A couple quick press releases from the athletic department to kick off this Wednesday afternoon. First, as I’m sure most of you have seen already, Lloyd Carr has decided to retire from his post as associate AD, effective September 1 (full press release, which is well worth a read but is too long to post here):
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – After 30 years of distinguished service to the University of Michigan, associate athletic director and former U-M head football head coach Lloyd Carr will officially retire from the athletic department on Sept. 1.
“I am thankful for the wonderful opportunity to assist two great coaches here in Bo Schembechler and Gary Moeller and I will always appreciate Joe Roberson’s decision to name me the head coach in 1995,” said Carr. “I am also appreciative for those I worked with and for all the great friendships I have developed.
“Most of all, I am thankful for the young men I coached and for all the memories I have from my time at Michigan.”
There’s not much to say about Lloyd that hasn’t already been said by better writers than I, so I’ll leave it at this: Thanks for 30 years of great success and great integrity — Lloyd Carr will be missed in the athletic department, and here’s hoping he can enjoy retirement by tuning in to some winning football teams again soon.
In other news, Michigan Stadium is once again the biggest in the land, as the new capacity has been announced as 109,901:
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When the University of Michigan football season opens on Sept. 4 against Connecticut, Michigan Stadium will once again reclaim the title of the largest stadium in the United States for college and/or professional football. The seating capacity will be 109,901 for 2010 when the historic home of Wolverine football will have the bulk of the renovations completed.
“The stadium structures on the east and west sides will be complete and all new premium seats will be on line,” said Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Dave Brandon. “We are very excited to have the club seats and suites completed for the upcoming season, and we continue to get great reaction from fans who tour those seating areas.”
Certain sections will be adjusted for the 2010 season as aisles and seats are widened on the east side of the stadium. Similar modifications inside the seating bowl will be phased in over the next few seasons. Hand rails will also be added in the aisle ways.
“The upper concourses on the east and west sidelines should also make a huge improvement to circulation, and we are happy to add the new restrooms and concessions in those areas,” added Brandon.
It didn’t feel right going to games last year knowing that, if Penn State had a home game, there was a bigger college football crowd out there somewhere. It seems silly and trivial, but Michigan fans take great pride in boasting the nation’s highest stadium capacity, and it’s nice to see that the college football world — at least in that respect — is back in order.
Even with the craziness surrounding the Big Ten’s imperialistic expansion plans and an ongoing NCAA investigation surrounding our football program, it’s still the dull months of the football offseason, and there’s not a whole lot to write about if you’re a college football blogger right now. So, I’ll warn you right off the bat: this is a half-baked idea I came up with while listening to Eminem’s new single in my car a couple days ago. It involves comparing Eminem’s tumultuous career to the last 15 years of Michigan football. Clearly I’m reaching here, but bear with me — before you know it, football season will be upon us, and I’ll be back to writing (semi-) intelligent football discourse and not trying to compare a college football team to a rapper who had a severe addiction to painkillers. If you’re still with me, I commend you. On with the show.
It only seems appropriate to compare the last 15 years of Michigan football to the career of a Detroit emcee, and anyone with a basic knowledge of Eminem’s more recent issues can probably see where this comparison is going. Since I don’t expect all of you to be intimately familiar with the life and times of Slim Shady, let’s go through this comparison stage-by-stage (WARNING: all audio potentially NSFW):
Stage One: Infinite
Infinite was Eminem’s first album, released independently in 1996 without much fanfare or wide distribution. On it, he shows a lot of raw lyrical ability, but between the lack of solid production and without much in the way of cohesive songwriting, Infinite is mostly used as a reference for how far Eminem has come musically, and also to marvel at the talent he possessed before he became world famous.
For me, Michigan football began in 1994, when I first got season tickets to the Big House and started following the team. With the sudden transition from Gary Moeller to Lloyd Carr, Michigan was a team stuck in (relative) mediocrity, with a new coach who had never been the head man on the collegiate level. The 1995-1996 teams were talented but unpolished, capable of knocking off Ohio State out of the national championship picture but also prone to losing to teams like Northwestern, Michigan State, and Purdue. Boasting young talent like Brian Greise, Jerame Tuman, Glen Steele, and Charles Woodson, the Wolverines clearly were ready for the big time, but just weren’t quite there yet.
Stage Two: The Slim Shady LP
Discovered by Jimmy Iovine, the CEO in Interscope Records, and mentored by super-producer Dr. Dre, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP in 1999, and his major-label debut was an instant classic. With production from the Doctor himself, and taking the clever rhymes and complicated flows from Infinite to a new level, Eminem reached the pinnacle of his profession, making The Slim Shady LP both a commercial smash hit and one of the most critically-acclaimed rap albums of all time.
You can see where I’m going with this one. In 1997, Michigan finally put it all together, with Jim Hermann overseeing the country’s finest defense (and maybe one of the best in NCAA history) and the offense, with a young O-line full of future NFL stalwarts and the steady hand of a more experienced Greise, producing enough to lead Michigan to an undefeated record and the national title. This is the pinnacle, ladies and gentlemen.
Stage Three: The Marshall Mathers LP/The Eminem Show
Eminem followed up The Slim Shady LP with another classic, The Marshall Mathers LP, in 2000. His follow-up to a classic was great, and some consider it an equal to his first LP, but most consider it just a notch below The Slim Shady LP on the scale of classic albums. Two years later, Eminem released The Eminem Show, another great effort that again fell short of the ultimate standard he set in 1999, and unlike his first two albums, The Eminem Show displayed some weaknesses, as it didn’t show off the same amazing consistency from song to song that made his first two LPs so incredible.
Lloyd Carr’s teams followed up the 1997 national title with a string of successful to great seasons, consistently knocking off Ohio State and finishing at or near the top of the Big Ten standings every year. Early-season stumbles and a few disappointing performances kept these teams from achieving another national title, however, and towards the end of Carr’s tenure cracks began to show in the armor.
Eminem also began showing signs of impending disaster during this period. One of his most telling lyrics came from the song “I’m Back,” on The Marshall Mathers LP, when he says, “I used to give a f**k/now I could give a f**k less/what do I think of success?/it sucks/too much stress.” He started showing the occasional misstep, like the awful track “Drips” on The Eminem Show — think of that as the 2005 Michigan season — but he was still sharp-tongued Eminem, and his albums still sold and got critical praise, so everyone assumed these missteps would work themselves out and Slim Shady would stay on top of the world.
Stage Four: Encore
Now deep in the throes of prescription drug addiction, Eminem released his fourth major label album, Encore, in 2004. To rap fans everywhere, this is the Eminem album we all wish had never happened — he took on a new style of flow, which was so grating that even if he was putting out quality material, it would still be unlistenable. The material wasn’t quality.
Michigan took on a new style of their own in Rich Rodriguez before the 2008 season, and it certainly didn’t take well as the Wolverines piled up the most losses in school history for a single season. Like rap fans moving on from Encore, Michigan fans did their best to quickly move on from year one of the Rodriguez era.
Stage Five: Relapse
After a lengthy stint in drug rehab, Eminem came out with his fifth major label effort in 2009 with Relapse, a somewhat-bloated 20-track album that showed flashes of the old Eminem, but also still contained traces of the obnoxious delivery and lyrical laziness that wrecked Encore. Relapse was supposed to be Eminem’s grand return and a new classic, but the general consensus was that, while it was a step in the right direction, Relapse still couldn’t hold a candle to Shady’s first three major albums.
Does that sound like the 2009 season to anyone else? It certainly does to me, which leaves us at the present time. Eminem, however, has begun work on a new album. After originally announcing that a Relapse 2 album would be released on the heels of the first one, he decided to scrap that idea — and the tracks left over from the Relapse sessions — and head in a different direction.
Stage Six: Recovery?
In the last few months, Eminem has announced a new project, Recovery, which he says will go back to the type of music that made him famous while also showing off a more mature side. His first single, “Not Afraid,” exhibits Eminem’s new delivery, one that drops the obnoxious accent and instead wows the listener with its insanely complicated rhyme patterns and lyrical dexterity. In it, Eminem apologizes for Relapse, and looks forward to a new era in his career, admitting that he doesn’t know quite what is in store for him but he knows that he is making progress.
We’ll see if Eminem can continue down this new-found path, and if Rich Rodriguez and his team can follow in similar footsteps — for both, it’s now or never for resurrecting what was once the pinnacle of their respective fields. Personally, I’m optimistic for both. The road to recovery may be long, but what comes out of that recovery will be made all the more special because of the struggle it took to get there.
The above is WolverineHistorian’s latest YouTube contribution: Michigan’s 10-7 victory over Ohio State in 1971, which was never televised, so the video is taken from coaches film highlights. I don’t know how you do it, WolverineHistorian, but I’m damn impressed.
In football stuff, MVictors scores a two-part interview with GoBlueWolverine’s Sam Webb, covering his radio work, how he got started in the recruiting business, the difference between Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez’s recruiting approach, and more. The Rivalry, Esq. gives us the TV ratings by conference for the bowl season, and guess which conference got the highest ratings? SEC fans will be shocked, but the Big Ten reigns supreme. TRE also gives us a glowing draft profile of Brandon Graham, which may or may not have been written by a die-hard Wolverine. Over at MGoBlog, TomVH interviews MaxPreps’ Stephen Spiewak, who answers questions on Michigan’s recruiting class, which is ranked ninth in the country on their website.
Put aside, for a moment, your feelings on Rich Rodriguez. I think I’ve made mine pretty clear here, and, like it or not, the man is going to get at least one more year to turn this program around. Discussing his future seems pretty pointless right now.
Instead, I have a question — one that I’m almost uncomfortable asking, and one that has a very unclear answer: Have the past two years tarnished, at all, Lloyd Carr’s legacy at Michigan?
It’s a question I don’t even like bringing up. I started watching Michigan football in 1994, and can only vaguely remember the (brief) Gary Moeller era. So, for the entirety of my formative years, Lloyd Carr was Michigan Football. He brought home a national title, beat Ohio State with regularity (until the Tressel era), and was everyone’s favorite curmudgeon on the sidelines. He has done as much for this University, on and off the field, as any man in his position, ever. I have, and always will have, the utmost respect for Lloyd.
However, with all the talk about the cupboard being left bare for Rich Rodriguez, and the lack of talent shown on the field in the last two years, when Lloyd’s upperclassmen should have eased the transition to a new coach, it’s hard to to pin a fair amount of the blame for 3-9 and 5-5 on Lloyd Carr.
We all saw the program decline at the end of Carr’s career: the 2005 season was by far the worst of Carr’s career; the 2006 season skidded to a halt after a great start, with Michigan again getting creamed in the Rose Bowl; the 2007 season saw Michigan inexplicably lose to Appalachian State and get destroyed by Oregon despite having NFL-caliber players at every skill position and the #1 overall draft pick at left tackle. The Capital One Bowl upset of Florida provided a wonderful, lasting image of Carr being carried off the field, victorious in his final game as coach. He deserved that storybook ending.
But, we are still feeling the effects of those final few seasons. The recruiting efforts of Carr and his staff took a noticable downturn in his last couple years: The thin, top-heavy classes of 2006 and 2007 are the basis for the dearth of talented upperclassmen on the 2008 and 2009 teams. Linebacker and defensive back recruits were woefully underrepresented, leading to the disaster of a depth chart we see this season. I will never, ever accuse Lloyd Carr of not caring about the future of Michigan football — the man has far too much pride in his team and his school to ever do that. However, it is pretty clear that, by the end of his career, the grind of being a college coach wore him down, and his team suffered for it.
This is not to say that Carr didn’t know when his time was up: he left in 2007 with a sparkling 122-40 record in 13 years as the head coach, and never subjected Michigan to a drawn-out retirement process like Bobby Bowden has at Florida State. For that, we can be very thankful — he could have turned a three- or four-year turnaround process into a decade-long quagmire, and he had earned the right to do so with his service to the school. When I think of Carr, I will think of ’97, and his dominance of John Cooper, and his hilariously terse sideline interviews, and his integrity and love for Michigan.
However, a very small part of me may also think of the years following his retirement. I am not saying it’s right, and I’m not sure how legitimate those feelings are, but they are there.
I have nothing against Kevin Leach personally, but he is everything that is wrong with Michigan’s program.
Let me explain. It is not so much Leach himself that is the issue (in fact, not really at all), but his presence in the starting lineup for the Wolverines that says so much about the team’s ills this season. Leach started at middle linebacker over Obi Ezeh, a former freshman All-American and three-yard starter who appears to have regressed this season, like several other Michigan players. Leach is a redshirt sophomore walk-on, weighs just 206 pounds, and showed up to Saturday’s game in what appeared to be a replica Steven Threet jersey with no name on the back.
Meanwhile, Ezeh sat on the sidelines, along with J.B. Fitzgerald and Kenny Demens, four-star linebackers who can’t crack the lineup of the nation’s 81st-ranked defense.
What makes this situation even worse? Leach was one of the better Wolverines on the field Saturday, tallying 11 tackles and a sack.
It’s tough for me to get truly pissed off at Rich Rodriguez when this is what the team has to work with. Jay Hopson? Well, that’s another story, but if you really think that firing a position coach or two is going to change the direction of this program, I have some volcano insurance to sell you.
Yes, the offense sputtered terribly, but this is still an outfit being run by a true freshman quarterback, standing behind a makeshift line that lost its best player, handing the ball off to two senior running backs who can’t stay healthy and throwing the ball to a group of receivers that can’t stretch the field vertically. I don’t see much in that situation that falls on the shoulders of the head coach.
The defense sucks, plain and simple. The defense also now starts two walk-ons (underclassmen walk-ons at that), has just two senior starters, and has such little depth at every position that the defense is designed to need no situational substitutions (whether that is coincidence or not, I don’t know, but it sure as hell is necessary). Does the blame for that situation fall on a second-year head coach who has all of 1 1/2 recruiting classes under his belt? I don’t think so.
Who we blame at this point is largely irrelevant — firing Rich Rodriguez would only serve to set the program back a few more seasons, and I still think he’s the man to turn this program around; Lloyd Carr is retired; Bill Martin is a year away from joining Carr; the players are all college students. What is relevant is the need for patience. Programs don’t turn around overnight, and regardless of your thoughts on Rodriguez, this team was going to be in trouble no matter who took over for Carr — yes, Rodriguez’s style of play accentuated the team’s shortcomings, but those shortcomings were still present before he took over.
I’m just going to blame number 10 in white — not Kevin Leach, just number 10 in white.
Whoa … sleep in late one Wednesday, and miss a big story breaking. From the Detroit News:
Michigan athletic director Bill Martin will retire Sept. 4, 2010 after a decade in that role.
Martin made the decision official Wednesday, according to University of Michigan athletic department sources. He sent a letter to U-M president Mary Sue Coleman and was to inform the athletic department at an all-staff meeting at Keen Arena.
No candidates to replace Martin have been announced yet, but Michigan now has a lengthy timetable to handpick candidates before he steps down.
Martin got a bit of a bad rep after the “sailboat incident”, but it’s tough to say he’s been anything but a great athletic director in his time at Michigan. We can credit Martin for keeping the athletic department (very) profitable in a time when few schools stay out of the red, while still managing to approve huge additions to Michigan Stadium, a practice facility for the basketball teams, and many other projects that help Michigan have the best facilities in the country across the board. He hired Rich Rodriguez and John Beilein, which to me (and many others) was knocking both coaching searches out of the park.
We’ll see what direction Mary Sue Coleman takes in the search for a new athletic director — do we stay with a businessman, or move more towards a person with a sports background (Lloyd Carr, maybe? Just throwing it out there). Regardless of who takes his place, Bill Martin will leave some big shoes to fill in Ann Arbor.
I had the pleasure this afternoon of sitting down with former Michigan fullback Dave Fisher, who played under Bump Elliott from 1963-1966. Fisher was part of the 1964 Rose Bowl champions, led the team in rushing yards in his senior season, and was named First-Team All-Big Ten and Academic All-American in 1966. I sat down with Dave today and got his opinion on the Free Press scandal, Rich Rodriguez, and more. Here are some excerpts of our conversation (which deviated off subject sometimes, but he had a ton of good stories, so it’s a very free-flowing conversation).
His reaction to the scandal: “I was concerned that it’s another attack on Michigan, which has always been a great place, I think tries to play by the rules. Rodriguez claims to be doing it by the rules, and he’s the one that knows. If he says, “Ace, I want you here at eight in the morning and I want you home at eight tonight and I want you to watch film all day,” then I think that’s a violation of the rules. If you go in there and say, “Coach, I’m going to be in here looking at film and then go lift weights,” and do all these legal things and then have whatever is in the 20-hour [limit] do that for the 20 hours and you haven’t broken any rules. If it’s peer pressure, your buddies are doing it and you want to do it to make it, that’s not Rodriguez. The real facts, we don’t know. What I don’t understand is why somebody doesn’t get a court order to at least see the transcript of Rosenberg’s [interviews]. Rosenberg, ironically, is a U-M graduate, and he’s stabbing his own school to put his own name in lights, which might end up putting his name dim forever. Especially is he’s wrong.”
On if he thinks there’s an agenda behind the report: “Oh I do. There’s a lot of people who hate Rodriguez. There’s a lot of people who love him. I frankly like him a lot as a person. I don’t have any problems with him.”
“Somebody behind this either wants to hurt Rich, or wants to hurt Michigan … When you ride so high, there’s always some people that want to put you down, and there’s some people that want to put you higher. Unfortunately, that’s life.”
On Rodriguez: “He takes it seriously. I mean, if you were making $2 million a year and going to get fired if these kids don’t do what you want them to do, you’d get upset too. He’s going to reap the reward and he’s going to take the heat. There was a kid that was a first-round draft choice of the New England Patriots, I think. He drops the ball and Lloyd’s the clown. [ed: No idea who he's talking about here, but the point stands regardless.] What mentality does our society have to blame the coach for everything and 18-22 year old kid does out there on the field? I’m more concerned than anything. If it’s true, it’s a problem, but I can’t believe he would risk doing that. He seems like a nice, ethical person. Do many people get as close to the line as they can without crossing it? Yeah. Do people look for loopholes? Yeah. Is he one of those people? I don’t know him that well.
“I can tell you one interesting story, though. I couldn’t play as a freshman. We could only play three years when I played. My sophomore year, I had a lab I had to take, and it could only be taken from 1-5 on Monday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday. Back then, Monday was a slow day. You would go in and look at films of the upcoming opponent and then go out there and, they called it “break a sweat,” just run around until you perspired see if you had any sore muscles that you didn’t know you had. Then Friday, you just warmed up before the game. So I went in to Bump and I said, “Bump, I’ve got a conflict, what do I do?” And he said, “Fish, you came here for what reason?” I said, “Well of course, to play football for you and to get an education. I thought this was the best place for me to do that.” He said, “You just answered your question. You came here to get an education. You take that class, and I’ll get you through the football part of the deal.” That’s what he put his emphasis on, and that’s what Rodriguez claims to do, to keep these kids in school. Some of them don’t care about getting an ‘A’. I wanted to be an Academic All-American and was lucky enough to do it. But everybody doesn’t have the same goals I had. I had some friends who just wanted to get a degree and be a pro football player, and a lot of them made it. But, at this point in time, we need to believe Rodriguez. Now, if five real people come out and say he’s not telling the truth, then that changes the game for him, big time, and the university.”
On prior coaching staffs: “Lloyd had a bit of ethics, like when you leave here, you’re going to be a better person. Lloyd and Moeller and Schembechler all had a philosophy: you ask them how good this team is, and they’d respond, “Ask me in ten years. What have they done?” Did they make society a better place? Did they become drug addicts? What did they do? I don’t know that Rich would give the same answer, I’ve never asked him. I think he’s a good guy.”
On his hopes for Rodriguez and Tate Forcier: “I, personally, hope he does better than anybody can dream. Have you met Forcier? How much bigger than you is he? I saw that kid, they were playing two-hand touch, can’t tackle the quarterback, some big defensive lineman, 6-7, went like that to him [Dave pushes his arm out] and he hit the ground and hurt his wrist. When that guy hits him head up … whenever you set yourself up as being the number one running back, the number one passer, there’s a guy on defense that’s going to take you out when he gets the chance. Not violently, not against the rules, but he’s going to put Ace Anbender on his Anbender. That’s why they play. That’s part of the spirit of a defensive player. They don’t get a lot of accolades until they smear somebody, crush a quarterback. I worry about Forcier. If you look at Terrelle Pryor, he didn’t burn up the Big Ten last year. In fact, there were a lot of people … I’m from Ohio, so I got a lot of calls Monday morning about the Free Press and you’re in trouble and you’re going to forfeit this year from my buddies who went to Ohio State. There were a lot of people who thought the other kid, [Todd] Boeckman, there were a lot of people who thought that he should have been the starter. But I believe Tressel made the commitment, “You come here and you play.” He’s a man of his word I guess. I don’t know what that means about Boeckman, you come in here and you’re a captain and you don’t play because I got this kid to come in who in four years may flunk out, may drop out to go to the pros, or may be the next answer to sliced bread. Who knows what that kid’s going to do? I’ve heard stories about him, too, where you wonder if he’ll get them in trouble.”
On whether you have to bend the rules to be a winning program these days: “First, you have to come to the moral issue, which is: as long as you stay on this side of the line, is everything okay? You don’t like the rules, change them. There’s a lot of rules in society people don’t agree with. Some of them approach them far differently than other people do. To me, if you abide by the rules, and the rules are not appropriate, change them.
“You know, Michigan has been so successful that sometimes they are a leader in changing rules. When Bo came here, by the 70′s they’d developed a network where all the old players across the country … they write letters to kids in high school talking about how great Michigan is. Anyway, bottom line is they changed that rule, so alumni and ex-players can’t contact any high school stud they want to. And Michigan and Ohio State were really good at getting 125 scholarship athletes, so they’ve got 40 more kids than they’ve got today, and those kids weren’t at other schools. So, to level the playing field, they said you all can only get 85, and that’s why freshmen get to play.
“Again, change the rules, make them the same for everybody. It’s obvious Northwestern, which is one of the rungs of the Big Ten, or at least they were, had 7-on-7 football and a kid died [Rashidi Wheeler, in 2001]. If we’re abiding by the rule, there are people who will spend their life finding that gray area, and get as close to that gray area as they can. They want to go 78 when it’s 70 because they can get away with it. They don’t want to go 79 and get a ticket, or 80 and get a ticket. You’re asking a heavy-duty moral question that I can’t answer.”
On whether the scandal will distract the players: “Frankly, I think it will be a bigger distraction to Rodriguez, because, just like you, you’re gonna write an article or whatever you’re gonna do, you’re gonna work on it our you’re going to say, “Hey, it’s a beautiful day, I’m gonna go take my girlfriend out,” or go do what you like to do with your male friends, and it’s a distraction from what should be your primary focus. Some of the players will go, “Man, this is gonna hurt us more and I’m not gonna make it in the pros.” I believe that the three of those guys that left when Rodriguez came in left because they knew Mallett was gonna leave, and they didn’t think Sheridan and Steven Threet could get them the ball, so how are they going to be a first-round receiver choice? Now, do I know that? No. I heard that through the grapevine and through some logic of my own. Let’s face it: a lot of the kids here aren’t going to make $2 million being rocket scientists, where they can jump for the rockets and make it. Society sets these pay standards: entertainers make a lot of money, janitors don’t pay too well. I don’t think I answered your question. [Here I ask him again if the players will be distracted by the scandal.] I think you’re either able to focus on it or you’re not. Frankly, I think it’s more of a personality issue. You might walk out of here and your cellphone rings and some young lady you’re interested in says, “Ace, let’s go have a malt.” Well, you’re gonna say, “Sure,” or you’re gonna say, “No, I’ve got to get this thing done I’m working on.” Is either one right or wrong? No, but that’s all of our personalities.
“People say, “What’s it like to be in there with 100,000 people looking at you?” I can honestly tell you it’s no different than sitting here talking with you. All that noise around you, that goes away, if you’re focused. If I know they’re going to give me the ball and I’m going to run there with it, or I’ve got to block here, that’s all I’m thinking about. Everybody’s got their own job to do. I’m sure there are some guys that are not focused; they’re looking up in the stands to see if their girlfriend is there. That’s the guy that drops the ball, doesn’t catch it when it’s in his hands, that’s because they’re not focused on what their job is.”
Rich Rodriguez craves a better atmosphere at Michigan Stadium — AnnArbor.com — Key quote: “But in the works are things like making “the band and the students and some music” more a part of the gameday experience.” The “some music” part is (understandably) causing some consternation among Michigan faithful worried Rodriguez will push for piped-in music during games. I say just mic up the band (I’m pretty sure Penn State does this, having been to Happy Valley and wondered how the hell the band was so loud) and put more focus on doing away with the “key play” crap and having students actually yell on third and fourth down. It’s at least nice to see RichRod pushing for a louder, tougher Michigan Stadium crowd … I’m sick of going to road games and having my mind blown by just how quiet our home fans are.
Terry Talbott high on U-M after visit — The Wolverine — Michigan climbs into the top three for the three-star DT prospect after a solid visit. At this point, I’ll applaud the commitment of any living being weighing over 260 pounds who plays defense — Talbott more than qualifies, making this very good news.
Ask Jamie: What’s left for the Wolverines? — Rivals.com — Rivals.com analyst Jamie Newberg devotes most of his mailbag to Michigan’s recruiting class. More praise for Devin Gardner, some interesting insight into Seantrel Henderson’s recruitment (Newberg thinks Minnesota is the team to beat, which would shock me), and more calls for patience from Wolverine fans still freaking out about all the three stars. Seriously, chill.
’09 Michigan Season Tickets Arrive — MVictors — Greg has his tickets, and puts up photos for those who are interested. Unfortunately, one depicts the student section waving those @#&$ keys, which is argh and whatnot. Also of note: Maize-Outs this year are for the Notre Dame and Penn State games.
Marcus Rush to pull the trigger for Michigan? — Bleacher Report — Speculation abound that three-star DE Marcus Rush will commit to Michigan after this quote from his high school coach was published in a local newspaper:
“The one thing he’s got is every day in practice, he’s going against a kid who’s going to sign with Michigan, and the other (defensive tackle) is only a junior who already has been offered by N.C. State,” Rodenberg said. The senior is Marcus Rush, the junior is Jesse Hayes. “Marcus hasn’t committed to Michigan,” Rodenberg said. “He’s either going to commit to Michigan, Virginia or Michigan State.”
This certainly bodes well for Michigan, although it sounds like Rodenberg was merely saying his player was going against a Michigan-caliber player, and Rush is still deciding. Just my interpretation.
Former University of Michigan basketball captain David Merritt keeping busy with business venture — AnnArbor.com — Ok, this headline stuff is getting out of hand. The business venture is urban apparel, it launches Sept. 4 at the Michigan League, and Merritt is hyping up the release with YouTube videos. I’m surprised they didn’t cram all that into the headline too, and just did away with the rest of the article.
The tremendous boredom of the summer months has reached its apex, and I am left to come up with content when there is little to nothing going on in the Michigan sports scene. Luckily, U-M has an amazing database of historical content. The Bentley Historical Library is an incredible resource on Wolverine history, and also a bona-fide time-waster. I love looking through the old team photos … it’s basically like checking out your parents’ high school yearbooks, except with more famous people and without the stigma of looking through your parents’ high school yearbooks. Anyways, I’ve decided to click to a random year and find the most awesome/silly/ridiculous-looking player for that year, and then dig up what I can find on said player’s career at Michigan.
Today, we move away from the players for a minute, and check out the earliest possible photograph of Michigan’s big-name coaches. First up, the Bo Schembechler line, featuring Bo himself, Gary Moeller, and Lloyd Carr:
The picture of Lloyd is from 1980, his first year as an assistant at Michigan, while both Bo and Mo are from 1969, the first season of the Bo Regime at Michigan.
Now time for some old school. Check out Mr. Winged Helmet himself, Fritz Crisler:
We really need to bring back the days when coaches wore suits. Maybe Charlie Weis would complain, but he’s going to be fired in a year or two anyway. Need some more proof that suits are the way to go? Check out the greatest coach in school history, Fielding Yost, in the team photo from his first year at the helm of the Wolverines, 1901:
Now that, my friends, is a leader of men. No wonder that 1901 team outscored their opponents 550-0 en route to Michigan’s first national title; the other teams were clearly too distracted by the shiny pin on Yost’s suit. The numbers back it up: When Michigan coaches wear suits — 10 national titles. Without — Just one. I know, I just blew your mind. If we can get RichRod into an adidas-approved double-breasted pinstripe, I’m sure Michigan will have no problem plowing their way through the competition and silencing all the doubters. Somebody get on this immediately.
Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Kurt Wermers has decided to transfer from Michigan to Ball State. This is all well and good — a lot of players transfer. However, Wermers also talked. Take it away, Kurt:
“I really didn’t get along with the new coaches,” Wermers is quoted as saying by nwi.com of Munster, Ind. “They were bringing in a lot of different kids that were not my kind of crowd.”
Wermers (6-foot-5, 290 pounds) is from Crown Point (Ind.) High School. The 2008 season was his first at Michigan — also coach Rich Rodriguez’s first in Ann Arbor — but he would have been initially recruited by Lloyd Carr’s staff.
“Coach Carr’s staff was a whole different ballgame,” Wermers says in the report. “It was like a family. But when Rodriguez came in it was a whole different feeling. It was more of a business. I figured I’d get out while I could.”
There are a multitude of problems with this. Allow me to list them, in no particular order:
“…bringing in a lot of different kids that were not my kind of crowd.” Way to throw your old teammates under the bus, Kurt. I have no idea what kind of “crowd” Kurt Wermers is comfortable with, but by all accounts the players Rodriguez has brought in are good, upstanding student-athletes. I can’t imagine that Wermers couldn’t find at least a few teammates he was cool with, and to just throw a comment like that around is not only petty and uncalled for, it is open to the type of interpretation that can be dangerous.
As pointed out by John Borton ($), and as stated in the above quote, Wermers never actually played under Coach Carr and his staff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure coaches, as a general rule, are a lot nicer to you when they’re recruiting you than they are during practice. I know there are some differences between Carr’s staff and Rodriguez’s, but Wermers does not have any experience with Lloyd Carr, coach, only Lloyd Carr, recruiter.
Wermers had a chance to change schools after Carr retired and Rodriguez took over. Nobody forced him to put his name on that Letter of Intent, and he knew exactly which coach he would be playing for when he did so. If he felt that Rodriguez and Co. managed the team like a business, and preferred Carr’s “family” style, then why not go looking for another school prior to signing the LOI?
My biggest issue: Regardless of the legitimacy of Wermers’ feelings towards the coaching staff, he had the opportunity to leave the University of Michigan, a great school that had paid for a year’s worth of his tuition, with class and dignity. Instead, he chose to take a parting shot at essentially the entire football program. It already speaks volumes enough that you are transferring, Kurt. There’s no need to go to the media and blast the school you’re leaving. Say something good about your experience at Michigan, if you can, or simply express your excitement for your new school, or just leave in peace. Take the high road.
This is major college, Division I-A, Big Ten football. Coaches aren’t always going to be nice — that comes with the territory at any program. If you can’t handle it, Kurt, do us all a favor and grab one of these:
Attrition happens at all schools, at all levels of play. I realize Michigan has had more transfers than usual under Rodriguez, but that is completely natural when a new staff with such a different on-field strategy takes over at a school. I’m sure there will be more transfers in the near future. However, I hope they are handled with more maturity than this one.
Alex on 
JL on 
Ace Anbender on 
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