were all laughing and joking and ordering food for one another. Typically a group of position players will come in (WRs or OL), or perhaps a group of true freshman, but this group spanned various classes and various positions.
I wouldn't normally post something like this as football players come in quite frequently, but I thought this was noteworthy for two reasons. The first being the sheer volume of players coming in at one time. This was something I hadn't seen in years past and really gave off the feeling that they were all part of the same team, which was cool to see.
The second reason I felt this was boardworthy was the diversity amongst the players. As I previously mentioned, they typically come in as "cliques". Seeing defensive and offensive players together, freshman and seniors together, really gave off a sense of camaraderie that seemed, observationally speaking, absent in years past.
That's all I've got. Hopefully people found this post to be informative, or, at the very least, uplifting regarding the state of the team.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:38 AM ^
Definitely an interesting observation. I'm glad you shared, even if it's not the most insidery insider story ever. Hopefully that team concept is really starting to take shape.
August 17th, 2015 at 8:21 PM ^
Hey people - OP is up to 123 upvotes vs 0 down... let's keep coming back here under all our various screen names and get this guy a record. I believe Seth said last week it was 256-0? Or was it much higher?
Anyway- 0 downvotes?! On this blog?!!! The mind boggles...
EDIT: Oops, 124 now - I forgot to vote my own self!
EDIT #2: That is so cool - I just got a downvote on this post in less than 30 seconds! Way to stay on top of new posts, whoever! But did you make sure to upvote OP?
August 17th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
i speak from experience.
(and i'm just kidding, for all you former defensive guys out there)
August 17th, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^
What's not stated here is that the special teams guys all had to sit at little card tables on the side, and were generally ostracized.
They did get to eat first. So there's that.
August 17th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
bread sticks.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^
Thanks for taking the time for posting and sharing your observations. We are starving for anything Michigan football related and this was nice to read.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^
Did you happen to catch any conversation about how camp is going... not just how it was the hardest ten days.....
August 17th, 2015 at 11:52 AM ^
Unfortunately no. It was really busy at that point so I didn't get a chance to hear much.
I will say that I never once heard any players complain about how hard practice was last year. That's not to say that they didn't feel that way, but these guys look visibly "smoked". Harbaugh's practices seem to be no joke.
Something I overheard last week was that Harbaugh abruptly told the team that they were going to be playing softball that day. At some point during the softballing several of the coaches were laughing and joking around. Harbaugh apparently laid into them for not taking the softball game seriously enough. It was suggested that playing softball was a way for Harbaugh to observe who the players (and coaches) are that are unflinchingly competitive.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
that specializes in surveillance. Any chance I can convince you to let him bug the place?
August 17th, 2015 at 12:43 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 2:01 PM ^
That would be a very Big Brother thing to do.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:58 AM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
I dont know about anyone else on here, but to me these little nuggets of information just add to the excitement and lore of Jim Harbaugh and the way he runs his camp.
We are all like the people seaching like crazy for the last golden ticket on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Trying to get a peek at whats going on inside and how its ran.
Harbaugh is Willy Wonka and this info is the golden ticket.
We all just got a glimpse. "Good day Sir" ......Hahahahahah
August 17th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
They were holding hands. Only they were singing "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
'maize' submarine.
August 17th, 2015 at 1:31 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^
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August 17th, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
If it confirms my preferred narrative of Harbaugh being totally awesome and Hoke being totally lame, very credible.
August 17th, 2015 at 2:44 PM ^
Since most of these guys committed to Hoke I think they would disagree with you.
August 17th, 2015 at 3:11 PM ^
I was being sarcastic.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^
Isn't team unity also just a statistic?
August 17th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^
Seriously? Team unity isn't a statistic.
It's a word. Actually, it's two words.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:43 AM ^
Always good to hear. I'm surprised to hear that they refer to it as a submarine as well.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
That was Harbaugh's wording, not surprising that the team would use the same term.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:44 AM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^
Although I did have to look up what DOMS meant. Something entirely different came to mind.
It's good to hear that the players are working hard and doing it as a team. Although I don't understand what they were doing at a restaurant. I was under the impression that they couldn't afford to eat.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
DOMS is the acronym used by doctors and fitness professionals for 'Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness'. As the name suggests, delayed onset muscle soreness is the soreness and discomfort you experience after exercise, especially if that exercise is something you are not used to doing.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^
It is very closely related to BDSM.
August 17th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
in Ypsi.
August 17th, 2015 at 8:54 PM ^
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August 17th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^
I figured it meant they had gotten drunk at dominicks since usually that is why I would be "limping" on a sunday night in the summer.
August 17th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
If you were 21, or had a modeslty passable fake ID, you woudl know that Dominicks is closed on Sundays.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^
Skeeps?
August 17th, 2015 at 11:46 AM ^
I worked in a popular restaurant on campus during RR and Hoke and saw the same "clique" behavior that the OP is talking about. Glad to see this may be changing.
August 17th, 2015 at 5:03 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 11:48 AM ^
Thanks for sharing.
Gregg Henson has a disappointing report up this morning saying that, according to his sources, the QBs are failing to impress. Some hate Henson, so take it FWIW.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
I believe it. It's exactly what I expected.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^
Yup. Sad to say, I'm right there with you.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 12:31 PM ^
Logic fail. Rudock can be the clear and consistent front-runner and the group as a whole can still fail to impress. Which I hope is not true.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^
Rudock could be a huge but boring upgrade. If other parts are really good, maybe we just need someone to take care of the ball and recognize/hit the wide open throws.
August 17th, 2015 at 12:47 PM ^
And throw the ball out of bounds when in trouble. Could not agree more. I'll take unremarkable game management over roller-coaster QB play anyday. Give us heroic mundanity at the QB position and we will win at least 9 games. .
August 17th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
If "exciting" means throwing the ball to the wrong jersey, i'll take boring every day...
August 17th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^
Morris was bad enough last year that Rudock could be clearly better and still not fall into "impressive" territory.
August 17th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
Hint: It's not a rocket arm. So if a guy who say, just arrived on campus needs all 15 practices to master the O, then I'd be prone to look at track records. A guy with a proven ability to not turn the ball over will come in mighty handy on Sept. 3 in SLC.
August 17th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^