Maybe Sparrow

Pictures really are worth a thousand words, sometimes. (Patrick Barron)

Maybe sparrow you should wait

The hawks alight till morning

You'll never pass beyond the gate

If you don't hear my warning

Notes are hung so effortless

With the rise and fall of sparrow's breast

It's a drowning dive and back to the chorus

La di da di da di da

La di da di da di da

Oh my sparrow it's too late

Your body limp beneath my feet

Your dusty eyes cold as clay

You didn't hear my warning

Maybe sparrow it's too late

Moonlight glanced off metal wings

In a thunderstorm above the clouds

The engine hums a sparrow's phrase

For those who cannot hear the words

For those who cannot hear the words

For those who will not hear the words

La di da di da di da

La di da di da di da

--"Maybe Sparrow" by Neko Case from her 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

There are so many things that one could say about this game but they all come back to one simple truth, Georgia is an excellent football team.  I don't mean excellent in the everyday use of the word; I mean excellent from the Latin meaning "being preeminent."  Georgia defense, which the college football ecosystem spent most of a season calling one of the greatest ever, learned from their mistakes in the SEC Championship Game and played this entire affair like a singular vision of vengeance drove them, Michigan being a mere underboss to get back to the final battle.  Georgia had better athletes across the board, a top-notch game plan, and was crisp in their execution.  You might be able to pull an upset if one of those things isn't firing for your opponent, but when all three hit, it's a long night.

Michigan never quit, though.  They never looked lost or disappointed, or frustrated.  They kept trying, and they were rewarded with a late touchdown.  Perhaps a meaningless cosmetic rearguard action that made the final score look more respectable, but when you realize it was freshman JJ McCarthy finding freshman Andrel Anthony with a critical pass block from freshman Donovan Edwards, the notes of what the future may hold. If nothing else, a small moment of joy for Michigan in a genuinely thorough processing by the Bulldogs.

Many wanted Michigan fans to be sadder about this result than we were, but in the end, nothing of what happened on the last day of 2021 can take away the other joys of 2021.  This team was not supposed to be close to here; their bowl game predictions slated for something earlier in the week in a locale more akin to Nashville.  That it wasn't, that this team slew so many of the dragons that tormented the program and the fanbase, that is the memory of this season.  It may be a new beginning, it may be a one-off, it may be, like much of life in college football's upper-middle-class, a taste of something that may be hard to get back to consistently.  We don't know because the future holds infinite paths, but only one that will become manifest.  But the past is written.  This team will come back to Michigan Stadium in 2031 and celebrate a ten-year reunion, and be applauded by a fanbase that remembers what they did and appreciates it, either for its rarity or as the beginning of something new.

Thank you, Team 142, forever Go Blue.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

All aboard the Chris Evans hype train.  Human Torch indeed. (Credit: AP / Lynne Sladky)

Having a McCray Day! (Credit: AP / Alan Diaz)

They could have quit.  They could have packed it in, failed to make adjustments (looking at you, 2007 Rose Bowl).  But they didn't.  They didn't look great, they didn't have their all-everything Heisman finalist on defense, they lost Jake Butt in the first half, and they still score 26 points in the second half and lead in the final minute of the game, as they had done in every single game this season.

The disappointment comes in knowing that in all three of Michigan's losses, all away from Michigan Stadium, Michigan led in the final minute but could not find a way to close it out.  At Iowa, it was the inability to make a first down.  At Ohio State, it was a gassed defense not having enough to prevent OSU from driving for a game-tying field goal.  In Miami, it was the confusion of Florida State's Keith Gavin hesitating to take out Kenny Allen's kickoff, only to return it 66 yards, setting up FSU's touchdown.  Even then, Josh Metellus returning the blocked PAT for a defensive two-point conversion gave Michigan a chance.  Not much of a chance, but still a chance.  But it still couldn't close when it needed to do so.  So, it comes to be how you look at the game: A loss being a loss or a loss where at least Michigan showed life when the chips were down.

This season is a disappointment, in the final analysis, but one which I am OK with, solely because you cannot be disappointed without expectations.  Michigan's senior class was 12-13 in its first two years and 20-6 in its final two years.  Harbaugh has been as good as advertised, even if Michigan does not have the hardware yet to show for it.  But I have resolved to enjoy this, good and bad, because tying your emotional state to college students is rarely a good idea.

I love a sport where two of its best coaches are grown men who go by Dabo and Jimbo.  I love a sport where the national media of the professional version cannot understand why one of the most successful coaches in the sport would want to go back to his alma mater, but everyone from that school understands it.  I love a sport which has a hilarious Twitter subculture, if you know where to look for it.  There are dark sides, there are complications, there are difficult questions that the sport faces, in the immediate future and in the longer term, ones I do not know we're prepared to answer.  But I think we can resolve to be better, kinder, less jerkass towards other fans, and especially towards the players and staff themselves, we can go a long way to getting rid of one of the most insidious parts of the game over which we actually have control.

The long desert without college football is here.  The offseason will provide its usual storylines and chaos, and efforts to answer questions that cannot fully be answered until the fall.  We salute the senior class that made us proud.  We look forward to that Saturday in Arlington, and hope it goes better than the last time.  For now, always leading, forever valiant.