EZMIKEP

While I was in Fort Lauderdale in December 2005 I had spent an hour looking for a decent sports bar that had the Alamo Bowl. My hotel room's television decided that it wasn't going to cooperate with this one simple request of mine and forced me out the door. I hadn't missed a Bowl game since I was a child and this wasn't going to be the first.

I finally found one and it had a few Nebraska fans huddled around the only screen showing the game. I was by myself and the next few hours weren't much fun. It wasn't just the loss. I listened to these guys tell me how we were no longer relevant and how we were headed into obscurity just like they were. They kept saying the same thing a lot of Michigan fans had been saying for quite some time. We need a change. Fresh air. Someone with more motivational skill and to quit relying on the We Are Michigan arrogance. That our name and history will only get us so far. One quote stood out because it was as if I was having a deja vu moment with someone from back home. "Lloyd Carr is a good coach. A good man from what it seems. But good coaches will always get beat by great coaches."

These guys weren't being dicks. They were fans rooting for their team and being honest when we started talking football during the game. They even bought me drinks. What made the time suck was that they were right. I knew they were right. I had been denying this for awhile because I always looked at things like they were cyclical and in the back of my head always thought, "Oh we'll turn it around.."

But it was deeper than that. We had gotten behind and truly lost ourselves in that aura of arrogance as a fanbase. Michigan as a football program was living off of old money and not making investments in the future. I could see the trainwreck coming. I never envisioned or predicted it to get to this place, but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. So I just lied to myself .

Then 2006 came and it played tricks on my heart. One last hurrah before the mighty fall. We all had a chance to watch and witness 11 weeks of what I still feel is the greatest college football team ever to have never won anything. Our football teams equivalent of the Fab 5. They beat team after team after team. All leading up to the biggest game on the national stage against our rival ever. 

On November 13th I had bought tickets off of ebay, the most I had ever spent to go to any sporting event in my life so I could make the trip to Columbus and be a part of Michigan history first hand. On November 17th I received my tickets, just shy of an hour after hearing about Bo's death. 

The next 4 games said it all. Out coached. Unprepared. Underachievers. Lagging behind even further from the pack of college football's elite. 

Lloyd was burned out way before this and we had no plan. Greg Schiano turned us down twice. Greg fucking Schiano. Nobody with any credentials wanted the pressure of the job it seemed. We took our name for granted. But we all wanted change. Ohio State was kicking our ass. The rest of relevant college football outside of our little Big 10 world was also kicking our ass.

Beating MSU for most of a decade and winning a lot of Big 10 games made us content that we were still as successful as the rest of the elite but it was all an illusion. We were falling behind. 1997 was a long way away. Many fans knew this and were asking for change. Some of us were craving it! Then along comes Rich Rodriguez. Smart, football genius, young, but a bit wet behind the ears in his knowledge of the school he contacted about a job. 

He came to bring us into another era. The same way other innovators and motivators had done before at Michigan. You had been asking for this for so many years now and Rich Rodriguez came in to be the one to give it to us. 

Except when he got here a circus ensued instead. An outright debacle in the grandest fashion. People from within the very university we cheer for, its own alumni started something out of nothing before a game was ever played under the new regime. The seed planted. The media played it up. Our rivals relished it all. The michigan fan base ate it up. The masses rolled with every punch and instead of football you got WWE theatre. 

I am not going to beat on too many dead horses here. They are all blood and mashed guts now. After reading this site for the last 4+ years it's probably just liquid. Most all of it has been said by every blogger on MGO in a million different ways. But I will rehash a few obvious points that have brought me to some conclusions about this whole state of affairs. 

Rich Rodriguez is a good coach. He will be a good coach when he leaves here. He will win big somewhere else. But here it isn't going to work, ever. Here are some caps -EVER EVER- The ship sailed on that in September 2008. I just didn't realize it until this past few days.

When you want something. Especially when someone is trying to give it to you when nobody else will, smile and say thanks even if you didn't get it neatly packaged or exactly the way you wanted it. Don't screw it up by complaining about the trivial shit. 

Rich Rodriguez deserved better than what was given to him. A big portion of the Michigan Football fanbase got what they deserved. I think that karma always has a way of showing its ugly head in every aspect in life and looking back at it all I can't say that this isn't one of those examples.

In all reality, did anyone of you that rooted against this guy ever expect him to succeed? How can you win with a giant cloud of shit hanging over your head every second of the day for 3 years? How can you succeed when recruiting, the lifeblood of any major program is impacted the way Michigan Football's has. How do you get to the next level when you have a hole the size of a moon crater in talent and bad luck as long as I-94 tagging along for the ride saddled with all that negative unnecessary bullshit created by some the very people you are trying to work for? 

You don't. He hasn't. You cannot make a marriage work if the other person isn't willing to work too. You can't even correct small mistakes if you aren't given an straightforward shot at it. You can say everything you want to about his epic fail, but if we are honest and really look in the mirror we all know that these are not ordinary circumstances and to judge fairly you have to critique with the entire story in mind. This isn't just X's & O's, execution and on field coaching ability. 

Ignorance. Nepotism. Cronyism. They all found a way into Michigan football in a way that has left a black eye on us. If you don't think so then I believe you to be foolish and as many outside of our own fanbase perceive-arrogant. But regardless of how I feel about Rich, I no longer want him as the coach of Michigan.

 My support for Rich Rodriguez is no longer there. I want him gone. Yesterday. It is time to move on and I think the writing is and has been on the wall that he will be within the next few days. I used to think that he should get a 4th year no matter what. But even that is gone from my mind. What is a 4th year going to do. Even if he wins 10 games it won't be considered real success to the majority. Because the Majority of the Michigan fanbase doesn't like him and never will. Rich needs to move on for the betterment of his family, his future success and simply because he is wasting his time here.

So I think it is time to do something to save Michigan Football before we become completely irrelevant. I sure hope Jim Harbaugh is coming here. Because I think he is the only guy that can make this work right now. Because sadly if Jim Harbaugh comes to town unlike Rich Rodriguez he'll be treated like a god. The press will praise him. The average fans will all shut up whining. The dirty cloud of negativity will magically lift and he can do the job without this raging storm right outside his window. 

I never thought Jim Harbaugh was a bad coach or that he would fail at Michigan. I just thought we already had a good coach and it wasn't fair that we didn't give our full support to the him. But since things are what they are, as a fan of gigantic proportions I am all about anything that betters the football team I have been watching my entire life. In my heart I now know Rodriguez is not that guy. But if Jim Harbaugh isn't available it doesn't matter who coaches in my opinion, the tables will be stacked against them. Hello spiral.. I hope if we get lucky and Harbaugh is announced as Michigan's next head football coach this week that he has us in mind for the long term because he is going to have to do what Bo did in the late 60's. Take a floundering/fractured program and build it back up. And that is going to take awhile. Hopefully by that time if Michigan hires outside of it's own we have learned our lessons and give the next man who comes from outside the support they need. Going through this once was enough. 

Lastly I will say that I did learn something from this experience. I think as a fan I am a better one than I was pre-2008. I learned a lot about life through this. Through football. I'll always support the team and the school forever. But I lost respect for a very large chunk of the people who call themselves fans of Michigan football. 

Hopefully time and some magical wins heal all.

Go Blue Forever

Yesterday I was on the Huge show for a couple minutes after the Rosenberg interview. I gave my 2 cents and then headed home disgusted. Then I got on Facebook and HUGE had an opinion poll. It asked, "Why has Rich Rodriguez never been accepted at Michigan?" and the frustration just came out of me. I posted and sent an email while a little pissy, frustrated and Feeling like I had to get my thoughts off my chest. This is what I wrote: Listen its a lot more complicated than most are willing to talk about so bare with me for a moment.... When RR came to Ann Arbor the perfect storm was forming&he inherited it. First you had people who had been getting angrier&angrier over the years by our underachieving & constant losses to OSU, so they were already edgy & MANY wanted a change. Second the Les Miles rumors put everybody in a state of frenzy because he had ties to UM & was already at a powerhouse and went on to win the NC. Beating OSU to boot. So everybody saw him as a "Michigan" man. This helped create another line of static in this frenzied atmosphere when Les ultimately didn't take the job for anyone else who came here, regardless of who it was if they weren't from Michigan. The majority of the vocal & upset UM fans were being ignorant & very very clannish about the football team they had gotten used to watching for so many years. Nobody took in account the real History. Like the simple fact that Fielding Yost came from West Virginia, or Bo from Ohio roots. So they were ready to lynch anyone for the slightest little miscue or idea that wasn't in the norm. As soon as the hire was actually made many didn't even know who RR was. He was an outsider already in the fact that nobody had ANY familiarity with him or any reason to believe in him. Then they realized that he wasn't just a new coach but a spread offense coach, which meant CHANGE. The biggest scariest word ever! How was 100+ year old, 3 yards & a cloud of dust traditional Meeeechigan football going to change to this "gimmicky new phase" of football?! Not in Ann Arbor!! The stage was set. A villain had come and stole the show. Took it over for the NOW "perfect, loved & adored by almost all again Lloyd Carr". This guy never had a chance. The Free Press(YES THE FREE PRESS WAS THE #1 MEDIA CULPRIT) among many other media outlets started to twist, overhype & push negative press on RR every chance they got. Starting with overblowing the Rich Rod/WV buyout issue. Taking it to the level of the Enquirer gossip column. Then the traditions were attacked. By defectors as well as people who were so used to what WAS instead of what IS. Basically it was nitpicking at RR for not knowing every last detail of Michigan football culture. This was just more overblown drama, & yes the DTP played it well. Then the 2008 season became a disaster for many & most reasons I believe were out of Rich Rods control. Nobody seems to realize that he didn't run Mallet out of town. Mallet didn't fit into the system & had pro potential, he knew what was best for him & he already had friction on the team BEFORE RR came in. The others who might have stayed(Mannigham, Arrington) just felt like this wasn't going to work for them. So you lost the leading QB statistically in UM history in Henne, the all time leading rusher in Michael Hart, Probably the best OL ever at Michigan-#1 NFL draft pick-Jake Long & Shawn Crable and two of the best receivers in college football to the NFL, plus the ONLY viable QB you had to a transfer. This was before the team ever took the field to play a game. The fridge was more than empty. The power had failed. Even if they had hired a pro-style coach & Mallet, Mario & Adrian had stayed it was going to be a down year & it definitely would have slowed down the future. Then Rodriguez makes the ONE mistake that I will say is almost entirely his fault. He put all his eggs in one basket with Terrell Pryor. He should have not took the chance on TP and worked hard on other kid(S). But he didn't. He got burnt by a teenager who I still believe in my heart knew he was never coming to Michigan. This hurt us (AND EXTREMELY HELPED OUR BIGGEST RIVAL) so bad in the end that its ridiculously hard to speak of without getting infuriated. Because now we have to take the field with absolutely no talent at all, at the QB position. Now we start 2008 with the worst 2 QBs in Michigan history to ever to start more than one game, & they took the field with a bunch of other freshman & 3-9 ensues. Basically adding fuel to this fire every game that went by. So the season ends & we are 3-9, records & streaks are broken & some in embarrassing fashion. Now, the people who hated him to begin with feel they are justified for everything they had said before, when really they aren't & the media, fans & our rivals never get off this train. Just waiting for an excuse. Then along comes "investigative journalism"..... Hey everybody my name is Michael Rosenberg I talked to a bunch of freshman & took certain words out of context, used mal-contents anonymously, took words from a few players not completely happy or buying in & turned it into a scandal all because I have a personal dislike for RR. I can write at this dying major publication without a solid story or facts & speculate to create a major problem for Rich & his team 7 days before kickoff! Yayyy!!! Then I can add that I did it for journalism & because its NEWS. I have the reason of responsibility for the american reader to do this even though I am throwing the supposed school & team I love under the bus. I need to report this because its SOOO important & Rich Rod is taking Michigan down. Forget that the GPA is the highest its ever been. Thats besides the point. This is "corruption" at the highest level folks!! Nothing like Maurice Clarett, or Reggie Bush!! This is players practicing too much! Practicing! This is about dumb a$$ kids setting up 3rd party cocaine deals & getting immediately thrown out of school! Not about players beating the crap out of other athletes, spending 4 months in jail & then 2 days after release being at practice. Thats not a story. Nor is it a story of over practicing at MSU because I asked a couple guys if they ever did & they said they didn't. So no story there. Only at Michigan. The place I love & want to see succeed at the highest level. You know, like they did against App St., Oregon, Ohio State the last 8 years, USC, or Texas in those bowl games. I miss that & I don't wanna see anything new that I know doesn't work. I mean WV was only 1 game from the National Championship until Pat White got hurt in the first quarter with 3 star, sub standard recruits. Don't you understand RR could never win here with Michigan's recruiting power. That wouldn't make any sense. Winning titles with the spread or similar offenses isn't possible. I mean Florida, Texas & LSU don't count. So I am sorry folks, I Michael Rosenberg just can't let the RR atrocity play out. I have to save us!! I need to make it even scarier for any other coach to ever want to come to Michigan & try my hardest to set Michigan back like ND, Nebraska, Alabama & every other powerhouse that has had it's "inevitable" fall for the sake of keeping the program safe. It happens to us all people & I hope you understand my motives. Its the love that carries me. My love for Michigan & the great Lloyd Carr. My love of all the records we have established and how so many were broken last year. I want to ensure that we don't rise up from those ashes with a bad guy like Rich Rod. I want to get rid of him and keep those records that we still have going by sending the program into oblivion. . . . . Bottom line for everyone out there that loves Michigan is that you haven't given Rich a chance. He was brought in to make us relevant again & if you are a detractor, then you are making his job 10X harder by not getting behind your coach & embracing change. I see & hear people on message boards, blogs, in articles & on talk radio calling out a man who really hasn't done anything but try to accomplish his job. Its just stupidity for anyone to deny that a lot of Michigan fans are spoiled rotten with success & are also frozen like deer in the headlights with their complacency. Simply put most haven't accepted Rich Rodriguez at Michigan out of pure ignorance, arrogance & total fear & panic. Throw in a dash of negative media every other day to perpetuate it & you create a divided culture who looks lost to all the outsiders. (thanks Rosenberg you whiny slimeball for making recruiting 10 times harder for us-especially with the top kids on the fence) So the hate is thick. The pressure is even thicker & the clock is ticking. I just hope some great things happen before the time runs out. Because this backlash has made the time shorter & the job mission ALMOST impossible. I agree with most though If this team starts winning, this will all go away like the dinosaurs. So I am hoping and praying this Saturday starts off with a bang! I hope Rosenberg doesn't succeed. I hope these kids get a chip & rally around their coach, because this BS just made this weekends game against Western one of the biggest games in Michigan Football history. I LOVE BLUE WITH ALL MY HEART. HAIL TO THE VICTORS.

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I am just curious how many out there agree with my HUGE opinion, or what a lot of you overall think that I don't see.

There are some really good diaries that people post on here and its nice to read peoples opinions from time to time but sometimes you just gotta say STOP IT!!!

As a 32 year old fan of Michigan athletics and an absolute nut over our fooseball program I have to say I was just as devastated as most of you were when we lost game after game in 08. But seriously folks some of you got to stop making these ridiculous assumptions. The most absurd is about Tate Forcier. Look I hope this kid ends up great. But he hasn't played a down yet & so many of you are talking like were going to win 9 games in the Big easy next year.

Great. If that happens what a grand suprise that would be, but the likely outcome is that Michigan fans need to be prepared for another season of heartbreaks. Not like 2008, but definitely nothing spectacular. I think a 7-5 0r 6 win season is what were looking at as a realistic ceiling and anything more is a gift.

I guess i'm just getting frustrated with all the blah blah blah. Its sounding absurd. Plus that kid doesn't need anymore pressure on him than he already has nor does any freshman coming in. Its like Terrell Pryor. The kid came in with so much hype people forgot he doesn't have an arm, AND he may never get one. He came to a good team that was ready to win and he handled it like a freshman with a wayyyy above average set of athletic skills. But he was still a freshman and they went 10-3. And that 10 wasn't that impressive. So Tates coming in to hopefully help a team that only won 3 games and so many of you are looking at him like the Messiah. This past season has too many of you trippin......

Mark Dantonio says go Bucks & alot of you are upset. WHY??! I *ucking love it. This guy is the gold standard for Spartans. We need him. I cannot stand the guy. First off he has made weird and unfinished responses as well as hate filled jabs at us since he was hired at MSU. Then he makes winning the game in E.L. last year the players national championship instead of winning football games overall. And last but not least he decides to tell the media that hes rooting for those classless bums down in Columbus. All I gotta say is HELL FUCKING YES.

We need this guy. For one it gives a sense of urgency to this non-existent rivalry. And it also exposes everything thats wrong with Michigan State football. When a head football coach says that hes rooting for the Bucks when it could possibly help his team thats just straight up nonsense. Especially if that team is from the Michigan and the other team is in OHIO. You better believe it that if a Big 10 title and a Rose Bowl trip came down to The Bucks and State in the last game of the year i'm going to root for MSU. Not that MSU is going to beat Penn State or anything remotely close to that.

2 years ago I went to Columbus to watch the game. We were both undefeated and enjoying something that we had never experienced in our rivalry. #1 & #2. The day was a perfect football day and as I walked to the stadium and took it all in I felt an excitement that was very rare and couldn't wait for the game. As I walked closer to the stadium out of nowhere pops up MSU fans. And they tried everything they could play the day spoiler. I blew them off and kept walking only to have 3 more pop up and do the same almost turning into a fight. I thought to myself, wow, is this really how bad the fan culture has become for the young kids at MSU? A fan base who has kids that are willing to drive 4 hours to Columbus just to antagonize UM fans while they are getting waxed as we spoke by Penn State??

So yeah, I have lost interest in MSU. Its not a rivalry. Its a game that we lose once every 5-6-7 or so years. Hell if it wasn't for Shot Clock Bob we were damn close to hittin the 10 year mark. So what they beat us this year. I didn't like it. I hated it, but they almost lost a game to the worst Michigan team uh...ever in modern history?? ... So in comes Dantonio and his crybaby, Michigan Wolverine hating antics and big mouth #### talk. Cool i'm with it. Because now when we go back to winning the next 5 or 6 outta 7 I am going to relish and celebrate with renewed vigor every single time we beat them.

I don't care about the record books to the point were its crushed me that these streaks ended. Its the way they ended thats really been depressing as a Michigan fan. I mean I get that we have alot of young, inexperienced talent on this roster but even our offense has been able to put up some points in a few of these games. What happened to this defense?? Whats up with the motivation for most of these guys game to game & am I wrong by saying that we might have won another 2 or 3 games if they had showed up? I have to say I see enough talent on here that I HAVE to blame the coaching now that enough games have passed. 

 

I mean c'mon, Purdue basically just put 50 on us. WHAT??! The offense showed up and thats what we got from our veterans? I just don't get it. Maybe for some of you it happened way before todays game but today wasn't just the low point of the season for me, it was the low of all time for me as a michigan football fan. I just didn't want to see it end like this. I figured after all we lost last year and with all the drastic changes that we might have a horrible year before this season ever even started. I was prepared for alot of losses. I just wasn't prepared to see this. I really hope this way of losing isn't something i have to get used to because losing is not acceptable to watch when players don't leave it all on the field. When everyone doesn't give 100%. I feel bad for some of these kids out there who are really doing everything they can when so many right next to them aren't. Maybe I just need some perspective but I seriously think i've heard it all and I am really starting to think for the first time that the hire was a mistake. Not that Rich Rodriguez is a bad coach, but a bad coach for us. I really hope I am wrong.