My HUGE opinion

Submitted by EZMIKEP on
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.

Comments

tomhagan

September 1st, 2009 at 5:07 AM ^

Good post but a couple points: Rich Rod also recruited that QB out of Florida, BJ something or another until BJ allegedly asked for money to come play for Michigan, so they dropped him like hot-cakes on a Sunday morning. The Rich Rod agenda actually began with the stupid "document shredding" allegations, which were proven false by WVU registrars office within a couple of days...but is still used to this day as some form of "evidence" or RR's wrong doing by media outlet such as ESPN. That is what is disgusting about this whole thing: the chain of mudslinging events and accusations that has lead up to this point. By far, the majority were not brought on by RR himself, and are just someones agenda to use to try and discredit him. He has not been perfect, but most of the stuff that has been said, especially by Rosenberg has been bullshit..

Joined: 08/30/2008

MGoPoints: 105

cooler 517

September 1st, 2009 at 7:55 AM ^

4:43 a.m., Jesus dude, no wonder you can't be up in time to get to Ann Arbor before 10 on Saturday. Nice post though, I feel anger and a potential for more violent felonies building up inside of me!

Joined: 04/11/2009

MGoPoints: 69

FingerMustache

September 1st, 2009 at 9:03 AM ^

if UM goes 7-7 in 2009, 9-3 in 2010, and is contending for the big 10 championship in 2011, i think tunes will be drastically changed. when it ultimately comes down to it, everyone loves a winner. if RR is to succeed in winning over the michigan faithful (or at least those not currently onboard), he will be doing it on the field. In the end, I dont think any of the bad press or accusations will make one bit of difference. If this season is a disaster similar to last, then the 2010 season will be his final opportunity to turn things around. If he manages to restore the winning tradition to Ann Arbor, he will be accepted by the fans despite any past efforts to smear his name. RR has proven as an easy target to the media, because the failures of the 2008 season have left him wulnerable and without the support of the michigan nation as a whole. but I assure you that if RR is the hero/savior of the Michigan football program, there will be hundereds of thousands up in arms and willing to defend RR to the death against such media onslaught.

Joined: 02/17/2009

MGoPoints: 963