The Game: A Battle Between The Team and the I's and Me's of OSU

Yes, it's been awhile. Three weeks to be precise. My last post, written before the Rutgers game, was a silly piece fueled by an respiratory virus, strong coffee, and maple-glazed donuts, sponsored, in large part, by Mucinex. All that time and a bottle of Flonase later, a lot has happened. It’s all been pretty good if you consider the Wolverine’s successes, which weren’t always pretty, but always ended well. The only bad part was that one of the few times in my life I’ve actually cheered for the Buckeyes, they added “didn’t come to play football” to the list of other things they don’t do, such as “play school” or respect their coaches. It's okay, though. We don't respect their coaches, either. Watching OSU implode last week after losing just one of their last 24 games was compensation enough for me. Amazingly, even after MSU's win, there's still a shred of hope for an interesting post-season for Michigan. A top bowl game? A B1G championship? The CFP? It's all still on the table, however crazy it seems, until this evening.

Today is the pivotal day where our destiny becomes clearer and unfortunately, it's not entirely ours to determine. We need to win. Sparty needs to lose. Simple as that. I've heard so many of their fans talk about their undeniable lock on a CFP playoff berth that I wonder if MSU's team isn't looking too far ahead, as well. One can only hope. They forget how close they flirted with disaster at the end of most their games. Yes, they should beat Penn State. Like they were supposed to beat Nebraska, too. Anything could happen. I'm hoping this is the day their Last Minute Luck (translated by Spartans as "Skill") runs out.

The Wolverines are first up tomorrow and need to knock out the Buckeyes to do their part. I hate to be overconfident and jinx things, but I feel good about this game. First, I think there's some ugliness going on in the OSU locker room and their prima donna players who aren't getting the "me" time they think they deserve are calling out their coaches and questioning their decisions. Urban Meyer shrugs it off as the reaction of frustrated 20-year olds to losing, but he's no stranger to mutinous behavior. His I'm quitting/I'm staying/I'm quitting stunt at Florida left a bad taste down there and it looks like he could someday be heading for the same in Columbus. Lose another game and he'll be clutching his chest and considering a health-related resignation again. Fingers crossed, trouble in Columbus is good for Michigan tomorrow and in the future. 

I also think Jim Harbaugh has been saving up for this game since he took the job. He may even have been thinking about "If I was Michigan's head coach..." versus OSU scenarios for years while guzzling whole milk, eating steak, and saving programs elsewhere. All games are important but this one must feel very personal for him and for every player on the field. They need this win in their souls and the Buckeye's are ripe for the picking. At home in the Big House, riding on the high of a surprisingly good season -- this task is so very doable. If the Wolverines do win, and I believe they will, it will all harken back to Schembechler's The Team speech. It's worth remembering here and now. It's worth comparing to the behavior of the Buckeyes after their loss last week:

“We want the Big Ten championship and we’re gonna win it as a Team. They can throw out all those great backs, and great quarterbacks, and great defensive players, throughout the country and in this conference, but there’s gonna be one Team that’s gonna play solely as a Team. No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here. You will never play for a Team again. You’ll play for a contract. You’ll play for this. You’ll play for that. You’ll play for everything except the team, and think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is, The Team. We’re gonna win it. We’re gonna win the championship again because we’re gonna play as team, better than anybody else in this conference, we’re gonna play together as a team. We’re gonna believe in each other, we’re not gonna criticize each other, we’re not gonna talk about each other, we’re gonna encourage each other. And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know, it’s gonna be Michigan again, Michigan.”

Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines, with every game, become more and more a living example of this old and timeless speech. It's how you can take essentially the same hapless team Brady Hoke fielded last year and forge it into a force to be reckoned with now. When Bo said "We’re gonna believe in each other, we’re not gonna criticize each other, we’re not gonna talk about each other, we’re gonna encourage each other," he could have been speaking of the current day Michigan and OSU teams directly - one exemplifying "The Team"; the other exemplifying the ills of men and coaches who are more important than the team.

It's too bad that Ezekiel Elliott, Cardale Jones, and other Buckeyes will never understand this concept. They have the comfort of a ring, but 20 years from now, will they still have their team? They may have a few million in the bank. But will they be part of a brotherhood that runs true for all time? Not likely (and they probably won't care.) It is what this Michigan team will have. Each other. And the support of every living member of every Michigan team that came down that tunnel before them, whether they won or lost on the field.

I’m putting my money on THE TEAM this weekend and will do so every weekend Jim Harbaugh is standing on the sidelines in maize and blue and khaki. Anything is possible now. OSU “can throw out all those great backs, and great quarterbacks, and great defensive players” but it’s hard for individual competitors to beat The Team. 

I think we have this one. And it's gonna be Michigan again, Michigan.

May there be a multitude of new reasons to be thankful this weekend! 

Go Blue! Beat OSU! And for good measure, Go Penn State! You have one job. Do it!

Déjà-vu and '69: Does a Buckeye Win Mean It's Happening?

The National Championship Game tonight looks a lot different than I expected it would a couple months ago when the world was wondering how the NCAA was going to pit two SEC West teams together without angering the rest of the country. Like most non-SEC fans who are sick to death of hearing about SEC greatness, tonight's match-up between Oregon and Ohio State pleases me. At least on the surface. 

I like the new format because the playoffs to get to tonight's game did a decent job of getting two very deserving teams together. In retrospect, TCU may rightly argue that it deserved a playoff berth over FSU based on both teams' bowl performances. These kinds of judgments will always leave someone upset. If they went to an eight team format, Team #9 would feel the same way. For a first time run through the process, I think it's proven itself superior to the old BCS format already. With no changes, we'd likely be watching an Alabama/Florida State or Alabama/Oregon game tonight. 

The moral quandary I feel about this game lies in who to support. I have no affinity for the Oregon Ducks. They can be fun to watch and I like their uniform combos. Forgive me, this is the "girl" in MGoGirl! I also have plenty of unadulterated hate for OSU and it would take a whole separate post to document its history. In the end, I think I can justify nearly any outcome tonight in a way that makes me feel good - or at least feel hope.

If the Ducks Fly High

This is the easiest and happiest outcome to swallow. It doesn't compromise any deep-seated values and beliefs. If the Ducks win, I don't have to live in a world where Buckeye trolls can taunt us with "THE Ohio State University Buckeyes - 2015 National Champions" for the rest of the year and God knows how long after that. The jealous Wolverine in me would take immense pleasure in seeing OSU lose ... and the bigger the better. If the Bucks have to choke down the bitter pill of loss and humility, I can support that with enthusiasm. The Buckeyes always get nice things. Some deserved - I can't deny that they have one dee-luxe incredible coach. Some not deserved - again, that's a whole other post. Tonight, I'm okay to let Urban Meyer eat cold, sad post-game consolation pizza. Again.

If the Buckeyes Rise

This is where I'm supposed to insert the usual platitudes about the B1G not having a great reputation and how an OSU national championship would raise the conference into a semblance of respect again. And, yes, I do believe that it would help the B1G a little bit. 

Most of all though, it would just suck. Helping the B1G isn't a big enough feel-good point to justify puffing up the most irritating fans in college football with the eternal glory of their victory. There would be no end to it for years to come. 

So just how do I justify acceptance of a Buckeye championship? 

It comes down to my feeling that something is happening beyond our control. A little déjà-vu, if you will. A little karmic justice. And all we, as Michigan fans, need to do is be patient and put up with the trolls for a few months.

All the Pieces are Falling Into Place

This is what I feel in my bones. And you may think I'm nuts and that's okay. But IF Ohio State wins tonight, it's happening. 1969 redux. The parallels are there. 

• I think it's the reason we've spent years wallowing in mediocrity. Like the 1960s under Bump Elliott, whose tenure had some rough years and perennial problems beating OSU and MSU. 
• I think it's the reason that Jim Harbaugh came to us this at exactly this time, in a moment of great need and desperation for the program. He was schooled by Schembechler, the man who took over a struggling Michigan team from Elliott in 1969. A team for which few people had great expectations going into the season. 
• I think it's the reason that Ohio State might win the National Championship this year and carry itself with the arrogance of invincibility into next fall. The same way they carried themselves into Ann Arbor that fatefulday in 1969. Defending champs expecting to let the blood of a few Wolverines. And the rest became history.

If OSU wins tonight, it's all happening so that on November 28, 2015 in front of what could be a record crowd at the Big House, Jim Harbaugh will lead a recharged and resurgent Michigan team to an unexpected victory over the Buckeyes - defending National Champions - just like his mentor Bo did 46 years earlier. 

We all know history is bound to repeat itself. In a few hours we'll know just how closely it might come to pass. 

Finding our lost Wolverine pride. Does it start after The Game?

I was thinking about the upcoming end of the Michigan football season the other day when I saw this quote my nephew retweeted. While it should have made me think of things in my personal life, like my new job after a period of unemployment, what it really made me think of is how this phrase applies to Michigan football and those who love it. It brought to mind everything we've lost since 2008 (or even a little earlier than that if you count the Appalachian State Horror, as I do.)  It's not just the games or this year's vanishing recruits or the coaching merry-go-round. We lost precious time and those are years we can't get back. They're dates that will never appear on championship trophies and seasons our rivals will point to and mock ruthlessly for years to come. There's no fixing the time we've lost. Perhaps the most important thing we've lost as fans is our pride in the program. The love of it remains, but the pride we had? Well, there's that eerily apropos proverb to consider. And what a fall! Luckily, the pride is something that we can find again. 

Unless the gods of football orchestrate a miracle, however, it will not happen this Saturday in Columbus. I don't want to be a downer. There's nothing I would love more than to watch Michigan drive a stake (tent or otherwise) into the heart of the Buckeyes' playoff dreams and to see our team and its seniors win one of the biggest games in their Michigan careers. But I'd be lying if I said I believed it would happen. The Meyer-driven OSU football machine is running strong and little in what I've seen of Team 135 gives me confidence, especially playing in the Horseshoe. I just hope they can play a game they can be proud of when that miracle doesn't come their way. Win or lose, I expect these players will do what they have all year: face both success and adversity with sportsmanship and grace that is a point of pride to claim.

This weekend is going to be a lot bigger than just "The Game." I don't have to brace myself for a loss on the field. My cloak of indifference is fitting quite nicely and I've been wearing it all season. (It makes Saturdays easier.) Whatever the result, this weekend will be the peak of anticipation for the changes on the horizon. By now we know what end it signifies. We also imagine with hope the beginning it might become. 

It will very likely be the last game in which we'll see Brady Hoke clapping on the sidelines, dressed as though he coached in Florida, working without a headset. Although I know this is the right thing, it still makes me feel a bit sad for him. He so clearly loves Michigan and the players in his charge. When he says he coaches because he wants to make them better men, better fathers, and better citizens, I completely believe him. I respect that. I just wish he knew how to make them better football players. Unrealized potential is another loss we can't get back and Hoke carries the responsibility for that. He's everything Michigan wanted in a coach, except the get-us-back-to-elite part. It was over his head and this is not a program where learning on-the-job is an option. It'll be hard to watch the painful end of a good man's dream job. It would be harder still to watch him continue in it.

As this weekend passes, AD Jim Hackett will also be free to do whatever it is that he's planning to do. Rumors already abound. Flights are tracked and their itineraries mused upon. Lists of candidates and the odds of their ending up at Schembechler Hall will be fodder for TV, radio, blogs, and dinner tables until the truth is revealed. Will it mean tremendous joy or disappointment? Will it give us hope to find all that was lost while time ticked away in the most unsatisfying and soul-sucking manner imaginable for the past 8 years? 

Time will tell and sadly a lot more of that will pass as we wait impatiently for the next coach's results. It's not going to be an easy wait. I hope whoever he is, he can come in swinging and make things happen at a pace the mob can accept. If a Jim Harbaugh, a Les Miles, or a Dan Mullen can't satisfy us, it'll be hard to find the man who can. We're a smart fan base, but we aren't an easy one. 

It's too soon to start worrying about Team 136's coach and his first year body of work. It's enough for me to know that, unless we're all blind, change is coming and hope will soon return to the Big House. It's a start and the only way forward to realizing that anything lost can be found again but time. Like our Wolverine pride.
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Go Blue! Beat OSU! Be proud -- and don't let Uncle Urban have the satisfaction of torturing, eviscerating, and hacking you in four quarters as the world expects.