Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Upon Further National Review Week 11 – Bots and Blue Enter the Lions Den Under B1G Notice

Michigan and its fan bots travel to Penn State after being served notice by the Big Ten.

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Nov 26
Nov 26

By Rock Westfall

Michigan Steps into the Lions Den for FOX Saturday Showdown

The Michigan Wolverines’ nine-game “preseason” is mercifully over. This week, the scandal-plagued Dazed and Blue hit the road to begin the meat of their schedule against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. 

Many Penn State and national college football fans wish the matchup were a prime-time White Out. Instead, everyone gets the next best thing. FOX Big Noon Saturday will cover the affair.  With the terrific tandem of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt, perhaps we get a better deal.  

For over two months, the Wolverines (9-0, 6-0) have gorged on dessert before the main course. On Saturday, they face their first real test against the Nittany Lions (8-1, 5-1).

Penn State head coach James Franklin is desperate to flip the narrative of his struggles against Top-10 opponents. At Penn State, Franklin is 3-16 against the Top-10 and 3-6 against Michigan.

A huge cloud hangs over Michigan as the Big Ten has warned them of potential punishment for the Connor Stalions espionage affair.  

Franklin and Jim Harbaugh have plenty of mutual animosity. Last year, Harbaugh ripped Franklin for remarking that the famed Michigan tunnel was ripe for an incident.

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Indeed, Michigan and Michigan State encountered an ugly tunnel tumult incident in 2022. Ironically, Harbaugh said that an apology would not be good enough and demanded that the police conduct a criminal investigation. Seriously.  

Michigan’s Fan Bot Zombies in Denial

And that leads to Michigan’s large contingent of obedient, heel-clicking, wacko-bird-in-a-trance fans. Throughout the Connor Stalions affair, the documented paper trail and direct video evidence get nothing but a glassy glaze or nervous giggle with a rapid response of total denial from a group that would make North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un blush.

The Michigan cultists are an excellent example of the weaknesses of the human condition. Throughout human history, despots and tyrants were enabled by the willing blind. Since humankind began, supposedly enlightened peoples and countries have looked the other way at atrocities and evil, only to end up in the ashes of annihilation themselves.

Closer to home, such obnoxious football fool fatheads enabled legendary late Michigan coach Bo Schembechler and his athletic director, the late Don Canham, to ignore, with great annoyance, the complaints of the late Dr. Robert Anderson’s victims of sexual abuse.

Today, after paying out nearly half a billion dollars to the victims, the Bo statue remains at the Schembechler Football Complex. At the same time, the Donald B. Canham Natatorium remains unaltered on the University of Michigan campus.

It would be hypocritical of me to demand statue and building name removals. I am not that guy. I also don’t hold myself up as among “The Leaders and the Best.”

Conversely, the countless victims of Schembechler’s and Canham’s willing blindness and callousness have every right to be disgusted by the statue and naming of the Natatorium.

The question is, why does this nihilistic Michigan culture continue? Because it can.

Pardon Me for My Arrogance 

In 2012, my father and I visited my niece for a football weekend at the University of Michigan. Although I am from the old Big 8 country (previously focused on Nebraska, Kansas State, Missouri, and Kansas), I also admired Schembechler and his teams in my youth. We enjoyed our stay, the campus, Ann Arbor, and the Big House, as Michigan, led by Shoelace Robinson’s electrifying dominance, beat Air Force. 

Dad and I returned in 2013, despite my niece having graduated.  We watched Michigan beat Notre Dame in what was then the largest college football crowd ever. 

Finally, Dad and I returned for Jim Harbaugh’s first two home games in 2015. That year, the Michigan Stadium video board thundered James Earl Jones’ Voice of God, defiantly declaring that Michigan is ”The Best University in the World!”  

Jones also boasted that “We respect integrity.”

Pardon the countless unwashed masses for laughing at such platitudes. “We respect integrity.” Oh really?

Recall that former UM President Mark Schlissel, who led the efforts to cancel the 2020 college football season, failed to practice the social distancing he piously pontificated to others. The Married Michigan Man had an affair with a staffer. As punishment, the Leaders and the Best gave the disgraced Schlissel a golden parachute and the offer of a teaching job.

That pregame hype video was another reminder of the notorious haughty hubris of Michigan. 

Furthermore, statements of Michigan’s arrogance were available for purchase in Ann Arbor fan shops. Maize and Blue t-shirts that boasted “Pardon Me For My Arrogance” in all caps were on sale and worn by many throughout our stays.

That mentality enabled Michigan’s numerous transgressions of the past and present. That mindset is why Connor Stalions was in our faces on the Michigan sidelines as a paid employee without any discretion. Stalions made no effort to cover up what he was doing. Why? As Wolverine Worshippers warn, “THIS IS MICHIGAN!”

Indeed, it is. 

A Due Process for Alibis and Deceit As Notice is Served 

Last Friday, Big Ten President Tony Petitti met with Michigan President and First Fanboy Santa Ono to discuss the Spygate scandal. Petitti told Ono of the demands by other Big Ten schools that are imploring him to impose punishment on Harbaugh’s program quickly. Ono replied with a demand for “due process.” 

Translation: Ono saluted Petitti with his middle finger while cynically wrapping himself in the American flag.  Michigan wants to buy time to save a potential national championship season and get its alibis and deceit in sync.

Subsequently, on Monday night, the Big Ten notified Michigan of potential upcoming punishment for Harbaugh and the school.

The smart money remains on a slap of the wrist. 

Of course, the delicious irony is that Harbaugh and Michigan screamed for immediate punishment of Michigan State players who were part of the 2022 tunnel tussle.  “Due process” never came up.  

Money, Power, Branding, Networks, and Lawyers 

Anyone thinking Michigan will get busted with severe penalties is wagering on a long shot.

First, Michigan is the biggest, richest, and most powerful brand in the Big Ten, if not the entire sport of college football.

FOX Sports is not paying huge money to have Harbaugh sidelined for the epic Ohio State matchup on November 25 at the Big House. Also, FOX does not want a meaningless Fox Big Noon Saturday broadcast of an eagerly anticipated rivalry showdown lacking Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff implications.

And then consider that Michigan is lawyered up and taking the counter. Reports surfaced that alleged coach Ryan Day and Ohio State may have backed the Spygate investigations. Also, there are new stories about other Big Ten teams allegedly spying on Michigan. Any Michigan punishment will get a lightning-quick lawsuit in response.

Observing Michigan whining and blaming Ohio State for its transgressions is nauseating. The paper trail and videos are there for anyone willing to remove Maize and Blue blinders and seriously look.  Additionally, The Leaders and the Best’s whataboutism is an absurdity far beneath the “lesser” schools that Michigan routinely sneers at.  

Wise counsel for Michigan comes from the late President Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign over the so-called Watergate affair. As Nixon reflected on his downfall, he said, “Never give your enemies a sword.”

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