Cold Front

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight... (Photo by Isaiah Hole)

Chaos, we must be reminded, disguises itself as normal, but just ever so askew.  It does not walk up to you as a manic street preacher, foretelling the end times and calling for your repentance.  That would be too easy.  Then again, maybe it wouldn't.  The person telling you the truth that you didn't want to hear could be and would be easily dismissed and then you would be shocked, shocked, to learn that they were, in fact, telling you the truth.

For all of our calling Indiana #CHAOSTEAM, we tended to presume that Michigan would bounce back from the disappointment of that night at Kinnick, and rally behind John O'Korn and figure out how to get by Indiana, a team Michigan has not lost to since 1987, and has not lost in Ann Arbor to since 1967.  But the same problems from last week, from the last month, really, were cropping up.  Slightly off target passes, bad luck on spots, every toss-up ball to an Indiana receiver managing to be good for a solid gain.  By the end of a cold and blustery first half at Michigan Stadium, only Kenny Allen's punting seemed to be going right and Michigan and its fans felt fortunate that if this was the first time all season that they were going into the locker room at halftime down, it was only a 7-3 margin.

So the Chaos did come, but, as chaos is wont to do, it came from something seemingly random.  On a third and eight, John O'Korn used his feet, the one part of his game that everyone seemed to agree was stronger that Speight's, and scrambled for 30 yards into Indiana territory.  After an injury timeout, one handoff to De'Veon Smith saw the senior find the end zone with a little fancy leaping at the end, Michigan retook the lead and would never look back.  A second Smith touchdown, following a second blocked punt and a "missed it by that much" dagger from O'Korn to Darboh and there was some breathing room.

No, the chaos came in the snow late in the game.  It snowed.  Goodness did it snow.  In five minutes of game time, Michigan Stadium was transformed from a chilled November in the gloaming to a snowglobe of wonder, the flakes reflecting off the high-powered stadium lights in a way that was more calming that anything else.  Concurrent to this, Michigan did something it had not been able to do against Michigan State or Iowa in the fourth quarter, as they milked a 15 play drive for 51 yards, but more to the point, over eight minutes of game time, assuring that Indiana would have to move the ball in Hoth-like conditions to mount any form of a comeback and reminding them that we would see them in Hell when their Tauntaun died before they reached the first marker.

The snow swirled, the joy of a perfect home season settled over the crowd, a reminder that not every season at Michigan Stadium must end in disappointment, as had become familiar over the last decade or so.  The first snowfall of the season is a reminder of the joyful feeling that snow can provide before the cold, harsh realities of a long Michigan winter settle over you.  But, as a symbol of an ending, for this massive senior class, for those who have seen lows and highs in somewhat equal measure,

Now comes Ohio State week.  A truncated work week as we celebrate that which we are thankful for while simultaneously what we both covet and dread.  There is no reason to believe that Michigan can't go down to Columbus and get a win, but that knowledge comes with the caveat that it's going to require virtually everything to go right for Blue and a lot of things to go wrong for the Buckeyes.  But that is likely more the realities of the 21st century speaking in the back of my mind.  Never stop fighting until the fight is through.  Here endeth the lesson.

Blue

Captains courageous (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

Don't say it.  Don't even say it.  You don't know, you will never know, and you will never have any way of knowing.  It was against Iowa, on Senior Day, designed in part to ruin Urban Meyer's Thanksgiving.  Stop telling yourself if only.  Stop it.  Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.  Unless Denard had agreed to it, it wasn't going to happen.  So stop it.

That said, be happy with what you saw, even if it was against 2012 Iowa.  Be happy that the future looks like a rising and not a setting sun.  Be happy that Denard got to ride out of Michigan Stadium, not necessarily on the horse he was expecting to ride out on, but still got to ride out on his own terms.  Be happy that Al Borges not only has plays drawn up for every situation, but he isn't afraid to put things on film and let Ohio stew over them for a week, even without tipping everything in his hand.  Be happy that even though Fitz went down in one of the most gruesome injuries I have seen in Michigan Stadium history, Michigan has capable backups in both Thomas Rawls and...oh yeah, Denard Robinson.  In a week prior to Thanksgiving, we much much to be thankful for again once more as Michigan fans.

There are many notions that Senior Day gives you, and I spent a lot of time speaking toward the ephemeral nature of college football players just two weeks ago, so I won't recap that.  But I also was struck today by the idea that college football is so much about "What if?"  What if this, what if that?  We can talk ourselves into almost any scenario, almost any reality, ignoring the pieces of the puzzle that don't fit our hypothetical narrative, and convincing ourselves that it was just one or two moments away from being perfect.  What didn't Devin get the QB snaps in Lincoln?  What if Devin had been playing QB that night in South Bend?  What if David Brandon were not so committed to "wow" experiences and selling our souls to Saban?  (Also note, you have many fewer of these than our friends in East Lansing this year.)  But while "what if" is comfort, what is is that which must be dealt with.  Truth be told, the reality of today, outside of Fitz's injury and Jack Kennedy not getting to throw a pass, today's reality was a good one.  Not a great one all time, but a pretty darn good one.

There are no guarantees heading in to the Shoe, save one.  Team 133 will give battle to an Ohio team that is perfect in record only.  Michigan is the last chance to ruin that perfect season (well, outside of Gene Smith not accepting the bowl ban last season ruining that perfect season in a larger sense.)  Michigan will likely be the underdog, but only in a numeric sense.  This is a Game with stakes again, and the start of a new Ten Year War.  For that, we are thankful.  Game on.

Beat Ohio.

Going out with a bang. (Getty Images/Gregory Shamus)

Beat Ohio by making your own Ohio logo!

The official serif font of Ohio is Minion. This can only be intended as a subtle reminder that: 1) Ohio is evil, and 2) Ohio shouldn't be put in charge of things. Among things Ohio shouldn't have been put in charge of is designing their own logo. They clearly visited the same people responsible for Lucent's "brown ring of quality" and Gap's Helvetica disaster. The result was the brilliant idea of a scarlet square with the phrase "The Ohio State University" written in white inside it, as though that's Ohio's official name.

This logo is so simple that it's easy to parody. If you've purchased - ha, ha, downloaded - Photoshop, Minion is included. If you don't like to do illegal things, Minion is included with Adobe Reader, but you have to use a trick to install it for general use. Simply open up your favorite image editor (I used Inkscape), make a scarlet square (RGB hex = #990000) and insert your favorite phrase.

First we start with Terrelle Pryor's name for the university:

I refused to equally capitalize all the letters in "The." It should be in small caps, just like on their official seal.

There's a possibility that someone, maybe T. Pryor himself, might mistake you for a fan with the above design. No worries, next we'll go with MGoBlog's favorite formulation:

A Sermon on Thanksgiving

Oh, Hi Denard!

Though problems persist, turmoil has vanished. 

Though the memories linger, the wounds have healed. 

Though the clouds hover, the storm has passed. 

Joy has returned. 

I missed you.  I missed you more than I realized.  I missed this feeling.  I cannot even remember the last time I had it.  Complete, unadultered joy.  No questions, no fear, no complaints, just joy.  I wanted to say the 2007 Notre Dame game, but that was actually coming off of the heels of arguably the darkest darkness, so instead I'll drop back to 2006 when Michigan destroyed a #2 Notre Dame team in South Bend 47-21.  The difference today is we know better.  In 2005, we thought 7-5 was "the year of infinite pain" (and even that year had…"Henne…Fires to the end zone…TOUCHDOWN Manningham, Michigan wins!") It's different and it's better.  We've been down in the hole, and now, here we are, all of the sudden, looking at the possibility that this team could be headed to a BCS bowl.  Just one more obstacle remains.  The most important of all obstacles.  The Game.

And since I proved last week I am not above using the hoariest of cliches, allow me to now list what I am thankful for with regard to Michigan football:

• Greg Mattison and his understanding of blitz schemes.
• Brady Hoke and his understanding of the rivalries and his willingness to go for the throat.
• Al Borges and his realization that he had Denard Robinson at quarterback.
• Denard Robinson for being so easy to appreciate as both an athlete and as a person.
• Fitz Toussaint for the way he's making the second and third cut.
• Tay Odoms for sticking with it, even when reason and logic would have forgiven him otherwise.
• Rich Rodriguez for the athletes he brought to Ann Arbor during his three seasons here.
• Jordan Kovacs for doing the things that a former walk-on can do with commitment and effort.
• David Brandon for creating the future*
• The Michigan Marching Band for the weeks when they are not doing fanservice to the student section.
• DTE Energy for making lemonade out of lemons.
• The student section for getting there mostly on time and for being an auditory play clock for the team when they were heading southbound in the first quarter.
• Nebraska fans for being classy and passionate without being jerks.
• Jon Falk for being Jon Falk
• The Michigan Daily sports reporters for killing it.  Every. Single. Week.
• The awesome people in my well curated MGoTweet feed.
• Brian Cook for saying better what most of us are thinking.
• Geoff for, five years ago, giving me a place to say all of this that was on my mind, and for having a killer tailgate.
• Jeremy, for doing awesomely underrated stuff on here.
• David, for being the rookie of the year for his awesome contributions here.

So go, eat some turkey, enjoy some great games on Thursday and Friday, and then remember that Saturday, at noon, in front of the largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America that day, only two words matter.  Two words only.

Beat Ohio.

*-No, I'm really not thankful for everything that has been done to create the future.  I just worry if I don't say it, it looks like I am ungrateful for those future creations which I do enjoy.