football

Damian Shepard, who apparently is a sports marketing guy (and a former Auburn mascot?) tweeted this:

http://twitter.com/damianshepard/status/24301655394615297

Over the past week, I have spoken with a bunch of friends - most avid college football nuts like myself.  One thing that has surprised me is that as a group, most view the Michigan job as far less desirable than I would have imagined.

Friend 1: Nebraska fan - "Why would PEline ever leave Neb. for M?  Equal prestige, Nebraska a farther along in the rebuild and we don't have an insane fan base that will throw him out after 2-3 years." 

Friend 2:  PSU Fan - "I don't see you guys getting any top coach, other than Miles.  Your program is a mess, and in recent years, you have no more prestige than any of the programs you would poach from.  The Michigan job is not such a hot job these days."

Friend 3:  Wisconsin Fan - still thinks that our job is a big deal and that we can attach, but "your disloyal fanbase is a problem - you have pretty much run two straight coaches out of town."  (not correct about Lloyd, but many outsiders do view his retirement as avoiding firing)

Friend 4: No team, CFB nut - "You guys are no different than ND - aside from 1 or 2 good seasons, you have been irrelevant since your split NC.  Why would a top coach come to M?  Gruden is not coming - he loves being on ESPN.  Miles is going to play you guys for even more SEC $$.  Harbaugh is going to bold for the NFL (a few days before it happened).  YOu will probably end up with that Hoke guy from San Diago."

The quotes are not exact, but are pretty damn close.  Depressing.

Also, the general opinion was that our AD is a job and has screwed this up as badly as possible. 

On a positive note, my ND friend is scared of us getting Miles because he thinks tat Miles can out-recruit anybody. 

http://sports.bodog.com/sports-betting/college-football-team-props.jsp

Hoke at 10/11

Miles at 5/4

Patterson 5/1

Gruden 10/1

others listed as well...gamblers?  GO get 'em!

For all of the UM fans who are writing off Les Miles because of the OTL story, you should at least take 5 minutes of your time to do your own homework. Below is a link to a thread on TigerDroppings. It discusses Miles' character. Put simply, his players love him and nearly everyone describes him as honest. They are split on his coaching abilities but not his character.

Also, I have spent much of the past week reading threads on their site. This general outline of Miles -- great guy but maybe just a mediocre game day coach -- runs through many threads.

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/messagetopic.asp?p=23804053

Fans I know your anxious but as a unit we gotta have faith in our AD and hopeful for the future. Regardless WE ARE MICHIGAN! Be patient.

Mr. Kelvin Grady (@Mr_KelGrady19)

Along with the majority of posters / stalkers around here, I have been tracking the site constantly, watching flight paths and contemplating what is going on in the world of Michigan Football. Maybe we all need to take a step back a bit, stop hitting F5 and give our kids a little attention until we have some SOLID information from actual sources...

Well, here we are: Day 5 of the national Coaching Search and nary a coach in site. Emotions have run high, beer and liquor supplies have run low, and livers have become cirrhosised (no, that’s not a real word, but whatever). However, I feel that as a fanbase we have been fairly cool, calm, and collect…okay, I’m just kidding. We’ve been acting like starving hyenas snapping at any and every scrap of information that comes our way like it’s a piece of meat.

Regardless, we all have opinions and we need to respect those opinions, even if we don’t necessarily support or agree with them. We are all in this tight spot together as fans, and while we’re all hoping that our own “Coach X” gets hired, we all need to understand something: we are all Michigan fans, and we NEED to support this team, this program, especially whomever the new coach happens to be [yes, even if it’s Brady Hoke].

Now, since everyone and their grandma’s gardener has an opinion about how Brandon is doing with this Coach Search or whatever (and it was requested by bklein09), I conducted a quick survey to gauge the feelings and opinions of the average MGoBlogger (which, I’m sure we’ll all agree, is FAR from average). Please to be enjoying the results!

[NOTE: There were a total of 263 responses for this survey, and no demographics were taken. Also, the chance that this survey is accurately representative of…ANYHTING are slimmer than our chances of getting Jim Harbaugh. Too soon?]

Question 1: Who is your current top coaching candidate for the University of Michigan?

Now it appears that the majority of the board wants Chuckie to be our coach, but everybody’s favorite Horned Frog, Gary Patterson is a not-too-distant second place. Les Miles’ sleaziness and potential propensity for rapin’ e’erbody out here may have held him back to a respectable (?) third. I will admit that I regret not being able to represent more potential coordinator candidates, but I didn’t want this pie to look like it was being shared at the Duggar’s house…

Anyway, there was an "Other" category and write-ins were welcome. A few weren't very realistic (Jim Harbaugh, Lloyd Carr), and a few were some guy named Rich Rodrigues. Others included Bo Pelini, Bo Schembechler (frowny face) and Mayor McCheese (that was me). That's about it. Take it FWIW.

Question 2: With Harbaugh off the board, should DB have fired RR?

Okay, I’m not gonna lie: I was shocked to see that 50% of MGoBloggers were opposed to firing RR with Harbaugh off the board, especially given the possibilities we may or may not probably have (or don’t) with LesGrudenHoke. However, it seems that the vast majority of people will be extremely pissed about the RR firing should we fail to land a “Big Name” coach, and since the definition of “Big Name” differs from person to person, this means jack-squat. Regardless, it appears that the majority of folks had this as their short list before the firing [in no particular order]:

1) Jim Harbaugh

2) RichRod with a new DC

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just another confirmation that life isn’t fair. Still, a quarter of you were not pleased at all with RR and wanted him gone no matter what, and if I’m correct in remembering, that number decreased from the December survey posted in December (redundant). However, that could be due to the meteoric crater known as the Coach Search. #takeitwithagrainofsalt

Question 3: Before the Coach Search, were you in favor of a RR firing?

Well, after seeing Q2, these results shouldn’t be too shocking. They’re pretty self-explanatory, and it’s interesting to note the changes from the almost 33/33/33 split seen in the December survey. It looks like those “Undecided” folks shifted camps, mostly to the “No” side of the fence. Again, Coach Search is a powerful force. Moving on!

Question 4: When should RR have been fired?

I’ll just state the obvious: NOBODY thought that RR should have been fired later than it was done by Brandon. Also, it should be noted that about 83% of bloggers feel that they would have chosen a different time to fire RR than Brandon. Maybe we should all band together and fill out a collective application when the next AD is being hired. As seen in the last 2 questions, people were not ready to let RR go (either at all or only if we couldn’t get JH), so the fact that 46% of respondents thought that RR shouldn’t have been fired this year is no shocker.

There is also a strong contingency that thought RR should have been fired after the regular season, which is understandable given the current Coach Search, if not wholly influenced by hindsight. Still, it would be interesting to see how things would be now had we fired RR after the OSU game and hired a new guy in December. Where’s that damn crystal ball?

Question 5: Should DB have fired RR without a replacement lined up?

Obvious results are obvious. Staring at them longer won’t make them change, just like how dwelling on the “what-if’s” and the “what-could-have-been’s” won’t change the spot we’re in (sorry, not trying to be preachy; I also have to tell myself this from time to time just to keep sane). Let's just agree to disagree with DB and keep chugging along.

Question 6: If you had known about the current Coach Search beforehand, would your opinion about firing RR have changed?

Okay, so the questions have gotten longer and the results have gotten..well, predictable. Still a third of the people would have preferred RR being fired despite the Coach Search, and about 44% of people would have still preferred to keep RR as the coach despite the Coach Search (very similar to 46% of people who weren’t in favor of a RR firing).

The interesting part is that the Coach Search seems to have swayed people more into the “Don’t Fire RR” camp from the “Fire” camp. Those that were Undecided before the DOOM-Kitty-Coaching-Apocalypse seem to have been pissed off so much (or saddened beyond belief) by recent events that they would have preferred to have avoided the whole thing altogether. Oh, and there was actually ONE person who changed their opinion from “Don’t Fire” to “Fire”, so if you see that person, kindly ask them “What’s your DEAL?!”

[NOTE: 8% of you need to get an opinion, seriously. These are scary times in which to be complacent.]

Question 7: How do you feel about DB's handling of the current Coach Search?

Being a GSI, I get this kind of question answered about me all the times, so I figured it was Dave Brandon’s turn. You’re all smart and I don’t need to spell it out for you, but then again, that would make for a boring diary. Sadly[?], only 20% of MGoFans approve of DB’s handling of the Coaching Circus, whereas more than double of you feel that DB is not handling this whole situation in a favorable manner. Seeing that, I wish I would have asked a short answer question as to what you would have done to improve the situation (I keed, I keed!). Oh, and we have more than a third of you who are spineless and have no opinion (I’m taking “Neutral” to mean “No Opinion”, “Not Sure” and/or “Undecided”). Seriously, these are the times where it’s okay to have an opinion.

[Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh on our Swiss fans here. I guess I could see how “Neutral” could also mean “Wait and See” or “I Couldn’t Have Done A Better Job So I’ll STFU”. My apologies to our Neutral friends. If I’ve offended you, there will be an application you can fill out for reparations in the form of one of my MGoPoints.]

Question 8: Assuming we return all the players we would have had RR not been fired (not counting recruits), what do you anticipate our win total being in 2011?

And now we come to the longest and obligatory question based solely on gut feelings, maize-and-blue tinted glasses and the reading of entrails: projected win totals for next year. I tried my best to break the wins into fair categories. I personally feel that this team has a 100% chance of being .500 at least, so I decided to give a wider range to the lower half of possible win totals. After we got past the “bowl-eligible” threshold, I decided to go by two wins, just to give a little wiggle room. I also felt that we should consider a bowl game since, given all too real and recent events, those count…BIG! I personally don’t like to guess an actual number until AT LEAST 6 months before kickoff (or we have a coach…whichever comes first, I guess), so I also included the “Won’t Guess” option for those like me.

A significant amount of you (14%) prefer not to guess just yet, making you the most rational people in the Michigan fanbase (which is like being the least insane person in a mental ward, so…yea). The majority of you (54%) said that you expect 8-9 wins next year, which to me says that we’re expecting improvement but we aren’t ready to make that leap into OMGBIGTENCHAMPIONS win totals just yet (either that, or we’re assuming that a coachless team run by a junior Denard can get ‘er done, which would be interesting to see). Interestingly, 24% of you felt that the team would either not improve, or worsen in wins next year. I would be willing to bet money that the majority of that faction says 7 wins, but pessimism can be contagious.

Just to clarify on this question, people were obviously/hopefully assuming that everyone who was expected to return actually does return (Martin, Roundtree, Smith, Denard, Roh, Koger, GERG…wait, scratch that!), and there were no assumptions on recruits, so this data is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine (which, ironically, we all probably feel like we’re riding right about now). Still, it was fun to guess, and we need to show our Magic 8 Ball some love from time to time.

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Well, there you have it folks. I hope you enjoyed taking the survey and viewing these results as much as I had making it and writing this Diary (it was awesome to have a weekend without homework, but that won't last long). Please don't take these results seriously because: a) it was made by me, b) it was made on the interwebz, and c) Michigan football fans took it, and we're more unstable than Sybil.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, try not to break your F5 button, and here's to a potential coach being announced in the coming week [PLEASE GOD!]. Go Blue!