Rantings of an avowed Michigan homer.
Oh, how I have longed for this day. This game day. This inaugural event leading to the greatest 3 months of the year.
Yes, Michigan Football is here.
And I'm not exactly sure what I expect out of this team. Could Michigan very easily go 11-1 or 12-0 this season? Maybe. I think 9-3 is more realistic, and if the chips fall as they may and injuries plague the squad once again, 7-5 is pretty reasonable. I'll go into this more later in another post, after a game or two as to not really give away too much of what I shouldn't be discussing... But I got to watch a little bit of practice yesterday inside Fort Schembechler. I've gotten to do that on a few occasions before through the years, but this practice had a very different dynamic of any I've seen.
Lloyd Carr, as usual, took sort of a backseat approach, letting his assistants run drills and instruct while he walked around adding his two cents here and there. That's not unusual. What did strike me as odd, however, was when time came for practice to be over, it wasn't the team captains who got the team assembled and fired up, but rather Mike Hart. The team seemed slightly unruly and agitated, as if no one was particularly stepping up to get them in line.
Could it just be a bad day? Maybe. I don't know what had happened before or after I was there. But what I do know is that this team is very much Mike Hart's team. And, seemingly, no one else's. Which brings me to a very important point: if Mike Hart is injured again this season, I'm booking tickets for San Antonio rather quickly. This team needs Hart in the game more than any other guy on the roster. It needs a leadership gut check. And it needs to get out of the starting gate better than, well, every year since 1998.
So this is how I see the season progressing. Vanderbilt and Central should be fairly manageable wins (anybody who saw Central's BONEHEAD trick play to close the Boston College game the other night pretty much knows CMU is not only a poor team, but poorly coached as well). I like the fact that we're opening with an SEC team rather than the Directional College du Jour, and I like the fact that Vandy and CMU come before Notre Dame.
Which brings me to South Bend, and vicariously, Happy Valley and Columbus. If Michigan can go 2-1 in those games, and especially if one of those wins is in South Bend, this could be a very special season. I fear a ND loss would start the inevitable wheels-falling-off collapse of this team. It isn't, however, a death sentence. If Michigan is 6-1 going into PSU, or even 5-2, and loses, game over. You can pretty much pencil in a loss at Ohio State. Momentum is so key this year, especially with the fairly murderous stretch of Michigan State, PSU, and Iowa.
I don't like that our three toughest games are on the road, but at the same time, I like that there's a nice, even stretch of cupcakes before the descent into Columbus. But who knows what will happen. This is probably the most anticipated football season in these parts in recent memory- no one knows what to expect out of this team, with every win precariously hanging in the balance on a very, very tough Big 10 schedule. With a few twists of fate here and there, we may be looking at Tempe on January 8, or we may be looking at San Antonio on December 28.
All I know is that tomorrow brings the first football of the year in Ann Arbor. The tailgaters are lined up in their RV's at the Pioneer HS lot, the team is snuggled in their beds at the Campus Inn, the marching band has finished Band Week. It's football season in Ann Arbor. Let the second-guessing and irate phone calls to WTKA and the angry letters to the editor begin. Let the fingernails be chewed to the bone. Let the jerseys be worn and the brats be grilled and the beers go down easy. It's football season in Ann Arbor, the greatest time of the year. And like a little kid on Christmas Eve, I'm having a hard time getting to sleep tonight.
"I don't think I'm ever going to love anything more than I'm going to enjoy bringing you the next sixty minutes of Michigan football. The way we're going, we may not last sixty minutes. But who cares, as long as it's maize and blue at the end of the day. Prejudiced? Partial? You better believe I am today. This is for everything."- Bob Ufer, 1973.
Yes, Michigan Football is here.
And I'm not exactly sure what I expect out of this team. Could Michigan very easily go 11-1 or 12-0 this season? Maybe. I think 9-3 is more realistic, and if the chips fall as they may and injuries plague the squad once again, 7-5 is pretty reasonable. I'll go into this more later in another post, after a game or two as to not really give away too much of what I shouldn't be discussing... But I got to watch a little bit of practice yesterday inside Fort Schembechler. I've gotten to do that on a few occasions before through the years, but this practice had a very different dynamic of any I've seen.
Lloyd Carr, as usual, took sort of a backseat approach, letting his assistants run drills and instruct while he walked around adding his two cents here and there. That's not unusual. What did strike me as odd, however, was when time came for practice to be over, it wasn't the team captains who got the team assembled and fired up, but rather Mike Hart. The team seemed slightly unruly and agitated, as if no one was particularly stepping up to get them in line.
Could it just be a bad day? Maybe. I don't know what had happened before or after I was there. But what I do know is that this team is very much Mike Hart's team. And, seemingly, no one else's. Which brings me to a very important point: if Mike Hart is injured again this season, I'm booking tickets for San Antonio rather quickly. This team needs Hart in the game more than any other guy on the roster. It needs a leadership gut check. And it needs to get out of the starting gate better than, well, every year since 1998.
So this is how I see the season progressing. Vanderbilt and Central should be fairly manageable wins (anybody who saw Central's BONEHEAD trick play to close the Boston College game the other night pretty much knows CMU is not only a poor team, but poorly coached as well). I like the fact that we're opening with an SEC team rather than the Directional College du Jour, and I like the fact that Vandy and CMU come before Notre Dame.
Which brings me to South Bend, and vicariously, Happy Valley and Columbus. If Michigan can go 2-1 in those games, and especially if one of those wins is in South Bend, this could be a very special season. I fear a ND loss would start the inevitable wheels-falling-off collapse of this team. It isn't, however, a death sentence. If Michigan is 6-1 going into PSU, or even 5-2, and loses, game over. You can pretty much pencil in a loss at Ohio State. Momentum is so key this year, especially with the fairly murderous stretch of Michigan State, PSU, and Iowa.
I don't like that our three toughest games are on the road, but at the same time, I like that there's a nice, even stretch of cupcakes before the descent into Columbus. But who knows what will happen. This is probably the most anticipated football season in these parts in recent memory- no one knows what to expect out of this team, with every win precariously hanging in the balance on a very, very tough Big 10 schedule. With a few twists of fate here and there, we may be looking at Tempe on January 8, or we may be looking at San Antonio on December 28.
All I know is that tomorrow brings the first football of the year in Ann Arbor. The tailgaters are lined up in their RV's at the Pioneer HS lot, the team is snuggled in their beds at the Campus Inn, the marching band has finished Band Week. It's football season in Ann Arbor. Let the second-guessing and irate phone calls to WTKA and the angry letters to the editor begin. Let the fingernails be chewed to the bone. Let the jerseys be worn and the brats be grilled and the beers go down easy. It's football season in Ann Arbor, the greatest time of the year. And like a little kid on Christmas Eve, I'm having a hard time getting to sleep tonight.
"I don't think I'm ever going to love anything more than I'm going to enjoy bringing you the next sixty minutes of Michigan football. The way we're going, we may not last sixty minutes. But who cares, as long as it's maize and blue at the end of the day. Prejudiced? Partial? You better believe I am today. This is for everything."- Bob Ufer, 1973.
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