Toledo Reactions
Frankly, I am a little afraid to see what happens on MgoBlog today, so lets hear it.
My reaction: "meh, that sucked."
I took last years App State loss much worse, i guess it desensitized me. I am still planning on being at the rest of the home games, even though I sat this one out and didn't travel back. I still love Michigan football. But yeah, that sucked.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:02 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:02 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:06 PM ^
richie, please at least try feagin at qb for a couple of snaps. Its not like its gonna be any worse than it is already.
At least he'll bring a little continuity to the offense? maybe?
October 11th, 2008 at 4:05 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:45 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:01 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:49 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:53 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:18 PM ^
This game was awful, but I don't think we can blame it on the coaches. Their game plan may have not been fantastic, but all of the problems came from execution. The pick-6, the other two interceptions, the missed field goal... Obviously these are things the coaches should be working on in practice, but there's only so much they can do.
Unacceptable, of course, but RR's fault? I don't think so.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:37 PM ^
So, someone else was calling the plays?
I always thought coaches called the plays (including the running plays with 26 defensive players in the box!)
October 11th, 2008 at 5:44 PM ^
Everyone who is so quick to bail on these kids and these coaches, after
six games, need to chill out. The fact that, relatively speaking,
Michigan Football has been an unqualified success for decades has
disguised the fact that our fanbase has as many front-runners as any
other fanbase. There are tons of people that root Michigan because
seeing their proxies succeed give them some sort of solace in life.
Seriously, if you just want to cheer a winner, go buy a Sparty hat for
this year - we'll see all the fools show back up when we're winning
9-10 games a year again.
So, Jay? Go fucking take your Michigan flag down and deck yourself out in Alabama gear, seriously. If you're ready to renounce everything, what the fuck are you cheering for? Something to make you feel better? I'm sorry that you may not be able to use your Michigan fandom to make yourself feel superior to Sparty fans this year.
I'm not arguing for the infallibility of the staff, but, my hunch is that RR, as a seriously successful D-I college coach knows more about coaching than an absurdly pessimistic message board poster with Molly Sims as his avatar.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:54 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:59 PM ^
Chitown,
Please show me where I said I wanted to quit or renounce this football program. ANYWHERE. Go ahead. Show me. I make no apologies for the fact that I was never crazy about the Rich Rod hire to begin with. Fans aren't forced to accept a coaching staff with blind loyalty. So, basically, I'm telling you to fuck off. If you don't like the fact that people are going to call out Rich Rod for how god awful this team is playing, then I suggest that you don't read message boards.
P.S. I'm surprised that you are singling me out because of my dissatisfaction for the terrible job this coaching staff is doing when there are people on here who are giving the staff a free pass while blaming EVERYTHING on the players. I suppose its okay to throw 18-22 year old kids under the bus just to protect the manlove that some have for Rich Rod, huh?
October 11th, 2008 at 6:09 PM ^
Is that really your picture?
October 11th, 2008 at 4:06 PM ^
I should probably make other plans next Saturday.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:13 PM ^
I have to say that defense was at least OK. They couldn't seem to stop those shortish 5-10 yard throws to Moore, but other than that they only gave up 6 points.
At some level I look at today and it's like every unlikely thing that could have happened did. 101 yard interception return? How often is a pick in the endzone going to be in a spot where no one can tackle the guy? Field goal off the crossbar? Lopata missing a short one? 2 interceptions off tipped balls?
The only thing that really went our way all day was that pass interference call. If we could stop giving up points on turnovers we'd be winning these games, which is frustrating. No fumbles today, sadly we replaced them with killer interceptions...
October 11th, 2008 at 4:15 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:29 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:54 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 7:51 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:56 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:12 PM ^
Lopata missed one last week but it was over 50 yards (actually it was blocked). He missed one against Miami NTM from 41. He's made several long kicks of 47-50 yards.
This one was killer, both due to the situation and being from 26 yards, but I don't think one bad kick loses you a job that you've done very well at for over a year.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:57 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:33 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:35 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 4:57 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:14 PM ^
Instead of improving as the season moves on, this team is getting worse. Who or what do you attribute this to?
How long since Michigan has lost 10 games in a season? A definite probablity this year...
October 11th, 2008 at 5:40 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 5:57 PM ^
Yea I think matthews and odoms are the only serviceable WRs. if you look at who henne had his entire career, threet would love to have ANY of those guys to catch passes. Avant, manningham, breaston, edwards, are all playing NFL ball right now...
What is stonum doing? What is clemons doing?
Can't wait till those other slot WR/RBs come
October 11th, 2008 at 5:54 PM ^
Here are the facts. We're not a very good football because we are very young, inexperienced, and dealing with a new system. We're still better than Toledo, but every single fluke play went their way. If that pick wasn't thrown we probably win by a couple scores.
It was a very painful loss, but I've got to believe that there's a game coming our way in which we'll get some breaks. Maybe, just maybe, it'll happen in a way to get us back on track to 6-6.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:58 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:03 PM ^
I don't think it's fair to throw anyone under the bus - players or coaches. It's the sixth fucking game.
Any moderately reasonable person, 4 months ago could tell you why we're not good - no experience, freshman QB's, no depth, new system, unsuccessful recrtuiting at OL, S, and LB - EVERYONE knew this. So we're shocked we're not very good? Seriously? We need to find scapegoats now for something that was abudantly fucking clear before we played a snap? That's moronic.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:04 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:08 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:10 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:12 PM ^
So, you have only 2 choices here:
"Lack of Execution"
Coaches "thrown under the bus"
Players "thrown under the bus"
Pick one.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:16 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:18 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:20 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:24 PM ^
Touche!!!!
I AM NOT WORTHY!
October 11th, 2008 at 6:25 PM ^
ShockFX head of sports section
Headline: Michigan loses to Toledo, 13-10. Story: Toledo was just better.
Headline: Phillies beat Dodgers, 8-5. Story: The Phillies were just better
Headline: USA wins Ryder cup over the European team. Story: The USA golfers were just better.
Think of all of the time and space that could be save, and the rest could be used for advertisements! What a money maker!
October 11th, 2008 at 6:28 PM ^
I meant as opposed to throwing players or coaches under the bus. Besides, I would settle for this sort of analysis instead of the shit ESPN puts out from people that didn't even watch the game.
Unranked Michigan has lost to Utah, ND, Illinois, barely beat Miami (NTM) and Wisconsin. Maybe we're just not a good team?
October 11th, 2008 at 6:40 PM ^
I couldn't get the thought out of my head of Brian's UFR, where he could really save himself a lot of time and agony by just posting "Toledo was just better."
There is no question this is not a good team, certainly not up to the standards of the program.
Keeping in mind that nothing that is written here affects the program in any way (as this really is an exercise in mental masturbation) why is this team performing the way they are?
- Was this team that poorly assembled by the previous staff
- Has the present coaching staff, by trying to introduce the new system, tried to fit a square peg in a round hole? Could they have better adapted a offense to the talent on hand?
- By spending time on introducing the new system, was working on fundementals short-changed (reading some of Coach Simmons posts, he seems to indicate this)
- Other reasons?
October 11th, 2008 at 6:45 PM ^
Has the present coaching staff, by trying to introduce the new system, tried to fit a square peg in a round hole? Could they have better adapted a offense to the talent on hand?
With this offensive line and QB play, there is no offensive system that would flourish. This isn't so much a "square peg/round hole" issue as a "not very talented at key positions" issue. Give RR last year's Michigan team and it would have been incredible to see.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:33 PM ^
With this offensive line and QB play, there is no offensive system that would flourish
No, but I would settle for a step or two above total suck. In the '70's and 80's, Bo loved to run the option. In '79, John Wangle replaced option QB/God Rick Leach and Bo tried to have him run the option. It failed; Bo learned and adapted during the season and Wangler didn't run one option in his senior season in '81.
I do not think Threet is a spead-option QB, and the read option is a failure. This was indicated in the spring game and is the round hole/square peg I'm referring to. Would something else have worked better - thats a judgement call. Would working with the young players on fundementals have been time better spent? Perhaps.
But one thing is clear to me. This is the worse Michigan football team for over 40 years. This has already been and is going to be a season of firsts for Michigan, and not in the good way. Like it or not, Rodrigeuz has had something to do with it and I am sure that he is not happy about it.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:46 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:17 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 6:24 PM ^
October 11th, 2008 at 8:16 PM ^
I agree, no one is getting thrown under the bus. I think we can say that this team isn't very good without it being tantamount to throwing someone under the bus.
Someone mentioned Stonum and Clemons earlier. Well they haven't looked fantastic but as they're freshman so what? They may never be good or they may be fantastic in a couple of years. Most players don't play when they're freshman because they'd suck if they did. We can say that the team isn't great without it being some kind of attack on the players. Lots of guys on this roster are going to be awesome in a couple of years.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:29 PM ^