Whatever Comment Count

Brian

1/1/2018 – Michigan 19, South Carolina 26 – 8-5, end of season

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[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

I don't know how people get mad about this shit still. I just turn off, because for the last decade Michigan football has been either a disappointment or in a brief interim period that sets you up to be disappointed. But yes many many people still get fucking furious about Michigan football for some reason.

I'm tired of talking about it. I'm tired of this cycle that always seems to be at the bottom. I'm tired of this toxic-ass fanbase screaming at stuff. I could muster some takes, I guess, but I've already said them and anyway they seem beside the point. December was nice since it lacked football. 2018, so far, is bad because it had football.

In a situation like that I'd rather not talk about football. Especially because I have nothing left to say. Maybe it'll be better next year. Maybe it won't. Either way it's a meaningless distraction on the way to the grave. Eat at Arby's.

Comments

mgobaran

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^

Michigan was Clemsoning before anyone knew there was a college named Clemson. Our fanbase proclaimed National success while focusing on, striving for and celebrating regional victories.

Right now our fanbase has national title expectations out of a program that isn't on the same level of it's inter-divisional rivals, and hasn't been in 14 years. We have spikes of success, and failure between while our rivals have had sustained success with blips of bad. 

A realist would look at 10-3, 10-3, 8-5 and see it as the best 3-year stretch since 2002 thru 2004. Realize that Harbaugh is building a program back up and that stability is number 1. The returns so far have been good, IMO. Building towards greatness. Our goals, and hopes, and expectations are not far away, but they are also not obtainable, yet. I think 2018 is a year too soon still, but has the ability to be amazing. A lot of things have to go our way though. 

uminks

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^

Carr had two 4 loss seasons before winning the NC in his 3rd season. Harbaugh lost his starting QB. His backup QB JOK never performed well on the field and he had to start Peters for the first time without an experience WR core. I still think we should have beaten uSC but once again TO caused the wheels to come off this team.

mgobaran

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

Carr also took over a program that was stable, replacing a coach who was fired more for off the field issues than results on them. Harbaugh took over a program that eroded into a shell of itself, and had the added weight of two seperate failed restorations. 

SagNasty

January 2nd, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^

My only issue with this is that Peters is Harbaugh’s guy. He looked horrible yesterday and i didn’t see enough from him this season to give me confidence he is the guy that can get Michigan to a championship. Hopefully Patterson or mccaffery are much better.

MGrad

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^

It doesn't suit you. Analogous to the program, you have surely had many better literary and analytical days than this. Clear your head and improve on the next podcast.

ArthGuinness

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:06 PM ^

I don't believe Harbaugh is perfect, but his history is that of a decent coach and I trust he will make some appropriate changes.

People are frustrated because that second half sucked more than anything since App State. Bad plays happen. Rarely do we see the cluster of crap we saw in the span of about 20 minutes. Fumbling 3 yards from another TD? Handoff to a TE? Punt return off a facemask? It's frustrating. Let the people vent for a little while.

remdog

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^

About sports in general and Michigan football in particular. Harbaugh's a very good coach, even with the disappointments so far. Will he be great? I don't know. I guess u have to win a championship. But there are so many random variables, many which he has little to no control over. There's so much luck and randomness in recruiting and in games. Only a couple coaches (Saban and Meyer) have been able to hit the greatness level by landing at spots where recruiting gives them a huge advantage.

In the end, it's just a game. And a game that depends on random bounces of a ball for just a few hours on a few days a year. Don't read too much into it.

huntmich

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^

Michigan finished the last two seasons ranked in the top 12. We all knew this season was going to be mediocre, and it ended up being a little worse than expected. Everyone needs to step back from the fucking ledge.

Ed Shuttlesworth

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^

The "structural problem" with the offense is that it's completely primitive in philosophy.   I'd be far more optimistic about the future if that wasn't the case, but unfortunately it is.

If Al Borges and Brady Hoke had run that ridiculous play in a bowl game, they'd still be referred to as "Tight End Dive" on this blog well into the 22nd century.  And the real problem with the play is that it's entirely what you'd expect an offense with this philosophy to think of as all "gadgety," which they pretty clearly do.

If this offensive staff comes back intact next year, with the same philosophy, there are no grounds for optimism at all and it will clearly be "whatever" time.

socalwolverine1

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^

It was weird, when the ball clanked off of DPJ's face mask and one-hopped into the arms of the South Carolina player, my instant response was to start laughing uncontrollably... and that continued unabated for about a minute. I have to admit, it was cathartic ("providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions").

Mercury

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^

Lately, I don’t like coming on here after a loss. Which I really hate, because it’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing for a long time now. But to me, the majority of the fanbase has basically been sounding an awful lot like your average Pawl F-bomb caller recently.



That game (and especially the second half) was disappointing. And if it was a bunch of upper-classmen that turned the ball over, I would be more upset. But no, it was mostly young guys who turned it over. I’m sure they feel terrible about it. I just can’t get all that upset. Those second half turnovers is why we lost. All the griping about coaching is overdone. No they didn’t call a perfect game. But they didn’t turn the ball over. (Ok, sure you can blame the TE run on them, but to be fair, Harbaugh owned up to that one)

Goblueman

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^

Brian & other AA based media types who cover Mich generally paint a overly rosy view of Mich football (on the field & recruiting) which contributes to  an unrealistic expectation level in the minds of most fans. The team fails to meet those expectations and suddenly the fan base is toxic.It's a frequent pattern around here going back decades.How about an objective assessment of the team? How about we stop saying every low rated recruit is a sleeper who only JH & company recognize?How about an honest look at JH's FB-TE centric offense that, in my opinion,is easy to defend and requires a large talent advantage to succeed.How about asking why JH continues to pound 2 smallish RB's between the tackles instead of getting them into space?  Go back and look at all those 10 win preseason predictions.The reasonable expectation for this very young team was 8 wins or so.Stop blaming fans and provide a more objective analysis of Mich.....

stmccoy

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

Not sure where you expect to find anything as in depth and/or “objective” as what you get here. You can have in depth or truly objective but you can’t have both. This blog makes calls using metrics they don’t devise. I’ve never seen any rosy predictions around here.

Coldwater

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^

Brian, I guarantee you care even if you say you don’t. Your life, your profession, everything about you is wrapped up in Michigan football. You care. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be doing this for a living

taistreetsmyhero

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

to retain relevancy in the modern landscape of college football slip out of reach.



Pretty much everyone’s take when Harbaugh game was that he will bring us to glory, and if he can’t, nobody can. Pretty much every Harbaugh fan now is still saying “He’s still our only shot at glory.”



And it’s looking less and less likely that he can pull it out. I’m no longer mad, I’m just sad.

nappa18

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

I love Michigan football and have since 1988. Have agonized over many tough losses, including Colorado 1994, Ohio, 2006, 2016, MSU 2015, etc etc etc.

But let’s be real, for the foreseeable future capped when Harbaugh’s contract ends, we most likely won’t be on the elite level such as Bama, Ohio, Georgia, etc. For reasons too many to detail here. Still can be many exhilarating moments.

Let’s all breathe.

Thank you Brian.

mgobaran

January 2nd, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^

That statement hasn't been true since 2003. Michigan is far from the program that continually reloaded like the conference stallwarts, Ohio St. Wisconsin and MSU. Harbaugh is still building that, and then we will reclaim our spot as 1a/1b with Ohio St.

mgobaran

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^

2006 it was true for 1 year, but the year before and year after were bad. 2011 it was true is OSU held up it's end of the bargain, but the year before and year after were bad. 

Michigan is not a consistent powerhouse program at this time, and stating things like "Michigan should compete for the B1G year in and year out" is a farce. No one believed we would win the conference in the 2015 or 2017 preseasons. 

Also, it's hardly possible. Last year a third team went to the title game because of the Mich/OSU result. This division has 3/4 teams who will compete every single year. No longer with Michigan and Ohio St. be the only deciding factor, and our fan base needs to mature beyond that thinking. 

PeteM

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^

I know there are some reasonable complaints above, but Brian's post pretty much reflected where I'm coming from emotionally.  Even though the Outback Bowl was not what we were hoping for, I was looking forward to (and more to the point -- expected to) starting off 2018 on a postive note, and it wasn't to be.  I think that it's reasonable to step back a little bit, get some perspective and then inevitably get excited again for Spring practice etc rolls around.  No doubt things need to get better from the all various position groups, coaching position etc. mentioned in the comments above, and one of Michigan's strengths is its passionate fanbase, but we also have to sometimes acknowledge sports isn't just about effort, ability and preparation -- it can also be flukey.  A couple of plays go differently in the 2nd half and we win (and yes, we benefitted from some luck in the 1st half).  I'm not excusing the issues we have but to me that record of the last 3 years includes not just this year's disappoinments, and also most 2015 and 2016. 

turbo_22

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

Michigan "fans" are the worst. It wasn't a great season, no. But I'm still a lot happier and excited about the future of the program than I have been for the last decade. Our offense sucked this year. Plain and simple. It will get better next year with a better QB (either Peters or Patterson) and more experience. I still think Harbaugh's cardinal sin was going 10-2 in his first year. If he'd taken the team from 4-8 to 6-6, then to 8-4 everybody would be praising the progress. You don't start putting college coaches (especailly one you pined over like Harbaugh) on the hot-seat after a few years. Any smart football fan should realize that a college that changes coaches without giving them at least 5 years to sort their shit out are going to fail (and I would argue that a guy like Harbaugh gets a longer leash than that). Anyways, on to the off-season and looking foward to next. Go Blue!

KC Wolve

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^

See, this is bullshit. Michigan fans aren’t “the worst”. They aren’t the best either. They are just fans like any other school. Mostly no better, mostly no worse. When a team isn’t playing well or in M’s case not for a long while, fans get upset or apathetic. This happens to every fan base. Do you honestly believe that if Alabama or OSU had a few season in a row like M has had, that their fan bases wouldn’t be “the worst”? Win games and fans will be happy and positive. Lose games and fans will be the opposite. This is such a dumb and lazy argument.

growler4

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

This blog post typifies why, over the years, my impression of you is that you likely are a total ass. 

In fairness, we've never met ... and I doubt seriously that I'll go out of my way to alter that status.

You operate a blog and rely on income generated by readership, and you come up with crap like this that offers nothing to your readerhip and, in fact, insults your readership in a rather petulent and immature manner.

If this is the best effort with which you can deliver, perhaps you should consider selling the blog to someone else and finding something else to do with your life.

mjv

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

The MGo Search function isn't working for me so I can't go back and check for a discussion about this, but why were Bredeson and JBB weren't dressed? 

The MLive link below indicates that Bredeson was known for a few weeks and JBB was for undisclosed reasons.  Are these public knowledge, should we assume these are grade related, or something else?

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2018/01/michigan_notes_offens…

 

buddha

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

Not sure what to say. Admittedly, I only watched portions of yesterday's game, and what I saw was not very impressive. On the same token, I've only watched portions of this season and - similarly - what I have seen has not been very impressive.

I really don't know what the solution is. I don't pretend to be a football expert; so I'll leave it up to those people "in the know" to share and offer their opinions.

Having said that, the troubling and consistent trend for UM football over the past several years is self destruction. Save the first OSU game and this year's PSU game, UM has beat themselves in most of their losses. Mental mistakes (MSU). Turnovers (USC, MSU, and OSU). Poor coaching decisions (MSU and OSU). Questionable game planning and preparation (Iowa and FSU).

It would be one thing if UM was simply being out-talented by opponents, in which case the solution(s) are - in my opinion - easier: recruit better, scheme better, etc. It's entirely different if the issue is mental.

It's not easy to clean up and fix issues that exist between the ears. Unlike an improved bench press, better squat, or more precise route, resiliency is difficult to develop, manage, and sustain. It requires an entirely different kind of strength and one that simply seems to be lacking on our team...and - in contrast - our two primary rivals: OSU and MSU seem to have these attribute in spades.

Next year is going to be a major challenge for this program. My expectations - from a record standpoint - really don't matter. Personally, I find records to be somewhat overvalued and overinflated, unless you are playing for a playoff spot. Instead, I'd just like to see them play better. Meaning, stop the mental errors. Stop beating ourselves. If we can do that - and we still lose - c'est la vie. This is a game afterall, and sometimes you lose.

AA2Denver

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^

This season sucked, but folks need to chill. We had the youngest team in the country, '15 recruiting was a transition cycle and we saw the effects of it this season. We all knew Ulizio starting spoke volumes about the OL. Starting QB went down early, etc. I predicted 4-5 losses before the season began, knew it was a rebuilding year and many of you predicted the same thing. 

Next years offense will be much better from a talent perspective. 

OL: Bredeson-Filiaga-Ruiz-Onwenu-Hudson

Four top 100 recruits and a guy at right tackle that has had a lot of recent practice hype. Maybe it's better, but I don't think worse. 

WR: loaded

TE: loaded

QB: If Shea, then loaded, if not then I think McCaffery starts.

RB: very good.

Defense: loaded across the board. 

 

 

Sopwith

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^

where does the disappointed but still all-in Michigan fan go to get some insight into the game? I have seriously never spent any time over on other sites, but in the absence of someone giving a shit here... suggestions?

Yeah, maybe this is strictly a Lost Cause (tm). But it's my preferred Lost Cause. My parents were taking me to the Big House when I was a baby still crapping my diapers, so, yeah, life kinda chose which hill I was going to die on from day one. I'll probably be there at the end, age 100, crapping diapers again as our OL still hasn't figured it out, and I'm fine with it. Circle of Life. Might have been fun to live life as a lion in Tuscaloosa or even stinking Columbus, but I was born into something more like a shorter-than-average giraffe: not a predator but not an easy kill, superb at low hanging fruit when my pedigree suggests I should be able to reach the higher stuff. I can't. 

I know many if not most of us would rather not fall in with company that Teddy R called "those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat...or say 'whatever.'" There are hundreds of thousands of stupid sons of bitches in Chicago who grew up, lived, died, and had kids that lived and died at a normal age and never tasted real winning. Until they did.

I'll still be at the home opener this year and every year, the only question is whether I'll still wearing my stupid fucking Brian Cook photobomb shirt like every year because I like signaling to other MGoBloggers who might notice and say "MGoBlog!!"  

So I don't know, man. Does Maize 'n Brew have a quirky shirt? 

"Whatever" can go fuck itself. Michigan Football Forever.

Now about that handoff to McKeon... holy piss on a popsicle.

 

 

 

Funchessoffun

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^

That's unfortunate that you are the face of the toxic fan base.
UM's inevitably great future and MSU's inevitable downfall were super important to you for years. Maybe just to keep getting traffic and rally the fanbase around you. Ie "Sparty No!"

Now they dont matter.

I suppose people can change over ten years, hopefully at least you suck less at making predictions.

mgoblog.com/content/sparty-no

mgoblog.com/content/spartans-your-profession-loser

uncleFred

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^

Back at the end of 2014 when we knew that Hoke was gong to be gone, any reasonable fan expected it would take at least 4-5 years to right the program. So many things to fix. The culture of the team, restoring a national reputation to compete for top recruits, rebuilding depth, getting a consistent offensive and defensive scheme so that experience was valuable. Then Michigan hired Harbaugh. Who in a matter of weeks drove the program back to national visibility, and immediately started competing for top talent. He shook the program out, and changed the culture in the first few days of spring camp. He found a QB, two actually, seemingly out of nowhere. Then he went and won ten games, and most of us simply forgot our 4-5 year expectations. 

This season was the result of bad luck and the restoration of reality to the timeline. It doesn't always take 4-5 years. Sometimes the team get lucky, with injuries, with recruiting, and missing depth is never needed and a team can bounce back so quickly it's like it never stumbled. Other times the team is unlucky, the breaks go wrong, recruiting sours at the last minute, and the new coach never starts to turn the corner and the team spends another 3-5 years with the next new coach looking for the answer.

If you want to be disappointed be disappointed in the team's luck. Before the season we all talked here about how we had to be lucky with Oline injuries because there was no depth. Three Olinemen out yesterday. We were unlucky with QB injuries, and Peters in his FIFTH start, didn't have a great game. Had this season come two years from now, the odds are that the depth to mitigate the injuries would have been there.

There is no reason not to believe that Peters can get a lot better by next season or that Patterson will be eligible, pick up the offense and be a better QB, or that someone else will win the QB competition. There is no reason not to believe that the Oline will get healthy and continue to improve and that this year's young guys will mature enough to provide needed depth.

Michigan is NOT a mediocre program. It is a program crawling out from under a down cycle caused by neglect and poor hiring at the head coaching and AD positions. Neglect has ended, and the hiring mistakes corrected. Now we need to wait for the timelines to mature. Harbaugh, may not get the corner turned, I think he will but no one knows, but it's two or maybe three years to early to make that call. 

esanch

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^

If it takes that many paragraphs to explain why Michigan is not a mediocre program, Michigan is probably a mediocre program.

Then again, you were the guy that said Michigan had some down years because they deemphasized winning. The winningest football program of all time all of a sudden decided they didn't want to win anymore, right?

uncleFred

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:16 PM ^

Not that they didn't still expect to win. If you are an alumnus, then you most likely experienced the disdain that some faculty and administrative personnel felt towards the football program. They were in the minority, but still present. Priorities shift as factions gain or lose control or influence. "Football will be fine it's Michigan", and it was until it wasn't.  

I tend to be long winded. Which contributes to length of my comments at least as much as the amount of information I wish to express. So perhaps I'm just a mediocre commenter. However, in the endless angst of disappointment here, people tend to ignore the reality of how the program got here. Some reminders require more than a couple of lines of text.

One common definition of mediocre is "of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate." There are around 125 D-1 FBS football programs, so a reasonable boundary for mediocre would be ranked between say 68-61. How many of those won 28 games in the last three seasons? This season's team turned in a less than mediocre performance for a University of Michigan football team. Measured it against the entirety of the FBS and it exceeded mediocrity. The reason we consider 8-4 or 10-3 mediocre is because we are measuring them against an elite standard. The fact that we and most of the football world measures them against that standard, indicates that Michigan's program is expected to be elite. It is, as I said before, an elite program that is digging out of a down cycle.  

NateVolk

January 2nd, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^

22,21 >19.

When Michigan has yearly junior/senior depth with roughly the same NFL draft watch list depth as last year, Michigan will be what everyone wants it to be.

This year it wasn't even close to the prior two years. The season was spent trying to win with teenagers in an upperclassmen dominated sport.

I was a fan before, am a fan now, and will be a fan later when this coach builds that program. DPJ was more right in that tweet than many want to face.

But here's the deal: The above doesn't guarantee anything. It's just the price of having a chance every year. It seems like the source of the anger is a bunch of people who want to have some sort of guarantee about things. But other schools play football and play it well and they are on the schedule every year.

If you thought this team, going into the year had more than a luck chance to win the league on par with either of the prior two Michigan teams, you were flat kidding yourself. You're ignorant to college football reality. 

22,21 >19 is why I wasn't mad yesterday. This year the game was being played like a knife at a gun fight with all these younger players.

And I can shoot holes in every equivalency you'll make with any other program supposedly kicking ass with the same roster depth as Michigan. I can do it under 2 minutes per program with a quick google search and common sense. So don't bother. 

Learn some reasonable patience and face reality. 

 

Jibbroni

January 2nd, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^

I agree. We are young, and that too is why I am not overwhelmed with anger from yesterdays game. I would however challenge you to disqualify the season that MSU just had after a tumultuous offseason and having to start alot of freshman and sophomores in key positions. At some point this program has to start by focusing on "beating" them first. As much as everyone doesnt want to admit, we need to start from square one.