#25 - Michigan Football

This season, I am more excited about Michigan football than I have for any other season so far. I think it is the fact that we are about to begin a new era in Michigan football history - the Rich Rod era. We totally stole him from WVU, and I couldn't be any more excited. He has this guy as his strength and conditioning coach named Mike Barwis, who is insane. He is a former UFC type of guy who has a masters degree in something to do with being in shape. While Michigan may not have the talent this year, we will have the most athletic team in the Big Ten, and will be competitive every week.

The thing is, it has been a really rough year for Michigan football. Coming off of our loss to osu and our bowl loss in 2006, expectations were high for last season. Then, the Appalachian State debacle happened, which I have talked about before. Then Oregon destroyed us the weekend after that. Then we had a decent run up until we lost to osu again. But hey - we beat Florida in the bowl game, which we all knew would be Lloyd Carr's last game.

Then we tried to replace Lloyd. So many candidates - the Les Miles debacle, our play for Iowa's head coach, then we land Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia. And then it begins - you would think that he went on a killing spree before he left - all the West Virginia hate. He gets shit for trying to grab Pryor, who eventually signs with osu. Then we lose Mallett to Arkansas, and we have no QB. Then we lose some offensive lineman to osu (WTF?) - this guy is a douche though. He is a legacy and he quit the minute he had to run wind sprints. Riddance, I say. But now, we have neither a QB nor an offensive line.

Then we steal a recruit from Purdue and their head coach rips on Rich Rod. Calls him "a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil." Then Rich Rod gives the number 1 jersey to a non-wide receiver, which is apparently a big no-no since there is a scholarship for wide receivers who wear that jersey. Then there was the lawsuit from West Virginia to get the money Coach Rod owes them.

Wait - is that all? That was the last 12 months of the history of the proudest college football tradition in the nation. It has been a disaster, but still - with the new conditioning program and the enthusiasm, it just all sounds like what it was when Bo took over. He came in and everyone was wary of the outsider, and he had a strict regimen of conditioning that made a bunch of players quit. There are parallels, and I am excited about the new era. So August 30th can't come soon enough! Bring on Utah!!!