Sunday, March 1, 2015

Going Wordless on the Wolverines


It's been said that the best writers are emotional, often tortured souls. Their words spring forth like the sweat on their brows after an anxiety attack or their panting breath as they compose themselves after experiencing the highest, joyful high. 

I can relate to them. No, not in the Ernest Hemingway or Sylvia Plath kind of way. Not in the stick-my-head-in-an-oven kind of dark madness. But I understand how frustration, anger, shame, and hopelessness can unleash someone's power to link thoughts to words and words to paper (even the electronic kind.)

National Signing Day was when I last wrote a single word about Michigan Athletics. I've had plenty to say on MGoBlog and Twitter because other people have reminded me that I have strong opinions (or clever and smart-assed things to say) about many happenings on campus in Ann Arbor and in the general sporting world. When it's come to sitting down to write something substantive here, though, it hasn't been so easy.

My only explanation for my odd wordlessness in this forum is: I am no longer tortured. The nightmare is over. Hoke has ambled on. Brandon has fled. The overthinking and guesswork around the new coaching staff is in the rearview mirror. The unimaginable reality that Jim Harbaugh and his rock star staff have moved to Ann Arbor has finally set in. Schembechler Hall is humming with exciting activity. We have an interim AD who absolutely gets this place. Signing Day? All things considered, decent. Basketball? An unfortunate anomaly that doesn't worry me this year. Hockey? Hanging in there and doing better than I expected. 

I'm kind of at peace with my little Wolverine world right now. And after seven years of "WTH?" and the roller coaster ride of this past coaching search, my brain cells have been screaming for some time to just soak in all this wholesome pinch-me-I'm-dreaming goodness. I knew it was time for a break when I had a long, vivid dream one night in which Harbaugh starred in his self-penned and -titled musical revue called "HARBAUGH!" at the Power Center on campus. I was watching with Jim's brother John. The entire audience was participating with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. What kind of brain dreams this stuff up? The kind that needs to stop thinking about football for a few weeks!

This period of reflection and calm won't last much longer. In fact, I could write regularly about my fascination with all things Jim Harbaugh. His intelligence, his intensity, and how he is, if not the Most Interesting Man in the World, at least the most interesting one in Michigan or the Big Ten these days. But I'll spare you all that. It would be nothing new. Half the state's in love with the man and the other half is trying to pretend that they're not concerned with him at all. 

As the Spring Game comes up in just a month and the season itself will be here before we know it, I expect plenty of news and controversy to fuel my pen. Somewhere between the coach's ongoing Twitter gems and the noses he tweaks when the new meritocracy depth chart doesn't favor seniority, things are about to get interesting again. 

I'm rested and ready to see what happens next! 

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