Michigan Football Tidbits: Part 1

Michigan Tidbits: Being a “Hater” Part 1

Well first off, several of the people that help me on this blog (CoachBt who helps a lot, MaizeMan who chips in once in awhile and Josh Turel with a occasional comment) have seen practices of Michigan football in the spring and the fall. Several posters have called "us" out regarding several things.

That is fine and their right, but people need to get off this notion of “us” only seeing one practice. That is more laughable then anything because we have seen more practices then any media member out there (IMO) and will put it out there for others to judge and compare what we have seen compared to others. The media member’s usually only see the first thirty minutes or so of practice where they only see drills, workouts where we see the entire practices.

Okay enough of that type of stuff.

Regarding the e-mails saying we are being a “Hater” of certain positions and kids because we are giving our opinions about what we have seen in the spring, summer, and fall workouts and practices. If we did not give our truthful thoughts on the matter then people would say during the season “why none told us some of these concerns” that they saw in practice. This is not going against what Coach Rod is doing because he is probably worried about the same things regarding this team when he watched the practices.

Believe us he does not think everything is wonderful and that we are going to be great at this time or as we liked to call it “lollipop and roses”. Well just go to one of his practices and you would see first hand, about what we are talking about here.

Also this does not mean those people need to feel differently than how we feel or that you are not allowed to e-mail us because we enjoy the debate along with seeing a different perspective on what other people think and possible have seen. Therefore, keep those e-mails coming good or bad. Remember as well we would not put all this time, money, and effort into hating Michigan football. We all love Michigan as much as anyone else does and that is why we have concerns not out of hate, but because we want the best for Michigan.

I know many people want to hear the “fluff” or what we like to call the “lollipops and roses” version where everything is great and we have no problems. Well that is not going to happen here unless that is what we truly feel. We are not concerned if people do not agree with our comments, but we give our opinions to what we feel might happen during the beginning of the season and telling people what we believe might happen is more important then actually getting attention or more people to click on this blog.

Therefore, it works both ways in our opinion with the people that call us out, but then they are “hoping” to make a bowl game and continue the bowl streak or they are saying they would be happy with is 7-5 record? To me that is being a hater because if you’re calling us out for what we have seen and reported it to you and you think we are wrong then why are you not predicting 12-0, 11-1, 10-2 regular season record.

Most of the posters are lowering their expectations so low that they will be happy with any success. Not picking on any one poster of any message board or who e-mails this blog, but if you really think you would be happy with 6-6 or 7-5 and just extending the bowl streak then you are a lot better fan than we are right now because we could never be happy going 6-6. We have seen this team and they have worked to damn hard to be happy with a 6-6 record. We know as well the Michigan coaching staff would not be very happy with a 6-6 record either and would consider it a failure.

Many people ask for our prediction of this team and what we think. Well it is tough because we will be held more accountable, people will remember our prediction a lot more then somebody else, and they will make sure to throw it back at us. This might be getting off the easy way, but we can see 7-5 as being the worse this team could do and we can see 10-2 as the best. We would be happy in this first year to be 8-4.

A lot will have to do with how this team starts the first three games. They are very important to build confidence and also get over the first few hurdles that will make a program stronger especially a new program where the coaches can tell the kids “See that is why we were pushing you so hard” during the off season and practices.

Of course, turnovers will play a huge part in this team’s success because of all the inexperience it has along with being so young with a new program. To go on record we say 8-4. Do not hold us to this though because I want to see how the first three games go first because if Michigan can get on a roll the first three games we can see 10-2 as well.

The Notre Dame Game scares us because most Michigan fans do not believe Notre Dame is very good along with playing at Notre Dame has always been a weird game for Michigan. This is a HUGE game for both programs and could be a defining game for both programs and the direction they are headed. This could also determine the type of season Michigan could possible have this year.

Part 2 will deal with some of our concerns on offense that people have taken the wrong way and have twisted them around.