Morgan Trent Is Not All In

Attributed material to Lloyd Carr full of innuendo and supposition is not necessarily fact. Lloyd Carr is a good man who may or may not have issues with Rich Rodriguez; neither of them deserve their reputations sullied by this sort of pseudo journalism.

Lloyd Carr is a class act who has represented the University of Michigan admirably. There is nothing in the material presented that would impact his role in the AD.

Man, the offseason sucks.

what's clear is that carr believes that saying nothing is the same as being neutral.  it isn't.

Yes, think about recruiting.  It doesn't matter how good your reasons are, you can't sell your guy out.  The #1 thing blue-chip recruits are looking at in a school is how that program can prepare them for the next level.  If they think a coach might - for any reason, justified or not - speak negatively of them to NFL teams, then they WILL NOT attend that school.  Michigan's recruiting will fall off the cliff it's already hanging over if Rodriguez gets the reputation as a coach who would be willing to do that.

Rodriguez should deny this to the death and pray the Bengals or another NFL team doesn't confirm Trent's story.

I think the problem with such a statement is that it would be public and I do not think RR is the type of guy who would put something like that out there, knowing it would probably haunt the kid for years.  That's kind of the unfairness with this whole situation - only Trent and co. are allowed to say what is on their collective minds because nobody will take them to task for "speaking to power."  But if RR stepped up the mic and said "Trent had a bad attitude and didn't buy into what we were doing.  I'm not saying that our struggles my first year were due to him, but he certainly didn't help matters," he would be vilified because he is the head coach at Michigan and he is personally "attacking" one of his former players.  It's not fair, but I guess that is one of the shakes with being a head coach.

Rich Rod does understand it, and Lloyd never really wanted to.

In today's new environment you have to provide a yes or no answer.  And I believe that Rich Rodriguez completely did NOT say what is in that quote.  I believe his response completely.

"“The comments attributed to me are inaccurate and absolutely ridiculous,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I said just the opposite about Morgan Trent to NFL scouts and wish him well with the Bengals.”"

because this is what he supposedly said, "Rodriguez claimed that Morgan was lazy, he had an attitude problem and he was a big reason the Wolverines finished with a 3-9 record…"

Now, does anyone think any NFL scout would really accept the last part of the statement, even if a coach were irrational/crazed enough to state it? "this person was a big reason for the results of our season?" No way, and I don't think RR is dumb enough to believe that an NFL scout would want to hear that, so if I were RR, and was taking a beating in the press even when I don't give them something, there is no way I say anything but "that's crazy I said nothing of the sort,"

Now, from my experience in interviewing people to work for me, recommending people to work for others, and my own hiring at several companies, do I believe that RR was asked by NFL Scouts to list Morgan Trent's weaknesses, or things to work on?  And maybe RR said something like, "he could have put more effort on his technique this last year in preparing for the combines..." Or how about in the context of RR saying only good things, and then an NFL Scout bringing up some of the weaknesses exposed in film from Senior year?  If I were in RR's shoes and asked to provide my professional opinion of a player to another talent expert who asked a legitimate question I'd give it the best spin I could, but I wouldn't completely ignore the facts because then my own credibility comes into question, thus in the most positive I imagine the response as, "hey he had great years before I got here, and this transition was rough on him as a senior, so what you saw in lack of effort was caused by that, but he's a great kid and has the skills and is ready for the next level.

Now, could that easily filter back through many tellings to Lloyd Carr, and become the statements that are being put into a book?

Hell yes, I've experienced far worse contortions of things I've said, and had to recharacterize them.  But I've never had to do it in the environment that football coaches live in, or really anyone else in a national spotlight.

There's only time for yes or no answers in today's media environment, and even with that, people still believe what they want to believe, and will google up the "facts" that make them feel better.

I'm not going to neg you or anything, but it seems brutally obvious to me that there has been a civil war raging among the Michigan fans (of all levels of importance) since it became clear that Lloyd would be leaving.

Along those lines, I'm not at all sure that Lloyd isn't currently opposed to Brandon.

a regifted fruitcake?

I think Brian's condemnation of Trent as "a lazy ass" and "cancer" is BS.  One question: where is the evidence for that?  What quote have we heard from a player that this was true?  Until there is evidence for that view, I think it's BS to say that.   Now there IS evidence that he played badly that year, and there is evidence that he is ignoring the good of the program by making his comments.  So therefore it's open season in IME to attack both those aspects. I completely condemn Trent for letting this out in public--but that's no reason in my view to go beyond that unless we get evidence.

Damn Snyder. That is piss-poor sentence structure.

But it doesn't top my all-time favorite lede I read in a past edition of the Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant.

It was a CMU softball story that began as follows:

"A pitching staff is staffed by pitchers."

I still have it on my fridge.

has issues with him still?

That rug really tied the room together...

I do think Carr needs to at least say something.  Not like a press conference or anything but at least write a letter or have an interview with someone clarifying his position.

I don't think Carr needs to do anything however to prove himself as a "Michigan Man."  He didn't just deeply care about his University and players and then say "Fuck 'em".  Either way, he needs to clarify his position, but never needs to prove himself a Michigan Man.

IME, I think a lot was taken out of context.  I'm guessing Carr said something to Trent that maybe Trent took as "RR sold me out."  I'm guessing Carr said something about not knowing why Trent slipped in the draft, "Maybe RR and I had conflicting points of views."  If Carr said anything negative about RR, which indeed he may have (though I'm not so quick to believe it in this context), I'm almost certain it was meant to be kept off the record.  A lot of us say things about co-workers, bosses, ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend's, so on and so forth, that we don't expect to get out and a bunch of people to hear.  I hope that's not the case, but if Carr feels that sort of way against RR, I understand him maybe saying something to Trent along the lines of "He wasn't my pick for the new head coach" (though maybe with a bit more color), and believing Trent wouldn't rat out the coach he "loved"

I literally got negged off this board a year ago for making precisely the same points.  I've been pissed at Lloyd from the get go on the RichRod hiring.  I realize Carr wanted someone else. Well, someone else wasn't hired, Rodriguez was.  And as someone who received great opportunities at Michigan, who got to be mentored by a coach like Bo, who got the top slot and all the money and status associated with arguably the best job in collegiate football, Carr's failure to support his successor is reprehensible. I thought he was a good man and he likely remains one.  But this will forever be a stain on his reputation.

Spot on. Executives -- leaders in general -- prepare for their eventual departure by developing a deep bench. Coach Carr did not, and this can be added to the general level of medocrity and lack of preparation that riddled the program in his final years (Appy St, lackadasical recruiting, etc)

I agree w/ the point, but you have officially hurt Stan Parrish and Brady Hoke's feelings w/ this post.