Bacon's new book not kind to Michigan
Listening to the podcast from the WTKA show this morning and on the segment 07 podcast they were talking about how "the folks in Ann Arbor and Happy Valley aren't going to like it very much".
The title of the book is Fourth and Long: The battle for the soul of college football.
Gaggity gag. My guess is that it is more whining from Bacon about money side of college athletics.
News flash: college athletics is a business. Like what he does with Michigan history and the stuff he has wrote ESPECIALLY Bo's Lasting Lessons. Seems any book of his that has "and long" in the title I need to avoid.
was a long winded Rich Rod apologist peice with very little regard for the actual events that transpired during the time he was covering the team. It was a book that would have you believe that Rich Rod may actually not have known that the Josh Grobin song was going to play when he locked hands to raise them. It was a book that barely brushed up against many of Rodriguez's biggest shortcomings while not even mentioning his many of his outright failures. It was far from a really, really good book. Bacon might as well have been Rich Rod's ghost writer for a book called "My Years with the Evil Empire." As a Michigan fan I was irritated to the point of being outright offended at the liberties Bacon took in writing that book. 3 and Out was revisionist history at best, outright fiction at worst.
I realize that you wouldn't go across the street to piss on Rich Rod if he was on fire, but now you're exaggerating to the point of dishonesty. It's utterly absurd for you to flay Bacon for "revisionist history" when the people who could have offered dissenting opinions or facts not previously in evidence to be included in the book REFUSED TO COMMENT.
Specifics would be nice, but I know you won't provide them.
not dislike Rodriguez. One specific is in my post, the audacity to suggest that the Grobin incident may actually have been some unfortunate coincidence, another is below in another response to my post, that the defensive coordinator debacle was not even mentioned in the book. The Lloyd Carr "transfer papers" that could have been interpreted as much in support of the new coaching regime than in opposition to it but was presented as an absolute slap in the face to Rodriguez despite Carr being in support of the hire. Really the list could go on for quite a while.
I'll start by saying that I was a big RR fan, and I wanted him to get one more year. The Groban thing though, you're right about. I actually have it directly from someone with direct access to Rodriguez, that it was Rita's idea, and that he did not clear it with his publicist (she was out of town) before the event.
I would also say that his choice of publicist was woefully inadequate for the job.
I believed everything you said until you claimed that Rich had a publicist.
He did, but she's not someone I'd recommend. Obviously.
There was mention of the DC debacle that would not allow RR to bring his choice DC from WVA because Michigan would not pay the going rate for a top coordinator. Michigan opened their pockets for coordinator pay after Hoke was hired. Also, I am not sure how you can assume or even suggest support from Carr when he had meetings with and possibly even "transfer papers" ready for players behind RR's back. By the way, I am not a RR apologist. I think he never had a chance to succeed at UM. He was doomed from the start. Too much division about the hire. He had to go but should never have been hired in the first place.
are the exact same thing if the omission is big enough.
Uh, no, regardless of size, they are not.
"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
- Abraham Lincoln
look up the definitions. To omit is to leave something out and to fabricate is to make something, or strictly in terms of speech, make something up. They are nowhere near the same thing.
I'm going to concede that you have a differing opinion on the RR years, but don't act like it was an apologist piece. Read most coaches' books if you want to see revisionist history.
And more generally, I want that part of the UM fanbase that believes it is above reproach or failure to pull their collective heads out from their rectums and realize that (*shock*) UM isn't perfect and they make mistakes. It was a mistake to hire RR because he wasn't a good culture fit, but at the same time UM's culture was/is still quite imperfect, and I'd say downright hostile to change in a way that isn't healthy. There's a reason this team has won 1/2 of an MNC since right after WWII despite having a talent advantage over all but a handful of teams.
Bacon's book was amazing, but it doesn't make you an "apologist" if you point out that a guy who wins football games other places and in regarded as one of the leading innovators in college football wasn't a great fit for a pretty staid program and that both sides deserve some blame for how it shook out.
Dude holds U of M to very high standards; what's wrong with that?
Your "newsflash: College athletics is a business" comment proves too much. College athletics can't continue to have it both ways; treat their coaches and admins like it's a "big business" while treating their athletes like it's a pure extra curricular activity, secondary to the kids' academic pursuits.
That's sort of the issue, no?
I agree with your sentiment that treating college athletics as a business from an administrative end is necessary, but I also think that the perception of these coaches and ADs handling the "messy" stuff so that the athletes can just compete ignores the blending that everyone involved with revenue sports must deal with. Athletes are not treated as students who play a sport as an extra-curricular; they are treated basically as employees of their teams and schools with work responsibilities that include being a student. In the words of an astute Buckeye, revenue-sport athletes don't come to play school. And the players understand that if they don't attend "voluntary" training sessions, OTAs, and a myriad of other non-academic, seemingly not-gameday/practice responsibilities, they can have their scholarship revoked and/or not be allowed to play. And that mentality also applies to the more traditional non-revenue sports as well, which is even more one-sided since usually the athletes are paying at least part of their own way to be at the school.
I understand that coaches need to be paid what the market will bear for their abilities, and that when you are generating millions of dollars in revenue you need people skilled in managing those resources at the helm. But athletes and their involvement in both school and sports is a driving force behind that money's existence, and yet the organizations seemingly entrusted to protect and serve them have systematically robbed them of power and agency over their involvement in the process. That's what I think bothers people so much; not that Ed O"Bannon isn't getting paid for his likeness in a video game from the 90's, but that he (and other athletes) have virtually no control or input into how their work on the field or court is converted into riches for institutions.
College football has undeniably, and probably irreversibly, evolved into a huge business, and many programs out there are the absolute end-all, be-all on their campus. In addition to Michigan and Penn State, I think Bacon will take plenty of shots at places like USC, OSU, Bama, Texas, Oregon, etc. In the end, we're all essentially guilty.
Bacon is a great guy. I've met him before. Got my Bo's Lasting Lessons book signed in 2007.
He has done great things with the history of Michigan athletics. Football and hockey.
But this. I'm just not a fan of his recent stuff.
You can understand some pushback, then, when you create a thread about a book you haven't read based on a radio show comment that it'll "ruffle feathers," right?
I mean, you said yourself: Bacon's a good dude, and most who know him a bit know he loves U of M.
It just seems odd; we ALL fall over ourselves to decry fans of Penn State because no one would accept criticism -- MAJOR criticms regarding terrible, evil acts -- but Bacon writes a book that may "ruffle feathers" on a much smaller scale, and you start a thread complaining about him?
I don't know. Just seems odd. If Michigan serves as his example of what's wrong with college athletics, so be it. Most of us wouldn't deny that college athletics has grown in such a way that favors (and pays) admin, bowl directors, and coaches, all while working players to the tune of 80 hour days with no compensation beyond their scholarships. A little criticism -- even of an institution I love to death -- isn't the worst thing, no? Isn't that what makes us different from the other cultish CFB fan bases we poke fun of? Or no?
How can you not be a fan of something you haven't read yet?
Judging something you know nothing about is what they do in Malaysia. Probably. I've never been there.
We can't know until it comes out, of course, but from the brief mention in the podcast it sounded like PSU and UM wouldn't like it. I got the impression from the absence of mentioning the other schools that they wouldn't be in the same boat.
But that's just the inference I drew.
Has anyone read the book? When does it come out.
I preordered on Amazon and it said expected early September delivery
Thanks. I would wait to read the book first, then make any negative comments at all. John U Bacon seems like a very decent person who loves Michigan.
because I just didn't think it would be able to do so with an open mind at the time. I was one of those who supported RR and though he got a bit of a raw deal (please notice I used past tense, I am now firmly in the BH camp, and have been since his hire).
I think we are far enough removed now that I could actually read this book and enjoy it for what it is rather than look at it through a conspiracy theorists eyes trying to find some explanation for what went wrong.
I had almost forgot about the 3 & O book to be honest, so thanks for bringing this topic up or I might have never read the book. For me to form my opinion on this topic though, I'll have to read 3 & out so I can determine if he has cause for being angry, so I'll come back once I'm done the book.
Read 3 & O; I promise, you'll like it.
I, too, supported RichRod, and while I thought it was time for him to go (and am over the moon with Coach Hoke), was frustrated with how everything went down during his time here.
But you know what the takeaway from 3 & O was for me? (1) How amazingly hard these football players work; (2) what incredible pressure they are under; and (3) at least for the team at the time, what good guys they were.
Makes you realize that the mess with college athletics is created and stirred by the adults far more than the players themselves.
What I took away is Never, EVER play Josh Groban at a social function.
There should really be a "this one goes to 11" button.
The wounds aren't as fresh. It's worth the read, especially for you.
and everyone else who commented and provided feedback. I will be sure to find a copy and read it. Thanks again.
You do know that Three & Out was largely supportive of R&R, right?
Oh, now you tell him.
I do know, but that is kind of the point. I didn't want (or need) any more reason to harbour feelings of RR being shafted. At that point I wanted to move on and felt that reading the book would have hamper that process for me. I just wanted to get behind the new coach and over the fact that a coach who I was extremely excited about just got fired.
I'm far enough beyond all that now that I could read the book and enjoy it for what it is.
It doesn't argue that he was or wasn't "Shafted." Most people in the michigan community weren't capable of dealing with an objective viewpoint on Rich Rod, and probably mistakingly thought that it was "Pro" rich rod because it took an objective viewpoint.
The book was good, but covers a period of time that I am very happy to have moved on from.
the last words in the book were that Rich Rod was "finally free." It was not objective, it was as much of a smear job toward the Michigan athletic department as the Free Press article was toward Rich Rod. If you want to say that Rich Rod got shafted by all media before the book and that he deserved a little pampering to even the score I could buy that, but the book is pro-RR to the point of being nauseating to read. Objective it was not.
That's just your bias speaking. 3&O was as objective a book about a college football program as I have seen. It wasn't perfectly objective, because that's not possible. I didn't have a dog in that fight, so I just enjoyed it for what it was, and cursed it for not having more MGoAnalysis of what happened in the games and why RR's strategy never jelled.
Bacon, alas, knows a lot about the history of the Michigan football program, but not over-much about football itself. That's not his fault or even a weakness, but it made the book less valuable to me.
it wasn't, and he received a fair amount of the blame. You're the one, it would appear, who was looking for a black-and-white book----with RichRod being the only bad guy--when, in fact, others were also part of the problem. It wasn't a good time in Michigan football for many reasons, and that is what 3 and Out was about.
I couldn't put it down, but damn it was painful re-living so many of those losses!
I would mail you my copy but those Nova Scotia postal rates are killer!
the most amazing thing is to realize what really it takes for those kids to get out there any play everyday. The chapter where he followed Denard Robinson for a day was awe inspiring. I'll never look at the giants lumbering slowly around the union the same way. No wonder they seems so tired all the time!
Newsflash: Michigan isn't perfect. As much as many of you would like to bury your heads in the sand and ignore anything negative about the university, there are things to criticize and just because someone brings them up doesn't mean they are a traitor or only care about money.
Are we going to start calling anyone who says something we don't like about Michigan a "Fake Wolverine"? Or run them out of town? We're better than that, this is Michigan for Godsake!
think we'd all be a little bit deluded if we believed that Michigan athletics--in such a messy world--could do no wrong.
The Baconomicon!
Plus 1,000,000 for the AoD reference. One of the most underrated comedies ever.
.....definately an "n" word.