A few clarifying facts about Oregon-Arizona
Why does this require it's own post? Because some people are going to suggest that Zona' performance is "proof" of RR's status as the next Saban.
Here's why it it questionable.
Oregon's OL is flat out atrocious due to injuries. They gave up 7 sacks to Washington State's crappy defense. If WSU can cause havoc in Oregon's backfield than that suggests Oregon isn't very good at this blocking thing. In all honesty we ought to have been on upset alert after Oregon struggled to beat what is a bad Washington State team.
Secondly, Arizona is 75th in the nation(after tonight) in scoring defense. That is atrocious and reminiscent to what RR did at UM.So contrary to what some have suggested RR still does not have a good defense.Casteel is not the miracle worker some have made him out to be.
It's about fit and RR fits better in the Pac 12 than in the Big Ten. RR's emphasis is on speed while the Big Ten is size and power.
In having said all that it has to feel good for RR for his team to flourish whilst UM's goes Three Mile Island. The injustice he was subjected to by some UM "supporters" while head coach has to have Rodriguez' inner Nelson express itself.
UM is an embarrassment. Arizona is seemingly on the rise. What a perfect storm of suck this is for Dave Brandon and Michigan fans.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:35 AM ^
thread. It pains me to agree 100%
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:09 AM ^
UM would get throttled in Arizona.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:26 AM ^
UM got throttled in AA last week.
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:57 AM ^
Let's call a spade a spade. RR's defense is a ton better with Casteel. Could have come in handy in 2010.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:02 AM ^
Again, check the facts. The facts say Arizona is terrible on defense even though they have played a pretty soft early schedule.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:10 AM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:11 AM ^
Scoring defense sucks. Use better measures such as YPP, FEI, etc. Might as well say Verlander has been great with his 15 wins this year.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:14 AM ^
from scoring. Scoring defense is the best measure of a defense as that is why a defense exists. I realize special teams and offensive mistakes can distort the numbers, but in that case one can go to yardage numbers.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:22 AM ^
Try again.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:42 AM ^
Okay, what if a team plays faster than most teams, which allows the other offense to pile up more numbers?
And I thought below you indicated that record was the only stat that matters?
You're flailing.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
and, I assure you, that you are swaying no one.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:12 AM ^
When you think that Arizona = Michigan, you lose all credibility.
Face it: RR did poorly here is first three years, but with the right DC in year 4, he was going to be fine and we were going to be fine going forward. Instead, we fired him so we could get our Michigan Man, who with the full support of the AD cratered our football program.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:19 AM ^
I agree with what you are saying. But he's winning the games he's supposed to. And as it seems to me, he's winning games he's not supposed to as well.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:46 AM ^
I haven't seen anything from our team to suggest that we would have had the same record as Arizona's with their schedule.
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:10 AM ^
I have seen a lot from our team to suggest that we wouldn't have the same record as Arizona's with their schedule.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:14 AM ^
And yet, they beat the #2 team in the nation on the road. Huh.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^
The facts say that Arizona gave up fewer points per game and fewer yards per play than Michigan did last year.
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:58 AM ^
There is no doubt that RR is a very good to great coach. There is also no doubt that he wasn't a very good coach for Michigan. This was due to factors for which both RR and the Unuversity community are attrubtable.
But he's certainly better than Hoke and I'd take RR over Hoke any day and twice on Sunday. This isn't a statement about RR as much as it is about Hoke, of course, as I'd take any and all but 5-6 HCs ahead of Hoke at this point.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:01 AM ^
The point I was trying to make--one the RR slappies missed--is that this a flawed football coach. He is not Bear Bryant or Nick Saban. He is an excellent offensive mind who has problems with fielding good defenses. That works at a WVU or Arizona, but not at a Michigan.
Hoke is not an offensive or defensive mind, but a position coach. He is the Rod Marinelli of college football.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:16 AM ^
Dude: Last year Arizona had the 26th ranked defense in the country by FEI. That was better than Michigan's.
You don't need a great defense to be good in the Big Ten. Ohio State did not have a great defense last year and nearly won the damn thing.
Your mindset of "it can't work in the Big Ten" is one of the dumbest opinions around. The Big Ten is not special. The Big Ten sucks. Any system can work given the right timing (not coming in when Threet/Sheridan are your QBs, replacing your whole offense, not getting your DC, etc.) coach and players. Rich Rodriguez did not have that.
When you have a head coach, you know what you should do? What our AD did with Hoke: Support him. So when Rodriguez wanted Jeff Casteel (who is just as good as Greg Mattison), guess what? They should have went out and got him Jeff Casteel.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:25 AM ^
I said that it is predicated on something(speed alone) which I doubt can work here. . OSU was smacked around by MSU in that second half. Why? Because OSU was a soft team that could not take the constant pounding of MSU. Is that related to the spread? I have no idea. But I know what I saw. I saw an OSU team physically dominated by a less talented MSU team.
You can't ignore that.
And the FEI is a great stat, but it isn't the best of measures. That comes in the form of record> What was Zona's record? 8-5. 3-5 in the Pac-12. You are what your record says you are.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:36 AM ^
So you're ignoring the 24 games in a row OSU won to focus on the .5 of one game that fits what you believe.
Good stuff.
Now you're just spouting announcer platitudes. You need to let it go. You were both right and wrong about Rodriguez. But there's no question he should have never been fired for Brady Hoke.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:43 AM ^
Michigan is 2-3.
Arizona is 5-0.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:40 AM ^
Well, if you are what your record says you are then wtf are you doing creating a thread about why a 5-0 team and coach really aren't what their record says they are? Make up your mind.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^
Are you unaware that Oregon beat MSU's ass earlier this year?
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:08 AM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^
5-0
1-0 against top two teams ON THE ROAD.
You are what your record says you are... right? So the rest of your bullshit is just.. well, bullshit.. right?
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:42 AM ^
a million times this.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
or Nick Saban -1. And you don't think that is good enough for Michigan?
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:10 AM ^
So, while I get you saying how good he is now, that wasn't the Richrod that we had at Michigan. Also, his defense still kind of sucks, awesome game against the ducks notwithstanding.
October 3rd, 2014 at 10:43 AM ^
The point of the people negging the OP is that RR was bad at Michigan because he had no support from the athletic department. RR was welcomed at Arizona with open arms and given the money he needed to hire the coaches he wanted. When he was hired at Michigan he was not supported one bit by the athletic department. I mean Carr was calling players into his office and telling them he would sign their transfer papers. Where's the support in that?
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:59 AM ^
Wonder how Brady Hoke would do on a trip to Eugene...you think he'd soil himself like he did against Penn State or Nebraska?
This post is pathetic, get off your high horse. How about instead of being negative and offering excuses about why RR was lucky to win, you give RR the praise he deserves? Alternatively, "...Learn when to shut up"
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:05 AM ^
It's about looking at the issue honestly. Yes, Michigan would be curbstomped in Eugene. I never that they wouldn't or that Hoke was even half the coach RR was. Your strawman thus destroyed I now have to tell to learn how to formulate an argument based on what someone actually writes or says. Inventing ideas to make your response work is not a legitimate form of argumentation.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:43 AM ^
Mgoblog...forum for the almighty Salvatore Quattro attempting to apply Arguments 101 from 1L at 6:30 am.
Spotty grammar though, parts of your post are difficult to interpret.
C+, keep trying.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:02 AM ^
I would hope the fanbase has learned something from running RR out based in part on offensive style and then watching OSU beat us into the ground with that same offense. I guess not.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:11 AM ^
and OSU has plenty of speed AND power.(Um, Carlos Hyde?)
The best teams in the Pac-12 have traditionally been those who blend speed and power(SC) or who perfected a style of play that fits their personnel(Oregon, Stanford).
I don't know if speed alone works in cold weather. I haven't seen it work . All I remember is UM being pushed all across the field by Big Ten offenses and being stymied by the better defenses in the Big Ten under RichRod. Are you telling me to ignore what I witnessed for two years?(Not counting the transition year)
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:20 AM ^
This is such BS. Cold weather?
You mean like maybe the last 1 or 2 games of the year?
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:00 AM ^
IU and NU have had terrible defenses, and that is why they have not won. It has nothing to do with their offenses. And now Urban runs a power system because he had one power back that he didn't even recruit? Come on man. We ran Brandon minor under RR. Did that make RR's system a power system, whatever that even means?
If the PAC12 style doesn't work in the B1G, then how come the PAC12 teams are running B1G teams all over the field when they play each other? It's amazing to me that some people are so wedded to our 90s offensive style that they will invent any reason to keep it, ignoring the mounds and mounds of evidence that the spread will work, and has worked, everywhere.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:24 AM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 8:43 AM ^
Morgantown, WV can't be much warmer than Ann Arbor. A quick google search shows that the average low temperature in Morgantown, WV is ~35 degrees in November and the average low temperature in Ann Arbor is ~32.1 degrees in November.
RR's speed seemed to do well against teams in the tropical climates of Pittsburgh, Cincinatti, Rutgers (New Jersey) and UCONN.
You might want to look at a climate map before regurgitating cliches.
October 3rd, 2014 at 9:16 AM ^
No one is telling you to ignore it, but you have to recognize the qualifiers of why we were getting pushed around - youth and inexperience.
And by the way, how is our D right now? Not looking so hot giving up long drive after long drive to Utah and Minnesota. And we have better talent than we did at any point under RRod.
October 4th, 2014 at 1:31 PM ^
He had Martin, RVB, Heininger, he had a chance to recruit good defensive players and didn't.
So bullshit argument. It's not like on offense where he was given dog shit to work with. He was given a defense and had the oppotunity to recruit more help.
He failed.
Offense he gets the biggest passes of passes. He had nothing.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:04 AM ^
Karma's a bitch.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:09 AM ^
We pissed our bed, then shit it, then set it on fire and now we're lying in it. We could not possibly deserve this more.
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^
but don't foget he also oversaw 3 of the worst years of Michigan football ever and the worst defense we've ever seen. I wanted to give RichRod another year but couldn't argue when he was canned. He failed at Michigan. His offense was good but never good enough to overcome how bad his defenses were
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:04 AM ^
Wait. Does this mean RR's D > Dantonio's D? Fire Dantonio
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:16 AM ^
Yeah he missed Oregon doing that little number didn't he?
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:14 AM ^
Here's the clarification every one on this board has to come to terms with. UM had it everything it needed in coach Rodriguez. An offensive minded coach for the offensive game of football that is played in the 21st century. And then we fired him because he wasn't a "Michigan Man". Simply put - we BLEW IT! And we will continue to pay a heavy price as long as this nostaligic and antiquated concept continues to dictate the conversation. God speed boys.
October 3rd, 2014 at 7:19 AM ^
When was his last conference title?
I want to be like Bama--great defense and very effective offense. That is what is dominance is. LSU had the same thing under Miles. UF under Meyer ran a spread, but it was their defense that beat OSU.FSU had a great defense last year(slowdown Auburn).
The dominant football of the early 21st century is great defense with an offense that uses pro style and spread concepts.