How would you describe the state of our football program to a non-Michigan follower?

Still better than yours.

It depends until we have a head coach.

According to the MGoBoard, if we make a good hire, we'll be "The best program EVER!!!!!!!!"

If we make a bad hire, we are "A sinking ship!!!! I'm gonna go root for (Insert Flavor of the Month School here)"

Our program is at the level of the Star Trek franchise after the fifth movie.

Instead of telling people I am fat, I tell them I am big boned. Helps with perception 

In Limbo.

We used to win fairly consistently but we've struggled the last 3 years as our teams have been young and have not had great talent. Now we have to find a new coach who will have to please a fan base that is generally impatient and suspicious of outsiders.

unfortunate...

Right now...about 3 days after Katrina rolled in

Just after the ND Game last year...Mardi Gras any year before Katrina

After this coming signing day...The day they turned the pumps back on and the water began to recede.

I would say it has been taken hostage ... by a bunch of brain-@#$%ed fans pining for a Michigan Man.

That dominated the Big Ten for forty years. Now, it's a charlie foxtrot.

We just fired a proven head coach after a painful three year rebuilding stretch in part because the noise/anger/distractions/expectations outside the program overshadowed signs of progress and made a future even with greatly improved results look like a still-precarious future for all involved.  However, the heavy lifting has virtually all been done and I see a team poised for great things in the immediate future if a successful transition can be orchestrated.

Now it all depends on DB.  If he gets the hire right, keeps the team together, and unites the fanbase with his choice (I see guys like Harbaugh or Gruden being capable of doing this and maybe a few others), things look very bright for the near and distant future.  If he fails to do these things, we could end up on a slippery slope toward extended mediocrity if/when the program Rodriguez was building begins to crumble at the edges just as it was prepared to turn the corner toward great things.  We are at a crossroads and the next few days are huge for the future of the program.

And if he hires the chubby guy who doesn't have a winning record as a head coach, then we are ND. 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December November,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore Ann Arbor -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore Ann Arbor -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore Ann Arbor!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore Ann Arbor!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore Ann Arbor!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore Ann Arbor!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore Ann Arbor -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore Ann Arbor?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

verging on FUBAR.

We beat Florida in the Capital One bowl in 07.

I'd say to them "Look at Notre Dame. Now look at Michigan. See a difference? Neither do I."

I just spoke to someone in San Diego I haven't talked to in a couple of months and the first thing he said, "Sorry about your team."  People know.  This is Michigan and there are a lot of people happy to jump in and kick us when were down.

I would tell it to them in Uncle Rico's voice and say man if we went back in time, we could have recruited defensive backs, even could have hired Harbaugh as our QB coach. Man we would have been unstoppable. Our program can still throw a ball over that mountain.

That the program went to shit on November 17, 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lJy1idHwCc

Its rough right now but we'll be fine.

I am not sure how true all the "talk" is about the rifts inside the program, but if it is then there are bigger problems than the coach.  Because no matter who you hire there is going to be the faction that sabotages from the inside.  Whether its the MSC not wanting Harbaugh and his divorce/DUI, or Brandon wanting Hoke or Carr silently sniping from his perch if he is not on board with the hire.

Brandon seems like a really smart fella, however I think dumping RR after the OSU game should have been a reality.  I just thought all along that Harbaugh was in his back pocket and if UM had actually competed in the bowl game a 4th year was in order.  However as it shook out I find that chaos reigns.

I feel for you guys I really do.  Nothing sucks worse than hiring the wrong guy (Davie, Willingham, O'Leary, Weis).  You are currently on the Davie era heading into Willingham.  Good luck.

It's the winningest program in history, plays every home game in front of the largest crowd in the country, and will be back in the national picture in a matter of time.

"Who knows......."