The Vegas over/under for wins this season was 7.5. Virtually everyone predicted 6-6 or 7-5.   While few if any picked this team to win more than 10 games, there were plenty of people (many on this blog) who thought beating the over of 7.5 was quite likely.

Awesome. What a year. Thanks to MGoBlog. Thanks to Seth for carrying the weight this year. Thanks to Brian for being foolish enough to create this and stuck enough to let it be carried during this difficult year for him. Thanks for sticking around and being publicly vulnerable. It helped so many people. Happy New Year, even to the dummies who post clickbait blog titles.

well said.  better days are coming.

There was a sign before that sign that those watching on TV may not have seen: after the drum major touched his head to the turf, the band turned around and marched down to the other end of the field, led by the drum major. During his run, his plume came off his hat and fell to the field. It sat there in its infinite maizeness as the band marched over it. He finally realized what happened and ran back to pick it up. It reminded me of the wedding scene in "The Deer Hunter." John Savage was newly married and his wife took a sip of the sacramental wine. There was a close up of a single red drop that spilled on the front of her white dress, signifying the tragic events to come -- the spilling of blood in the Vietnam War, John Savage losing limbs after being incarcerated in a Viet Cong war camp, Christopher Walken's character losing his mind to PTSD and then his life to Russian roulette. Obviously not nearly as tragic -- maybe not really tragic at all, just disappointing --  but that maize plume sitting alone on the turf sure reminded me of the lone red drop. 

Great piece Brian.  Very proud of this team and thankful for such a great season.  Safe travels.  Michigan are B10 champs and you and your staff made it so much more enjoyable.   Happy, Healthy New Year to everyone involved and everyone here.

Go, Blue.

And thank you.

We're the 3rd or 4th best team in the country.  There are only 2 two Elite teams this year.

To hell with Notre Dame!

It has been a wonderfully surprising football season, maybe my favorite one of my adult life (I'm 42). It has made my negative assumptions wrong over and over all season.  I don't know what the future holds, but regardless no one can take away this one.  I've never been happier to be wrong.  Cheers to a wonderful 2022 to all.

To upset a Georgia or an Alabama, you need that transcendent quarterback talent (a Heisman winner, essentially).  As Georgia shows, you can get by with a regular dude if the roster is completely stacked, but even that defense got set on fire by ubermensch quarterback play.  
 

I think Michigan is getting back to the point where beating OSU and winning the conference is a realistic goal each season.  If they happen to win in the CFP, it will be on the back of a monster qb.  
 

OSU still has a big talent advantage but you can coach around it a bit since you can literally work on it all season, and I think Michigan did that perfectly this season.  That was MacDonalds whole purpose (hell, Harbaugh’s whole purpose)— call the game of his life in that OSU— and he did it beautifully. 

College football is, for me, all about rivalries, since the playing field for a national title is so comically uneven it’s fucking stupid.  Michigan finally won in the biggest one of those.  I don’t give two fucks about Georgia, and I don’t know if I’ve ever met an alumnus from there in my life.  OSU fans get to suck on this, and set their countdown clocks and whatever bullshit, for a whole year.  And I’d take that over any other win.  

Not complaining, the coaches did a great job this year, and it happens, but Georgia had a great game plan and we got out-coached in this game.  

When they had the ball, Georgia took away our edge rushers with screen passes, getting the ball out quickly to their playmakers.  They figured out how to get mismatches with their tight ends and running backs, for big chunk passing plays.  The second half was better, but we never really adjusted.  Having a quarterback who could hurt us with his legs also was key.

After getting punched in the mouth on the first drive, Harbaugh probably should not have gone for it on the second drive on 4th and 4 on about their 40.  A punt could have pinned them, and set up a field position battle that might have kept us close until we started to play better.  To me, four yards was too much, and perhaps showed premature desperation.  Georgia took it right down the short-ish field for their second score.

When WE had the ball, somehow we could NOT create mismatches or negate the strengths of the Dawgs defense.  Every time we tried that screen pass that worked so well against OSU and Iowa, they were ready for it.

Now, the recruiting disparity is obvious.  Still, I did not expect us to get dominated by their defense.  We have the 'best offensive line in the nation' three very good running backs, excellent tight ends, a developing group of receivers...everything except a fleet quarterback.  

Likewise, strictly from a talent perspective, our defense should not have been dominated by their offense.  We have the best pass rushing pair in the nation, and all of the other position groups are at least solid.  To me, this was the 'Georgia screen pass and wheel route' version of the 'OSU slant route' evisceration.

Again, it happens, and Georgia DOES have a ludicrous collection of athletes but their game plan was much better yesterday.

You've done some good shit, Brian. Thanks. 

This season was a resounding success. The next step has been achieved.   Next one is winning in Columbus.

I was satisfied going in. While watching that was infuriating and frustrating as the night wore on my anger subsided and appreciation for a terrific season came over me.

Last night reminded me of the ‘92 Rose Bowl. A very good Michigan team went up against a historically good defense and flopped. No shame in that.

Now take last night and use it as fuel. Keep that score in your head and use it as motivation to get better.

This game reminded me a bit of some past games like the Rose Bowls after the 1991 and 2006 seasons against that Emtman UW team and the loaded Carroll USC team. I guess every 15 years we get one of these? Or perhaps the FSU game as well in 1991. Where you can pick through various football related items but the overarching take is that the athleticism gap is so large it makes much of the football scheming and skills moot. 

For anyone who has played Jedi: Fallen Order, this game reminded me exactly of that game and how it ended. 

You spend all this time building yourself up, making yourself into a Jedi Knight, you come into the endgame earning your battle scars, knocking off some bad dudes and feeling like you’ve finally made something of yourself, you’re ready to rally the troops and potentially start the movement that will save the Jedi Order. And then…..

Boom. You run right into Darth Vader, and in the span of thirty seconds he reminds you of how small, powerless and insignificant you are, and how far to go you really have. 

It’s not a definitive ending that makes you say “fuck it all we’ll never get there,” but it’s a “holy shit we made a lot of ground but we just hit base camp and thought we hit the summit instead.”

This year was a big stepping stone, but we just hit base camp. The summit is another 15,000 feet to go, my friends. 

Sorry, it was a great year!

Yep. The CFB Playoffs is basically good ole boys club for Bama, Georgia, OSU and a few other sacrificial lambs or  whenever they have a generational QB (Oklahoma, LSU, Clemson, Florida State, Auburn, Florida). Michigan as a University is other things that just a football team. There is a larger purpose and many other endeavors the university wants to put their resources toward. 5 stars who run 4.3 40s don't grow on trees. There's only a handful and 90% take their three or four brain cells to Bama. It is what it is. Alabama blows as a state. You gotta have more brain activity them your average African Swallow to go to Michigan. The football team is about all Bama has and it's the primary maniacle focus there. They'll take anyone as long as they run real good and be strong. It's all that matters. Michigan won't ever be that.

"The way the year ended leaves a sour taste in your mouth, but in the same way eating chocolate does."

Perfect sentence. 

the many and diverse pleasures of the season up to that point do not go away. They remain there, eliminating annoying takes and bathing you in a warm feeling of reward, finally, for sticking around in whatever capacity you managed to. To better days.

Welcome back, Brian. We’ve missed you. 
 

That’s about all there is to say:

- GREAT season

- Bitter ending

- The haters are irrational white noise

Next year might be even better

Holy fuck people, we made the podium:                           Top 3 in all of college football.

We started the season unsure if we could make the top 3 in the Big Ten East. 

That is a GLORIOUS season.

Your short and succinct summary matched my feelings on the game, except I just had to make a 3 1/2 hour drive south to get there.  My wife (GA alum) hooked all of this up and I noticed we were sitting in row 28W.  I'm thinking W must mean wheelchair row, which are always nice seats as you don't have anyone in front of you.  

We get primed for the game over at the Stadium hotel and took the 5 minute shuttle to the stadium around 5pm.  We get dropped off near Fan-Fest and immediately see the MMB assembling to make their journey into the stadium.  We hung around there for a bit, which was really cool, and then made our way into the Stadium.  We grab a beer, go find our seats, and indeed "W" was the wheelchair row.  Guess who I have the privilege of sitting next to?  The legend Larry Prout Jr.! What a fine young man he is.  I'm thinking "me and Larry are going to be getting after it tonight and high-fiving all night long as we pound the Dawgs."  

The stadium looked great, the vibe was there, we won the coin toss and then the first play happened.  A simple run up the middle that didn't look like much, but it's now 2nd and 1.  I'm like "we don't let our opponent play in front the chains like that".  And then as fast as the ball was snapped, it was out of Bennett's hands for easy completions and chunk yardage plays.  That's how it went the rest of the night mixed in with a few dimes when they got Cook lined up on a LB.  All night long I kept hearing the PA guy saying, "2nd and 1", "2nd and 3", "3rd and 1", etc.   When we had the ball, we were behind the chains all night long.  

It was a tough game to be at as there was never anything to really cheer for after the coin toss.  As Brian stated, it was over after the first play of the game.  I was far more salty afterward than I told myself I was going to be if we lost.  The fact that we were just not competitive was the most disappointing thing.  That Georgia team is full of Dawgs (somewhat intended pun).  Athletic freaks all over the field.  I think they played with 12-13 guys on defense, at least that is what it felt like.  I fully expect them to beat Alabama this time.  

Still a great time down in Miami and an honor to sit next to Larry and his family for the game.  This team will go down as my favorite Michigan team of all time.  

A lot of players on this team learned a lot of good lessons. How to beat win big games on the road, how to beat OSU at home, that THEY can beat osu, how to win the B1G and that they CAN. And the guys who didnt play got to see the work it took from the guys ahead of them.

They also learned about some shortcomings they have. They learned how much more its going to take, how much better a team they were basically supposed to BE can actually play.

I think next years team will be good. Confidence levels will be high, that loss is gonna sting, hopefully they have a laser-like focus this off-season and come out firing next year.

The overall roster talent is still a ways a way but we have to get up to being more competitive with OSU more regularly if we want to make any sort of long lasting positive changes.

A great season, now to build upon it.  We know who we are on D & O, and we’ll see how our coaches & players build on this year.  Go Blue!

Thank You Brian. Onward!

Enjoy Miami, Brian. 

Despite the loss, I love feeling so much better about the team and the program than we all did a year ago - Go Blue!  〽️

Our blue uni's looked really cool on the big stage though.

I mean it.  Like really cool.

Every year we get at least one recruit because he likes the helmets.  This will add to that.

Congratulations to the team, the coaches and the program. Helluva season. You exceeded virtually everyone's expectations. 

That said I'm sure this loss stung. Hell, I'm sure it hurt like a bitch.

You know what? Forget about it. Seriously! Think about how far you've come. 

Again all possible congratulations.

Now to all the rest of us.

It was an ugly game. It was. But let us not get overly anally analytical. Let us not decry the recruiting issues or the supposed talent gap.

Yeah they got spanked by Georgia, but they never gave up, they never gave in, they never stopped fighting. To paraphrase Harbaugh, it's the start of the beginning. 

I'll say this and you can save it if you choose. The Michigan football program is back. In 5-7 years, assuming that Harbaugh continues as head coach, Michigan will win a national championship. 

honestly, i feel like this season was an MSU win from being the perfect season. When Georgia and Alabama weren't picked to play each other in the semi-final I new UM was finished for the year, but it didn't take anything away from the amazing season they had. Things are exponentially better than a year ago and improvement going forward seems like a real possibility when last year, it didn't. I'm a happy fan.