Lost

I dunno man.

Photo: Patrick Barron

I dunno man.

This Outback Bowl was the perfect end to this season...a season I struggled to get in to. Maybe the end to 2016 vaporized my college football soul more than I first thought. Either way, I had a hard time getting through 2017. Content on the blog was way down, some of it due to real life, but most of it due to I just didn't care.

And that's odd for me. I don't like feeling this apathetic about Michigan football. But I'm just so fucking tired of this.

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If 2018 is going to be "the year", I don't see it. Are we really one QB transfer, or one strength coach, or one offensive assistant away from greatness? I don't know how you go from what we saw on the field two days ago to a national or even a Big Ten title contender in one off-season. Especially this Big Ten with that schedule.

Yes, Michigan is young. Yes, 3/5 of their offensive line was out. Yes, they were playing their 3rd-string freshman QB. Yes, their offense was coordinated by two guys who (from all reports) were barely speaking to each other. But this team gave up two days ago. When it came down to it, with a 16-point lead in the second half, Michigan couldn't put the hammer down on a bad South Carolina team.

I'm pro Harbaugh, but this season made me question things. I wasn't expecting greatness this year, but I was expecting...something. I was expecting Michigan to win at least one game it wasn't supposed to win. Instead we got blown out by Penn State, overpowered by Wisconsin, and blew a big early lead against Ohio State. Add to that losses to Michigan State and South Carolina and...yeah. So rather than maybe 2 or 3 losses and looking forward to 2018 like an elite rebuilding program should be, instead we get another in a long line of off-seasons full of frustration.

What are we doing?

Michigan is a mediocre program. That's just what they are. They have an elite head coach making elite money, assistants making elite money, and they're a completely mediocre program going nowhere. Great defense? Yes. But it doesn't mean anything when you're 8-5 and 4th in the division after finishing 3rd the previous two years.

It's time to question everything.

EVERYTHING!

Michigan has great history...worthy of remembering fondly...but not reliving. The past is gone. Bo is dead. Is it great to be a Michigan Wolverine? No, it was great. Now it's just something players chant in the locker room after beating Indiana or Rutgers.

I'm tired of the same old Michigan. I'm tired of the same old "leaders and best" mindset. I'm tired of Michigan doing things because "that's probably what Bo would want". I'm tired of the notion that teams will just bow down because "This is Michigan, fergodsakes".

That was the old Michigan. The current Michigan is lost in the desert.

Jumpman gear, "mini movie" highlight videos and overly photoshoped images of players and recruits on twitter don't mean anything unless you win. Michigan has been OWNED by Ohio State for just about as long as incoming recruits have been alive. Make a mini-movie about that. At least it will be closer to actual reality than a Hollywood trailer-style video of Maryland game highlights.

Celebrate current mediocrity while honoring past glory...and you'll perpetuate mediocrity. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that's been going on long enough now that being an elite program feels like a distant memory.

It's time to question everything.