Good point about Florida.
Glad the Author could see this as well.
This isn't Brian Kelly walking into Notre Dame, saying he wants to win right away, but everyone with a brain knowing that it's going to take a few years. This isn't Rich Rodriguez going to Michigan a few years ago, with the program needing to change from IBM to Apple and needing to undergo a total overhaul in philosophies. This is a team and a program that can and should demand a national title next year. That's how much talent Meyer has amassed
December 9th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Point taken.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Tebow was a 10 year prospect and Florida doesn't have another on of those right now. They have lots of top talent, but so do 6 or 7 other programs. Couple that with a coaching change and I think this writer is being just a tad bit unrealistic.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^
How many times did coaches step into a program that was loaded with talent and go far, Sieben for example. Carr did it with Mouler recruits.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^
Let's keep our spelling up to University of Michigan standards! (No abuse, just for future reference...)
December 9th, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^
Who the hell are Sieben and Mouler?
December 9th, 2010 at 4:02 PM ^
December 9th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^
...how old ARE you?
December 9th, 2010 at 4:55 PM ^
When Cagney and Lacey started... I was 7.
When it ended... I was relieved.
(35 - ouch)
December 9th, 2010 at 4:30 PM ^
Is the French spelling of "Mullet".
December 9th, 2010 at 4:50 PM ^
But Mallett went to Arkansas not LSU.
December 9th, 2010 at 5:00 PM ^
They're a Franco-German lion-taming act out of Strasbourg, playing mainly smaller cities and towns in Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine. Sort of a downscale Eurotrash version of Siegfried and Roy.
December 9th, 2010 at 5:26 PM ^
Saban and moeller. Damn you could'nt figure that out, you could'nt have gone to U of M dork.
December 9th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^
thought he meant a sybian.
December 9th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
which speaks volumes about us.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:04 PM ^
That's all. Just "wow."
December 9th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^
You, too?
December 9th, 2010 at 4:13 PM ^
I see the mods quickly deleted your stupid joke "it's official, RR is gone" thread. Step away from the keyboard, brah.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:19 PM ^
The rug was ripped out from under me right before I could drop some negbombs! Well . . . back to work, I guess.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^
That should really be an automatic ban if he posted a title providing false information like that. That kind of crap does not fly here, and we are unlikely to get any useful opinions out of idiots like that.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:16 PM ^
Saban's 1st year at 'Bama he was 7-6. Lloyd's 1st two years here were 8-4 and 9-4, after which people brought out the "the M stands for mediocrity" line.
December 9th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^
We should note as well that those 9-4 and 8-4 seasons, Carr was under a considerable amount of scrutiny. No one was trying to justify those seasons as "progress." And obviously, his third year was fantastic.
Frequently, when an elite coach comes to a big-time program, he achieves his breakthrough in year two. Saban, Stoops, Carroll, Tressel and Meyer also did so. Chizik, if he qualifies as an elite coach, has done so as well this year. It's pretty rare to see a coach limp through three poor seasons and then go on to achieve big things at that same school.
December 10th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^
frequently when a coach comes into an elite program he has seniors on the team. Also, he's not trying to reconstruct the entire offensive and defensive systems.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:43 PM ^
Who the hell is SIEBEN???
December 9th, 2010 at 4:00 PM ^
Look at the talent Texas has, yet they went 5-7 this year after losing Colt McCoy. Mack Brown is a great coach, so I don't think that was their issue. Auburn is 13-0 and heading to the NC game after a mediocre year last year because they added Cam Newton. Miss State would probably be in a similar position had he gone there. Florida lost Tebow and don't seem to have a viable replacement (ironic, i know). You really do need a solid field general if you want to succeed, even if you have talent everywhere else.
December 9th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
They would have had Newton, but hey, who knew the real sale price of a laptop is not $20.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Regarding your title, I think you really mean that this is a good point about Michigan.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:34 PM ^
it was really about both.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^
Your right, my left
December 9th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^
"the Tebow whisperer" haha I love it.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:34 PM ^
It's great to see a national writer understand how daunting RR's task has been.
As for UF, unless Trey Burton has a Denard-like spring, they are at least two years away from another NC. But they should be able to find a way to win ten next year, especially if Dan Mullen is hired. Speaking of Mullen, it certainly wouldn't hurt Michigan if he were hired at UF in the next week or so.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^
In 2006, UF primarily won the national title on the back of an all-world defense. They likely still have an insane amount of talent and depth on the defensive side of the ball, and all Burton/Brantley/etc. has to do is approach Chris Leak levels of competence in order for the team to be successful. They were pretty much held back this year by only by uncreative offensive playcalling, and disasterous QB play.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:08 PM ^
In 2006 he was a senior, four year starter who had been a 5-star recruit and the national player of the year in high school. He was first team all-SEC. As a true freshman he had beaten the eventual national champions (LSU). As a sophomore he threw 29 TD's. On top of that he got a helping hand as a senior in 2006 from a guy named Tim Tebow who turned out to be pretty good as well.
Burton/Brantley are nowhere near that level of "competence."
December 9th, 2010 at 3:40 PM ^
So does that mean that Debord = the blue screen of death?
December 9th, 2010 at 3:47 PM ^
December 9th, 2010 at 3:49 PM ^
Windows For Workgroups, one step higher than DOS.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:19 PM ^
98 was respectable. ME was a turd.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:27 PM ^
Here's the 1997 starting offense:
LT: Backus, NFL starter
LG: Hutchinson, NFL starter
C: Adami, 1997 All-Big Ten
RG: Ziemann, Brandt, both NFL players
RT: Jansen, NFL starter
QB: Griese, NFL starter (backup Tom Brady, NFL Hall of Famer)
FB: Floyd, NFLer
TB: Howard, NFLer
TE: Tuman, NFL starter (backed up by Campbell, NFL starter)
SE: Streets, NFL starter
Flanker: Knight, NFLer
So, that's 10 of 11 starters (not to mention multiple backups) who were NFL players and mostly starters in the league.
This offense also had the NFL-laden, best defense in college football setting them up with TOs and great field position.
This offense scored a whopping (wait for it) 26.83 ppg.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:35 PM ^
Debord all you want. But the fact is that team played to its strength. The strength was the defense. Lloyd new and counted on the defense to keep the oppposition under wraps and pinned on its own end. For that very reason, it was a very conservative offense, and rightfully so. That may be the best college defense of all time.
I'm not saying that Debord is the best. I am saying that if you're going to criticize him, you probably shouldn't do that based on a season the team won the national championship by playing to its strength.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:49 PM ^
See and this the exact thinking that cost Bo a NC or more Rose Bowl wins. He almost never opened up the playbook (I dont know if there was a way to open it) and it cost him alot of wins. I mean the expression 3 yards and a cloud of dust means alot of 4th and 1. I am by no way saying Bo wasn't an excellent coach, but everyone has their flaws. The same things Tressel gets criticized for is what Bo did all the time. U can say it was a different game then, but lets be honest and say if they threw the ball more and kept the defense guessing more they would have probably scored more points and won more. (I like the word more apparently)
December 9th, 2010 at 5:23 PM ^
I'm very fond of the '97 team, but ...
"That may be the best college defense of all time."
Seriously?
- - -
While we're on the general subject of '97, the risk-averse tendencies of the staff are exactly why they @#$%ed away a lot of 4th-quarter leads near the end of the regime. No, thanks.
December 9th, 2010 at 7:15 PM ^
- If the team had played to its stellar defense, it would've take more risks offensively b/c it could've afforded to. Ball control plays better to a poor defense. (Exhibit A: um, this year)
- Ball control offense keeps your defense off the field. So, you think it's good strategy to have "the greatest defense in the history of college football" on the sidelines?
- M '90s talent + aggressive philosophy = '90s Florida State (i.e., 14 straight top 5 finishes)
December 10th, 2010 at 7:48 AM ^
Plus Chris Howard was married to Gabrielle Union. Hubba Hubba!
December 9th, 2010 at 3:50 PM ^
He seems to assume they have plenty of talent because the players were highly rated recruits coming out of high school. By that same logic, Kelly had loads of talent at ND this year too. Believing this team is a national title waiting to happen when they struggled as much as they did with a junior/senior laden roster this year seems to be a big assumption.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:00 PM ^
December 9th, 2010 at 4:11 PM ^
The only reason to make that assumption is because Florida has been good recently and ND hasn't. It is quite possible that this particular batch of touted Florida recruits is not as good as the ones from a couple years earlier (and the on-field results seem to support this conclusion in the absence of any other real mitigating factors like inexperience or coaching change).
December 9th, 2010 at 5:27 PM ^
December 9th, 2010 at 4:20 PM ^
I think Dave Brandon will realize that it was going to take time to go from a traditional offense to a spread. People keep saying we are in year 3 of RR but the first 2 we did not have a real dual threat qb that could hurt you. Our 1st year with Denard we finally get 7 wins and the gator bowl. Although the defense does concern me, I feel RR thought he had more time before people started calling for his head. So he focused on the offense a bit more. But none of this might not matter anymore if DB believes RR is not the future.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:31 PM ^
This reminds me of one of those "which one isnt like the others?" questions from the MEPS. Either I didnt spend enough time going over the previous posts, or this guy is way off.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:58 PM ^
Wait this board never rags on anybody.