By now, the press conference held yesterday detailing Michigan’s NCAA violations has been broken down from every conceivable angle. Personally, I’m getting tired of it already, but this is a Michigan blog, and this is the biggest story of the year, so I feel obligated to share my thoughts.
First, as a staunch backer of Rich Rodriguez, I have to admit this: regardless of how you feel about the Free Press, their investigation, and the gravity of the charges, it is tough to completely defend or exonerate Rodriguez. Even if no other program in the country comes under the same type of scrutiny — from their own local media, no less — as Michigan has since Rodriguez took over, he left the door open for this type of investigation by simply not having proper control over his own program. That, quite frankly, is inexcusable: everybody knows the rules, and at a program that has never had any type of NCAA violations, it is your responsibility as the head coach to ensure that everybody in the program is abiding by them and is knowledgeable about them. Does Rodriguez’s lack of control merit his dismissal as coach? I don’t think so, and neither does Dave Brandon, who has more knowledge of the situation than you or I do. If, as he claims (and I believe him), Rodriguez has taken the necessary measures to take control of his program and keep them within the NCAA rules, I think the public embarrassment and (potential) NCAA penalties are more than enough punishment for his transgressions.
The brunt of my anger, however, in the wake of this press conference, is directed towards Michael Rosenberg and the Free Press. The WLA hits the nail on the head with their post “They Lied: A Retrospective“:
For reference, here is the Freep article (lead-in and details) that started the whole mess.
Initially I started fisking the article bit by bit, but there is no need to be that tl;dr. Here is the crux of the article, right in the intro:
“The University of Michigan football team consistently has violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez, numerous players told the Free Press.”
This assertion is repeated in various forms and in various detail throughout the article. ‘Michigan consistently broke the rules by practicing too much.’ This is false. The press conference today just made that official. The practice schedule as told by Rosenberg massively overstated the hours, and after all is said and done we’re talking about how to count time allocated for stretching (seriously). Further, there was nothing consistent or willful about the schedule or staff activities.
The whole article is worth a read, and it goes on to say that no player, not a single one, said anything about violating NCAA rules, which, if you read the above lede to their article one more time, is exactly what the Free Press claimed. I’m sure Michael Rosenberg and the Freep feel exonerated after yesterday’s press conference. They shouldn’t. The investigation still stands as a lesson in shoddy, agenda-driven journalism, and their charges of egregious practice-time violations look hilariously overblown after seeing the details of the NCAA investigation.
Finally, I’ve seen a lot of criticism directed towards Rich Rodriguez in the last day. That’s fine — not everybody is going to agree about a coach, especially one as divisive as Rodriguez, and everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Emails like the one I received this morning, however, will draw my ire:
From: [REDACTED]
Subject: Rich Rod
Message Body:
I have been a wolverine fan all my life and for the past two years I have been reluctant to call myself a fan. Rich Rodriquez has driven the football program into the ground, breaking all the records no Wolverine wants to see broken. Losing to State and the chestnuts two years in a row is a disgrace, nevermind two losing seasons in a row. Rich Rod is a disease, it’s time to look for a cure. Always a Wolverine bleeding Maize and Blue, GO BLUE!!
I’m sorry, but this type of argument doesn’t make any sense to me — if you’re a fan, you’re a fan, and there’s no taking a sabbatical just because you don’t like the head coach. This is called hedging your bets, or being a bandwagon fan, and I have a fundamental disagreement with this argument. I have a quote from Bo Schembechler that I keep on the right sidebar, and I’ve seen it used in just this situation recently in message board arguments and the like, but it bears repeating:
“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing.” – Bo Schembechler
Even if you truly believe that everything that has happened in the last two years falls squarely on Rodriguez’s shoulders (I have seen, and made, numerous arguments to the contrary, but that is another long article for another long day), you are still a Michigan fan, and Michigan fans support the team and are proud to do so. Period.
For now, that’s all I have to say on the matter. Many other bloggers, however, have many more things to say. So, here’s today’s links, which are very heavy on the NCAA stuff:
An Interview With Compliance Guy — MGoBlog — Brian has a Q&A with a guy who runs an unofficial NCAA compliance blog. Seriously. That exists. The internet never fails to amaze.
Quality Control — MVictors — Greg delves deeper into what I think is the most damning of the allegations, the involvement of the quality control staff in practices. This includes an especially pertinent quote from former hockey assistant Dave Shand about the distinction between “quality control” and “coach” (hint: there’s not much).
Our Take on the “Violations” — UMGoBlog — The guys over at UMGoBlog give their opinions on the allegations. Again, Dave Brandon impresses: the guy passed his first major test as AD with flying colors.
NCAA allegations: What’s going to happen? — Burgeoning Wolverine Star — BWS looks at the allegations, and also what happened in a very similar case involving Florida International a few years ago. Those fearing loss of scholarships or a postseason ban will have those fears eased by this article.
Morgan Trent should shut his mouth — Genuinely Sarcastic — The Other Brian takes Trent to task for comments he made yesterday to the Detroit News.
In the other major sport that’s actually playing right now, UMHoops has scouting and video on 2011 prospects Cody Zeller (scouting, video) and Carlton Brundidge.
Demar Dorsey's commitment has sparked controversey at U-M.
The fallout from Demar Dorsey’s commitment — especially the signing day press conference grillings by The Detroit Free Press’ Drew Sharp and AnnArbor.com’s Dave Birkett and the subsequent articles on Dorsey’s legal history — has sparked controversy in Ann Arbor and a considerable backlash against either (a) Rich Rodriguez or (b) the media themselves. I’ve already said my piece, but many Michigan bloggers and mainstream writers have written compelling pieces on the situation since last week. Here’s the best of what I could find:
Starting with the mainstream media, Jon Chait pens a very thought-provoking piece over at The Wolverine that brings up some very interesting questions. Instead of asking if Michigan should or should not have taken Dorsey (he actually gives merit to both sides), he asks if Michigan should be held to a different standard than other college programs (saying that is the only way to make the argument that Michigan shouldn’t have recruited Dorsey), and then takes the Free Press to task for their coverage of Michigan football:
Now, when evaluating a newspaper, it’s important to distinguish between straight news reporting and opinion columns. The latter shouldn’t normally be held up to taint the objectivity of the former. In this case, however, the distinction is impossible. The opinions of the columnists are driving the coverage of the straight reporters. In some cases, the opinion columnists are being allowed to break news about the same subjects they’re opining on.
From reading the Free Press, you wouldn’t suspect that Rich Rodriguez has had few disciplinary issues at Michigan, and those that have arisen (Justin Feagin, Boubacar Cissoko) have been dealt with swiftly and severely. One can legitimately debate whether and to what degree Michigan should have higher than normal standards of behavior and academics for its recruits. But that debate is very difficult in an atmosphere where the local media seems determined to impugn the coach’s integrity.
Rodriguez and Michigan are assuming a risk with Dorsey, a larger risk than with most players because of his history. If he gets in trouble in Ann Arbor, the head coach and the university will take heat for it. Heat they’ll deserve.
But is that risk large enough to push the Wolverines away when other programs wouldn’t think twice about adding Dorsey to their roster? Does Michigan have to hold itself to a perceived higher standard, a standard that might not even exist in college football, much less at U-M? Some will say yes, but these folks need to open their eyes and realize this is big-time college football.
Lloyd Carr gave players second chances, too. He assumed the risk of them messing up again. Every college football coach does. Like it or not, it’s part of this sport.
The Detroit News’ Bob Wojnowski looks at the Dorsey signing from a different perspective, asking “With all the shrieking for [Rich Rodriguez's] job, the real question might be: How could he not [sign Dorsey]?” and attacking fan hypocrisy:
Every fan wants to win, and the most vocal ones demand to win. No problem. Just don’t be a hypocrite and hope to reap the benefits without any risk.
I’m not a win-at-all-costs guy, but I’m also not an idealistic dreamer. I recognize Dorsey is a bigger risk than your average recruit, and the situation warrants scrutiny. If the kid blows it, he’ll damage more than himself, including Rodriguez.
Every time you give a chance, you take a chance. That’s the way it works in college football, like it or not.
Here’s the thing: Rich Rodriguez cares about his players. When he left West Virginia, they were the only people in the state to defend him. When the NCAA stuff came down and Rich Rodriguez had his press conference about it, he hit his shakiest, teariest point when he was talking about the effects this had on his players. When you listen to Mike Barwis talk about Pacman Jones, the pain is evident—they just couldn’t straighten him out enough. He has a good track record. He was right about Pat Lazear, and his disciplinary record over the past five years is considerably above average. Every time he picks up a guy with a rough past and puts him in college he’s trying to make the kid’s life better.
And yet he gets painted as a bad guy by people who don’t care about anything but themselves. Drew Sharp is a selfish, cynical bastard. He’s made a career out of making people angry with his half-assed, research-free opinions. He’s a disgrace to journalism. If the Free Press had any scruples whatsoever, rampantly bashing a kid with no evidence, or even an effort to collect any, would be so far beyond the journalistic pale that no combination of weasel words could save him.
That’s the point. Maybe Dorsey won’t make it, but he’s been clean for two years and deserves a shot. If he caught a break because he had a shot at going to college, that was a good bet by Broward County. He did, and now he’s going to Michigan. It’s up to Rodriguez and Dorsey to make it pay off.
The worst thing about all this pressure is that a Dorsey MIP is now a big deal in a way that Kevin Grady getting frighteningly drunk and falling asleep in his car is not. If Dorsey doesn’t keep his nose clean at Michigan, the rest of the team can have a spotless record and the storyline will be Dorsey this and Dorsey that. That’s a hell of a burden, one that few players with “checkered legal pasts” have to deal with. When Roderick Jenrette came to Michigan State, he was carrying two burglary arrests with him—about which more later—and no one knew. His troubles were explained away by Mark Dantonio and people either respected his privacy as a juvenile offender or were lazy or were just stunned by how magnificent Dantonio’s jaw was, and he was left alone.
Both are well worth a read. Meanwhile, the Wolverine Liberation Army has a couple takes of their own on Dorsey. The first is along the lines of what you’d expect from the WLA, a hilarious hatchet-job on Sharp that takes a suddenly serious tone at the end:
The worst part is that Sharp holds his audience in open contempt. He has stated that “You (the audience) morons should make sure you get both sides of the story before saying something definitively.” He genuinely dislikes his readership and listeners. I’m not sure why anyone would indulge Sharp in his patently sadomasochistic fantasies, yet here I am. Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment. Or perhaps I think Sharp was disgustingly indecent to a high school senior on what should have been (and hopefully still was) the best day of his life thus far. Either way, grab your snorkel. We’re chest deep in liquid manure.
The second piece is guest-written by a friend of the WLA who has “extensive real-life experience dealing with juvenile offenders.” The whole thing is a must-read, especially when the author pulls out the stat that, if a juvenile offender stays out of trouble for two years, they have about a 4% chance of re-offending. Demar Dorsey has been out of trouble for two years, so take that for what it’s worth. Also, from the author:
Finally, let us remember, aside from all the dismissed and acquittal squabble, that no one was physically injured by Mr. Dorsey. Maybe that is why the judge decided this kid was worth a chance. Had Mr. Dorsey been incarcerated, he may not have come out the kind of person he is today. Those are not charm schools those kids go to. They are not matriculated with academic all americans and missionaries. The lowest common denominator rules in such facilities. Kindness is a weakness. Hyper vigilance is the law. Perhaps it really is prudent to reserve such treatment for those who truly need it and not to just foist it upon those who upset our personal moral compasses.
My endgame is this, and I hinted at it a while back, but sadly, I’m starting to firmly believe it: 2010 is starting to look like the end for Rodriguez at Michigan. Not because of one specific incident, but because of everything. The list is long, we all know what’s gone on. But the longer we hear silence from the UofM athletic department, the longer we can only assume that it will take an enormous improvement in 2010 to save Rodriguez. Could it happen? Maybe. I could definitely see an 8-win team. Would an 8-5 season calm the storm? In a perfect world, yes.
But as we’ve all become painfully aware of, since we lost Bo in November 2006, nothing is perfect about this situation, this university, this athletic department, and this football program.
This, obviously, is a situation that won’t be resolved overnight, or even over the next couple years: no matter what happens in the interim, Rodriguez and Dorsey won’t be out of the media crosshairs until Dorsey has gone on to the next stage in his life (whether that is the NFL or a career after graduating from school will largely be determined by Dorsey’s performance on the field) with a clean criminal record. So, for now, this is all I’ll be writing on Dorsey. We simply have to wait and see what happens. For now, I’m happy to have a talented and charismatic player at a position of great need. It is up to Dorsey to determine if we’ll have to look at him as anything other than, simply, that.
Joe Paterno's 25th-ranked 2005 class, which included future stars Darryl Clark and Sean Lee, came on the heels of consecutive losing seasons in 2003 and 2004.
According to Rivals.com, Michigan has managed to put together the nation’s #20 overall recruiting class despite coming off two consecutive losing seasons. This doesn’t happen often — in the Rivals era (covering the class of 2002 through today), a school has managed to haul in a top-25 recruiting class after two losing seasons just 16 times, an average of exactly two per year. To be honest, I was surprised the number was even that high. I thought I’d take a look at the teams that pulled off the feat, and attempt to (1) explain how they were able to put together a good recruiting class and (2) see how the team fared down the road. In chronological order, here are the schools that finished in the Rivals top 25 team rankings after consecutive losing seasons:
Team/Year:Penn State, 2002 (Rivals.com’s #21 overall class) Coach: Joe Paterno (34th year at Penn State) Previous two seasons: 5-7 (2000), 5-6 (2001) Why?: The back-to-back losing seasons were the first by Penn State in the Paterno era, and came right after a 10-3 1999 team that featured the top two overall picks of the 2000 NFL Draft (Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington), so Penn State could sell early playing time, a strong winning tradition, and a potential NFL future to their recruits, as well as the chance to play for a legendary head coach who wasn’t going to get fired despite the team’s uncharacteristically poor performance. How did they fare?: This class wasn’t as strong as it appeared on paper — it featured 11 four-stars, but only four (Levi Brown, Tamba Hali, Jay Alford, and Calvin Lowry) would really live up to their billing, and the class didn’t get much contribution from its two- and three-star players. After a 9-4 2002 season, Penn State would undergo another back-to-back losing stretch (more on that later) before an 11-1 2005 season brought them back to the top of the Big Ten.
Team/Year:Arizona, 2002 (#25) Coach: John Mackovic (2nd season at Arizona) Previous two seasons: 5-6 (2000), 5-6 (2001) Why?: Putting together his first full recruiting class, John Mackovic was a big-name coach (with prior head-coaching stints at Wake Forest, Illinois, and Texas) for a team coming off its best decade in school history. Also, anyone who has been to Arizona knows that it should not be difficult to recruit high school kids to Tucson (a quick Google image search for “University of Arizona” brings up Olympic swimmer — and former Playboy covergirl — Amanda Beard studying in a pool). How did they fare?: Not so well. Mackovic had to publicly apologize to his players during the 2002 season because of his over-the-top verbal abuse (in the most publicized incident, he called tight end Justin Levasseur a disgrace to his family), and was fired five games into the 2003 season. Arizona finally hit the .500 mark in 2006, and wouldn’t field a winning team until 2008. You’ll be seeing the Wildcats on this list again, as well.
Team/Year:Mississippi State, 2003 (#9) Coach: Jackie Sherrill (13th season at MSU) Previous two seasons: 3-8 (2001), 3-9 (2002) Why?: Sherrill was the first coach to lead the Bulldogs to four consecutive winning seasons (1997-2000) since the 1940s, so despite the two losing seasons, this was still a Mississippi State squad that had recently experienced almost-unprecedented success. Sherrill had also hauled in the nation’s #17 class the previous year. The elephant in the room: after Sherrill retired following the 2003 season, the NCAA put the football team on four years of probation, took away eight scholarships, and banned them from postseason play for recruiting violations involving two assistants and boosters between 1998 and 2002. So, there’s that. How did they fare?: The Bulldogs obviously weren’t helped by the NCAA sanctions, and this class suffered through another four losing seasons. Those who made it to a fifth year, however, did get to play for Sylvester Croom’s 8-5 2007 squad, so the class wasn’t a total loss. I wouldn’t take much away from this class because of the obvious cloud hanging over its legitimacy.
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.
Instead of continuing to build the "USC of the South," Lane Kiffin bolted for USC itself.
One of the most prominent complaints waged against Rich Rodriguez is that he does not know, and respect, the rich traditions of the University of Michigan and its football program. I won’t get into how wrong this notion is, except to say that Rodriguez has done a good a job as one could possibly expect from a non-Michigan grad in upholding and recognizing the great traditions of this school. Instead, I’ll simply point you to an article posted today by Clay Travis, in which he quotes senior Tennessee center Josh McNeil on Lane Kiffin’s respect for UT tradition. The whole article is worth reading, but here are a few of the highlights:
“They’d replaced our highlight video from the past season with Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and Dwayne Jarrett from USC. I was like, ‘Man, I know we were 5-7 last year, but this is Tennessee. Right beside our national title trophy? Come on, man.’”
But some of the younger players believed the chant was very cool, McNeil said. It fired them up.
At least it did until they realized that the “new chant” the UT coaching staff introduced to the players was a retread.
“It was a USC thing,” McNeil says, “I took an official visit there. They used to say, ‘SC’, and the other side would say, ‘wild boys.’ They came to Tennessee and they changed SC to ST for special teams. How lame is that?”
The maxims trace back to the legendary General Neyland, the all-time winningest coach in Tennessee history and the man the stadium was named after.
Kiffin didn’t like the maxims, didn’t want to do them. For decades they’d been the final words uttered by every Tennessee player as he left the locker room and rushed onto the field.
Always the head coach led the chant.
No longer.
No matter what your opinion on Rodriguez is at this point, there is no arguing that it could have been much, much worse. I’m looking forward to rooting against Kiffin and USC for years to come — or at least until NCAA sanctions destroy the program or Kiffin jumps to coach the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The blogosphere has had a few days to absorb another Michigan loss, and reactions are all over the place this week. Brian addresses once-and-for-all the question of “When can we fire Rich Rod?” He thinks an 8-4 year (possibly 7-5, depending on the bowl game) would save Rodriguez’s job, and he deserves the chance to coach next year before we make any rash decisions. I’m in full agreement on this one — with the defensive depth as thin as it is, and the offense being so young, it’s tough to pin too much of the blame of these past two seasons squarely on Rodriguez. We knew he needed time, and now we have to give it to him. In his postgame wrap, Brian does express the stress we all feel in dealing with the losing:
I’m burning out after two years of almost unrelenting misery, and looking forward to football season being over for the third straight year. I mean, when Michigan was down to Purdue in the second half, some fan ten or twenty rows behind me kept shouting “they’ve got no heart” over and over again as the guy in the row in front of me called for Rodriguez’s firing. Having a conversation about Michigan football right now is trying to remember that episode of GI Joe where Destro finds a secret ninja manual in a volcano*** that allows him to kill people with precisely-applied touches: if you can just remember where the red dots are you can spare everyone a lot of pain.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve wished with all my heart for a taser while standing in the student section during these past two years, and I’m obviously not the only one who feels that way. We need to give these kids (yes, kids) a chance — screaming “Forcier sucks!” (and yes, I’ve heard that several times) only serves to single you out as a blithering idiot.
Meanwhile, (the other) Brian over at Genuinely Sarcastic has emerged as a (relatively) level head throughout this whole mess. To the “Fire Rich Rod” crowd, he simply asks, “and do what?”:
Can you name a defensive coordinator who would do better with this roster? There just isn’t much to work with. When Robinson plugs one hole (run defense was solid against MSU and Iowa), another one opens (wide open receivers on playaction). He simply doesn’t have the talent or experience on that side of the ball to put together a sturdy unit in all phases. And the offense…well, remember what Beilein said about the roller coaster last year after Michigan basketball was BACK against UCLA and Duke? When you’re rebuilding, there will be ups and downs. Penn State and Illinois were downs. Purdue was an up. The offense did its job on Saturday.
He goes on to pick apart the notion that Harbaugh and Miles were ever totally viable candidates. Revisionist historians, beware, for Brian is ready to embarrass you.
Still. Saturday could’ve been worse. A year ago I sat through a miserable downpour in 28 degree weather to watch Michigan lose to a Northwestern team they probably could’ve beaten. But Saturday wasn’t like that.
Saturday was sunny.
SCM has the full game breakdown over there, and comes to the same conclusion that any sane fan has realized at this point in the season:
If this team is going to salvage anything from this year, a year that brought joy for a whole month, then they’re going to have do it by out-gunning people. It is what it is, and it’s not going to suddenly change over the next two weeks of practice. So c’mon Blue, go out there and fight your hearts out.
1) We played harder and looked much better on offense. Our defensive struggles continue, but those problems will take more time to fix. In the short term, this week…while still a tough loss, was still nice to see the team not give up like we did against Illinois. I think we still have a shot at a bowl if we can make some improvements and move forward.
or…
2) Another week another loss. This time to another crappy team. Even though it was close, I don’t care, a loss is a loss. You can take your moral victories and shove it…I need real wins. Wake me up in 2010. I’m done.
For reasons passing understanding, I’m actually closer to camp 1.
Michigan Football Saturdays has beef with Rodriguez’s decision to go for it on fourth and ten (when Brown ended up getting called for a forward lateral and the Wolverines turned the ball over), thinking Michigan should’ve taken the points. I think that decision could have gone either way, and certainly don’t think it was a boneheaded one, but I can see where they’re coming from here.
Michigan Football has been there for you your whole life. They’ve been there for you to lean on. Every Saturday, winning, making you smile, sending you to work on Monday with your chest puffed out, ready to point and laugh at lesser men. But now, for the first time, Michigan Football needs you to be there FOR THEM, to be patient FOR THEM.
We need to find that place again. I’ve got to find that place again. That place where I know we are going to win no matter what the odds, no matter what the situation. Miracles happen. Freshman can do amazing things. There are two games left…and I love being an underdog.
One recruiting tidbit from Rivals: they’ve released their category rankings for 2010 quarterbacks. Devin Gardner ranks second in arm strength (behind PSU commit and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s prospect Robert Bolden), and first in scrambling ability. This combination, I like.
On to basketball (HOORAY!). UM Hoops has your breakdown of the Wayne State game, and Dylan also gives his State of the Blog in Year Three (to which I give a hearty congratulations). Seriously, there’s no better source for Michigan basketball blogging out there, and Dylan is doing all this as a student, which is nothing short of remarkable. Head over there, and if you like what you see, strongly consider hitting the Donate button — he definitely deserves it.
Finally, The Blog That Yost Built has your hockey coverage after Michigan was swept by #1 Miami. Also, MVictors passes along an article from Andy Reid, editor of the Michigan Daily, who was kicked out of Saturday’s game for doing the “C-YA” chant while dressed in a giant chicken suit. I’m with Greg when it comes to the chant: I loved it when I was young, mostly because I wasn’t allowed to say any of the words, but as I get older (and lamer, apparently) I’d like to see it replaced with something less vulgar and more creative. Red Berenson has asked for us to stop, and at this point, we should do whatever Red asks.
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.
Maybe I’ve just got “big picture” things on the mind after spending the weekend at a cousin’s wedding, but I spent a lot of Sunday thinking about what this loss actually meant to the Michigan football program.
You know what? Not a lot, in my opinion.
Ultimately, the game game down to a missed extra point and field goal by a kicker who won’t even be around next season. The offense played as well as you could hope for with a true freshman at the helm, posting 36 points and 427 yards, converting 8 of 14 third downs, turning the ball over only once, and converting every red zone opportunity. The defense played really poorly, just like they’ve played in every Big Ten contest, giving up 494 yards and 28 second-half points to Purdue.
Did we really learn anything new about this team? No.
Of course, I would have loved to see us pull this game out, guarantee a bowl bid, and take a little bit of heat off of Rich Rodriguez. However, do you truly think that the team would come under any less fire if they had beaten Purdue in a close game, then dropped the Wisconsin and Ohio State games and ended up in Detroit for the Motor City Bowl? I highly doubt it.
Unlike the Illinois game, this loss didn’t bring the team’s effort into question. Anybody who thought they were quitting on Rodriguez hopefully thought otherwise after seeing Carlos Brown’s desperation pitch to David Moosman [EDIT: Sorry, it was Huyge. Thanks to commenter Tapin for the correction] on fourth down. Not only was Brown going to do anything to get that first down, but Huyge hustled just to be in position to field the pitch, and then rumbled towards the goal line like a man possessed before getting hauled down. Yes, it was a forward lateral (barely), but you can’t watch that play and then tell me Michigan didn’t want this one just as bad as Purdue did.
The season will come down to this: two chances at a season-altering upset, including one opportunity to put a streak (and many demons) to rest against the school’s biggest rival. Taking down Purdue wasn’t going to make me think any differently about our outlook for 2010. Beat Wisconsin or (especially) Ohio State, and things change. Lose both, and, in the words of Denny Green, we are who we thought we were: a team with a debilitating weakness on one side of the ball and inexperience on both that simply wasn’t ready for a bowl season. I’ve come to terms with both possibilities. I think it’s time for Michigan fans to do the same.
Who are you, and what have you done with Michigan's linebackers?
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.
What happened to tempered, reasonable expectations? I could’ve sworn Michigan was still transitioning to a new coach and system and coming off a 3-9 season with major question marks peppered all over the depth chart. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case, as headlines like “Lloyd Carr’s support won’t save Rich Rod forever” (yes, it’s Drew Sharp, but still) and “Michigan’s downfall can be blamed on several people” (really, Angelique?) grace this morning’s local papers, while even some Michigan blogs ask questions like “Does Michigan have a quarterback?” I know yesterday was ugly, but it’s still shocking to see the exodus from the bandwagon.
We knew going in to this season to keep expectations low. With a freshman quarterback, our third defensive coordinator in three seasons, and a team coming off one of the worst seasons in program history, 7-5 sounded perfectly reasonable, and 8-4 would be a pleasant surprise. How, then, is a 35-10 loss to Penn State this cataclysmic? It’s not, period.
I admit that I was one of the fans who entertained the thought of a 9-3 season after Michigan’s 4-0 start, when Tate Forcier was still a media darling and Rich Rodriguez could suddenly do no wrong. However, look at the teams Michigan played in that stretch: Western Michigan, a Notre Dame team that simply can’t beat good teams (and no, Michigan State doesn’t count), Eastern Michigan, and Indiana, all at home. Should it really have shocked anyone that Michigan would drop two straight road games to Big Ten opponents, and follow up beating Delaware State with a loss against a much, much better (and more experienced) Penn State squad? Absolutely not.
If you asked most Michigan fans if they would accept being 5-3 at this point before the season, most would have been at least okay with it — after last year, nobody in their right mind could’ve turned down being just one win away from returning to a bowl game, and being two games over .500 is an emphatic step in the right direction. Football teams do not transform from cellar-dwellers to conference champions overnight. Anybody who expected such should’ve just kept their mouths shut after they quit on last year’s squad. I’m sick of hearing fair weather fans who think each game will determine the future of the program. It’s not like we’re losing to patsies — Iowa and Penn State are top ten (or close to it, depending on the poll) squads who were supposed to contend for conference and national titles this year, and are. Michigan State was this team’s first true road test, and they have shown that they are capable of playing much better than their record indicates. There’s no shame in losing these games — it certainly isn’t fun, but this happens to every program going through a transition.
So, thank you to the guys at Maize n Brew and Brian at Genuinely Sarcastic for keeping level heads about this, and at least acknowledging that there will be a brighter future. Tate Forcier is still a freshman, and doesn’t deserve to be bashed the way he is after we — we — built him up to a savior figure after good games against bad defenses. I still think he’ll be a very quality college quarterback, and a player that we’ll be happy to have for the next 3 1/2 years. Rich Rodriguez is still in Year Two of The Great Transition, and I still believe he’s the coach that will lead Michigan back to national prominence and, yes, national championships.
I’ll be glued to the television next weekend while we take on Illinois, and I fully expect us to bounce back from these past few games. Even if we don’t, it’s not the end of the world. This team is so young that there really is nowhere to go but up. I’m really looking forward to being able to say “I told you so” when Rich Rodriguez is leading this team to the Rose Bowl in the next few years. I hope you’ll be able to say the same.
"When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing."
- Bo Schembechler
“I ask no man to make a sacrifice. On the contrary! We ask
him to do the opposite. To live clean, come clean, think clean.
That he stop doing all the things that destroy him physically,
mentally and morally, and begin doing all the things that make him keener, finer and more competent" - Fielding Yost
“People come up to me and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m not sorry because I received the greatest thing from the University of Michigan anyone can receive: a degree.” - Zia Combs
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