FanNation - The Republic of Sport

"We're going to win next week, There's no question in my mind. I guarantee we win next week. -Mike Hart as quoted on www.espn.com."

      Michael, you sound very, very stupid. Not because you're poorly spoken, or because anyone thinks you might actually lose to ND, but because your really missing the point of your failures up until now. Take the high road, talk about redeeming yourself and your team to your fans and school. Don't guarantee victory like Chad Johnson or Jeremy Shockey, they get paid to do that. you came back to bring a National Championship and/or Beat Ohio State/ win a bowl game. Focus on the latter and focus on rebuildnig Michigan's reputation as a great program. Don't make arrogant and completely unfounded declarations. Right now, your just a running back on a lousy team that has embarrassed itself 2 straight weeks. Michigan will be a good team, I'm not buying into the fact that they are fatally flawed for one second. I would be shocked if they don't finish in the top 4 in the Big Ten, in the mix of Penn State (favorite), Wisconsin (1st contender) and Ohio State (2nd contender). But for now, lets just focus on what has occurred and what you have earned in your career. It doesn't require any real analysis to show that you haven't earned the right to make outrageous comments and neither has your entire team. As Brandon Castel of http://www.rivals.com/ points out:

"This has created an interesting situation. The winningest program in the history of Division I-A college football is made up of an entire roster of guys who don't know how to win. Sure Henne has an overall record of 27-10 in three seasons as the starting quarterback at Michigan, but he has only led the Wolverines to a win in one game that could truly be considered a "big game" (that being the 27-25 last-second win over No. 8 Penn State in 2005). He is 0-3 in bowl games with losses to Texas, Nebraska and USC and has never led his team to a Big Ten title or a win over rival Ohio State."

     OK, back to the game at hand: Notre Dame at Michigan. Two of the most...the two most decorated and celebrated programs in college football history. Now lets talk about them this year. Michigan is proving that there offense last year benefitted greatly from a ferocious defense (see field position, turnovers) and that defenses take time to bring along, no matter how good your recruiting is. Notre Dame is bad, but everyoen knew it. So, why do we care that they are playing each other? At the end of this week, one of the two teams will be able to say "we beat an 0-3 team." Hooray. The only thing I care about is that 2 stud freshman quarterbacks are getting a chance to show off their skills on national TV with really good (compared to their respective high schools) supporting casts.

     Honestly, in the long-run, nobody cares. Michigan is going to a bowl, but probably not a good one because the only way they go to a good game with those 2 non-conferences losses is by winning their conference. And winning Big Ten is a tall order given their past 2....make that past 4 performances. Notre Dame probably isn't going to a bowl at all. Although, I actually hope they do make one because I want to see which bowl a Notre Dame team that goes 6-6 (with W's against MSU, BC, Navy, Air Force, duke and Stanford) gets to play in. My guess is they go to a Jan. 29 game, and if they play Air Force, they may finalyl win a bowl game! if they play SEC no.5, Arkansas....well, McFadden trounces them thoroughly.

     Either way, its fun for a college football fan see the established teams get smacked in the face and have everyone realize that there are more than 15 good teams out there. The SEC is stacked with between 5 and 7 really quality teams, the Pac-10 looks like it might have more than one good team (read: UCLA, Cal adn Oregon can all play), the Big XII is back to it's old ways (OU and Texas in top 10), the ACC is crap, but it's been replaced by an impressive Big East showing early in the season, the Big Ten is weaker than expected because of Michigan's fall, but Penn State seems to be picking up some of the slack and Purdue is a surprise so far.

     Bottom line is that much like the NCAA basketball tourney a decade ago , parity seems to be grasping ahold of NCAA football a little. Hopefully, like NCAA basketball, this parity will flourish. Just like any other respectable non-Michigan fan on opening weekend, I had more fun watching Goliath fall to David than I ever have sleeping through 40 first-week sleepers. So, you should care that Michigan and Notre Dame are terrible, but not because it's sad to see so much potential go to waste, but because we can finally see the potential that's been covered up until now. Go 'neers.