[Ed-S: Bumped from the diaries. He writes these every week after the games so if you like it look out for it.]
Why do we keep these?
In my last ItBS diary, I alluded to the fact that I would be traveling to Michigan during the week for a family wedding. Unfortunately, my travel plans had me flying from Detroit to Dallas during the Michigan-BYU game. But never fear, I taped the game, avoided social media all day long and watched the game last night. What a game it was; I'm definitely glad I made the effort to avoid any spoilers.
As this was my first trip back home since my dad passed away over two years ago, I expected this trip would not be a normal one. There were plenty of private moments, but as my dad was a big Michigan fan, there were some things that happened that might be of interest to this blog's readers. If you just want to read the normal post-game boxscore analysis, skip ahead to the link. If you want to read about why football matters, or at least, why it matters to me, read on. The next few paragraphs speak to why, as Jim Harbaugh says, football matters. It's the bigger story, if you will.
My dad was a collector. He collected Michigan football programs and ticket stubs. The first thing we would do when we got to the stadium was find the program vendors. Dad would buy two programs and carefully wrap them in black plastic garbage bags to protect them from the elements. He would tuck those into his Michigan bag that kept his binoculars (and unlike many Michigan fans, he actually put binoculars in his binocular case) and his radio and earphones. He would get two programs every game because at the end of the season, he would give one complete set of that season's programs to, I believe, the UofM alumni association of Lansing to raffle off for their scholarship fund. The other set of programs he kept. He made it to most of the away games. On the rare occassions where he couldn't go, he'd ask a friend to get him a couple programs. On Friday, my brother and I decided to keep those programs, at least for the time being.
My dad had a dream of one day displaying all of the ticket stubs on a wall in a Michigan room in the house. He never got around to doing that, but we still have all those ticket stubs. Nothing would get my dad more upset than when a ticket-taker would rip the ticket in half, instead of tearing it off neatly at the perforation. Dad would even separate 3/4 of the stub from the ticket to make it easier for the ticket-taker. Phil Hartman played a character on Saturday Night Live called, "The Anal Retentive Chef." That was my dad.
[After the jump: Be careful, his bow tie is really a camera]
I also found a letter I wrote in 1982, "To whom it may concern." I'm not sure who 12 year old me thought might be interested in this letter other than Mom and Dad, but that's how I addressed it. The letter presented my prioritized list of games I wanted to attend. First, of course, was Ohio State at home on Nov. 19. Tenth was Minnesota. I guess I wasn't terribly impressed by the Little Brown Jug game or the thought of driving to Minnesota.
Back then, we had an 11-game season. At the 11th spot on my list, I wrote, "If you pay WASHINGTON Game is most wanted, if I pay it is least wanted." I was always budget conscious, even back then. Dad was also budget conscious and ended up going to Seattle by himself. That was the game where Michigan fans discovered the wave and brought it back with them to the Big House. I should point out that Dad was not responsible for the Wave, as I don't recall him ever standing up or raising his hands for the wave. Anything that distracted from the play on the field was anathema to him. (The Michigan Marching Band was part of the game. Special K was not.)
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| AC, via Bentley |
Even though Dad only had one Michigan degree, he had three Michigan rings, two class rings (one gold for days he wore gold glasses, a gold watch and carried a gold pen and pencil set, and one silver for days he wore silver colored glasses, etc. I wasn't kidding about that Anal Retentive Chef thing,) and a gold signet ring. I brought his gold Michigan MSW (Masters in Social Work) ring back with me. He never really discussed with me what he wanted done with his things except for his Michigan rings. The University and his time spent there was that important to him.
Saturday morning Mom drove me to the airport. She turned on the radio to try to catch the pre-game. Instictively, she put on AM 760, WJR. Back in the day, Michigan wasn't on television every Saturday. For the three of us that didn't get to go to the game with Dad, we'd listen to the game on WJR. I got to listen to Bob Ufer call Anthony Carter's touchdown reception against Indiana while my brother got to see it live. I'm not sure who came out ahead on that. I suggested she try 1050 WTKA, thanks to Brian and Ace.
I used frequent flyer miles to purchase my round-trip tickets. I ended up booking first class seats because they only cost 50,000 miles and the miles for the carrier I took have an expiration date. (I'm still budget-conscious, but frequent flyer miles don't have the same appeal to me as actual dollars.) On the flight from Detroit to Dallas, the seat next to me was empty. I thought this was a little strange because when I fly for business, the frequent flyers I travel with are always trying to upgrade to first class. They rarely ever get upgraded because there will be a list of a dozen people trying to upgrade. On the second leg of my journey from Dallas to LAX, the seat next to me was again empty.
I'm not Jewish, but I watch enough television to understand the symbolism of having an empty chair for the prophet Elijah at the Seder meal. Here I am, flying back to Los Angeles with a collection of items from my Dad and there is an empty seat next to me the whole way home, except that seat wasn't empty.
In first class, they sometimes give you headphones to listen to the in-flight radio. Only on my last leg did I get headsets and listen to the radio (due to the lady sitting behind me and her incessant coughing.) The second song I heard was Simon and Garfunkel's America. Of all the songs they could have played, I'm sitting there listening to them sing, "Michigan seems like a dream to me now..."
In a sense, dreams are our memories we play back while we're sleeping. Dad saved all of those Michigan-football related items. Those collectible items add color to our memories, making them more permanent. Michigan, and Michigan football, seem like a dream to me now, the kind of dream you have where when you wake up, you feel like going back to sleep because the dream is so real, so vivid, so comforting. The Jim Harbaugh-coached version of Michigan football harkens back to those earlier days when Bo roamed the sidelines.
Football matters. It matters to the players. It matters to the coaches. It matters to the band members, the students, the alumni, and the fans. Football matters to me because it is one of the things that keeps my connection to my Dad alive.
Link: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/092615aaa.html
Burst of Impetus
- The game changed when De'Veon Smith went Beast-Mode. You all know what I mean.
Two Jakes
- Jake Rudock versus my definition of efficient QB play - no turnovers (check,) 7.8 yards per attempt (check,) 56% completion percentage (so close.) I'll gladly accept <60% if that comes with no turnovers and nearly 8 YPA.
- Rudock was the second leading rusher on the day for Michigan with 33 yards net. Subtracting the 15 yards he lost on sacks puts him at 48 yards on 8 carries. Not bad at all.
- Jake Butt caught one pass for 41 yards. I still get the feeling plays exploiting his immense talent are being saved for MSU and OSU.
Citizen Darboh
- Darboh led the team with 4 receptions for 57 yards, a touchdown, and an incredible one handed grab. He showed that Ian Bunting isn't the only one with frying-pan hands.
- For the 3rd time in 4 games, 9 different players caught a pass. This time, the H-back/tight ends dominated as Hill, Butt, Bunting, Williams, and Poggi all caught a pass. Hill caught two and showed he can be a weapon for the passing attack.
Jackhammers
- Good De'Veon returned to the tune of 125 yards on only 16 carries. He scored a TD on his 60 yard beast-mode special.
- Derrick Green was given much more time this week and it wasn't just in garbage time. He only averaged 2.8 yards per carry, but I thought he looked really good in short yardage situations by getting to the hole in a hurry.
Tacos and Peppers
- Channing Stribling led the team with 4 tackles. That's it. FOUR TACKLES!!! In this case, that's a remarkably good statistic.
- Stribling did have a BrUp and should have had an interception, but the Stribling's Cat Paws corollary to Schrodinger's Cat theory bit him again. In brief, we cannot know whether Channing Stribling has actual hands that can catch a football, or teeny-tiny cat paws for hands that can only playfully swat at a football much like a cat playing with a ball of yarn until we throw a football in Channing's direction.
- On the 17 offensive plays BYU ran (at least it felt that way) Michigan still managed to accrue 6 TFLs, 3 sacks, 3 BrUps and five QHs. I've been following QHs for awhile and believe me, that's an insane number of QHs. This defense is filling up the boxscore and playing like a championship caliber defense. But what championship? B1G East Division? Big Ten? Surely not National Championship, right? As readers of this diary know, defense is only 5/12th of the game (offense is 5/12th, and special teams are 1/6th) so any talk of an actual championship will be delayed until the offense develops a little more.
ST3's STSTs
- The good news is that Blake O'Neill ran for 9 yards on one carry. The bad news is that it was 4th and 16. It's good to make those mistakes when the game is well in hand. It also puts the rest of the conference on notice that we will run, so hopefully our opponents have to play us honest and that will help the punt coverage team get downfield.
- When O'Neill did punt, he put 3 of 4 inside the 20.
- There were 27 special teams plays out of 153 plays total, roughly 1 in 6. 11 of the special teams plays were BYU punts.
Baughscore Bits
- Total first downs were 22-8 in Michigan's favor. Talk about total domination.
- BYU was held to 50 yards rushing and 55 yards passing. I remember when that would be a good quarter for the Michigan defense.
- Before moving on from the Lotulelei portion of the Michigan schedule, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that BYU's leading tacklers were Micha and Micah, and Sione Takitaki had 5 takis, I mean, tackles. Additionally, Eric Takenaka had one kickoff return for 19 yards. If he adopted Chaka from Land of the Lost, his son would be Chaka Takenaka.
- Of BYU's 12 drives, only 3 gained more than 10 yards. Michigan's defense recorded 7 three and outs.
WHAT ARE THOSE?
- I have a really old pair of blue sweatpants. They've been washed so much, they actually look purple, sort of like the Michigan football uniforms on Saturday. Come on, Adidas, is the color blue really that hard to pull off? How about using a fabric that doesn't fade to purple one month into the season?
- WHAT ARE THOSE "Y's" on BYU's helmet? My 10 year old thought we were playing Yale. You know, come to think of it, maybe they would have given us a better game.