Michigan Football - 2025 Season.

[Mike]

This is #1 for me. And honestly, I don’t think there’s a close second.

[Hannibal]

This one ranks maybe #10 for me. I said before the game that I was feeling weirdly indifferent to it. 1997 Michigan is my #1, with 1997 Red Wings not far behind. '96 Michigan hockey might be third. '84 Tigers and '08 Red Wings are in there for me too. 1997 Penn State and 2021 Ohio State are my sentimental favorites for best singular win of all time.

Sports have changed to where it's a lot harder, for me at least, to form emotional bonds to teams. Years of getting treated like shit by the people who run the sports will do that. That and, in MIchigan's case, 20 years of my heart getting repeatedly ripped out of my chest. Eventually you learn how to be numb, but that numbness dulls the highs too. Even this year, all of the "sign gate" stuff felt like the other shoe dropping like it always does.

[lineygoblue]

I saw the '69 win over Ohio State, and I think that's always going to be #1 for me. Michigan was given absolutely no chance to win that game, and they not only won, but dominated the 'more talented' team. Woody went insane, and that made it even better.

I still treasure Michigan's 1997 NC game in the top five that I've seen. That, along with the game at Penn State in '97 were very special.

This year's team was absolutely relentless. Games that I figured they'd lose, they won, and even domiinated. They found a way to beat everyone on their schedule, and they did it with toughness and grit, something that had left the program at the end of the Carr regime. It was great to see. This NC is even better than '97, IMO.

And Blake Corum is going to have a great future. Not just on the playing field, but in life in general. That's a well-rounded young man. His parents raised him well. I'm going to miss seeing him on the playing field for Michigan, but somehow, I don't think he'll ever be too far away from the program. He'll stay in close touch.

[Mike]

Hannibal, you could depress a bride on her wedding day.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I think your greatest moment was 1948...

::::perplexed::::

[lineygoblue]

I think your greatest moment was when you were still a zygote.

[THE_WIZARD_]

cogent

[THE_WIZARD_]

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[Mike]

Between the Rose Bowl and the Championship Game I'd thought about all the soul-sucking losses that I've witnessed in person. The first one was OSU in 2001 which is the only game I ever went to with both my dad and brother. Little did we know at the time but the Big Ten hierarchy was about to change. I was there again in a soggy drizzle in 2007 to watch us get held to 88 total yards of offense. The 2008 NW game in the worst weather I've ever experienced at a football game to watch Michigan lose and fall to 3-8 thus clinching the most losses ever in a single season of Michigan football. The splat that our TE made when he dove for an impossibly catchable overthrow on our last gasp play might be the saddest sound I've ever heard. The next season I was at MSU to witness the magic of our savior, Tate Forcier, lose to the Spartans in OT. And on it went. I moved away for a bit and returned mid-Hoke. Went to the 2013 OSU game when Devin Gardner rallied us on one foot from down 14 in the 4th quarter only to come up short on a potential game-winning 2 point try.

Then on December 30, 2014 one of my childhood heroes was hired to lead us back to greatness and I don't think there's a single fan who didn't believe it would NOT happen. At the time. But... two steps forward, one step back. I was at "trouble with the snap" against MSU in a game I never dreamt could be outdone in the disappointment department. Turns out it only took one year (!) as I traveled to the Shoe in 2016 for a #2 vs. #3 showdown with the Buckeyes for the 2015 MSU game to be "topped".

The next time we traveled to Columbus was another 2 vs. 3 matchup but this time Michigan was favored by a TD on the heels of a 10 game winning streak. Somewhere on the way to OSU scoring 62 points my dad got up and said "I've seen enough" and just left. LOL. Like just walked out of the house, got in his car and left. 2018 was when I gave up. We didn't get together for the 2019 bludgeoning. Everyone had seen enough.

2020 should have been the end. For whatever reason, and I'm sure there are many, Harbaugh managed to keep his job. He probably didn't have any other options but he should have been fired anyway. Right around that time a 17 year-old recruit tweeted this:

He was apparently the new savior and was keeping the recruiting class together and saying all the right things. That's cute, I thought. Since that time Michigan is 40-3 and 27-1 with JJ McCarthy as the starter. What this group did is nothing short of amazing. And they're good people, too.

People obviously have different perspectives on these types of events. For me, it simply begins with Michigan football being my favorite sports team. Even though I convinced myself in 2018 that they would never win a championship or beat OSU when they were at a high level, I still watched and enjoyed it the best I could. I've seen a few stories on the news of people traveling to the playoff games and when asked how/why they became Michigan fans the #1 answer was "watching the Rose Bowl with my dad as a kid" or some variation. Same for me (which is kind of weird since we lost damn near all of them). My dad wasn't around to see this one, he was lost suddenly and unexpectedly in 2020. So the fact that Michigan's route to the National Championship went through the Rose Bowl made it all the more special. I think most can agree that while beating Alabama in say, the Peach Bowl, would have been awesome as well, the Rose Bowl elevated it.

Now my 2 boys are reaching the age where they're getting into it which has made this run even more enjoyable. One's favorite player is Roman Wilson and the other's is Blake Corum. Roman puts out a "gameday vlog" each week of the season which shows his prep/routine, etc. followed by the game highlights. Apparently the kids at school are all over it, too. They'll be playing in another room and you'll here them doing Gus Johnson calls! "INTERCEPTED! ROD MOORE! AND MICHIGAN WILL WIN THE GAME!!" And so the pattern repeats. I had Jim Harbaugh, Jamie Morris, John Kolesar. They have Wilson, Corum, and JJ. And on January 1, 2024 we gathered as a family and watched in shocked euphoric amazement as the Michigan Wolverines defeated the gold standard of college football in Pasadena's Rose Bowl while the sun set on the San Gabriel mountains. And it was glorious.

On December 30, 2014 a dear friend of mine came over with a bottle of Macallan 12 and a couple cigars to celebrate our inevitable dynasty. He was at my watch party Monday night, too. Of course, by now our viewing party has grown since the old days. I let the kids stay up for it. All of it. And some time after the game ended and the kids were asleep and things calmed down he goes out to his car and brings in a bottle of Macallan 12. The SAME bottle we opened 9 years and 9 days prior. This time, however, our next pour went into rocks glasses that read "Michigan, back-to-back-to-back Big Ten Champions, 13-0 Undefeated Season".

So those games I chronicled up top? Don't mean a thing to me. The pain is erased. Every miserable second was worth it.

[lineygoblue]

Great post, Mike

[Jeff Buchanan]

I have hesitated to state, "erased" because the pain of "the shoe dropping," the next dong punch"..... these things a Michigan football tradition, maybe not erased but gloriously replaced with "we are the champions," ...... of the west, the victors valiant has never been lost on me. It's been realized.

[lineygoblue]

I'm ready to accept whatever setback that '24 brings. So much talent is leaving, and that's not replaced overnight at Michigan. Other teams have USB players, but not us. Its going to take some good moves in recruiting and in the portal to get things back into championship caliber again. But its been a fun ride these last 3 years. Lots of great memories. And now I'll have a bunch of former Michigan players heading into the NFL that I can root for. I'll always like Blake, JJ, Sainristil, and the others no matter who they play for. And I'll always be a Harbaugh fan no matter whom he coaches for.

[edindetroit]

I saw the '69 win over Ohio State, and I think that's always going to be #1 for me. Michigan was given absolutely no chance to win that game, and they not only won, but dominated the 'more talented' team. Woody went insane, and that made it even better.

The full game is on YouTube

[edindetroit]

This NC is even better than '97, IMO.

Way better.

[THE_WIZARD_]

What about 1948? Hell liney was a wee lad of just 21 then...