Frustration level with “spring game” & lack of fan interaction?
I’ve seen a lot of people voicing their grievances about tomorrow’s “spring game” and the fact that there’s no tailgating allowed, no TV coverage except a $20 stream to watch a practice that’s not even a spring game
Does this bother you? Are you frustrated with the lack of fan appreciation/interaction shown by the program?
I just want to take the temperature of the fanbase right now.
its annoying but for me, whatever. If they dont want to extend a branch then I have plenty of other things to do.
I get plenty of interaction by tweeting players, especially the freshmen.
What about the recruits? They need your attention too.
Forget the recruits, tweet their parents.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
Or the "uncle" who wants to be the kid's agent.
In the immortal words of former Texas coach Fred Akers, "there's always an uncle."
I save that for when they narrow it down to their top 3 and then pick a team that no doubt offered money and whoores.
Logged in just to like this.
I just want them to beat MSU and OSU in the same season and go to Indy. I personally do not care about anything else. I only attend about 1 home game per season these days. I enjoy watching at home with friends and family.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
NK, I just want you to know that in the official game of thrones reddit poll, I chose you to take the iron throne.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
Brown noser. :)
April 12th, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^
Thank you. I personally voted for Sansa! hahahah
I vote that the iron throne becomes obsolete.
Couldn't care less. This type of thing is noticed by - and bothers - only a small percentage of our fan base.
Good take, agreed.
It's a practice, no matter what you want to call it. I don't care that we don't get to watch a practice, in April.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
I'm sure some people will take situations like this and use it as another reason why interest and attendance at the games seems to be dwindling. The reality is that there has been a perfect storm of negative things happening around the football program. Lack of a consistently strong team over the past 10-12 years. Incompetent leadership in the AD. Increase of ticket prices. Bungled coaching searches and hires. The proliferation of inexpensive 70-inch TV's. Etc. Spring games and fan experiences are way down on the list of things that are important to most Michigan fans. Having been to my first (and last) game at Ohio Stadium last November, I realized instantly that their fan base is much more intense about and interested in the football program. The reality is that football just isn't as important to Michigan's fan base...for a variety of reasons.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
Not just the fanbase unfortunately-i believe the game is WAY more important to the OSU players and coaches than it is to ours.
I would like to believe that it is not true, especially since our head coach is a former player and who made the guarantee of a win over them.
Objectively, I think it is true. Some of what I'll note below is what gets Michigan grads labeled as being arrogant, but football is just not as important to U of M as it is to most of the schools that seem to be able to field top-ten teams on a very consistent basis. I do believe it's something that's ingrained in to the culture of the various schools...and that spreads to the students, fans, coaches and players. The Michigan student body is barely 50% in-state; so, half of the students weren't raised on being rabid Michigan fans. Michigan is academically superior. Many Michigan grads end up moving out of Michigan after graduation. Michigan's football fandom is split with MSU. Not to mention a full slate of professional teams in the SE Michigan area, three of which have enjoyed championship-caliber teams within the past 20 years. Etc.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Michigan students are up to their eyeballs right now in end-of-year studying and resultant stress. They're not going to take time off from that to attend a spring game.
I would probably go, if it were a little warmer outside
I’m a Michigan student and will be attending !
April 12th, 2019 at 12:01 PM ^
But in the state of Ohio what else is there? Until the Cavs won they really haven't had much in pro teams to cheer for. I guess they could spend time at their lovely beaches or the great cities that always rank in the top 10 of the best cities in America, New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland!!! No its the state of brown water and amusement parks. The Cuyahoga River has caught fire how many times now? 13
The Cooler Poopers have the Buckeyes and thats what they hang their hat on and thats what makes their lives liveable.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
Dude. The Ohio River has never caught on fire. I believe you're thinking of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, and that was 50 years ago! (Hell, I wasn't even in high school then, and I'm older than dirt!)
13 times
The small percentage of fans who are grown ass men, tweet at high school/college kids, and want to take selfies with high school/college kids.
Totally agree with you, for 6-8 home games every fall, we have the best gameday experience in the country. Unless they fuck that up, I don't have any grievances about "fan interaction"
I'm literally the same age as Chase Winovich so.........not sure what that's all about.
The overly arrogant portion of our fanbase who looks down on other fans for wanting to be as involved and immersed in the program as possible just suck. These are the people who give you the side eye or complain if you're cheering too loud at a football game, they look down upon you from their ivory tower if you have memorabilia such as autographs or photos with players.
I bitch about a lot of things. I have plenty of hot takes during games and during the season. I've got nothing here except *shrug*. The Michigan Spring game has never been a big event. I went to a fan day event during the Lloyd years and it was average at best. I've enjoyed the post season football busts before but those eventually got old.
Would a selfie day for football make you that much happier, WD?
It doesn't bug me. The lack of coverage kind of annoys me, but it is what it is.
It should be a game. It’s BS.
I've got to agree with NTB here. When Harbaugh first arrived and had a draft and real game, it felt as though Michigan was dialing up the excitement. The program had the most juice it's had in a generation.
Now everything feels like an afterthought.
I'll be honest. The Harbaugh era has become one big wet paper bag. I thought we were getting the guy who walked into the Coliseum with a bunch of Stanford nerds and shoved it right up Pete Carroll's ass. Instead we have the Marty Schottenheimer of college football.
So, to answer your question, WD, my temperature is pretty fucking lukewarm at this point. Maybe Gattis is the answer, but if you're not going to hype your new toy a bit for the fans--you know, the reason any of this exists--then maybe you should admit you're lost.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:13 PM ^
What the program does in April does not matter. It's what happens in November that counts. I get the feeling if they were hyping the hell out of this event a lot of fans would be griping about how they're putting all this attention into the spring game when they should be putting more into the Ohio State game.
Forgive me, but this whole thread feels like a "let's find another reason to bitch" thing.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
It just feels like "going through the motions" is the last thing this team and fanbase need right now.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
I hope the coaches are more concerned with coaching, filling the roster gaps and getting everyone healthy than they are about putting on a dog and pony show.
......goes to South Africa
eh it is what it is. If weather is good, I go. If weather isn’t, I don’t. Could it be handled better? Yeah, but I could say that about 99.9% of all actions handled by organizations and programs.
I was expecting a petition link at the end of the post.
It doesn't bother me at all. I'm happy the weather looks like it's going to be pretty good so the fam and I will head to Ann Arbor just to hang out for the day.
I'd be all up for an ACC-Big Ten Spring Football Challenge instead of all these intra-squad scrimmages. I've commented elsewhere on this Board about this.
If these open-to-the-public events are little more than controlled scrimmages, then why can't they be like the pre-season, exhibition games against other schools that we played when we were in high school? If Michigan were playing Louisville or Syracuse or the Miami Hurricanes (or any other ACC team) tomorrow in a controlled scrimmage, I'd probably make some time to watch it.
April 12th, 2019 at 12:12 PM ^
You’ll never see that in football due to injuries and the measures taken to reduce CTE. There are only what 15 spring practices now and the first 2-3 are in shorts? That’s far less that the 20 that I believe there was 10 years ago. I wouldn’t want to risk DPJ or anyone else getting hurt in a ACC challenge when it truly would be meaningless.
Aren't all the spring intra-squad games that are televised by ESPN and the Big Ten Network also meaningless? Don’t injuries and risks of exposure to CTE already occur during the 15 spring practices allowed for all D-1 football teams? How much greater would the risks of injuries or exposure to CTE be if Michigan were playing another school in a controlled scrimmage instead of engaging in an intra-squad scrimmage as the 15th spring practice?
Although my last high school sports experience was more than 50 years ago when girls weren’t allowed to compete in interscholastic sports, I remember pre-season scrimmages against other schools for the football, soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball teams. It wasn’t so long ago when my children were competing in high school sports and having pre-season exhibitions against other schools.
Who is streaming it for $20? That's a new level of ridiculous
Hopefully no one. Take that $20 and buy yourself some drinks or a meal. That is nonsense.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
Flo Sports
April 12th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
How do you even know that?
I knew before even clicking this link you'd be the one to create this thread.
You're bullying WD. Stop bullying.
Haha. I did the exact same thing. It is almost always obvious. Thanks for the chuckle.
I’ve found that I’m able to predict with almost a 99% accuracy just by the title of the thread if WD created it.
UofM Women's Equestrian Team secures 12th straight dominant win over MSU!
1 reply.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:00 AM ^
At least he made an effort to thinly veil his normal bellyache/complaint by trying to crowd source.