2009

It was spitting down rain all morning, and it only picked up for gametime. I took one last lap around the stadium I'd always known.

If there was any justice in the world, they'd have won last year, so I didn't have high expectations. Not with Mike Hart hobbled and Chad Henne barely able to lift his arm and guys not named David Harris at linebacker. And so we yelled and screamed and Beanie Wells had 172 carries and Mario Manningham dropped 18 passes or something and Ohio State won an excruciating 14-3 game.

Sports don't really respect the storylines we want them to follow. It doesn't seem right that Hart and Henne and Long will never beat the Buckeyes, that Bo's death came on the eve of a Buckeye victory to keep Michigan out of a national title game. The 2008 Capital One Bowl is such an anomaly because it's the exit Lloyd Carr seemingly deserved, and a David-over-Goliath moment to boot.

And so 2008 came and we all had to come to the shocking realization that Michigan wasn't just mediocre, but a horrible football team. Either the talent wasn't there or it was unsuited for the new system, and Michigan wasn't coming within a country mile of a winning record. I stopped watching The Game 2008 early in the second half, because I'd sat through the whole Northwestern game and had nothing to prove, and I knew how this one was going to end.

What do you do after a year like 2008? You go back to work. You get up earlier. You stay later. You brag about it on media day to some hack with a press pass who twists your words.

But more than anything else, you get out there and work as a team.

And there are days when you see it all coming together, the inevitability of it all.

At the beginning of the season, Rich Rodriguez faced The Most Important Game Against A MAC Opponent Ever. The Freep's accusations hit the front page a week before the season started, putting it in front of maximum eyeballs. As if 3-9 wasn't enough to weigh on him. And it all vanished in a puff of smoke in the face of 31-7.

But that seems like so long ago now. It's been like this for the past six weeks: Brandon Graham is on the verge of winning the game singlehandedly, but it's just outside of his grasp.

We're nearing the end of the 130th season of Michigan football, and this finale has everyone focused. It's one last game, playing for the extra bowl practices, playing for a bus ride to downtown Detroit, and playing for a hard-fought victory over a bitter rival.

It's one more chance to come together, playing for the seniors, playing for an embattled coach, playing for pride, and playing for Michigan.

Those seniors take one last walk to the stadium on Saturday, one last chance to put it all on the field for Michigan.

And it's a chance for the future of the program to assert itself, to show what lies ahead if we allow it to grow.

That's what we all want to see. But sports don't care about storylines. Sports care about talent and scheme and execution and luck. They care about heart and grit and emotion only so far as they translate into execution, and how they can lift raw talent and focus it. If Michigan can put together a victory on Saturday, it won't be arbitrary comeuppance for OSU or some mystical force to quiet Rodriguez's detractors or any sort of karmic justice. It'll be because Michigan played better football or caught a break or two. Or twelve. We'll take every one of them. Ohio State is a vastly superior football team and should walk away with another win, unless something goes beautifully wrong. I'm hoping it does. Go Blue.

Out of Time

"We didn't deserve to beat Michigan State. But this one, we played tough, we played hard, we played 60 minutes. We just lost." – David Moosman

I am convinced, if Michigan recovers the onside kick, they win that football game. If there's anything out there that puts two more minutes on the clock for Denard Robinson, Michigan wins. The offensive line was capably handling the Iowa DL, as they (mostly) had been all game. And the defense was doing a solid job of it's own. I mean, look at how Iowa scored.

How did Iowa score?

1. Kick return starts Iowa's second drive on their own 43. Huge coverage bust where Mike Williams bites on Moeaki's fake that he's staying in to block and blitzes Stanzi.

2. Tate Forcier INT. Iowa begins the drive on the Michigan 19. The defense holds them to 8 yards and a FG.

3. Tate Forcier fumble gives Iowa the ball at their own 46. Stanzi completed one big pass for 22 yards to McNutt and then got nothing. Iowa kicked a 41-yard FG.

4. Zoltan punt. Iowa starts on their own 21. Stanzi converts one 3rd and 6 with a perfectly-thrown 33-yard pass, then an absurd 3rd and 24 to Johnson-Koulianos, who's just barely got a step on Donovan Warren. Herbstreit blames this in part on Williams being slow to get back in coverage. Iowa covers the remaining 9 yards for the TD.

5. Zoltan punt. Iowa starts on their own 24, and begins gashing the Michigan rush defense. The defense then stops the run and forces two incompletions, holding Iowa to another FG.

6. Zoltan punt from the Michigan 1 is caught at the Iowa 38, but the coverage team allows a 20-yard return. Moeaki immediately gets loose on a similar bust (don't know who was victimized there) for a TD.

So what does that look like? Three of Iowa's scoring drives start due to Michigan turnovers. One is Zoltan punting from the 1, giving Iowa a short field. On drives that started behind their own 40, Iowa got 10 points, and they had to make a ridiculous 3rd and 24 to get 7 of them. 14 points came on epic coverage busts. OK, OK, Iowa did drive down to the 1 after starting on their own 33 once, but that relied on the Mathews fumble for 33 of those yards. Iowa had 15 drives. They started (on average) from their own 38 and went 25.5 yards per drive. The defense held them to 367 yards and 30 points and scored 7 points of their own. They crushed the Iowa rushing game (2.7 YPC), got burned on 4 big pass plays, and showed signs of actual competence.

So, uh, how did Michigan score?

I'm glad you asked, alternate me.

1. Donovan Warren 40-yard pick 6.

2. Iowa FG is answered with a 12-play, 72-yard TD drive.

3. Hemingway returns an Iowa punt 7 yards to the Michigan 43. Michigan embarks on a 10-play, 57-yard TD drive featuring 7 Brandon Minor rushes, including the TD, and only one (4-yard) pass.

4. Michigan gets an extra 15 on an Iowa personal foul, starting the drive at their own 40. Denard Robinson throws a couple of completions, but mostly keeps it on the ground during the 11-play TD drive.

Michigan's TD drives took a lot of plays to develop (12 plays, 10 plays, 11 plays). They had another 5-play, 51-yard drive halted by a Minor fumble. They were able to move the ball on the Iowa defense, but not in large chunks. I'm no expert, but that gives Iowa a lot of chances to stop you when you don't have good field position. There were only 2 (of 13) underachieving drives, for me. Michigan got the ball at their own 37 and 39 and punted away on both of those. Otherwise, Michigan started (on average) from their own 28. They were dominant in running the football. The big, overwhelming problem was giving the ball away. You can't overcome 5 turnovers, even if you get a pick 6, without being much, much better than the other team. And the thing that Michigan was doing well, running the ball, became a non-factor on the last drive due to the clock situation.

What people are going to remember most about this game is that last drive, with 1:30 on the clock and Tate Forcier on the bench, and that's a shame. It's not Forcier on the bench that killed Michigan, it's the five turnovers. Iowa had good starting field position all day, thanks to Michigan's generosity. They converted that into 30 points on 367 yards of offense. And while most of those turnovers came in the middle of the field, they stopped 4 Michigan drives.

And about that Forcier thing: Something happened out there that made Rodriguez keep him off the field. Even before the benching, there were several times where Rodriguez got in his face. After the fumble, after the three-and-out from the Michigan 1, after Tate's final series. Something was wrong out there. I'm assuming Forcier wasn't making his reads correctly or listening to Rodriguez's coaching. He tried to simply walk away after the fumble, which is a dumb idea (This goes for you too, JT Floyd). I don't know if this is a Hoosiers moment like Greg thinks it is, but I don't think it's the worst call in the history of sports to bench Forcier. Yeah, Robinson looked like a panicked freshman on the last pass. Yeah, I'd rather see Forcier out there. But if it means we're a better team in the long run, I'll take it. This team has too many weaknesses to be a Big Ten title contender, so I'll trade a loss today for another win next year.

Next Year In DC

This is how Thursday went before the Michigan game:

• I had to get up at 5:15AM to guarantee I'd make it through Chicago traffic to O'Hare in time for my flight
• There was no Chicago traffic. I got to ORD 2.5 hours early. My flight was promptly delayed an hour and a half.
• When it finally took off, we had an Olympic-level screaming kid (6-ish?) who went off intermittently for the next 2.5 hours.
• Heading to the arena, my brother opted to leave his GPS in our hotel room. Consequently, we got horribly lost for 45 minutes and didn't get to the Pepsi Center until halfway through the first period of BC/NoDak
• I dropped my soft pretzel on the ground.

In between periods of North Dakota/BC, I ran into a friend of mine from the MMB, then met up with a friend from undergrad at Michigan and another friend who went to BU for law school, so things were looking up there for a minute.

Then the first period happened. Seated a row behind Joy Berenson and a row in front of Brian, I didn't know what to do. The game started with Michigan getting good pressure, even if they didn't have anything to show for it. This left me worried, to be honest. I think Sauer's the kind of goalie who needs to see a few harmless shots early to get his head in the game. The first goal was a great move and a nice shot from Ridderwalle, but it left me worried about our team getting settled. The tournament had seen a ton of teams score one goal and then another while its opponent was still reeling from the first. Sure enough, ND scored another quick one. I began thinking about our first game against the Irish, how we were outplayed in the first but clawed our way back for a win. The third goal was like a horrible dagger. A 3-0 hole is almost impossible to escape.

Hogan coming on for the second was a decision I completely agreed with, and you could see the way the team rallied around him, and the Michigan contingent that had been shell-shocked by the first period livened up. We didn't get the quick goal like we had in January, but we started to climb back into it, despite Notre Dame's defensive commitment. Chad Kolarik got us on the board first, and we counterpunched with a Matt Rust goal just 15 seconds later.

It was Chad again early in the third, tying it up and sending the Michigan crowd into a frenzy. Still, Kevin Deeth's goal halfway through the period, putting the Irish up 4-3, seemed inevitable. But we had over 9 minutes left to go, and Carl Hagelin got the lucky bounce that had eluded us all night. He threw the puck at the net and Jordan Pearce left just enough room for the puck to deflect off his skate and into the net. There was a moment of dumbfounded shock and then: ecstasy. We only needed one more. Just one more.

But Notre Dame had the legs and we didn't. After we couldn't get anything off a late powerplay, the game slipped into overtime. After the full 15-minute intermission, the Irish came out blazing. In the 5:44 played in OT, the Irish took 8 shots to Michigan's 4 and spent a ridiculous amount of time in the Michigan zone as our exhausted defenders couldn't clear the puck. Finally, Hogan made a good initial stop, but the rebound landed between the circles on Ridderwalle's stick. He didn't miss.

Other things:

• Brian mentioned it too, but the bands were ludicrously placed at the opposite endzone from where their fans were seated. This had to be deliberate; since we saw it at all three games. Friend of HSR Mike goes to every Frozen Four and said that this was the first time he'd seen an arrangement like that. Does anyone know why the NCAA did this and how to get them to stop?
• Both bands were miked and broadcast through the speakers at center ice. This made for weird phasing in the arena and things like the ND band being amplified as they heckled Sauer. Oddly enough, they never forgot to cut our band's microphones.
• As per usual at the Frozen Four, neither band was allowed to play until there were only two minutes left in intermission. Instead, NCAA promos, trivia, and "Ask Myles Brand" videos were up on the jumbotron. I hate this policy. Unless you're Colorado College, you have a pep band, so there's no good reason not to let them play. If the NCAA is worried about unfairly favoring one band, block out 5:00 for each band during the first intermission and reverse their order during the second one. The NCAA still gets 3:00 for their promos and we get to hear Blues Brothers. Win-win-win.

I've sent an email to the NCAA asking about the placement and the intermission policy. We'll see if they respond.

Another thing Brian wrote about was how the Frozen Four acts as an annual convention for people who love college hockey. After the games on Thursday, and again on Saturday, I went to the bar with fans of Michigan, BU, North Dakota, Michigan Tech, UNH, Maine, Alaska-Anchorage, and Wisconsin. From Thursday through Sunday, it seemed like anywhere I looked around Denver there was someone in North Dakota gear. Around the arena I saw people in the following team jerseys:

Alaska[-Fairbanks]
Alaska-Anchorage
Bemidji State
Boston College
Boston University
Bowling Green
Clarkson
Colorado College
Cornell
Denver
Ferris State
Lake State
Maine
Mercyhurst
Miami
Michigan
Michigan State
Michigan Tech
Minnesota
Minnesota State-Mankato
Minnesota-Duluth
Nebraska-Omaha
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Northeastern
Notre Dame
Ohio State
RPI
St. Cloud State
UMass
Vermont
Wayne State
Wisconsin

I saw the entire WCHA represented, all of the CCHA but Western and Northern (though I did see a guy in a Northern sweatshirt), 70% of Hockey East, and a few other teams. Had I seen the Wayne State jersey after the game, I would have bought the poor guy a drink. A wide variety of NHL jerseys were also represented, along with a few more random jerseys: A Jim Craig "Miracle On Ice" one, two from Syracuse, an Illinois, a Soviet team jersey, a Hasek Czech Republic jersey, a Pacioretty one from juniors, etc. Michigan Berenzweig, Halko, and Nick Martens jerseys were also sighted.

Even though we didn't pull it off, I was proud of how our team responded over the final 2+ periods of its season. And I managed to have a better time in the Mile-High City after we lost than I'd been having before it. I hung out with people I hadn't seen in years, met new people to drink with, watched three college games live and three NHL ones on TV, geeked out at Wings Over the Rockies, and headed out into the mountains for a couple hours before my flight home. Not a bad experience.

Most of the people who had been in the Michigan section showed up for the championship game on Saturday night. As people drifted off after watching Boston College easily deal with a much shakier Notre Dame, you heard a common refrain: "Next year in DC."

WTI: The End of an Era

This edition of WTI is solely about Lloyd Carr, his retirement, his legacy, and the future of the program. Tomorrow we'll look into the MMB's season with some more football content.

Geoff:	Everyone's known for the last week, but Lloyd Carr made it official today. He's stepping down from his spot as our head coach.
Craig:	It is the end of a 13 year era which, depending on whom you talk to, was a success, a failure, or a maddening enigma.
Geoff:	By turns, I'd say it's been all three.
Geoff:	This is a huge turning point in the program's history. Not since Bo signed on for the 1969 season has the program had to look for its next scion.
Craig:	In many ways, it's the 2008 election of Michigan football, no clear successor, lots of speculation, and a very long run up to the actual decision
Geoff:	Lloyd Carr has done tremendous things for this football team.
Craig:	And for the University.
Geoff:	I'll never, ever forget the magical run in 1997. I was still a junior in high school then, but I dragged my best friend and his flu-like symptoms to the Notre Dame game. I made it to a few more that year too, and I was there for the 1997 Michigan-Ohio State epic and the '98 Rose Bowl.
Craig:	As I stated in my Coach Carr encomium, he is my coach, and I don't know that I have ever wavered from that. You just don't quit on someone because they aren't winning up to the exceptionally lofty standards one has set in their head. Yes, we were maddened at turns by some of the losses, but we overlook some of the comebacks.
Jeremy:	I'd gone to a few games before Lloyd, but he was the face of the program for my formative years.

Geoff:	The first game I remember attending was in '89, so I have some memories of Bo, and more of Moeller, but the Carr era is the one I belong to.
Craig:	The Moeller era, for me, is a nebulous space where I have memories of it, but they are all specifically vague.
Jeremy:	On a micro scale, sure you can pick apart his losses and maddening tendencies, but on a macro scale, by which he'll later be analyzed, he improved the program's winning percentage. By any standard Michigan uses, he deserves his own building on the Athletic Campus. It's as simple as that.
Geoff:	You realize that 4 of the top 6 Big Ten coaches all-time were Michigan men? Schembechler, Yost, Crisler, and Carr?
Craig:	And, we must always remember this...Lloyd Carr did this in the first generation of head coaches in the scholarship limited era, competing after so many of Bo's advantages had been whittled away – Deregulation of college football on television leading to so much more national exposure, the internet, recruiting services, and 24/7 talk radio have all served to level the playing field.
Craig:	But let us please be clear that no one forced Lloyd Carr out. Coach Carr saw an opportunity to leave, at a time when it would likely be best for the school and the program, and he is taking it because, I suspect, he'd like to have a life that is more than just football. Can we begrudge a man for wanting to enjoy his retirement?
Jeremy:	Those stories are just as ridiculous as all the previous years of him being "on the hot seat" after three losses.
Geoff:	He's always said he's not taking the Paterno way out, or even the Bowden one.
Craig:	And there's nothing wrong with the Paterno or Bowden way, but merely, it is a choice.
Craig:	Can we also be clear that Michigan is not like a lot of other schools in that our hot seat is not the same as other places? Michigan is not an SEC or Big XII South school in that regard. Michigan's values are first and foremost a winning program with integrity. And the Fab Five era makes us exceptionally wary of anything that looks even a little sketchy.
Geoff:	Lloyd's program has never had the faintest whiff of scandal about it. Players may have showed up on the police blotter (Perfect Offseason Forever), but the program has always stayed clean.
Jeremy:	I've always trusted Lloyd to handle disciplinary situations properly, and IIRC, he's always done the right thing. Whether it be dismissing someone from the team or letting the system take its course
Craig:	And, honestly, we've all read Crime Notes, is Michigan's football program, statistically, any worse in some of these regards than the university population at large?
Craig:	And, by the way, the guys who have come back with the 60–60–6:00 program have been pretty much model citizens upon their return.
Geoff:	Do enough steps, you learn your lesson.
Jeremy:	They're probably better. I doubt anyone on the football team has triggered a smoke alarm with an overcooked pop tart, or assaulted a UHS employee with a picture frame.
Geoff:	We've been talking about the kind of program Lloyd has built, but this new era is upon us. Right now, Michigan is a high-level program, on the outside of the elite. Over the last 13 years, we have a .750 winning percentage, and we know that will be the Mendoza line for anyone who comes in.
Craig:	By the way, I need to put that in perspective. 8-4 is .667, 9-3 is .750 That ONE win is HUGE!
Geoff:	You look around college football, and you see what can happen with a new hire for the better (Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll) or for the worse (Solich/Callahan, Weis).
Craig:	Indeed. What every Michigan fan, whether they want to admit it, or can admit it, is they want to trade Cooper for Tressel. Now, I am not saying Lloyd Carr is our John Cooper. But John Cooper was not a bad coach. It's just that Jim Tressel has become the coach that Buckeye fans have wanted since Woody.
Craig:	But do you know how rare, how truly rare, that kind of trading up is? Look at Florida, they had to take their Zookian lumps before landing Meyer.
Jeremy:	We want that pendulum to swing back in our direction now.
Craig:	USC hated Carroll when he was hired. There were torches and pitchforks in the Southlands.
Geoff:	Cooper->Tressel is the gold standard for a program that wasn't in trouble going for the elite.
Craig:	It's interesting. Everyone says "Don't go NFL if you want to avoid a Nebraska/Notre Dame issue", but what did USC do? At the same time, USC had fallen off; we forget that given what they have become once more.
Geoff:	I have confidence we aren't going to hire a Charlie Weis. And, if we do, we won't hamstring ourselves with an onerous buyout like they did.
Craig:	I agree. I have a lot of faith in Bill Martin's doing this and doing this right, because this is a business decision as much as anything. Bill Martin knows this is his legacy on the line. This and the renovation. He's going to do everything he can to get it just right.
Jeremy:	He handled the Beilein hiring very well.
Geoff:	I think we need to be prepared for an interesting ride that could last into the first week of January.
Craig:	And he handled the Beilein hire in a way that gives me a lot of confidence in the idea of he's going to do it right. And he's going to start by saying as little as humanly possible to the media.
Geoff:	Again, with the Beilein hiring, we waited until we had a clear shot at the guy we wanted.
Craig:	Can we clarify something else? A Michigan Man does not necessitate someone who has ties to Michigan in the past. It is someone who embodies the values which Michigan Men (and Women) represent and holds the University and its interests dearest to his heart.
Geoff:	It's a straightforward guy who's about the school, not himself. About the team, not just the guy with the headset. He has to see himself (or herself) as part of the tradition we have at Michigan and, like you said, goes about the task of winning with integrity.
Craig:	So, just because we want a Michigan man does not mean that Michigan man has to be connected to Michigan. As I have been thinking about this, I want the best candidate for the job, not necessarily the popular one or the flashy one (particularly not the last one.) And that will be the hardest part. Callahan blew up every ounce of tradition at Nebraska and it became just another Big XII school. The new era will need to blend a reverence for tradition and heritage without being beholden to the old ways simply because it was what always done.
Geoff:	Right. Abandoning the triple option was one thing, abandoning the idea of what the 'Huskers are is another.
Craig:	Like destroying your massive walk-on program.
Jeremy:	The title of Michigan Man is earned, not given exclusively.
Craig:	So we can speculate all we want about whom, and toss names around, but in the end, it's like theorizing what you would do if you won the lottery, fun to speculate, but not likely going to matter much down the line.
Geoff:	I think Michigan is going to look for long-term success. I think they're going to take a full, fair look at all the candidates out there. I think Lloyd will have input, but Bill Martin has reminded everyone that the buck stops with the AD. I think Ferentz is a ridiculous idea, but Brian Kelly will get a look. And I think Les Miles has a 2/3 chance of becoming our next head football coach.
Craig:	Ron English gets an interview. I promise you this.
Geoff:	Mike Debord gets a buyout.
Jeremy:	I think we go through the motions and ultimately get Miles.
Geoff:	The longer this drags on, the more likely it's Miles.
Craig:	I think it's also important that we do not burn any bridges or make any enemies in this process.
Geoff:	Martin will handle everything quietly.
Geoff:	Let's get prepared for a flurry of media coverage without any real answers coming out.
Craig:	So, final thoughts. Certainly thank you, Coach Carr, for everything. That's as simple as I can think to put it. And to the next guy, I hope you know what you're getting into. Because we don't mind if you don't mind, because we don't shine if you don't shine.
Geoff:	Whatever happens, it's the end of an era. I'm worried about what could come next, but excited for the future. Thanks to our coach for 13 years of service and a national title.
Jeremy:	28 years of service.
Jeremy:	I hope we miss Coach Carr, but not ever in a regretful way. May he continue to be an outstanding ambassador for the University and not keep too low of a profile.
Craig:	And as Jam22 said, he needs to go out and spend some of that money. :)
Craig:	Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving to all...and good night.

Bearing A Grudge

Saturday's kickoff will be, down to the minute, exactly 6 years after the one that started the 2001 Michigan-Michigan State game, better known to me and my friends as The Clock Game. No single game rankles more than this this one; not the Notre Dame Phantom Touchdown, not the I Hate The Sun Belt Alamo Bowl fiasco. The only one that comes close is the 1990 Desmond In The Endzone No-Call, but that was 17 years ago and even that pain eventually dulls. This one was special, just a total mess at the end. Officials, players, nobody did anything right.

I woke up early that morning and got on the trumpet bus to East Lansing. It was my first away game with the band, and I didn't know what to expect. Mostly sleeping until we got to East Lansing, then a lot of waiting in traffic. We headed right for the stadium and got ready to disembark in full uniform. On the artificial turf, we did a full rehearsal of our show for the week (A classical show with music from Fantasia – Sorceror's Apprentice, Pines of Rome, Rhapsody In Blue, Berceuse – Finale) and pre-game, then sat around with a boxed lunch. The Jumbotron and PA system were already up and running, vamping through a few segments. One of them had Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" as its backing track, and it played so many times that I went from liking the song to tolerating it to wanting to murder Timbaland with my bare hands.

Finally it was time for pregame. We were probably booed loudly, but I didn't hear anything but the drums and the rest of the band until we were back on the sidelines watching the Spartan Marching Band do that weird hitch thing they have in their entrance. Some doofus with foam muscles came out, and this was somehow inspiring to the Spartan faithful.

On the opening drive, we finally had MSU stopped at 4th and 11 on our 32 and they sent out the punting unit for an Incredibly Surprising Fake Punt. On the ensuing play, Charles Rogers drew a flag for pass interference that we all agreed was complete and total crap (Note: I've never seen a tape of this game). Two plays later, obviously it's Rogers catching a TD.

Michigan moved the ball on its first drive, but stalled out in the zone where I thought we'd be seeing a pooch punt. Instead, Hayden Epstein came on to kick a monster 57-yard field goal.

Taking a break from the action on the field, there is something walking up and down the sidelines calling itself "Willie Wolverine". Nobody knows what's up with this thing. It's a full-body wolverine costume outfitted in pads and a football uniform that looks somewhat unlicensed. The head looks like it might be papier mache. Is this a try-out for a new official mascot? Did someone make it himself? Is it a Spartan plant? I heard later that it was just some guy in a homemade costume who talked his way onto the field (nice security, MSU), but I don't know whether that's true.

Meanwhile, MSU marched back up the field on us, but the defense managed to hold them to a 51-yard Dave Rayner field goal try, which missed. Navarre led off the drive back the other way with a 22-yard pass to Marquis Walker. BJ Askew carried most of the load the for another 31 yards on 6 carries until Navarre again found Walker, this time in the endzone on a 14-yard pass to give us a 10-7 lead.

The Spartans answered with a solid kick return and a 63-yard, 10-play drive. TJ Duckett and Dawan Moss carried the load, gaining 41 on the ground and Duckett scoring on a two-yard TD run. But the key play was a 3rd down on the Michigan 13 where Charles Rogers again drew a PI call on a Michigan defender. I remember this one as marginally less fraudulent, but it was another penalty giving Michigan State extra chances to score.

The Spartans pinned us deep in our own territory to start the next drive, kicking a touchback. But Walker and Navarre hit a big pass of 38 yards to move us across the 50 and connected again on a 32-yard TD pass. The half ended with Michigan staking a somewhat surprising 17-14 lead, given the way Duckett was running.

The halftime show was one of the best of my career in the MMB. I just remember being really nervous, but hitting my marks and knowing the music cold. "Rhapsody In Blue" featured a big, fast follow-the-leader section that we'd worked on a lot. "Berceuse & Finale" was majestic. We were met with mostly indifference, which is as good as you can expect up there.

We got the ball to open the second half, but didn't do anything with it. MSU came pounding down the field the other way. They made it all the way to the 9, and then it looked like TJ Duckett scored the go-ahead TD. Except for the flag on the field. Holding. On the repeated 3rd down, Shantee Orr came in and sacked Smoker for a 7-yard loss. Dave Rayner missed his second field goal of the day, a 44-yard attempt.

But Evil Navarre had come out of the locker room for the second half, and the rest of the offense wasn't making up for him. Near the end of the 3rd quarter, Navarre threw a pick near midfield that Duron Bryan returned to our 38. Duckett carried the ball on all six ensuing plays, but MSU had to settle for a 27-yard Rayner chip-shot FG to tie the game.

Evil Navarre wasn't yet finished with us. He threw another pick to Bryan, this time well inside our own territory. Bryan returned this one to the 29, and things were looking bad, but the defense rose up. I didn't realize how bad it was at the time, but Smoker was getting absolutely hammered all day by the pass rush. He was sacked for the tenth (10th!) time as the Spartan drive went backwards out of FG range.

The offense couldn't get any traction, and Michigan State kept moving the ball on a defense that must have been a little tired by now, and the pass rush couldn't crush everything. Smoker hooked up with Rogers for 29 yards, and Duckett had a 27-yard run on another Spartan drive that went deep into Michigan territory, but again they had to settle for a FG from Rayner, this time from 26 yards out.

But eventually that pass rush had to come up with something, and Smoker finally put the football on the ground. Grant Bowman picked it up at the MSU 38, giving Navarre and Co. a short field to work with. There were only two significant plays on the drive, but Calvin Bell took a reverse for 21 yards to move us a lot closer. Then, on 3rd and 13, we went 5-wide and Jermaine Gonzales hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Navarre to put us up 24-20 with 4:44 left to play. It was completely insane, and it worked. Marquise Walker probably had about 7 guys on him, because nobody else was catching anything all day, but our backup QB was open for one huge reception.

We almost gave it all back immediately. Herb Haygood took the kickoff and ran it out to midfield. But the defense was good enough to force a punt, which Marquise Walker was dumb enough to field inside our own 5 instead of hoping for the touchback. He made it to the 7. We of course ran it into the line three times, if memory serves, and punted it away with 2:28 left. Epstein did his best, but MSU came up with it on our 44.

Immediately Smoker was sacked again by Shantee Orr. Another two incompletions, and it was 4th and 16. The pass fell incomplete. But Jeremy LeSueuer had committed an obvious and blindingly stupid illegal hands to the face penalty, giving MSU a fresh set of downs. MSU then converted another 3rd down pass to save their drive.

Michigan responded with another huge sack of Smoker with 0:36 left in the ballgame. But then a flag came in for illegal participation.

On the field, I assumed that we'd just been dumb enough to play with 12 men and I was furious about that. But look at the video. I only count 11 at first, just like Brandstatter. If you let it go a little bit, there's a guy way in the backfield that could either be a Michigan player or a ref, it's too grainy for me to tell. I'd like to rip them a new one, but it might be legit. At any rate, we had to play on. LeSueuer broke up a 3rd down pass in the endzone, but Duckett reeled in the 4th down try to give State a first down on our 3. Smoker successfully executed the spike and we called a timeout.

On the next play, Smoker rolled the pocket right, then pulled down the football and ran. I thought I felt the earth open up under me. I saw the hole and I saw the game end and...then Marlin Jackson and Jon Shaw tackled him. I didn't know if it was in time, I kept looking for the officials to signal a touchdown, but it never came. There were 7 seconds left on the clock and MSU was frantically trying to get lined up for the spike. 4...3...2...1...0. WE WIN! Wait. Where's zero? Where the hell is zero? That clock should've run out, there is no way that clock didn't run out. That ball did NOT hit the ground with any time left in the game. This is BULLSHIT. Oh, Jesus. They have one more play. Christ, we're going to lose. Smoker drops back, Duckett's waving his arms around, wide open, I can see an egregious uncalled hold on Larry Stevens from 90 YARDS AWAY and where is the damn flag this time? but there goes the football and Duckett has it. This is such bullshit. Robert Flagg, of Carol City, FL, recognizable by his gold-plated grill, comes over to spit at our band.

We're supposed to play a postgame concert with the SMB, but we're hustled out of there before there's a chance for an incident. Jeering awaits us on the other side of the tunnel, but we make it back to their band hall without any real trouble. Most of the SMB members adopt the attitude of "This was completely sketchy, but you will pry this win from our cold, dead fingers," which isn't too galling to take. We got back on our buses and headed back to Ann Arbor, filled with a hate that would linger.

In 2002 we won 49-3 and Bobby Williams was fired.

Life Lessons from a Whiz Kid

This would be the normal spot where the alumni showdown would go for this week, but since I believe I am part of the problem, I've decided to put the feature on hiatus for the time being. But I still have content to provide.

I didn't want to raise comparisons to last weekend's unpleasantness to Vietnam, but since Orson did over at EDSBS, well, the door is open. And that got me to thinking about Robert McNamara. A former Ann Arbor resident, Secretary McNamara is one of the most fascinating men of the 20th century. And while I await the great biography of McNamara that awaits to be written, the detail provided by David Halberstam in The Best and the Brightest and the insights I have gleaned from repeated assigned showings of Errol Morris' The Fog of War have given me some insight into the complex man who served as President of Ford in 1961, Secretary of Defense from 1961-1967 and as President of the World Bank from 1967-1981. In The Fog of War, Errol Morris punctuates the various segments of the film with "Life Lessons" that he gleaned from conversations and discussions with Mr. McNamara in the process of making the film. Those 11 lessons are my jumping off point for today as I attempt to use them to make sense of the state of Michigan football.

The Life Lessons of Robert McNamara, as applied to Michigan Football.

Lesson #1: Empathize with your enemy.

In this sense, Michigan utterly failed last weekend, both as a team and as a fan base. I will not presume to speak for the team, but I will make a few presumptions to speak for the fans: We did not empathize with our opponent, we failed to consider the distinct possibility that Appalachian State was going to come out that Saturday and play to win, especially when they had nothing to lose. We presumed that they were there to collect a paycheck and to get some national exposure. We did not see that talent alone could not win the game. What's worse is that Michigan failed to defend its home soil. The Mountaineers were a team far away from Boone, North Carolina, and yet they never played like they were scared in the least, and if they were scared, they certainly did not show it. We failed to understand that they wanted to win and respect that in them.

Lesson #2: Rationality will not save us.

McNamara was talking in this respect about the potential for a nuclear exchange and the limits of mutually assured destruction as a form of deterrence. In my understanding here, simply breaking down the reasons why Michigan lost last weekend will not save us as fans. We may point to the very valid arguments about why Appalachian State won, every rational argument to be made, and we may point to very valid reasons why Michigan lost, but that is not the point. The point is that college football is a game of reputation, a game based on history, tradition, and heritage. But to rest of those things, to simply presume that by merely showing up, our team, let alone any team, would win is arrogance, and it's the worst kind of arrogance, the kind of arrogance that Michigan fans staunchly defend ourselves against when accused of it. If we serve as cautionary tale for ourselves, let alone any other football team, let alone any other sporting team in the country, then we should be grateful that we have salvaged something positive out of this miserable experience.

Lesson #3: There's something beyond one's self.

The team, the team, the team. We treasure the notions of Bo's words as Michigan fans, but we also see Michigan teams that fail to live up to that maxim. We're fans, we want to support the team, we want to be proud of the team that represents the school that many of us hold dear for whatever reason. We want to believe in something larger than ourselves and being a Michigan fan gives us lease on that notion. It's something we share, something we value, perhaps a little too much, but something that gives us a backdrop against which we can weave the tapestry of the moments of our real lives. But in taking those highs and the glory, we must also take the lows and the pain.

Lesson #4: Maximize efficiency.

I can't disagree with this one, and given Mike Hart's yards per carry, it would seem that he does not either. Let's go down and get points every time we have the ball. Let's chew up the clock. Let's make sure we're not shooting ourselves in the foot with procedure penalties. Let us be an efficient strike force that casts fear into the hearts of our opposition.

Lesson #5: Proportionality should be a guideline in war.

OK, if war is the socially acceptable stand-in for football, we can make this work. There are those who want Michigan to go out and beat teams like Eastern Michigan, and Northwestern, and Notre Dame by eleventy billion, and while that may make us feel a little better, in the end, it's hollow. Wins like that don't tell you anything about your own team, you just want them so you know you have the game locked up and you can rest your starters. Running up the score for the sake of running up the score, it's like inflating the body count numbers in Vietnam: it's flashy for the Five O'Clock Follies (which, if you have ever watched Around the Horn, seems apt), but it doesn't tell the true story of what is happening in the field. If we are in a position to win and win big, let us keep things in perspective.

Lesson #6: Get the data.

Several weeks ago on EDSBS Live, I made my case against pre-season polling, in the sense that we just don't have the data to know what is right or wrong, just presumptions, assumptions, and speculation.

Michigan's glaring flaws on defense, so vividly exposed in the final two games of 2006 were treated as a fixable deviation from the norm by many pollsters, ignoring the loss of significant talent to the NFL at each level of the defense, presuming that the roster would just plug in new guys and hit the ground running. And that's a wonderful compliment from the mainstream media and the coaches (or whomever in the athletic department) who vote in the polls, but it was a guess. They guessed wrong this time, and they adjusted accordingly.

Based on the data, Michigan doesn't deserve to be in the top 25 this week. If the team recovers this week and beats Oregon, well, then they have something they can point to and make the argument. But until such time, based on the small sample size that exists, it's a difficult argument to be made.

Lesson #7: Belief and seeing are both often wrong.

The obvious conclusion to draw here would be that, based on what we saw last week, Michigan is either:

a). Going to fix everything this week in practice, run the table, and send Coach Carr out with a Rose Bowl win.

b). The worst Michigan team in recorded history.

The reality is that neither one is true. Darn it, we should know better. The former is belief, the latter is seeing, granted the worst possible vision, but you know, we're in pain. There are flaws, flaws we had been willing to overlook, or magically presume that they would go away, that have been there for years. The beauty of college football is the chance to believe in perennial rebirth. No one is there for more than five years, save the coaching staff, so it is too often presumed that what was once a problem will magically disappear with the next batch of players, especially when you have such top level talent coming into the program year in and year out. We have a tremendous amount of belief, hell, let's call it what it is, faith, in Michigan football, and yet, we spend every year wondering not if the shoe would drop, but when, save that one glorious year when the lack of shoe dropping was it's own special kind of shoe dropping, the one that made us doubt that the shoe HAD to come, which is even more dangerous than knowing the shoe will drop at some point, because we had been seduced into thinking that maybe it didn't always have to be like this. Think about last year for a moment: Ask yourself how often you waited for it to all go wrong, and yet, when we kept winning, or escaping, we either waited for the shoe to drop the next week, or we forgot about it until we went to Columbus. My point is that we believe the worst will happen virtually every week, and yet we ignore obvious signs to us that we can see that things nearly did go wrong. Somewhere between faith and reason lies the truth.

Lesson #8: Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.

My friend Mike has made a case to me that there is a tendency in some corners to believe that years of playing NCAA Football/Madden makes a not small percentage of people think they know exactly how to coach football and moreover, exactly how to fix what ails their football team. Of course, I stuck myself in NCAA Football 08 as a 5'11'' 295 pound Michigan fullback with 4.6 40-speed who won the Heisman Trophy his freshman year by breaking the NCAA single season rushing mark, so I know that it's a deception to believe that what works in a video game has any connection to reality. That said, it was none too subtly argued by Orson that Michigan has on its sidelines the best football minds 1983 has to offer. A willingness for the Michigan coaching staff to reevaluate what is working, what is not, and how adjustments can be made, both during the week and during the game, couldn't hurt, could it?

Lesson #9: In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.

OK, maybe not evil, but is play-action out of the question? Is a trick play that does not involve the words "screen pass" possible? I know, you don't open up the playbook in Week 1, but still.

Lesson #10: Never say never.

If we were truly honest with ourselves, as Michigan fans, we never allowed the possibility that Michigan might lose that game, let alone would lose that game enter our heads. And why should we have at that point, save the fact that you cannot ever say never. We should have allowed at least the possibility it might happen enter our head, if only to perhaps take seriously the threat posed by what losing would mean to us as fans, to Michigan as a program, and to the sporting nation as a whole. But we did not. We cannot change this fact in retrospect. We were wrong, horribly, horribly wrong. But we can learn from it: We can respect any opponent for that which maybe cannot show up on game film. We can take every game seriously and understand that while they may not always have the same meaning in the end, they do matter for that week at least, and a bad win is always better than a hard-fought loss. And we cannot be afraid of what we can do simply because we have always done thing a certain way. We must find a way to blend tradition with innovation, we must evolve or risk becoming truly irrelevant.

Lesson #11: You can’t change human nature.

I think this was the hardest lesson of all to learn this past weekend, knowing that the single biggest emotion to come out of this result was not anger, or loathing, or fear, or anguish or rage on the part of our own fans, but consistently of schadenfreude from fans of not only Big Ten rival teams, but on a national level as well. Watching the sheer joy some took in seeing Michigan fail was stunning to me, though it should not have been. Michigan is a nationally prominent program, steeped in heritage which we as fans love to point to as being the reason we are what we are as a program. So to become the first AP ranked team to fall to an FCS school, a moment of college football infamy, we should have seen that coming. I think I had deluded myself into thinking that Michigan's Scandinavian nature, as I have already laid out in lesson #7, was well and truly understood by fans around the country. That we did not take as much joy out of college football because, much like Michigan seemed to always play games not to lose, we rooted for Michigan not to lose. Not for Michigan to win, for Michigan not to lose. It's not that uncommon a thinking when you actually take a look at the data, but somehow, we had perfected it, or so it seemed. In my mind, this made Michigan different, in the sense that somehow that would lessen the need for schadenfreude. And perhaps in several respects, it did. I know for me, I cannot ignore the dozens of my friends and colleagues who asked me how I was doing, and when they asked me what went wrong, they wanted to know not to rub it in, but because they were curious from the view from my perspective, from a Michigan perspective. Because maybe as the initial shock of the result wore off for all of us, we as Michigan fans began to realize that good can come out of this if we're willing to learn some hard lessons that are staring us in the face, and a nation of fans of other teams began to realize that there, but for the grace of a defense that can slow down a spread option attack, goes my team.

Much like McNamara implies in the film, the goal of the statement of these life lessons is not to break new ground with their profound wisdom, but to get us to consider how what he has learned in his life can be used going forward to impart wisdom to those who lack experience. The situation of this past Saturday can never come again. It was not only a perfect storm of an experienced team, lower division they might be, coming into a game with nothing to lose, and playing their hearts out against a traditional power who failed to take the risks associated with the game seriously, or at the very least, appeared to fail to take them seriously. No one can ever pull this upset off again, its uniqueness lies in its position as the first major upset of its kind. There may be bigger upsets, there may be more shocking results on the scoreboard, but because this was the first of its kind, it cannot be replicated. Let us learn lessons from this so we may never make them again and let us head into this Saturday's matchup with our eyes wide open.

The HSR Guide for Incoming Freshmen: Game Day In The MMB

Thanks to everyone who commented last week on my Band Week Guide For Incoming Freshmen. There was a lot of good material in the responses. Craig also wrote up his guide to game day for incoming freshmen, and it's very good. However, it's not really relevant to anyone in the marching band. Your Saturday morning is going to be a very, very different experience, so I'd like to give you an idea of what you're getting into.

Saturday Begins On Friday
On Friday, check your equipment, make sure you have clean spats and gloves. If not, make your purchases now. If you can't find a yuba strap, this'll give you the opportunity to get to a shoe store and buy one of those really thin laces (In black, of course). Buy a Bo-style baseball cap with the Block M and nothing else on the front and bring it with you for game day. Brass, polish up your horn.

Appalachian State is a noon game, so you're guaranteed to have an 8:00AM practice. Mark it down now. Sometimes with a 3:30 game they'll push practice back a bit, but this will be an 8:00. For those rehearsals, I usually ended getting up at 5:30 (I lived in Markley my freshman year. You can get away with a later time if you're closer). Partying is out of the question, really, and you're going to value every extra minute of sleep. I could never manage to fall asleep before midnight, but try to get what you can. Guys, you'll want to shave either on Friday night or not at all. The plastic chin strap will irritate the skin too much if you shave on Saturday morning.

Fire Up, It's Saturday!
When you wake up, check the weather. You're probably going to want to dress in layers, especially if it's a sunny day. A lot of Saturdays, you'll end up walking down in sweats and a jacket but stripping down to the regulation shorts and t-shirt by the time marching rehearsal begins, even the reserves. Bring sunglasses. Half the time it's impossible to see the tower without them.

My 5:30 alarm gave me enough time to get a shower in, wake up a little, check my gear, and walk down from Markley to Revelli Hall by 7:15 or so. Having extra time will allow you to grab a bagel and/or coffee at the hall, and both were quite cheap when I was in the band. It's also useful for that one time when you can't find your black socks or you can only locate one shoe in the bottom of the closet. Oh, and a tip on carrying your uniform: If you're tall enough without the garment bag dragging, you can hook it into the top handle of your backpack. It'll flop around a bit against your legs, and you'll need a little more space in your locker, but it's less annoying than shifting it between your arms every five minutes. Once you get out to Elbel, take a few minutes to look over the music again, get stretched out, etc. The usual stuff. Remember: You need your hat with plume and yuba for Saturday rehearsal.

Practice will consist of warm-ups, then regular music rehearsal, followed by marching rehearsal for block members. During marching rehearsal, reserves shouldn't wander too far. Do they still hand out jobs while the rest of the band marches? They did when I was around. Everyone should do water bottle duty at some point, but it's easiest on a cooler day against a bad team. OK, the bad team part doesn't really make it easier, it just means you don't regret missing the game as much.

Whenever practice lets out, lunch begins (~10:00, usually). I recommend the hot dog stand on Hoover Street at the railroad tracks, because grilled >> boiled. Don't stuff yourself or you'll regret it. In the choice between nausea or being starving in the third quarter, I'll choose starving by a wide margin. For me, that meant that a dog and a Coke was my lunch.

Family members may request that you visit them during lunch. This is fine if they're parked at Elbel or the Coliseum, but if they're out at Pioneer, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. It's a longer walk and you have less time than you think. Make them come to you if they insist.

Give yourself plenty of time to get your uniform on. If you go early, you'll have a lot more room, which I always appreciated, an it's your last chance to control your own schedule. Take the time to make a last stop at the bathroom before putting on the uniform. Find a spot in the bibbers to stuff your Bo-style hat. Some hats you can snap around one of the suspenders. If you have an extra yuba, you can even thread it through one of the ventilation holes in the hat and tie it to the bibbers.

I Love a Parade
It's a long series, and rank moves aren't really stressed during Band Week, so you're bound to miss a couple of cues. Look to older band members and follow what they do. As you approach the parking lot to Michigan Stadium, half ranks will be called for and some people will forget where to go. You may have to improvise. Just make sure you end up with six people in each rank and nobody will know the difference. Remember: rank moves are verboten after the stop for Parking Lot Victors, but vocals are still good (Again, is this still the case?).

With the band so stretched out, it's hard to hear whistles at the steps, especially in the reserves. Do your best, let everyone around you know what's next, and follow any visual cues for "Let's Go Blue" and "The Victors". Don't let anybody cut through the band. When reserves are dismissed, run down the tunnel like a crazy person. Skip if you want to. Slap hands with all the little kids hanging over the railing. Enjoy every second of it.

Game On
Reserves, find your seat, then make sure people don't cut through the section. If you're a freshman third trumpet, you don't get to sit in the front row, dude. Wait for the show to begin, and then be LOUD. When the block members get into the stands, they get the water bottles first, even if it's 90 and you're dying. The drum cheers between plays take a little while to pick up on, so keep your ears open and pay attention to people who've been there before. The MMB does not participate in the Wave, nor do we boo anyone (and I think hissing is bush league). Your cape is not to be used as a penalty flag. If you aren't hoarse by the end of the game, don't give up. You can be louder next time. After the '99 Notre Dame game I sounded like Tom Waits for the next three days.

Apples will be served during the third quarter. Eat quickly, as there's no telling when you'll have to play again and the box will soon be coming back for the cores.

When Michigan wins, we turn our hats backward. It can be tricky to find the right chin strap setting for this at first. When the post-game concert is over, you'll want to tighten it up so that your hat doesn't flop into your face due to a particularly vigorous rank move.

Following the post-game concert, line up in half ranks for the parade back to the stadium. This can be a little trickier than it sounds. Again, just make sure you have six in a row. Shortly after you start moving, it'll be time for quarter ranks, which will again lead to some improvising before you emerge from the tunnel in half ranks. Given how early it is in the season, you probably won't have special rank moves for the way back (Flying Camels, anyone?).

When you get back to Revelli, you'll be exhausted and soaked in sweat. This is when your family will decide to take you out for dinner. It's times like these when it can pay off to bring a change of clothes, because otherwise your choices become 1) Go back to the dorm to change while the other 100,000 people get in line in front of you at Cottage Inn OR 2) Find yourself all alone at the far end of the table (Personally, I never chose 2). Whatever you go for, there's a solid chance you'll fall asleep at the table.

There's Got To Be a Morning After
There are four home games in September. Four! In the hottest month of football season. Pick two games of those and take your uniform down to Revelli for dry cleaning on Sunday. Trust me, everyone will appreciate it. AT LEAST take it in once, otherwise it becomes a biohazard. You don't want that thing lurking in your closet.

On Maize

HSR details the history of Michigan football season t-shirt design and its effects on the football program.

ON SHIRT DESIGN

Back in 2003, the athletic department offered the chance for students to design a t-shirt for the football season. The incentives were obvious for both sides: Free labor for the U, a chance to make a buck (you don't hate supporting Michigan, do you?) and a portfolio boost for the winner.

The 2003 student-designed season football shirt got the program off to an excellent start, with its now-iconic winged helmet logo, the flashy-but-still-traditional block lettering, the old-school thin block M, and the Space-Bitches list of football facts on the back. The 2004 shirt took a step backward with its absurd lowercase sans serif font and blurry abstraction of a running back (the exact opposite of the iconic graphic from 2003).
The 2005 shirt had an oddly cropped oil painting on the back, but at least the front had an appropriate image and font. Although they took the design out of the students' hands for 2006, that season shirt returned to its proper maize roots. Unfortunately, the listing of University stats on the back made it sound like a collaboration between Nike and the Alumni Association. When I'm traveling the country on road games, sharing the fact that UM has students from 80 countries is not going to convince anyone our football team is great. 2007's shirt is nothing exciting, with a decent logo and just the home games on the back. It doesn't do anything wrong, either, though. Except that it has "Appalachian State Mountaineers" listed among our opponents, which is weird because they're a I-AA team, and Michigan doesn't schedule them. I'll have to contact Bill Martin about that one. ON BLUE

The University started promoting color unification with the 2002 with a "Blue Out" against MSU and "Maize Out" for the Penn State game. However, selling a blue season shirt or encouraging people to wear anything besides maize (jerseys are the one exception) is a terrible idea that should never have happened. Here's why.

1. The 2005 season shirt should never have been blue.

The designer submitted a maize shirt, which, after it became University property, was announced as the winning design... on a blue shirt. They pulled it out from under her. After enough backlash, the athletic department held a poorly publicized vote to determine the winning color. A whole 3,000 people voted in it and blue somehow won by 100 votes.

Of course, this vote was based on something that shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. The t-shirt design contest information packet said "the color of the shirt will be designated by the submitter," which means we were free to choose the color. The winning design was submitted as a maize shirt and then it got mutilated (with the swoosh added and the color changed). The athletic department had no intentions of letting the winner pick the color; they wanted a blue shirt all along.

2. "Blue Outs" have always sucked.

Aside from the entire 2005 season, presumably a year-long Blue Out because of that year's shirt, we've had two officially titled, publicized, big game Blue Outs: 2002 vs MSU and 2005 vs Notre Dame. Here are the results.
Yawn.

The goal of the blue shirts, we were told, was to "unite the team with the student body." Which is not accomplished by darkening the student section. Blue is dark, maize is bright. On top of that, not nearly enough people participated, so it extrasucked.

Even if it had succeeded in draping everyone in blue, it wouldn't have been impressive. You could smear mud on everyone in the section and they'd be 'uniform,' but they'd still all be smeared in mud. The goal should be to stand out in one united block. Notre Dame's student section wears an unnatural shade of green that stands out. When they all wore it, it looked awesome, so the project was a success even though it didn't match the team uniforms. Well, that and their constant cheering and perfect interaction with the band.

Consider some maize out pictures.
Penn State in 2002:
Penn State in 2005: Michigan State in 2006:

3. Consider the team's records for games in which maize was either the season's shirt color, or the promoted "* Out" color.

In maize shirts: 2002 vs. PSU, 2003, 2004, 2006 seasons, 2005 vs. PSU: 22-0
In blue shirts: 2005 season, 2002 vs. MSU: 4-3

22-0 vs. 4-3. Correlation doesn't equal causation, but Q.E.D. Please wear maize, or whatever that color Steve & Barry's makes, inside the stadium.

HSR Field Trip: CDB goes to the BTN Open House

Last week, the Michigan Athletic Department sent out a mass mail announcing that there would be an Open House at the Junge Family Champions Center with regard to the launch of the Big Ten Network. Since I have nothing but time during the summer, and probably won't get another legitimate chance to see the Junge Family Champions Center, I decided to go. I present to you my report on today's events. (Disclaimer: I am NOT a journalist by trade. I am an historian. What this means for you is that a). I didn't have a digital audio recorder, so there will be no direct quotations in this article. b). I will do my best to work from my nine pages worth of notes to get you the gist of what was said.

Arriving early, as I am wont to do, I park very close to the soccer field, soon to be the site of Newsterbaan, in the hopes of avoiding being ticketed for parking in the Orange Lot without a permit. Seriously, I parked like a quarter mile away from the doors. I arrived roughly 20 minutes before the slated 12:45 start time, where I will soon learn that that is a suggested start time.

12:50...Start pondering the universal truth of the Tom Petty statement regarding the waiting being the hardest part. Hey, there's Jamie Morris! (Quick note: On my way out, I got to say hello to him and shake his hand, which was a big thrill for me.)

12:55...There's Bruce Madej, Michigan Associate AD for Media Relations, filling in for Bill Martin. He notes that this is a wonderful chance for the general public to hear what Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, and Mark Silverman, President of the Big Ten Network, have to say. He goes on to note that the big question on everyone's mind is Comcast. He knows that, everyone knows that. He wants everyone to know that the Michigan Athletic Department is completely behind the Big Ten Network, noting that with the increased difficulty in getting the department's message into the media, in particular positive stories about Michigan's 700 student athletes, a group which has a grade point average above a "B" and that features a number of truly exceptional people beyond just their athletic prowess. Mr. Madej also notes that while the Big Ten Network will get those stories out there, they will be approaching things from a news stand point, so there will not be a whitewashing of news by the BTN about Big Ten schools.

12:57...The Mayor of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje, steps to the podium to present a pair of proclamations to Commissioner Delany and Mr. Silverman. The essence of the proclamation includes nods to the meaning of the Big Ten universities to their communities, the Big Ten Network's stated mission of coverage equality for men's and women's sports, it's promotion of "heartland values" (he honestly said that, both the city of Ann Arbor proclamation AND the state of Michigan proclamation said "heartland values" in them. It was so damn earnest.)

Bruce comes back up to the podium to introduce a pair of Michigan coaches to get their thoughts on the Big Ten Network. First up, Debbie Rademacher, Michigan's women's soccer coach. She makes a sound reinforcement of the case for the positive stories about Michigan student-athletes, and similarly, the quality of competition of underexposed sports, such as women's soccer, moving from two games a year on Comcast Local to a much larger potential exposure through BTN.

Next up, hey, it's new Michigan's men's basketball coach John Beilein! He notes that part of the reason that he chose to come to Michigan was that not only is there a wealth of talent regionally which is familiar with the Michigan name, but that the Block M carries meaning on a national level, and that students he talks to from California to Texas to Florida know what it Michigan is all about. He knows that the Big Ten Network will only serve to expand that reach. Statistically, he noted that while he was at West Virginia, they were on national TV five times. During that same period, Michigan was on national TV 79 times. He also notes that the Big Ten Network will mean 33% more exposure for the program as well. (As a side note, I enjoyed my first Beilein experience. He clearly has an ease with the press, and just enough of a Southern accent that comes and goes to make you feel at ease with him. It's a good first impression.)

Back to Mr. Madej, who notes that Michigan basketball was not on television 10 times last season In addition to that, 11 games were only broadcast in regional syndication. What the Big Ten Network means is 21 additional games for Michigan on national TV, all of them in HD.

1:10...Ladies and gentlemen, it's Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. He notes that he and Mr. Silverman just came from Iowa, where they ran into Barack and Hillary campaigning, and in a way, that's what they are doing, campaigning for something they truly believe in. He then notes that there have been two very major differences in this negotiation than in all of the others he has done as Big Ten commissioner in 18 years. Firstly, it has been a very public negotiation (i.e. with Comcast) and that has presented new obstacles. For instance, when negotiating with ABC/ESPN, it has all been behind closed doors, and while those negotiations have been contentious as well, all the average fan sees is the finished product on the screen. He notes that the Big Ten has gone from 18 football games on television in 1989 to 67 games last years and that there were those who were concerned that this would affect attendance at games. Attendance has moved from an average of 57,000 per game in 1989 to 71,000 last season. (Note: I was impressed by this figure until I pondered it for a moment. If I have done the math correctly, the average attendance increase for the ten members of the Big Ten in 1989 is roughly 4,000 fans per school, with he addition of Penn State accounting for an additional 110,000 fans for each of their four Big Ten home games. Also worth noting that Michigan and Ohio State have both added seating in recent renovations, Michigan adding over 5,000 and at least 7,500 seats to Ohio Stadium. So it's impressive yes, but not as impressive as it sounded on first blush.) Commissioner Delany went on to note that in the recent negotiation with ABC/ESPN, the Big Ten held the line on No Thursday Night Football, no expansion of games offered on ESPN 360 or ESPNU, and it was noted that it is getting harder and harder to find channels willing to carry syndicated regional broadcasts for basketball. He also noted that as a part of that recent negotiation, the Big Ten "got back" over 4,200 classic basketball and football games from ESPN, including bowl games, which they will be making available the Big Ten Network and their cable partners.

The second difference in these negotiations is that there is always high interest for the Big Ten product, and that if they don't like they're hearing about basketball from say, CBS, they can always walk across the street and talk to ABC, or if they don't like what they are hearing about the football coverage from ABC, NBC will happily take a meeting with them. They have options. However, that isn't how cable works. If they don't like what they are hearing from, say, Comcast, they can walk across the street and...get a hot dog and a Coke. (This line elicited way more laughter than it should have. I understood the point, I guess the comedy bar was just very low in this crowd.) The problem is very simply explained: The Big Ten feels that the Big Ten Network is a network that will be of a very high interest to the communities and that it is easily among the 70 most desirable networks on cable. They have channels for jewelry, animals, shopping, and food, and no one seems to complain, even if there is limited interest, and that the Big Ten network easily will generate greater interest than much more niche channels. Comcast disagrees with this assessment, and that's where we stand today. Commissioner Delany also noted that 90% of all negotiations get done in the last 5% of the time before the deadline.

With that, Commissioner Delany introduces Mr. Mark Silverman, noting "He was out #1 draft choice." There was a run here about "What about July, what are you going to do with July?" and Mr. Silverman, who has a background at A&E and the History Channel, said that July will be the time for original programming to shine and if they can't make it work by drawing from the rich history, heritage, and tradition of the Big Ten, he doesn't deserve his job. Mr. Silverman goes on to note that he's a Michigan grad and states that the question that has been foremost in his mind has been "How can we best serve Michigan fans?" He notes that the BTN will have over 60 Michigan games, increased visibility for women's sports, variety that cannot be topped in today's marketplace. He also goes on to discuss the excitement about the classic Big Ten games that they will be showing, starting on Opening Night (August 30) with a Big Ten football preview, and then their first classic game...2006 Michigan vs. Ohio State (wonderful, so much like ESPN Classic, it seems like the Big Ten Network will revel in showing when Michigan fails.) He also notes that there will be a nightly studio show which will focus on student-athletes from the 11 schools, with each school having a mini studio on campus to increase the availability and presence of student athletes and coaches to this nightly show. This narrower focus will allow for greater depth and will showcase the core Midwestern values that are a major part of the Big Ten. In that vein, there will be no alcohol advertising on the network, no beer advertising, no gambling ads, and no informercials (OK, the last part made me smile.), and then asked how many times when you turn on one of those 70 extended basic channels at night or on a weekend is one of them showing an informerical? The Big Ten Network will also have an internship program which will have 10 students from each campus per semester working on the BTN, providing them valuable real-world experience in the television field.

That brings us to the question of distribution. There are LOTS of negotiations currently going on, and again, deals on this kind of thing get done very late. Or as Mr. Silverman put it "very, very, very, very late." Mr. Silverman also noted that if he has his way, he would prefer not to be negotiating, but that is not the case. It is the position of the network that it should be broadly distributed on extended basic. Not on a sports tier, not on digital. It should be part of your 70 basic channels you get with your monthly cable bill. He went on to note that the Network is willing to negotiate on every single other point but they will not move on the extended basic part. Mr. Silverman noted that they have 70 deals done with cable operators, that DirectTV and AT&T Cable are on board and that they are close with several other operators.

(Just a quick side note: I was deeply impressed by Mr. Silverman. I have never met anyone who is as smooth as he is. He stayed on point and on message during his entire discussion, never once got emotional, and made his case as rationally and as eloquently as possible.)

The essential point he hoped people would take away is that there is no other network that has this level of relevance that is on a sports tier. To wit, CSS (Comcast Sports Southeast) has six million subscribers with basic carriage. It carries no live football and a minimum of live SEC or ACC basketball. While there is nothing else like the Big Ten Network out there, all they are asking for is to be treated like everyone else. This is why concerned fans need to call their cable operators or the Big Ten Network's 866 number.

With that, there was some brief Q&A time:

A quick summary.

* I was able to ask about the 60 hours a year of university content that each member school is allocated, and whether or not that had to be non-athletic and what the plans were for the production. Mr. Silverman very politely pointed out that they feel that will be another strength of the Big Ten Network, able to focus on the quality of the academic programs that are a part of each Big Ten school.

* In response to cost concerns, Mr. Silverman wanted it noted that it is the goal of the Big Ten Network not to cost cable customers one cent more, in part by providing unique potential revenue streams, especially with local advertising. It is figured that a Michigan football game, for example, will be the highest rated program for its time period in the state of Michigan. That will create huge potential revenue streams in local advertising for cable operators. Mr. Silverman broke down that it is roughly 1/3 of the customer's cable bill is the company's cost, 1/3 is debt servicing for infrastructure investment, and 1/3 is profit. Oh and by the way, Comcast announced record profits last week, in case you hadn't heard. The Big Ten Network as also offering their HD network at no cost to the operators, which could be placed as an expanded offering in their HD tier, which generally goes for $6-10 a month.

* With regard to classic Big Ten programming, again over 4,200 basketball and football games. Some will be shown in their entirety, others will be two hour pre-production efforts which will include additional interviews with players, coaches, and the like. The plan is currently two classic Big Ten games a week.

* One questioner asked: Why not just give it away until it proves its worth? Mr. Silverman very politely replied that it's just not how it's done, and again, the Big Ten Network knows that there is value to what it is offering. It will be one of the largest television launches in history already, and hopefully, will get largest as we move through August.

* Can we get a phone number so we can talk to a real person at Comcast, which leads to a joke about the negotiation process which was funny, but because I cannot remember it in whole, I won't run with it.

Overall Impressions and Questions I am left to ponder:

I give major credit to this Open House and Commissioner Delany and Mr. Silverman for saying all the right things and making me feel that the Big Ten Network is laden with potential.

The library of 4,200 classic games astounds me, and I'll be interested to see how that rotation works.

The question I wanted to ask but couldn't figure out a way to do it without sounding potentially sexist:

It was very clear from the discussion today as well as the earlier comments from Commissioner Delany that women's athletics will play a major role on the network and will be treated as equals. The contracts obviously favor greatest access to women's sports. However, experience tells us that women's sports do not always draw the ratings numbers. Is this commitment to women's sports a long-term goal, or will adjustments be made as the data comes in? After all, as it was noted, television is, first and foremost, a business.

There was very little discussion about reaching the Big Ten alumni outside the footprint who do not have DirectTV. I think that right now, the focus is on winning the battle inside the footprint first. (So, sorry Will, your Illini will likely stay out of your reach for now.)

I do have some fears about the quality of the production, but I heard the phrase "every game in HD" so often, I no longer care.

This is going to come down to the wire, but I do ultimately think it will get done.

I did not get a parking ticket. Thank you Michigan campus security for your willingness to overlook my lack of parking permit.

Thank you for your time and I will be happy to field any questions you might have in the comments.

CDB

HSR Summer Round-up: Playing Harbaugh

It's summer time, and while the news has not stopped coming out of Ann Arbor, we haven't always been right on top of it. We here at HSR are OK with that, Brian at MGoBlog does it better than we ever could hope to, so we're not fretting that you, the Michigan fan, are not getting your recommended daily allowance.
However, there are some things that have come up which, while not worthy of a whole post, I wanted to discuss. So, with that in mind, I present CDB's Summer Round-up.
1). Michigan's new deal with adidas.

Honestly, more surprising than anything else, but as more details come out about it, including the "most favored school" clause and the $6.5 million signing bonus, the more I feel like Bill Martin's experience as a businessman served the athletic department well here. As a fan of uniforms, I also like the sense that adidas will not see Michigan as a laboratory for its sartorial experiments. Rather, I think adidas views Michigan as a brand and a tradition which, if respected, will bring more value to their brand. While leafing through the recent Eastbay catalog, I did note some questionable adidas gear, it was nowhere near as frequent (or as horrifying) as Nike's efforts. (The coach's shirt this season is, interesting, to say the least.) Only time will tell, but a return to the striped sleeves on the away football jerseys that were a mainstay of the 1980s and 1990s would be a nice start. (This is only personal preference, but there's something in me as a Michigan fan that loves that the winged helmet and block M on the pants are the only things the uniform needs to say "We are Michigan." Think about the "classic" uniforms in college football: Penn State, Notre Dame, USC, Alabama, and ugh yes, even Ohio State. They are all so richly steeped in tradition that I love, in a purely aesthetic sense, that what Mike Hart is wearing at Michigan Stadium in 2007 is not that radical a departure from what Tom Harmon wore at the Big House in 1940. When one of your foundations is tradition, you must step very carefully when you go to make changes. As Henry James said: " It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition."

2). Michigan and Notre Dame to renew their rivalry annually until 2031
I know that the feelings are mixed on this, especially as it looks like Michigan was not able to get Notre Dame to flip on the scheduling as so to get Michigan where it did not have the Irish and the Buckeyes at home (or on the road) in the same season (which, by the way, I would like to propose a radical and possible heretical solution to this, one much easier to fix. Flip tOhio State. Within the framework of Big Ten scheduling, it has to be easier to do, right? We played Minnesota at home in back to back seasons, no? Yes, you would need to give the Buckeyes two games in a row at the Horseshoe to make it happen, but if you're really that concerned about it, isn't it a small price to pay (I would feel bad for the two classes of Michigan students who would only get one tOSU game at the Big House, but again, it's a matter of what you're willing to give up to get what you want.)

Back to the Notre Dame issue though, I like it. I always liked that the Notre Dame game was sitting right there, waiting in September. Even if the first years I really followed Michigan football intently (1988-1990), the season was ruined by that game, I still like that there's an important and meaningful game every year in September. Similarly, last season's win at South Bend was one of the purest joys I have had as a Michigan fan this millennium, as it was a perfect storm of Michigan playing the underdog role and actually coming through for a change when faced with that. I also like that Michigan and Notre Dame are as big as brands come in college football and I genuinely believe their playing every year enhances and reinforces the reputations of the other.

2b). Michigan and future non-conference scheduling

In the wake of the somewhat surprising renewal, there has been much gnashing of teeth over the sense that, in the current college football climate, this pretty much ensures that Bill Martin will use Notre Dame as an excuse to not schedule a "name" out of conference opponent to go along with the two MACrifices we know will be on the table. But I feel this overlooks three very essential premises:

a). The "current climate" in college football is always evolving.
Was it not a few years ago that name teams were lining up to play each other because strength of schedule was such a major component in the BCS formula? Two years ago, we didn't even have the 12th game, and now we do. Just because Michigan and Notre Dame will be on either other's schedules until Joe Paterno is 102 years old doesn't mean that that long-term issue will always be a reflection of the short-term realities of the every changing climate of college football.

b). The role that potential Big Ten expansion will play
I'm not going to get into the speculation related to expansion, as it's pretty much been covered here, there, and everywhere during the past week, but building off point a, what if, for the sake of argument, the Big Ten does go to twelve teams, and what if, in that expansion, one of the new scheduling dictates is that there will be a ninth conference game as so to help scheduling. Would you rather have that ninth Big Ten game, or a "name" opponent?

c). Mr. Bill Martin
I get this sense that Mr. Martin knows the landscape a lot better than any of us do. He knows what the coaches want, what the donors want, what the season ticket holders want (and do not want) and what the television people want. He knows that the alumni diaspora means that Michigan will need to play "name" opponents in places like, say, the new Meadowlands Stadium when it opens 2010 to throw a bone to Michigan's large alumni contingent in the Northeast. (OK, it would likely be 2011 for that game at the earliest because Notre Dame is road game even years, but still. Michigan/Rutgers at the New Meadowlands Stadium (capacity 84,000 by the way.) He knows that Michigan has a growing alumni contingent in the Atlanta area and that the big visionary dream of Michigan/Georgia is something that would build brand equity for both schools. I am not saying that Mr. Martin deserves our blind faith, but I do feel that he has been pretty savvy with things lately and that he may still surprise us yet.

3). Jim Harbaugh vs. Michigan
I'm not going to rehash the Harbaugh kerfuffle for everyone, but I would like to make a couple of quick points. For those who feel that Mike Hart's comments went too far or were too harsh, cut him some slack. Conventional wisdom says that sports fans hate it when athletes have no personality, but will immediately jump all over any comment that seems the least bit controversial. Mike Hart is 21 years old, and while I am sure he has more experience than almost anyone reading this piece in dealing with the media, he stated what he thought and what he felt when asked a question, even if it was not precisely polished. More to the point, I applaud him for standing up for being a Michigan man.

While some will argue that being a Michigan man (and yes, in all of these cases, I mean "Michigan man" to embrace "Michigan woman" as well) means being classy at all times and turning the other cheek when others insult you, I will agree that, in most cases, thus is true. But Jim Harbaugh went after the quality of education that Michigan football players receive and the manner in which they are purportedly tossed aside by the Michigan community when their careers are over, and to me (and from the tone of Mike Hart's comments, to Mr. Hart as well), that is hitting below the belt.

To be a Michigan man is to be proud of the fact that you attended (or attended) one of the finest universities in the world and to be proud of the education that you received there. It is, in my experience (which is informed by the fact that I grew up in Michigan wanting to go to U of M from the fourth grade on) that Michigan is rarely is every a student's second choice. You choose Michigan, for whatever reason motivates you, but you choose it, you work your tail off to prepare for it, to be good enough for it, and then, if you're lucky, it chooses you. There will be those who call you arrogant, cocky, or worse, because you so love your school, and you know it is not jealousy, but rather, you wonder, as Nick Hornby did in Fever Pitch: "But I don't know, perhaps, it's something you can't understand unless you belong?" If Michigan men take the leaders and best line too seriously perhaps at times, it is because we know that we mean it, for it is what we are taught to aspire to be. (We rib Chad Henne for saying "Excellence is good....but perfection is better." but doesn't that quote in itself speak volumes about being a Michigan man; aiming for the best possible outcome at all times? Michigan is not unique in this regard, by any means, but the sensibility is right there.) We also know that to be a Michigan man is to be a part of something larger than one's self and something that does not turn its back on members of the family, something which the evidence, even if anecdotal, seems to support. But we also know that Michigan man does not need to knock down others to make himself look or feel better, especially when those knocks are entirely self-serving. And if that was the sense of what bothered true Michigan men, like Mike Hart and Jamie Morris and Coach Carr (he's a Michigan man even if he went to Northern), about Jim Harbaugh's comments, then I applaud each of them for standing up for being a true Michigan man.

(By the way, as a side note, until I heard Mike Hart's comments, I was not aware that Tom Brady has been seen in the Patriots' locker room wearing his Michigan varsity jacket. If so, that's pretty awesome in its own demented way. [Tom Brady still has one of my favorite post-Michigan quotes from a Wolverine. In 2004, shortly after then-New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis was hired by Notre Dame, a reporter asked him in the locker room as to whether he thought Notre Dame fans were excited to see the Patriots offense perform and Brady replied: "I don't care about Notre Dame fans. I only care about Michigan fans." But I digress.])

So that's pretty much it. We're less than a month away from kickoff, and you know it's going to be Hot, Hot, Hot.
--CDB