David Braid’s Blog
Hello fellow English 125ers,
I could easily write about the disgusting and embarrassing effort the football team put on the field today, however, I will look for something positive to talk about. How about the women’s Volleyball team? Can you say 8-0? Although I have yet to see the volleyball team play, I can probably guess that their games are a lot more exciting than the ones that take place at the Big House. Well, you might ask, “There were six TDs. That was exciting enough?” Well, yea the game was exciting. Except it was the Ducks with the high-powered offense that WE were supposed to have this year! I mean with Hart, aka Hart Attack, Manningham, aka Super Mario, and Henne, aka Superman Henne, WE were suppose to be the ones destroying teams? We were the ones that our friends were jealous of when they found out we were going to Michigan! Okay, deep breath David. Inhale…Exhale. Inhale…Exhale. Ah, that was refreshing. So, what was I talking about? Oh yea, the fact that even the lowly Detroit Lions are going to have a better record than us after they kicked off their NFL season with a win against the Oakland Raiders. Who would have guessed that? The team with a combined 8 wins(3 less than we had all of last season) in the last two years, would have a better winning percentage than “the champions of the west.”
Alright, I know Professor Wang wants me to write something worthwhile in this blog. So I’ll say something about my first week of college. Considering we didn’t have classes on Monday and I don’t have any classes on Friday(yea, you know you’re jealous), college wasn’t all the work people made it out to be(for now, atleast). Well, my New York Giants are playing so enough with this blog. Peace, and I’ll catch you on Tuesday.
David
17 comments so far
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Rob Carter
I had a feeling the person doing the blog this week was going to mention the football game on Saturday and I do agree with David’s description of disgusting. I could not believe what was happening. And adding to my sorrows were the numerous phone calls I received from my friends going to Michigan State who all had their two cents to say about our football team. However I still have faith that the football team can dig themselves out of this insanely deep hole and begin winning again.
On the upside though I am happy our volleyball team is doing well and can only hope that they continue their winning streak. I have the feeling that I should have bought volleyball season tickets instead of football ones, although to experience a college football game at the big house is one I will never forget.
As for the first week of classes…it is what I expected. I have definitely had my fair share of homework and have weird feeling it will only become more intense.
Marie Ternes
These last two football games have been a bit ridiculous. I used to live in East Lansing, and because of that, I grew up as a Spartan. It’s been hard making the transfer over to being a Wolverine. I didn’t like the idea of changing my loyalty, but I figured that at least I would have a football team that could win a game or two. Unfortunately, as soon as I got here, U of M started losing, and MSU started winning. I’m beginning to wonder if I will ever be on the winning side. Despite the losses, I think we can still turn it around. Winning as the underdog is more exciting anyway.
In terms of classes, I have been completely swamped. It’s amazing how fast the day goes by. There is never a dull moment, and free time is a thing of the past. On the bright side, I am never bored, and that is definitely a plus.
Stephanie Baum
When I used to mention to people that I was not a football fan in the least, they would respond by claiming it would all change when I came to U of M. On the morning of the first game (which I was sure we would win due to numerous comments, even though I had absolutely no opinion of my own to contribute) I was tired and the sun was intensifying my exhaustion. However, I made what felt like the ten-mile hike to the Big House, only to learn that, for the next three hours of my life, I would be standing. With one “minute” left of the first quarter, my roommate looked at me and suggested leaving, and off to the pool we went. I received the bad news a few hours later, and I must admit I felt a little disappointed. I did not make it to the second game, and cared even less when I received word of the dismal results. A few days later, I sold some of my tickets to a person wanting them for some unknown reason, and I did not even try to make a profit because it would feel like I was cheating someone. My theory is I have nothing to do with whether we win or lose, nor do most people, so I am yet to learn why everyone places such an importance on this subject. Maybe I’ll change my mind if we start winning.
I, too, have no free time, and school is taking over my life. However, it does make me feel productive.
Melissa Nacy
It would be nice to believe that our beloved football team’s season will become one of those history book worthy comeback seasons and we will, like we expected, be the ones bragging to our friends from high school hours away at their own (previously inferior in the world of football) universities. However, with the lackluster feeling you get walking around campus, it doesn’t seem like that is going to be the case. Perhaps I’m working too much and not getting out enough, perhaps I’m too new here and not in with the football crowd, perhaps I missed the hype when I didn’t purchase season tickets (a story for another day), but in my eyes, we walk around knocking and snubbing our former heroes. We take the playful jokes from our friends at State, we converse over how “they suck” over lunch or in class, we question spending our Saturday in the Big House and we selfishly wish we weren’t freshman the year we lose two games. How in the world do you expect them to win a game? Their school, their friends, their support, their former intimidating Big House… all gone. Even when I would compete in cheerleading in high school, we always did our best when our school was in the stands, in our face, yelling right along with us – never for a second doubting that we wouldn’t bring them home another first place trophy that day.
We can sit back and blame Carr, we can blame the boy’s work ethic, egos, party habits, we can even put it on luck. But until we become, or I should say, show, the confident, intimidating school we all know we truly are and begin believing in our boys again, I can’t blame them.
Or, they could just get really, really mad about their new reputation on Saturday and show Notre Dame hell. I guess we’ll see.
Hira Hussain
I agree with David and the others, the last two football teams have been horrible..and I can not believe this is happening in the big house. All of my friends from Michigan State have been calling me and asking “what happen to MI”? I even recieved a facebook comment from one of my friends writing that 0 to 2 are great numbers. I really don’t like my incoming experience at the big house. I really hope that Carr was speaking the truth in his interview when he said “next week Notre Dame, we’re winning”. I think that the coach is lacking some capabilities. Anyways I hope things are different this saturday.
On the bright side of sports, I really didn’t know about the volleyball team’s excellent record. I would love to go and see a game. I hope they continue the winning work.
My first week of classes has been rigorous, I have had a good share of the homework load, and I am expecting it to get only worse. As some others have said above atleast I do stay busy and feel productive.
Matt March
The hopes and dreams of many Michiganders have not only been shattered by the losses to Appalachian State and Oregon, but have been ripped to pieces by the paper-shredder of bad fortune, incinerated by the flames of fate, and liquified by the sea of tears from faithful fans. But all is not lost, even in the face of such horrendous dejection. Big Ten champs? Not likely. Winning season? Not from what I’ve seen. Steadfast determination and pride? Completely drained. No what I’m talking about is our University of Michigan identity. We need to remember that we are a school of supergeeks who have a lot more going on than a measly football season. We are the future of America (God help us). What gives me hope for tomorrow is the fact that we go to Michigan, and that we are going to be bossing around Oregon and Appalachian State alumni in 20 years. While they bathe in the spoils of temporary victory, we look to the future and our revenge at a much larger scale. And heck, we have much cooler helmets and a kick-ass fight song. What now?!
Kitae (Tye) Chang
I have yet to watch a Michigan football game this year, but it appears, according to David’s and all the responders’ blogs, that I haven’t “missed-out” on anything great. What I have been watching were the reactions, caused by the unfortunate turnouts, of fellow-wolverines. Watching, listening, and reading about the upsets are both entertaining and refreshing, because one, the super-fanatics incessantly cry like little girls and two, I feel a great amount of pride for the team. Having attended a super-small high school that lacked sports and along with it pride, it amazes me how so many people are absorbed into the sport, regardless of how much they love football. Sure, the season doesn’t look great thus far, but I’m not going to be one to lose hope this early.
A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. For any sport, this is true, and as such I hope people won’t lose faith in the team. Since I can’t provide any facts to build an analysis of how the team will perform for the remainder of the season, I will conclude my response with a GO BLUE!, to assert my view, that in fact the wolverines will have a winning season. But in the case that I am completely wrong, I’m sure the team will have lost fighting fiercely and putting forth their best efforts.
Chinthaka (Chin) Weerappuli
Alright everyone, when it comes to football and sports in general people have to keep in perspective the actual length of the season, and the individual games they play. Ok I agree, I didn’t think there was any chance of us losing to App. State or even Oregon but after it happened, it did kind of make sense. Michigan has lost its last four games, but of those 4, all 4 teams have run the spread offense against us, which has always been our weakness. For those of you who don’t know the spread offense, in short, is when the offense spreads the field, usually with a quarterback that has exceptional speed, and runs plays like the option, or the QB draw and so fourth. Michigan, for whatever reason can’t defend it. That’s the bad news, the good news is that for the most part the Big Ten does not have teams that are very effective at executing this offense. It’s more, pound the ball up the middle so having said that We have 10 more games to go, 8 of those against Big Ten teams, and the other two being ND this weekend and Eastern Michigan down the line. Don’t lose faith, because I for one wouldn’t be surprised if the Wolverines were able to manage a 9-3 or even 10-2 season. Oh and by the way, App State beat Lenoir Rhyne this past weekend, 48-7… just in case you were wondering.
Jen Noborikawa
Ah—football. This is the perfect topic for me to post a response on because (proving the stereotype of a girl) I don’t know a darn thing about it. Once I made the decision to come to the University of Michigan, the only thing people talked to me about was our “almighty football team.” I thought life for me would change…
I come from a high school that didn’t win a single game throughout my entire four years there. Humbly said, we were (and still are) BAD. However, our city newspaper still wrote an article about our team. Well, not exactly the team, but the fans. They commented on the ironic phenomenon that even though our team simply does not win, and has no prospect of winning anytime soon, the crowd (which is comprised of past, present, and future students) is always in full attendance and cheering. Maybe I brought the losing streak across the Pacific Ocean, and here to Michigan.
Because winning hasn’t made the past two games here at UM memorable, here’s what has: a tattoo of an “M” on my face that has lasted two weeks. Simple. Ridiculous. A great conversation starter. Who could ask for more?
Glenn Tucker
UM football is indeed depressing. My general sentiment is that the kind folks in charge of preseason National Rankings always find a way to put Michigan in the top 10. Because of this, the Wolverines enter most seasons with arrogance and lose an early game. This puts them out of the national title hunt and consequently out of the scrutiny of the media, which allows them time to put together a half-decent season. I think preseason rankings in general are an extremely irrelevant as they are based purely on speculation. As for the Volleyball team, Go Blue! (Since David’s post, they have ascended to 10-0 to be the only undefeated team in the Big Ten.) There are plenty of great sports teams outside of the football and basketball. The hockey team, for instance, consistently places into the Frozen Four. The swim team is among the best in the nation, featuring World Record holder Michael Phelps.
Faith Putans
So unlike many of the students who came to U of M this year, i never had any previous allegiance to this school. I wasn’t raised to be a hardcore Michigan fan and have no memories of watching football games cheering for the valiant wolverines. To be completely honest, for awhile i thought quite unfavorably on this university. I saw the people that went to U of M were slightly cocky and thought that this university was greater than all the others. And that is something that i found to be slightly annoying, as i don’t consider myself arrogant and don’t particularly desire to associate with such people. But now that i am here i have found that my loyalty to U of M has already began. I didn’t realize this until i saw a group of Oregon Fans walking the streets, decked out in Duck gear. For some strange reason i felt extremely angered and proceeded to curse Oregon and it’s insolent fans.
And though we lost the game, i still feel extremely loyal to this school. The fact is we could lose every game for the next four years and i would still be proud to be a student here. Outside of sports, we are all extremely fortunate to be here. And i hope that is something i never take for granted.
Peter Gao
Hard to believe that two weeks into the season, Michigan has spiraled down to the unenviable position at the bottom of the Big 10 Standings. Despite the team’s complete implosion, not to mention lack of effort and poor coaching, the glass half full view is that one of our perennial rivals Notre Dame comes into the Big House tomorrow sporting a 0-2 record as well. Like numerous others have mentioned in their responses, we have to maintain optimism and faith rather than steeping so low to booing the Wolverines and coach Carr as during the Oregon game. With Mike Hart guaranteeing a victory and the Fighting Irish’s inconsistent offense, we have an opportunity to somehow redeem ourselves and built up momentum for the rest of the season. Still reiterating what others have said, there’s much more to U of M than football, whether it’s taking advantage of our first-rate education or attending an exciting women’s volleyball game.
Nick Ward
It’s really too bad that our football team lost so terribly, twice in a row. I was excited knowing that I would be coming to a school with such an amazing football team (even though I don’t care that much about sports…) and that I’d be able to be proud of my school. I don’t know too much about football, except for the unfortunate fact that I know we are now the laughing stock of the college football world. Hopefully the game against Notre Dame will turn out to be better, but I’m not getting my hopes up. For some odd reason, before I came here, I had a funny feeling that something here at Michigan was going to be completely different than what it was made out to be. Little did I know it would be the football team. However, the football team and their new terrible season aren’t going to get me down. I love college so much, and I’m having the time of my life. I don’t really need football or school spirit to have a good time.
Eddie Ricard
I think we should be embarrassed that our team is doing so poorly. I find it odd that a school with as money as we have, and all the resources we have, can be so horrible at football. I have heard rumors that it has a lot to do with our coach, good old Lloyd. It’s not that he’s a bad coach in general, he just is horrible under pressure, and seeing as most of our games are high stakes, he ends up being horrible. I am glad that David brought up the point that there are many good things going on at UM though. I have to believe that there are a lot of activities at UM that people are good at. Maybe our horrible football team will motivate hockey to be national champions, but who knows. I guess we should just forget about football and move on with our lives. I do agree though that one of the big draws of UM is its football program. A lot of kids like the idea of being able to watch Big 10 football, but when our team is horrible it just makes us look bad. I hope that this whole loosing thing goes away fast. But, if it doesn’t I would be curious how much the University would lose in revenue, and how many days good old Lloyd will have left in office.
I am fifth generation at the University of Michigan. I may be from the East Coast, but I was raised by a pack of wolverines. One of the reasons I wanted to come to Michigan so badly was because of the Big Ten Football; it sounded so exciting and I was so pumped to actually be able to stand in the Big House and cheer for my team. Unfortunately, thus far, our football team has less than impressed me. Appalachian State? That was supposed to be child’s play. At least it was a close game. Oregon, on the other hand, was just depressing; they whipped our butts! What happened to the champions of the West? What happened to the team that I grew up to love?
This Saturday was a brighter day for the Wolverines; we beat Notre Dame thirty-eight to zero. That’s an impressive blow; however, Notre Dame has also had a pretty dim season, scoring absolutely no touchdowns. Does this mean that Michigan is back in perfect shape? Or, are the Fighting Irish just so bad that we won easily? I hope that Michigan has just experienced an unlucky streak that is now over. I am looking forward to the game against Penn State next weekend in anticipation of another victory.
However, no matter what happens in the future, I will always be there to cheer my team on. Our football team may not be the ‘crème de la crème’ right now, but Michigan could beat any other college out of the water in terms of school spirit. Hail to the victors!
Looking forward to hockey season,
Jess Farr
OK, true, the football team has already been a disappointment, but I love being in Michigan Stadium with the 110,000 students, alumni, and little kids who aspire to go to Michigan when they get older. I applaud you on your ode to the volleyball team, although I must admit I have not been to a game yet either. On that note, I think we should all make sincere efforts to support women’s athletics. I got the chance in high school to go to many women’s basketball and softball games, and I enjoyed them much more than I expected to.
Chris Chaisson
Kyle Shenfeld
This week was a discrace to all that is Michigan Football. The boys had their heads down, plain and simple. However, since I’m way late on my blogs, i can look at this situation from a far different perspective. Now, going into this weekend vs. OSU, i can see the situation from a different perspective. We were and are one of the most talented teams in all of college football. We have some of the top running backs, quarter backs, and wide recievers in the league. The only flaw has been our inability to combine it all together.
I feel with OSU in sight, the team is bonding. Las week players took a break to be fully rested.
In retrospect the Oregon fiasco was not so absurd. We were coming off a crazily emotional loss to app st. In addition, Oregon is now one of the best teams in the country with their leader, Dennis Dickson, as a lead candidate for the heisman.
We get a win saturday and we pull off a pretty solid season.
GO BLUE