Let Us Never Speak of the Shortcut Again

(AP Photo/Tony Ding)

From Episode [2F01] "Itchy and Scratchy Land"

It's a win.  Let us not lose sight of that.  It may have been ugly, it may have been undeserved, it may have been, in the words of AP reporter Larry Lage "The worst win in Michigan's history", but it still counts as one, still leaves Michigan in the ranks of the undefeated, and still puts Michigan halfway to bowl eligibility.

But as I was typing this, Brady Hoke's postgame speech from the locker room was released on MGoBlue.com (as posted by MGoVideo for embedding purposes, with our thanks!)

He wrote the column for me.  Yes, you won. Wow, there's a lot of things to work on.  Man does frustrated Brady Hoke sound like Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker.

That said, in 2010, after the scare from UMass, I wrote this:

It was a win.  The gap between "survives upset bid" or "gets a scare from an FCS school" and losing is a chasm visible from space.  We've been on the other side of that chasm, or perhaps more accurately at the bottom of it.  Michigan won on a day when they didn't play well. 

Yes, it was more tense than it should have been.  Yes, it's annoying, especially after the Notre Dame game had us, as fans, dreaming of Pasadena or more.  But it's an early season hiccup, one hopefully that will provide lessons which will be learned.  No one promises 55-7 routs, no one promises easy victories.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't want those things, it just means you need to recalibrate your expectations and understand that sometimes things like this happen.  You work to get better for next week, and the next week, and the next week, because it means something to you.  You have a right to be unhappy, but only if you do something about it.  This is more difficult for fans, because they can only cheer and hope and root.  They can't practice harder this week, clean up the fundamentals, work on the decision making.  But the players can, the coaches can, and that's what you're left to hope for in this case.  That they do learn the lesson here and take it to heart.

On the road to East Hartford, where we hope for better days.