D. Howard with scathing indictment

while lying in bed and watching Gameday, it made me cringe and just another reason why I'm enjoying college football less and less as Michigan mires through this seemingly endless BS we are enduring as a fan base.

I'm watching MSU look sharp again, maybe we should hire Narduzzi, he can keep Nuss since he fits the mold that Narduzzi wants to maintain offensively or go get a great OC. At least we would be great defensively, I know Defense is not the problem as much, I just want a leader as coach, not a clapper who mumbles dumb answers all the time.

I think there are major chemistry issues on the team. There are no leaders among the players. The team does not have complete confidence in what they are doing. For example, if the QB is inaccurate it's easy for WRs to not give it their all knowing that they are not going to be found open, going to be laid out by DBs, or have to make a circus catch just to make a play. Anyone who has played organized sports knows that if you are on a team with players that you can't count on or keep messing up, you are just now going to play as hard or execute as well. When the trust is there, confidence and effort follow.

Worst part of all we are hearing is that is does not sound like the types of issues that can get sorted out in a season.  Pracvtice habits pay off over years, not weeks, even if we change our habits it may not make a difference on the field this season.

Where was Desmond a few weeks ago?  He had us #6 in the country, did he not see these problems then?  I know Desmond is a great Wolverine, but it seems a little like piling on, Desmond was touting us for a darkhorse run at the playoffs just a few weeks ago, he had surely attended several practices before then.

if he discussed this with Hoke or brought it up on espn for the first time this morning.

I couldn't speak on behalf of the whole team, but I had a class last year where I would hear Kalis and another lineman (not sure who, but I think it was Braden) would discuss workouts. Kalis seemed to have to do the workouts later in the day after the other lineman had already completed it (probably just how their class schedules worked out?) Anyways, on multiple occassions I heard Kalis ask if the workout was easy, and just talk in a way that showed he does the bare minimum of what the coaches ask and not going above and beyond to improve and make himself better. This is why I'm not surprised when the "5 star" lineman isn't amounting to much so far at Michigan. With Desmond making these comments, it makes me feel like it's not just Kalis who doesn't have the drive, and that it's more of a team wide problem. You can't expect to be great because you have recruited great. It takes an insane work ethic to be great in anything. Until the mindset changes within the program, we are going to be mediocre at best. 

All this reminds me of that scene in "Bull Durham" where the manager goes into the shower and heaves a bunch of baseball bats and starts yelling at the players.

It's time someone do that here.

I agree with an earlier poster, he's trying to light a fire under the team's behind to get working.

I do remember that when Bo came in, he thought that Bump ran a "country club" program, and told the team those days were over. One of my friends (a tight end) quit the team, telling me that Bo was out of his mind, they'd worked so hard, etc.

But Bo was right, and so is Desmond.

Just saying what he sees. I agree with him. This team looks lethargic on the field. They don't look hungry at all. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I think it's fair to blame Hoke at this point.

I like Hoke. I'm rooting for him. I'd like to see him turn it around and get one more year. But he needs to get this team playing with a little passion.

I don't think this is an indictment on Hoke, it's an indictment on the players.  I'm not admonishing Hoke and the coaches completely, they recruited these kids and are coaching them, but the coaches are doing enough to put players in a posiiton to win IMO.  The players just aren't as good compared to their counterparts as they were, say 15 year ago.  There is one playmaker on offense, Funchess, and he doesn't appear to be the most passionate guy.  He can dominate at times based on his skill set, but he never gets fired up or seems to over-exert himself.  As our top offensive player he should be leading and holding others accountable if they aren't executing.  Players will play for others players if they are faced with consequences such as getting yelled at by their teammates.  That is a part of leadership and a part I don't see.  There's no fire.  I'd almost like to see a sideline fight amongst teammates to show they care enough the fight and won't accept failure and losing.  I thnk they acept losing too easily.  If anything he takes too many plays off.  We do have a few playmakers on defense, but one of them is playing a new position (Ryan), Clark has been solid, and the rest are either young and developing or injured (Peppers, Lewis, Wilson, Henry, etc.).  I think the defensive side of the ball will show more playmakers as the year goes on and into next year.  I still question where the playmakers are on offense.  I haven't seen it yet from the o-line or skill positions outside of Funchess.  Hopefully the offense will develop more as these rising freshman and sophomores become upperclassman.  But, these players just aren't better than the competition the way they were in the pre-'07 era.  And the lack of dominance on the o-line is a huge factor when playing a pro-style offense.  We just don't win that many one-on-one matchups.  IDK maybe offensive innovations are changing things as was alluded to in the a diary and we are behind the times, maybe we don't get the recruits from the south and west that we used to, but the playmakers just aren't there right now.  Where are all the tough guys that don't care what anyone else thinks and are willing to get in the faces of their teammates and push them and force them to be accountable to their own team and lead by example?  I don't see that...too much entitlement and not enough passion.

I'm not sure I'm buying this, at least for a team wide thing. Our defense has been stellar, and Mattison continues to rave about how much he likes this unit and how they come to work everyday in practice. There's no doubt there's probably some guys that are riding the pine right now that thought they would be stars at this point in their career and they might be mailing it in.

Leader and best!

I think it was a dig at everyone's ego on the entire team to "dig a little deeper within yourself".

I think that's completely appropriate and I think the missive about the "legacy jerseys" was stating if you wear one of those, you need to step up on every single play.  Funchess donkeying on blocking assignments was just a really visible one.  But he's wearing #1 and that's not acceptable play for the person wearing that in my opinion.  Use those 230# and bury that guy into the dirt.  Because even if its just one play its chipping away at that DB's stamina.

His comments would be more credible if made before the ND game.  Now it just sounds like piling on.  It could also be frustration or an attempt at motivation.

IMO the biggest problem with this team continues to be youth and inexperience and I still think they could improve significantly this season.  Sometimes uncertainty and indecisiveness can be mistaken for lack of effort.

Regardless of whether what he says is true or not, and regardless of whether or not something like this affects the players...the fact that one of our Heisman Trophy winners (and perhaps our most visible alum) just ripped apart this team, specifically the players, on ESPN Gameday is unpercedented and absolutely harrowing.

If this isn't rock bottom for our program, we'll see it soon.

I love Desmond but hate that he had to bring this up on Gameday when these kids have to go out there and play later on in the day. Poor timing IMHO.

Some of y'all are so dramatic. Have you ever even played competitive sports? Do you think a few negative comments are going to make guys on the team start crying in ther cheerios?