If you were sitting on the Michigan side of the field on Saturday and saw a rando in a white #72 jersey on the sideline pacing, crouching, hopping, and grimacing like he was hopped on goofballs…that was me! (And no goofballs, just my standard UM-game adrenaline/endorphin overload.) Knowing I’m an alum, a friend invited me to the game with some tickets he got through work, and I happily accepted, not realizing until we were entering the stadium that they were actually field passes.

Scheduling conflicts have kept me from getting to any of the previous games at RU and I haven’t been back to Ann Arbor in a minute, so this was my first in-person game since 2001. Plus, I got a chance to catch up with Seth, who I’d seen more recently than a game, but only by a year or two. (And to see him get recognized by an MGoReader, which was pretty cool.) So I was already in a Zavier-Simpson-flexing type of mood to begin with, but once we walked onto the field, I was feeling damned near rapturous.

I felt mostly undeserving of being there the whole time, so I thought it might be nice to try and share what I can from the experience. I haven’t played (or coached) football beyond the playground at recess and my scouting resumé consists of watching a lot of games on TV and reading this here blog, so I can’t provide much insight. I was also too caught up in soaking it all in to take many pictures—and am a terrible iPhone photog to begin with—so this won’t be much of a photo essay either. But I will do what I can.

• Not knowing whether he’d made the trip, I was SO happy to see Gemon Green in uniform. Seriously, it warmed my heart and I am so glad he was there.
• Plenty of people have said it before, but this team really does come across as TEAM. Nothing specific I can call out, but the mood coming off the bench just seemed positive, even when things weren’t going well. That’s not to say it was smiles when they came off after bad outcomes, but there wasn’t finger pointing, or even really much intense anger. What I saw, more than anything, on their faces was annoyance, the look of someone who knows they are better than the other guy and is going to get them back. I’m doing a shitty job describing it, but it seemed like a good thing—determination rather than frustration.
• Similarly, while coaches were yelling, it seemed like coaching and encouragement. Even when we were down, you didn’t see coaches walking around scowling or screaming themselves purple.
• One coach who stood out? Herbert. A super-intense dude, and you can tell the players absolutely love him. If you told me to pick one member of the program to have put in the tunnel to even the odds, I think that would be my choice. He just seems like someone who’d go full mama grizzly to protect his guys.
• It’s tough to spot him between all the big bodies, but every time I saw Coach Hart, Corum was on his hip. God I love having him back in the program.
• Being on the field totally screwed with my visual perception. I was probably around the 20 for both of Moody’s misses; one I had no idea if it was good, the other I was fairly certain was (and signaled accordingly). Same thing with position on the field—I really hope no one saw my multiple incorrect signals, especially when I was calling for a “came down out of bounds” on a catch made a few feet in bounds.
• I’m not quite at the age yet where I feel compelled to constantly point out how young college athletes look, but my goodness Jeff Persi has a baby face. There was some real cognitive dissonance seeing that face on top of that body.
• Speaking of big bodies, I get why the word “frame” appears 13 times in Tristan Bounds’ MGo recruiting profile. I was specifically keeping an eye on Bounds during down time since we had matching shirts, and he is just SO big, but somehow still lean and not lumbering. I have no idea about how good his feet or his hands or his targeting or any of that are, but it is oh so easy to see a franchise LT when you look at him.
• Also shockingly large? Our Edges, specifically Okie and McGregor. Those dudes just tower. Even when lined up next to Ken Grant, it was their height and length that caught my eye. If the potential there gets unlocked...yikes. Monsters.
• One of the highlights for me was getting to watch the team jam out to “Don’t Stop Believin’” before the 4th quarter. It seemed spontaneous, Keegan had a whole dance solo, and everybody looked like they were having a blast. It was awesome. MGoStaff, if you want a minute-long video of the aforementioned performance shot in portrait mode, I’m your man, hit me up.
• I really didn’t want to be a fanboy, so I made a point not to interact with anyone from the Michigan bench. One exception was shortly after the floodgates opened, when a coach or staffer said “I don’t hear that f*cking train horn any more!” and I couldn’t help but agree with him.
• The other was a brief interaction with Brad Robbins. Because we were right by the punting warmup net for most of the game, I saw more of Robbins than any other player. We all joke about the lonely life of a punter, but I never really appreciated it up close before. As a punter, you only get your chance if your teammates have failed. So every the offense gets the ball not on a short field, the punter has to begin preparing for them to fail in order to be ready to go if called upon. It’s gotta suck a little. With all that said, my main observation is that Brad Robbins is one cool mother*cker. Seriously. Dude has swag for days.
• At one point, we were standing near where Warren and Bowman were warming up and one of my friends commented on how hard and straight the ball came out of their hands, and seemingly effortlessly. There were also a bunch of kids in the stands calling him by name asking him for souvenirs. Pretty amazing a) the caliber of athlete a #3 and #4 QB and b) that the under-10 crowd at a road game knows the #4 QB by name. By the way, I can confirm that in person, Bowman is a dead ringer for the AI from Upload.
• I absolutely hated it whenever someone limped off. I've read that Keegan tweaked an ankle sprain, which makes sense. He looked pissed and in pain, but was clearly familiar with whatever it was. Heal fast big fella. And some of those JJ hits were terrifying up close, kid's definitely tough.
• Spike Lee in the house, cheering for the correct team. He took a pic with my friend's son and generally seemed like a normal dude watching a game.
• As someone with field access wearing Maize and Blue, I was very conscious of trying to be a good representative of the school and program, ie, to not to be an a$$hole wearing a Michigan jersey. At one point while we were exploring, my friends went to go check out the Rutgers sideline, which I politely declined to do. Call me crazy, it just seemed like it would be disrespectful. As luck would have it, while I was waiting by the end zone, the Rutgers mascot came over to prep for going on the field, and immediately walked over accusatorily. He was also wearing fatigues, since he was about to escort some military personnel onto the field. I explained that I was hanging back since I didn’t want to be rude. In pantomime, I think he said it was all good, and I tried to express my respect for the military appreciation in return. But for some reason, my brain thought I needed to communicate back in pantomime. So there I was, trying to mime the concept of respect for our servicemen and women to a cartoon knight wearing combat fatigues. Sports are f*cking weird sometimes.
• Walking back from there meant walking past part of the RU student section, who by now had noticed a UMich jersey in front of them. The venom was very muted. Not sure there’s another Big 10 stadium where I’d have been as completely unconcerned. Maybe Northwestern?
• Photo dump!

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