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Michigan Football- The Waiting is the Hardest Part

My good friend Tom Petty likes to say that the waiting is the hardest part.  Ok, I actually don’t know Tom Petty, but I did see him last year and that should at least count for something.  As another season of Michigan football approaches it seems as though the days start to drag out even more. The encounters with rivals’ fans seem to increase and become slightly more serious than those odd exchanges back in March and April; you know the ones where Joe “I just crawled out from a hole and bought this shirt because my team went 9-3 last year” Commonfan makes some insipid remark about your Michigan hat and/or shirt with that sly smirk on his face and you pretty much have to grin and bear it?  I think we all have had at least five of those run-ins this off-season.  It’s hard enough waiting through this long stretch when your team is playing well, but when they struggled the past season, it suddenly becomes a torturous gauntlet of self-restraint and building anxiety.

I mention this because there’s a disturbing trend that’s becoming more and more a yearly occurrence, and I’m not referring to our team’s performance on the gridiron.  There appears to be a large portion of the Michigan fan base that expects this team to slide into mediocrity again this season because, “they do it every year”.  This kind of group self-loathing is beginning to become eerily similar to that of pre-2004 Red Sox fans and pretty much any Philadelphia sports fan over the last two decades.  Each of those groups reached a point (or is at a point) where they expected their teams to lose, expected the worst to happen, and then would wallow in their teams’ failures when they came to fruition.  These groups have become identified with the failure of their teams to come through when it mattered most, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy year after year.  Now before anyone flies off the handle, in no possible way do I think that the Michigan football program has gone through a drought that in any way resembles either of those teams.  It’s only been 9 years since we won a National Title, and we have won three Big 10 titles since 2000, the well hasn’t been dry, but it’s not at the level that anyone would like at this point in time.  What I’m saying is that the familiar symptoms of self-loathing and expected failure are starting to manifest themselves within the Maize and Blue faithful.  This is not a good thing…

Well, actually, part of this is a good thing; it means that people are realizing what Phil so effectively underscored in his most recent article regarding expectations.  More and more Michiganfans are reaching the, “hey, we’re stuffed to the gills with talent every season, we should be doing more than this,” conclusion.  I don’t disagree; we should expect more out of this football team.  In part, I think the growing pressure for this team to perform at a higher level and to do so immediately is a great thing.  What puzzles me is that many times the very same people who are so passionately mad about our performances are the very same people who are now expecting those kinds of performances in the first place!

This line of thinking is particularly prevalent at this point in the year.  Now that the spring games and practices have passed, the doldrums of summer bring out the annual ritual of previews and predictions that make every college football fan prick his or her ears up when someone so much as utters their favorite team’s name.  These subjective and all-too-often inaccurate breakdowns of teams most people haven’t seen play a single snap of football are almost always taken way too seriously and given way too much weight.  Is it a fun way to pass the off-season?  Certainly.  Does a preview that says X and Y about your team mean that those things are bound to happen?  Of course not.  What amazes me is the way many of the reviews of our Wolverines take the assumption of mediocrity before anyone has so much as seen this team set foot on the field: “When was the last time this team lived up to expectations?”  What amazes me even more is the way that many Michigan fans are beginning to expect and accept this as the truth.  It is entirely fair to ask the “when was the last time…” question, it is not fair however to extend that reasoning into the future when we haven’t played a single game.  There’s a time and a place for those kinds of questions, and I happen to think that now isn’t it in either case.

What many people might not see is that this is the easiest possible position to take, the burden of proof lies not with those who think this team will go 8-4 because “it always does,” but rather with those who seem to think that this football team is capable of doing more than that.  The pessimistic (proponents of this type of reasoning blithely call it “realism”) fan prefers not to be the one who gets their hopes up, but rather be converted by the team’s sudden improvement in performance.  A lot of posts have been made with the following words included: “until they show me otherwise” or “unless I see something vastly different”.  Now then, I’m not one who puts tons of stock in the idea of group karma, but then again, sports are kind of funny that way.  Crowds influence games, especially in football.  Fan bases can have a large affect on the attitude of a team, and I think the attitude of a team can make a huge difference in how they perform on the field.  I’m not arguing that everyone should think this team is going to be undefeated this season, not in the least, but is it too much to ask that perhaps as fans we go into this season with the idea that it is possible for this team to turn it around?

I can understand how the attitude begins to build, I’ve been right there to watch the losses to lesser teams, the crushing losses to key rivals and in BIG bowl games.  The underachieving nature of this team when it matters most over the past few seasons has made the subsequent off-seasons harder and harder to endure.  Naturally this has lead to this point.  The encounters with opposing teams’ bandwagon fans and true fans alike are becoming more and more of the same experience, and unfortunately we Michigan fans simply haven’t had much to respond with as of late. All of that does add up, all of it can weigh on a fan’s mind and on their heart.  What many people don’t realize is that it is at this juncture where a team and a program needs the fans the most, not when they start to prove your expectations wrong, not when they start to turn it around and put this program back on top where it belongs.  Because then my friends you have become a very sad thing, you’ve become that which comprises 99% of the Notre Dame fan base: the fair-weather fan.  We’re all better than that ladies and gentlemen, we truly are.  It is entirely possible to support this team before they pass the artificial watermark that you have set for yourself to become a “believer”.  I have no problem with the criticisms of the past failures, or of the problems that have consistently plagued this team.  It is fair to point out where we MUST improve.  What I am having a harder and harder time stomaching are those that are already criticizing a team that has yet to play a single down of football.  Criticism has its place, but so too does support.  At this point in the year there should be far more of one and much less of the other, if you’re still not sure, go back up and read that banner that’s so much a part of our tradition.

Our fans should be gearing up for the opportunity to show that last year was a fluke, that this team isn’t “owned” by anyone, and that Michigan football is not some once great program on it’s way out of the spotlight, but rather an elite program.  We should be rallying around this team, not reading it its last rights.  So next time you run into that Joe Commonfan in the store or on the street, just smile, hold your head up high, and tell him “Go Blue!”  It’s part of what makes college football so great.  Revel in the knowledge that when the roles are reversed, they’ll know you didn’t just buy that shirt because your team went 9-3 and beat two teams with better than .500 records… not that I’m singling any teams out here or anything.  Mr. Petty was right everyone, the waiting is the hardest part, but try not to let it get you into a state of lowered expectations when all anyone wants to see is improvement from this football team.  The season will get here soon enough; let’s try to look forward to it!

GO BLUE!

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The Redzone is Not The Hotzone… And Other Keys to 2006

It may be hard to believe but it is indeed JULY! Thankfully for usMichigan fans that means the offseason is winding down, and we can begin to focus on what lies ahead rather than all of those events that we’d like to forget from last year.  That being said, it is extremely important that this football team learn from what happened last year.  There have been a lot of discussions about what went wrong last season and what must change and improve going into this fall.  Clearly, there is not one singular issue that resulted in five losses, and we could spend enormous amounts of time breaking down every possible factor.  However, I think there are two key issues that Wolverine fans should focus on early in the year to see if the much talked about changes and improvements over the spring have really occurred.  It is in these two areas that I really think we have cost ourselves football games.  To me, the two phases of the game that have hampered our Michigan Wolverines dearly are:

1.) Losing battles at the line of scrimmage on BOTH sides of the football

2.) Red Zone or otherwise “crunch time” offense

Without simply glossing over several other issues, let’s just say that the offense last year was horrific.  It didn’t control the football, it didn’t put points on the board when it had the opportunity, and it never gave our defense a break when it needed it.  Why might this have been the case?  Again, I think there were several factors that contributed to our offensive struggles this past season.  First and foremost was the myriad of injuries that hit KEY players on this offensive unit. The injuries to the offensive line were bad enough before Mike Hart went down in the first series against the Irish, a team he’s only played 8 snaps against in his entire career so far, but once that occurred this offense was going to be running on fumes for the rest of the year.

Our offensive line struggled to gel as a unit with lineups constantly changing due to the injuries and starters having to rotate to different positions just to fill in the gaps.  Without an experienced running back to find the few holes that were created, our offense was dead in the water from a running point of view; you can only run so many draws into the teeth of a defense after all. This put an immense amount of pressure on former offensive coordinator Terry Malone to come up with ways to move the football… and he failed in every possible way.  Teams were able to load the box with impunity because we NEVER ran play action fakes, and NEVER incorporated the middle of the field with the passing game.  The tight end disappeared as a factor in the Michigan offense, and Steve Breaston was reduced to a player who would catch screens behind the line of scrimmage. Our complete and utter lack of an ability to control the ball hung our defense out to dry time and again.  Malone’s play calling was not only lacking inspiration, but it never seemed to set up any other plays or schemes to take advantage of what the defense was giving us.  Two words will hammer this point home: Diamond Formation.  That deserves a whole separate column unto itself to be honest.

A symptom of these problems was that when the Michigan offense found itself in scoring position, it routinely failed to take advantage of those opportunities.  Note to the Michigan offense, the red zone does not contain a deadly virus, in fact it is the land of opportunity!  We settled for far too many field goals from inside the red zone, and came up empty an inexcusable number of times. This inability to make teams pay absolutely came back to bite us last year.  We don’t have to relive the whole season to realize how badly we squandered games against Notre Dame, Wisconsin,Minnesota, and Ohio State when we had control of the football.  Suffice to say, a more effective approach is sorely needed.

So what has to change on offense?  Well thankfully, one major factor has already been taken care of: the offensive coordinator.  It’s all too easy to point fingers at the coaches when the team is struggling, but I don’t think I’d have to look too hard to find a large number of people who’d agree that Malone simply wasn’t the man for this position.  Mike DeBord may not have been the most exciting offensive mind when he was here previously, but his offenses were fundamentally sound and could RUN THE FOOTBALL, something that we have missed dearly in the last three years against the likes of Ohio State, Notre Dame, and our bowl opponents.  Oh by the way, he was a key part of that National Title we all look back fondly upon, many people forget that that offense was actually a very effective unit.  DeBord has always struck me as someone who “gets” game-planning and adapting that gameplan throughout the course of the game, his plays actually set up other plays later on in the game.  I guarantee we see the return of the tight end as an integral part of the Michigan offense, and that we rediscover the middle of the field with our skill players.  He will also bring a level of complexity to the running game that we simply lacked under Terry Malone. Furthermore, he should return some semblance of play calling back to our red zone offense.  Of all of the things that annoyed me about Terry Malone, this may have been the worst.  Every defense knew what we were going to run inside the 20, and more often than not they stopped it.  There was never a sense that we would run a waggle or play action down near the goal line.  A more aggressive and variable approach is sorely needed here, hopefully DeBord can bring that to the table.

The second issue that must be addressed on the offensive end is the play of the offensive line.  It is all too easy for us to claim that the injuries were the main culprit last year and that otherwise we would’ve been in a much better position…  HOWEVER, I would argue that our offensive line play has been lacking for some time now.  You just have to look back at our performances in the big games to see that our rushing totals are embarrassingly low, and our record is even worse, and I think a large factor has been the play of the O-line.  I think there are a number of problems that the line has been having that hopefully were addressed this offseason.  First and foremost has to be conditioning, we simply haven’t been overpowering teams despite large advantages in size on the line.  Very rarely over the past few seasons has a Michigan offense blown the opposing defense off the line of scrimmage.  Reports are this issue has been met head on, with a vast number of guys dropping weight and increasing speed; hopefully this translates into more on the field success and fewer injuries.  Lighter and faster is great, but if it doesn’t have solid technique to go with it, we won’t get too far.  Considering the number of younger guys we’re going to be using on the line this year, it’s especially important that they are fundamentally sound.

So great, we’ve solved the issues with the offense (wink wink, nod nod), so we’re set right?  To the contrary, DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!  Repeat this ad nauseum, put on your bathroom mirror, in fact, make that our motto for the 2006 season.   I think the major concern on the defensive end has to be the complete lack of productivity from an experienced defensive line last year.  Like it or not we did not bring pressure on the opposing quarterback until the bowl game despite having a number of very talented guys in the front four.  Again, I think part of the problem here was conditioning, the D-line seemed to wear down at the end of games (although it didn’t help that the offense kept going 3 and out…) and was pushed back off the line of scrimmage.  The other issue resides in X’s and O’s I think.  I have to preface this by saying that I have no idea how many times blitzes were called, etc, but it seems to me that there was far to little emphasis on bringing pressure in last year’s defensive schemes.  Instead of creating an advantage for the defense by bringing pressure from different areas of the field, we often allowed the defensive line to be taken on by more than one blocker because no one else was rushing the line.  I’ve watched enough football to know that when the defense plays a reactionary “wait and see” type of style, the offense will burn them time and again, and at the important junctures last season, that was the style of football you saw from our defense.  The synonym for “wait and see” is of course the thorn in every  Michiganfans’ side: the dreaded zone.  Here’s hoping we see our corners up on the receivers on 3rd downs this year, and linebackers up at that line of scrimmage…

With all of that being said, the defense was not woeful last year.  In fact it was greatly improved over the 2004 unit, but a change in philosophy and attitude was sorely needed.  I don’t think it will take a lot of work to turn this defensive group into a very solid unit, the talent is definitely there.  I hope against hope that Ron English will bring an aggressive and attacking style back to the forefront in Ann Arbor, he certainly has advertised that he will.  The players are there now for the production to increase immediately, so with a few alterations to the schemes I think we’re going to see noticeable changes in this area, and noticeable changes in how the defense performs on the field.  The players really seem to like English and his approach, and the more he turns them lose to use their natural ability, the better off we are in my opinion.

So as we head into the season, I think we’ll know a lot from the first few games by looking at how successful we are controlling the line of scrimmage (look for rushing yards, sacks allowed, time for Henne to throw, etc), and by how efficient we are when we have the opportunities to score (another motto should be touchdowns instead of field goals).  If these areas can improve, then I think we’re going to be in store for a MUCH better season of Michigan Football, and much improved performances against the likes of our rivals, and that would certainly make the pain and agony of this last twelve months or so fade away a lot quicker.  So here’s to new beginnings and to a new season!  I can’t wait!

 

GO BLUE!
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Lloyd Carr Handshake Controversy? Free Press Stirring Up Trouble

Apparently, beating the Wolverines in overtime last season wasn’t enough for some Michigan State Spartan fans.  This week at the Big Ten meetings in Chicago much was made of the fact the Lloyd Carr didn’t give MSU Head Coach Bobby Williams a handshake after the game.

There’s only one problem.  Lloyd did shake his hand.  See the picture.  Watch the video.

 

Journalistic Integrity?

Now I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t exactly a ‘warm’ handshake.  But it wasn’t a snub either.  A snub would have been to ignore Bobby Williams completely.  But no matter what video shows the media seems intent to re-write history.

…They’re still pouting in East Lansing because Carr didn’t shake hands with Williams…(7/27/02)…

Who wrote this you ask?  None other than the illustrious Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press.  I vowed to stop reading Sharp (oxymoron?) long ago but happened to run across this article while researching the upcoming Big Ten season.  You have to wonder if he even watched the game.  The Ann Arbor News also repeated the fallacy in its Friday print edition.

Inferiority Complex

The ‘handshake controversy’ is just another symptom of Spartan inferiority.  Of course, some Spartan backers will deny that any such complex exists.  But the reality is that some MSU fans have a chip on their shoulder regarding the Wolverines.  They don’t feel that they get the respect that they deserve.  Wolverine fans find this humorous.  The truth is Wolverines fans don’trespect the Spartans.  Why should we?  Our all-time record versus Michigan State is 61-28-5.  Since 1970 Michigan is 24-8 versus the mighty Spartans.  Two of their latest ‘victories’ (1990, 2001) were dubious at best.  This Spartan inferiority complex even seeps into the media.  Respect is earned not given freely. 

Why Do They Care?

Michigan fans couldn’t care less what other fans think about the Wolverines.  We care what we think and that’s about it.  That’s the difference between being number one and being an also ran.  That’s the difference between being a Wolverine and a Spartan.

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2000 Orange Bowl Michigan/Alabama Bet


Background:  I made a bet with an Alabama fan over the outcome of the 2000 Orange Bowl.  The loser of the bet had to send an e-mail out proclaiming the glory of the winning team.  Of course, I won!  Here is the message that he had to send out to his co-workers, friends, and family.  It’s especially poignant when you know that he has a relative who PLAYS for the Crimson Tide!!!

MESSAGE TITLE:  Go Blue!  Flush Tide!

Dear Friends,

As the year the 2000 dawns, I have made a remarkable discovery. For years I have labored under the illusion that Alabama was the one true college football program.

But I know now that I was mistaken.

The Crimson Tide was crushed, spanked, destroyed, whipped, crunched, walloped, beaten, embarrassed, abolished in such a way on January 1st that there can be no doubt that the University of Michigan Wolverines rule the college football world. In fact, if I had a vote in the final polls for the season, Michigan would be my number one team.

Such a fine program with outstanding fans and alumni.  And what a fight song!  It literally brought tears to my eyes when heard it played after the game.  What more can I say?  I have seen the light and it is maize!

Thanks to all my Michigan Friends who have helped me find the truth!

Hail To the Victors Valiant!

Hail To Michigan!

Hail to all Wolverines Everywhere!

(Name Withheld)

New Wolverine, Reformed Tider

 

Don’t worry guys- it’s not too late to become Wolverine Fans!!