By H. Jose Bosch
Drink a glass of water a day and it’s just a glass of water.
Drink a glass of water after running a couple miles and it becomes the most important glass of water you’ve ever had in your life.
The same concept applies to Michigan football. For almost every year until 2007, the Wolverines were never short of wins. They had the best all-time winning percentage and the most all time wins. In other words, a win was just a win.
Then the team goes 3-9, the worst season in 40 years, and all of a sudden we as fans were gasping for air down the last straight away.
Michigan’s 4-0 start has been just like one long, cool swig of purified water. Strike that, it’s been like four long, cool swigs of purified water. I never thought a win would taste so good. Each one sustains me like a battery on the back of the Energizer bunny. I’m delirious with happiness over the team’s success. I mean, four wins already? After three all of last season? Hot damn!
But, enough with the crazy fandom; it’s time to get serious. As great as the four-game winning streak has been, there have been some flaws with the Wolverines. The secondary and the offensive line have been less than stellar. We already knew how lame the secondary was. Boubacar Cissoko and JT Floyd were awful on the corners this week and that situation doesn’t look much better.
As for the offensive line, the loss of David Molk hurt more than I thought it would. The slight rearranging to fill in for him affected the line enough to make Tate Forcier’s day a little more difficult.
And Forcier looked like a freshman for the first time this season. It was easy for all of us to forget how young he was since he played so well. And he did a great job leading the team back. But he needs to cut down on those mistakes, especially on the road in East Lansing.
Michigan State is the Wolverines’ first road game and first road test this season. The Spartans have looked average in their first four games but in a rivalry game you throw everything out the window, especially when the underdog is the home team.
The way the Wolverines have played in the past, they can definitely win in East Lansing. But if Michigan plays on Saturday the same way they played against Indiana, it’s going to be a long afternoon.