Same for my cousin from Colorado. I won't hear from him all year and within minutes after the end I received his smarmy text. I respond in kind and he's upset that I don't share his joy. Another obnoxious, clueless Buckeye.
He usually dumps on us, esp in the days of Lloyd, but has recently chastised "all you Michigan haters out there" for taking glee in our downfall. Cowherd knocks the Big Ten but concedes it's better for the conference, when Michigan gets good again, which he assumes will happen under RR.
Loved your post. It reminded me that in my personal experience of 67 years, the most faithful Buckeye and UM fans who have passed on much too early, seemed to go only during the 12 months after their team had won The Game. One example for UM was a tax attorney I worked with - he died apparently content not long after we won the NC in 1997. Before that it had happened to a neighbor down the street in Toledo, who bled scarlet and gray when his team beat us that year. He told me the most fun was being there when your team won The Game on the road, so you could observe up-close the anguish of the opposing fans. I've had that pleasure too. Now your neighbor dies happy in at least one important way, adding to my theory.
The consolation for me is that everytime we lose to OSU, I can count on one more year on the planet. I can savor that extra beer and know it'll be okay. It's just that some year I'd like our boys to let me take my chances and tempt fate.
I totally agree with your post. I've heard lowered expectations for us from some "experts" (Cowherd: breaking in a new QB, new DC, etc.) I was elated that Vegas' view of what it will take to get an equal amount of money on both sides has us within a TD of these five teams.
I've heard top 10 pre-season predictions for several of them. ND (easy schedule, 8 or 9 opponents with inexperienced QB's), PSU (excellent QB returns) and OSU (depth of talent in a weak conference).
The at IL 7-point spread seems to underestimate us. I'd take that right now because it will probably be lower as the game gets closer.
I'm an old fogie who now lives in Atlanta. I hate to knock a fine educational institution like Georgia Tech but I went to one of their football games a couple years ago to see what another school's home games were like. I was totally turned off by their piped-in music. They have a marching band but it was overshadowed by the recorded rock. It was like the simulated energy of attending an NBA game.
Piped in music, when you have a band, is like posting a command to "Make Noise" on the scoreboard. Very forced and just doesn't ring true. Admittedly I've been spoiled by the MMB, but when I go back to games I cherish our traditions, especially the music, the intro ("Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the 250 member Michigan Marching Band etc."). Please don't cheapen our gameday experience with artificial recorded music.
I thought Minor's comments went a long way toward explaining why we played so poorly all year. The offense was understandable but the failure of the defense baffled me, more than just having weak safeties.
I think RR (including his staff and Barwis) were somewhat sabotaged by a few malcontents. I'm hoping they (the whiners) will be gone by next season. Then we'll have some bona fide QB candidates coming in. Even if they're green, Threet may be adequate until one of them emerges.
I was fed up with RR for not recognizing the better players sooner (Minor and Mouton are examples). And for all the stupid mistakes we kept making, like fumbling kickoffs and punts, blown coverages, and dropped passes. Many of those were perpetrated by freshmen, and the best thing about freshmen is that they eventually become sophmores.
The score of 42 to 7 hurts too but it ought to give us a year to dwell on payback, like 50 to 14 did 40 years ago from Woody and like the way our 38 to zip whipping inspired ND to get us back.
I'm relieved our season of agony is over - somewhat prematurely for Michigan. But in a strange way I'm really looking forward to RR being able to start showing us what he can do. Thank you Brandon Minor for pinpointing a major reason why.
I realize she's a sideline reporter but our game having only a 2-man (pun intended) crew, with no SL reporter shows you how little ESPN thought of the match-up. Maybe The Deuce was already booked with OSU/NW but I was amazed the always riveting Battle For the Lil B Jug was even on the Worldwide Leader In Sports.
MJV, If you're saying the cubboard was bare because our talent sucks, that's applicable only to much of the offense, apart from our 4 and 5 star RB's. Our defense should have been much better than it's shown, with the return of Jamison, Graham, Taylor, Ezeh, Warren, and Trent (who more than held his own against Percy Harvin). Granted our safeties were question marks, who are much worse than expected.
As to fact checking, here's a link to an article that summarizes GT's rise from a start much less promising than what RR had to work with.
Among the points made: They're the youngest team in the ACC, with 75 freshmen and sophomores. PJ was hired too late to do much recruiting and had schollies capped at 72, not the usual 85. The new offense in their spring game was a debacle, with 9 fumbles.
The players he inherited were recruits of Chan Gailey, who had an NFL-oriented offense, the antithesis of Navy's. His OL came from a mid-level ACC program. It's been better than expected, ours much worse.
Maybe GT will suffer a November swoon. Maybe PJ is the luckiest coach in the NCAA to have stumbled upon a wealth of talent that far overshadowed what RR was left with. If that's true, at least he was cagey enough not to let it slip away from him in an always difficult transition year.
As GT alum gte posted below, supplying facts I didn't have:
"GT's players are not more experienced or talented (except in the D-Backfield), they're just more productive. GT has noone on their roster with a Brandon Graham type profile, or Jonas Mouton or Steve Schilling for that matter. Michigan's entire backfield is made up of 4 star tailbacks, while GT starts a guy named Lucas Cox (look him up at Scout or Rivals). GT's o-line was considered adequate, maybe, going into the season.
The real differences are:
A) quarterback - GT has a guy who is constantly making plays
B) coaching - PJ is just better than RR and has made better staff decisions. Its no knock on RR to say that, PJ is better than most coaches. All he's done is win."
My points in the post were that RR at UM has fared much worse in a better situation than PJ has at GT. RR was not left totally bereft of talent - in the words of Jim Harbaugh "We're Michigan". Where PJ lucked out was inheriting and retaining several QB's who turned out to be playmakers in his triple option offense. Where RR's fallen short is in inheriting a veteran defense that's proven to be pretty defenseless so far. The fall has been accelerated on the offensive side by not having a reliable QB and having to go with an inexperienced OL that's turned out to be sub-par.
"...the defensive performance has widened the rifts between philosophical differences in the staff." This reminds me of the OC that Tuberville brought in to teach Auburn the spread, then Tommy didn't fully commit to it and fired the guy in mid-season. Michigan's too classy to fire an assistant in mid-season (although Lloyd retired a rugby-kicking special teams coach to stud one year). I hope Shafer's gone next year.
As to recruiting, we seem to be banking heavily on Roh and LaLota to come in fill a need at DE. But look at the guys we have there now - Jamison and Graham. We may lose both if Graham departs early. And two true freshmen DE's are supposed to come in and shore up our sad sack defense? They're going to be better than the veterans we have now? I hope and pray we don't have another defensive year like this one.
Please bring in a miracle worker to coach them. Who was Helen Keller's mentor - is she still available?
Fulmer is like Lloyd, he'll keep going with what he's always been doing and finish 8-4 or 9-3 again. Rememeber that five years of steady 9-3's got Earle Bruce fired. My Point: It's a painful transition we're making but I'd still rather not be a program locked into the status quo like Tennessee. Take our lumps this year like Tressel, Carroll, and Stoops did, take our chances and break out of consistently being "fairly good."
I thought the coaches showed a "Not invented here" mentality, that is, they went with the new guys because the incumbents weren't their guys and therefore must not be as good as the newcomers. For example, Minor played well but came in off the bench, erratic Carson Butler was spectacular (may have started but was largely ignored), and Carlos Brown got only one carry. Instead they went with McGuffie, Shaw, Stevie Brown (okay he was here but in the doghouse most of last year) Panter and many inexperienced others. Ryan Van Bergan was a pleasant surprise as an untested holdover.
How players perform in games, not practice, is what should count. Maybe this week we'll see more of Threet and some of the guys who played well in the second half.
I do live in Atlanta and just signed up for Comcast's Sports Pkg (Includes BTN, Fox College regionals and more) at $5.00 per month. I had been planning to sign up for ESPN's Game Plan but learned on this site today that ESPN's GP won't be carrying any Big Ten games this year.
The good news is you guys saved me some money and the heartbreak of psoriasis. The bad news is if Michigan's ever on a BTN overflow channel, it looks as if I'm headed to smokey Sportsbar City, once again to be surrounded by rednecks.
I'm new to these Boards. Love Brian's objectivity and creativity. Rare qualities in an apparent computer maven.
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Same for my cousin from Colorado. I won't hear from him all year and within minutes after the end I received his smarmy text. I respond in kind and he's upset that I don't share his joy. Another obnoxious, clueless Buckeye.
Great writing and a consoling explanation for the totally unthinkable. Thanks for talking the legions of us off the ledge.
MJV, If you're saying the cubboard was bare because our talent sucks, that's applicable only to much of the offense, apart from our 4 and 5 star RB's. Our defense should have been much better than it's shown, with the return of Jamison, Graham, Taylor, Ezeh, Warren, and Trent (who more than held his own against Percy Harvin). Granted our safeties were question marks, who are much worse than expected.
As to fact checking, here's a link to an article that summarizes GT's rise from a start much less promising than what RR had to work with.
http://www.ajc.com/gatech/content/sports/gatech/stories/2008/11/06/georgia_tech_good_ending.html
Among the points made: They're the youngest team in the ACC, with 75 freshmen and sophomores. PJ was hired too late to do much recruiting and had schollies capped at 72, not the usual 85. The new offense in their spring game was a debacle, with 9 fumbles.
The players he inherited were recruits of Chan Gailey, who had an NFL-oriented offense, the antithesis of Navy's. His OL came from a mid-level ACC program. It's been better than expected, ours much worse.
Maybe GT will suffer a November swoon. Maybe PJ is the luckiest coach in the NCAA to have stumbled upon a wealth of talent that far overshadowed what RR was left with. If that's true, at least he was cagey enough not to let it slip away from him in an always difficult transition year.
As GT alum gte posted below, supplying facts I didn't have:
"GT's players are not more experienced or talented (except in the D-Backfield), they're just more productive. GT has noone on their roster with a Brandon Graham type profile, or Jonas Mouton or Steve Schilling for that matter. Michigan's entire backfield is made up of 4 star tailbacks, while GT starts a guy named Lucas Cox (look him up at Scout or Rivals). GT's o-line was considered adequate, maybe, going into the season.
The real differences are:
A) quarterback - GT has a guy who is constantly making plays
B) coaching - PJ is just better than RR and has made better staff decisions. Its no knock on RR to say that, PJ is better than most coaches. All he's done is win."
My points in the post were that RR at UM has fared much worse in a better situation than PJ has at GT. RR was not left totally bereft of talent - in the words of Jim Harbaugh "We're Michigan". Where PJ lucked out was inheriting and retaining several QB's who turned out to be playmakers in his triple option offense. Where RR's fallen short is in inheriting a veteran defense that's proven to be pretty defenseless so far. The fall has been accelerated on the offensive side by not having a reliable QB and having to go with an inexperienced OL that's turned out to be sub-par.
"...the defensive performance has widened the rifts between philosophical differences in the staff." This reminds me of the OC that Tuberville brought in to teach Auburn the spread, then Tommy didn't fully commit to it and fired the guy in mid-season. Michigan's too classy to fire an assistant in mid-season (although Lloyd retired a rugby-kicking special teams coach to stud one year). I hope Shafer's gone next year.
As to recruiting, we seem to be banking heavily on Roh and LaLota to come in fill a need at DE. But look at the guys we have there now - Jamison and Graham. We may lose both if Graham departs early. And two true freshmen DE's are supposed to come in and shore up our sad sack defense? They're going to be better than the veterans we have now? I hope and pray we don't have another defensive year like this one.
Please bring in a miracle worker to coach them. Who was Helen Keller's mentor - is she still available?
"Feagin? I mean… he couldn’t have been worse. "
I guess you mean not ready for prime time. Did he look bad in warm-ups, because we out-of-towners never saw him on TV.
I thought the coaches showed a "Not invented here" mentality, that is, they went with the new guys because the incumbents weren't their guys and therefore must not be as good as the newcomers. For example, Minor played well but came in off the bench, erratic Carson Butler was spectacular (may have started but was largely ignored), and Carlos Brown got only one carry. Instead they went with McGuffie, Shaw, Stevie Brown (okay he was here but in the doghouse most of last year) Panter and many inexperienced others. Ryan Van Bergan was a pleasant surprise as an untested holdover.
How players perform in games, not practice, is what should count. Maybe this week we'll see more of Threet and some of the guys who played well in the second half.
I do live in Atlanta and just signed up for Comcast's Sports Pkg (Includes BTN, Fox College regionals and more) at $5.00 per month. I had been planning to sign up for ESPN's Game Plan but learned on this site today that ESPN's GP won't be carrying any Big Ten games this year.
The good news is you guys saved me some money and the heartbreak of psoriasis. The bad news is if Michigan's ever on a BTN overflow channel, it looks as if I'm headed to smokey Sportsbar City, once again to be surrounded by rednecks.
I'm new to these Boards. Love Brian's objectivity and creativity. Rare qualities in an apparent computer maven.