Your Friday Drinking Instructions Are The Fox

When Jack Swarbrick/chick/chicken pun handed Dave Brandon a letter explaining Notre Dame was chickening out/ending the series with Michigan indefinitely before the game last year, I was confused. And a little angry. There's been a lot of coverage about this week, and I won't rehash it too much - but this series is a good thing for both schools and should continue.

Then I saw this video, not coincidentally making the rounds this morning, and everything was clear:

I had a GChat conversation this week that was basically "man, I wouldn't want to be Notre Dame in the last 10 years or so" because of reasons. Consider the past decade:

• Rich Rodriguez beat them twice. For RR's Michigan teams to have a winning record against a team is telling.
• Charlie Weiss.
• Ty Willingham
• Charlie Weiss.
• TWO different 38-0 shellackings and a 47-21 blowout that you'll see again shortly.
• The Bush Push
• South Bend blows in the winter. Nice place but Indiana in the winter is like, well, Michigan in the winter without the Michigan.
• ND's lone win under current head man Pope Francis is against Temple, who I'm pretty sure doesn't have a football team. Not a good start - how much longer before the Domers start calling for Francis' replacement?
• Remember Ronaiah Tuiasasopo? Manti Te'o does. Low blow? Sure.
• Denard Robinson was literally a different player against Notre Dame. Video game numbers.
• Finally making it to the national championship only to get dismembered by Alabama.
• And my favorite: 2009, 2010, and 2011. Last-second losses to Michigan.

Having been there for three Rodriguez seasons, I totally get why it's rough when a proud program isn't very good. For Notre Dame, though, I'm going to gloat.

I've been on an Oktoberfest beer kick lately, so let's get to your Beer of the Week: the Brooklyn Oktoberfest.

As you know, I write about the Sam Oktoberfest every year and mentioned it briefly in my season predictions post a few weeks back. But I think Brooklyn's offering might actually be better this year. It's a little bit more like an ale - darker than the Sam, with a little bit more rye in it, so more bitter. A great fall beer all around. My recent trip to the Brooklyn brewery has no bearing on this recommendation, of course. Also - I've seen it floating around Ann Arbor at a relatively cheap sale price of 6.99-7.99/six-pack. Brooklyn's awesome, as everyone knows, so go check it out (TJ's has it cheap!) I had a great photo I took here but the file system didn't like it. Whatever.

In sum: Man, I miss Brady Quinn.

Until next time, cheers, Michigan Faithful!