There was a lot of pre-Olympic buzz foreshadowing the 1980 team being similar to the 1960 team. I remember the growing sense, as the Olympic hockey tournament progressed, that they might actually pull it off (similar to watching Michigan’s 2023 football season).
I was a freshman at Parkside High School in Jackson and it was a school day. Almost everyone was excited about the match later that evening. Dinner was a challenge because we knew the game was being played but knew we’d have to wait until later to see it. Jim Craig put on a goaltending display for the ages. Those last ten minute were excruciating.
Less than a decade later, I got to watch the Berlin Wall come down.
I have a jersey from 1997 that--although it is very special to me and I love it dearly--is cursed and can no longer be worn, especially not on game day.
I bought the jersey while stationed in Korea to wear while playing football with other soldiers from the barracks. I got tired of wearing a friend's Mark Rypien Washington jersey (he's a Maryland native). I spent my Saturday afternoons playing football, evenings drinking, and early Sunday mornings watching college football. It was--as they say--a glorious time.
Once I got "back to the world" I thought it would be a great idea to wear that jersey on game days. It was not.
I was wearing it when Michigan lost to Syracuse the following year (after Michigan lost the opener to Notre Dame). I wore it when Michigan lost to an Ohio State team coached by John Cooper, the surest sign of a curse there is.
I was at a sports bar when Michigan lost to UCLA after freshman John Navarre was pressed into service for the first few games that year. I wore it for that Northwestern game with over one hundred points and a thousand yards that was a loss. I blame the jersey for Drew Henson's early departure and Jim Tressel's uncanny ability to reverse John Cooper's mojo. I can only assume crossing the International Date Line with it created a temporal rift that had something to do with this curse.
By the time Ohio State won the 2002 BCS national championship, the cursed nature of the jersey had been established and I stopped wearing it. It stays on a hanger, in my closet, never to be worn. Now, two decades of not wearing it is about to pay off.
Most likely the same "supply chain" issues plaguing every other commodity. It’s also likely that a certain amount of scarcity is the new normal. The days of getting as much as you want of whatever you want whenever you want it are simply gone. One can Google “Limits to Growth” for the details.
It was 1997 (cue Ray Liotta declaring “It was a glorious time”) and I was stationed in Korea and Michigan won every game and Charles Woodson did things only Charles Woodson could do.
We—my fellow soldiers I either knew or worked with—actually played touch football with some of the MPs on post and I bought a #33 Michigan jersey in the PX and wore it for games (both watched and played in). It was a great year for football and that’s a big part of that assignment for me.
Upon returning to “the world” something went awry. Whenever I wore it, Michigan lost. Think Notre Dame and Syracuse can in ‘98 or UCLA in 2000. There were others and even my wife noticed and told me to stop wearing it so I did.
It hasn’t exactly helped but—although I still have that ancient jersey and treasure it—I will not wear it for a Michigan game.
I can't help but feel Heisman Trophy is the stupidest award in sports. I may be a bit biased but the most deserving athlete to ever get it was Charles Woodson.
John Heisman himself never would have never even been considered for it because of the position he played. They should rename the the thing The Most Decent Quarterback/Running Back on a Highly Ranked Prestige Team with a Good Offensive Line Trophy. OK, that's a little wordy and awkward to say but at least it's accurate.
Hutchinson is clearly the best athlete at his position and a strong case can be made that he is indeed the "most outstanding player in college football" but I'd rather he not be distracted by the whole award ceremony dog and pony show and keep his laser like focus on destroying the souls of opposing quarterbacks and anyone foolish enough to get in his way. A National Championship ring is the award that really matters. And he could wear it all the time. Although, Gino Torretta might carry his Heisman around.
Which raises the other issue, things don't always go so well for Heisman awardees. Mr. Woodson being an obvious exception.
I'm going to go ahead and type out what we all know is going to happen next.
Step1: Notre Dame announces it has hired Urban Meyer as their new head football coach
Step 2: Notre Dame fans rejoice that they will be relevant again while Jacksonville Jaguar fans (both of them) rejoice as well
Step 3: Notre Dame wins a few football games
Step 4: Urban Meyer suffers a "health scare" and by health scare I mean a video of him groping a Notre Dame coed dressed in a Catholic school girl uniform gets posted to the internets
Step 6: Urban Meyer "retires"--again--to take care of his health and "spend more time with his family."
Step 7: After a couple of years USC/LSU/FSU/Texas/Oklahoma (take your pick of a big name school that has either fallen on hard times or been ditched by their current coach) announce they've hired Urban Meyer as their new head football coach.
the Diaries and MGoBoard should be shut down permanently as they have simply become forums for Michigan fan infighting. Much stupidity goes on here and almost nothing of any redeeming value is posted. Who needs Buckeyes when there are neg-banging MGoBoard posters and commenters around.
The worst--absolute worst--aspect of the Rich Rodriguez era is not the downward spiral on defense, not the abysmal special teams, not the repeated mistakes with penalties and turnovers but that I now must accept that a significant portion of the Michigan fan base consists of irrational troglodytes.
A) It's the Big East
B) Rich Rodriguez is no longer there to screw it up
C) They've recruited appropriately
D) Their athletes haven't been R-U-N-N-O-F-T
Writing anything critical about Rich Rodriguez around here is like stating out loud that one does NOT love Big Brother in Oceania. I'm not quite into negative points yet, but a few more comments that maybe the overall poor team performance is reflective of an overall poor head coach performance will get me that badge of honor soon enough.
If all the Roch Rodriguez fanboys here can neg-bang him enough, he won't be allowed to contribute to the Detroit News anymore. Just a thought. Or you can just neg-bang me.
100%. Do the players have an obligation to follow their coach unconditionally? Absolutely. Do I? Nope, as a fan I am part of the system of checks and balances that may ultimately lead to the removal of a bad hire. Michigan as an institution and it's football program are bigger than Rich Rodriguez or any of us. We owe it to that timeless program to be honest about Rich Rodriguez instead blindly supporting every failure.
Did Nebraska fans owe such blind loyalty to Bill Callahan? Do you think Alabama fans are sorry they missed out on Rich Rodriguez?
...if I would use Air Force to support your argument since they are more of an example of what good coaching can accomplish with guys who are simply playing football as a diversion from studying engineering while waiting to become fighter pilots. They basically have four Air Force cadet versions of Jordan Kovacs on the field. The fact that a service academy--in this day and age--can do what a traditional football powerhouse like Michigan cannot, just makes the situation all the more sad. Michigan doesn't have to have the best pass defense in college football but it sure would be nice if they were near the absolute worse.
Even without his later, uh, failures, Custer makes a questionable choice for a Michigan connection to the Civil War (his casualty rate--which was for the sporadically engaged cavalry--was horrendous and was a foreshadowing of the recklessness at Little Bighorn.
For some serious Michigan inspiration, look no further than the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment which was part of the legendary Iron Brigade. They, as much as any other unit, were responsible for the victory at Gettysburg. Custer was a sideshow.
to tell us that games that provide drama and excitement are ultimately more enjoyable then games that provide neither? The whole point of sports is that the outcome is in question. Winning doesn't mean a whole lot unless there was a very real chance of losing.
I know we all love statistics and the scientific method and things that are quantifiable but this should be obvious. I also like food that's delicious more than food that tastes terrible. I don't need a study to tell me that one either.
She definitely hits close to home on that. Can't say the state of things is her fault, though, or that anything is inaccurate. If anything, she gives the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry the benefit of the doubt since she's turning a blind eye to the lopsided Tressel-Carr record.
Besides, she not saying the significance is gone forever, merely that this year, Ohio State goes to the Rose Bowl regardless of the outcome and that Michigan is fighting to not be dead last in the Big Ten. Not exactly and inspiring backstory for a game.
was raising the hopes of the Michigan fanbase--anyone remember when Forcier was going win the Heisman and we were all going to Pasadena?--before they were crushed on the cruel, jagged rocks of the reality of having a freshman quarterback. Not to mention a soul-destroying defensive secondary.
He may have to sit out an entire half for that.
For one thing, Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson surrounded by guys with at least a year of experience should be able to contribute to a more favorable turnover margin than Steven Threet and Nick Sheridan surrounded by mostly freshman and a newly installed offense.
Also troubling is that in the last six games, Michigan's turnover margin has been a staggeringly bad -1.67 in spite of the fact that its opponents in this stretch included the following: an Illinois team that was imploding; a Delaware State team that technically recorded two losses that gameday; a Purdue team with the same awful turnover margin as Michigan; and a team quarterbacked by the usually generous Ricky Stanzi.
Freshman or not, Michigan should have done better on the turnovers.
I'm not pointing fingers at any sophomores--or any of the atheletes--I'm simply pointing out that the turnover problem of last year was considered to be less likely to be duplicated this year since nearly everyone had an extra year of experience.
As it turned out, two guys with that extra year of experience just so happen to be the quarterbacks who've accounted for most of the turnovers.
My point was simply that one of the bad things--turnover margin--about last year's team that one would have thought could not have gotten any worse, did--in fact--get worse.
Consider my assertion that the turnover margin is worse because of more experienced atheletes handling the ball retracted. With two freshman handling the ball on virtually every play, turnovers are to be expected.
It's still troubling that the turnover margin this year--with an admittedly improved offense--is worse than last year's which was with the worst offense ever.
In 2008, Michigan ranked 104th--out 0f 119 teams, yes, I wrote it--with a turnover margin of -.83. I think we can all agree that this is not good and at least one of the reasons Michigan did so poorly last year.
In the first four games of the 2009 season--against opponents from near the bottom of the MAC, Notre Dame, and Indiana--Michigan was able to acheive a turnover margin of +.25. Sweet, a positive turnover margin that represents progress, that's a good thing. Had Michigan continued at that pace, Michigan would be ranked at approximately 52nd.
Sadly, that did not happen and--in spite of such a good start statistically--Michigan now sits at 106th with a turnover margin of -.9. So, yeah, that's regression. And not just a simple regression to the "less perfect" state of last year, but--in several ways--a regression beyond it.
First, the turnover margin is now statistically worse than last year's. Second, last year had inexperienced freshman who were being coached by an unfamiliar coaching staff committing turnovers. This year, we have sophomores who have been in the system for a year with the coaching staff commiting turnovers. Third,the coaches knew it was a problem last year and should have addressed it in the offseason.
So, the bottom line is that this year's team has fewer "excuses" for an unfavorable turnover margin and yet has a worse turnover margin than the 2008 team.
And, no, I do not hate Rich Rodriguez.
I have a number 33, home jersey, circa 1996, that I used to put on for big games that Michigan invariably lost. If you go back over the last decade, any time Michigan lost to Notre Dame, Ohio State, UCLA, Oregon, etc, I was wearing that jersey. It took me a long time to accept it and even after I figured it out I would still wear it sometimes with bad results. Back in 2006, when Michigan should have throttled Ball State but the game was close, that was because I wore my cursed jersey even though I knew better. Now I do, and I do not wear that jersey under any circumstances.
If you’re interested on the history of my cursed jersey you can read about it here.
If you want to load up against it and grind down the field you'll have success doing it, though I wonder if teams will manage to score a lot of touchdowns with that sort of approach. Michigan's going to bend a lot; hopefully they won't break.
This has been my impression of Michigan’s defense as well. Considering the offense’s ability to move the ball and score and that fact that several sustained drives by opposing teams have resulted in no points for them, Michigan will generally come out ahead in this.
Although, some of the defensive play calling has seemed too passive for my taste, I think that Greg Robinson is indeed trying to mitigate his squad’s lack of depth and experience.
If people knew then what they know now it would have been Florida v. USC in the (Mythical) National Championship Game and Michigan v. Ohio State in a rematch in the Rose Bowl.
Think about how cool would that be? (sarcasm)
How many football players look like marathon runners? None. How many football players look like sprinters? Quite a few. Different type of conditioning dealing with different types of muscles.
The statistical analysis appears to show the complete opposite of what we've generally expected from a Mike Barwis conditioned team, the margin between points scored and points given up is greatest when the teams are the freshest (the 1st and 3rd quarters).
Perhaps the Barwis Regimen doesn't develop the stamina and endurance to outlast opponents but an explosive speed to strike hard and fast and first. Perhaps--despite our expectations to the contrary--this explosive speed advantage actually deteriorates as the game wears on. The Barwis/Rodriguez Advantage is greatest in the first quarter but appears to taper off in the second. It rebounds somewhat after halftime and then tapers off even more in the fourth quarter.
Personally, I've run with a few body builder/sprinter types and they generally die at about one mile. They can blow me away in a 100 yard dash, however. Our bodies are simply conditioned differently.
The game is tied. They're play at home. Against a team with a freshman quarterback who has been stymied most of the game. They're in the opposing teams territory. Their quarterback is a 6'6", 235 pound marvel of nature. Their entire season hinges on this game.
And Tressel doesn't think his offense can gain a single yard?
If you can't do that, you deserve to lose. At least going for it keeps the possibility of winning alive.
Recent Comments
There was a lot of pre-Olympic buzz foreshadowing the 1980 team being similar to the 1960 team. I remember the growing sense, as the Olympic hockey tournament progressed, that they might actually pull it off (similar to watching Michigan’s 2023 football season).
I was a freshman at Parkside High School in Jackson and it was a school day. Almost everyone was excited about the match later that evening. Dinner was a challenge because we knew the game was being played but knew we’d have to wait until later to see it. Jim Craig put on a goaltending display for the ages. Those last ten minute were excruciating.
Less than a decade later, I got to watch the Berlin Wall come down.
I have a jersey from 1997 that--although it is very special to me and I love it dearly--is cursed and can no longer be worn, especially not on game day.
I bought the jersey while stationed in Korea to wear while playing football with other soldiers from the barracks. I got tired of wearing a friend's Mark Rypien Washington jersey (he's a Maryland native). I spent my Saturday afternoons playing football, evenings drinking, and early Sunday mornings watching college football. It was--as they say--a glorious time.
Once I got "back to the world" I thought it would be a great idea to wear that jersey on game days. It was not.
I was wearing it when Michigan lost to Syracuse the following year (after Michigan lost the opener to Notre Dame). I wore it when Michigan lost to an Ohio State team coached by John Cooper, the surest sign of a curse there is.
I was at a sports bar when Michigan lost to UCLA after freshman John Navarre was pressed into service for the first few games that year. I wore it for that Northwestern game with over one hundred points and a thousand yards that was a loss. I blame the jersey for Drew Henson's early departure and Jim Tressel's uncanny ability to reverse John Cooper's mojo. I can only assume crossing the International Date Line with it created a temporal rift that had something to do with this curse.
By the time Ohio State won the 2002 BCS national championship, the cursed nature of the jersey had been established and I stopped wearing it. It stays on a hanger, in my closet, never to be worn. Now, two decades of not wearing it is about to pay off.
Washington, because they are a traditional bowl game opponent for Michigan.
My preference would have been to play them in the Rose Bowl but the National Championship game will also do.
There was definitely some foreshadowing throughout that documentary the Ryan Leaf was going to go through some things after college.
As a former member of the 3rd Infantry Division, Army’s uniforms are great.
Rock of the Marne! 😏
Next week's "Michigan Monday" is going to be lit. :D
It’s going to take absinthe, Kosher Kush, and the aroma of my simmering turkey stock to get me through this game.
You’ll definitely want to visit Legacy DC at 1937 14th St NW 2nd (across the street from the U Street Metro station):
https://thelegacydc.com
Here’s an excellent write up:
https://gentlemantoker.com/graded-legacy
Also, Ben’s Chili Bowl—nearby is definitely worth stopping by.
It’s almost like a total lack of parity hurts ratings.
The most accurate depiction of marital counselling ever. I speak from experience.
Was that when The Jimi Hendrix Experience was their opening act?
The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.
Most likely the same "supply chain" issues plaguing every other commodity. It’s also likely that a certain amount of scarcity is the new normal. The days of getting as much as you want of whatever you want whenever you want it are simply gone. One can Google “Limits to Growth” for the details.
F. Scott Fitzgerald approves of the gender neutral "sport."
Tom Brady might even be an "old sport" by now.
I was just wondering—facetiously—if there was going to be another “Michigan Monday.” I’m kind of surprised there was.
I’ll head over to Buckeye Scoop to remind Tony to do the BIG Championship game against Iowa. :D
Great, Michigan gets to play the team that has most recently demonstrated how they can be beaten.
Moscow Mule
It was 1997 (cue Ray Liotta declaring “It was a glorious time”) and I was stationed in Korea and Michigan won every game and Charles Woodson did things only Charles Woodson could do.
We—my fellow soldiers I either knew or worked with—actually played touch football with some of the MPs on post and I bought a #33 Michigan jersey in the PX and wore it for games (both watched and played in). It was a great year for football and that’s a big part of that assignment for me.
Upon returning to “the world” something went awry. Whenever I wore it, Michigan lost. Think Notre Dame and Syracuse can in ‘98 or UCLA in 2000. There were others and even my wife noticed and told me to stop wearing it so I did.
It hasn’t exactly helped but—although I still have that ancient jersey and treasure it—I will not wear it for a Michigan game.
Ever.
I can't help but feel Heisman Trophy is the stupidest award in sports. I may be a bit biased but the most deserving athlete to ever get it was Charles Woodson.
John Heisman himself never would have never even been considered for it because of the position he played. They should rename the the thing The Most Decent Quarterback/Running Back on a Highly Ranked Prestige Team with a Good Offensive Line Trophy. OK, that's a little wordy and awkward to say but at least it's accurate.
Hutchinson is clearly the best athlete at his position and a strong case can be made that he is indeed the "most outstanding player in college football" but I'd rather he not be distracted by the whole award ceremony dog and pony show and keep his laser like focus on destroying the souls of opposing quarterbacks and anyone foolish enough to get in his way. A National Championship ring is the award that really matters. And he could wear it all the time. Although, Gino Torretta might carry his Heisman around.
Which raises the other issue, things don't always go so well for Heisman awardees. Mr. Woodson being an obvious exception.
Hassan Haskins sure had a positive experience with them. :D
I'm going to go ahead and type out what we all know is going to happen next.
Step1: Notre Dame announces it has hired Urban Meyer as their new head football coach
Step 2: Notre Dame fans rejoice that they will be relevant again while Jacksonville Jaguar fans (both of them) rejoice as well
Step 3: Notre Dame wins a few football games
Step 4: Urban Meyer suffers a "health scare" and by health scare I mean a video of him groping a Notre Dame coed dressed in a Catholic school girl uniform gets posted to the internets
Step 6: Urban Meyer "retires"--again--to take care of his health and "spend more time with his family."
Step 7: After a couple of years USC/LSU/FSU/Texas/Oklahoma (take your pick of a big name school that has either fallen on hard times or been ditched by their current coach) announce they've hired Urban Meyer as their new head football coach.
That walk to the locker rooms at halftime makes it pretty obvious Michigan was going to win.
"The second thing that you don't want your opponent to know is that you're tired." Ted Lasso
I'm wondering if I'm the only person who read "Thunder," "Lightning," and "Saints" and thought of Chuck Muncie and Tony Galbreath circa 1976.