Elder statesman. UMTailgate Hall of Famer. Legend. We learned yesterday that our wonderful friend John Dogan has passed away at 92 years young. He and his wife Sue graced the tailgate with their presence from the very beginning. He will be missed.
It made no sense to anyone watching that this was a one score game in the 4th quarter. Those that hung on to hope were the heart-first fans, not the football ones. Michigan didn’t look particularly good in any aspect of Saturday’s affair, but most troubling was that they were seemingly less motivated and less tough. The line of scrimmage was dominated by the Sooners. Tackles were broken. Michigan players couldn’t get off of blocks on defense, and couldn’t keep consistent blocks on offense. Bryce had very little time to make decisions, and nothing was done to mitigate that with the gameplay. While these programs seemed to be a mirror image of each other, Oklahoma did a better job of playing to their strengths (or away from their weaknesses) and took chances with their stars and with their play calling. They succeeded. At this snapshot in time, Oklahoma has built a better Michigan than Michigan. Some of that is a product of more seasoned upperclassmen that have been in that system, some of that is a product of a significantly less conservative offensive approach, and some of that is Sooner players just straight whipped Michigan’s ass. if you take away a 75-yard breakaway scamper (by the best offseason pickup RB in the country) and the countless unforced gifts Oklahoma provided, and this game was a blowout.
Bryce didn’t look great, nor did his sideline skirmish with Haynes, but with an already suspect O-Line that lost its (lone?) anchor to injury early and a gameplan that continued to force the issue as if Joe Moore was in the building, its hard to put blame on the dude who just bought his first pack of cigs last week. The troubling part is that things felt very 2024. And while we all got warm fuzzies about how 2024 ended, I’m not going to be very satisfied if there are four more losses before we “get it figured out.”
So where does Michigan go from here? A get-right game with Central is followed by a second legacy Big-12 matchup on the road, this time against a super motivated Nebraska team with a rich home tradition and a coach that thought sign stealing made a difference. I’d call it a recipe for an upset, but I’m not sure Michigan will be favored going in to that one. Anyway, that will be a test. One that Michigan will need to pass to avoid mass googling of the 2026 schedule. And to pass that test, we are going to need to popsicle stick and chewing gum the O-Line into something better or game plan around it…like let Bryce throw downfield…or let Bryce run…or do something football-coachy that I don’t even understand but that serves us well. Moving forward, a one-game-at-a-time approach is probably the ticket, so lets Eat Bacon and whip the Chips this Saturday before we decide how to defend Dylan Raiola.
A moment about the Oklahoma fan base - let me add to the pile of visitors that was absolutely charmed by the polite ladies and gentlemen of Norman. A cavalcade of well dressed, hand-shaking, well-wishing folks central casted from the people that brought you Yellowstone (the fancy city episodes). An absolute joy to be around all day and even in the stadium. An older fella next to me would exclaim “That call is bullshit” or “That was holding!” and follow it up with a calm turn and a “Where you from?” and “How was the flight?” Looking forward to hosting them next year.
Go Blue
Thanks to all that forwarded me these amazing pics!
When you’ve been doing something a certain way in a certain place for 15 years, you kind of have it down. Arrival timing, ins-and-outs, food prep, packing, towing, unpacking, cooking, clean-up…I know that space at Pioneer High School like the back of my hand. But as the 2024 season came to an end, we blew it up. I mean, I blew it up. Nobody batted an eye as I told stories of a new place that almost no one had seen—and that a group of dozens of people didn’t even have the address to until three days before this weekend’s kickoff. Faith, I guess.
Making the roadshow a home show seems easier, and I’m sure it will be, but it has been a harrowing summer. As the construction team struggled with permitting and timing—and one set of workers waited for the next to finish—I wondered if we were going to make it, and what we would do if we didn’t. But the deadline was met at the buzzer, with the major work completed only last Thursday. Then came the disappointment of knowing the finishing touches just weren’t going to be there. A handful of tremendous people chipped in: my Sparty neighbor, who got a crew to lay the base for the turf; Cooper, Bryan, and Brian, who hung the TV and assembled a grill; Adam, who put together outdoor furniture; and Linda and Pammy, who cleaned the inside of my house. The Team. The Team. The Team. And while I sweated the details, the reality is, nobody cared about any of them. A friend told me today that I could have sent map coordinates to a back alley and folks would have come and had a good time with me. That means more to me than you could possibly imagine.
Yeah, in case you haven’t followed the exploits on social media, the Tailgate has a house now. A place to eat, drink, relax, and celebrate (or cry). Our place. It is, in fact, not a dark alley somewhere. It served us well in week one with just a couple of easily remedied hiccups, and an extremely bright future of expansion: partially weather-controlled space, large fences to keep the neighbors happy, and even an indoor bathroom. So much still to do, but so happy with the debut. And a nod to the cleanup crew. Maybe exchanging loading and unloading a trailer for having to clean up after ourselves is a net increase in work? I wouldn’t know. I came back to vacuumed field turf, trash in the cans, equipment wiped down, and a space that was ready for the Bacon Tailgate in a couple weeks. Thanks again to Bryan and (a one-footed) Pammy. Wow.
FULLER / MGOBLOG
And speaking of happy debuts and so much to do—Michigan took the field with a serviceable quarterback for the first time since walking out of Houston with the National Championship in January 2024. Bryce Underwood passes the eye test—previous QB mediocrity bias and cupcake opponent considered. Justice Haynes broke a couple big ones, giving him the best stat line for a UM running back debut in 55 years. The game was a little too competitive on the scoreboard for my liking, as defensive penalties (one of which in particular was bullshit—upheld bullshit at that) and a couple of concerning third-down conversions by the Lobos had it a 10-point game into the fourth. But Michigan prevailed, put nothing on tape for the impending tussle with the Sooners, and got a mistake-free game under Bryce Underwood’s belt. Box checked. Plenty of questions remain, and next week a good number of them could be answered. We’ll see what Michigan’s new offense (in particular the line) can do against an elite Sooner defense, and what the Michigan defensive backfield can do to stop a dude who went 30 of 37 for 392 yards on Saturday. See you all in Norman…or the following week for CMU!
GO BLUE!
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