Michigan professor John U. Bacon has felt a cautious optimism creep into his classroom this week.
It started, the history and American culture lecturer said, when the Wolverines ended their four-game losing streak to Notre Dame with a resounding 38-0 win last weekend against the Irish. His students appreciated that victory; after losses to Appalachian State and Oregon in the first two weeks, they learned not to take a win for granted.
"It's kind of a fresh start," Bacon said yesterday afternoon. "It's the Big Ten opener. It's a new beginning."
It may be a new Big Ten season, but the student body's mood hinges on this weekend's game between the Wolverines and Penn State, said Nate Sandals, a senior sports editor of The Michigan Daily, Michigan's student newspaper.
If the Wolverines come out and play well, excitement will quickly elevate, Sandals said. And if they don't, he added, it wouldn't be a shock. But the cloud of cynicism hovering over Ann Arbor will stay at least one more week.
"If you start a season 0-2 at Michigan, there's Armageddon, practically," Sandals said. "[With] Penn State being undefeated, it's hard for anybody on campus to have a good feel for what Michigan's gonna put on the field."
As of Thursday afternoon, Sandals said the campus and adjacent town of Ann Arbor were still calm. Many students there don't have Friday classes, however, so he expected the population to be revved up by today.
"Overnight, it's gonna change completely," Sandals said.
Steve and Barry's, a Michigan apparel store located on State Street in Ann Arbor, is expecting 5,000 customers to flow through its doors by the end of the weekend. Michigan T-shirts have been "selling like mad" this week, said Alaina Zombeck, a store employee.
Zombeck has seen some Michigan students sporting "Ohio State sucks" T-shirts but has seen few anti-Penn State slogans.
When the crowds do seep into the area surrounding Michigan Stadium, the university's department of public safety said it will be ready.
"I can't imagine that it will be an empty place at all," said Diane Brown, a spokeswoman for Michigan's campus police. She added that this weekend's forecast for summer-like weather will be an extra incentive for spectators to attend the game.
Michigan's department of public safety will get help tomorrow from several other law enforcement agencies, including Michigan state troopers. Everything will need to be coordinated, Brown said -- from stadium security to traffic leaving the game.
Weekends like this one can be challenging, Brown said, because the town is flooded with visitors.
"They've found that when disruptive events occur, it doesn't tend to be our students who engage in the disruption," Brown said, emphasizing that she wasn't pointing a finger at visiting students from any particular school. "It's people who have come to town to raise a ruckus."
