..gotta wear shades.

I have a strong feeling UofM football is about to enter an era of success.

And while most of the reasons have to do with the players on the team and the fact that they stayed.

https://mgoblog.com/diaries/saturday-psycho-stay-or-go

As a matter of fact, I felt this way last November: (saturday-psycho-2020-another-round-crazy-juice)

 

College Football unfolds in cycles.

The main reason UofM is on the upswing?

That answer lies somewhere between the '17 and '18 recruiting classes.

In '15 and '16 Harbaugh maximized the talent Hoke brought in and set us up for unrealistic expectations, but he also had a team that didn't give up at the first sign of adversity, unlike '17-'19. The '16 and '17 recruiting classes were filled with bad "fits" who bailed quick; since '18 the recruiting has found better "fits" even though not as many stars.

This team isn't gonna quit, so I'm not gonna stop rooting from them.

These players are special but could there also be a "higher" power at play.

The most influential power in our solar system is governed by the Solar Cycle.

(from Wikipedia)

The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the solar surface. Sunspots have been observed since the early 17th century and the sunspot time series is the longest continuously observed (recorded) time series of any natural phenomena.

The magnetic field of the Sun flips during each solar cycle, with the flip occurring when sunspot cycle is near its maximum. Levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material, the number and size of sunspots, solar flares, and coronal loops all exhibit a synchronized fluctuation, from active to quiet to active again, with a period of 11 years.

Many individuals find the ups and downs of their personal lives also correlate to this 11 year cycle.

With out a doubt, UofM football's fortunes also have been heavily affected by this cycle; and as it is, 2021 is a major year for UofM because all the years that fall on this 11 year cycle are either Highpoints or Transitions. Let's take a look:

1x11(11years ago); 2011: Highpoint, the anomalous 11-2 season and lone OSU victory surrounded by 15 losses.

2x11; 2000: Transition, broke the 3 year double digit win season streak, since the 2000 OSU win UofM is 2-17 vs the fetid nuts. (-3 years from NC)

3x11; 1989: Highpoint and Transition: Bo wins his 2nd Rose bowl in Jan. and has one of his best teams as he goes out on a high note as 10-2 B1G champs

4x11; 1978: Transition; The last year of an 11 year run with 1 or less losses plus top 10 in the final AP poll each year, entered into the least successful years of Bo's era.

5x11; 1967: Transition: moved from the worst decade of UofM football were they were only ranked in the final AP poll ONCE in the previous 11 seasons, two seasons later The Schembechler Era begins and they are ranked in the Top 10 in the final AP poll for the next 10 years.

6x11; 1956: Transition: last year being in the final AP poll, would miss the next 8 seasons after being ranked in the AP final poll for 17 out of the first 21 seasons it existed.

7x11; 1945: Weak Transition: this is one of the least impactful years of the cycle, being a 7-3 season where they finished #6 in the AP final during a stretch they finished top 10 in 11 straight seasons, two years later they would win the first Rose Bowl during a 25 game winning streak.

8x11; 1934: Transition: Year after National Championship, First 1 win season since 1883 and didn't post a winning record for the next 4 years.

9x11; 1923: Highpoint: National Championship!

10x11; 1912: Another year with weak correlation although it was right in the middle of the "independent" era which seemed to be a transition in itself.

11x11; 1901: Yost transition and start of extended Highpoint: (1)steal Yost from Illinois, (2) win the National championship, (3)rinse repeat, (4)rinse repeat, (5)rinse repeat.

 

And even though 11 years before that was 1890 and UofM didn't play that year, if you go back 11 seasons, that takes us all the way back to 1881, yup, the year it all began.

 

We have already had the Transition from last year to this year, now it's time to Highpoint!

 

Also the last year we didn't play OSU before 2020?

That was 1917, the year before a National Championship!

What about: the last time we had back to back four loss seasons?

1996, we actually had four 4 loss seasons in a row; how did 1997 go again?

Plus the Illini Glitch is in effect for three out of the next four years.

For any of you that can't come up with a reasonable excuse to root for this team, now you have a crazy reason to root for them, you're welcome.