Attrition post-mortem
So now that we're a safe distance from the Rich Rodriguez era, and hopefully from most of the polarizing debate over its demise, I'd like to bring up the topic of all the attrition we experienced during the past 3 years. I'm not bringing this up to rag on the guy who's gone, but rather to try to figure out what, exactly, was behind it, and to figure out how the new coaching staff can avoid a similar predicament.
*What aspects of the attrition we experienced from 2008-2010 are attributable to natural growing pains inherent to a major change of direction like the one RR undertook in 2008?
*What aspects are attributable to identifiable mistakes made by the coaching staff during recruiting, during off-season training or during the playing season?
*What aspects are attributable to the environment of negativity surrounding the program--from the old guard grumbles behind-the-scenes in 2008, through the FREEP's inquisition and consequent mild sanctions and so on?
*What aspects are not attributable to any of these things? To bad luck? To other factors?
Like I say above, I'd like to avoid rehashing a CC slap-fight, but would rather like to pick this issue apart to figure out if and how the new coaching staff can avoid the same issues.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:00 AM ^
Shit happens. This saying pretty much sums up the RR era. Good guy that caught some bad breaks. Some he brought on himself and the rest was just wrong place at the wrong time. Here is to better days for both RR and Michigan.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:13 PM ^
We don't have to generalize about "attrition" as an abstract; we can put names to the issue. Let's start with the Carr recruits, then look at the Rodriguez recruits. I am certain I'll leave out some names, so I'll welcome any help.
The Transition Guys
Mallett ~ He left Michigan because he wanted to leave, he wanted to play for Arkansas the moment Mitch Mustain left the Razorbacks, and he wanted specifically to play in a shotgun offense.
Boren ~ As the cognoscenti know, Boren left because of the enragement over Zach's not getting a Michigan offer. Not because Justin is lazy. Not because Rich Rodriguez was nasty. Not for any reason other than Justin's dad Mike is a psycho.
Clemons ~ A guy who simply wanted to play as a pro-style wideout, and wanted more playing time than he thought he'd get at Michigan.
There are a number of others. A number of little-known OL guys, including but not limited to Mark Wermers.
The NFL Jumpers
At various times: Manningham, Arrington, Warren. Manningham and Arrington made wise decisions, arguably. Warren's decision was ridiculously bad. These guys all made their own decisions.
"Cissoko"
Boubacar was essentially a Carr recruit, but there's no doubt but that he'd have been and in fact was, recruited by Rodriguez as well. There's no blame in the spectacularly sad flameout of Boubacar Cissoko, other than Boubacar. I wish to hell the story was different.
The Rodriguez Guys
Without question, there have been some notable flameouts. Sam McGuffie. J.T. Turner. Adrian Witty (from Deerfield Beach, FL) Justin Feagin, Taylor Hill, Conelius Jones, Austin White. They were definitely "attrition," and not necessarily "transition attrition." Each story is unique; we could write a 5,000 word article on any one or all of them. The one thing I'd insist on is that you can't use all of them together, to reach any general conclusions about Rich Rodriguez.
Conclusion - Nothing
I don't know what anyone could say that was good, bad or indifferent about any of the last three Michigan football head coaches from the individual "data" of the guys mentioned above. There is certainly no case to be made that Rodriguez was a bad coach or a bad recruiter or a bad judge of character, or a bad judge of kids in general. It just isn't supportable based on the individual stories.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:08 AM ^
At the end of the day, it just wasn't a good fit. That happens sometimes, no matter how hard you try to make it work. I think the key is to recognize it, and do something about it, sooner rather than later.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:15 AM ^
So, regarding your avatar, I didn't know what to make of it, until I watched "Trading Places" this weekend. Dude, your avatar gets boned in the ass by a gorilla.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:41 AM ^
Tremendous!
January 31st, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
January 31st, 2011 at 9:27 AM ^
Looks like his avatar's going to need some new FBI guys.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:14 AM ^
Every program has spells of bad luck and high attrition. Sometimes you rise to the occasion and sometimes, despite your best efforts, it doesn't work out and you get canned after 3 years.
As for your specific questions, it doesn't really matter what, if anything, was going through some random freshman DB's mind when he made the wrong read and let a WR catch a wide-open TD pass. The program and everyone associated under it was laboring under a dark cloud from day one.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:15 AM ^
I don't know. At one point does a lot of this blame start to fall on RR. I know he was a good guy, and did well by the kids, but he is the one that failed. I know he was submarined by those in the administration, that it was a unit divided. I know that didn't help. But winning would have helped. If he had just won, I don't think he would have faced the same problems.
We all looked at his ability to change throughout the years, and adapt. He seemed to lose all of his positive qualities when he got to Michigan. No changing, no adapting, just ramming his scheme into the school. His defenses weren't terrible before, and his offenses succeeded no matter what personnel they had. I don't blame him for the talent attrition when he arrived, but he just flat out failed. He did some great things, but in the end it didn't work. I think that is on him.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
HE WAS FIRED. The blame was placed on him. Maybe I misunderstood you but "the point" of the blame was delivered on the day of his termination.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:44 AM ^
January 31st, 2011 at 1:10 AM ^
And quite a few of them fall in the "shit happens" category. Yes, I believe as does DB (communicated in his presser on judgement day) that RR is a nice guy and I do believe we'll look back and say that he had some good input into the program. But his overall record of 15-22 closed the book on another season. Maybe a Penn State win or the 8th win from somewhere this year would have him holding on for dear life, but the pitchfork army had him lined up for a figure-four-takedown.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:22 AM ^
I think the Michigan fan base was far too impatient. Like aaamich said, that year he took to figure out how things go around here was too long for the torch-and-pitchfork crowd.
Something Rich Rod did consistently was turn programs around. However, he took a few years to do so. We didn't have the patience to wait it out.
Have you ever played sports in your life? As an athlete, the coach is always the last person I blame for losses. Maybe I'm alone, but I get seriously offended whenever I heard the "Rich Rod failed" lazy meme.
January 31st, 2011 at 2:12 AM ^
The thought processes of the RR fanboy are truly a fascinating thing to observe.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
I admire your childlike simplicity.
January 31st, 2011 at 8:51 AM ^
"Have you ever played sports in your life? As an athlete, the coach is always the last person I blame for losses."
Yes, I have played sports in my life. While I agree with the position that coaches tend to get too much credit for winning and too much blame for defeat from the outside, a coach is still front and center in responsibility for the outcomes HIS team faces.
Who do you blame for losses? The athletes? I mean sure thats fine, but in college athletics, its the coaches job to bring in and prepare athletes. So the coach still has some responsibility in this. I realize RR may have not had time to do this, so do you blame LC for not having the right athletes in place for RR? Or do you blame BM for bringing in a coach that didn't have the right athletes in place? I guess I'm not seeing how RR would be the LAST person you blame for a 15-22 record.
January 31st, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
"Something Rich Rod did consistently was turn programs around. "
I think that this is the problem. When RR came here, perhaps we needed some updating, but we were not in need of a turn-around. We were 1 season removed from being 1 Crable penalty away from a damn good shot at playing in the NC game.
A lot of the problems that RR experienced with respect to the divided fanbase is that when he came in, he tried to shape the program in the image that he wanted it to have. You can't blame him, entirely - RR is a system coach, and when you hire him, you get his system - but most Michigan fans didn't want a complete overhaul.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:22 PM ^
and rotten level of all-around analysis.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:20 AM ^
It seemed to happen, in this particular form, more often than was normal either for Michigan coaches or for Rodriguez prior to coming to Ann Arbor. Some confluence of identifiable forces made it more common than at other times for either the coach or the institution. Bad luck and individual causes in individual cases are undoubtedly part of the equation, but all of it? Really?
Like I said, I have no interest in either ragging on the guy or issuing a post-firing defense of his tenure. I'd rather figure out how much of attrition during this period was attributable to bad luck, to coaching/management mistakes and to factors out of his control (e.g. the Freep's overblown and extraordinarily unfair scandal-mongering)--with the specific goal of figuring out how our new coaching staff might avoid the same predicament, at least as much as they can.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:24 AM ^
It took RR a year to figure out how things are typically done around here. By then, it was already too late.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:49 AM ^
I would say as soon as he fought WV for a reduction of the buyout he was already not a "Michigan Man" in the eyes of the people who disliked him.
January 31st, 2011 at 2:14 AM ^
If he'd won, he would have become one. RR's problems can be summed up with two numbers: 15 and 22.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
So why did our AD hire a guy who is 47-50 if it is all about the numbers? Seems like there is plenty of contextualizing and looking below the surface going on there.
In a sense you are right though. Rodriguez was fired because dumb fans like yourself couldn't understand why 3-9 happened, they were angry we lost and needed someone to blame regardless of actual context or fault. Only an immediate return to an imagined pre-transition greatness (I'm guessing 1-6 against Tressel wouldn't have cut it) would have potentially placated them for this terrible insult to their fanhood. A solid rebuilding effort where the record gets better every year (here you can cue up the bitching and moaning that 7>3 is irrelevant if the team isn't as awesome as these morons want them to be right now) and the freshmen and sophomores recruited by the new coach outperform their senior classmates isn't really interesting to a bunch of spoiled, whiney people whose psychic welfare is dependent on the University of Michigan's football team winning every year.
Also, feel free to pat yourself and Dave Brandon on the back next year when Coach Hoke continues this upward trajectory. You will be vindicated when the world realizes that having a coach with Michigan ties who says the word "defense" a lot is way more important than returning 9 starters on both sides of the ball.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^
RR probably would not have continued this upward trajectory you point to (which in itself is a flawed theory, considering it's not too hard to go 'up' from 3 wins). To believe that we could have done better the next season under him, we would have had to played close in any of our losses. Unfortunately, the case was this year's team was a lot closer to being, what, 4-8, than it was to being 8-5.
But I do have faith that if RR was kept, he would have been able to lose by less than 20 to every ranked team we played. Fortunately for us and the program, we won't have to find out if that's how the 2011 season will play out.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^
If Hoke's only goal was to impress PurpleStuff, he should go out and win 0 games next year. Then win 2 the next year. Only true fans that are as intelligent as PurpleStuff will see this for what it really is. Dumb impatient fans will think it is a terrible record.
January 31st, 2011 at 2:19 PM ^
Looking at the players on the roster (that Rodriguez had no role in recruiting) and how they compare with other programs around the country in terms of experience, recruiting pedigree, volume (how many are actually on the team), and eventual NFL attention should never factor into how we evaluate a coach. Just wins and losses, baby.
Good thing for you that our AD replaced that awful guy we had with someone who has a much worse record as a college head coach since, you know, your well thought out evaluation of his 47-50 record would probably indicate he sucks at his job.
January 31st, 2011 at 3:20 PM ^
I can see you're not upset at all over the past months events.
January 31st, 2011 at 3:33 PM ^
Does anyone remember when football was just a fun game?
January 31st, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
And here I was trying to convey "super pissed off, you guys."
Going forward I will attempt to up the profanity quotient while perhaps inserting .gif's of me screaming at the computer and/or pulling my own hair out and eating it. I apologize for the lack of clarity on my part and will try to do better going forward.
As for clarity, I don't have any problem with Brady Hoke in a vacuum, so to speak, or as the guy going forward. I just don't think the decision to fire Rodriguez so we can bring him in makes any sense (and I think this was the plan all along), though obviously what's done is done. On the other hand, I'm carrying around a bag of pretzels covered in poo just in case I ever run into Dave Brandon. His hypocritical bullshit (saying "the record isn't good enough" one week and then hiring a guy with a losing record over 8 years as a head coach the next, for example) coming on the heels of purposefully fucking up the divisional alignment has ruined my normally calm and pleasant personality.
January 31st, 2011 at 3:51 PM ^
"Going forward I will attempt to up the profanity quotient while perhaps inserting .gif's of me screaming at the computer and/or pulling my own hair out and eating it."
Haha. That is a great image. Just don't get the hair mixed up with the poo covered pretzels. That probably wouldn't go down as smoothly as human hair.
January 31st, 2011 at 7:51 AM ^
That is normal procedure. They did so for Beilein and it worked and was completely not worth comment and didn't create a big stink. Unfortunately, that was also WVU and they were completely pissed off already, so....
January 31st, 2011 at 9:26 AM ^
Posted in wrong place
January 31st, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^
he was on the inside and has perspective few can offer.
http://blog.johnubacon.com/2011/01/14/hello-loyal-readers.aspx
There is little that hasn't been said here at some point.
January 31st, 2011 at 6:13 PM ^
I didn't post this to rehash the "should/shouldn't Rodriguez be fired" arguments.
I wanted to know whether there were aspects of the attrition situation under RR that Hoke's staff could learn from and anticipate, so that they can avoid falling into the same trap.
So...any ideas?
January 31st, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^
I don't know if it was bad luck or maybe I was just more aware during RR's tenure, but it seemed like a lot of recruits weren't qualifying. Not necessarily saying this was RR's doing, but Hoke could probably actively avoid depending too much on academically questionable recruits. That is just one thing I thought of. Probably one of those things thats easier said than done though.
January 31st, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^
you should check out Magnus's Blog "touch the banner"
http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/
he has a list of ex-wolverines and kind of gives the story about why they left and what they are doing. It is pretty interesting and amazing how many guys clashed with the coaching staff under the RR era.
But to answer your question about how not to go through such attrition under the Hoke regime.
First recruit kids that are going to be able to cut it at Michigan academically.
Second don't be a my way or the highway head coach. I know it sounds Hokey but you need good cop bad cop's on a staff. With Hoke i think he should let his position coaches be the hard A**es, and Hoke be the guy the players come to to feel good.
Third i think this got RR in trouble with players that left was that he seemed like an effort guy. If you put in more time and effort in practice you got to see the field on Sat. I like this idea, but think about it from a players stand point, If you know you are a better player than the guy ahead of you is then you get pissed off and want to quite. It creates resentment, and some guys are just gammers. Maybe if RR had 3 more years he could have recruited players that both give it there all in practice and on Sat.
To the op. I don't think Hoke is going to have a problem with attrition. The players seem to already like him, where in 2008 the older players clashed with RR.