What is probably one of the greatest moments in college football history, or the one moment in Michigan football you'd like to forget, could have been influenced by a certain recreational herb? That's the story that came out today. A former Michigan player, who was a freshman at the time, said nearly half the Michigan Wolverines football team was "stoned" during the Appalachian State game back in 2007. I only got to see pieces of the game, but looking at the video from above, the only person you would have think without a shadow of a doubt to be high was the offensive co-ordinator for Michigan. From chatsports.com: "In a shocking revelation, this former player told me that over half of Michigan’s defensive starters and several key offensive starters partied deep into the night the night before the 2007 Michigan vs. Appalachian State game, then smoked marijuana hours before kickoff in an effort to “see how bad we can beat ‘em up if we are stoned.” The player said that the Michigan secondary and linebackers were the main participants of this group, but the ring leader was an explosive offensive playmaker, who would later be suspended during his Michigan career for failing a drug test. " I don't claim to be an expert, but past observations would lead me to believe that if they got high before the game (that morning), looking by the second half performance it was beginning to diminish. Not confirmed if they feasted on Funyons and watched Scooby Doo in the locker room at halftime. You'd think a team like Michigan that was projected by some to compete for a National Championship could have beat one of the best FCS teams, even if they were baked. However, it was not the case. Reading further into this article may have revealed the real reason why Michigan probably got beat by App State. "When facing Appalachian State, Michigan players nor coaches took them too seriously. “The coaches barely even game planned for App State regardless. We didn’t prepare any differently nor see any tape of their offense during game week. We were working on normal prep and facing our offense. Armani Edwards was having a field day on us because we didn’t even know he was a fast dual-threat guy. The whole week is an embarrassment. Starting that day, I never enjoyed playing football at Michigan again. That was the day that Michigan football died. Hopefully Hoke fully revives it. I know he is almost there, and that is awesome to see.” As funny as this story is to talk about, I knew it couldn't have been the sole reason a top caliber team would lose to an FCS school. Seeing this paragraph made me believe this is why Lloyd Carr rode off into the sunset and set Michigan up for it's worst era in history. This brought to mind the same year, Alabama losing to Louisiana-Monroe. In Saban's first year, as we know already, there were some guys who really weren't giving that Saban caliber of effort. So I'm not saying that Saban did not prepare for them, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out half of them were stoned as well. You'd have to be to a middle of the road team (at the time) to lose to a FBS lite team like Louisiana-Monroe. Does this seem like an excuse for making history on the losing end? Yeah it does. I can't convince myself that a group of football players being baked would lose a game like this by itself. The coaches seemed to act like they were stoned as well.
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