The State Of Our Open Threads: After Ohio State
You know, for many years, this particular edition of "The State Of Our Open Threads" was more or less an autopsy of the frustration and discontent all of us felt, but for the last few years, this has been a far more pleasant experience, particularly when you wake up on the Sunday following the Ohio State game and realize that another year of gloating belongs to us and not them.
That is not to say that the Ohio State has never mattered or been at the center of our Big Ten football thoughts. I shall preview an upcoming work - "The History Of Fuck" - below. These are the average fucks given per game for Big Ten East opponents in the Harbaugh era to date, and the hierarchy is quite clear, as you might expect. We invest much more, even as fans, in this game than in others, even if it isn't, as it was this year, the highest "fuck" producer, if you will.
"Fuck" is, of course, just a word, but it is an evocative one generally. Still, if we confine the discussion to just 2023, Ohio State was actually not where we gave the most fucks:
That honor, at least in the regular season, belongs to Penn State. now, because of various external quirks this time around, that's actually quite understandable. After all, that was the first game of Harbaugh's conference-imposed suspension. Even so, 410 fucks was what we managed yesterday, and that is a fairly impressive total, especially in the last few years.
I say that, but it is also true that past Ohio State games within the confines of this study figure heavily in the most prolific games when it comes to fucks given. For example, we game 810 during the 2016 game (I wonder why), and 785 during the 2017 game (for well-remembered reasons also).
We should also mention shits given - we gave 97 of them yesterday. That is down quite a bit from Maryland, as you can see above, where we gave a season high of 154. In the past, "fuck" and "shit" did correspond somewhat, but this year, they are completely decoupled from one another. Hoping for another season like that so I can look at the shift.
We do other things with these numbers, as you know, so let's shift gears and talk about the overall mood of the place, which has been comparatively stable over the course of the season, and particularly when compared to earlier in the Harbaugh years.
There were 3,354 posts at the moment the clock hit zero and we were officially 12-0, against 1,176 instances of tracked words, which made for an efficiency rating of 2.85. This is significantly down from the 2.2-2.3-ish numbers of previous weeks were we were slightly on edge, finding ourselves without our head coach and facing this game with growing trepidation, at least about some things. As it turns out, if you look at the conference schedule depicted about, we sort of end as we begin. Rutgers produced a 2.83, and we spent considerable time in that general neighborhood of "comfortable" throughout the regular season. This is the quietest we've been in a long time, relatively speaking.
Talk of "defense" and "offense" has tracked like this all year:
In years past, one of these would far outpace the other at some point, usually by the middle of the conference schedule, but this time, we've discussed them at relatively the same rate, which is an interesting shift. Much of that has to do with the team having a fairly firm identity and the drawbacks being relatively known and stable and the lack of any real surprises. Of course, also performance. That's the big one. They all share in the effort which has now produced a 12-0 result. "Defense" edged out "offense" in the thread yesterday, as you may have guessed or even assumed. We did have trouble stopping them when perhaps we should have, after all.
We haven't talked a lot about "fire" and "suck" this season, mostly because they aren't performing the same cathartic function that they did in the past. There was a time when we really wanted various people fired, and some things did in fact suck, but particularly in the last two seasons, we've found more positive, humorous ways to use them, as well as the standard ones, such as when we want the Tony Petitti and the Big Ten fired, and the officials suck. There is always that.
Traditionally, "fire" would start slow and creep up as the season progressed. "Suck" would fluctuate violently depending on the game. This season, well, they sort of do that, but again, for different reasons, and it is fairly unusual for a sharp drop to occur at the OSU date point. In years past, this has been the climax for both of these words. Not this year, however, which is refreshing.
We talked about Harbaugh mentions last week as well:
This is more or less what I think one would have predicted considering the Big Ten / NCAA drama. The stream of news began in the run-up to Michigan State, then accelerated towards Purdue, then the suspension before Penn State. Then, a precipitous drop, because at that point, on the day of the game, it was Sherrone Moore's team. I probably should have kept numbers on Moore references, but it was only for a few games and it's a lot of work to collect this data as it is without adding spot words, as some have asked over the years.
Normalized values also add to the story a little bit:
This is just the back half of the season, but the season before Penn State looks more or less the same. That is to say, the last three games, blew the top off the season averages for just about every tracked word. We went on quite the ride - by 2023 standards - in the last three weeks and still came out of that stretch 3-0. Sometimes, I think the ride was in our heads, and the team had it covered the whole time. We only realize that after the fact, I think.
So, there it is. Twelve games of "The State Of Our open Threads" with the postseason now upon us. I will do this for the postseason, but it won't be quite as extensive as those game tend to produce odd results and the focus really is the regular season grind.
I hope you've enjoyed the 2023 editions of this though. Since there is now sufficient data, there will be some retrospectives coming, such as "The History Of Fuck".
November 26th, 2023 at 8:43 AM ^
Thank you. Always makes me smile.
November 26th, 2023 at 8:47 AM ^
Fuck. This is fucking amazing. Keep up the great fucking work!
November 26th, 2023 at 9:07 AM ^
I did not know that sign language for Ryan Day is this:
November 26th, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
These posts can be used as criteria on research into the insane mood swings of football fans. Imagine if citizens applied such emotions to every facet of their lives like they do football.
November 26th, 2023 at 9:28 AM ^
Worse in politics. There is the stench of moral certitude and righteousness with each take by true believers.
November 26th, 2023 at 9:23 AM ^
Trying to compile data on (Sherrone) Moore mentions would've been muddied because of this guy:
November 26th, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
The lack of wireless connectivity at the Big House kept me from adding to the average F's during the game.
November 26th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
I feel you--wanted to send a few things from the game and...nada. Why can't the leaders and best manage to have the internet visit Michigan Stadium?
SECU field isn't great, but this is one area in which Maryland football can compete favorably with Michigan.
November 26th, 2023 at 10:13 AM ^
Curious of the number of Fucks given yesterday, included "yeah" moreso than just fuck or fuck OSU. the fucks yesterday may have a more positive outpouring than negative. Except for the ZZ injury, of course.
November 26th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
The fuck:shit ratio is underrated, very telling, and needs to be studied more thoroughly.
November 26th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
Where else do you we get this sort of analysis???
You gotta love the blog.
p.s. Fuck could also be used in the positive (Fuck yes!), I do that often :)
November 26th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^
Yeah, the whole idea is that the word brings with it a certain amount of emphasis and engagement, positive or negative, depending on the situation, so it is a decent measurement of how emotionally invested we were, for better or worse (again, depending on the game / situation).
November 26th, 2023 at 1:38 PM ^
yes I do this. even when I type. It's football and shit gets fucked up. The grammatical usages of profane words on MgoBlog merits continued study under your leadership. Carry on.
November 26th, 2023 at 11:47 AM ^
Meanwhile, at this very moment, I assume all the other B1G coaches are colluding to gather Michigan game planning and signing info to be forwarded to Iowa. You know, basic gamesmanship stuff.
November 26th, 2023 at 1:40 PM ^
Just thought I’d drop this in this thread since it will be viewed quite a bit, but congrats to you guys. That was actually fun to watch yesterday and the respect factor for the rivalry has trumped the anger factor in my body the past two days. What a great game between two great teams and we even got a little help from the refs. I’m not gonna agree with Roman on what he said, this is the toughest team we’ve had since 2020, but your team definitely performed when it mattered. I’ll never wish that you guys get a natty, but I have to tip my hat today to a great game played yesterday. Cheers ya bums! And just for the thread’s sake I’ll drop a fuck here.
November 26th, 2023 at 4:56 PM ^
Can we get a breakdown on the average number of Os in "Noooooooo" when Zinter went down?
November 26th, 2023 at 6:56 PM ^
A Columbus source has once again shared information to the NCAA that Michigan has enjoyed an unfair competitive advantage as the Buckeyes were forced to employ Ryan Day as their coach the entire final regular season game.
As in previous years Michigan went on to win "The Game" utilizing this tactic in demoralizing fashion for this sensitive region of Ohio.
'The' B10 is meeting to decide what further punishment can be rendered that Mike Sainristil and teammates won't just continue to shrug off! All efforts to date have proven harmless.
God help us survive the Storm.