Michigan's 2023 National Championship and MGoBlog

Michigan won the national championship on Monday night.  It was awesome.  I started reading MGoBlog in 2005 because one of my cool friends in Michigan had told me about it.  I asked him where I could get one of the "I 💙 💙" shirts that I saw people wearing and he pointed me to the blog and its store.  MGoBlog was only one year old by then, but it was clear that it was amazing.  I read it like a crazed animal during grad school, even though I certainly didn't understand everything.  

I realized that I needed to enjoy this fandom, even during the losses.  I got geared up for Armageddon in 2006, and delighted in how good the game was even when we lost.  When the whole site went pink after the 2007 loss to App State ("The Horror") I thought that was hilarious.  I don't remember exactly what Brian Cook, the blog's creator, wrote in the aftermath, but it was something like "Why are you on the Internet now?"  I wrote a few emails to Brian and they got answered.  One I'm sure he got a lot of copies of because I noticed an issue in a post, but I got a very clear appreciation. 

There is a very old MGoFAQ post that needs an update. One of the questions is:

How can I start up a blog and have it be successful?

The beginning of the answer is: "Create something that does not exist elsewhere."  I think I read that before I started my own blog for Combinatorial Game Theory.  I learned so much in writing that and it helped boost me into the society of researchers there ("gamesters") that has so many awesome people and brought me so much. 

In the 2010's, I didn't read the blog as voraciously.  I was a professor and married and then that fell apart in multiple ways.  I kept on with my Michigan fandom, though, and I always made sure to read the Preview posts.  Divorce was hard for me.  When I discovered the MGoPodcast, I suddenly had something to listen to when my own thoughts were too brutal.  I got to enjoy Brian, Seth, Ace, David, and Alex, as well as Sam and Craig on the MGoBlog Roundtables.  My favorite segment is easily the check-ins with Jamie Mac on Sundays, partly because I understand the depth that people are talking about better and because I love hearing about all the different games and how things are developing from a wider look.  

I don't participate in the MGoBlog diaries.  I don't read all the UFRs (Upon Further Review).  I don't understand what all the terms mean, but I still enjoy Michigan football.  I enjoy the team and the games and the greater fandom.  

MGoBlog is not like other fan sites.  The level of detail they go in to (e.g. the UFRs, where they go over every single play from the previous week and grade all the players) is not like other sites.  I only learned this year that there's isn't an equivalent blog for other teams.  I realized today that such a thing may not happen until AI can do a UFR just as well as humans can.  

I knew MGoBlog was different when Brian posted about how we need to plan for the metagame.  He related going to the spread offense with Rich Rodriguez to Magic: the Gathering, as a decision based in strategy by what other teams were doing.  We don't want to be better than teams at what they're doing, we want to have a strategy that is better against teams because of what they're doing.  That really spoke to me.

A fan community is interesting, because you are all reacting to what you interpret the team's strategy is, without knowing for certain what the team is actually thinking, planning, and doing.  MGoBlog is so good because their analysis brings you as close to what that team is doing as possible. 

Watching the National Championship tournament games this year really brought it all home.  The blog team doesn't tell you what to think, but they were clearly correct in both games about how to handle those quarterbacks.  We could sack Milroe and we could pressure Penix without sacking him.  Both worked.  We got six sacks on Milroe and Penix didn't have any big plays.  

I am writing this because I'm listening to the podcast team cry about what MGoBlog and the fans have meant to them.  I am there with them.  I was with Brian in cynicism during the 2021 season.  (I'm glad you felt that way and I loved that you were that voice throughout the season!)  In this podcast episode, I realized that Brian also went through a divorce and has to deal with custody things.  I learned about Seth's son and dad.  I lost a great Michigan fan friend last decade.  I wish they could have been there to see the last three seasons instead of just the Ohio State win drought.  

I know I'm not friends with any of the MGoBlog team--the connection is in one direction--but thank you for being so detailed and thank you for giving me so much to follow along with.  I would have been a Michigan fan without you, but I wouldn't have been this fan without you.  

Thank you for being the GPS for this amazing ride.

(I wish I hadn't lost that I 💙 💙 shirt.)