The Rest of College Football

[Dr. Strangelove]

You may be right and it's more Michigan sliding down...but give credit to Sparty and Dantonio. This is his third season of 10+ wins. They are a much, much better program than where they were under Bobby Williams and John L. Smith. Even, arguably, under Saban and the later Perles years.

One more good year under his belt and I'll feel pretty confident calling Dantonio their best coach since Daugherty. You might be able to even say that right now.

[THE_WIZARD_]

If Nebraska can pile up nearly 400 yards on Sparty in spite of 5 turnovers and only 18 minutes TOP then tOSU is gonna plie up 600 yards. It won't be close.

tOSU 41 Sparty 13

[Mike]

It could be worse. I present to you the 2013 Florida Gators.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05h49R4QX9U"]Gator teammates blocking each other vs Georgia Southern - YouTube[/ame]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hey ...... the guy still gained 15 yards on the play.

For Big Al, Garnder would have been sacked or Fitz would have been hammered for a loss!

Mike, have a good time at the game ...... dong punching, heart ripping, soul destroying game that it will be.

Glutton for punishment ...... but the food and friends will still be great.

I recommend your form of passive resistance will be to carry a large sign on a stick proclaiming Dave Brandon is an idiot or some such remark that won't get sensored (Like F... Brandon).

First chance you see a camera lens swing your way jump on up ... .and don't let Doug block the view.

[Mike]

I'm just in it for the tailgating at this point. Which, come to think of it, has been the best part of the Michigan football experience the past several years.

Oddly enough this is the first game I'll attend with a really bad disposition. I KNOW we'll get crushed. I'll have to listen to that goddamn Hang on Sloopy shit all day and probably leave early in the 3rd quarter. Hell, I might just wear all black like its a fucking funeral.

Even during the RR years I had some misplaced optimism every game. Like the team was an old beat up truck that never starts but one of these days we'd turn the key and that engine would roar. The 2010 game with little Tate running the show even proved to be somewhat engaging. There was a brief moment in the 3rd quarter when we made it 14-10 that I thought we just might pull it out. But this year? Nope. No hope. And when you don't even have hope to keep you going all that's left is booze. Fuck it. At least with the early start I can get home at a decent time and salvage my Saturday.

I actually thought about making a sign for the game and actually considered "Fuck Brandon" BECAUSE it would get me tossed. I kinda like this idea:

"This year it's a sign. Next year it's a torch".

A friend of mine wants me to take a sign that reads "Bring back Rich Rod" just for a huge slap in the face. Problem is, I don't want to be the one who gets slapped.

Other ideas are "We know our past is glorious, what about the present?" That sort of thing. But really I'd just like "Fuck Brandon" to be flown over the stadium all game. Or better yet, have a sky-writer do it.

The very fans that built that goddamn stadium and paid for its renovation are being driven away with an awful product and priced out of it even if they want to stay. I've never been flat-out disgusted with the Michigan football program in my life. It's like being married to the same woman for 30 years and then you find out she's fucking the mail man. This sucks.

[hack]

"This year it's a sign. Next year it's a torch".

That's excellent! But probably too many words for a sign? And also someone in the AD will interpret it as a threat and have you arrested.

Fuck Brandon is too wide-ranging and conceptual, IMO.

``Bring Back Rich Rod'' is what I'd go with. That says it all.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hey, Mike, I feel your pain.

For me, its probably a good idea to take a break next season. Besides, 2015 is shaping up as a Championship season!

....... and how many times now have I been dong punched with that sort of thinking? 2006 and counting. Maybe even 1997. Wow that is a frigging long time to suffer.

[lineygoblue]

I'll be at Ford Field watching HS ball during the game this year.

In years past, I'd have never considered missing my yearly date in front of the TV watching M v O.

I can't explain in here what I'm feeling, other than to say that I have just invested way too much emotional capital over the years, to sit and watch a red-filled Michigan Stadium cheer on the Schmucknuts on to another embarrassing win over Michigan. Its just way too painful.

Shoot, I nearly had a conniption fit when the 5 people that sat next to me for the entire 2005 season, sold their OlieO tickets to OlieO fans. It was one of the most miserable days I've ever spent in Michigan Stadium.

I have no hope for 2014 or beyond, either. If Hoke stays, what has he done to show there is hope for future seasons? If he can't get the offense to pick up positive yardage against teams that are struggling as much as Michigan is, what does that say about the future?

I'm not even sure that John Harbaugh bringing his entire Super Bowl staff to Ann Arbor could manage to fix the problems. The problems have 20+ year roots, started by a guy who had one foot in retirement, and the other in quicksand.

[Jeff Buchanan]

You're right where I was yesterday ........

If there ever was an unbiased observer regarding the future of M football (in fact he would be biased the other way), its talent.

Once you get rid of all the debris in the aftermath of game 11, its not all doom and gloom. Close but if talent can see the potential for improvement as an outsider looking in at the recruits/players coming up, that's a start.

A lot of my continued enthusiasm for M football will depend on what shakes out after the bowl game. After listening to every word, watching his body language, in Borge's presser, taped and not transcribed by anyone with a motivational bias to diss him, I don't think the players have given up or are not responding to his coaching. Mistakenly listening, maybe, but they're still apparently listening. Is he teaching correctly? Does not appear to be but we really can't know this with any degree of certainty only observational guesswork which tends to be inaccurate most of the time (see the often questionable value of eye witness testimony at trial when push comes to shove). All of us suffering fools on the inside, who have been drinking the Kool-aid for a long time, are terribly biased right now, me included.

I have some empathy for Borges. It would be nice if he came across as an arrogant dick-head. He doesn't. He's just a guy, it appears, trying hard to do a good job. He may not be up to it and I'm not saying he is but he's not a dick, that's for sure.

[hack]

For sure. He's an idiot but he's not an asshole. Even his `when they want to' quote comes off better on tape than if you just look at the words. I too doubt that the players are on the edge of revolt here. Nonetheless, he's got to go.

[iam416]

Michigan is moving in the right direction. There is a question as to whether they're moving fast enough and whether they'll reach the desired destination. That's what makes the ultimate decision re Hoke -- whether made now or in 2 or 4 years -- so difficult. Consistent 9-3/10-2 seasons, which I think are coming, are nice. But what if you're only in the B10 CG once every four years? I see it shaping up a bit like an Earle Bruce quandry or, if things go a bit better, a John Cooper quandry.

[hack]

I guess it depends on your starting point. 11-2 > 8-5 > whatever it is this year isn't the right direction. If you insist that the baseline of comparison is RichRod then you can say it's the right direction, but in truth the baseline should be LC's teams. IMO there's a big difference between 9-3 and 10-2, even. IMO we're not moving in the right direction until we're at a solid 9-3 level and moving forward from there. That was where the discussion was when RR was hired -- how do we make sure we're not stuck at the 9-3 level? Just because two hires were fucked up doesn't mean you suddenly have to make peace with that. If you want to make peace with that, then change nothing. They'll get to that, yes.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Michigan is moving in the right direction. There is a question as to whether they're moving fast enough and whether they'll reach the desired destination. That's what makes the ultimate decision re Hoke -- whether made now or in 2 or 4 years -- so difficult. Consistent 9-3/10-2 seasons, which I think are coming, are nice. But what if you're only in the B10 CG once every four years? I see it shaping up a bit like an Earle Bruce quandry or, if things go a bit better, a John Cooper quandry.

Man, that's a dicey quandry.

The difference between winning 10 games and winning 12 in the regular season is small.

I always felt Lloyd Carr didn't have it in him after '97. But he came close a couple of other times, 2005 and 2006 being two examples ..... but then there was Vince Young in 2005 (Jan., 2006 to be exact and that's when Lloyd died) and, oh yeah, the "cheating" going on in C-Bus in the 2006 regular season when..... for the first time in a long time...... osu and M clashed in The Game with both of them in the top 5.

Then there was this:



If Lloyd didn't get dong punched in the 2006 Rose, he did here.

Anyway, hard luck for Carr, a good guy overall.

...... and that's the way it is with Hoke. He's a good guy and the risk of finding a coach that can make a difference between getting 12 wins instead of 10 WITHOUT cheating, some creative corner cutting or saying something stupid that will embarrass the U is tough.

I think that's the way the deciders at M will look at it. They'll say Hoke is good enough given all the risks involved in advancing the program to a potentially elite status ...... and this is assuming that the deciders even WANT to play in that pool. I tend to think they don't. At least right now.

Things could change though if the President starts to see 70K in the stadium next season on national TV with Pussberger making the "huge" deal out of that we all know he will because he sure as hell can't broadcast a decent CFB game from start to finish.

[Hannibal]

Michigan is moving in the right direction. There is a question as to whether they're moving fast enough and whether they'll reach the desired destination. That's what makes the ultimate decision re Hoke -- whether made now or in 2 or 4 years -- so difficult. Consistent 9-3/10-2 seasons, which I think are coming, are nice. But what if you're only in the B10 CG once every four years? I see it shaping up a bit like an Earle Bruce quandry or, if things go a bit better, a John Cooper quandry.

No way is Hoke going to be in the CCG every four years. Maybe once a decade, at best. 10-2 is his absolute, hard ceiling. He'll get there maybe once a decade, unless he gest incredibly lucky like he did in 2011.

If he keeps Funk and Borges, I think that the decision will be easy next year. The offense will be even worse without Lewan and Schofield, and we'll be 7-5, at best. Book it.

[hack]

Truly true. If he doesn't make changes this year there's likely to be even bigger changes next year.