3 And Out - Finished last night

I've been reading MGoBlog religiously for a long time, and I was still surprised by a lot of the book.  In fact, after my first reading, I couldn't really explain my thoughts properly because of the apparent absurdity of some of the topics, especially the coaching search and LC's alleged behavior.  So in that sense, I disagree with the OP.  Because even after reading everything on MGo, I was still stunned at some of the things described in the book.  Of course, for an avid M football follower, a lot of it was rehashing.  But there was still plenty there.

While the obvious has been pointed out by numerous posters already (i.e., of course it didn't seem to be packed with revelations to a regular MGoBlog reader), there were nevertheless a number of things I don't recall hearing about prior to reading.  Wish I'd made a list of them, but off the top of my head, I was taken aback by the extent to which the administration put RR under various gag orders not to respond publicly to things, most particularly the agreement for UM to fork over the $$ to settle the WVU lawsuit (which was the plan right from the start, but I recall at the time it looked like UM was riding to his rescue, and it got things off on a very bad note-- and RR being unable to explain the situation owing to the gag order just got him buried in the press).    

I don't recall the discussion of what players like Denard were offered on their recruiting trips to SEC schools, either, ever being discussed here.  The story about RR and GERG fighting over putting Ezeh back into a game (Iowa, maybe?) when Demens was doing well, etc.  Little tidbits like that.

I will say that the "hole" in the book several reviewers have pointed out, namely the reasons behind the demise of the defense, ought to be the absolute last thing a regular MGoBlog reader feels they still don't have a handle on.  How many posts were there on the "Decimated Defense", the "Never Forget" banner, the umpteen picture plays highliting the inability of our contain guys to do exactly that, the repeating defensive UFR themes, etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum... ?  For a non-regular on this blog, however, I can see it as a more legitimate knock.

It wasn't a perfect book and had its share of hand-waving away some serious problems RR brought on himself, such as trying to shoehorn GERG and Shafer into systems and assistant coaches not of their own choosing, but overall I was still fairly riveted.  It was a bit like reading about a historical event I felt I had really lived through myself-- interesting in the sense of getting some broader, hindsight-informed perspective.

I wasn't disappointed, but I did think that the lack of discussion about the defensive coordinators was a glaring hole in the book.  Bacon should have either written about it, or if he didn't have enough information, he should have explained that in the book.  There were some rumors during the Shafer year that Shafer and Gibson didn't see eye to eye and that chemistry problem was a big reason for the crappiness of that 2008 defense.  That's the kind of thing that I would have liked to read more about.

If you thought Bacon glossed over the defense's issues in the book, re-read this:

http://mgoblog.com/content/post-release-three-and-out-qa-part-i

for what I think is pretty damn good discussion of it.

Also, remember how this book morphed from a magazine article about the spread to what it eventually became.  Plus, Bacon knew that he had to aim at the middle to pull both more casual fans and we with MgoObession.  On the whole, he did a very good job.

Awesome book report!

The books purpose was never to be a full rehashing of ever single event RR had during his time here and for that purpose it has to aim for the middle ground between casual reader and rabid fan. 

I feel that any Mgo reader should be saying "yup, already knew that" but thats the whole point, we had discussed so many points ad nauseam and to see it put into print was validation that we had drawn the correct conclusions long ago because its not like the AD is going to issue press releases telling us Bill Martin has no idea how to work a Blackberry.

To me the book represented the fact that the car had been broke for a long time but finally the wheels fell off and well people didnt like that very much. 

Bacon did a good job with what he had to work with, his points were well sourced and  researched (looking at you FreePress), and  he painted a story as nonbiasedly as he could considering the book is told from RR's viewpoint. 

I am 3/4 through the book, and I admit to being slightly disappointed.  It seems to cover a lot of topics superficially, but not the depth that we, members of MGoBlog, expect. 

Also, I think the game stuff is glossed over.  He mentions in one sentence during a game review how Tay Odoms drops a punt.  He fails to mention that this is a RECURRENT problem.  He states that the final chance to comeback against Iowa at home was killed by a kickoff out of bounds.  What he fails to mention that this was the second time that game and how demoralizing/disgusting it was for the fans for us to keep witnessing the same mistakes over and over as if there was no coaching.

In the book at one points RR states after watching film of a loss that it looked like a "poorly coached team."  I would say that most games the team looked poorly-coached.  Perhaps that was because we were afraid of practicing too much due to the NCAA investigation.  I do not know, but we never seemed to be a well-coached, mistake-free team. 

Bacon never fails to mention that after every loss, RR blamed himself to the players.  Yet, he rarely did that in the media.  It might have made a big difference for him.

Bacon tells us that RR preached, "Ball Security Always. BSA." We were were awful at turnovers.  Apparently, ball security was just talk.  We had terrible turnover margins. Yet, no players were benched.  There were no consequences.  Talk is cheap.  Good coaching fixes mistakes.

Here on this blog, we have many rumors about RR's guys undermining the defensive coordinators Shafer and Robinson.  There is not a single mention of the dynamics of the defensive coaching staff.

I think the book has a pro-RR slant.  I was thinking while reading this book that it did not jibe with my memories of how I and other fans thought of the situation at the time.  I did enjoy the history of Michigan football that I did not know completely despite growing up in Michigan, having multiple family members with degrees from Michigan as well as a couple myself.  I am also more angry at the Freep for the extent to which they went to complete the hatchet job. Overall, I think it is a good book and a quick read, but does not have the depth that most MGoBlog members would want.

I enjoyed the book, but there wasn't any big surprises to me either. Everyone knew that Bill Martin butchered the hiring process. Also there wasn't a lot of facts in the book. A lot of hear say. I'm a little confused why so many people idolize Bacon. It's As if they believe that he's done more for Michigan football than LLoyd Carr.

I waited and waited and decided to cave and get the book because someone on the board talked about denards SEC recruiting but that was a blip on the radar of this book. It was nice to relive some of the games through the book but over all it Made up most of the book along with pregame, half time and post game speeches.

Preface: I was not a Rich Rod fan. I was not a Rich Rod hater. I am a fan of Meeechigan, and RRod's 3 years were maddenginly difficult to endure. But it was clear that there were some weird things going on...something was Wrong. And I think the book touches on that and, overall, does a job of vindicating RRod, while most media seemed to paint him as a foul-mouthed coach who wasn't committed or connected to his players...who then broke down into Josh Groban. But it seemed like that was only one side (if it can be called a "side") of the story.

...I purposely didn't read any excerpts before I read the book, and tore through it in 3 days.

I learned a helluva lot about what was going on behind closed Meeechigan doors. A lot of RRod's tenure made more sense after seeing the adversity that he experienced from both within and outside of the program.

Yeah, it's too bad he isn't interested in defense, and that probably means that it was going to be difficult for him to fit in at Michigan long-term. But I thought the book broke down the RRod era into:

A) Program in-fighting from powerful individuals who seemed to be against him from the beginning.

B) Media that seemed to have it in for him arbitrarily because certain writers/sources thought that slamming him would be a good way to make a name for themselves.

C) Repeated failures on the field...some of which (mainly injuries) were outside of a coach's control.

There was no doubt that the team was improving throughout his time, from an offensive perspective. And they may have been able to shore up the defense. But I think it was clear that RRod may have lasted another year if he only had encountered 2 out of the 3 elements; but for whatever reason, he had a lot going against him and he didn't win quickly enough to shut down the naysayers.

I kind of needed that book to better understand a few things that, for better or for worse, were possibly going Very Wrong during RRod's years.

Wow.  I think I'm going to start a post on my Sugar Bowl thoughts, but only after I watch it on my DVR.

I don't even want to read the book at this point.

Only half-joking, but damn such sour-ness through the blog regarding this book.  The thing is, I understand both sides: "Not another '3 & Out' " thread and "I just finished the book, here's what I think" thread.  Both are valid retorts, but damn, the fun seems to be taken out even going to buy the book to read.

Lord (and Bo) knows I will though.