Blame GREG not RR

Rich Rodriguez is the head coach. He hired Greg Robinson and thus bears responsibility for his performance. And he doesn't get a pass for one bad hire because he only hired Robinson after firing Shafer. And let's not even talk about Hopson.

So unless you're going to argue that it's not the coaches' fault that the defense is as bad as it is (and that it's not their fault that it's regressing as the season goes on...), then it's on Rodriguez.

people can defend Gerg all they want with: its not his fault, our defense doesnt have enough talent or experience. but guess what, anyone can succeed with a lineup of 5star seniors. i dont believe for a second that this defense is in the bottom 20 in terms of talent. and can you really say that we were inferior in talent to UMass.

Gerg has done nothing to warrant keeping his job. his schemes dont work. i cant even remember the last time we won a defensive RPS (this refers to the effectiveness of playcalling).  the veteran LBs, who he specifically coaches, are constantly making mental errors. he isnt a big recruiter.

i dont see how you can blame RR for the defensive struggles. hes not the one making the play calls. hes not the one coaching up the players. hes probably not the one making defensive personnel decisions.

i actually found it interesting that RR ran into the defensive huddle and got into the faces of the players, and on that series we got a stop.

 i really dont care if hes won superbowls. i dont think he has the type of resume that earns him the benefit of the doubt. if it were up to me, Gerg would be gone at the end of the season. (although i think in reality he will get another yr).

Important question: what role do the defensive position coaches play in all of this? 

I think a good amount of blame for the defense can rest squarely on Rich Rod's shoulders.  The reason I say this is because Rich Rod doesn't seem to trust his D coordinators.  Looking across the tenures of both Shafer and Robinson, it seems like Rich Rod is a backseat driver when it comes to the defensive side of the ball.  It is apparently not his forte, but when things aren't going right it is almost like he forces his coordinators to put in packages that he likes (i.e. nickel with Shafer and 3-3-5 variant with Robinson).  In that way he is the ultimate Sunday Morning Quarterback who goes and second guesses the gameplan at every opportunity.

I realize that a large part of this is just him trying to secure his own job, but the fact of the matter is that for a guy who is trying to sell the winningest program on a radically different way of viewing the game; he seems to have very little patience for buying into his D-coordinators' ability to do their own job.  It seems kind of funny to think, but if RR is forced to leave the program, the thing that may have sealed his fate was the fact that he wasn't able to get Casteel (a coordinator he trusts) to follow him out of WVU.

I don't understand the argument "RR doesn't work in the B10". Are you saying the spread n shed in general wouldn't work in the B10? What evidence is there for that? We have the #2 offense in the country. Did you see what the Iowa D did to MSU today? Did you see what our offense did to that same Iowa D (excluding turnovers). So you are saying that horrible defenses don't work in the B10. Well obviously. I don't understand the need to fire RR immediately. If next year, when the two deep will be filled with non-freshman and people who have actually seen the field and the offense continues to gain experience and cut down on turnovers, we should be fine. I know people are upset and the last 2 1/2 years have not gone to plan. But if we fire RR we will be having this exact same conversation about a new coach 3 years from now. 

I get the feeling that the coaches aren't on the same page when it comes to the defense.  I know Rich Rod wants to run the 3-3-5, but I'm not convinced that GERG is the right guy to do that. 

As much as I love GERG and his wonderful hair, I'm wondering if it's time for Rich Rod to give Jeff Casteel a call and convince him to come to Michigan.

How can Gerg be blamed when he didn't have the ability to pick a single defensive assistant?  Is it a coincidence that Shafer looked terrible with these assistants and now Gerg does?  Shafer is proving he's one hell of a DC as 'cuse. Why would any decent DC want to come into a situation where he has terrible assistants forced on him just because they are the HCs friends?

im not going to say fire gerg, but why is he not the one yelling at the players to make a stop.  Pulling them aside, explaining do this, don't do that.  No turnovers on the day and they still lose by 10.  Sure the refs had some shady ass calls, but PSU won on the 3rd down conversion everytime! With a walk-on qb at that, scary what might of happened with bolden in at qb.  3rd and 4, lets play zone safeties are so far deep, the out is covered so the slot is wide open with the curl.  No adjustments at all. 

I know we are short on defensive talent, but I would like to think that a top notch DC would find a way to force a walk-on to try to beat us, rather than let him get into a position where the only throws that he has to make are the ones that any walk-on could make.  We do seem to get RPS'd to death, regardless of the players.

We can't have another DC switch. I think that'd sink year four faster than anything else. The guys like GERG. He just needs to lay the hammer down more. Challenge them to succeed more. He's acting too much like their dad on the sidelines. RR fired up the D with his pep talk where he butted in in front of GERG and started yelling, and they went out and played their hearts out for the rest of that series. 

This "GERG" deserves more of the blame for Michigan's collapse than RR

The defense has done absolutely nothing to help the offense out

He beat Syracuse all three years that Robinson was there, and WVU put up 41 and 55 points on Robinson's defense in 2006 and 2007.

If it was due to Robinson's tenure with Denver during its Elway-led Super Bowl run, you can balance that out with a 6-10 season as DC with the Jets in 1994, and getting fired as DC by KC after the 2003 season. Besides, if Super Bowl rings automatically translated into college coaching success, then Charlie Weis would still be at ND.

If it was due to Robinson's tenure at UCLA, consider this: from '82 through '88, Robinson was Terry Donahue's DL coach, and during that span UCLA went 66-17-4, and won 7 straight bowl games. In 1989, Robinson was elevated to DC. UCLA promptly went 3-7-1.

If it was due to Robinson's single season at Texas in 2004, that ignores the fact that Robinson was only co-DC and certainly didn't build that defense.

My suspicion all along has been that RR hired Robinson because he knew that GERG was not a fire-breathing guy who would demand that all his assistants do it his way. RR knew that Shafer had no support from the defensive coaches that he brought with him, and figured that an easy-going guy like Robinson would "get along" with the existing staff.

I have the same opinion now about the hiring of Robinson that I did the day I incredulously heard that RR had selected him: Rich Rodriguez may have very possibly hitched his wagon to a horse who was going to drive it over the cliff.

This is RR 3rd year and we are playing 4-5 freshman in the secondary.Why? Because we can't retain anybody.Guys with no shot of being drafted would rather move on and play on the nfl meat squad than stick around.If your a 5 star recruit and weigh 193 instead of the 185 that is demanded,well than you won't be playing.If you are a 5 star corner who is coached to play 15 yards off the LOS and then give up a million yards receiving each week, you too will be benched.We will continually be playing freshman or backups or worse yet walk-ons forever as long as this coaching staff is here.If RR is here next year or the year after it will still be the same thing over and over again."We are still very young in the secondary", but just wait till we get some experience back there.     This is like watching Loyola Marymount basketball back in the day(176-163).This defense sux and always will as long as RR is still here.

...that RR, for some reason, isn't the right coach for Michigan. Will one more year make a difference? Probably not defensively. We'll struggle mightily next year, too, notwithstanding the new recruits coming in. 

Not sure what to do. Is it the kids? The coaching? The schemes? I just don't know. I recall a play lastnight when Penn State was driving late and threw a long pass toward the end zone. Their receiver dropped the ball in front of Floyd which was clearly a catchable ball. Floyd was so tentative and out of position that I'm thinking it's more of the "bend but don't break" coaching philosophy that's affected the players than it is the players themselves. 

It's probably time for a defensive coaching change, but RR likes GERG a lot, so both coaches may have to go. 

Dammit. No good options here.

Could be the best solution for both sides. Not like we wouldn't be able to field a defense next week without him.

DBs are:

• out of position constantly
• can't tackle
• can't cover
• don't use proper technique
• and have had more attrition than just about any other position on the team.

Anyone else think we should hold Tony Gibson's feet to the fire? 

I do.

but part of the blame has to be shouldered by RR.  He is the head coach.  I think not only GERG needs to go but the whole defensive staff.....