"If they don't win at least six, Rodriguez should be fired"
I usually check out thebiglead.com for some random sports news, and came upon this post by an (apparent) Michigan alumni. I'm actually with his analysis (outside of "Stevie Brown should be a fluid playmaker") until the last paragraph or two, when he turned to blogsphere trick #2 to drive interest in his post - unsubstantiated claims for firing of a coach with little justification other than "look at this schedule." (Note: trick #1 is to link to pictures of attractive women).
http://thebiglead.com/?p=16672.
My take - RR and Michigan certainly look to be in better shape this year than last, and from everything I've read and seen the team is light-years ahead of where it was from a system standpoint than this time last year. That said, freshmen QBs and a younger defense do not lend themselves to dramatic turnarounds, and I think most level-headed UM fans don't expect miracles. I still think 7-6 (7-5 + bowl loss) would be a good season, and 6 wins is certainly plausible. But if the QBs play like freshmen and/or DEATH!!!!!!, and MINOR RAGE suffers through a series of minor injuries, this team could certainly go sub-.500 again. But I think the administration knows that it will take some time, and I think the real pressure comes in year 3 if this team continues to wallow in the lower 2/3 of the Big 10.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 PM ^
If they don't win at least 1 (not counting the Spring Game), Rodriguez should be fired.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:29 PM ^
Cosign
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 PM ^
seeing how Minnesota isn't on the schedule.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:58 PM ^
Thank God for Indiana... I hope...
willwill....
If you go with "that team in Indiana," you give yourself some leeway this year.....
We've got to beat at least one of them. I just looked and we play them all at home too.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:59 PM ^
In-di-ana!
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 PM ^
"Rodriguez imported a radically different offense, foisting it on players not his own. Most crucially, he did not sign Terrell Pryor, leaving the Wolverines without a suitable quarterback. Rodriguez started with a blight but did nothing to stem it. Talent and system hiccups, often, were not the issue. It was poor morale, poor communication and poor execution."
Reading the first sentence gives you an idea where the writer's head is at. Let's be sure to write off the new systems that Tressel, Carroll, Pelini, Weis, Meyer, Sarkisian have "foisted on players not their own".
Look Michigan will be probably be 6-6 this season and 7-5 if they beat Penn State in Ann Arbor this fall. It's going to be a stepping stone season anyway because of the defense. But 2010 should be a very good year for Michigan despite the murderous rival schedule (PSU, OSU, Notre Stain on the road), and 2011 should be even better.
I do agree, however, with the underlying sentiment that many people are too probably stupid to be patient. We see it everywhere we look in our society and the current economic situation. Most have to have it now, or they bail.
I'm hoping Michigan athletic dept. won't fall into that Baylor Bear trap, but hey, it might.
Many people are certainly too stupid to be patient, but I would not describe Bill Martin in that way. Barring a scandal, RR's job is safe through at least 2010.
Two things that struck me about the article:
1. The author is apparently a UM alumni, so his reaction probably should be more muted. But whatever.
2. I never understand the whole "2-years and you are out" mentality. It has never worked in the pros OR in college, yet for some reason people still think they'll be the first to turn a team around with a quick hook.
The author can't be "an alumni," unless he's got some multiple-personality deal going on. He could be an alumnus, though.
My Latin is rusty, but could one be an Alumnorum if both parents were alumni?
Indeed, society is full of herd animals. I often think of the parable in Animal Farm about how the sheep always agreed with whichever pig was speaking at that particular time, and changed their minds as soon as a new speaker emerged.
Also, Hitler: "If you say a complete falsehood enough times, the people will eventually believe it." (or something to that effect). Straight from "The Idiots' Guide to Modern Governance" by Woodrow Wilson.
Anyway, this statement: It was poor morale, poor communication and poor execution.
Implies that morale was the underlying cause to the latter two issues, which is bogus. Those players continued to bust their balls last year, even when the season was irrecoverably sunk.
Poor morale my ass; the only way someone could believe that is if they did not watch the games and have heard it a hundred times --or-- they don't know how to meaningfully watch games and heard it a hundred times. Poor communication in some cases, yes (defense). Poor execution.... obvs. But morale was not the issue.
experience upgrade, chemistry upgrade, health upgrade.
Most important, QB upgrade.
9-3 this year. Book it.
I am really glad to hear (read?) someone such as yourself give this prediction since I just bet a friend all of his winnings from last year, when I continuously bet on Michigan, that we get at least 9 wins this year.
that you are correct.
Any writer who would attack RR for not signing Pryor when UM wasn't even in the running until two months before signing day is either stupid or too lazy to do his homework. I vote for lazy.
Second...lazy.
say "aye"
All opposed...don't count.
Motion carries.
The AD gave Amaker 7 years to turn the U of M basketball program around before showing him the door. Unless Rodriguez does something stupid to embarrass the school, I doubt we'll overreact to another subpar season, it will just make his seat a little hotter. He'll still get at least 4 years to produce some acceptable results.
Rich Rod will NOT (and should not) be fired after this season no matter what happens on the field, but, you can't even begin to compare the situations that Rich Rod and Amaker walked into. Our basketball program was in the shitter and facing major NCAA sanctions when Amaker took over. That was NOT the case with the football program. If there isn't significant improvement with the football team in 2010, then Rich Rod deserves to be on the hot seat.
Most importantly, while men's basketball is expected to turn a small profit each year, football is required to turn a gigantic profit, to keep our athletic department in the black. That leads to a more heightened sense of urgency.
unless the fans aren't coming.
That's what sunk John L.
That's what sunk Amaker (that last NIT game was empty, iirc).
It isn't until the fans have given up on the team and vote with their wallets that coaches start to get fired. An athletic department can't make it without its cash cow. Once the cow doesn't produce it gets sent to the chop house.
(So to everyone who wants RR gone: Don't go to games. Don't watch on TV. Don't buy jerseys. And convince your like-minded friends to do the same.)
To everyone else: GO BLUE!
-Steve
I disagree that we have a really easy schedule. Our Big 10 slate is very hard. Three out of our four road games are places where we have lots of trouble winning even when we are better than we are now (Iowa, Wisky, MSU). We miss out on playing Minnesota and Northwestern, both of which are teams we would be favored to beat. Notre Dame is about where our program will be next year, so that game will be tough too. WMU wouldn't be tough for a team like OSU, but it will be tough for us. They showed last year that they are good enough to beat a middle tier Big 10 team which is what we probably are. WMU, ND, OSU, PSU, MSU, Iowa, and Illinois could all win 9+ games. Wisky will probably win 7. That's 8 teams on our schedule that will probably have winning records. We have to beat at least three of them to win 7 games, and that's assuming we don't blow one against Purdue, Indiana, or Eastern Michigan.
WMU is NOT as good as they were last year. Last year they were a decent team, yes they beat Illinois, but got smoked by any other decent team they played (Nebraska, Ball St. and Rice). They also snuck by powerhouses such as Temple, Buffalo and Northern Illinois by single digits.
Their QB is solid, but this year he has no one to throw to and they lost their entire defense.
And although I agree with you that Camp Randall is a tough place to play, Wisconsin will not win 7 games this year. They are not a good football team.
WMU & Wisky fans are likely saying to themselves that we aren't very good, either.
They can say that all day long, but they have a lot less to back it up with than we do about them. We return our entire offense except for a QB, Wisky returns 6 guys, and only 4 on defense. They have been going downhill with both on-field performance and recruiting. They main reason Wisconsin made a bowl last year and we didn't was OOC schedule. They had all powder puffs (should have lost to FCS Cal Poly) and we lost 3 of 4. They did about as well as we did in the Big Ten, but they got to play Indiana and we didn't. UM and UW are heading in opposite directions, and although I'm not saying that they are a pushover this fall, they aren't a 7 win team, IMO.
Any WMU fan who is truly confident against us is delusional. Outside of a QB, they have nothing coming back from a decent 2008 squad.
WMU also has a 1,000-yard rusher and four returning starters on the offensive line. Their offense is going to be really hard for us to stop. They get to play Michigan at an ideal time. I don't like relying on a freshman QB to help carry us in a shootout. They will gain at least 400 yards on us. Mark it down.
Wisky may have beaten cream puffs in their out-of-conference schedule, but we lost to one of ours. They played Ohio State and Michigan State much tougher than we did. They also beat Illinois. If Scherer had been the QB against us instead of Evridge, they probably would have beaten Michigan too. Clay is a better RB than PJ Hill. That's an upgrade for them. They did lose a lot of guys on defense and that will hurt. I think they'll probably win 3 or 4 Big 10 games. They won't be terrible.
I don't think WMU will run up 400 yards on us, but we'll just have to see. They averaged 411 yards/game last year, going up against mostly MAC defenses and having a good defense getting them the ball back. Their stats were also a little padded by putting up 633 yards against Tennessee Tech. They put up 278 in their bowl game against Rice. Because of our running game, they won't have as many possessions as they were used to last year, getting 400 yards against us will be tough.
As for Wisco, I never said they would be terrible, I just don't think they're good, and probably won't win 7 games. IMO, the MSU game is a wash, and although they played OSU tougher than us, they got absolutely destroyed against PSU, a team we played pretty close until Threet went down. I maintain that our Big Ten performance last year was comparable to theirs.
Brandon West is a very good back and a very good return man. He's not nothing.
OK, the "nothing" was certainly an exaggeration, but very good might be a stretch. There were 4 RB's in the MAC who went over 1300 yards, and he barely made a thousand (1,026). He ran over 100 yards only 4 times, 2 of which were Tennessee Tech and EMU. The other problem is they have virtually nothing else, their second highest rusher had 272 yards on the season.
It would be frustrating to go 11-1 and lose to Deleware State
I'd take that record this season!
You would, huh?
If we played in the Rose Bowl this year, I wouldn't care too much who are losses were against.
For an elite team, the Big Ten is an easy schedule. Once UM gets back where they belong, it will be the Big Three and little eight again. If UM is mediocrethis year, it will be a tough schedule. I think they will be somewhere between elite and mediocre. They aren't quite on a level where they can compete for the NC, but they should be markedly better than the middle of the Big Ten pack.
I think this will put them at the bottom of the Big Three, but above the little eight. And I still think "the Buck stops here" in November.
So long as we aren't in the "Pizza Pizza Bowl" I'll live.
The Pizza Pizza Bowl is still a bowl.
I'd be fine with ending up in the Pizza Pizza Bowl this season. It would likely mean that we won seven games, which would be a very good season for us considering we're starting a true freshman at QB, not to mention the fact that our entire defense is one giant question mark right now.
The "Pizza Pizza Bowl" is about the best name for a bowl ever. If bowls insist upon making a mockery of their names through corporate sponsorship, we may as well go to the sublimely idiotic. I like it.
From Merriam-Webster:
"Smarmy: 1 : revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness"
Whether or not one likes Rich Rodriguez himself is a matter of personal preference, but anyone who has sufficient reading comprehension skills to read the above definition and who has spent 3 minutes watching him speak would realize that what you see with RR is what you get. He is most definitely not trying to be something other than what he is, which is a blue-collar, unpretentious guy from small-town West Virginia.
Smarmy Bastard!
Coach Rod and the boys will be fine, powered by the Force and DRob.....another hack trying to garner more hits....
I disagree that not "nothing on the field will get Rodriguez fired this year". Any obvious lack of improvement, like going 2-10 with a supposedly improved offense, will get him at least to the very edge of losing his job.
I would agree that another horrific season (3-9 or worse) would probably put Rich Rod squarely in the hot seast, but, I still think he would survive to coach another year. Bill Martin's legacy as AD is tied to the success or failure of Rodriguez. He wouldn't consider firing RR after only two seasons no matter how bad this year's record may be.
It could be a very tenuous few years with BM depending on RR, and RR depending on GERG, who is depending (to a large extent) on the talent we develop and bring in. If nothing else, it's exciting.
Agreed.
now I'll sleep better at night.
panic> THIS PLACE IS A HOUSE OF CARDS! /panic
The offense is gunna be on fire, we'll be fine.