2015 Game at Michigan

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Sept 26, 2015

Brady Hoke couldn't stay away from the Cougs that long I guess

Another 1 and done with a hope to build a future relationship. No face-saving un-neutral neutral site. No future game TBD. Pure and Simple. One and done. Unadulterated - purest form.



1 and done. Enough of this little-brother nonsense. Maybe we need the money more than we want to admit. Maybe we just do not have a choice. Maybe we are just over-confident and unrealistic.



Just Say No. Make it STOP.

Cougarbib wrote:
Another 1 and done with a hope to build a future relationship. No face-saving un-neutral neutral site. No future game TBD. Pure and Simple. One and done. Unadulterated - purest form.



1 and done. Enough of this little-brother nonsense. Maybe we need the money more than we want to admit. Maybe we just do not have a choice. Maybe we are just over-confident and unrealistic.



Just Say No. Make it STOP.

Welcome to independance.

I actually cannot remember. I know U punked Michigan in The Big House a few years back - maybe their special season. Michigan was down that year. Did Utah ever get a return match in SLC or did Michigan make them bend over too.



Looked it up.



Back in MWC days - UM had U bend over twice - u lost a close one in 2002. They won a close one six years later.



THIS



Then they scheduled a straight up home and away coming right up and zchris Hill credited PAC 12 Membership for making it feasible for Utah to schedule this series.



My prediction:



Michigan will beat U twice and Y just once - since they play U twice and us just once. That will make Utah 1-3 and BYU 1-1 vs Michigan.



Maybe we get lucky and catch them in a down year for them with Taysom Hill healthy in his senior year. That would be sweet.

Ann Arbor is a great place to watch a football game. Imagine 100,000 fans! The stadium is surprisingly quiet. I think because of the shape (gradual rise). I was at the 2002 Utah game there, and the Utes should have won, but the stadium was fairly empty.



I'm a little disappointed with the "little brother" scheduling. UM is extremely overrated on an annual basis, so it's likely we will be able to go into the Big House and create some ranking noise, but there is no reason that this shouldn't have been a 1 for 1. I guess it will take us winning some of these road games against good teams for Holmoe to be able to pound his chest a little bit and demand some equality.



I'm not looking forward to 2013. I think until we prove ourselves, we only play 2 BCS teams (i.e. ND & Texas types) on the road in a given season. If we start winning some of those, we increase our exposure to 3-4. Once we're proven, agree to the 2 for 1's only when the first game of the series is played at LES, and then we can back out of the return game deals.

Take the games as you can get them against the big boys. As the schedule fills up they will have the option to be more selective. If you say no to 1:done, what is the alternative? Conference USA games? MWC games? Big East games? The big 5 consider everyone outside of the big 5 and Notre Dame as little brother. The best way to dispell that is to step and be competitive, show you can bring the fans in, and produce good tv ratings.

Fido wrote:
Take the games as you can get them against the big boys. As the schedule fills up they will have the option to be more selective. If you say no to 1:done, what is the alternative? Conference USA games? MWC games? Big East games? The big 5 consider everyone outside of the big 5 and Notre Dame as little brother. The best way to dispell that is to step and be competitive, show you can bring the fans in, and produce good tv ratings.

They already know BYU can be competitive and bring the fans in. Our competitive ability is why they want the advantage.



They would like advantage against everyone. Most people just say no. But had can get anyone to play them straight up.



We need to play equal or with our advantage vs those who will p,ay us that way and actually run the table and then try to demand more.



We might be stuck with lots of disappointing road losses or joining a conference that will take us.



Give it a few years and a few more fired coaches and this will become clearer.

Cougarbib wrote:

They already know BYU can be competitive and bring the fans in. Our competitive ability is why they want the advantage...

Sorry--this is where we disconnect. I'd call that statement a stretch. :blush:



Is that why BYU should have the advantage over Utah State, Idaho, etc?

Wow, this is fantastic. I have been to a few games at UM. Great venue and good town, but it tends to be quiet big stadium. UM alums are good, the "Walmart Wolverines" are another story.



This is great, this is the year ND ends its series with Michigan. Gives me another reason to travel to Ann Arbor to cheer against UM.

Fido wrote:

They already know BYU can be competitive and bring the fans in. Our competitive ability is why they want the advantage...

Sorry--this is where we disconnect. I'd call that statement a stretch. :blush:



Is that why BYU should have the advantage over Utah State, Idaho, etc?

Well - BYU was competitive with BSU, U, OSU, ND, beat USU, GT and WSU.



USU, BTW has recently started to play good football. Whether their very good coach stays and that continues or he uses them as a stepping stone and they fall back into the abyss remains to be seen. I hope they continue to rise up. And they are starting to say no. Told Utah no. Sabre rattling with us. But bring up USU when they start filling a 65,000 seat stadium.



But if they tell us no and our choice is 1 and done Michigan - sign a 1-1 with USU.



Now when you gonna bring up the 1 and done with Weber State?







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I'm fine with a one-and-done with a name-brand Michigan team in their house. You guys and your little brother complexes...guess what, we are little brother on the national scene, so who don't you just grow up and accept it?

This is fantastic! Great games coming up!



Wisconsin and Notre Dame again, in 2013! Texas in 2014! Nebraska and now Michigan in 2013!



These are awesome college football venues! I hope to attend all.



I recently attended the Notre Dame and Georgia Tech games. Flew in to Chicago and then road tripped from South Bend to Atlanta. Both great venues and great games! (although the Notre Dame ended poorly - but still a great game and atmosphere).

I would also point out how many BYU fans attended both the Notre Dame and Georgia Tech games. Both campuses were full of BYU fans. I was amazed at how many BYU fans were on Notre Dame campus before the game. And BYU had a well-attended pre-game party ON GEORGIA TECH CAMPUS! BYU is proving that its fans can travel well and attend these road games! That will put BYU on the map. BYU fans were also noticeably loud in both games.



BYU is doing great with scheduling. Keep it up Tom Holmoe. BYU fans from all over have so much better access to the team than even just 2 years ago - see ESPN deal, BYUTV, and these quality road games.



The only other point I would make is that the reality is that BYU can get home-home matchups with the likes of Cincy, Boise St., and many other Big East and C-USA type teams. We will eventually get some MWC teams on the schedule too, after they lick their wounds from BYU's departure.



But BYU just isn't in a position to demand home-home matchups with Big Ten teams that have MASSIVE fan bases. This has nothing to do with the on-field quality of Michigan, Notre dame, or Wisconsin teams. It has everything to do with Big Ten Universities that have massive stadiums, amazing gameday atmospheres, and enormous alumni and fan bases. Good job getting them on the schedule, Holmoe!



Btw - the only reason Utah got a home-home with Michigan is because the PAC 12 and Big Ten were talking about doing annual inter-conference matchups. In anticipating this, Michigan wanted to make sure it got one of the easier matchups...and avoid USC, Oregon, or Stanford.

One of the challenges with Indy and playing top BCS teams is finding openings to fill slots no already booked. Pipe dream getting home-home unless it works into their projected open games. I expect we will see more Big10 games in the future as they look to upgrade their SOS with competitive teams.



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This game is part of TH's phase Two for Indy scheduling (phase One was the first two years). Just wait until he gets to phase Three. We will have very good schedules.

YNot wrote:
I would also point out how many BYU fans attended both the Notre Dame and Georgia Tech games. Both campuses were full of BYU fans. I was amazed at how many BYU fans were on Notre Dame campus before the game. And BYU had a well-attended pre-game party ON GEORGIA TECH CAMPUS! BYU is proving that its fans can travel well and attend these road games! That will put BYU on the map. BYU fans were also noticeably loud in both games. .

Not entirely true at the ND game, I was at the game and I am an ND alum recieves info from the AD's office. The week of the BYU game I recieved the email asking if I wanted extra tickets as BYU returned "a lot" of tickets and could not fill its allocated commitment. ND has sold out for years so there was not an issue selling them, but generally only lower tier teams or teams without large fan bases return tickets (Tulsa, Syracuse.....the only teams not to meet their commitments this year were BYU and Wake Forest); BYU usually travels great so I was suprised.



BYU fans were "ok" vs other fans in terms of "loudness", but the game in general (ND fans too) was the quietest I have been to in years....also did not help BYU left the band at home. At ND it was after a big win, prior to a big week (OU), supposed to be an "easy" win (pundits were wrong) and it was fall break for the students.....many of whom left town.

byucougar1 wrote:
One of the challenges with Indy and playing top BCS teams is finding openings to fill slots no already booked. Pipe dream getting home-home unless it works into their projected open games. I expect we will see more Big10 games in the future as they look to upgrade their SOS with competitive teams.



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Logic fail: ND cancelled a bunch of games with Michigan. Michigan filled 4 of those and STILL has 1 opening.



Go read the Michigan Scheduling announcement - kind of embarrassing for us quite frankly. It does not mention the Home and Away deal with Utah, thankfully, because that is old news and nothing to do with filling the ND slots.



It announces in one paragraph - a home and away deal with Arkansas or someone like that,



And then in the next paragraph announces 3 single game deals with BYU, Ball State, and Bowling Green or someone like the last two lumped into one group.



And posters here wonder why we never announce first. Apparently, BYU, Ball State, and Bowling Green have to let Michigan put their own spin on it.

Irish Cougar wrote:
Not entirely true at the ND game, I was at the game and I am an ND alum recieves info from the AD's office. The week of the BYU game I recieved the email asking if I wanted extra tickets as BYU returned "a lot" of tickets and could not fill its allocated commitment. ND has sold out for years so there was not an issue selling them, but generally only lower tier teams or teams without large fan bases return tickets (Tulsa, Syracuse.....the only teams not to meet their commitments this year were BYU and Wake Forest); BYU usually travels great so I was suprised.



BYU fans were "ok" vs other fans in terms of "loudness", but the game in general (ND fans too) was the quietest I have been to in years....also did not help BYU left the band at home. At ND it was after a big win, prior to a big week (OU), supposed to be an "easy" win (pundits were wrong) and it was fall break for the students.....many of whom left town.

Yeah, my observations and discussions with local fans differed. I did not sit in the BYU section. Within 15 rows up and down, there were as many BYU fans around me as Notre Dame fans. None of us were in the BYU section. I saw hundreds of BYU fans on campus before the game. Probably more, but hard to judge.



I also had several Notre Dame fans tell me that the stadium music and noise was the loudest they had heard in some time. It was quite until the 4th quarter, but I did notice that the music was playing DURING most BYU third down plays. May be that is what they were referring to. May be I was on the loud end of the stadium. ?



Notre Dame only has 12,000 students 25% of which are graduate students. There were a ton of students on campus and they still seemed to have a significant student section at the game. At least 6 or 7 thousand.



But, it was my first trip to Notre Dame, so I don't have any other ND experiences to compare it to. More BYU fans than I have seen at a BYU road game since UNLV days...including Oregon State last year and Boise State this year.

YNot wrote:

Not entirely true at the ND game, I was at the game and I am an ND alum recieves info from the AD's office. The week of the BYU game I recieved the email asking if I wanted extra tickets as BYU returned "a lot" of tickets and could not fill its allocated commitment. ND has sold out for years so there was not an issue selling them, but generally only lower tier teams or teams without large fan bases return tickets (Tulsa, Syracuse.....the only teams not to meet their commitments this year were BYU and Wake Forest); BYU usually travels great so I was suprised.



BYU fans were "ok" vs other fans in terms of "loudness", but the game in general (ND fans too) was the quietest I have been to in years....also did not help BYU left the band at home. At ND it was after a big win, prior to a big week (OU), supposed to be an "easy" win (pundits were wrong) and it was fall break for the students.....many of whom left town.

Yeah, my observations and discussions with local fans differed. I did not sit in the BYU section. Within 15 rows up and down, there were as many BYU fans around me as Notre Dame fans. None of us were in the BYU section. I saw hundreds of BYU fans on campus before the game. Probably more, but hard to judge.



I also had several Notre Dame fans tell me that the stadium music and noise was the loudest they had heard in some time. It was quite until the 4th quarter, but I did notice that the music was playing DURING most BYU third down plays. May be that is what they were referring to. May be I was on the loud end of the stadium. ?



Notre Dame only has 12,000 students 25% of which are graduate students. There were a ton of students on campus and they still seemed to have a significant student section at the game. At least 6 or 7 thousand.



But, it was my first trip to Notre Dame, so I don't have any other ND experiences to compare it to. More BYU fans than I have seen at a BYU road game since UNLV days...including Oregon State last year and Boise State this year.

I have been to BYU vs ND in the past. The BYU contingent felt light compared to other years, that is just my feeling, could be where I was seated and personally did not have as many people in town.



I believe the fans you spoke to were refering to ND in general, it has been a much louder year for a few reasons: A) ND is winning and B) ND started using non-band music since USC last year and that has increased to volume siginficantly.



6k-7k is extremly low for the student section, a ton of students sell tickets the second weekend of fall break. The first Saturday tends to be Stanford or USC and the second Saturday tends to be a less attractive (in terms of ND rivalries) knowing students will be out.



Compare the BYU game to a Michigan, Michigan State, USC, Stanford, other non-rivalry games (ex: Tennesse, Florida State) etc etc (I heard the 4th quarter against Pitt was loud).....no comparison.



BYU is more of a fun game personally, but not so much for ND die hards. The alums that donate can join the lottery for the games they want and most you can request is 2 tickets, up until this year BYU was a 4 ticket game given the demand....usually there are 1 to 2 "4 ticket" games and historically they have been: Tulsa, Air Force, W. Michigan, Syracuse, Army and BYU (until this year).



No offense, just pointing out BYU travels well compared to their counterparts in similar situations, but ND campus looks completely different against other teams......when I was in school some teams started to show on Thursday prior to the game. Nebraska fans were insane, USC actually travels well, "Walmart" Wolverines travel.