For the first time, I am truly scared.

Submitted by uniqenam on
As I ate my reheated pizza this morning, I opened my Kindle and flipped to the front page of the Detroit Free Press.   Needless to say I was a little bit shocked at the front page article about the "rigorous football program under Rich Rodriguez".  The article alledges that during the off-season workouts, players were pushed far more than the 8-hour limit, resulting in deteriorating grades and physical illness. 

However, as NCAA sanctions and the like were mentioned, I began to see a glimmer of hope:

1.  All programs do this.  As everyone knows, in college (and high school sports, for that matter) off season workouts are not "voluntary", but mandatory if you ever want to see the field.

2.  The coaches never strictly declared they were mandatory.  Because of this, I'm not sure the NCAA truly can come back and slam the U-M football program.  Besides, what are they going to do, take away our 3 wins from last year?

3.  Finally, this seems to be another facet of the "wah wah family values" that we've seen develop over the last year and half.  Hopefully the NCAA will take this into consideration when reviewing the situation.
Rich Rodriguez

Comments

Brodie

August 30th, 2009 at 11:00 AM ^

I'm sick and tired of your fucking cryptic answers like you have some sort of super INSIDERZ access. You do this with every fucking thing... someone writes "I think Denard looks as good as Tate" and you reply with some pretentious "well... i wouldnt say that". Now here you are, with everyone (rightfully) in a fucking tizzy and you're doing it again. Fuck you. If you have information to share fucking share it or shut the fuck up and stop passing your opinions off as some information you have. I really wish Brian would verify people's inside claims.

Joined: 11/19/2008

MGoPoints: 10713

The FannMan

August 30th, 2009 at 11:00 AM ^

This all comes down to details which Rosenberg does a good job of confusing. For example, the artilce mentions players who said that they spent alot of time at practice. Then it mentions that some of those players players said that, to them voluntary wasn't really voluntary. Rosenberg then blurs the two to conclude that all players who were there for a long time were not really doing so voluntarily. He might be right, but that is quite a leap. He also does the same thing with some freshman. He glosses over the voluntary issue and tries to make their comments about how much they worked seem like smoking guns by saying that they must "not have been aware of the rules" when they made the comments. Why didn't he ask them if they were aware of the rules? He wasn't just using old statements taken out of context was he? Rosenberg is at his weakest when he claims that players who refused to talk to him about his investigation "didn't deny" the allegations. That's really, really weak. Still, he did get 10 players, some former and some current, to talk to him and they sure as hell didn't have good things to say. There may well be something here and we can't just write it off as guys not wanting to work hard. I expect an NCAA investigation to iron out the details. I guarantee that the Free Press will run multiple more articles and come up with a nifty title like "Scandal at the Big House" or some such crap to try to get people to visit its web site. They are really hurting now that the Kilpatrick administration is gone.

Joined: 11/25/2008

MGoPoints: 14821

Zone Left

August 30th, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Wolverines-… The link above is Doc Saturday's take on the situation. Clearly, this is a great story for the Free Press. Not only is there national interest--but the scandal and speculation is fodder enough for a dozen ESPN episodes. Doc Saturday is, as usual, pretty level headed. He ends by saying that Carr's staff seemed to really follow the letter (and spirit) of the rules, meaning that Michigan players may be the only players out there who actually know the difference between the NCAA rules and reality. Unfortunately, my understanding is that for a workout to count as "voluntary" under NCAA rules it isn't enough to say it is voluntary. The players can't fear retribution from the coaching staff--which may not be the case at Michigan. Even though everyone else is doing it, and will continue to do so, Michigan could really get hosed by the paper's findings. Hopefully, it's just shoddy reporting, which the Free Press is accustomed to.

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 16428

JWMU_01

August 30th, 2009 at 11:39 AM ^

It sounds like almost any other situation where voluntary work is actually mandatory. Do you only work 9-5? Did you ever take extra batting practice in high school? Does Farve hold out on training camp even though he is 50? Well forget the last one. I just don't like the tone in the article the leads me to believe these kids were not being treated as the superstars their mom and dad told them they were so they whined about it. Then their mamas and papas told them " shhh little superstar...mommy and daddy will make it all better. Now where is that journalist's phone number?" Do you think Bo's players were not encouraged to work beyond the minimum requirements? Ask some of his former O line men about what they had to do to run 6 min mile or risk not being allowed to play. Do you think Tressel's players only participate in football related activities for 2 hours a day? Do you think Tim Tebow spends more time healing the blind than practicing snaps under center so he will get drafted after this year? Nope.

Joined: 04/28/2009

MGoPoints: 7

Go Ugly Early

August 30th, 2009 at 11:28 AM ^

Bo is rolling over in his grave right now. While this is mostly Rosenberg being Rosenberg, these players need to be "outed" and possibly kicked off the team. There is no room for traitors in this program, GTFO.

Joined: 08/19/2009

MGoPoints: 72

summit595

August 30th, 2009 at 11:32 AM ^

So after reading the article and thinking about what it "alleges" they basically seem, to me, to have one thing of any substance. Having the staff at the 7-on-7's, if it's really not allowed and if we really did break the rule, seems to be the only point of substance they have. They calculated 21-24 hours a week of practice. Considering their bias to count to the higher end, that means we're probably below the 20 hour limit. The Sunday thing says players were there for 10-12 hours. But with treatment time, lunch, time between actual sessions in the day, etc they must have found a way to make it 4 hours of actual time. The workouts are about as weak sauce as ever. Especially if the workouts are approved by the NCAA already. Regardless this will hurt though. An inside view into our program, everything they dislike about it, will definitely hurt recruiting. If you're a big time recruit you want to go to a program that says the workouts are SO awful and you don't do well in school because of them?

Joined: 05/08/2009

MGoPoints: 14

BILG

August 30th, 2009 at 11:33 AM ^

1. You want to be a first rate program....you put in the work, especially when installing a new system. Lloyd's country club is closed....sorry. Simply being Michigan didn't win games anymore, time to catch up with the rest of college football. Michigan had a choice to make...become Notre Dame, a relic, or progress into the BCS era. Now of days reps are synonymous with Barwis and speed training, not the number of Spotts wings our offensive lineman can shove into their bellies. 2. The Free Press is exactly that...Free of any legitimate reporting, objectivity, integrity, or talent. It has been a witch-hunt from day one of the RR era. These assholes need to find a real problem, like, how to keep their shitty excuse of a news source from going bankrupt.

Joined: 08/31/2008

MGoPoints: 1344

BILG

August 30th, 2009 at 11:51 AM ^

OSU...Your great BCS year will forever be tainted by a felon who led you to a championship. Your right to any moral high ground has long since been abolished. BTW...Your legendary coach Shady Hayes struck an opposing player....stay classy. If OSU can get away with Clarett, Pryor, etc... And USC can get out of the Bush fiasco... And Florida (Meyer), FSU, Miami, Tenn, Bama (Saban) etc still have programs We should probably be able to survive "excessive practicing." Then again, the NCAA seems to arbitrarily choose when and which programs they come down on. See (Fab Five, Memphis (Derrick Rose bs, SMU death penalty)

Joined: 08/31/2008

MGoPoints: 1344

MGrad

August 30th, 2009 at 12:49 PM ^

I don't want to bash on the players too much, but I think it will be a fine day when RR has 100% his recruits in house. I think a lot of this nonsense is coming from the upper classmen who have struggled with the transition in the program's style, and are looking for something...anything, to blame for the downfall on their watch.

Joined: 08/13/2009

MGoPoints: 428

gmoney41

August 30th, 2009 at 12:58 PM ^

and someone said it earlier, is the image this creates for the program. Recruits will shy away from coming because of the controversy. The free press has a history of this along with espn. Espn screwed up our coaching search a few years back with piss poor inside info, from an OSU guy none the less. The free press tried this slander with the supposed acedemic fraud taken place here, family values eroding. We suffer a negative image because we may know the truth, but most people don't follow us as closely, so they see the espn story and take it as fact, and that is sad.

Joined: 07/13/2009

MGoPoints: 3938

GreyJello

August 30th, 2009 at 4:07 PM ^

What image? That it takes hard work to win? That going above and beyond the call of duty leads to success? I don't mind having that image at all. This entire thing is BS. To be successful you have to WORK. WORK! Nobody will give it to you.

Joined: 02/17/2009

MGoPoints: 3100

Rotundus

August 30th, 2009 at 5:54 PM ^

That the team recently posted the highest GPA ever under RR. Therefore, how can players claim that their grades suffered? Unfortunately, I think this is some of Carr's players who have not stepped it up and now find themselves lagging on the depth charts and are looking for an excuse. The Michigan football team has played uninspired and like cupcakes for far too long now!!! Sure they stepped it up for Carr's last game but this is the reason why we have not beaten OSU in awhile-because we have some WEAK ASS players on this team who just do the minimal to get by. Remember if you put the minimal effort into anything, you get the minimal results!! Notice too how Carr was at Michigan practices last year but has been on a tour of the NFL practices this year and noticeably absent.

Joined: 08/30/2009

MGoPoints: 3

bddutchg

August 31st, 2009 at 9:02 AM ^

How soon we forget. Is it possible that this has happened before? "Schembechler began his tenure as head coach at Michigan with a rallying cry to his players: "Those who stay will be champions!" This slogan foreshadowed the challenges Michigan football players would endure from the dramatic culture change initiated by Schembechler, who emphasized toughness and introduced practices and conditioning far more rigorous than any the players had been exposed to before. His first training camp in 1969 saw around 140 players enter but a mere 75 emerging from the grueling camp and choosing to embrace Schembechler's system." Of course, the Free Press reporters didn't go after Bo, did they? Damn right they did. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Go Blue.

Joined: 09/07/2008

MGoPoints: 24