In 2000, USC went 5-7.
In 1999, LSU went 3-8.
In 1998, Oklahoma went 5-6.
In 1997, Texas went 4-7.
In 1979, Florida went 0-10-1.
In 1967, Michigan went 4-6.
I won’t treat you like children. You know exactly why those seasons are significant for each team. Let it sink in. Remember that many of those are not isolated bouts of futility. Take time to notice that Oklahoma was 4-8 in 1997, including a 24-0 loss to Northwestern.
In 982, Eric the Red was banished from Iceland for murdering a fellow Viking. He sailed west, and established a settlement in the fertile land of Greenland. The Vikings thrived in Greenland until the 1300s. They had settled at a favorable time. The climate was ripe for their farming, sea trade was viable, and they were able to live a comfortable existence. However, the climate would not sustain them indefinitely. As the sea routes they used for trade were clogged by ice and the lands they farmed harmed by increasingly cold temperatures and over-farming, the population began to dwindle.
The Inuit had traveled across the Arctic for hundreds of years. They were beginning to move closer and closer to the Greenland settlements. While the Vikings clung to their Christian European routes and slowly dying out as a result, the Intuit adapted their lifestyle to the harsh Greenland climate. Despite evidence of interaction between the two groups, the Greenland Norse failed to adjust their lifestyles. They did not learn the ways of the Inuit. They eventually died out.
I toyed with many theories about this season. A comparison to the Israelities wandering the desert for a generation until reaching their promised land was heavily considered. Perhaps Michigan is now in the desert, serving penance for their sins until the population is ready for the promised land.
Perhaps they are an extended example of the new college football parity. A world where the Appalachian States and Toledos have closed the gaps, due to the increasing availability of talented players, scholarship limits, and coaching success. The margin between the programs is now more of a channel than a ocean, and the strong can cross this gap to bring down the powers of yesteryear.
Maybe we are the fall of Rome, a once glorious empire driven into ruin by barbarian hordes, inept leadership, and a fat, drunk populace.
Sam McGuffie was born in 1989. He rides a scooter around Ann Arbor. I have seen photographic evidence of this. Newspaper articles describe him as shy. He says he misses the friends he left behind in Houston.
Martavious Odoms is the size of a 5th grader. He grew up in Pahokee, Fl. According to City-data.com, the city has a crime index of 771.8. The US National Average is 320.9.
Steven Threet was a valedictorian at Adrian High School. I have been to Adrian. It is not a hot-bed of national athletic stars. His mother went to Michigan. His brother played baseball for Bowling Green and Purdue. His sister played softball for Eastern Michigan.
Tim Jamison is from Riverdale, Ill. The most common occupations for males in Riverdale are Material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers, Metal workers, and truck drivers. The most common industry is the US Postal Service.
I was moving my meager possessions into a new apartment on Friday. The walls are bare white. The floor is a dark hardwood, with some visible scratches and “character”. The bathroom is the size of a closet.
I spent some time over the weekend trying to get a plan together. A budget, a design, future goals, grocery lists, etc. Any time you are trying to make a change for the better, there are risks involved. No matter how much time I spend meticulously planning out my finances or next career move, there is a risk of utter failure. The alternative, avoiding this risk, is to change nothing and continue with what has been working. But while it’s been working, I feel capable of more. So risk is necessary. No amount of planning will completely eliminate the risk.
I’ve said it here before. Guarantees are for the weak. There is no coach, scheme, system, player, or strategy that is guaranteed to win or even be remotely successful. I believe in Coach Rodriguez and the Bad News Wolverines because I have no choice. My commitment to Michigan was made in my youth, solidified in college, and will always remain.
It is useless to pine for Les Miles. It is useless to debate the future of our program under Rodriguez. We will all see in due time. The struggles of this year have exposed the countless front-runners in our fanbase. Whether they be those who are “ashamed” of losses, who fear the “smack” their friends from MSU will be able to talk, or the doughy asshole in the cape and mask that spends more time beating his cowbell, yelling at people around him, looking back up in the crowd, and generally making himself the show instead of watching the game and pouting when we lose. I hate that guy, by the way. If you read this “Super Fan” – I hate you. So much.
I don’t understand these people, and I’m tired of trying to reason with them or yelling at them. They are who they are. They watch Michigan for wins, they have demands and expectations, and they are validated when their team wins. They aren’t here for the ride. That’s fine. I guess.
When I tried to craft a theory on the season and the struggles, I hit a wall. There is no theory that can explain this. And there is no guarantee that Rodriguez will bring Michigan back.
Michigan has no special powers. No program does. We are not given a birth-right to beat Toledo or any other team. More than anything, this season is about accepting reality. The reality of not being an elite team. If Michigan and Rodriguez want to be elite in the future, they will have to earn it. It will no longer be handed to them on silver platter with an inflated pre-season ranking and cupcake schedule. They will have to scratch and claw for every morsel of respect and dignity. Michigan is just another team to the rest of the country now.
If the prospect of watching our program be tore down, embarrassed, and eventually redeemed does not excite you, then I suggest finding a new team. This is a process all the great teams have gone through. It is one we will have to go through, at some point, in order to be great again. Again – I give you no guarantee that it will be soon or that it will be Rodriguez in charge. Sometimes you just have to believe.
