Team 137 - Game 3 - Michigan vs Colorado

The year was 2006.  The global financial bubble was reaching maximum sub-prime capacity right around the same time Google decided to buy YouTube and Borat was taking our short-bus-infested nation by storm.  Roger Goodall started his tenure as NFL Commissioner, Steve Yzerman scored his final goal and for the love of all things normal and sane about this great nation: Michigan and Ohio State both were ranked in the Top 5 in college football.

When the polls were released last Sunday night, the Wolverines and Buckeyes both landed in the Top 5 for the first time since 2006, and it feels like we’ve returned to a sense of normal – at least in college-football-land, as there’s nothing normal about the rest of the world today.  I mean, whether your lens is interest rates, world peace or whatever the Kardashians are up to, the world remains amazingly fucked up in so many ways, that’s a given.  But on the college gridiron, a sense of normalcy indeed has returned.  

Alabama is on top, there’s a team from Florida up there too (this time the Seminoles, and while Saint Bobby isn’t at the helm, it’s alarmingly comforting to hear that ridiculously annoying chant they practice in Tallahassee), and UM and OSU are a part of that top tier.

Michigan football is back to where it was before the train fell off the Schembechler Rail Line.  No, I’m not talking about Big Ten titles or playoff appearances or anything of the sort … just the aura ... not a college-football conversation happens on Prime Time today without a mention of Coach Harbaugh and what he’s done in Ann Arbor, and that’s worthy of recognition.  Now that and a load of quarters might get you two cycles through at the local laundromat, but it won’t count for much in the wins-and-loss column … no, that has to be earned, and earning is what Coach Jim and his boys are doing day in and day out in the life of Team 137.

Last Saturday, Big Blue crushed Central Florida, 51-14, in front of another sold-out home crowd, and Wolverine Nation understands that it’s watching something spectacular unfold.  Not a particular game … not an individual player … not even a special season.  Turning the tide has been a process, and a thing of beauty to watch.  And as the Maize and Blue prepares to host its final non-conference opponent of the campaign, Blue Nation is behind Jimbo and his Jumpmen.

This is Harbaugh’s team now, and the more points it scores, the better.  This train’s gone from the station and is picking up speed, and the Wolverines are going to get better as the schedule unfolds … strap in, folks, as this season is a ride you don’t want to miss, as the boys will perform and Coach Jimmy is going to look more ruthless than Bobby Axelrod and his Axe Capital platform  when he smells a solid short in the market’s waters.

Sorry to veer off on a quick TV rant, but Axe and his cronies’ go-big-or-stay-home approach caught my eye in the off-season.  While I honestly can’t stand Damien Lewis, either as an actor or as his character (in this show or in Homeland, for that matter), there’s an allure to him that draws me in.  The newer Sorkin to small-screen writing brings his big-finance expertise and impressively captures the essence of the hedge-fund personality and its farm-to-table Connecticut lifestyle impressively.  We cheer for Bobby and his peeps and we despise them at the same time … and let’s be honest, any series whose first scene starts with Paul Giamatti getting pissed on merits at least preliminary consideration. I'm in, and I'm fired up for Season 2. 

Good times with the return of fall network TV this week … looking forward to a new season of Homeland, and I’m not gonna lie, the return of The Goldbergs, Big Bang Theory and Modern Family all will be met with excitement inside Casa Carson.

Alas, I digress … what else is new?  Next up, the Colorado Buffaloes and a blast from the past we all should expect to see at least half a dozen times this weekend.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – let’s first unpack the Knight beating and catch up around the horn, and then we can turn our attention to Team 137’s next test.

Michigan v. Central Florida – The Recap

The Michigan O

Big Blue put up 447 yards of total offense – 328 in the air and 119 on the ground.  The Blue O was efficient and effective, if not always overly entertaining.  But Tim Drevno’s unit was but focused and results oriented, and that’s the spirit, Dixie.

Wilton Speight went 25-37 for 312 yards and 4 TDs, two each to Seniors Jake Butt and Amara Darboh – forceful and results-oriented, and that’s the goal.  Speight is getting better each week, as expected under Harbaugh’s expert tutelage.  

The ground game produced 119 yards off 41 carries, with the load pretty evenly split between De’Veon Smith and Chris Evans, but neither really sparkled like we’d expect from the Blue ground game against a weak non-conference foe.  

And I'll be honest, the lack of ground-game domination was harder to believe than Serena’s failing to win the US Open for the second straight year (and dropping her #1 ranking in the process).  I know, many of you are sick of the Williams sisters and their market domination of women’s tennis over the last decade … truth be told, they’re an amazing story and their efforts have changed the game in so many ways since their entrance.  Ok, maybe the look and feel is getting a bit repetitiously redundant, but if Wolfgang offered to serve me his Spago tuna cones for lunch every day from now until eternity, I wouldn’t be complaining that I’d soon tire of that scrumptious scallion-subtlety-sublime, as that’s crazy-talk).  You catch my drift … Venus and Serena are bad asses – women’s tennis (and the entire tennis-loving public) should be happy to have them as part of their sport for as long as Serena and her thunder-thighs can hang with the pack. 

10 guys caught a pass from one of the Michigan QBs and 11 guys rushed the ball for the Wolverines … the attack was more diverse than the Tony Awards’ nominee slate and it’s a sign that Harbaugh is getting to know his troops better before conference battle begins.  Jimbo’s got confidence in his offense, so much so that he’s trying out second- and third-stringers for future playing time. The UM O is flexed, fit and fired up … right where we want it with conference play just a week away.

The Michigan D

The UM D settled in to Game #2 under new DC Don Brown and played well save for a few gaffes – sorry, Donny, but it’s hard to accept TD runs of 84 yards and 34 yards against fucking Central Florida … honestly, mistakes like those can be more costly than picking up a couple of EpiPens for some weekend allergy fun (and don’t worry, you won’t find me bashing discriminatory pricing, as capitalism is as capitalism does and it’s the best system around … if Mylan can get it, power to ‘em … but we should query whether there ever does come a point when … sorry, unintended political tangent … shame on me).

That kind of play is inexcusable and needs to be remedied before conference plays kicks off next weekend.  Right now, we’ll chalk it up to the “settling in” process, but don’t let it happen again, D-Man, as that kind of shit scares us as we look ahead to the likes of Saquon Barkley (Penn State), Corey Clement (Wisconsin) and LJ Scott (Michigan State) on the horizon.  

Jabrill Peppers led the team with 8 tackles, while True Frosh Rashan Gary was one of three players with six tackles, including 2.5 tackles for a loss … talk about making an impact early and often, this kid is going to shine on the UM D for (hopefully) years to come.

And let’s also give a shout out to the Michigan Special Teams, which was credited with a blocked field goal, a partially blocked punt and a fumble recovery on a kickoff – Big Blue’s average starting field position was its own 47-yard line, so a big Giddeyup! to the boys who cover punts and field goals.

While UM routed the Knights, Chris, Desmond, Kirk and the GameDay crew came to us live from Bristol Motor Speedway where it played emcee for a rather ho-hum Week 3 of college football.  The lull in the schedule, with no highlight match-ups and little on-field drama, coincided nicely with the return of the NFL … again, can I get a motherfucking yeeeeehaaaaa!  That’s right, Chris Berman’s bulging belly front and center marks the beautiful transition in America’s sports calendar.  We go from the irrelevance of an only-baseball environment to massive excitement surrounding the start of football and the arrival (finally?) of the MLB Playoffs – I know, the fact that they still play 9 innings and 160+ games in that sport is almost as offensive as the sight of Tim Tebow in a baseball uniform (seriously?).

With the NFL’s opening weekend behind us, it sets the stage for another line-up of Must-See-TV on the college gridiron.  We get our first Top-10 match-up of the season with #10 Louisville and #2 Florida State set to face off in bluegrass country – and, by the way, has anyone noticed that Louisville’s Lamar Jackson has notched 1,015 all-purpose yards and 13 TDs through the first two games of the season?  The Sophomore QB clearly is the Heisman frontrunner today and should be exciting to watch as his Cardinals take on the Seminoles Saturday afternoon, with GameDay making its first-ever visit to Louisville.

Other big games feature Slick Nick’s #1 Tide at #19 Ole Miss (yes, the same Ole Miss that’s beaten the Tide the last two years in a row), #12 Michigan State coming off its bye week to face #18 Notre Dame in South Bend, and Urban Fuckermeyer’s #3 OSU squad on the road in Norman to face a #14 Oklahoma team that’s in a must-win situation having dropped the opener to #7 Houston).  Five Big Ten teams rank in the AP Top 15 – OSU, UM, Wisconsin, MSU and Iowa, with Nebraska also receiving votes – start makin’ the nachos for Big 10 conference play!

But let’s stay focused … back to Ann Arbor and Game #3 for Team 137.  This weekend’s feature presentation stars the Michigan Wolverines and the Colorado Buffaloes, and let’s just say we’re happier staying in the present than we are looking in the rear-view mirror.

Michigan v. Colorado – The Preview

Yes, I know what’s in that rear-view mirror, and for those who don’t, don’t worry, I promise you’ll see the highlight at least a handful of times between now and the end of the weekend.

The year was 1994 and , strange things were afoot at the Circle K, Bill. The music world lost Kurt Cobain, OJ’s trial was getting underway and Forrest Gump topped the Hollywood box office.  And in Week #3 of the college-football season, #4 Michigan (2-0) welcomed #7 Colorado (2-0) to the Big House to wrap up non-conference play with a much-hyped Top 10 showdown.

I sat and watched the mid-September game march towards a close in my Chicago apartment, taking a break from a 1L Legal Writing assignment.  And I was optimistic … nervous, but what that’s a given for any Michigan game late in the fourth quarter with the score close.  Michigan was in front 26-21 and the game was approaching the final buzzer … and then it happened.  

Six seconds remained on the clock, and Colorado QB, Kordell Stewart, lines up his offense for one last attempt at a Big House miracle … he drops back, keeps his feet moving and waits for his guys to make their way downfield, and then he launches.  The ball hangs in the air for what seemed like an hour (it did travel more than 70 yards before finding land), and it came down in the hands of Michael Westbrook … in the end zone.  Hail Mary … from way downtown … good.  Blue Nation is in shock … the 100k+-crowd left the building like a herd of deer in bright headlights.  Game over.

And if that weren’t enough, we got to watch the highlight a hundred times over the next week, and now we get to see it every fall in some form or another as one of the great last-minute plays in college-football history.  And it’s on us.

But the emotion with which we recall the nightmare evidences the raw fire in Big Blue’s belly, and Coach Harbaugh understands his role in this match-up – avenge for one of the most embarrassing moments in Michigan football history (ok, nothing will really compare with Chris’ time-out call against UNC in that fateful 1993 Final Four fiasco), but you get the point).  And Coach and his khakis now are quite comfortable in the role of tide-turner at the Big House.

By the way, did I really just include the Weber T/O and the Stewart-to-Westbrook highlight in the same rundown … shame on me … fucking shame on me!  Sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts, and re-living it can be painful yet therapeutic … particularly when the opportunity presents itself to claim revenge.  We can’t take back either moment in the UM’s athletics’ annals … but we can understand the pain associated with defeat, and we can use the energy to guide us toward victory and focus on that beautiful dynamic called forward progress.  Can I get an Amen?!?!

Don't get me wrong, there’s respect all-around – for the CU program, for Boulder and of course for recreationally legal cannabis. But the Buffaloes are going to walk out of the Big House bent over and bowlegged after Coach Jimbo is through with them. Michigan wins big to close out the non-conference campaign, and it’s going to feel good to wipe the Big House turf with some Buffalo dung this Saturday afternoon given what the pesky mountain rats did to us back in 1994.

Head Coach Mike MacIntyre bring his 2-0 Buffaloes to the Big House in hopes of re-living 1994 glory days.  His boys are 2-0, coming off impressive victories against Colorado State (44-7) and Idaho State (56-7), but don’t be fooled, these Buffaloes are far less dangerous than the kind that hit Fletch’s car before his cabana rendezvous with Mrs. Stanwick. 

Last year’s team went 4-9 overall (1-8 Pac-12) and finished in last place in the Pac 12’s South Division, and that doesn’t bode well for this weekend’s trip to the Midwest.  MacIntyre’s boys may be hope-filled and happy on the way into town, but it’s going to be a long bus trip back to Boulder … I hope they brought some extra Purple Kush, as they’re gonna need it after the Maize and Blue are through with ‘em.

The early prediction is now in … Michigan 38 - Colorado 17

Go Blue!