Mr. Yost

November 28th, 2013 at 8:34 AM ^

As soon as those Peppers comments came out I called this. Check the history, it's there.

Yes, I want a cookie.

Btw, for those bashing Brandon. Shut up. He can't publically praise a man he fired and replaced while the guy he replaced his struggling. It's common sense and PR 101. Stop attacking the man's character of an omission that is the RIGHT call. If Brandon mentions RR anywhere in this statement, the press would eat it up. It's common fucking sense for anyone who knows anything about athletics administration.

Also, Rich Rod is currently employed. You don't comment on another coach at another school.

Use your heads and stop the blind hatred. Get mad over the ticket prices, not this.

Mr. Yost

November 28th, 2013 at 8:43 AM ^

The fact that he didn't comment on one of his OWN coaches...while commenting on another of the same status/level.

That says WAY more than not mentioning Rich Rod.

Borges has 2 games to keep his job. It's plain and simple.

But again, you don't mention Rich Rod. Ever.

...if you praise him, you've undermined your current coach. If you knock him...you're unprofessional and made a jab at a coach at another school who said nothing about you. It's in very poor taste.

Either way, mention Rich Rod and you take the attention off of Hoke and his vote of confidence. That would've been a horrible move.

Coach Carr is retired. He can mention him. Do you think Money Bags Brandon doesn't understand the significance of Denard Robinson? The guy wad a CEO of a major company. He knows money. He knows Denards legs and dreads made a lot of it for him and his department.

He may be an ass...but he's not stupid. He worded this exactly how he wanted. He wanted to mention Mattison and not Borges. Mattison would also be Peppers coordinator so it helps to point out his accomplishments. Peppers isn't the main reason you do anything...but it's icing to mention, hey by the way...our DC kicks ass. He also knew better than to mention a former coach who HE fired. Duh!!!

Michigan Arrogance

November 28th, 2013 at 8:58 AM ^

you have to agree with this if you have any brains in your head.

yeah, it's kind of a sin of omission to exclude RR and Borges in those quotes.

it was also the only logical way to proceed. under no circumstances should DB make a comment about a fired HC.

I think people here are using this as a jumping off point to argue about the amount of blame RR and BH should get for this seasons malaise. to some, RR deserves ZERO credit for anything at all, to some, he deserve ALL the blame.

Blue in Yarmouth

November 28th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^

I always loved RR and personally think it is a bit of a slap in the face to him, but honestly I don't think there is any possible way you can reference him in this instance. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, only less damned if you don't, so he chose that option. I can't stand DB personally, but I completely understand why he said what he did even if if it was complete BS. 

PurpleStuff

November 28th, 2013 at 11:10 AM ^

Brandon basically said the 2011 team was only good because of a few experienced upperclassmen who were Lloyd Carr recruits (who had previously been "underachieving") and Brady Hoke's arrival, and all our struggles before and since are because of Rich Rodriguez, and we'll only be good (like in the glory days under Lloyd Carr) once that RR stink finally wears off completely. 

As for those Carr recruits who had been underachieving:

Former walk-on Will Heininger didn't do much in 2010, probably because he missed the entire season with an injury.  Same goes for Troy Woolfolk (though he would also get hurt in 2011 and eventually get benched in favor of Blake Countess).  Kevin Koger went from 199 yards in 2010 to 244 yards in 2011 (of course, Martell Webb had graduated so overall production at TE actually fell by 22 yards).  David Molk was one of three finalists for the Rimington Award in 2010, then won the award in 2011 (maybe he got a lot better, or maybe the other finalists graduated).  Junior Hemingway (who missed a couple games with injury in 2010) went from 59.3 ypg and 4 TD to 53.8 ypg and 4 TD under Hoke's tutelage.  No Carr recruit threw a pass or gained a single rushing yard in 2011.  Mike Martin (playing on a hobbled ankle in 2010) was 2nd team All-B1G.  In 2011 he was again 2nd team All-B1G.  Ryan Van Bergen did go from 4 sacks in 2010 to 5.5 in 2011 (I guess that may be worth 4 wins?).  Mark Huyge did go from splitting time with Perry Dorrestein to starting full time at RT, so that probably is the difference right there.  Thanks, Mark!  Though you should really apologize for screwing everything up for us for so long.

Boy am I glad those guys finally stopped shitting the bed so we could be good. 

Getting better had nothing to do with Fitz finally being healthy, Schofield adequately replacing Schilling, Heininger coming back, replacing Ezeh/Mouton/Rogers with three freshmen RR recruited who will all be 4 year starters (Morgan/Ryan/Countess), and a bunch of guys who played as underclassmen growing up (Floyd, Gordon, Kovacs, Avery, Carr recruit Kenny Demens, Roundtree, Gallon, Denard, Lewan, Omameh, Roh, Black, Gibbons, etc.).

Brandon is either a liar twisting an argument to support the guy he likes or a complete idiot with no concept of what our football team is doing.

Blue in Yarmouth

November 29th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^

I agree with everything you said, just to clarify. The last part of my post said everything DB said was complete BS, but that doesnt' change the fact that giving RR any credit (which he absolutely deserves) would have been a good idea in this context. That's all I'm saying. He should have just said they had a great season in '11 and left it at that, but not many people would ever accuse DB of being in touch with the needs of the fanbase. 

CLord

November 29th, 2013 at 12:26 AM ^

Sorry no.  There is nothing Al Borges can do in the next two games to keep his job.  His incompetence has extended into virtually every aspect of his job description, and his offense this year has embarrassed Wolverine nation ten orders of magnitude more than Josh Groban because at least that fiasco wasn't before national audiences.

Al is a good man, a decent man, and a class act, and used to be something before electricity, but when you're the third highest paid offensive coordinator in the country, and your incompetence impacts hundreds of thousands of Michigan fans, not to mention the hopes and dreams of seniors like Lewan and Gardner and Trouissant, niceness doesn't cut it.

fatbastard

November 29th, 2013 at 1:56 AM ^

"ten orders of magnitude more than Josh Groban because at least that fiasco wasn't before national audiences"  was pretty bad, and the crap on the field seen for three seasons leading to that was the absolute worst Michigan football anyone still alive has ever seen from the home team in Michigan Stadium!

westwardwolverine

November 29th, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^

Wrong. 

The offense in November is literally the worst either an offense or a defense has played over the course of a month in the past 7 years. Its probably the worst all time. 

Here is the worst month for total defense and total offense during the RR era:

Offense:

110th overall September of 2008.

Defense:

111th overall October of 2010.

Al Borges offense is currently ranked 122nd overall in the month of November. This is uncharted territory for Michigan. If it wasn't for the Northwestern OT, we'd probably be dead last in just about every offensive category for this month. 

 

 

maizenbluenc

November 28th, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^

surrounding Rich Rod by not mentioning Lloyd Carr. The fact that he praises Carr's recruiting and says nothing about Rich's when many of the key contributors on this team are Rodriquez recruits lays the base of the blame on Rich Rodriguez's shoes. (Granted, yeah the Oline problems are part on Rodrigeuz recruiting, but also part on The Process ...)

This is a very interesting statement for who is, and who is not mentioned. If I were Al Borges, I would be sweating bullets.

fatbastard

November 29th, 2013 at 2:01 AM ^

appropriate, and correct, to mention Lloyd Carr, and his recruits.  Lloyd Carr is a great man, who won the only National Championship for Michigan in the last 60 years.  The seniors on that team played well under Brady, and the depth Lloyd left for Rodriguez was far, far more talented and deep than the senior we have now. 

goblue16

November 27th, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^

I think Borges is canned for sure as much as I and everyone else hate Brandon, he's not stupid. He knows what the problem is my only question is do we trust him enough to make a good hire going forward? And who would u hire anyways? My choice has been Lane kiffin from the start. Discuss

WolvinLA2

November 27th, 2013 at 7:36 PM ^

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Cameron is a legit option.  He is employed at the same position at a school on equal ground for a HC he's close friends with.  Why would he leave?  I highly doubt we could/would pay him more than LSU would be willing to.

uofmdds96

November 27th, 2013 at 8:10 PM ^

Could Tom Brady just hurry up and win the Super Bowl again so he can retire and come back to the Motherland and be our OC? Forget the money, take Borges' salary and give it to an NFL lne coach of your choosing and blow this MOTHER up! C'mon Tommy!

ilah17

November 27th, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^

I have dreamed of Mike Hart and Tom Brady joining our coaching staff for a long time now. I think Hart is more likely but a girl can dream, right? I don't think Tom will go into broadcasting. I think that's too far away from the real game for him. As someone else said, he's pretty much an on-field coach right now. One of the things I love most about him is how his teammates are always talking about his leadership and teaching. I think he would be a fantastic coach!

Bodogblog

November 27th, 2013 at 8:16 PM ^

And I think they will. Hoke says it's not good enough if we're not winning B1G titles. He has to put his money where his mouth is, because the offense isn't near good enough. Brandon has to do the same. We can't watch our rival down south go 23-0 (let alone Sparty) and not react.

blueheron

November 27th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^

For different reasons, Les and Cam would be wise to spend the rest of their careers well south of the Mason-Dixon line.

In the case of Les, he has grown accustomed to a culture of cheating (at Okie State and now at LSU). (I realize there are degrees of cheating. I just think it's worse in the SEC.)

Cam is probably a good citizen, but his world view fits the Deep South better than it does the Upper Midwest. Think Bill McCartney (outside football, that is).

goblue16

November 27th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^

I don't care about how good of a HC he is. I was at the rose bowl in 07 and his offense tore out defense to shreds. He can run a prostyle offense that works. He coached one of the all time greatest offenses at USC plus he's a top notch recruiter

WolvinLA2

November 27th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^

I agree with you.  But I think that's enough to get him a mid-level BCS conference HC job.  He'll take a RR style drop to a lower level program.  I'm sure he'd rather be the HC at say Syracuse or UConn before being our OC.  Money would be better there too, most likely. 

Ben v2

November 27th, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^

Why is our AD making an OC hire?  That should the the HC's decision, and his decision alone.  This is Jerry Jones-level of micromanagement...

The worst part is that even with that level of micromanagement, we will end up with Debord calling 898908908 off-tackle stretch plays per game next year.

robmorren2

November 27th, 2013 at 7:52 PM ^

I actual prefer Brandon makes the decision. Too often head coaches go out and hire one of their buddies from prior coaching stops. That's fine when its the DC of the Baltimore Ravens, but I don't want some former QB coach from Ball State or an OC from SDSU. Brandon will do his research, consult with knowledgeable people, and most importantly -- bring a briefcase full of cash. I want the best OC available, not the guy Hoke likes the best.