Midweek Musings: music

Let us not fool ourselves, music plays a huge part in the game experience. However the band is not the 12th player regardless of how adamant the band geeks may argue their cases.
Let us explore some patterns. First off, the intercom music.
The first thing to note is that for some reason, smaller sports programs tend to play more hip-hop, and larger programs tend to play more classic hits. My theory is this. In small programs, someone is simply told to fill the air with music, and whomever that happens to be, just creates a playlist. So, generally we get one person's taste, and without fail it is all about the beat. I am not, all about the beat, so I tend to kill time behind the bleachers where I can gut some sonic shielding.
Larger programs know that music gets the crowd charged up. They specifically choose classics which they know will be crowd pleasers, and they make sure that they bring an attitude. Attitude is important, and it varies by gender.
Men's sports tend to have songs that start slow and build up the pressure until it is in overdrive. They convey the feeling that we are about to completely cut loose and crush all that is in our way. Women's sports are a little different. The first notable difference is that, they choose female artists. Men never choose female artist. I guess, when you are trying to be as macho as possible, certain things must go. The second thing is that the women's songs tend to be high energy, but they are often things of which I have not heard. It must be the team's personal choice. It more likely than not turns out to be some dance mix. It's not bad, but its not my cup of tea. Then again the, teams are choosing the music for themselves, not me. I do admire a good ritual pump-up song though. At NIU, the volleyball team would play "Heartache Tonight." Yeah that is a good one to prep for the crushing. Still, notice the attitude. It's not the crazy adrenaline pumping overdrive. It is confidently taking pleasure in beating one's opponent. Hmm, men and women approach things with different mentalities. Who would have guessed? I'll talk more about the differences between Men's and Women's sports at a later musing.
Now, who can not mention the band? They may not be the 12th man, but they are fun, potentially. I am by no means a connoisseur of these things. I can tell you that Alabama State has crazy power. I can also tell you that Michigan generally underutilized its band. I was very pleased the last game when we brought the entire band on the field for half-time. We never do that. We did leave one person on the benches. I wonder what he did to earn that seat. I hope it is something to which the band will refer for the rest of the year as "The chicken nugget incident." The most important rule of band music is to get the crowd into it. That is why you can get away with only playing the fight song. Anything that is overly complicated or muddled just doesn't do the trick, even if it is a well known song. Play something clear and loud that will get the crowd to sing or dance. Is there any question why "Sweet Caroline" is a staple across the country? Why do band's play Lady Ga Ga, because it is clear and it gets the crowd moving. That is the purpose of the band, to get the crowd moving. It is not the 12th man. It is the loudest cheerleader. I guess we could make them all wear short skirts to drive home that fact. Nah, I like the uniforms.

Finally, songs to sing along to, because the lyrics mean something. "Don't Stop Believing." comes to mind. In Michigan this has a special meaning, because we like songs that mention Detroit. Although, isn't South Detroit technically Windsor Ontario? I digress. Usually, it is played when the team is down but not out. In Michigan Stadium, this year, it has been played after the first quarter, which does fit the aforementioned pattern. What it really means to Michigan is that we need to keep believing that we can still be champions. After years of losing to rivals, and really, just about everyone, we need to be reminded. Another important song was "Oh What a Night" played after the craziest last two minutes of any football game I have every witnessed. Its an instant classic when you attend the loudest and biggest party in the world. Isn't that what football games are? Big parties? There are guest lists, bouncer, crazy outfits, drunks, and live bands. Anyway, another song which should be sung for the lyrics, but just get's chanted, is "Seven Nation Army." Listen to the the lyrics some time, and try to come up with a reason, why that is not the perfect, defense song. I dare you.
Now I wil leave you with one song which I would like to submit: "Lightning Crashes." While I am pretty sure that this song was written about the life of River Song from "Dr. Who." She is a time traveler, so the fact that the song was written in 1994 and River was introduced in 2009 all works out, no wait, it doesn't. Anyway, when one is on the verge of taking back greatness, especially when one's first game is lightning-shortened, there are no more appropriate lyrics than,
"Oh, I feel it coming back again,
like a rolling thunder, chasing the wind
forces pulling from the center of the earth again
I can feel it."

because I can

I'm writing this entry on my Kindle just because I can. Also, I am getting really sick of staring at bright screens all day. So, this is a nice change-up.
So, women's soccer was fun even though I was disappointing with the crowd. I figured that because men's soccer had a big following that women's would also have a good following. Let us not forget that the woman's team was ranked going into the weekend. However the student section was mostly populated by hard-core soccer fans who all appeared to know "The Wandering Canonical Helmsman." I feel they loved to analyze the game a bit too much and not admire the beauty of the game at all. That being said, our most skilled ball handler lacked hustle, and while other ladies had a lot more energy and speed, we never really attacked. Maybe we did, I cannot recall as I am in a bad mood, and that is tainting my memory. Still it was pretty awesome when the ladies got close to us. Our ladies had excellent moves. Personally, I thought that we were the the more skilled team, but Minnesota found ways to organize attacks, and that is why they won. I kind of regret not going to the Sunday game. It would probably have been better attended. Alas, I had work to do. That is part of the reason why I am in am bad mood. Oh well, there will be other games, and I will be there.

Now, let us discuss what we all really think about: football. The game was definitely hyped-up as you know. It was a major boon to see our defense rattle their quarterback. It is especially comforting to see that the only way San Diego State could score was when we turned over the ball in our territory. What was not comforting was that wonderful field goal miss. Here we go again. What I am glad to see is that Denard Robinson chose to forgo obvious rushing yards in favor of passing attempts. Needless to say, it's good to have the cushion to play around like that, but it would be nice to have a "gimmes" actually be completes. When they are afraid that one will outrun the blitz, one has all of the time in the world.
Altogether, this bodes well for us as a program. We know we will not go undefeated this year, but we have the tools to make some noise in the Big Ten, and we are improving. Maybe next year. This year, let us just focus on beating Ohio State. We can worry about winning the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl, and the national championship next year. The national championship will come. Somebody was quoted in The Michigan Daily saying, "Michigan will win the national championship under Brady Hoke." I have to agree. I think it all goes to a statement he said in his introductory press conference, which is played before every football game, "It's Michigan for God's sakes." This statement iterates an attitude that we did not have under Rich Rod. Michigan is not supposed to be a good team; Michigan is supposed to be the best team. I know it sound arrogant, but if you want to win a national championship you have to strive for it with the attitude that you will not settle for less. We finally have that attitude. That attitude is our greatest tradition. It is why we are too proud to have a mascot, as winning is our mascot. It is why we brag about our stadium, because we like to believe that we can attract the most people. It is also why our fight song declares us The Victors before we even take the field. Also, one thing that helps is, even though he doesn't talk about it. Everyone expects Denard Robinson to get the Heisman. Whether or not he gets it is irrelevant. The point is that the people want greatness once again, and that is the mark of Michigan. Michigan men understand this.
My homework for the week is done, and I will have my slides and poster done tomorrow. What this means for you is that I will treat you to a midweek musing tomorrow, and if you want to come out, I will be ice skating in the greatest ice aren't in the world on Thursday.
Next weekend is ice hockey, football, and men's lacrosse.
PS. Kindles do not have spell check. So, bare with me.
 Roar!

The upcoming weekend

Its late and I am tired

Let us see here.

I told people I would be attending the soccer game on Friday. So, I guess I will. Back in high school I was weird and shameless. I was the ballboy for the girl's soccer team. I never missed a game my senior year. Looking back that was probably a bad thing. Whatever, it got me out and active on many a spring day. Also, I supported my school. So what if I was viewed as creepy. Actually, I just a wrote a weblog entry on the aforementioned behavior. Anyway, I like women's soccer. I think I like it more than men's soccer, maybe because, it is viewed as such a  feminine sport here in the states. That's right. In other countries female soccer players are viewed as overly masculine, while here they are viewed as the peak of the female athlete. I will write more on this later. However, when it comes down to it. I like women's soccer because the competition lever is usually very intense and the ladies demonstrate a lot of athletic prowess. I will take a trip down memory lane, while supporting my team on Friday.

What: Women's soccer
Who: Michigan vs. Minnesota
Where: Michigan soccer Complex
When: 7:00 PM Friday, October 23rd

If I don't mention it. I will be at the football game on Saturday.

What: Football
Who: Michigan vs. San Diego State
Where: Michigan Stadium
When 12:00 PM Saturday, October 24th

In other news I may see "Moneyball" this weekend. I am totally looking forward to it, because even as a kid I knew that baseball statistics were misleading. I am glad that there is a strong financial incentive for people to improve how they keep them. Let's face it. That is the only reason why people change.

Finally, they just announced a few games on the Michigan Lacross schedule. It looks like on October 2nd we will have some kind of match against Concordia Wisconsin. This is important to me because my dad just started a faculty position there. It is important to show him my school is better.

Golf revisited and redeemed?

I am officially tired after this weekend. I am quite glad that tomorrow is a workday which means I can sleep in. I love being a grad student. Anyway, in my last few waking moments. I would like to talk to you about some of the more exciting names in Michigan sports.

While you may be thinking of Denard Robinson, and if you paid attention to the game this weekend, you know the name Fitzgerald Toussaint, but let us talk about some other outstanding Michigan athletes.

First, remember the name Emy Guttman. I forgot it, and I regret forgetting it, mainly because if I had remembered it, I would have gotten the trivia question right, and potentially won another prize pack. Emy is a freshman forward for our field hockey team, scoring five goals in the games I attended  She is also a local girl who played in high school just a few feet down the road at Pioneer. This girl is going places. actually, the whole team is going places. They didn't even let Ball State get a shot on goal, and they crush teams that are supposedly equal to them. All I can say is that a Michigan field hockey game is great on its own, or as a pregame to football. Like I used it on Saturday.

Football, was...  what do you expect from Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan? You can be proud of your defense any time you hold a team to a field goal, especially, when they execute good goal line stops. It was good practice. Although, our offense really needed to take the opportunity to improve its passing game. Did we need to run all over them just because we could? No, we should a have sacrificed a few more plays to work on our passes. Remember, an effective passing play does not have to be a long bomb. It just has to advance the football. Still, it was the one-sided performance I was expecting. Putting Devon Gardiner in for the last set of downs was a nice touch. The fans were certainly happy to see him get some playing time.
As for the fan experience. I was kind of expecting the stadium to look half empty, but honestly, by kickoff the maize and blue faithful had filled it out with almost no EMU green visible. It still had about 4000 people less than last week, and from what I can tell those were the 4000 people who were trying to cram into my seat last week. Our crowd was good, but I don't understand why they weren't more excited about our field-goal. We made it. We made everything we kicked. I guess they are just a little leery after the past couple of years. I can't really blame them. As for the rest of the game, I regret to say that my maize shirt was not showing as I was wearing my blue hoodie, not because I was cold but because I forgot to put on sunblock. Yes, I am kind of paranoid about my skin. That being said, my nose is a bit red.

I opted to hang with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings instead of attending the volleyball game. On a side note, the person in charge of changing the channels at BWW hates his job because, they do not have a remote. Instead he has to push the same button, possibly, several hundred times to switch stations, and if his finger slips he has to start all over again. Seriously, I think the manager could justify the expense of getting a remote, or something with a keypad on it.

Now it is time for me to mention someone else to you. Yugene Lee was the individual runner up for the Mary Fossum Invitational today. The Michigan Ladies golf team placed third, just three strokes behind Ohio State and 15 behind host, Michigan State. That's right. despite my protests earlier this week. I drove to Lansing this morning and attended the entire last round, sort of. I was there for the signal for the shotgun start and I was there for the awards ceremony.
However, a little before noon, I skipped out to head to MSU's campus. My reason was simple, their dairy store.  I do love ice cream. My antics on campus included, wandering around the engineering building, photographing student club projects, trying to coax a squirrel into said engineering building, and trying to sneak into Spartan Stadium. Having failed to cause the lease bit of trouble, I returned to the end of the match.

Now, you might be wandering why I returned to the match. I have several reasons. First, it was Sunday, so I had no real place to go. Second, there were other spectators there this time. They were all family members, but they gave me people to whom I could talk (usually about football), and they made me feel not nearly as awkward wandering around a golf course watching other people play. Another factor was that they had posted leader boards in different locations allowing me to get a feel for what was happening. Also, since they paired ladies from the top three schools, there was a feeling of competition when I watched a trio. Finally, I have to admit that I find female athletes a little more appealing than male athletes when it comes right down to it. I'm sorry, but can you really blame me for appreciating healthy young women applying themselves to something they enjoy?
While I am not sure if I will ever take up the sport, I appreciate some more of the nuances of the game, and the difficulties that the course can cause. This course had narrow fairways and some crazy hazards. the narrow fairways played into my day when a ball flew wide from the fairway behind me and landed right in front of me. To be honest, I am kind of disappointed that I have not gotten beaned at one of these things. I love having a good story to tell, and it woudl have been something to impress the ladies. Well, at least the ladies who are impressed by that kind of thing. I don't know if I know any of those kind of ladies. Can you introduce me to some?
So I stuck around until the awards ceremony where a few ladies from the team came over and personally thanked me for coming out. In the end, is that not why I am doing all of this, to support my teams? No, it is not. I am doing this because, A) being a sports spectator is emotionally addictive, and b) to try to give me an impressive story to tell. Still, Meagan and Lauren, you are quite welcome. I had a great time.

Spikes to the face and rolling on the ground.

Once again I update far too late at night.
Tonight, I attended the volleyball home opener against Xavier with Alton "The Wandering Canonical Helmsman" James Benjamen Luder III. I guess I have a few simple thoughts.
First, let us discuss our opponents. Xavier has some cool things going on with their uniforms. Any team that can put "X" all over their uniforms has something going for them. Their school name is on their backs right above the letters. At first, it looked like the whole team was comprised of one family. They were extremely excitable and shrieked a lot, especially when number 9 was on the floor. Her spikes were predictable, but she was loud, fast on defense, and not shaken by balls to the face. She gets the crazy spirit award. Also she gets the, "Oh my goodness, you look like a kid," award. If she is a freshman , then she has a lot of potential.

Now, our team. We have some monsters, that is to say the least. our spikes are scary. Admittedly, not know much about the game it appeared that we relied quite a bit on our sheer power to win points. Xavier was much faster to the ball on defense than we were. However, our power lowered their success rate significantly. Well, there is always room for improvement. I did appreciate one of our players scoring with her face. Back in high school gym class I would try to score with my head. That may have worked once.

Now, the student section, aka "The Zone."  That is right, we have a crazy student section with matching t-shirts. How many schools have that? Seriously, how many? They are noisy, and creative, shouting something about wanting Cheetos for no good reason, and yelling at the Xavier assistant on the laptop to "Get off Facebook." Altogether they were good they often shouted things which were intangible to me. One of their habits was to make noise while Xavier had the ball. This kind of behavior can be deafening in some sports, but for volleyball, its kind of pointless, because the ball is over the net before we get ramped up. You know, unless there is a series of really high bumps, or gravity and air viscosity get messed up somehow. Some standard but good chants were: "We still love you," after a mistake by us, "Face Ball," after "The Shrieking  9" took a spike to the face, and "There's a net there," after a failed serve by Xavier.

One final though: net serves. Why do these exist? I think my friends would agree with me that a net serve warrants a benching. I mean, even I can get it over the net consistently, and they practice this every day. Fundimentals first people. I don't care how hard you can hit it if you keep on hitting the net. No, going through the net will not cut it because, it still counts as a service fault.

Anyway, we won the set in four games. It was definitely a good time, and I may go tomorrow night as well. We will see. I may attend the field hockey game tomorrow morning, but I will definitely attend the foootball game.

As for football. Let's face it. EMU should be easy pickin's. That being said I admire that our coaching staff, is warning everyone that we expect Eastern to bring their best, and they have some talent on that team and some good coaches. Most people see this as a much needed practice.

Prepping for Lord knows what.

Two quick things. First, I apologize fort he quality of the posts this past week. I generally just write what comes to me. Normally, I woudl spend a day or two pondering and editing in my head. I will play the Grad-Student Card, and say that I am just allowing myself to work until mental exhaustion.

Anyway this upcoming weekend well see quite a bit of variety and possibly some repeats.
I will definitely attend a volleyball match this weekend. Also Heading up to Lansing for Woman's Golf. I cannot resist the Football game. Also I may try for another prize-pack at the field hockey game. I am playing a hunch here. I will talk more.

What: Volleyball
Who: Michigan vs Xavier or Texas A&M
When: Friday, September 16th or Saturday September 17th, 7:30 or 7:30
Where: Cliff Keen Arena?

What: Field Hockey?
Who Michigan vs Ball State
When: Saturday, September 17th 10:00 AM
Where: Phillis Ocker Field

What: Football
Who: Michigan vs Eastern Michigan
When: Saturday, September 17th, noon
Where: Michigan Stadium

What: Woman's Golf
Who: Ferris State, Eastern Michigan, Indiana, James Madison, Kent State, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Michigan State, Oakland, Ohio State and Toledo
When: Sunday, September 18th, 9:00 AM
Where: Forest Akers West Golf Course, East Lansing, MI

Midweek Musings: Conjuring up Some Chants.

What makes me me proud of student sections? Creativity and dedication. As far as dedication is concerned, I have been very impressed with the football students section this year. They refuse to leave in the rain, the heat, when we are being crushed, or even when the game is over. I don't think they would have stuck around like that last year. This is a definite improvement. As far as creativity is concerned, though. They are somewhat lacking. What are their rivalry chants? "F*** the Irish," of "F*** Ohio State," they are uncreative and offensive, and they are mostly offensive because they are non-creative. Some people praise swear-words because they can be used in almost any context, and even as almost every word in a sentence. I find that profanity tends to oversimplify sentences and never fully express the complexity of the sentiment that one is trying to convey. Now, we here at Michigan can be loud, proud and creative. Our ice hockey student section is notorious. Also, as I have discovered our volleyball and soccer student sections are good at coming up with chats as well. Why is football so bad? I am guessing because it is the sheer size of the student section along with the fact that many students are only marginally interested in football. Also the noise tends to drown out anything creative.
Still, I believe that we need to come up with some good stuff. Let us take our upcoming game against EMU. Now, personally, I have nothing against EMU, and many EMU fans are  Michigna fans as well. Still we can work something in there. We can refer to them as the "Rodney Dangerfield" of division one, because they get no respect. We could taunt their mascot, "You had a cool mascot, but you got Shanghaied, by an overly powerful politically correct movement, and instead of choosing an obvious awesome replacement, the emu, you chose one of the most generic mascots in the country, so ha." I admit that it needs some work, but maybe we could go with "Boring mascot." in the meantime.
What also need are some good rivalry chants. "Bust their nuts," would be great against Ohio State. Other ones could be, "Nice Tattoo," or possibly, "Where's the vest."
I guess we have a few good rivalry chants with "Little brother," and "Worst State Ever." But we can always do more. I mean, when is the last time we taunted Notre Dame about their Lucky Charms?

Other things we could do is possibly make some things a little more relevant. Personally, the chant I hate the most is the "You suck," chant. What has been worse about it in recent years is that we usually chanted it while we were loosing a game. If they suck, but they are crushing us, what does that say about us?  Personally, I am all about being sarcastically positive towards the other team. While telling them "Good job," or, "You're OK," might not catch on, I like the idea of a condescending applause (with no voices) when we stop a drive. another option is "Better luck next time." How about , "Punt that ball?" I'm just saying, its a lot more amusing to taunt a team by being condescending, than it is to insult them.

I was wrong.

I said that the Hockey Game had the exact opposite feel of the Football Game. I was wrong. Monday morning golf is much farther away. When I showed up in my Michigan Polo the first worker who saw me thought I was a player. I think I saw I pair of parents from Detroit, but other than that I had free reign over the course, you know except for the greens, and the fairways, and the tees, and the bunkers, and the water hazards. To be fair, I have no desire to stand in the water hazards. For some reason there are signs telling people not to do that. Despite this freedom somehow got into a disagreement about where I could stand. That squirrel wanted me off its stump.
While I have never played it, I will take people's word for it that golf is more fun to play than watch in person. A fourth round of a golf major is somewhat exciting, with its skill shots. Also, they have the luxury of switching holes over showing people walking down fairways and waiting for the people ahead of then to finish.
Needless to say, I watched a handful of holes, and decided to head to work. It's enough to count so men's golf is in the bag.
I do have to admit that it is nice being on a golf course in the morning, but I have to side with Mark Twain on it.

I will talk about the outcome, possibly tomorrow.

As for looking forward, I broke down and purchased season tickets for ice hockey.


My next set of events will begin on Friday with volleyball.

Five Scores by them and one by me.

This afternoon I attended the field hockey game against Bucknell. While any game would seem small compared to the spectacle of the game last night, this field hockey was the extreme opposite. While not unattended, it felt at most like a High School game. A large part of this was because of the large section of Bucknell parents who get points for coming out to the game, but lose some for coaching from the stands. I could go into a theological exposition of why that happens, but I will spare you. Still the Bucknell shirts with a picture of a buck and "NELL" on them are pretty cool. Another reason it felt like a high school game, was the complete lack of a student section. While I beleive that students were present as given evidence by a man in blue waving a Michigan flag, they were generally outnumbered by what can be best described as Michigan field hockey enthusiast. Where do they come from parents, local coaches, alumnae? I have no clue.

I enjoyed listening to our field hockey enthusiast, they discussed how field Hockey is more of the domain of private schools and east coast schools. In the Big Ten, Michigan is the second closest thing to an east coast school after Penn State and the second closest thing to a private school after Northwestern. I find our general demeanor very strange. We are definitely Midwestern, but we are not as informal as the schools west of the Mississippi. As my dad pointed out, we are more uptight and less rowdy than Wisconsin or Michigan State. I guess making your own ice cream can make you restless. We do not have to cope with being in the middle of nowhere like Illinois. I've been to UIUC enough to vouch for that. And while we are northern, we do not center our focus on being northern as much as Minnesota. We are also not as monolithic as Ohio State, since we share the local spotlight with MSU.
What we are is a cultural blend that somehow puts studying, and awesome professional endeavors on generally the same level as sports and partying. We are active and progressive like a west coast school, focused and elite like an east coast school, and relaxed  and sports crazed like a Midwest school. What this gives us is an awesome blend in just about everything as can be seen in our addition of Lacross this year, to which my response is, "Why did we not have this earlier?". We are unique and anyone who has ever been here can vouch for that.
 Finally a little discussion of the game
It was a dominant performance by our ladies with a freshman forward getting a hat-trick and an assist. With plenty of great action and some awesome moves, it is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I strongly recommend that you come out for a game. We could totally get a good student section going. Just remember to make some creative chants. I may very well be back. It might be because I received a prize bag with a Michigan Flag, some Wolverine-aid, "M" rubber bands, and a water-bottle. Total score!

My Next Adventure will be either Monday or Tuesday Morning. Men's golf is hosting a tournament at the U of M Gold Course. I have never played, let alone witnessed a Golf Tournament. I will try to get there as early as possible and maybe stay for a front 9 or something. I might become bored out of my mind, but I never accomplish anything on Monday mornings anyway.

By the way, I apologize for the lack of action shots in this web-log. My camera does not like moving targets.

What: Wolverine Intercollegate
Who: Baylor, California, Detroit, Iowa State, IUPUI, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina and Oakland.
When: 8:00 AM Monday September 12th and 8:00 AM Tuesday September 13th
Where: University of Michigan Golf Course.

The songs that get us through.

I'm sure, if you paid any attention to college football you heard something about the Michigan and Notre Dame game. If you watched the game on TV, then I am sure you got plenty of shots of some worried looking girl with block M on her check and her hands together in front of her face. I'm not really here to describe the crazy game.
What I can say is what I felt. I went in with no real expectations. When the game got going I was kind of wishing the crowd would have quieted down so I could have calmed my nerves. Needless to say, they didn't quiet down. What I was looking for in the game was improvement. I  am not sure if I saw that this game. We did make some good adjustments, but we have work. I went from hope, to watching people argue about seating, to hopelessness, to trying to find a silver lining, to disbelief. What carried me thought it all was the music. We played "Don't Stop Believing" after the first quarter, which was a bad sign as "The Mad Latvian Slammer" put it. When we broke into "The Victors," after what can best be described as "Butt Pull" plays, I remembered that I was a Wolverine. When we played, "We are the Wolverines" during downtime, we charged up tot he next level. When we chanted "Seven Nation Army" on defense we felt invincible. Feeling invincible in football is a foreign concept, especially for defense. We have been down for a while, but tonight, the energy, the noise, and the emotion were incredible. It felt like we belonged among the elite programs once again. You can say that Notre Dame and Michigan are not as good as their former glory, but for a handful of noisy, and very unlikely plays, we are back on top.

All I can say for this is that right now, we are still perfect. (The national championship hopes remain.) We may not be invincible, but we can certainly feel it tonight, especially when we are chanting, "Severn Nation Army."

The next goal is Women's field hockey. Please Join me. I have never been to a field hockey game, but having jogged by practices at other schools I really want to go. I have no clue what to expect except. Michigan is running a .500 record but it is ranked #14. I might be able to talk Anna into going with me. Apparently they play field hockey in India.

What: Field Hockey
Who: Michigan and Bucknell
Where: Phillis Ocker Field
When: 1:00 PM, September 11th 2011.

Gameday and a pre-game game.

Tonight is the quite hyped Notre Dame night game here in Ann Arbor. This, of course brings college gameday, fee food and lots of time to kill.

How do I deal with this? Well, first I head down to Gameday. The important thing about Gameday is to cheer loudly  whenever they put the camera on the crowd. There is no point in trying to hear what they are saying. If you want that you might as well go home. The other important thing is to search around campus for free food. The Michigan Union decided to put out a major spread for the students. The notable quote of the event was a pair of girls one of which had never eaten bacon, and the other one exclaiming, "You've never had bacon?" Unfortunately, there was no bacon at the event.

So, what am I supposed to do for the 8 intervening hours? Why not go to another football game? I noticed on ESPN.com that EMU was playing Alabama State. About 20 minutes later, "The Mad Latvian Slammer" and I were in Ypsilanti at the a MAC SWAC showdown. The advantages of EMU games are plenty. There is free parking next to the stadium. We caught a courtesy shuttle to the front gate. That was my first time on a golf cart. Another advantage is that it is $10 general admission. As for the game. EMU was clearly the better team even though the final score ended.
The true star of the game was the Alabama State band. SWAC bands are known for being loud and proud. I only wish that Michigan rocked like that. Chalk that up to one more tradition we need to add to our arsenal.
Another cool thing is EMU's stadium. I like the setup, it is small but it is not generic.

As for looking ahead, Having watched EMU play, I think we will beat them next week. Of course, now I realize that if I attend the NIU vs. EMU game in November, I will have attended three EMU games this year.


Looking forward to the Notre Dame game, I do not know what to expect. I am favoring Michigan, of course.

Midweek Michigan Mascot Musings.

Michigan sports are spoiled. We have  the best uniforms, the best fight song, the best record, and the best student sections. We do not have the best traditions. The banner jump is great, but we need more. Our band tends to play the same songs in the same formations. We need to spice up things. Given the events of the last game I think we should add a series of lightning rods around Michigan Stadium. We could name them after former coaches. That way we could forever have a "Rich-Rod" at Michigan.

So this leads to the great Michigan debate, the mascot. I know here at Michigan our mascot is winning, but we can still have some fun. Here are a few ideas.

A live Wolverine. I know we tried this in the past. I also know that wolverines have too much energy to be caged and are too ferocious to run through the stadium. What I do not know is where we would get one.

A foam wolverine: Just make it look unique. The first time it gets called a bear, it's out of there.

A Block M: As my housemate put put it, this would be far too much like a Sesame street puppet. Still it would be fun to have a two person "M."

A Nutcracker: Yes, it would essentially be someone in a band uniform with face-paint. Yes, we would be blatantly playing up the rivalry. Yes, Buckeye nuts are poisonous, but who said that college traditions had to make any sense?

A frontiersmen: according to my sources, it was either the residents of Ohio or the native tribes that described the Michigan settlers as fierce wolverines. We could totally have someone dress in a frontier outfit. The best part is that he could have a backpack with all kinds of trinkets hanging from it, each representing an important part of Michigan's culture and industry. I know we would sort of be steeling the Mountaineer from West Virginia, but we have never been bashful about steeling from them in the past. We get bonus points if he rides a horse. Mascots on horses are cool.

A male waterfowl: That right we would call it, "The Michi-gander."

The outline of the state: We could have a tall skinny guy dress up as the UP and a short fat guy dress up as the lower peninsula. They could do comedy routine.

Some kind of monstrosity: A block M with a plush wolverine head riding a horse would be awesome. I would totally get behind that.

In the end, I think we need a mascot. I like both serious and silly ideas as long as they are unique. Also, I would totally volunteer to dress as the frontiersman. Maybe, I will just declare myself the mascot and see where it goes from there. Anyway, I need to get behind the mascot campaign.

Weekend Wrapup

Once again. I was very proud of my Michigan Student section, at the Men's soccer game. That's right, I was the sole person dressed in NIU gear in the student's section. What can I say, I am a Huskie, and that loyalty was bought in blood, (and tuition.) It was good to see my two schools on the field, even though I have no clue as to the names of any of the Michigan players, and I only know two of the NIU player's names because the Michigan students decided to pick on a couple of them. Like I said, I was very proud. Anyway, the weather was great, with a few sprinkles. I am sorry to say that there were no lightning delays.
The biggest discussion of the game was between "The Mad Latvian Slammer" and me, about what kind of missed goal warrants a benching of a player. "The Mad Latvian Slammer" seems to beleive that any kick over the crossbar warrants a benching. I am a little more lenient of kicks going high, and a little less tolerant when the head strait for the goalie. To be honest, I take the hockey additude towards goals. Get it to the net and good things happen. In the second half Alton "The Wandering Canonical Helmsman" James Benjamin Luder III, joined us without adding anything to the debate.

While I definitely had a good time in the stands, and it was nice to get some celebratory Huskie love from NIU aimed specifically at me, I'm sorry to say that the action left a little to be desired. Soccer is usually quite fun, but something is missing. It could be a victory this season, or it could be that neither team appeared to be really pressing until Michigan was trying semi-desperately to tie up the game at end.  Still I am happy to watch my Huskies earn a victory. However, it would be nice for my Wolverines to get a few themselves. Now I am a little torn. Do I not attend the rest of the soccer games because it is somewhat depressing to watch a team that doesn't win, (It would be like being a Cub's fan, which I am not) or do I stay with it just to show how dedicated of a fan I am? Personally, I think I will move on and see what happens. I can always come back.

I will pick this back up next week with Football against Notre Dame, Field Hockey and Men's golf.

Welcome Weather, and Soccer Preview!

Like most people talking about the football game I will talk about the weather, but first I will talk about football. Before, that I will complain a little. I was nice being seated in the senior section, the reason being that is was full of people who have been through the trenches with this team and know the traditions. Their first game at Michigan was my first game as well. What was not nice was being being stuck int he corner with a bad angle. I am guessing that whomever setup the algorithm for giving the students seats has never been int he student section. There is no way that a 26th row seat in the corner is better than a 34th row seat at the 20th. Last year we ha a much better view. We're so low to the ground that the players get in the way of the game and we are at such an awkward position that we can't tell how things are left to right or front to back. Honestly, next game we may opt to sit further back just so we can look down on the fields and not across it, with no perspective.

Now the game. Not bad. There were no field goal attempts by Michigan, but non were necessary. Other than one bad throw, our offense look pretty good, and I am not going to knock a QB for an incomplete in the heat of the moment. Now it is time for my great worry. Despite having two defensive touchdowns (the loudest cheers I have ever heard), our coverage both defensive and special teams needs a lot of work. Here is where we see weather our not the coaching staff is worth what we are paying them. Can they learn from the previous game? We will see. If they play coverage like that against any big ten opponent or Notre Dame next week, it is going to be a very long and painful season. Seriously, there was one tackle for a loss int he first half, and the average return brought them back to the 37th.

OK, the weather. I attended the game with Torstens "The Mad Latvian Slammer" Skujins. We opted to avoid the buses full of freshmen and just biked down the campus. It was hot and I was dehydrated. "T" and I were trying to figure out how many people we would see passed out due to heat and alcohol. The crowd roared when a cloud came across the sky. We cheered when it stated raining. I still do not know why we suspended the game the first time. Nobody saw any lightning and by the time they suspended it the sun was coming out. We wondered over the Chrysler arena and we noticed that the band was lining up to go back into the stadium. Shortly afterward we got the announcement that the game was going to resume in ten minutes. In the third quarter it became obvious that Western Michigan never came out of the locker-room.  When it started a torrential downpour the students section went nuts. The officials allowed several obvious lightning strikes before suspending the game. Most people left, about a third of the student section (still thousands strong) stayed chanting, "We want football." I have never been so proud. In a case of more bad communication, of of the ushers came down and told us the game was canceled, but as we were about to walk out said that it wasn't canceled. So, we stood there soaking, until they evacuated the stadium. We decided to head back to the Union because we didn't want to bike back in a thunderstorm. When we got the the union we saw that ESPN had caught Coach Mattison coming out of the tunnel, and he claimed that they were going to begin the warmups and they would hopefully get finish the game before the next cell rolled through. Mind you, at this point seeing this game to its completion became a point of honor for both of "T" and myself. Therefore, we started back to the Stadium. When we got to Packard we saw a sizable lightning strike, which only meant that the game would not begin anytime soon. We turned around and had another large one strike. Mind you, this is the appropriate time to point out that "The Mad Latvian Slammer" may or may not have been voted, "most likely to get struck by lightning" in high school on account of being 6' 6". Anyway, he decided to take off to the union like a shot. When we got there we found the game had been called. We waited for a break in the storm before biking back (Just barely beating the storm). Just as I got to my street I noticed all of the streetlights go out. Getting home we found our power was out, and it still is, this morning. I had to go to Alton James Benjamin Luder III's house to bake a loaf of bread that I had rising.

Needless to say that this was an adventure. It is the first game I have watched to it entirety, yet did not know the outcome until 45 minutes later. Still, that is my first event in the bag.

Today, I am very excited. I am dressing in my red in black as Michigan Men's Soccer takes on my alma mater of NIU. This will be my first Michigan vs. NIU event. Be there. This has already gone long, so I will save it for after the game.

What: Michigan Men's Soccer
Who: Michigan and NIU
Where: Michigan Soccer Complex
When: 2:30PM Sunday, September 4th 2011.

CC Reflection, and the verge of glory.

In a mild revelation of disappointment, it turns out that only Michigan was invited to the Michigan Invitational. It was non-scoring time trial. A rather hot time trial.  Anyway, the awesome, Alton Jaims Benjamin Luder III agreed to go with me. Its odd to watch people run. My first thought is how hard the person is trying. Alton's first thought were to their form. However, its hard to tell the most important aspect of running, the mental aspect. I will talk more later.

I will reschedule my Cross Country attendance to the NCAA regionals in Toledo on November 12th.

Now I will look ahead to something truly glorious: Michigan Football. I will be the first to admit to you that there is no place I would rather be on an autumn Saturday afternoon, than Ann Arbor. There is nothing like combining your voice with 110,000 of your closest friends. You are part of the machine, but it is a machine of heart. It is not quite a religious experience, but it is incredibly emotional. I have been looking forward to this since January.


Now it is time for speculation. I don't make speculation. I will tell you  for what I will be looking tomorrow. The general sports fan wants to see if Denard Robinson can get 500 combined yards. The general commentators will see if our notoriously shoddy defense can stop a very talented Alex Carter. The Michigan fans will be looking for one thing: kicking. I think Don Richards would agree that special teams plays are the most volatile plays of the of the game. They can easily give the defense an extra couple of sets of downs to work with, or they put the offense in scoring position much more quickly. However, nothing is as linchpin as a good field-goal kicker. A good field-goal kicker is points in the bag. A bad field goal kicker results in long drives that amount to nothing. We here at Michigan know this all too well. All I can say is that tomorrow if the situation arises, the stadium will collectively hold its breath. If it is good we will erupt like none other. If it is bad we will a lower our heads and silently resign ourselves to another season of disappointment. Well the suspense is getting to me just talking about it, so I will just show up tomorrow to see what happens.

Who: Michigan Football Team
What: The Season Opener
Where: Michigan Stadium
When 3:30 PM, September 3rd

The night before: Cross Country

I have a Michigan Cross Country shirt. I got it on sale when Steve and Berry's went out of business. Only to be replaced with the M Den. (College stores are like bookstores and brewpubs in this town.) People question why I have it because I have never been to a race. Well, tomorrow I rectify that. I love that I am starting my great quest with cross country. It's my personal sport. I started running back in high school. I ran varsity for my high school my senior year. We actually won a trophy. Oddly, I have only run one race since high school, and my time was identical to that of my final race in high school. Anyway, running for me is not a reason to be competitive. (Competition scares the bajeezes out of me.) Running is a time to push myself, a time to become tougher, a time to feel healthy, and a time to just lose myself wherever my legs may take me. I admire running for what it is and not for the competition (Although, I might dot he Big House Big Heart this year.) Anyway, I am really looking forward to watching people who are at the top of their games, so to speak. The Men's team is unranked in the preseason polls. The women's team is ranked 13th nationally. Despite the 90+ degree weather, this ought to be good. I just wish we had more than one meet in the State of Michigan each year.

Everyone has bailed on me, so I guess I will be going alone. My only decision is whether I drive or bike to Dexter. I am leaning towards driving, because it allows me to stay at work a little longer.
Tomorrow, I will post my post-race thoughts as well as my looking forward to the glory that is Michigan Football.

What :Michigan Open
Who: Men's and Women's cross country
Where: Hudson Mills Metropark, Dexter, MI
When:  4:00 PM, September 2nd.