Never seen anything like that before. We’ve seen furious comebacks, plenty of games that have gone down to the wire, and some strange changes of fortune but nothing ever like that game yesterday.
It was so ridiculously somber at halftime, people were spewing and texting hate bombs all over the place. Many people left at half, more departed in the third. It was similar to the Oregon game [see Sucks Unlimited] last but I think more desperate. Last season after the Appalachian State game and midway through Oregon, it was a different kind of crappy feeling. You knew Henne, Hart and company could play- we’d seen it for three years! With this team there was no equity in the bank and it was hopeless.
Looking over the scores in the Big Ten and playing the remaining schedule game a few folks uttered “2 wins” and that seemed reasonable if not likely. No way Michigan turns it around – it wasn’t really even a consideration. Go home and cut the lawn because there IS NO CURE FOR THIS:
First half Michigan “drive” chart vs. Wisconsin 9/27/08
So when the team left the field at the end of the first half the boos rained down from around the stadium. It was loud. While Rodriguez joked about it later, Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema had some choice words for the choice words he heard:
“I give all the credit in the world to Michigan to come back after hearing all the things that I heard being yelled at them at halftime,” Bielema said. “To come back in the third quarter was impressive.”
After a couple of the first downs in the third quarter raucous Bronx cheers erupted from the maize clad faithful as Kirk Herbstreit later, during the Penn State/Illinois game, described as “mocking” the Wolverines.
So you’re going to hear a lot of ‘shame on you’ for the boos etc., and it’s probably justified. While Rich Rod laughed it off, I’m guessing he’s super pissed. This said, kind of like the campaigns to stop the stupid key rattling on key plays, it’s kind of silly to think a blog post will affect any of this but here goes:
You don’t boo college players. Boo refs, maybe boo a coaching decision (maybe), but don’t boo the players or the play on the field. Come on.
Bronx cheers? Fine I guess. It’s sarcastic support, but support nonetheless & I guess at least it shows people are paying attention. But keep in mind all this reflects poorly on the game day experience at Michigan and they’ll be folks out there (Bielema, Herby) who’ll run with it and use it against you in the future. Bielema to Recruit: “You want to play in the Big House? Yeah, it’s pretty loud in there once they start booing their own team.” Herbstreit texting SweaterVest McCheaty Pants: ‘M fans mock M better than Bucknuts’.
Recruits hear it, families hear and it while no one’s suggesting these guys don’t have a good thing going playing football for Michigan, they are still college kids most of whom of course will never play again after this. Chill out and if you’re that pissed about the play on the field go home and move your Obama sign around.
11 Comments
John
Please explain to everyone why you think those who boo the team are Obama supporters.
Greg
John/Everyone: there’s just a lot of Obama signs in the neighborhoods outside the Big House, that’s all. It’s no secret that Ann Arbor is a liberal community, it’s part of this city’s charm and many of the fans of course live in town. If we were in Madison I’d suggest that Badger fans go home and check on their home brewing kits.
P.S. Glad to see someone actually makes it to the end of some of these posts.
Nader Supporter
Hey, what about us?!
John, lighten up
Brian
I couldnt agree more, I was at the game yesterday sitting in the area where michigan seats many of their visting recruits. When the boos came down at halftime, if I had been a recruit my college choice probably wouldn’t have included michigan anymore.
What I am most upset about is was the crowd noise. During the furious comeback, the crowd noise was the loudest I have ever expericed at the big house. Which begs the questions why we can’t be that loud all time. It really seemed to energize the team, and cause some problems for wisconsin as well.
Steve L.
That was a great win for those kids! Should help with badly needed confidence. Must admit though, I watched from home, and was ready to shut it off at the half. Fortunately (?) I had nothing better to do. I agree that booing the kids isn’t cool. My assumption watching from home was that they were booing the coach for putting us in this situation to begin with. I don’t really think any kind of booing with the possible exception of a ref really blowing it is called for. Outside of it being totally classless, the points you brought up are spot on.
John
Greg, Ann Arbor is a liberal town. But I’ve been to enough football games to know that the people attending them aren’t predominantly liberal, even in Ann Arbor. I bet if you were to conduct a survey, you’d find that the attendees are predominantly white, male, and Republican. Jim Carty confirmed my suspicions when he took an informal poll during the MLive “Live blog” yesterday and 56% of participants said they were voting for McCain (44% supported Obama). (See http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/football/index.ssf/2008/09/live_blog_michigan_vs_wisconsi.html)
Sarah Palin one heartbeat away from the presidency is no laughing matter. In fact, it’s downright scary.
Greg
Fair enough John and interesting stats. I think a lot of people are scared no matter what happens in November.
John Sharp
Thank You for this article. College football fans are getting out of hand with their viscious talk and booing of players, and coaches. No team can win every game, make every play. These are probably the same so-called fans who complained about the last coaching staff, booing those coaches, and players, and spewing acid-coated words to “fire carr!”. All Michigan fans were warned about the young players on offense, and booing will not change anything. Players execution of plays, sent in by coaches, is the key, not someone coaching from the stands or on t.v. GO BLUE!!
BiggieMunn
My guess is those that are booing the kids are mostly your Walmart Wolverine types.
IndyJeff
A couple of things:
It is a shame you had to put in the Obama phrase as you lost your message/point.
I was at the game, I booed at halftime. And I rarely boo. Rarely. I did not boo a player. I agree 100% you don’t boo college players (Exception: they pull the taunting crap). I booed the team, the coaches, and the perceived lack of effort for the first half. After ND, to play like that – the turnovers – UGH! Holding the ball in the wrong hand on the punt return is poor coaching. We could all see it from our seats. We could go on and on. Bottom line, while we want to win every game, we know that is not realistic; however, the previous regime (as far back as 1969) taught discipline, taught effort, and we saw zero of that in half #1. Frankly, people were longing for the days of discipline and effort.
As far a recruits go…if they were turned off by the boos at halftime…they had to be juiced by the celebration after the game. They don’t boo in Columbus? Riiiiiiiight.
Greg
Jeff- Good points and takes. On Obama, it’s the burden, nay, the obligation of a blogger to ruin a good post with a poorly placed non sequitur.