ohio state at Michigan, Saturday, 11/30/19, Noon EST, FOX/Fox Video

[lineygoblue]

I'm fine with it, Jeff.

Only thing that sucks for me is I'd planned to go to Ford Field to see the Football Finals on Saturday, but now if we're getting a "wintry mix", that will slow down the area freeways to a crawl. I may be stuck at home after all ...

Maybe I'll go to Soaring Eagle and play Craps instead ... better chance of seeing a win there ...

[Tom W]

This isn't MSU.

The environment will be energetic - at least for a while. Michigan fans know how to dress for the weather and will fill the place up and be loud as long as the game is competitive- which might be longer than common logic would lead us to expect.

Sure, the students will be particularly absent, but that's got more to do with them being back home the holiday. It's not like we'll need them anyways.

I just hope that Jeff brings some good "coffee" back to the tailgate.

[Niffla]

Liney you seem to be a terrific guy and if there was a Mount Rushmore for this particular board you'd have my vote to be on there, but....

Sometimes your posts really sap the optimism out of me ????

[hack]

Well I'm glad at least to see that you are still pretty optimistic about Titus Young.

[Niffla]

Titus will forever be my adopt-a-lion

Until death

[lineygoblue]

Liney you seem to be a terrific guy and if there was a Mount Rushmore for this particular board you'd have my vote to be on there, but....

Sometimes your posts really sap the optimism out of me.

LOL... I enjoy reading your posts as well, Niffla. And thanks for the vote.

I can indirectly blame the Lions. After decades of hoping that they'd finally get it right, I let go of them as my favorite NFL team. It became obvious to me that the Ford family is a business family, and not a sports family. In the Lions, they are running a successfully profitable business, and they see no need to change anything. It makes money for them. They'd be crazy to sell a profitable business. Martha pockets at least $100 million a year, just in TV profits. Why would she sell?

Anyway, .. to tie that to Michigan, I'm not sure that I'll ever stop being a Michigan fan, but after a decade and a half of hopes and dreams being dashed by poor coaching, bad recruiting and horrid officiating, I've become sapped out on optimism about this series, and it reminds me of how long I stuck with the Lions. I became a Patriots fan because of Tom Brady. I don't have another college team that I could care about more than Michigan.

Reality is, I hope Michigan can finally figure out a way to win a game that they are not supposed to win. It would bring a refreshing change to this series. I just don't have any hope that it will happen.

[Niffla]

LOL... I enjoy reading your posts as well, Niffla. And thanks for the vote.

I can indirectly blame the Lions. After decades of hoping that they'd finally get it right, I let go of them as my favorite NFL team. It became obvious to me that the Ford family is a business family, and not a sports family. In the Lions, they are running a successfully profitable business, and they see no need to change anything. It makes money for them. They'd be crazy to sell a profitable business. Martha pockets at least $100 million a year, just in TV profits. Why would she sell?

Anyway, .. to tie that to Michigan, I'm not sure that I'll ever stop being a Michigan fan, but after a decade and a half of hopes and dreams being dashed by poor coaching, bad recruiting and horrid officiating, I've become sapped out on optimism about this series, and it reminds me of how long I stuck with the Lions. I became a Patriots fan because of Tom Brady. I don't have another college team that I could care about more than Michigan.

Reality is, I hope Michigan can finally figure out a way to win a game that they are not supposed to win. It would bring a refreshing change to this series. I just don't have any hope that it will happen.

I understand, liney. I do. And it is a tough pill to swallow when it comes to this program since the final years of Carr all the way to now.

I just feel really, really good about Saturday. If I'm wrong I will be the first back here to congratulate Ohio State. They're (obviously) an incredible program and have one of the elite tier teams in the entire country this season -- once again. But yeah, I love the way Michigan is playing. Since halftime of the Penn State game they're playing as well as anyone in the country. Shea all of a sudden is playing the best football of his life. The receivers are finally fully maximizing their potential. The ground game has made nice strides. The defense has rebounded into elite form since a rather sub par start to the season.

Let's just say that I can't wait for Saturday.

Now come here big guy

[lineygoblue]

LOL .. I love it.

[iam416]

Steve Deace has spoken. Whatever tiny slivers of hope I had are gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4r5N8k4DfY&pbjreload=10

[lineygoblue]

Mocking our misery aside ... OSU has nothing to worry about.

The videos that started that podcast are from an era that has long since passed. A time when everyone on State Street cared about the outcome of this game. A time when Michigan's coaches ventured into the state of Ohio and snatched away HS talent and made legends out of them. An era when Michigan rightfully said, "Only the best from Ohio come to Michigan". That used to be true.

Nowadays, the HS talent in Ohio is basically ignored by Michigan football. I have no problem admitting that Ohio has tons of HS talent. Some of the best players to wear the winged helmet have come from Ohio. Bo and Moeller both coached for OSU, and knew every nook and cranny in Ohio to search and find talent for Michigan. Now, its seems as though Michigan recruiters are scared to step foot in Ohio, and snatch away talent that would likely consider escaping the dreary confines of that wretched state, and come to the hope and promise of Michigan. Charles Woodson did it. So did guys like Elvis Grbac, Desmond Howard and John Kolesar. Men who came from Ohio and proudly wore the winged helmet.

Its not only the failure to recruit Ohio that makes Michigan a bad bet for Saturday. Ohio is just at another level in the accumulation of talent. As Niffla aptly noted, the walls started to crumble during the latter years of Lloyd Carr's administration, and completely crashed during the Rodriguez and Hoke years. Those yahoos put Michigan's recruiting efforts in the same category as MAC recruiting, with Michigan "fighting" with teams like Toledo and Akron for "top talent". Meanwhile, guys like Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer were locking down Ohio, and just for fun, started snatching away talent from The Nick, Pete Carroll, and Bobby Bowden. Michigan has only recently started to recover from the destruction brought on by Carr, Rodriguez and Hoke.

Now what is taking place is the perception of HS recruits. The perception is that Michigan is a decent team, but cannot win the big games. The won/lost record bears that perception out. When kids get down to a choice between OSU and Michigan, they look at the scoreboard(s) and it becomes a no-brainer. They choose OSU. Why would they want to come to a team that consistently struggles in Game 12? It didn't used to be that way, as I noted above. Used to be that Michigan = OSU = Michigan when it came to talent. The two teams were always neck and neck in talent.

Look at the match ups for Saturday's game. Not a soul on this board can name one place in the on-field match ups where Michigan has the advantage.

OSU' defense vs Michigan's offense? -- As long as Chase Young is on the field, Michigan is going nowhere. Young's number will be tattooed on Patterson's chest.

OSU offense vs Michigan's defense? -- OSU has the guy at HC who designed last year's 62-39 scoreboard, making Don Brown look like a HS JV coach. Brown has done nothing to change that.

Special teams, .. coaching, .. all Advantage OSU.

So as our Ohio friends continue to mock our misery, and take delight in sandbagging their true feelings about Saturday's game, the truth is for Michigan to win this game, it would take a miracle that would overshadow the 1969 victory by a mile. Harbaugh is a good coach, but he ain't Bo. I just don't see him being able to get the team to approach the level of intensity that its going to take to knock off OSU.

Its just not happening. Weather, .. schmeather. That's not going to make a difference either. While Michigan was smacking ND in a bad weather game, OSU was destroying Wisconsin. OSU is good in bad weather too.

Now excuse me while I go and resume smacking myself in the head with a hammer ....

[iam416]

I wouldn't want to interrupt your date with the hammer, but M's recruiting isn't the problem. They recruit (and have recruited) plenty well enough to win. HOKE recruited plenty well enough to win.

M is going to attack OSU's two clear weaknesses -- LB play with the GATTIS!!! RPO and QB decisiveness with Don Brown's plethora of coverage packages. And it's going to work.

[lineygoblue]

We shall see.

[hack]

I think that recruiting Ohio is an interesting and valid discussion, and it could very well explain Hoke's success in not getting destroyed in this game despite being overmatched in many ways. In rivalry games, being from one of the two states does up the stakes, and you've heard that from players on both sides in football against OSU and basketball against MSU. Harbaugh did go after Vince Marrow from Kentucky as TE coach, and IIRC the narrative there was that he was valued as a strong Ohio recruiter. Maybe that's something to revisit. But Michigan is not fighting MAC teams for talent, and Michigan recruits well enough to win this game. Times have certainly changed and Michigan is not going to do what it takes to be on the Bama/Clemson level whereas OSU does. But Michigan has handicapped itself in terms of how it deploys the talent it has collected, and can/should stop doing so. It might be getting close to finally doing that.

[THE_WIZARD_]

We shall see.

shaddup

[lineygoblue]

Wiz: