are you looking for RR to be fired?
No, I like RR. But I don't get why people are saying we are going to be so much better this year. Our D will still be bad. You can't say our offense will be good by watching Tate burn our 2nd and 3rd team D.
Given how bad both our offense and defense were last year, we were in good position to win against Utah, Toledo, Purdue, and Northwestern. While our defense won't be good this year, it won't be any worse than what it was last year, especially given the fact that our offense has improved. Our line is much more improved, and we have a quarterback who, if anything, can at least is accurate and will be able to get the ball to our playmakers on short passes and screens. Given all that, I don't see why you cannot possibly think we will be vastly improved from last year.
If you look at my prediction in the latest diary, I said we will go 5-7 or 6-6. This year all 4 of our road games will be hard games to win. Also, PSU and OSU at home will be hard. ND and WMU are not easy games either.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:24 PM ^
WMU is a little overrated if you ask me. Yes they do return their offensive stars, but they are replacing pretty much everyone on defense.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:06 AM ^
And replacing their star QB who had knee surgery in January. I can't imagine him being 100% in that short of time. So, more than likely they'll have a true freshmen starting his first game, and in the big house, of all places. I think UM will be fine that game. WMU defense is all new players.
I don't think many people around THIS board are saying "so much better". I think most people here are saying 6-6, 7-5, which is within the realm of reality.
Four more wins this year with a harder schedule will be pretty difficult. I would love to see us go 7-5 or even better, but I don't think it will happen. Maybe I am too pessimistic.
I actually think its an easier schedule. We get WMU, EMU, Delaware State, Purdue and Indiana all at home.
Our road games are harder though. @ MSU, Wisky, Iowa, and Illinois. Those are all tough.
I'd rather play at any of those stadiums than at Notre Dame, Penn State and OSU like we did last year.
to last year as seen in the post above
But last year we did play @Minn and @ Purdue-2 games we should have won.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:24 AM ^
Do you remember Sheridan played the game of his life at Minnesota and we kicked their ass
April 17th, 2009 at 10:05 PM ^
I like Turtles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y
for any 'on the field' reasons in 2009. book it.
Nice use of the Moeller clause on your guarantee.
I saw him before a game last year - nice guy. (sans booze).
Nice guy who got caught in an uncharacteristic, shitty situation that will invariably come out in a book someday, at which point we'll all realize how badly the ball was dropped at almost every level of that event.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:33 AM ^
Bill Martin would look HORRIBLE if he fired RR for a low win total this early in his tenure, even if we went 3-9 again (which we won't). As long as Martin is our AD, RR is getting AT LEAST three years.
They will not be under 500 and he will not be fired
I haven't been on this website for that long, but what were people saying our record would be before last year?
Informative headline
Fixed.
How many games would Pete Carroll have to lose to get fired? I mean really, if he lost every game, would they fire him??
I'm sorry, but questions like these really aren't worth being discussed. We went through a complete personnel transformation and paid a price in terms of wins. We'd have to do all over again, going through player transfers and such all over again if we fired RR (and thus the entire staff).
It'd set us back even more.
If we go 3-9 again this year and lose to Delaware state, then I'll shut up.
( I'm just disgruntled with this fire the coach thing, that's all)
Comparing RR at Michigan to Pete Carroll at USC isn't a very good comparison at all. I beleive RR has a much shorter leash.
Otherwise, I agree with everything you said. Rich Rod won't be fired for any one the field issues for 2-3 years and by that time we wont have to worry.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:35 PM ^
you're right, he does. i was just trying to make a sarcastic point about something so hypothetical, in no way trying to compare the two.
I mean, T-Force just kicked the ever-living beanie babies out of Delaware (in blue), so how hard can D-State be?
I see what you did there.
Funny!
Seriously, there is like no way we are going 3-9 again. You can tell your grandkids all about how you lived through the 'Great Depression' because that ain't goin' to happen again.
And (can you start a sentence with 'and'?) if that isn't going to happen, Coach Rod isn't going to get fired.
End of story, move along..
For the record, I don't want him fired. I think he is a good guy and a good coach. If, somehow, they went 3-9 again and he was fired, we would probably bring in a guy who runs a pro-style offense (mainly because there aren't too many other good coaches running the spread). That would mean recruiting more pro-style guys (of which we have very few) and would take 3-5 years to be rebuild again. As far as I see it, we are screwed if he has another bad year.
That is all he has to do. Show that the program is going in the right direction and his job will be safe.
Oh yeah ... winning a few more games would not hurt either
April 17th, 2009 at 10:02 PM ^
RR WENT 3-9 HIS FIRST YEAR AT WVU 2ND YEAR 9-3,ARE SCHEDULE IS VARY FAVORABLE
April 17th, 2009 at 11:44 PM ^
Jeez.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:33 PM ^
2-10 plus a conviction for dealing crack
April 17th, 2009 at 10:47 PM ^
There are NO Greg Paulus discussions in this thread.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE
April 17th, 2009 at 11:53 PM ^
RR is not getting fired. UM will not lose enough games for that to happen. And I still think they can go 9-3.
THIS IS THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN!!!!! It is not Nebraska, which suffered much more from the advent of steroid testing than coaching changes.
And yes, I may be going "post hoc ergo propter hoc" on the Nebraska thing, but the very year they started testing for steroids, the traditional pool of 185 pound walkons who were "corn fed" and developed into 320 pound linemen somehow started to dry up. And their team stopped pushing people around. Iowa suddenly shrunk and decreased production, too.
I don't believe in coincidence, especially in football.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:07 AM ^
And I always thought is was just OSU (Obvious Steriod Use).
Ouch. On a similar note did anyone see Tony Mandarich's story in SI? He named names.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:53 AM ^
i'd say less than 3 wins and the angry torch bearing mob might be large enough to change something but i think the AD will give him at least 2 more years no matter what