Dear Diary Cracks Down
Listen, you loblollies. That song is called "Temptation." It is the "one" of "you can't have one without the other". When Michigan's defense forces a fourth down, the Michigan Marching Band will play this song, because our fancy endzone is just there on the other side of our defense, and they will not get the ball there. Temptation.
When they play this you may sway your arms to motion the ball going to the other side. You may make a Wolverine Claw. You may sing the lyrics if you know them. If you don't know them you may make up lyrics:
You drove, to your 39.
Your blocking was fine
your passes not really.
You now, should punt away.
Ignore what they say
4th and 1 is "punt" clearly.
You may not call it the "You Suck cheer!" Just stop saying "You Suck" at the end of it. MMB's tradition is clever. If you don't get the joke just pretend like you do. There are rules. Speaking of rules:
compliance.
I love Four Plays. I've told you how much I love Four Plays. I love Four Plays.
Contemporary offenses have added one final modern wrinkle to counter the slow-developing nature of these toss sweeps: the crack block. By aligning two blockers to the outside and having them crack-back to seal the playside linebacker and defensive end, the sweep hits much more quickly and gives the pulling linemen favorable blocking matchups—usually against defensive backs. And while the outside blockers—usually tight ends and wide receivers—are usually much smaller than the opponents they are tasked with blocking, this size disadvantage is compensated for by “leverage”—that is, favorable angles for the offensive players to make those blocks.
The question after last week regarding Michigan's offense was what is Michigan going to do when the opponent is stacking the middle and we're NOT content to run into that anyway because UNLV is bad at football. This is exactly the sort of thing I would guess is coming. And we've seen some motions to set this up already, although with Chesson the crack-man, not Darboh.
Will it work? I'm not counting on it unless the defense is heavily cheating inside. Michigan's receivers have missed blocks, Mason Cole is not good in open space yet, and Sione Houma is not the blocker Kerridge is. Any one of those blocks going badly will end this play in the backfield.
That's my only disagreement. I love Four Plays.
[After the jump, punts flyin, Rutgers cryin', Mud Bowl dyin', bloggers fryin', ]
Lytle
It's Rob Lytle week. His son Kelly wrote a book that I should have finished by now but it's about his dad and well… Anyway it's Rob Lytle week:
Celebrating Rob Lytle tonight at the 1975 Reunion. Congrats to the Lytle Family on joining the College Football HOF. pic.twitter.com/TuLsIl8L0E
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) September 25, 2015
This is a good punting conference. LSA charted offense and defense too but the conference punting stood out to me:
You're looking at average net. If he hadn't shanked one Blake O'Neill would lead this but still, three teams averaging over 40 yards per punt NET is very good punting. Here I point out I drafted Minnesota's guy. Big Ten: good at punting. Also time I point out he's lapsing on the cats.
Opponent Stocks:
Following up on his previews alum96 has been updating his weekly stock watch on Michigan's schedule, including a degree of difficulty rankings chart. I figured I'd do the same with the HTTV predictions:
Minnesota and Northwestern have defenses capable of keeping them in any game, and Northwestern's OL isn't as bad as we made it out to be. Penn State's is worse. Rutgers is a tire fire. And Ohio State is down from "best team ever assembled" to "probably still deserves to be #1 this year." Maryland I said was pretty bad but even that oversold the defense. UNLV and BYU are onto backup QBs.
Etc. Lanyard Program is retired so MGoCustom has picked up the ball. Color version by cdycus. If you guys want those FFFF charts I make for the backside I'd be happy to send a PDF version of them to you. IBB and B&W were covered in the preview.
Best of the Board
WHAT'S UP WITH THE MUD BOWL?
You heard right: the 82-year-old tradition could not happen this year because the longtime hosts are not a fraternity anymore.
So, disclosure: I was in a fraternity in college. No, it wasn't a great fit—I joined a smallish, poverty-wracked chapter of snarky intellectuals, most of whom were upperclassmen; by the time I disengaged it was a bigger house, everybody could afford their dues, and the new breed had no use for a sports-obsessed, guitar-playing awkward fat guy who talks to girls about evolution. But I did get to drink, have fun, meet girls, and learn songs, for example the one that made fun of the big fraternities on campus. That song called SAE the "boy scouts" and said they aimed to please the "deans and little ladies." From what I knew of SAE at that time, like every other frat, they were no such thing.
Nor were they four years ago when they took hazing far, far further than I got it in 1998, the last semester before hazing at Michigan stopped being 'Nam. When the details of the SAE hazing came out, the chapter was suspended by the UM Greek organization (IFC) and then more recently got disavowed by SAE's national organization right when they were apparently about to be reinstated by IFC.
Since the alumni of that chapter own the house they've let some dudes keep living there as a "rogue" fraternity, which is for all intents and purposes the same chapter, albeit without every single dude involved in the 2011 thing. IFC hates rouges, and punishes other frats who have anything to do with them. The national organization claims it owns whatever traditions that used to be associated with that chapter.
What sucks is that the Mud Bowl, and the $20k it raised annually for Motts, is caught up in all of this. The rogue chapter wants to host it anyway. IFC is waving a stick at any non-rogue who comes near it. The national SAEs are claiming the event is theirs. People who like to wag fingers at fraternities are wagging furiously:
No Bando it's about playing football in the mud, and that's all it really has to be for it to be the Mud Bowl. Fraternities, as Brandywine said, are for drinking, having fun, and meeting girls. Find me a guy who says differently and I'll find you one who says the NCAA is non-profit. As long as they pleased the deans I didn't care if SAE ran the thing, but there's no reason they have to. When unscrupulous player-coaches got football players killed, the university presidents took it out of their hands. The game survived.
There are so many ways to keep this tradition alive, and other commenters have suggested a few: Have it be the IFC IM tournament championship and have IFC take on liability. Have the historic opponent, Phi Delta Theta (who were kicked off campus for a very good reason when I was there), take over. I'd take it out of the Greek System entirely and have it be a scrimmage between this year's IM champs and alumni of past IM champs.
Harmless traditions are worth saving, both from the past and from the future. We should all be able to agree that some dudes playing football in a mud pit every year is fun and worth having.
THE MAGNUM OPUS
This was a thread, not a diary, but it might as well have gone above. Alum96 decided to get into the Tanner Magnum story, and then starts previewing his game. A good read for one of the more intriguing quarterbacks Michigan will face this year. The rule is keep him in the pocket.
THE READERS WANT TO TAILGATE TOGETHER
The MGoStaff all have our things. Brian has the Cook family tailgate with a sign and an RV. Ace and Adam and the photographers have to head into the stadium early. I park at my cousin's and walk by Brian.
But a bunch of MGoBloggers are going to be out at Pioneer doing a BYOB/BYOF thing. I will try to stop by early tomorrow.
Etc. Yes we're MC'ing the Alumni Association's official homecoming.
Your Moment of Zen
The first Replay of the year that ended up with that other BYU game.
September 25th, 2015 at 3:41 PM ^
Seth, I think you're reading past what I said.
I did not say the Mud Bowl should necessarily end--but rather, that SAE shouldn't be surprised it could possibly be ending because of their hazing scandal and attempts at running a rogue frat.
Hazing is bad. Full stop.
Mud Bowl is fun. But when the Mud Bowl is contingent upon a frat booted for hazing... That may be a problem.
September 25th, 2015 at 4:33 PM ^
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September 25th, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^
Perry Como? Meh.
For vintage, non-MMB arrangements, I prefer the piece in its original embodiment, Bing in 1933's Going Hollywood.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:50 PM ^
+1 from a Sinatra fan (and also a Crosby fan)
September 25th, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^
I get that the "You Suck" is a divisive chant, but students are students. They drive the majority of chants and fun activities that happen in their section. Every argument for or against is irrelevant until the students themselves decide something. From what I've heard so far this year, the students aren't ready to stop saying "You Suck!" at the end; not by a long shot.
September 25th, 2015 at 4:29 PM ^
There. See how it feels? Doesn't feel very good, does it now?
September 25th, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^
'you suck' not good.
full agreement. thank you.
go blue.
September 25th, 2015 at 9:16 PM ^
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September 26th, 2015 at 2:55 AM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^
This sounds like one of the events Brandon killed. It sounds like it is being revived and anything honering Rob Lytle is cool as hell.
Big weekend for @teambighouse 1980 team reunion, Rob Lytle honored by NFF, join your teammates at tailgates in Crisler and by stadium
— U-M Football Alumni (@teambighouse) September 25, 2015
September 25th, 2015 at 3:56 PM ^
I too am a traditionalist who loathes "you suck" being sung throughout and shouted at the end of Temptation. I'd rather the students shout "Go Blue" at the end instead (or nothing at all). If any students feel compelled to start a movement, it sounds like you'd have a lot of people's support.
My question is regarding the quote, "you can't have one without the other". Why does Grapentine say this and how did these two very different songs become intertwined so that they must be played as a pair?
September 25th, 2015 at 4:11 PM ^
He'll say it during the bands postgame performance and concerts, basically anytime they are played one after the other. As to why they became tradition, I have no idea.
September 25th, 2015 at 8:51 PM ^
MVictors has the answer, naturally: One Without the Other (Temptation, Hawaiian War Chant History. It dates back to the 1950s, predating Grapentine.
September 26th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^
I don't get why people dislike the you suck chant but are cool with and support Hockey chanting just a stream of profanities. Which you can't even claim is clever since it was stolen from Cornell.
Also the mud bowl has been a joke for a few years. Since SAE got kicked out of IFC they could only play other non IFC 'frats' so greek life cared way less, way less people turned out and the sororities playing there also stopped.
September 25th, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^
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September 25th, 2015 at 6:38 PM ^
Hockey is much more of a niche sport - Yost holds 6,000. Most people who attend football games don't attend games at Yost.
At any rate, while I'm not that offended by "You Suck," it's clear that most non-students don't want to chant it, which limits its effectiveness. If we want more overall crowd participation, we need chants that everyone can get behind. 100,000 people chanting "Go Blue" makes a much greater impression than 15,000 chanting "You Suck."
September 26th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
Let's be real. Most non-students don't want to cheer anything. They just want to sit there the whole time witih brief bouts of applause. Don't think what they want as far as cheers really matter, imo.
September 26th, 2015 at 11:18 AM ^
Oh wait.
September 25th, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
Please note that "C-YA" and the chant afterward were not stolen from Cornell. They pre-dated the Cornell series; Cornell actually stole those from Michigan. Many other things that Michigan hockey fans do were Cornell things first, but not "C-YA".
September 25th, 2015 at 4:40 PM ^
I went to M in the mid-70s, and the HWC/Temptaion duo was already tradition then. It wasn't played by the MMB after every game (I think I remember it just a few times postgame, after some of the bigger wins), but the combo was the highlight of the alumni band performance at homecoming. I have no idea when the alumni band started playing them, or why they were YCHOWTO, but the tradition and saying were set as far back as 1973.
September 25th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
were big drum section features- a lot of crazy, technical, showy, acrobatic stuff. They were big crowd pleasers, so they were requested frequently especially if one of them had already been played. The tradition goes back to at least the 60's, as far as I know.
September 25th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
has been around longer than Grapentine has been announcing games.
September 25th, 2015 at 6:31 PM ^
Grapentine's actually been the MMB announcer since 1970, so I'm not sure if it predates him. (He took over regular football PA duties about a decade ago.)
September 25th, 2015 at 8:57 PM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 4:39 PM ^
Having a charity tournament sounds great. Mudbowl did not seem like that while I was there (05-09).
I tore a ligament playing in the tournament leading up to the "big" game. It was a huge liability, lots of injuries, and in general a mess. Let's have a tournament and raise money for Mott - you don't need NFL Blitz rules to do that.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
Co-Sign from a Fall of '07-'09 player.
There wasn't very much "football" being played.
Basically no such thing as a penalty, you'd be surprised how fast the game devolves when strategy A is HOLD and strategy B is PASS INTERFERENCE.
Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of fun, but if there's a tradition lost, it was lost a long time ago.
September 25th, 2015 at 4:47 PM ^
Seth's campaign against the "You Suck" chant is a lost cause. A hundred years from now, no one will remember "Temptation" ever existed, and after generations and generations of conditioning, 100,000+ strong fans will be united chanting "You Suck" after every defensive possession during Jim Harbaugh's 99th straight national championship defense campaign.
September 25th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^
And they will only sell Brawndo at the concession stands.
September 25th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
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September 25th, 2015 at 4:54 PM ^
Thanks.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^
"I don't like to compare" comment from Harbaugh? I'd always assumed that started after the whole Stanford-M comment controversy.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
Starting as an 8 year old in 1998, and for several years afterwards, my brother would sneak me into the student section with him. Best Saturdays I can remember. Jumpstarted my perpetual love of Michigan football. But I don't think I could have loved it as as much if we had been shouting "you suck" at the end of temptation-- a kid doesn't need that level of negativity in his life.
This "tradition" is brand spanking new and has about as much dignity as block Ms above the MSU stadium and Chicken Dances after Notre Dame games. It's not what Michigan has been, and it shouldn't be what Michigan becomes in the future.
Maybe it's up the students to determine what they want the game day experience to be, but my game day experience is decidedly not improved by this. I believe that talking about it can make a difference. That's how change begins.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:34 PM ^
They gave me some direction, allowed me to indulge my interests and develop new ones, and constantly seek out female desire. That I must confess was a leading interest and among my most important pasttimes whether inside or outside of class -- which I enjoyed with moderate success.
And yes, fraternity life. It was like being on a team and sharing weirdness and experiencing friendship and commitment to an ideal. In any case, I survived that experience.
Temptation. It is the bread of life.
September 25th, 2015 at 7:34 PM ^
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September 25th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^
September 25th, 2015 at 9:11 PM ^
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September 26th, 2015 at 5:13 PM ^
The tubas have already taught themselves that bass line are are merely waiting for approval.
September 25th, 2015 at 9:25 PM ^
which is in the same part of central Italy as my family. Madonna's family also originates from the same region.(Abruzzo)
Mezzogiorno representin'.
September 26th, 2015 at 2:37 AM ^
umm...pretty sure that crack-back block has been around since the beginning of football. not so sure why that's considered a modern wrinkle.
September 26th, 2015 at 8:29 AM ^
Well motioning a wide receiver inside can only be as old as when receivers lined up outside, so we're already into the last half of the 20th century.
I think what he was pointing at with "modern" is really "as opposed to how Lombardi blocked it." The Packers liked to swarm you with a tight end and a fullback. Most offenses aren't going to commit that many players to the backfield, so then either you line the receiver up on the opposite side (and limit your passing attack) or find a way to get him involved in blocking.
Most run attacks have receivers block cornerbacks. It's an easy enough block because the CB will run with you on a route and then realize it's a run. But the crack block is a way of getting better matchups, since the receiver is taking out an edge defender and that means the cornerback should meet a fullback or guard. Any power play is about getting those matchups and exploiting them to make space--a guard on cornerback block is going to create a lot of space to run through.
September 26th, 2015 at 5:00 AM ^
no Mud Bowl
I played in the last Mud Bowl before the city discovered the meter cheater on the water intake. We flooded it for a week. The Washtenaw end of the bowl is about 5 feet higher in elevation than the other end zone. An inebriated brother had to dive down to pull the drain plug at the deep end to drain the water the morning of the Bowl. Back in the day.
September 26th, 2015 at 9:51 AM ^
It doesn't bother me at Yost because it's just what you do there and I don't remember a time when it wasn't part of the experience. And as a whole, the hockey cheers are more clever than just "You Suck".
I don't love it at the football games. It smacks of East Lansing or Columbus. It takes the smart, knowing jab of Temptation by the MMB and punctuates it with dumb.
September 26th, 2015 at 7:21 PM ^
Temptation and Hawaiian War Chant have been staples of MMB for decades and I am sure recent generations don't get it. You can't have one without the other....
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