I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Irish, I agree, in a limited fashion. I think many (most) of the participants in the MGoBlog community are pro-RR. At the very least, they're anti-knee-jerk-down-in-front-it-was-better-when-Bo-Mo-Llo-ran-the-show. The simple truth of the matter, is that we are increasingly invested in debunking the glaring ineptitude of the MSM, and the outright hostility of the Detroit Free Enquirer (err...Press). We'd like to think we're pro-rationality, and perhaps at one point in time we were, but at this point we're mostly on one side of a very nasty, very public fight for the soul of the athletic department. Rosenberg and Snyder didn't find this issue on their own. They're the mouthpiece for one side of the battle. They lie, they distort, they abuse freshmen for their own ends, they punch dolphins. The fact is, they are the public face of an agenda to discredit the AD, RR, and the modernization of Michigan football (and Michigan Stadium, for that matter). A lot of people, fans of other schools, tell me Michigan lives in the past. I'm sure ND fans can relate - wins, historical dominance, national championships, iconic stadiums - all plays well to our fanbases and our consciences, but it doesn't get it done in the modern era. We compete against schools with larger/better local talent bases, dubious ethics, free-flowing cash and Range Rovers, personal seat licenses and luxury boxes. Bill Martin's hiring of RR and modernizing of Michigan Stadium (both economically with seat licenses and premium seating and physically with luxury boxes and functional enhancements) are efforts to drag a program with a proud history into the 21st century, kicking and screaming. Screaming. A lot. The louder the cacophony of idiocy, the louder we feel the need to scream our response. To that end, the MGoBlog community has steadily migrated to the pro-RR camp, it seems, because it's a natural reaction against the lunacy so prevalent on the other side - the jump to conclusions, the race to condemn RR, the lack of family values, all of it short on evidence but long on screeching hysterics and half-truths. Has RR performed as well as we'd like? Clearly not. But any Michigan fan who's not in total denial should be able to admit that the decline started long before RR arrived in Ann Arbor. The issues have certainly come to a head during his tenure, but that doesn't mean we should all resort to all-capping UNACCEPTABLE! when we don't win 11 games with a noodle-armed walk-on QB who didn't make all-conference in high school, even if, once again, THIS IS MICHIGAN! It's just fucking exhausting having a continual battle with dimwits, halfwits and fuckwits who know nothing more than what they heard from Valenti, Snyder, Rosenberg, Sharp, or any other painfully lazy journo who did little more than parrot the same old fucking nonsense. As a result, we occasionally overreact against someone who makes reasonable arguments against RR, if for no other reason than this: the overwhelming majority of the anti-RR arguments are anything but reasonable. So, please, forgive us if we're a little battle-weary and overreactive. This fight has been going on for a long time.

Irish, Please stay out of the street. Sometimes we need an outsider's perspective.

1) I'm not sure you and I disagree all that much on this point - we both seem to be equally confused. 2) It is more than just RR's record that gains him support in these parts. I can't speak for everyone on this board, but I can tell you that Michigan was becoming irrelevant because we were simply not athletic enough to compete for national championships in the BCS era. Even in our best season in the BCS era, 2006, we were still embarrassed in the Rose Bowl by a USC team that just flat out beat us physically. The foundation of Rich Rodriguez's program is athleticism - getting better athletes matched up in space, on defense and offense. Anyone who has been following our recruiting under RR will tell you that we are recruiting athletes who can, and I believe will, compete with the best teams in the country once they get experience. This was not the sentiment during the waning years of Carr. This is not an issue of "frame of thought.;" it is an issue of whether or not you have an understanding of the reality of Michigan football over the past six years. The people who are "anti-RR" do not seem to understand the situation we were in PRIOR to RR, nor do they seem to understand the situation we are in now. It is not RR's fault that we had like 20 scholarship players on defense last season. It is not his fault that we will be starting at least one freshman in our secondary this year. These facts get ignored. 3) This issue might perhaps differ among those of us who are Michigan graduates and those of us who are just fans; I'm still not sure on this one. Speaking as a Michigan graduate, I am primarily concerned with the reputation of my school and not the wins and losses of the football team. If there were truly issues which legitimately affect our reputation as an academic institution - the mistreatment of student-athletes, paying players, basically your USC stuff - then I would be gravely concerned. Rather, what we have been faced with is a press bent on the destruction of RR for really minor things which are (very) likely done by EVERY OTHER SCHOOL, but in many cases more egregiously. You mean to tell me Michigan is somehow treating its athletes worse than most schools in the country? Perhaps that is where the bias comes in, but I believe it is legitimate. We have never been hit with major violations and if this is the manner in which we receive them, then that is a grave injustice. This isn't about what may or may not be going on at MSU, OSU, or USC. We simply point out the huge double standard because the implications of this double standard are substantial and, frankly, absurd.