Some Banter/Perspective From Former Players

"If you truly want to support the team, shut your collective mouths."

I'll do both when they WIN GAMES. I mean, this is Michigan, fergodskes, right?

WIN... That's what we're supposed to do. The roster is stacked; there are no more excuses. You can't get BLOWN OUT by Notre Dame in the final game of the series after taunting them as "chickens" and expect to retain your job here. 

In all due respect the same group of people complaining that they have to PAY for tickets to enter the stadium should not be surprised or upset at the rest of us complaining that Brandon has made those same tickets & gameday experience unrealisticly expense and artificial.

I feel bad for all of you that have internalized Michigan football so much that its success or failure affects you so deeply.  It has you now, the hooks are deep, and you can't get out. Like an addiction, you'll keep paying and attending games only to be disappointed and won't like yourself for doing so.

You'd do much better to adopt another team this season, find a new hobby, spend time outdoors or with family than being so wrapped up in something that you don't play a part in. Showing that you're willing to walk away is the greatest trump card of all.

with a packed Big House every week and fans cheering their asses off, he's still 2-10.  Does it really matter if there are 112,000 fans there or 98,000?  No.  Does someone's facebook status lead to to more wins?  No.  I mean I get it, what they're saying, but it really doesn't matter when it comes down to on-field game performance.

including Michael Taylor and Desmond, who feel differently. It should come as no surprise that a lot of former players instinctively move to protec the school they love. Doesn't mean, at the end of the day, that Brandon or Hoke serve the entire university's best interests. After all--though their opinions and contribution want respecting--the team is everyone's, not just theirs. Especially its future. 

I'm sorry, I'm all for supporting the players, but how else (besides meaningless petitions) can we show our discontent for the leaders of our beloved program? By showing up and cheering, MFer PLEASE! Anyone who pays $65 a game(or $2.50 for two cokes), and sees less than 100yds of offense and horrible defense, is justified in booing the whole dang program.

Have these guys seen the product on the field? Whats THEIR excuse for why we look like a poorly coached JV team.

As much as I miss my Grandpa (RIP), I am SOOOOOO glad he is not alive to witness what UofM football has become, he would be ashamed and beside himself.

but neither opinion has much validity.

 To the first man I say this: What difference does a difficult transition make when the status quo is gross underachievement? Is this person suggesting that we continue on this race to the bottom because the players will have to suffer through a difficult period of adjustment?

As to the second guy. My suggestion to him is to kindly STFU. The fans are the reason the program exists. We the fan have every right to demand success. Afterall, it is we who pay out the money that funds the program. The audacity of this guy to tell us to shut our mouths is 100% pure Maize and Blue hubris.

What we don't have the right to do is to insult or harass the players. We don't have the right to invade their privacy, to mock them, to strip them of their humanity. The same goes for the coaches.

It is this last paragraph where we the fans fail. We too often resort to name calling or belitting. We too often transgress the line of acceptable expression of discontent and that needs to stop. We the fans need to be better. We need to demand as much of ourselves in how we comport ourselves in the stands and on the internet as we do the players and coaches on the field.

we've come full circle.

We're in the bizarro RR years, where defense is good and the offense is comically bad; now its the fans hate the coach and the ex-players support him.  Seems to me the Athletic Department isnt the only thing broken these days...

Let's be frank here and call out this bullshit. 

A lot of the former players threw a bitch fit when Rich Rod was hired and tried to torpedo him at every turn while he was here. They reacted gleefully when he was fired and we signed on two of their "MICHIGAN MEN," Dave Brandon and Brady Hoke. Now that Hoke and Brandon are failing and embarrassing the university on a level that surpasses even Rich Rod, the former players all have egg on their faces. Suddenly they want us to have "patience," something they never granted Rich Rod. I find it quite comical that they are marching out a lot of the same arguments and excuses they wouldn't abide under the Rodriguez regime.

The bottom line is, they threw a monumental bitch fit and borderline submarined the program under coach Rod in order to bring in their hand picked guys, and the last thing they want to admit is that their precious "MICHIGAN MEN" have failed. It makes them look like (GASP!) maybe they don't have the slightest clue what they're talking about.

It's one thing to know how to play football. There are thousands upon thousands of guys walking around that know how to do that. It's another to know how to build an entire program that is consistently able to compete at the highest levels of the sport, while maintaining integrity. Not a whole lot of those guys walking around.

If Michigan fans accept the quality of performances that this team is giving you on that field, then you accept being a Big Ten bottom feeder. Learders and Best, huh?

There are a lot more vocal former players that do not share their point of view, in the spirit of freeness can you please post a couple of those?

Reading that statement reminds me a bad cop movie when the cop is "too close" to a case to see things objectively.  I am not saying that the players shouldn't have a voice or an opinion but they need to understand why we may take it grain of salt.