MAN! I’ve got to say, the past three years of Michigan football have taken its toll on me… All the new changes, the ups and downs, and having my heart toyed with week after week... For all you incoming freshmen- so far…you’ve been spoiled. I say so far because who knows how many more 500 yard games Denard Robinson can pull out of his untied shoes (fingers and arms crossed…)
My first game at Michigan? Appalachian State. I was standing row 9 right behind the field goal posts where our punt to win the game was blocked by App State’s Corey Lynch. Coming from a joke of a high school football program, I was certain from that point on that I was jinxed with sports. Michigan, the most winningest college football program in history, ranked number 5 in the preseason polls with the most ridiculous returning senior starters- Chad Henne, Mike Hart and Jake Long (Michigan’s all time leading passer, all time leading rusher, and number 1 overall pick of the NFL draft) had just lost to a 1-AA team. For all you technicality sticklers, I refuse to acknowledge the subdivision change.
My second game at Michigan? Oregon, where Dennis Damn Dixon ran all over the Michigan D, handing us our worst home loss in history. After the game, Mike Hart, who has a direct line to GOD, said this about the next game against Notre Dame: “There's no question in my mind. I guarantee we will win next week.” Awesome. Legendary. Whatever.
The best part is…he delivered. We would go on to win the next 8 games (including a trip to State where I witnessed Mario Manningham do amazing feats of acrobatics alongside 80,000 State fans with my face painted Maize and Blue) and lose the second to last game against Wisco.
THEN came Ohio State…It was at the Big House and everyone in Ann Arbor knew the deal- our seniors haven’t beaten OSU in their four years here and we just couldn’t let that happen. Unfortunately… it did. As a matter of fact, we STILL haven’t beaten Ohio State yet. I knew of, but didn’t understand, the rivalry when I got here. Now, I hate them more than I hate Nick Sheridan, Jimmy Clausen and our new kicker this year (WHO IS THAT GUY ANYWAY?!). We didn’t contend for the National Championship that year like so many had hoped for, but we did hand Heisman winning-golden boy Tim Tebow his only postseason loss in the 2008 Capital One Bowl. Lloyd went out on top, sorta. Call it denial, but the 2008 season never happened in my books so I won’t even go there.
In 2009, a certain now-third-string QB named Tate Forcier also started off 2-0 and even went on to go 4-0…before going through an epic collapse and losing 7 out of 8 games (with the sole win against 1-AA Delaware State). We finished 1-7 in the Big Ten, something unheard of in our proud 130+ year tradition, which was actually worse than our “Never Happened” 2008 season.
My point is kiddos, enjoy and embrace each victory as much as you can because the next loss will hurt…bad. Don’t take it for granted and know that there are a lot of people working real hard so we don’t ever go through the Dark Ages again. Also, respect us seniors a bit… I’m about to insult a lot of in-state kids… but we’ll always consider ourselves bigger and prouder Michigan fans than you because of what we’ve been through here. We still have 9 games left before The Game, which is really the only game that matters to me at this point, so till then… let’s stay loud, stay proud and GO BLUE!
By: Sam Moon
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