In this week’s episode, we focus on how we’re approaching the 2021 football season as fans. After reading the rather alarming results of a twitter poll on Michigan fans’ preseason excitement, we delve into the ways we’re looking to get enjoyment out of a hobby that—lest we forget—is supposed to be enjoyable. We are, collectively, more optimistic than the fanbase at large. (Yes, this may surprise some of you.)

Some of our reasons don’t relate specifically to the football team: a return to something hopefully approaching normalcy on football Saturdays is a significant driver of our anticipation. We name a number of on-field reasons, too! We also discuss why the athletes deserve our support even when the program and university do not. Finally, we each name the top three reasons we’re excited for the season—which Alex does in the midst of making plans to attend a game—then finish off with a clean sweep of good vibes. 

Also: a long tangent on the former Ravens staffers now coaching at U-M. There’s even consensus praise for how Jim Harbaugh has committed to changing and improving the program since signing his extension. (There’s no praise for his comments on Bo Schembechler, however.)

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The podcast is on Spotify, Google, and Stitcher. Apple overhauled their podcast publishing interface this spring with disastrous results, so it’s going to take a little longer to get it on there. In the meantime, you can use the RSS feed link to add the podcast manually. The button below the player embedded at the top of the post can also handle this.