It Hasn't Even Been 2 Weeks Since the Ultimate Glory, Savor It
Love you all and understand the natural tendency of folks to look forward and worry or wonder about the future. I also get that the annual "Harbaugh to NFL" groundhog offseason is exhausting and unsettling. That said, and to quote our great departing National Champion QB - "Take Three Deep Breaths"
We just won the freaking National Title, something many of us weren't sure would ever happen again in our lifetimes. Savor it. 15-0, Perfect season, the dream seasons we have seen the Bamas and Georgias and Clemsons savoring over the past 15 years. Hell, even OSU had a loss in their playoff title year.
Yes, not knowing the future leader and direction of this program sucks, but if anyone would have asked any of us, 4 years ago in the depths of the Covid year, after getting blasted or falling brutally short against OSU in Harbaugh's prior years, if we'd take the past 3 seasons - culminating in a National Title - and then lose Jim after, I think we all would have signed up.
I love Jim, thank him for rebuilding the Michigan brand and taking us higher than at any point in my lifetime and want him to stay. I also believe, unlike Lloyd, he has left a very strong coaching tree and foundation that can carry this program forward. Will we achieve the glory of this year again? Perhaps not.
Will there ever be a season again like this one - in all of CFB? - almost certainly not. This is a 30 for 30, documentary worthy, all time historical, legendary season - From the Harbaugh suspensions and Stalions gate, to born on 3rd being exposed as a crying fraud, to the B1G try to screw us, to beating the big, bad SEC in the playoff, to assistant coaches leading our team to victory in the face of NCAA hipocricy, etc, etc.
Friends, do not underestimate the absolute historic nature of what happened this year. This was not Bama winning another ho-hum title with Saban and his stacked rosters or Kirby or OSU prevailing with their NFL loaded teams. This was fucking Michigan - finally us - finishing the dream season. Not to mention the past 3 years, winning the last and perhaps most hyped and significant renditions of The Game in modern history - 3 straight top 5 matchups, all won by us over that soft team down south. The Game will never again mean so much with the new playoff setup. What a way to go out.
We can hand wring and lament about a future, that even without Jim, looks much better going forward than anything after the Appy State loss and our fall into the abyss. Just next year alone we have probably a top 3 defense in the country returning. We can still pound the rock. And most importantly, we have our glory and mojo back.
Savor it gents and don't let the uncertaintly of the off season ruin anything that Team 144 accomplished.
January 17th, 2024 at 9:09 AM ^
No matter what the future might bring, one thing can never be taken away, ignored, or forgotten. And that is:
January 17th, 2024 at 9:10 AM ^
Love your post but some people cannot be helped.
January 17th, 2024 at 9:11 AM ^
Wonder about the future? Sure.
Honestly, there is no helping those that are worried or fearful or stressed about the future of our beloved Wolvetines.
Personally, I've had too many years of angst, broken hearts and disappointment to let anything turn my eyes away from the sun.
They will remain fixed and my face will soak up all the warmth for the foreseeable future.
January 17th, 2024 at 9:14 AM ^
Great summary of what's important. I would also add to not get caught up in the signgate nonsense, which was simply 3rd base's (with some help from little-game james) attempt to put a damper on what had happened for two years, and was about to happen again, with a natty added for good measure.
January 17th, 2024 at 9:57 AM ^
Love the point you make about the three consecutive wins vs OSU.
They dominated us while we were bad. We dominated them while they were at their best - including two years in a row when they were undefeated!
As far as enduring satisfaction goes, this is up there with Woody not being able to manage a single TD against Bo in the last three games of The Ten Year War
January 17th, 2024 at 10:07 AM ^
Ohio State went ten years without scoring a TD against us in Columbus! They beat us 14-11 in Columbus in 1972. They didn’t score another TD in Columbus until the 1982 game!
January 17th, 2024 at 1:57 PM ^
I did not know that, that is amazing!!
January 17th, 2024 at 10:11 AM ^
I get it and I do try to savor it as best I can, but I guess I never wanted to reach the pinnacle just this once and watch it all fly away like dust after the Thanos snap.
Players leave for the draft and graduate and good for all of them. But if Harbaugh and the staff go, I have no assurances that it’ll ever be like this again.
I don’t want it to be over. I want to win and then watch the new recruits line up to play for the best program in the country. I want to parlay a championship into the spring and reload the team, not rebuild it. I want Michigan to compete every year, not every 3 decades.
I love that we won, no doubt. But if the cost is another 30 years in the wilderness, I ain’t got time for that.
January 17th, 2024 at 10:35 AM ^
I don't want a 30 for 30 on this. ESPN needs to keep its ugly fingers off of this story for the rest of time.
January 17th, 2024 at 10:46 AM ^
The premise of being better off then before Jim got here is inarguable. My general grumpiness comes from the inability of this program to truly build on the successes of the past three seasons. We can continue to point to the ability to find undervalued / lower ranked recruits and develop the hell out of them. Great! But, I refuse to believe that there aren't plenty of 5 star culture fits at skill positions like JJ that are turned off from coming to Michigan because every year the Head Coach looks for his Goldilocks job in the NFL. He continues to cuck this school and fan base making us watch as he takes NFL meeting after NFL meeting finally choosing to comeback and profess this is where he wants to be. Make a choice, make peace with whatever you choose and get to work.
I really wondered why after the National Championship game the joy I felt didn't meet my expectation. Or even match what I felt after the Rose Bowl game. I think knowing that this new cycle was inevitable zapped some of the joy for me.
January 17th, 2024 at 10:59 AM ^
Thank you.
The last week-ish have really opened my eyes to just how much some fans want to focus on the negatives.
January 17th, 2024 at 11:03 AM ^
Agreed, and honestly I'm confused about the Harbaugh angst going around now. I thought it was a given that Harbaugh would interview with NFL teams and very possibly move on after this season.
January 17th, 2024 at 11:06 AM ^
Appreciate the pep talk, Bo. Losing something often hurts 3x or 4x as much as gaining something feels good, and this becomes more pronounced the bigger and more uncertain the loss.
So the fan base is mourning the perceived loss of a dynasty. But we’ve rebuilt and are in a far better position than we were in even 4 years ago—to say nothing of the RR and Hoke eras. A dynasty would be great, of course, but at the very least we have a much better foundation to build on. Good to get a little perspective on where we stand. Three deep breaths.
January 17th, 2024 at 11:29 AM ^
I’m savoring. As I was out walking last night, I reflected on the facts that Michigan won the Rose Bowl by beating Alabama and Nick Saban, won the National Championship, the Lions won a home playoff game, I got to hear Bill Simmons discuss said Lions victory on his podcast, and I read a heartfelt front page post from Ace. It’s only mid-January and there’s a strong case to be made this will be the greatest sports calendar year in my lifetime for me.
January 17th, 2024 at 11:55 AM ^
I've watched the Semifinal and Championship games like 5 times each....and that's a conservative guess.
January 17th, 2024 at 12:07 PM ^
Same. And my wife still thinks I'm crazy, but she sort of gets it a little more this time!
January 17th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
Co-signed. Harbaugh accomplished what he came here to do. I'd love it if he stayed at U of M until he retired, but it's hard to argue with the results, even if it ends now.
January 17th, 2024 at 12:10 PM ^
Go Blue. That is all.
January 17th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
I was contemplating posting this exact idea.
If some things change, we will be OK. We are loaded on D, and OL/RB/TE still look good. I would say the absolute floor is 7-5, most likely a 9-3 type season.
And if things really do go to hell next season, we will ALWAYS have the historic 2021-23 run and the 3 conference titles and the 3 OSU wins and the defeat of Saban in the semis and the National Championship.
Always. So even if it's not ok, it's still ok.
January 18th, 2024 at 5:54 AM ^
I admit my own bias, of course.
But I am inclined to agree that this is the most special National Championship team in, AT LEAST, recent memory. And that distinction may very well grow in coming years, when college football will increasingly appear as a NFL-lite of easy come, easy go mercenaries in which the team with the most money and talent wins the battle on the chalkboard first, and then we drag through an aimless season of watching a few elite programs hustle and bustle for prizes that continue to mean less and less.
In many ways, our win against OSU felt like the last true big ten game - we’ve turned into a coast to coast super league clumsily thrown together for no other reason than filling the pockets of w few already-rich media execs. How fun is it going to be when we play OSU back to back, with one team already assured it’s place win or lose, so they rest their starters?
Same goes for the title. The conferences no longer exist in any meaningful way. 12 team playoff is something I hate for reasons I won’t get into here, and I know others disagree with. And now it’s all NFL-lite with no salary cap, and things like a team that grows together over 4 years just won’t exist.
Sad to see for the sport, but damn am I glad to see us win what feels like the last title of a time where college football is even somewhat recognizable.