When I was a kid, Michigan always beat Penn State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It was like a rite of fall. I miss those days. Hopefully they'll be back again soon.
Now that the first third of the season - the long cold dark of the nonconference schedule - is behind us, it's time for some serious football. Tomorrow is by far the best sports day we've had this fall. Consider tomorrow in Detroit sports:
12pm: MSU-Iowa (meh, but it's there)
3:30pm: M-Minnesota
7:00pm: Wings-Bruins
9:30: Tigers-A's
Sometime in there is also OSU-NW, which should go a long way to either making me terrified or not about Michigan's upcoming B1G schedule. If OSU wins by a lot, then I'm terrified of OSU. If they win by less than a lot, then I'm terrified of Northwestern. But it's at Northwestern, so there's that. Anyway. Tomorrow, we are all Wildcats. Hey, Sippin' on Purple - I totally expect an excellent highlight video of your conquest come Monday. We all do.
So, it's Jug Week, one of Brady Hoke's favorite rivalry games because the jug makes an excellent growler for one of Minnesota's fine breweries. That's what happens, I'm sure of it. The jug's super old, too. Cask aged and all that nonsense. In my preseason prediction I recommended trying out the Goose Island Harvest Ale - it's delicious. I'll stick with that for my beer recommendation this week - but be warned, if things turn Akronish, I'm beating you to the bar. Straight bourbon is on the way.
!! Bourbon !! If you're in Michigan, try the newish Traverse City Bourbon Whiskey. It's really good, and it's local. A lot of places up north let you try it, because it's the hip new thing. I was also recently introduced to Deer Camp Bourbon, which is also good and the tasting area is in Lake Leelanau. So awesome.
Remember this?
It's tough to find good coverage of that game on the Internet, weirdly. But John Navarre had a great catch in that game (also tough to find that particular highlight) and also cemented "The Plow" as one of my favorite plays ever. I know, I'm a masochist.
I'm hoping that Michigan will be able to play some of its younger players during this Homecoming game - not out of dire need, but because they're up by three to five touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Is this too much to ask? Minnesota will be coming in upset-minded, surely, and they want that Jug back. I do really like this rivalry. Minnesota fans are also super polite and very fun to drink with as long as you don't sound like you're from Wisconsin. Don't tell them, but Badger fans are super fun to drink with too. Not being in the Midwest anymore makes me look much more favorably upon other Big Ten fanbases - it's kind of like a big family rivalry. It's okay to hate within the family, but we stick together. Except OSU. This brings my rambling into Game of Thrones comparisons, but the only ones I could really think of were Michigan State is Joffrey and Ohio State is... also Joffrey. Heh.
I would be remiss if I did not mention this article, because it is totally excellent despite it being a listicle on CollegeHumor, and I had at least three people forward it to me this week.