___I miss Lloyd Carr.  You look up the word integrity, there is a picture there of Lloyd Carr.  When the players heaved Lloyd onto their shoulders after that win over Florida I will admit that I bawled like a little girl.  Whatever you thought of Lloyd as a football coach(and he was far from perfect), you had to admit that he was(is) a tremendous Michigan man.
___I have been critical of Rich Rodriguez on many occasions.  I've complained about the defense.  I've complained at length about the quarterback situation.  Mostly though, my complaints stemmed from the fact that he is not Lloyd Carr.
___It's time we all got over that.  Lloyd isn't coming back.  And whatever you think about Rich Rodriguez as a man(And I myself see no indication that he is not a very good man) he has shown himself to be a very good football coach.  If we give him four years, I can gaurantee that Michigan will be playing in BCS bowls every year again, facing the #1 or #2 team every three or four.  If we do not let him do it here he WILL do it somewhere else, and we will be back to square one watching a less talented coach and less talented recruits try to rebuild this program from scratch.
___Now the program is facing attacks from all sides.  The former entity known as the Ann Arbor news tries to invent an academic scandal that does not exist.  The local FM radio station is pushing 24 hour spartan propaganda, talking about a "lock down" of the state recruits--well, the ones outside the rival top 100 anyway.  Now MSU's program is dominating the state, what with their second win over UM in this decade.  Those idiots at 97.1 probably haven't had to refill their viagra prescriptions for the last year.  Now the Detroit Free Press is seeking out disgruntled transfers and preying on over-trusting(dont want to call them naive) freshmen trying to build another scandal.  Now the Free Press is trying to equate a pay for play basketball scandal that occured before some of these players were even born with the horrible possibility that Michigan practices too much. 
___It's clearly compromising their educations, what with the team recording the higest grade point average ever.
___The most troubling thing about the most recent attack is the likelihood that some coward drawing a check from the University is actively working to sabotage the program trying to get Rodriguez out.  It looks like someone within the athletic department is feeding the Free Press these stories and telling them which former players they can milk the most venom out of.
___In the face of all these attacks from within and without there is only one thing we can do.  We need to get behind our guy.  Whatever you think of Rodriguez's style or personality, he is the man that is leading our guys against the group of retards and assholes otherwise known as the local media.  He is the man that is leading them against our hated rivals.  Rodriguez needs and deserves our support, and we all need to fall in line behind him.
___We need to get out to that Western game and make noise like that stadium has never seen.  Win or lose, we need to get out and do it again for Notre Dame.  We need to start buying those All In For Michigan towels like they are going out of style.  I dont care what you do with them all.  Some superglue and a certain publication's building comes to mind.  Or some superglue and a certain reporter's car.
We need to get after the Free Press's largest sponsors--Varsity Ford, Belle Tire, JCPennies, and Kroger.  They've all got phone numbers and email options under "contact us" on their websites.  I will post them if you like.  We need to let them know that we will not stand for their continued financial support of these irresponsible sensationalists.  Let them know Briarwood Ford, Kohls, Meijer and Discount Tire are just down the road.
___Mostly though, we've just got to get behind our guy.  And give him the time he needs to bring this team back where it belongs.  Shoulder to shoulder with the best teams in college football.