M in 2023

It is starting--Navy at #13 Notre Dame.  Quick!  What conference is Notre Dame in?

God, what a disaster.  It could hardly get any worse.

Washington, Oregon, Southern Cal, and UCLA. are all exciting football teams that are likely to stay that way.  Michigan always could have played them if they were willing to give away their their cupcake, revenue-producing, cinch starts to every season.  Now even the rest of the schedule doesn't matter much.  Yes it will be nice to get rid of Rutgers, Indiana, and Maryland all the time and not to have the likes of Nebraska, Purdue, Minnesota, etc. as replacements.  Wisconsin and Iowa are pretty much off the schedule.  Uh oh, who is left in the former B1G West?  Maybe it isn't such a bad thing schedule-wise.  

But they're still going to have those dumb out of conference games, and now far less incentive and opportunity to schedule big "out of region" games.  There is no region.  Inter-conference isn't needed because everyone is in the playoff anyway.

Back to Michigan, the schedule is, who cares?  It is all just, what's the word... foreplay.

Seriously, there is nothing until Ohio State.  Who ever heard of a season where it doesn't matter if the coach is suspended?  It is a horrible shame because they are going to have a great team.

Long ago I wrote Blake Corum is a tough guy to like and I could not have been more wrong.  I did it because he seemed to, when he scored touchdowns (which he does often) he seemed (past tense) to shun teammates for fan adulation.  That--high-fiving the fans--doesn't make sense as a criticism either.  Anyway, he is completely the opposite.  His quote, an audacity, in claiming he "Thought Tuck was coming" is a classic.  Then, while there is a little chance that his injury could linger, he came back.  If he wasn't there, Donovan Edwards would be an even bigger star.  But Blake Corum is back, and he is one of the best, all-around, ever.

Geez, it is 14-0 Notre Dame.  Wait, that was a replay of a touchdown and these are all commercials!  All I heard was the clock doesn't stop any more and that quarter really went fast.  1:03 left in the first quarter.  At least Vipbox still works.  I only thought there were a couple of games but I guess that just the top 20.  What is this, week zero?

Did anything happen?  I missed it.  Now the quarter is over.  More commercials.  1:15 MDT.  I have come to really enjoy MLB (Braves) games and the bootleg telecasts block-out commercials.  And there's a site that has all the games in full the next day, also sans commercials.  It is fun to listen to the announcers from different teams.  You can watch something else, and do something else with all that time without commercials.  Speeding up the games actually helps, and it is not bad given games almost every day.

Alright, it is 1 o'clock in Colorado.  What the hell time is it in Dublin?  Sh*t, there was some kind of play and a challenge and now loud commercials again.  I hate these overseas games; they remove everything about a college campus and a rivalry.  

I will watch Michigan games.  But please, just give me a replay the next day.

Let me see, the Braves come here from San Francisco.  After that, in L.A. will be a preview of things to come and a super series.

My God, they are reviewing again.  In about a half hour the Giants-Braves game starts. 

The Notre Dame quarterback played FIVE seasons at Wake Forest.  The college football game has gone to hell.

Back to Michigan. 

I learned I would rather watch the schedule than that football broadcast.  Other games feature Don Brown and Brady Hoke.  The only way to tell is to watch the whole game but that is too difficult.  Who would have thought when I went to Michigan.  These are schools and students.

Which brings us to where we are.  Last year's football team was sensational until the ending.  Since then there has been nothing (in terms of high-profile men's sports).

Juwan Howard has been an abject failure.  The next basketball team is going to be awful and it won't be about waiting for any class or anyone to mature.  We can only hope it is the last year.

I don't know why everyone isn't screaming bloody murder.  He is quite a bit like Mel Tucker in that he got lucky once, but for him the prospects are far bleaker due to issues.  Those would be character issues, and "this is the way we do it in South Chicago" isn't going to cut it.  The permeate everything, from recruiting dropouts (or never enrolled), to last chance or surviving on ego transfers, to a one and done flake of a son whose stay was so brief I cannot remember his name.  Who is more representative of a father than his son?  He is was the third Howard on the roster or staff who proved to be nothing more than a distraction.  Watch, he'll try to do an overhaul and blame it on his effete coaching staff.

Their best player throughout Howard's tenure left in completely appropriate and humiliating fashion. 

Right now, the program is running on fumes.  That they can even fill up a team or an auditorium is only because they're Michigan.  The players are not very good, temporary, or worse.

To put it in quantifiable, justifiable, or identifiable terms, with some exceptions, making the NCAA tournament should be the threshold of performance.  That is not going to happen again this year (start) or next year (finish) in this season too.  The players may put in a little effort--sort of like some foreign team cobbled together for a new league.  Championship material?  No way.  And it could get ugly--their leader is a ticking time bomb.

So it is going to be another short season and year, starting with three out of conference games and no head coach.

 

9/1/23

Once again, the season starts with bad wishes for Harbaugh. Yes, the season is going to be mostly boring.  Then the coaches go ahead put their two cents into it.

They were minor infractions that were self-reported and it is supposedly self-enforced.  Plus, they are weak opponents and it is the beginning of the season.

And besides that, Trump didn't do anything wrong and global warning is a fabrication.

Have you ever been to a Michigan home season opener or have you seen one on TV?  It is a lot of fans who have waited a long time.  Why don't you just say out loud that you don't give a rat's ass about anyone else but yourself.

In law if you plead no contest you are considered guilty.  And if doesn't matter if the crime is self-reported or done so by the sheriff.  But who needs a head coach and an offensive coordinator?  What arrogance.

Here's Sherrone Moore in his first game as sole offensive coordinator and he is suspended.

You have to be one of those addicts on one of the sites (it shall remain nameless) where people live for the prestige of go-points to half understand it.  The most-repeated rumor I have heard is one of the upstairs coaches coaching downstairs, i.e., on the field.  It is almost bound to happen when you have a hundred of them.  

This was after, during, or before the business of peeping into other people's email that got Weiss fired in the offseason.  Harbaugh sure is a standup guy.

The team, meanwhile, is on its best streak in probably 30 years and the same formula and players are in place to do it again.  Depth is probably improved over last year and the crybabies (e.g., McNamara) are gone.  We are almost coming to the season, here and tomorrow.

But first this.  When Jim Harbaugh did come out of his high profile and likely self-congratulatory offseason, he made a fool of himself.  His devotion and reaction-to the fans features a 6-minute rant on his organizational, economic, and political wisdom.  I don't know, I tried to watch it, it was about paying players.

Yeah, Jim, that's a great idea.  How about a salary cap of $5K to even the playing field?

Too bad, in his return, he doesn't have to go to New Jersey.

I do like the 10AM (MDT games).

Spencer Tillman--he's the guy who can't seem to stop talking as if he is trying to get it all in before the next commercial.  I've been watching baseball lately and, even with the quickened pace it is easier to watch.  What was so awful about a stopped clock after a first down?  Central and Michigan State.

Sure it is a bunch of criminals.  Worse yet, it is a bunch of criminals who don't mind getting their necks broken.  Central Michigan had a 9:35 running/short pass drive.  Then one of the hoodlums committed some kind of crime and the Chippewas got a first down on the MSU 6.  Jim McElwain looks more like a whale than a shark.  

Please...  the first quarter is about to end.  Tucker is scowling.  By virtue of the long drive, the Spartans couldn't do it, CMU looks better than MSU.  The whole thing is rushed and herky-jerky.  They're CBS announcers now on FS1; I'm tired of hearing about TV deals.  Anyone who sits through the commercials is brain dead.  Spartan Stadium is "packed" and I have to ask:  why?  I stayed tuned long enough to see if Michigan State could do anything with the ball.  No.  Halfway through the second quarter it is completely even in mediocrity.  I can't say I have heard a single player's name in terms of standout performer.  I think the guy with the key personal foul is Carter, a highly-regarded transfer.

BTW.  This game started with a Spartan carted off after the kickoff.  It happens frequently in the NFL.  It is no surprise at all as recent announcements have confirmed that amateur athletics causes CTE too; perhaps you are still immune if you can only make an NFL practice squad too.  It is suicide and not a smart thing to participate in.

EDIT:  The suspensions are due to recruiting violations during the Covid period.  News, more concise news, came out at the start of the season.

 

Michigan football has never given a rat's ass about fans or alumni.  That is the same way I feel about the school after attending.  Many of the players--Corum, Edwards, Sainristill--try or succeed.  This year, so far, it has been a boring show and it is not because anything on the field is lacking.

This morning Friday 9/15/23 I made the mistake of reading Brian Cook's preview of the Bowling Green game on MgoBlog.  He has virtually lost it.  This has been visible for a long while and it continues downward.  

I cannot see criticizing a team (or quoting my own employees or forum junkies) that beats its rivals, wins its league and plays in the national championship, and the next season is undefeated in blowouts.  

We'll see.  Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm looking forward to Washington and Michigan State more than Michigan-BGSU under the lights.