My birthday this year is the day after Election Day. I know what I want. I doubt I’m going to get it.
Were you late for things Sunday? Did you set your clocks back? I truly hope we give up on this time change soon. It doesn’t make any sense. I’d like to stay on Standard Time all year long, but whichever one we choose, do it and get on with life.
Football
Man, that Michigan football fandom on Reddit is something else.
Last week, they hated Coach Whitt because he lost an overtime game. Granted, we should have won that one. Like I wrote last week, but for Indiana scoring field goals off two Tommy Carr turnovers, Michigan would have won the game. Is that coaching or player execution? There’s only so much a coach can do there.
This week, they hate him because he won, but not by enough. We beat Rutgers pretty solidly, 28-21. “But it was Rutgers,” everyone is complaining. Rutgers, who was 2-5/1-3 coming into the game. Rutgers, who’s never really been a football powerhouse. We should have beaten them handily, though we were just favored by 14.
We’re now 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the B1G. Our QB ran for two touchdowns and threw another. Our field goal kicking was not a bright point this week or last. He needs some help.
I think what we’re seeing is a team and athletic department in general that’s been somewhat rudderless over the last season. The storm clouds that followed Harbaugh probably had more of an effect on Schembechler Hall than anyone realized.
I think Moore wasn’t ready to be head coach, so he didn’t guide the team well. And let’s face it: that handoff wasn’t exactly elegant.
I think Manuel basically checked out last season after all of the Harbaugh mess and the quick turnover in the president’s office.
People are acting like Whittingham was given a smooth-running operation, and maybe he thought that he was, too. But once he got into place and they hit the playing field as opposed to the practice field, he’s realizing he’s got more work ahead of him than he first thought. This is more of a rebuilding year than we thought or expected it would be. Whitt’s still working with Moore’s and Harbaugh’s recruits. He’s learning about them, and they’re learning about him and his staff. Yes, Beck needs to work on his play calling. Yes, I’d like to see a little more emotion and fire from Whittingham, both on the field and in interviews. But I’m not at all ready to throw in the towel on him or his staff.
We’re now on our 3rd head coach in five years. We just replaced 13 out of 14 members of the coaching staff. The only guy who’s not in his first year with the team is RB coach Tony Alford.
Give it some time.
Go Blue.
The Final Frontier
Years ago, I was quite the Trekkie. I built the revamped Enterprise model kit from the first motion picture. I also built the Galileo and the landing team instruments (phaser, tricorder, and communicator) model kits. I’ve seen every episode of The Original Series, most of The Next Generation, and all of the movies. Never made it to any conventions, though.
Anyway, I basically kept track of most of the actors. I didn’t follow many of them on social media, but I stayed aware of them.
This past week was rough for the Trek world.
It’s interesting that Walter Koenig was only four years older than Patrick Stewart.
I loved their work equally, and they will be missed.
Mourning the Famous
How do you mourn famous people you’re a fan of?
Some are sure to hit harder than others. I didn’t bawl my eyes out over Jimmy Buffett, but I was truly sad for a few days. Played a lot of his music that week, and that’s saying something for me, because I already played a bunch of it. I made it a point to read a lot of the tributes and stories and so forth, too. It’s still affecting my Facebook algorithm three years later.
I pretty much did the same for Steward and Koenig: read up on the tributes, went through their Wikipedia articles, and that was it.
I know other people will express their feelings through artwork, and I’ve seen some tremendous work in that respect.
How do you mourn favorite celebrities?
The soundtrack for this post has been the New Soundtracks playlist on Spotify.
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