RedGreene

I've heard a lot of excuses after last night's disaster; some valid and some not so much.  My favorite was Tate isn't use to playing in cold weather.  As all of you know, Michigan is the only northern team that recruits southern players.  But I digress.

Last season was Paul Johnson's first year as head coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.  I guess I really never payed attention but I assumed Johnson had a lot of talent to work with.  Afterall, he did go 9-4 his first year while RR went 3-9.  So Johnson had to have tons of talent ready to go when he took over, right?

Not so fast my friend. Here's a little information from Johnson's bio:

"On December 2, 2008, Paul was tabbed ACC Coach of the Year by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA). Georgia Tech, ranked 14th in the BCS standings and 15th in the Associated Press poll, finished the regular season with a 9-3 record, remarkably better than every preseason projection. Sports Illustrated predicted Johnson's first Yellow Jacket team would win just three games, and Tech was picked to finish fourth in the ACC's Coastal Division. With a 5-3 record in ACC play, the Jackets tied Virginia Tech for the Coastal Division title."

"Johnson, who came to Georgia Tech in December after a highly-successful, six-year tenure at Navy, inherited a roster low in scholarship numbers and overloaded with youth. Only 76 players are on scholarship, including three senior walk-ons who were awarded scholarships prior to the start of the season, below the maximum of 85 scholarships. The roster includes 75 freshmen and sophomores, and 16 of 22 starters are either freshmen or sophomores."

So, Johnson had 76 players on scholarship and 75 were Freshman and Sophomores.  Any coach who goes 9-3 with mostly Freshman&Sophmores would do so ONLY if the young players were made up of 4 & 5 star recruits.  Right?  Here is GT's recruiting rankings over the last few years.

2005 - 48th (two 4* & six 3*)
2006 - 49th (one 4* & six 3*)
2007 - 15th (nine 4* & nine 3*)
2008 - 37th (one 4* & sixteen 3*)
2009 - 32nd (four 4* & twelve 3*)

I think it's obvious that GT's recruiting classes over the past 5 years don't compare to UM's.  Even with all of the departures, UM still has more talent on both sides of the ball.  So why has Paul Johnson's transition been so smooth and successful while the Rich Rodriguez takeover has been nothing short of a disaster?  

RR brought the spread to Michigan & PJ the triple wishbone to GT.  Both are new and unique to UM & GT.  So we can't really use the "not the right type of fit" excuse.  So what is it?  Maybe GT plays in a weaker conference.  Maybe GT caught some lucky breaks.  I don't know, but I do know GT is playing some damn good football right now while UM is struggling to not look like the football version of the Bad News Bears.  

I'm not jumping off of the RR bandwagon and will give him my full support, but I can take my maize and blue goggles off long enough to see that there a quite a few new coaches who have won more with less.  Paul Johnson, Brian Kelly & Jim Harbaugh all come to mind.

Thank you for your support,

Red

 

Now, granted, I'm not a very smart man.  I'm an easy going redneck-type.  I use duct tape a lot for things like fixin' my radiator, reparing a a crack in my windshield and hanging Christmas decorations.  So take this with a grain of salt.

I use to be a Rivals member; three weeks or so if my memory serves me correctly.  I didn't like the forums too much as they talked a lot about things that just weren't pertinent to Michigan football.  Maybe is was just me, but I just couldn't justify  50% of my monthly pay check to talk about the Detoit Lions.

So I moved on to GBW, or as some like to call it, Go Blue Wolverine.  It seemed to me to be a pretty good community.  A lot of good, hard working, blue collar folk like me.  So, I stuck with it for a while but began to see that it was a little too cult-like for me.

Seems to me there were only a few posters who would throw random posts together and were worthy of POD (post of the day for the novice) nomination.  At first I guess it didn't bother me so much, but as time went on I started to question the worthiness of the POD nominations.

I think at this point in my diary it might be helpful to give an example.

coachBT: in order to beat msu here are the 3 things that have to happen...
1) we have to contain their running game.
2) we must have more rsuhing yards than msu.
3) I can't stress this enough, we must score more points than msu.  If you look at past games with the spartans, 99% of the time the team that scored more points won the game!  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

random poster: GREAT POST!!!!!!!!!  POD!!!!!!!  Thanks coach!

random poster: This is the reason I pay my 9.95 a month.  Thanks coach.

ripnice:  I make a lot of money.  

random poster: Thanks coachbt!  You are the man.

erocwolverine:  if i was msu and there was a lot of time to prepare for michigan and it was there and a lot of people was going to pass if it was there was too.  visit me on my michigan blog cause it was a lot of fun.

random poster:  couldn't have said it better myself coach!  Damn good post.

willisdick; anyone disagree with your post coach you just let me know cause i'm one tough m'fucker. oh, and i clean carpets.

ripnice:  good post willis.  did you get my message? ;)  Did i ever tell you i make a lot of money?

random poster:  coachbt is the best.  I was going to post the same thing coach but I could never get my message across like you do.  POD!

bdabney: Oh boy!  Gonna be a board meltdown of epic proportions.  Maybe we should just let this thread slide on down the board.

SKWDCOP: Dick Dickameyer says he'll take a mich visit, www.dickdickameyervisitsmichiganandotherteams.com

bdabney: maybe i should start a poll on who agrees with you coachbt.  Better not, could be a major board meltdown.

jls:  still don't understand why RR didn't recruit Tavon Austin.  No excuse for that.

Suame:  my crystal balls says good post coach.  I'm a sparty grad but I hate sparty football; all though I do like Dantonio and the sparty program and everything about sparty football.  But I digress, can't stand the fuckers.

coachBT:  tomorrow I will post about why it's important to tackle the oposing team.

random poster: can't wait coach!!!!!!!!!

random poster:  I can see it now, another POD coach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ripnice:  i make a lot of money.

Anyway, you get the picture.  Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with rivals or gbw.  Just not my cup of tea.

Thanks for listening.