Won't Get Fooled Again

The Stripe Out worked pretty well (Michigan Photography)

Change, it had to come

We knew it all along

We were liberated from the fold, that's all

And the world looks just the same

And history ain't changed

'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

--"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, the lead single from their 1971 album Who's Next.

It was always going to be like this.  There was no possibility it would be any different.  When you have watched enough football, you know that if you keep leaving the door open to a team, to a program, that thrives on making you pay for leaving that door open, you might fail.

We can argue that this is karma.  We can argue that Tim Lester avenged his alma mater.  We can say that this is just a fitting Final Destination-style fate, served up slightly sooner than perhaps this kind of thing shows up.  But let us not lose sight of this: it took a remarkable number of breaks going Iowa's way on that final drive to put themselves in position to win it at the horn.

But the result of this game was not just the events of the final drive.  It was Michigan not finishing drives on offense (a failed 4th and 1 where I really want to question the choice for Bryce to jump the pile when about three other things might work, the red zone interception); it was kicking off to an Iowa return man and never touching him; it was killing drives with penalties, AGAIN.  This game was not lost on the last drive or the last play; it was lost by a thousand cuts over the course of the previous 59:58.

That said, the final drive was spectacular and novelistic.  There were a couple of times when Michigan was inches away from a game-sealing interception.  Iowa kept getting passes caught off tips; how does that happen?  Michigan broke up an Iowa pass on third and 12 from Iowa's 40, only to see Zeke Berry get called for a late hit out of bounds.  Iowa then threw two straight incompletions to set up 3rd and 10 from the Michigan 45.  Iowa got it down to the Michigan 16 with two seconds left when John Henry Daley went down with an injury, stopping the clock.  Daley doesn't go down; Iowa can't spike the ball, so they're running a fire-drill final play, and maybe they get it, but no, Iowa essentially got a timeout to call its best play, and to their credit, executed it perfectly.  Iowa wins 20-19, and Michigan is left only to lament what might have been.

The sad thing is that the general consensus was that Michigan looked better than it had in any of the three previous games.  Sometimes, the other team just gets a couple of breaks that seem utterly ridiculous in the moment, but it's confirmation bias.  We tend to overlook "luck" for our preferred teams because that's just supposed to happen that way.  Michigan lost a game, a game where they had a 92.7% post-game win expectancy according to SP+.   Brush it off, get ready for a Minnesota team that looks a little better than expected, and retain the Jug.  That's all you can do.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 19-20 is NOT a Scorigami!  It happened in 1957 Illinois.
• 111,126 attended the game, the 64th-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.
• Michigan moves to 45-16-4 all-time against the University of Iowa.
• Michigan moves to 10-2-0 all-time on September 26, the other loss being against 1959 Missouri.
• Michigan moves to 14-5-1 when scoring exactly 19 points (the most recent 19-point effort was 2022 Illinois, which is the Money Moody game).
• Michigan moves to 26-20-1 all-time when allowing 20 points to the opposition (This is the first time Michigan has allowed 20 points in a game since...2025 Maryland).
• Michigan has lost 26 games all-time by exactly 1 point, most recently in the 2016 Orange Bowl against Florida State.

The Seeker

Tommy Carr's first career TD pass was great, but Salesi Moa's catch was even better (Rachel Leggett)

I'm looking for me

You're looking for you

We're looking at each other

And we don't know what to do

They call me the seeker

I been searchin low and high

I won't get to get what I'm after

Till the day I die

"The Seeker" by The Who from their 1970 single of the same name.

There's not a whole lot to say about a game where, if the quarter scores were reversed, there would be even less to say.  Michigan looked middling to start, had a couple of costly turnovers, got burned by a clever play design on 3rd and 1 to lead to UTEP's first touchdown and just got beat on a sudden change play for UTEP's second score.  Beyond that, Michigan's defense, when it stopped stalling out, started to look as promised, though clearly harmed by the loss of yet another offensive line starter for the game.  But whatever adjustments were made at halftime clearly worked, as Michigan set forth a 28-point outburst in the third quarter, capped off by an end-of-quarter Jonah Lea'ea thicc six. The other highlight was Salesi Moa's touchdown reception in the fourth, providing Tommy Carr with his first career touchdown pass (he looked good, but the backup QB is always extremely popular, more so when he's the grandson of a pair of program legends.  Tom Curtis was a consensus All-American and a College Football Hall of Famer, and he owns Michigan's career record for interceptions; he's a Michigan legend.)

This game should have been perfunctory, and it wasn't until it was. Michigan will not be able to sleepwalk through B1G games in the first half if they want to win, and I am hoping that they can learn the correct lessons from this game, because Iowa is on the horizon next week and every goal is still on the table, even if it was a moderately ugly way to arrive here after three weeks.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 52-17 is NOT a Scorigami!  It has happened two previous times: 1995 Minnesota and 2022 Rutgers.
• Win 1,024 (2^10 wins!)
• 110,698 were "in attendance" for the game (the forecast for rain dampened turnout), the 97th-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.
• Michigan moves to 1-0-0 all-time against the University of Texas El Paso.
• Michigan moves to 8-0-0 all-time on September 19, all eight games in Ann Arbor.
• Michigan moves to 14-0-0 when scoring exactly 52 points (the most recent 52-point effort was 2023 Indiana).
• Michigan moves to 39-16-2 all-time when allowing 17 points to the opposition (This is the first time Michigan has allowed 17 points in a game since...2025 New Mexico).
• Michigan has won 23 games all-time by precisely 35 points, the most recent examples being the 2018 Rutgers game and the 2022 Rutgers game.

Eminence Front

A walk-off sack is a pretty neat ending.  (Rachel Leggett)

It's an eminence front

It's an eminence front, it's a put on

It's a put on, it's a put on, it's a put on

Come and join the party, dressed to kill

Won't you come and join the party dressed to kill?

 --"Eminence Front" by the Who, the second single from their 1982 album It's Hard

I want to be clear: I did not expect this.  I allowed myself to hope it was possible; Oklahoma had offensive challenges, Michigan's defense was a net positive against Western Michigan last week, and it's college football in Week 2; nothing is set in stone.  But knowing that, given the nature of last week's finish, the holiday weekend discourse cycle leading to a sense that the college football world wanted nothing more than to see the Sooners turn Michigan into a fine nutritive paste, it seemed like the universe was going to extract its pound of flesh to pay Michigan back, Final Destination style, for surviving last week.

But it's college football, not a karmic ledger.  As much as we might try to ascribe that role to it.

After Oklahoma and Michigan traded punts, Michigan looked to have a three-and-out, only to get dinged with a running-into-the-kicker call, but still got off the field, only to be pinned inside the ten (in what would become a leitmotif for this game).  But then Michigan put together a drive, despite some penalties, that included two huge plays, a 36-yard completion to JJ Buchanan on third and ten (Buchanan set up shop at the sticks and then got some g  at YAC), Michigan kept moving, aided by an OU pass interference penalty, and then sealed by a great 38-yard run by Bryce Underwood for Michigan's first score.  Not the most elegant drive, and certainly similar to one's last week that were cut down in their primes by sloppy penalties (this is still a concern going into next week.  Not the penalties themselves, the kind of penalties Michigan keeps getting called for all seem to be from the lack of detail orientation and discpline.)

It looked, for a moment, like Michigan would hand Oklahoma the ball back and that the Sooners would go down and answer, especially after a John Mateer "pass" attempt was ruled incomplete rather than a fumble (the definition of "his arm is going forward" is still murky, and I think it was just easier to uphold the ruling on the field.)  But the universe decided that Michigan deserved a turnover, which is why Todd Bowles recovered a fumble on the next play. Michigan set up shop but could not do anything with it (other than recover two of their own fumbles, terrifying in its own way), punting it back to Oklahoma, the ball downed at the one-yard line.  The Sooners went three-and-out, and Michigan, hindered by a very ill-timed holding penalty, could only take mild advantage of the field position and put a Trey Butkowski field goal on the board to make it 10-0.  The Sooners did look like they might have something cooking in the two-minute drill, but the Michigan defense stood tall after Oklahoma crossed midfield. The teams went into the locker room with Michigan up 10, a state of affairs that probably surprised almost everyone in the building except possibly the Michigan defense.

An interlude about the Michigan Stadium experience this week.  The LED button lights were gone from the handrails, which felt like an awful lot of work for one week, but nevertheless.  The DJ not only played a Kayne song again but also added "Rock and Roll Part 2" which has pretty much been de factobanned by all sports for decades.  The Google Gemini trivia ad was still terrible, but at least it was coherent this week.  The sound mix is still an absolute mess, but they did actually remember to put up the words for the "sing along" choice winner this week.  It's a work in progress, but it's still exceedingly generalized.

When Oklahoma got the ball back after Michigan's opening three-and-out and went ninety yards on eight plays, capped by a dreadful coverage bust for the touchdown, you could tell the stadium mood was shifting into "Well, it was fun while it lasted" territory.  Michigan's ensuing drive was cut short by a seven-yard sack of Bryce Underwood on third down that looked far more violent and devastating than a seven-yard loss did not help, though another Cam Brown punt downed at the one-yard line did raise spirits.  But then Oklahoma got out of the shadow of their own end zone, aided in part by a wholly unnecessary personal foul penalty on Jyaire Hill, and then a great pitch and catch between John Mateer and Rocky Beers, then moved along by another personal foul, though this one far more dubious, a facemask call on Dom Nichols, in part because Mateer's helmet came off in his hands.  If you looked at the replay, Nichols is nowhere near the facemask; Mateer's helmet is on so loosely that it essentially popped off in Nichols' hands as he was attempting to finish a sack attempt.  Alas.  But the defense held the Sooners to a field goal and tied it at 10; it didn't feel like a whole new ballgame, but it certainly felt like the entire direction of the season hung in the balance.

Michigan, unfortunately, still wasn't having much success on offense and punted it back to Oklahoma, where many suspected it would lead to the game-winning score.  Well, it did, but not the way one would think.  Having been part of the problem before, Jyaire Hill would atone for his football sins with a tremendous pick of John Mateer, returning it 24 yards to the Oklahoma 6-yard line, and setting up a Jordan Marshall touchdown two plays later. Michigan was up 17-10 and had finally shown some fight in the second half. 

With a Michigan Stadium as loud and engaged as I can remember, a tense back and forth ensued where neither side could do what it needed or wanted to do on offense to finish the game on their terms, drives that ended with punts or a turnover on down before culminating in a Nate Marshall walk-off sack and a Michigan victory.   

Before last week's game, I saw the Oklahoma game as the fulcrum of this season.  The challenges of playing defending national champion Indiana, plus road games at Eugene and in Columbus, meant that Michigan was going to need to play above what they looked like on paper if they wanted to avoid being a four-loss team in the regular season, which meant beating Oklahoma.  The scoreboard helpfully pointed out that Oklahoma is one of five teams on Michigan's schedule this season that won ten or more games last year (all of the aforementioned, plus Western Michigan. Back then, expectations were much lower after last week, when Michigan didn't look like it could get out of first gear on offense and spent way too much time on the field on defense as a result.  But college football is not destined or fated.  Oregon and Ohio State both dropped games yesterday while Michigan earned a result few expected from them.  This season has a floor, but it's much higher than it felt after last week's game.  The ceiling might still be right where we left it, but for now, the jokes can be made about Michigan being the first team in history to go 2-0 after starting the season 0-1, but Michigan heads into UTEP week with just 30 points on offense and two wins to its name.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 17-10 is NOT a Scorigami!  It has happened three previous times: 1964 Michigan State, 1980 Northwestern, and 2006 Penn State.
• Win 1,023
• 111,240 attended the game (a lot of Sooners in there), the 57th-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.
• Michigan moves to 1-2-0 all-time against the University of Oklahoma, having previously lost the 1976 Orange Bowl and last year's meeting in Norman.
• Michigan moves to 3-3-1 all-time on September 12 (Losses to Wisconsin in 1981, Notre Dame in 1987, and Syracuse in 1998; a 1992 tie in South Bend; and the 2009 win over the Irish and 2015 win over Oregon State)
• Michigan moves to 19-17-2 when scoring exactly 17 points (the previous 17-point effort was 2024 Oregon, MOVING ON).
• Michigan moves to 59-10-1 all-time when allowing 10 points to the opposition (This is the first time Michigan has allowed 10 points in a game since...2025 Wisconsin).
• Michigan has won 54 games all-time by exactly 7 points, most recently in the 2024 Michigan State game.

I Can't Explain

And now the maize jerseys are forever immortalized, just not in the way we thought.  (Exceptional photo by Rachel Leggett.)

Dizzy in the head and I'm feeling blue

The things you've said, well, maybe they're true

I'm gettin' funny dreams again and again

I know what it means, but

"I Can't Explain" by The Who (from the band's 1964 single release, the first under the name The Who)

I don't like believing in omens, but I'm a Michigan fan; omens are ignored at one's own peril.  So when the drum major dropped the mace after tossing it over the goalpost in pre-game, my mind immediately went to the other time we know it happened in a season-opening game, 2007 Appalachian State.  Michigan comes out wearing the all-maize monstrosities, a new scoreboard graphics package that feels like a hustling of people who have already spent far too much money to be there, and it all feels worse, cheaper, and less authentic than it did in the past.  But we're here, another season, a new year, and a new era.  So we can hope.

Michigan lost the toss and got the ball first, and if you only looked at the first drive in isolation, Michigan's scripted drive was pretty solid.  Some excellent passing early, including a play where Bryce lost the snap long, recovered it, and scrambled outside to hit JJ Buchanan for 20 yards. The illegal formation penalties were annoying (and as Seth Fisher noted, might be a new point of emphasis this year for things that had been previously uncalled), but Michigan went down, and after an iffy replay review on Bryce's audible to a naked boot to the corner (FORESHADOWING) but Michigan punched it in next play, 7-0 Michigan and everything feels solid and good.

Reader, it was anything but after that.

Western Michigan mounted a 42-yard drive that ended in a field goal, and I sort of felt OK if Michigan's defense could keep the Broncos to three points on their fall camp drive.  But Michigan went 4 plays and a punt (including a ghastly near interception where everyone in the building is begging Bryce to just throw it out of bounds, only to have the pick overturned because the WMU player was out of bounds first), then held the Broncos to a three-and-out, only to have Andrew Marsh just straight up have the punt drop through his catch radius.  But Michigan's defense held Western to four plays and a turnover on downs.  I noted at that point that well, the turnover sucked, but at least the defense, oh crap, Michigan with a three-and-out where it only gained two yards, defense forces a punt, Michigan with a three-and-out that only gains five yards, defense forces a punt, Michigan with a three-and-out that only gains ONE YARD, defense forces a punt, Michigan with another terrible AND NEEDLESS interception where everyone in the building is begging Beck to just run the clock out and get to the locker room, Western gets a field goal and we head into the half Michigan 7, Western Michigan 6.

This is where I make my interlude about the continuing decline of Michigan Stadium's in-game presentation.  

1). Adding the weird little LED buttons to the aisle handrails makes the whole place seem cheap.

1a). Not adding them in the student section because you know they would be stolen. 

2). They played "All of the Lights" even though it had largely been agreed that they were no longer going to play songs by that artist and had not for several years.

3). The allegedly improved cell service still left me without a signal until most of the students had bailed before the end of the game. Even weirder was the fact that it kept showing that I had five bars of signal, but nothing would connect to send/receive.

4). The got-danged Google Gemini "trivia quiz" promotion, which featured a question so convoluted there's no correct way to answer it.

4a). In retrospect, that's actually probably a perfect advertisement for what Google Gemini will do. 

5). Some very weird entrance choices leading up to taking the field.

6). Putting up the lyrics for "Mr. Brightside" but not for the "pick the sing-along song" choice later in the 4th- why would you not do that? 

As a whole, the last five years have been an effort to "modernize" the game day in-stadium experience that has only succeeded in making the whole of it feel cheap and hokey in the pursuit of "modernity."  I get that things need to evolve, to some degree, but it just feels like it's a scattershot attempt by people who don't fully understand what their fans want or what makes Michigan Stadium special and cherished by generations of fans. 

Back to the game.

I felt like Michigan needed to come out of halftime and hold Western Michigan to a three-and-out if it wanted any chance to win the game, and I suppose, on the long arc of history, I was right.  I also presumed Michigan would take its first possession of the second half and do something better than lighting downs on fire, but after seven plays and 29 net yards, including a holding penalty on the quarterback(?!?!?), Michigan punted the ball back to Western with nine minutes left on the clock and would not see it again for the remainder of the third quarter.

If deserving to win had anything to do with the actual outcomes of sporting events, this drive would be the evidence: 20 plays, 13:40 off the clock, three third-down conversions; it's all there.  But it is worth noting, it did not end in a touchdown, just a field goal.  

Another interlude:

For years, my sports fandom has informed me that the best choice in any sporting event, when given one, is to leave no doubt, to take the potential result out of the hands of the officials.  If we're looking for a positive from the Michigan side, it's that the defense did not allow a touchdown yesterday.  Yes, they had trouble getting off the field, and that is deeply troubling for the rest of the season, but they did not allow a touchdown.  If even one of Western Michigan's drives ends in a touchdown, they take this upset all the way back across I-94 and forever become the first Michigan MAC school to have taken down Michigan.

Michigan got the ball back only to go three-and-out after just seven measly yards and a well-earned chorus of boos from the 110,879 announced crowd.  The defense once again did its job, forcing a punt that pinned Michigan deep on its own 7.  A nice Jordan Marshall run, the first real sign of life in the offense in the entire second half, was followed by a one-yard run that featured Marshall trying to do too much and bouncing to turn a three-yard gain into a one-yard gain.  Then Bryce scrambled and, as he was going down, lost the ball.  A fumble, a turnover, and all looked lost, and Michigan fans were left to contemplate just how long this season was going to be.  Michigan's defense almost broke, allowing an 11-yard run on first down, but managed to hold Western to another field goal.  It was, admittedly, a curious choice as to why WMU did not just try to get a first down on fourth and four, but the field goal at least forces Michigan to go get a touchdown to beat you, and what exactly in the second half would have led anyone to believe Michigan could go the length of the field in under a minute.

About that...

After two incompletions, Underwood found JJ Buchanan for 28 yards, stopping the clock for the first down, and getting set up at the Western Michigan 47 at 0:11.  Bryce spiked the ball, and somehow, three seconds came off the clock.  The officials put a second back on to set it at 0:09, setting Michigan up for a Hail Mary attempt.  (I would have thought they were going to do the ten-yard out to the sidelines to try and make the Hail Mary a little more manageable, but they did not).  My family and I walked down the stairs of Section 7 to the main level portal, watched the Hail Mary fly out of the back of the end zone, and I began contemplating how long a season this was going to be and how many points Oklahoma was going to put up on Michigan next week.

Then a curious thing happened.  As we walked from Section 7, we were joined by some people, but not enough people to indicate that the game was officially over.  We heard that there was a replay review, but it kept lingering.  We did not hear the official say that there was one second left on the clock.  Eventually, around Section 41, we ducked back up a portal, just in time to see Bryce uncork a second Hail Mary throw, find JJ Buchanan, who amazingly held on to the ball, and suddenly, impossibly, Michigan had won.  It did not make any sense in the moment; it doesn't make any sense twelve-plus hours later, but Michigan won.  How?  I can't explain.

Naturally, the entire sports world is angry, outraged, disheartened, and conspiratorial about how the Big Ten "magically" found one second on the clock to protect one of its big brands.  Even the video the conference released showing the conversation among the replay officials has been dismissed by those who want to dismiss it.  But having been on more than my fair share of "questionable" calls from Big Ten officials (The Spot, Spartan Bob, Hutchinson's Strip Sack overturned in the 2021 MSU game, to name three off the top of my head), I'm not going to question it.  It may be a worthless miracle, but it's a win.  It's arguably the ugliest win I can remember in Michigan history, but it's a win.  There's a LOT of work to do before the Sooners get here on Saturday. Michigan gets to move back into the villain role for a minute, but while I may not be celebrating the win, no one's making us give it back either.  Sometimes the drum major drops the mace and you don't lose.  Who knew?

More like win improbability chart, am I right? (ESPN)

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 13-12 is NOT a Scorigami!  It also happened against Chicago in 1937.  Since I was asked, 7-12 also would not have been a Scorigami, as it happened against a MAC school in 1913, except the MAC in question was Michigan Agricultural College (now MSU).
• Win 1,022
• 110,879 were in attendance for the game (hilarious that the last three numbers line up with the founding of Michigan football), the 81st-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.
• Michigan moves to 9-0-0 all-time against Western Michigan University (including one game when they were Western State in 1917).  Michigan remains, barely, undefeated all-time against Western Michigan/Eastern Michigan/Central Michigan.
• Michigan moves to 2-1-0 all-time on September 5 (A loss to Notre Dame in 1998, a win over Western Michigan in 2009)
• Michigan moves to 20-17-1 when scoring exactly 13 points (the tie is against Ohio State in 1991, one of the greatest victories in Ohio State history).
• Michigan moves to 16-4-2 all-time when allowing 12 points to the opposition (This is the first time Michigan has allowed 12 points in a game since...2002 Western Michigan).
• Michigan has won 27 games all-time by precisely 1 point, the most recent example being the 2014 Northwestern game, aka the M00N game.

Light On

The end that was.

Would you believe me now if I told you I got caught up in a wave?

Almost gave it away

Would you hear me out if I told you I was terrified for days?

Thought I was gonna break

Oh, I couldn't stop it

Tried to slow it all down

Crying in the bathroom

Had to figure it out

With everyone around me saying

"You must be so happy now."

--"Light On" by Maggie Rogers, the final song written for her 2018 debut album Heard It In a Past Life

It was always going to end this way.  Not because we wanted it to be, not because we deserved it, but because it is the way it has been for nearly three decades.  Michigan has a hockey team good enough to make the Frozen Four, and, unless it shuts its opponent out, loses the national semi-final, usually in overtime.

Oh, if you keep reaching out

Then I'll keep coming back

And if you're gone for good

Then I'm okay with that

If you leave the light on

Then I'll leave the light on (Light on, light on, light on)

"Light On" is a dreadfully ironic choice of title and theme for a post about the conclusion of another hockey season that, like most do, ended with a loss.  All Michigan had to do was turn the (goal) light on one more time, and they would have assured the Big Ten its first NCAA men's hockey championship since 2007 and the first since the league began sponsoring men's hockey.  They took shot after shot after shot, all of varying quality, and at one point right before the bitter end, Michigan was outshooting Denver 52-25.  The consensus of the media, fans, and the Michigan team itself was that Michigan was largely the better team in the second period, third period, and both overtimes.  But as college hockey so frequently reminds us, the best team is not the one that plays the best over the course of the game, rather it is the one that finds a way to score more goals than it allows.  Yes, it is the entire point of the game: score at least one more goal than your opponent, and you are declared the winner.  Once again, Michigan, which by several metrics looked like the best and most complete team in the country over the course of a regular season, will not get to hang a banner honoring the completion of that journey.  There are no banners for "#1 NPI" after all.

And I am finding out

There's just no other way

That I'm still dancing at the end of the day

If you leave the light on

Then I'll leave the light on (Light on, light on, light on)

The natural tendency after a season-ending loss is a combination of sadness, regret, lamentation, bitterness, and doubt.  Perhaps because there were so many stats at the ready showing the futility of Michigan in the NCAA tournament since it won its ninth title in 1998, coupled with the frustration of a game that ended around 12:50 AM EDT, there seemed to be a lot of questioning by fans in the Michigan hockey hive on Bluesky as to why we do this to ourselves, invest emotionally in a team that seems to get up to within view of the summit, only to fall all the way down the mountain in a painful, but often predictable way.  

And do you believe me now that I always had the best intentions, babe?

Always wanted to stay

Can you feel me now that I'm vulnerable in oh-so-many ways?

Oh, and I'll never change

But we love it.  Hockey is the best because it is the worst.  Hockey shows you so many tremendously skilled things on any given night, coupled with exceptional physicality, that makes it so compelling to watch.  There is no other sport quite like it.  That the NCAA tournament is single-elimination does not make hockey bad; it just allows a significant amount of randomness to enter the sample.  As I explained to my son on Monday when he asked me before the men's basketball title game if I was more nervous about that game or Thursday (meaning the Frozen Four game), I said Thursday without hesitation.  He looked at me and asked why, and I explained that dozens of things have to go wrong for a team to lose a basketball game.  One thing and only one thing has to go wrong to lose a hockey game.  And I've seen it happen a dozen times and more.  Obviously, this is an oversimplification of an emotional truth.  One could easily argue that every shot Michigan took last night that didn't go in was something that went wrong, for instance.  But it doesn't feel that way when the overtime winning goal goes into the net for the opponent.  That's what went wrong; it was all over for another year.  

Oh, I couldn't stop it

Tried to figure it out

But everything kept moving

And the noise got too loud

With everyone around me saying

"You should be so happy now

Yes, let us acknowledge that it is understandable if folks outside the Michigan fandom would like to give us a bit of side-eye for being sad about this loss, given that Michigan won the men's basketball team, something so many of us deeply enjoyed and celebrated literally earlier this week.  We should be so happy now!  It's a valid argument.  I thoroughly enjoyed this year's men's basketball team and the title run was amazing and unforgettable.  But at the same time, Michigan hockey has always been my second-favorite Michigan sport, and it honestly might be my co-favorite with football.  Every spring for the past thirty years, I have geared up to watch Michigan make a run in the NCAA tournament, and after feeling very good about the two titles in three years at the start of that, the next quarter century, give or take, has been season after season of frustration in various ways, shapes, and forms.  That so many of those shapes and forms look similar, I think, is what makes it so challenging emotionally.  We're watching a new movie, but we recognize the tropes.  We know what the doombringer generally looks and sounds like, and we're just waiting for it to come.  But we want to believe it will be different because it can be different.  After all, it has been different.  But it hasn't been that way during the 21st century.  This is not a case for giving up or abandoning the thing you love; it's just acknowledging that it's not necessarily going to bring you the ultimate joy that you long for.  And maybe that's OK.  And maybe it isn't, but only you can make that choice.  

Oh, if you keep reaching out

Then I'll keep coming back

And if you're gone for good

Then I'm okay with that

And if you leave the light on

Then I'll leave the light on (Light on, light on, light on)

And I am finding out

There's just no other way

That I'm still dancing at the end of the day

If you leave the light on

Then I'll leave the light on (Light on, light on, light on)

Maggie Rogers might be my favorite musical artist whose entire output is from the 21st century.  In the decade since her Masterclass moment with Pharrell at NYU went viral, she has put out a significant amount of absolutely banger indie pop/folk/rock.  In a 2018 tweet, Maggie herself explained that "Light On" was a note to her fans and her friends and loved ones who supported her before and after her sudden fame, that she had to understand everything that had happened to her, how it had changed her, but also how it had not, and how that could alter relationships with people known and unknown.  The future is unknowable; all you can do is chart a course for yourself and hope that people will want to join you on that journey.  The past is not destiny any more than the future is predetermined.  Maybe next time will be different, because it can be different.  We'll leave the light on.

Next year in Washington.

It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken

The past and the future together. (Patrick Barron)

When the colour of the night

And all the smoke for one life

Gives way to shaky movements

Improvisational skills

A forest of whispering speakers

Let's swear that we will

Get with the times

In a current health to stay

Let's get friendship right

Get life day-to-day

In the forget-yer-skates dream

Full of countervailing woes

Its diverse-as-ever seen

Proceeding on a need-to-know

In a face so full of meaning

As to almost make it glow

For a good life we just might have to weaken

And find somewhere to go

Go somewhere we're needed

Find somewhere to grow

Grow somewhere we're needed  

--"It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken" by The Tragically Hip, the first single from the band's 2002 album In Violet Light

 It's almost charming to look back at my previous column and see the level of unknowingness in the final paragraph about the December that was about to transpire.  I am choosing not to recap it because if you're reading this, you're well-versed in a "December to Dismember."  But here we are, at the end of 2025, in a Citrus Bowl of a pair of blue-bloods that ABC even said in its opening, disappointed to not meet their standard.

I'm not even sure what there is to say about this game.  Cole Sullivan made some big plays, including forcing a turnover on an early Texas kick return, which led to a Bryce Underwood to Kendrick Bell TD that needed to be replay reviewed, but was ruled a touchdown.  Andrew Marsh looked good on kick return duty and made some nice catches in his Michigan debut in the #3 jersey.  Michigan even had a fourth quarter lead thanks to a Bryce scramble that made the pylon (which again, needed a replay review to confirm).

It's just that everything unraveled from there.  Bryce threw a pair of awful picks. The defense got home on Arch Manning only to whiff on the tackle, which allowed a drive to stay alive and Texas to take the lead. Everyone on the defense missed again on Arch, who scrambled for a 60-yard touchdown, things of that nature. 

In the words of Futurama:

When the colour of the night

And all the smoke in one life

Gives way to shaky movements

Improvisational skills

In the forest of whispering speakers

Let's swear that we will

Get with the times

In a current health to stay

Let's get friendship right

Get life day-to-day

In the forget-yer-skates dream

Full of countervailing woes

In diverse-as-ever scenes

Proceeding on a need-to-know

In a face so full of meaning

As to almost make it glow

For a good life we just might have to weaken

And find somewhere to go

Go somewhere we're needed

Find somewhere to grow

Grow somewhere we're needed

Find somewhere to go

Let's go somewhere we're needed

Find somewhere to grow

We grow where we are needed

'Cause in the forget-yer-skates dream

You can hang your head in woe

And this diverse-as-ever scene

Know which way to go

But, ultimately, none of this matters. This was the required denouement of a season that never felt right.  Which, admittedly, feels like curve-fitting based on facts now in evidence, but I see it more as explaining the vibes, which were papered over but rancid.  Wink will be gone.  There will be a new OC, there might be other new coaches, but the key thing is that the 2026 season will mark a chance to start over, with a coach who has plenty of experience but no ties to Michigan football.  It might completely implode, which, maybe that is the price of climbing to the apex of the college football world again, but even if it's just a coach who puts a team out there that no one is worried about the staff having some kind of embarrassing (or hideous) scandal (hopefully, again, if its in the walls, you have to make sure you fumigate) and hopefully a team that is focused on football.    Let's grow somewhere we're needed.  Until Western Michigan.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 41-27 IS a Scorigami!
  
• 47,361 were in attendance for the game (Michigan's smallest bowl game crowd since the Outback Bowl following the 2017 season against South Carolina).
  
  
• Michigan moves to 0-3-0 all-time against the University of Texas.  This is Michigan's third loss to Texas in the 2000s, each under a different head coach.
• Michigan falls to 2-3-0 all-time on December 31 (wins against UCLA in the 1981 Bluebonnet and 2024 Reliaquest.  It is Michigan's first non-CFP loss on NYE.)
  
  
• Michigan falls to 46-8-0 when scoring exactly 27 points.
• Michigan moves to 1-4-0 all-time when allowing 41 points to the opposition (including that Peach Bowl against Florida, and the Cowboys Classic against Alabama).
• Michigan has lost 23 games all-time by precisely 14 points, the most recent example being the 2024 Illinois game.

Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)

Let's give it up for the 'bones! (Michigan Athletics)

Watch the band through a bunch of dancers

Quickly, follow the unknown

With something more familiar

Quickly, something familiar

Courage, my word

It didn't come, it doesn't matter

--"Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)" by The Tragically Hip, the third single from the band's 1992 album Fully Completely

Look, I'm not saying I knew how this season was going to go before it started, but I reserved "Courage" for the Ohio State game because I knew it was going to be a loss.  I didn't want it to be, I certainly hoped it could be different, but there was just no way, academically, to see Michigan winning the fifth straight edition of The Game.  Courage, it didn't come; it doesn't matter.

I mean, there certainly was an initial glimmer of hope.  The big run from Marshall on the first drive.  A field goal.  A tremendous PBU by Zeke Berry and then a pick by Jyaire Hill, and suddenly, Michigan is in business, and it's another field goal.  You aren't beating Ohio State, particularly this Ohio State, with field goals.  Even holding Ohio State to a field goal seemed to bode well.  And then, just as suddenly, it didn't, and the rest was pretty much academic.

Courage, my word

It didn't come, it doesn't matter

Courage, your word

It didn't come, it doesn't matter

Courage, my word

It didn't come, it doesn't matter

Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time

Ohio State remains what it is and who it has been: America's most consistently successful college football program.  Michigan remains an elite, a blueblood, but one that has had more ups and downs than its archrival.  This season and the shape and form it took led to an inevitable result: people who never believed Sherrone was the guy from the drop now think they have evidence that Moore was the wrong choice.  Michigan should have been a playoff team in their mind, that Michigan had no excuses for losing to Ohio State (despite being down its starting running back, starting fullback, a starting safety, a starting linebacker, and a starting receiver in The Game), that Moore "doesn't have the juice."  Which is fine; they're welcome to that opinion, but I will disagree.  Because the problem is as simple as Jason Kirk of The Athletic laid it out about the coaching carousel: "There are no sure things out there, just coaches you're not mad at yet."  

"There is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them."

― Hugh MacLennan, The Watch that Ends the Night

As Tom MacInnes wrote about this song and this quote, "'Courage' is really a song about finding meaning for yourself and your life’s work, amid the cries of those who take you for granted." I think that's where I am, and where many of us are with Michigan football.  We began to take 2021-23 as the new normal, the standard forever, and it is challenging to take a step back, a step that is frequently inevitable in college football.  The problem is that Ohio State never takes that step back.  Your measuring stick is the only one that never does that, and that is both a challenge and an opportunity.  This isn't a Hoke backslide; this is a late 90s-early 2000s Carr team, very good but not great, but now in a landscape where more teams can match them.  Sherrone has some things to figure out. I don't think anyone has said anything different.  JB Brown has to go, Wink probably needs to move on, and there are some spots to fill in the portal.  For now, enjoy Orlando, beat Texas (probably, maybe Vandy). I mean, do we think ESPN is going to turn down a chance at that big of a helmet game for one of its non-playoff bowls?  Until then, enjoy the men's and women's basketball teams and the hockey team; we can have new and different anxieties, as a treat!

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 27-9 IS a Scorigami!
  
• 111,373 were in attendance for the game (the 49th-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history, and the largest crowd of the 2020s).
  
  
• Michigan moves to 62-53-6 all-time against the Ohio State University.  This is Michigan's first loss to Ohio State in the 2020s, as some of you may know.
• Michigan falls to 1-4-0 all-time on November 29 (this was Michigan's first home game on November 29.  The first three were in Chicago, the fourth was in 2014 in Columbus, the end of the Hoke era.)
  
  
• Michigan improves to 9-9-0 when scoring exactly 9 points (of Michigan's 18 games in which they have scored just 9 points, 6 have come against Ohio State).
• Michigan moves to 7-16-0 all-time when allowing 27 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has lost 3 games all-time by precisely 18 points, the most recent example being the 2025 USC game, meaning two of the three have come this season.

Three Pistols

Marlin Klein hurdled a fool. (Michigan Athletics)

Well, Tom Thomson came paddling past

I'm pretty sure it was him

And he spoke so softly in accordance to the

Growing of the dim

He said, "I'll bring on a brand new renaissance

Because I think I'm ready

When I was shaking all night long

But my hands were steady"

--"Three Pistols" by The Tragically Hip from their 1991 album Road Apples

There isn't going to be much to this one today, because there really wasn't much to this game.  The game before The Game is always weird, because it is almost inevitably a trap game.  In 2021, 2023, and now 2025, Michigan went to College Park and took care of business, heading into the Ohio State game with the goal of an appearance in the Big Ten title game still on the table.  The most prominent theme of the game was that injuries tested the depth of the running back room (but 100 yards on 20 carries for Bryson Kuzdzal works, as does 71 yards on 8 carries from Tomas O'Meara in the fourth quarter), but really, there was not a lot of meat on this bone.  Maryland scored on its opening drive, only to give Michigan excellent field position after a failed surprise onside kick. The easiest way to explain it is that Hudson Hollenbeck was never called upon to punt in this one, and every drive entered Maryland territory.

The biggest concerns from the day were that Max Bredeson was seen on the sideline in crutches, which is troubling, and several key players were out (but were likely held out ahead of The Game).  Michigan handled its business, surpassed last year's win total, and likely clinched a spot in the Citrus Bowl (because the Pac-12's bowl tie-ins are still active for a bit longer). Winning The Game certainly seems like it would be improbable, but then again, we said that last year, and in years before that, and Michigan found a way to Beat Ohio.  Do it again one more time, and let the chips fall where they may. Bring on the brand new renaissance because I think I'm ready.

Beat Ohio.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 45-20 IS NOT a Scorigami!  It would have been if Michigan had scored a TD on the last drive.
  
• 46,185 were in attendance for the game (the second smallest crowd of the season and the first time Michigan has played in front of back-to-back announced crowds of less than 60,000 since at Purdue and at Minnesota in 2008).
• Win 1,021.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 12-1-0 all-time against the University of Maryland-College Park.  This is Michigan's ninth straight win in the series against the Terrapins.
• Michigan improves to 10-8-0 all-time on November 22 (this was Michigan's first game on November 22 since 2014, and it was Michigan's only loss to Maryland in the series all-time).  Highlights of 11/22 include 1969 Ohio State, 1997 Ohio State, and 2003 Ohio State.
  
  
• Michigan improves to 24-1-0 when scoring exactly 45 points (the loss is the 2022 Fiesta Bowl).
• Michigan moves to 26-21-1 all-time when allowing 20 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has won 20 games all-time by precisely 25 points, the most recent example being the 2023 Bowling Green game, bka the JJ throws three picks but Michigan still wins game.

Nautical Disaster

"Michigan wins on a walk-off home run." --Patrick Barron (Photo: Patrick Barron)

I had this dream where I relished the fray and the screaming filled my head all day

It was as though I had been spit here, settled in

Into the pocket of a lighthouse on some rocky socket

Off the coast of France, dear

One afternoon, four thousand men died in the water here and five hundred more were thrashing madly as parasites might in your blood

Now I was in a lifeboat designed for ten and ten only

Anything that systematic would get you hated

--"Nautical Disaster" by the Tragically Hip, the third single from the band's 1994 album, Day for Night.

Walk-off wins should be exhilarating, at least on some level.  Your team is losing, and they have put together something that will allow them, with no time remaining on the clock, to win the game.  In baseball, it can be a lightning strike, because a walk-off home run takes just the proper connection on one pitch.  Maybe you needed to get a runner on base to set it up, but a walk-off in baseball can take many forms.  Football has simultaneously fewer and more types of walk-off victories.  Touchdown Manningham is a walk-off win.  So is the Miracle at Michigan.  Field goals in the bottom half of the overtime session are walk-offs.  Phil Brabbs' 44-yard field goal toward the north goal posts at Michigan Stadium against Washington was a walk-off (as far as I can tell, the last regulation field goal walk-off in Michigan history.  Brabbs also missed his first two attempts that game.)

It's not a deal not a test nor a love of something fated

(Death)

The selection was quick

The crew was picked, in order

And those left in the water were kicked off our pant leg

And we headed for home

It is easy to say that Michigan games against Northwestern in November are always weird, but there is at least a little truth to the statement when it comes to games in Evanston/Chicago.  Since 2000, we've had the 54-51 loss in 2000. 2003 wasn't weird per se; 41-10 games tend not to be. However, then you get 2013, which is the fire drill field goal with the Dileo power slide that forced overtime to win.  Then it's 2014, which, of course, is M00N.  So yeah, it's not a huge sample size, but it's also not encouraging.  Michigan did a bunch of little things wrong early (a hold on a beautiful outside run for Jordan Marshall for an early touchdown that would have absolutely set the tone, which led to Zvada's first miss of the day) but then, you know, 91 yard drive that ends in a touchdown, OK, that should be a good tone setter, especially because Bryce is throwing the ball well.  But the end of the first half for Michigan was punt, fumble (Chip Lindsay getting too cute by half with the orbit motion to Marsh), and a missed 60-yard field goal at the end of the half, while the Wildcats got a pair of field goals, creating an extremely annoying 7-6 score going into the locker room.

One could hope that after Michigan got the early touchdown in the third quarter after forcing Northwestern into a four-and-out, things would settle down.  They did not.  Michigan forced a three-and-out, and it looked like it would get the ball back with good field position. Semaj finally tried to make a return, and he fumbled (though I'm sorry, I still don't understand how that one counted as a Northwestern recovery.) Northwestern got a field goal out of it.  Michigan goes 80 yards, Jordan Marshall puts the ball over the goal line just long enough to get the score, Michigan goes up 21-9, and you would be forgiven if you thought that Michigan fans could relax.

It was at this point, after the third quarter stretch, that the game went into full bête noire territory for Michigan.  Northwestern goes 75 yards thanks to three long passes to get a TD and get it to 21-16.  OK, time for Michigan to respond.  Then Bryce has a freshman moment, throws a locked-on target pick, and five seconds later, Northwestern scores another TD; now they lead 22-21 after a failed two-point conversion attempt.  Fine, Michigan will just go down and respond.  Nope, Marshall gets hurt, and then Bryce throws another pick.  Ugh. Okay, the defense comes to the rescue, forcing a very tidy three-and-out.  Michigan gets the ball at their own 41, starts driving the ball, gets a great catch from Andrew Marsh, who was a revelation today, but on a fourth and one at the Northwestern 24, a fumble on the exchange, and Northwestern gets the ball back.  Defense bails them out again with a three-and-out, letting Michigan preserve all three of its time-outs.  Michigan gets the ball at their own 37, throws two straight incompletions, then needs a miracle of a grab from Marsh on the sideline, upheld on review (it shouldn't have even been a question), then keeps running Bryzon Kuzdzal seven times for 29 yards to set up Zvada for a game-winner with two seconds left.  

Then the dream ends when the phone rings

You're doing alright he said

It's out there most days and nights

But only a fool would complain

Anyway Susan, if you like, our conversation is as faint as a sound in my memory

As those fingernails scratching on my hull

Zvada shook off the nightmare of the season he's been having and put it through the uprights, and Michigan escaped with a 24-22 win, matching last season's win total with two games left to play in the regular season.  Questions about the injuries will loom, but off to College Park, we'll see what happens. 

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 24-22 IS a Scorigami!  It would not have been if Northwestern had kicked the extra point.
  
• 38,223 were in attendance for the game (the smallest crowd of the season and the smallest crowd Michigan has played in front of since the 2021 Maryland game).
• Win 1,020.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 61-15-2 all-time against Northwestern University.  This is Michigan's ninth straight win in the series against the Wildcats, which has included a pair of overtime games and M00N, and now this.
• Michigan improves to 14-5-0 all-time on November 15 (this was Michigan's first game on November 15 since 2008, which was the most recent loss to Northwestern, a miserable 21-14 loss which was dubbed Fandom Endurance IV due to the dreadful game and weather conditions).
  
  
• Michigan improves to 41-8-0 when scoring exactly 24 points.
• Michigan moves to 6-7-1 (groans at Gen Alphas) all-time when allowing 22 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has won 21 games all-time by precisely 2 points, the most recent example being the 2022 Illinois game, bka the Money Moody pseudo-walk off win.
• Bonus Stat: Michigan moves to 16-14 all-time in games in the city of Chicago.  This was its first in Chicago proper since 1939, when they defeated the University of Chicago 85-0 in the game that basically made Chicago give up football as a going concern.

It Can't Be Nashville Every Night

Once again, the Marshall Plan played a crucial role in rebuilding confidence.  (Michigan Athletics)

He said, "fuck this" and, "fuck that"

And this guy's the diplomat

Stares into the blur of the tuner lights

It can't be Nashville every night

He said, "We are what we lack"

And this guy's the autodidact

Stares into the glare of the TV lights

It can't be Nashville every night

--"It Can't Be Nashville Every Night" by The Tragically Hip, the second single from their 2005 album In Between Evolution

There are songs by The Hip that I love better, but as a phrase goes, "It Can't Be Nashville Every Night" is one of my favorites because it's a reminder that not every day can be the biggest, flashiest, or best.  There are a lot of days in life where you're just trying to get through to the next one, which also may not be a big deal, but you're punching the clock and trying to make it to the weekend.

This is also what it's like to play Purdue.  It's especially what it's like to play Purdue down five critical starters.

A thesis was presented on and around the Michigan internet this week, suggesting that the Halloween game is always cursed.  I looked at the data, and here are all the Halloween games, plus or minus one day of Halloween, since 1995.

Let's take them one at a time.

• Minnesota 1997.  Homecoming, a relatively straightforward win en route to the perfect season, Not Cursed.
• at Minnesota 1998.  Tied at 10 at halftime, only took the lead on a fourth-quarter safety and retained the Little Brown Jug.  Cursed.
• at Indiana 1999.  Needing a Hayden Epstein field goal late to beat a traditional Indiana game after a two-game losing streak?  Cursed.
• at Michigan State 2003.  Having to run Chris Perry 51 times to beat Michigan State in East Lansing?  Cursed.
• Michigan State 2004.  Braylonfest, but that means you were down 27-10 and needed 3OT to beat a not very good Michigan State team?  Fun, but Cursed.
• at Purdue 2008. 2-6 Purdue beats 2-6 Michigan on a hook and ladder after Michigan had tied it with 80 seconds left in a game already colored by Rich Rod being accused of wearing a wizard hat by Joe Tiller to steal Roy Roundtree from Purdue's recruiting class?  Cursed.
• at Illinois 2009.  Tate Forcier finds Roy Roundtree for a 76-yard pass that looks to be a touchdown to put Michigan up 20-7, only to have it ruled down at the Illinois 1, and Michigan cannot punch four straight chances on the doorstep in, and then Illinois goes 99 yards to tie it and wins going away 38-13?  SUPER Cursed.
• at Penn State 2010.  Denard goes for almost 200 passing and 200 rushing, but is never really in this game in Happy Valley.  Cursed.
• Indiana 2014.  Ahh, the Drake Johnson game!  The day after David Brandon resigned as AD?  Not Cursed.
• at Minnesota 2015.  Michigan has to pull out all the stops and get a gift of some dreadful Minnesota clock mismanagement to make a goal-line stand the week after Trouble with the Snap.  Cursed.
• Michigan State 2020.  Rocky Lombardi lights up the Michigan secondary in the COVID season.  Deeply Cursed.
• at Michigan State 2021.  The replay review flips the script as Kenneth Walker goes off for an ultimately meaningless loss in the scheme of things.  Cursed.
• Purdue 2025.  An annoying as hell sludge fart of a night game where Michigan never looked like they knew what they were doing, but they still made just enough plays to beat a Purdue team that remains winless in conference?  Cursed.

Results say 11 cursed games to 2 not cursed games.  Perhaps I am grading a little too harshly on some of these, but yes, Halloween games are cursed, and Michigan will almost assuredly have another one next year.  Something to look forward to, I suppose.

Anyway, the second bye week arrives at a great moment to get some players healthy and reset some ideas for the final three-week sprint to Thanksgiving and The Game.  Jordan Marshall looked solid in a starring role; the rest, we can burn the tape.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 21-16 IS NOT a Scorigami!  (Three previous occurrences, 1981 Navy, the 1998 Rose Bowl against Washington State, and 1999 Wisconsin.) 
  
• 110,517 were in attendance for the game (the smallest home crowd of the season on the night when they acknowledged that the 100,000+ home crowd "streak" began fifty years ago next Saturday against Purdue.  (We all know how I feel about the claims that "the Streak" is unbroken, but it's apparently a lie we have just agreed to live with.)
• Win 1,019.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 48-14-0 all-time against Purdue University.  This is Michigan's seventh straight win in the limited series against a team that Michigan played its first ever Big Ten game against in 1896.
• Michigan improves to 15-3-1 all-time on November 1 (the tie is a 0-0 draw against the Varsity Blues of the University of Toronto in 1879, marking the second-ever game for the program).
  
  
• Michigan improves to 35-14-2 when scoring exactly 21 points.
• Michigan moves to 14-8-0 all-time when allowing 16 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has won 16 games all-time by precisely 5 points, the most recent example being the 2014 Penn State game, bka the Dancing Dennis Norfleet game.