Expectations

His own comments would suggest that once he got here and evaluated the talent, he knew that it was going to take awhile to get UM to where he and the rest of us want and expect it to be.
As for next year, how can you even begin to make predictions or lay expectations? How much can a bad team improve in one year? How much difference will one more year of game experience make? How much can you expect freshmen (true or red shirt) to make a difference? For our own mental and emotional health, we would probably be better off not being too optimistic.

Good points. Unfortunately, as a Post-Toledo/The Horror Michigan fanbase, we have also learned to curb expectations accordingly. Before last night's loss to Navy, the ND victory seemed to be RR's signature win. Now, RR will need to pull out a win against WI or Ohio to "exceed" our expectations. Let's hope a win against Ohio will allay any further diaries of how much our expectations have dropped. (Not that it was poorly written, I'd just rather be bitching about how Tate was snubbed on his second Heisman and we're still stuck with the Rose Bowl instead of the NC game.)

Let's all remember that Oklahoma, they of BCS hope and 5* legend, are 5-4 at this time. USC is also not exactly dominating this year with their ridiculous 5* talent pool with a freshman quarterback. There are tough times that even the best programs can struggle through. Not saying it's apples-to-apples, not saying they have the same schedule difficulty, not saying they have the same injuries, not saying they have the same coach: just sayin'.

BEFORE he took the job, would he have taken the job? As has been stated and he himself has said many times, he had no idea how little talent was here, once he took over.

If Mike DeBord and co. had run that spread thing all season like they did in the Cap1 bowl, may be Debord, Loeffler and some others would still be here. But remember, the defense gave up a ton of yards and points in that game as well.

We're not seeing much difference between the defense in the Cap1 game to now. RR came in thinking he would have all the horses that ran wild against UF. Did he end up being "sold a bill of goods"?

an undefeated season were crushed.

Alex Wang himself in your citing says...
"Most rumblings have Michigan as either a six or seven-win team, some even stating that the streak of 33 consecutive bowl games is at risk."

The key term is most rumblings.... some even stating the bowl streak is at risk. 6-6 is a stab in the dark. It's sorta like saying we don't really know but that sounds likely.

The salient point is that people didn't know what to expect in reality. Our 2007 season was absolutely strange, albeit with a happy ending at the Cap One bowl. Given Hart, Henne, Long et all moved onto the NFL, we faced a new era with some uncertainty.

I think it's clear that the 2008 team was entering uncharted waters. Our brand name, Michigan, had won 40 years in a row. Few of us would imagine that streak would stop. We're Michigan after all, we don't rebuild, we reload. So, naturally we expected to win or at worst start winning again in '09. Impatient fan base? Ha! We never even expected to have to be patient.

We wanted to believe that our safeties getting smoked against Appy St. and Oregon were just us not being prepared or aberrations. We paid little attention to the thinning depth chart on defense. Why would we? We're Michigan and anyone can recruit 4+ stars to Ann Arbor, right?

The counter to disappointment is that our expectations may have been unreasonable and/or unrealistic. We were so filled up with our past, that we didn't realistically believe we were like other schools who have to endure rebuilding and struggle to regain success.

In economics, market correction brings an adjustment to expectations. I am disappointed that we are losing, but I also think we took for granted the 40 years of success. It's not a birthright, it has to be earned.

Having said that, can't wait until we're winning again but I will.

I hear a lot of talk about how we only expected 6 wins and 7 wins would have been a great season. Then the 4-0 start and the expectations got higher even though it was still the same team with the same problems. I don't think any of us moaning and groaning week in and week out right now at mad because we didn't make 8-4 or 9-3 like we thought could happen when we started 4-0. It's more how we lost and the fact that we're losing games the SAME way we did under the last regime. And a lot of us, myself included thought going outside the staff and getting an offensive minded coach would cure us from losing games with 14 point leads at the half to Purdue. My biggest issue with RR to this point is that they don't adjust the game plan enough throughout the game to keep the gas pedal down and not let up. I watched Cincinati give up 40 points to UConn and still win. Because they never let up on offense. The only game this season that I remember RR adjusting at the half was Notre Dame and we kept scoring enough in that game to win.

Are that we would have had smarter and more knowledgeable fans.

Instead, we quote CFN as if its some kind of gospel.

Your point boils down to CFN thought we should win 7-8 games last year and we didnt so fire rodriguez?

Frankly, considering how 'knowledgeable' you proved in that thread you started--you know the one where you claim Minor was never injured, even though he went to the hospital in the exact game you bitched about his lack of carries--speaks more volumes about the quality of this diary than anything else I could say.

Personally: I think you should cheer for a new team for a couple of years.