It's been a fun week for all, poking holes in the capitalist news media myths and enlightening the world to how Michigan really is fairing. But with Wisconsin on the horizon, it's time to take a trip back to reality-ville and face the ugly truth. Michigan is 1-2. They may be 1-3 after this weekend. The bowl streak may end, unicorns may die by the thousands, and MGoBlog will explode in a fit of rage and bile.
Being a fan is at heart a weird, twisted enterprise. In a thousand fans, you'll find a thousand variations on why someone has decided to entrust their sports happiness to a certain color helmet. And once we make that decision, we often find our lives mirrored in the fortunes of athletes we'll never meet.
For the first 18 years of my life, Michigan followed my trajectory. Potential to be great, but consistently just average to above average. I didn't try in school, but got good grades. I never truly applied myself. To compare myself to Michigan football here is a slight to the Wolverines. They certainly did try. But except for the shining beacon of 1997, never achieved what we thought they were capable of. Maybe they weren't actually capable of what we believed, just like maybe I wasn't capable of what I believed.
2003 was my freshman year at Michigan. It was inevitable. I'd decided a long time ago that Michigan would be my college, irrelevant of what was best for me. And for the first time in a long time, I applied myself that semester. Coincidentally, it was the best semester of my career there.
I was finally at Michigan, and living the traditions my grandparents and parents had loved so much.
In 2006, I was a senior. It was almost scripted. A Big 10 Title and win over OSU at the beginning of my term, a Big 10 Title, victory over OSU, and National Title opportunity at the end. Just like I was about to graduate, get a great job, and move on to the real world validated, Michigan football would be validated with a storybook season that wiped away the memories of Lloyd's recent "failures" on the field.
But football is fickle. Michigan got beat by OSU, exposed by USC, and then OSU was exposed a few short days later. It was like the season never really happened.
In 2007, I found myself completely un-validated by cruel reality. I was living in my parents house, hanging on to the drinking and carefree lifestyle I had at college. Jobs were nowhere to be found for someone as lazy as me. I expected Michigan to get me a job. Michigan football expected to win.
We lost to Appalachain State. And Oregon. And I sat in my old room. A shell of what I thought I could be. Michigan a shell of what they had expected to be.
When I originally started forming this post in my head, it was with the belief 2008 was going to be the year Michigan grew up. After hanging on to the past too long, they were moving on and making things happen. Just like I was making things happen in my own life. I wasn't in my parents house. I had a steady life going. It seemed perfect.
Then we lost to Utah, struggled against Miami, and face it, got flat beat by Notre Dame. Suddenly the season seemed much rockier than I had envisioned. I had no delusions of national titles, and I harbor no ill will towards Comrade Rodriguez and the Revolution, but it hit me that re-building and cutting ties with an underachieving past was going to be far more difficult than anyone really thought.
I was driving aimlessly down 1-27 the other night with everything I owned stuffed into the backseat of my Ford Taurus, no home, and no clear direction of what I was going to do. Music was playing but I don't remember it. It's all a haze.
As often happens when I'm contemplating the general cruelness of the universe, Michigan football eventually worked its way into my mind. The pain of re-building suddenly fit my life much better than the previous idea I had. I had taken steps to truly become my own person, but I wasn't all the way there yet. I'd gotten complacent again. Jarred from that mindset, there was a new attitude. It is imperative that I don't lapse into old habits, don't call people who wish to be left alone, and move on.
That's why this season matters for Michigan. Not because of bowl streaks or win streaks against rivals or anything that's tangible in a win-loss column. Wins and losses happen - and often they happen through fluke circumstances, by inches and drops and rain and wind and coincidence. No, this season is a success if Michigan and Michigan fans keep their heads high and continue on through the pain. No giving up on Rodriguez, no foresaking the Revolution, no second-guessing the decisions that led us to where we are. No drunkely texting our ex-coach and begging for forgiveness and wishing for the past. It's time to be real with ourselves. We never were as good as we thought we were, and we were never as close as it seemed to perfection.
Don't lose hope if Michigan is defeated by Wisconsin, Toledo, MSU, or any other school. Keep your faith in this new era. We must take every opportunity to learn whether it be by defeat or through victory. It's never as hopeless as it seems to be.
Unless you're Syracuse.
For the first 18 years of my life, Michigan followed my trajectory. Potential to be great, but consistently just average to above average. I didn't try in school, but got good grades. I never truly applied myself. To compare myself to Michigan football here is a slight to the Wolverines. They certainly did try. But except for the shining beacon of 1997, never achieved what we thought they were capable of. Maybe they weren't actually capable of what we believed, just like maybe I wasn't capable of what I believed.
2003 was my freshman year at Michigan. It was inevitable. I'd decided a long time ago that Michigan would be my college, irrelevant of what was best for me. And for the first time in a long time, I applied myself that semester. Coincidentally, it was the best semester of my career there.
I was finally at Michigan, and living the traditions my grandparents and parents had loved so much.
In 2006, I was a senior. It was almost scripted. A Big 10 Title and win over OSU at the beginning of my term, a Big 10 Title, victory over OSU, and National Title opportunity at the end. Just like I was about to graduate, get a great job, and move on to the real world validated, Michigan football would be validated with a storybook season that wiped away the memories of Lloyd's recent "failures" on the field.
But football is fickle. Michigan got beat by OSU, exposed by USC, and then OSU was exposed a few short days later. It was like the season never really happened.
In 2007, I found myself completely un-validated by cruel reality. I was living in my parents house, hanging on to the drinking and carefree lifestyle I had at college. Jobs were nowhere to be found for someone as lazy as me. I expected Michigan to get me a job. Michigan football expected to win.
We lost to Appalachain State. And Oregon. And I sat in my old room. A shell of what I thought I could be. Michigan a shell of what they had expected to be.
When I originally started forming this post in my head, it was with the belief 2008 was going to be the year Michigan grew up. After hanging on to the past too long, they were moving on and making things happen. Just like I was making things happen in my own life. I wasn't in my parents house. I had a steady life going. It seemed perfect.
Then we lost to Utah, struggled against Miami, and face it, got flat beat by Notre Dame. Suddenly the season seemed much rockier than I had envisioned. I had no delusions of national titles, and I harbor no ill will towards Comrade Rodriguez and the Revolution, but it hit me that re-building and cutting ties with an underachieving past was going to be far more difficult than anyone really thought.
I was driving aimlessly down 1-27 the other night with everything I owned stuffed into the backseat of my Ford Taurus, no home, and no clear direction of what I was going to do. Music was playing but I don't remember it. It's all a haze.
As often happens when I'm contemplating the general cruelness of the universe, Michigan football eventually worked its way into my mind. The pain of re-building suddenly fit my life much better than the previous idea I had. I had taken steps to truly become my own person, but I wasn't all the way there yet. I'd gotten complacent again. Jarred from that mindset, there was a new attitude. It is imperative that I don't lapse into old habits, don't call people who wish to be left alone, and move on.
That's why this season matters for Michigan. Not because of bowl streaks or win streaks against rivals or anything that's tangible in a win-loss column. Wins and losses happen - and often they happen through fluke circumstances, by inches and drops and rain and wind and coincidence. No, this season is a success if Michigan and Michigan fans keep their heads high and continue on through the pain. No giving up on Rodriguez, no foresaking the Revolution, no second-guessing the decisions that led us to where we are. No drunkely texting our ex-coach and begging for forgiveness and wishing for the past. It's time to be real with ourselves. We never were as good as we thought we were, and we were never as close as it seemed to perfection.
Don't lose hope if Michigan is defeated by Wisconsin, Toledo, MSU, or any other school. Keep your faith in this new era. We must take every opportunity to learn whether it be by defeat or through victory. It's never as hopeless as it seems to be.
Unless you're Syracuse.
