The Victors

Saturday, 23 November 2013
Iowa 24-21 Michigan
7-4, Big Ten 3-4

My post-game reaction from the FaceSpace:

Iowa turned the ball over four times, & still won! We had a +3 turnover margin, & still lost! We were shut out in the second half, outscored 17-0! Brady Hoke loves Michigan Football, but he's just not up to the job. Al Borges's offense is impotent, & yet Hoke will take no action. Hoke & his bumbling staff are outcoached in nearly every contest. Brady Hoke must be fired.

Go Blue!

My post-game reactions from the Twitter:

@DaveBrandonAD @umichfootball Go Blue! #firehoke #fireborges

@DaveBrandonAD @umichfootball Iowa 24-21 Michigan, & we were outscored 17-0 in the 2nd half! Borges's offense does not work! #fireborges

@DaveBrandonAD @umichfootball Wolverines trounced in the 2nd half, no halftime adjustments from the bumbling coaching staff #firehoke

If anything, things are even more bleak than they appear. Consider: the valiant Wolverines' three Big Ten victories have been over the wily Hoosiers, the luckless Golden Gophers, & the plucky Wildcats. Indiana & Minnesota are long-benighted programs that are still stumbling toward respectability. Jerry Kill has a record of below .500 at Minnesota, but he is beloved because it is just barely below .500, a feat at Minnesota; Indiana is in the first year of trying to rebrand themselves as the Big Ten's Oregon: all offense & fancy-pants uniforms. Northwestern are the best seven-loss club in the country, but they still have seven consecutive losses, meaning they are absolute masters at pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. Those of the clubs Michigan has defeated in conference play. Also, our four losses should be six, because only by the thinnest or margins & the grace of the heathen football gods did the valiant Wolverines triumph over genuinely inferior competition like Akron & U. Conn.

The tenacious Hawkeyes turned the ball over four times in the course of Saturday's contest, & yet at halftime the valiant Wolverines possessed only a two-score lead. Both of our offensive touchdowns came on short fields, one following an interception & the other a bad punt; not once in the game did we drive from our own territory to score against Iowa. We did not score at all in the second half, providing an all too horribly clear example of how Coach Hoke & his staff of bumblers are out of their depth; they were thoroughly outcoached by their counterparts lead by Iowa's Coach Ferentz. Those who defend Hoke & disagree with my insistence that he must be fired, which I know is still a minority opinion, do so by insisting that all will be well once the valiant Wolverines' starting lineup is filled with Hoke & co.'s own recruits, instead of seniors left over from Rich Rod's tenure. To them I retort: Even once Hoke has the personnel he wants, how does that change his inability to coach to the high level required to compete & succeed in the Big Ten? The tenacious Hawkeyes' coaches went into halftime & came up with a revised game plan to overcome their club's first-half deficiencies, a game plan for which the valiant Wolverines' coaches had no answer. We were both outplayed & outcoached on Saturday. Doom, doom, doom.

Brady Hoke must be fired. It is only a matter of time before everyone, including Athletic Director Dave Brandon & the U. of M. Board of Regents, realize this, & a question of how much damage to Michigan football Hoke & his staff of bumblers inflict before that realization dawns.

Go Blue!