Maybe wait until next week or next month, then do this:
The most comment from all of my friends who think the coaches bear most or all of the blame for the current state of affairs and want to fire RR is that there is no way Michigan's defense is not as talented as the usual Big 10 bottom feeders who we have failed to beat this year. In other words, the cupboard isn't bare. Besides the great Decimated Defense blogs by Misopogon, please check out the UFRs and other analyses Brian did after the The Horror and the Oregon game from 2007, if you subscribe to this theory. They sound eerily similar to what is going on now.
My point is, we have and have had a problem. A big problem, and like RR says, it wasn't created over night and it isn't going to be fixed overnight. I think the problem stretches very far back. While the schemes and preparation of that time period bear much of the blame, think about our linebacking corps throughout the years. After 1997, when did we have a USC, Penn State, early 2000s Miami or OSU quality LB corps? I'm talking about fast, nose-for-the-ball players at each of the LB spots. Not just a David Harris here or there every other year. I have always thought that was our biggest weakness. It definitely goes far toward explaining our difficulties with mobile qbs (see game against Syracuse, Texas, App State, OSU, etc.). Safety was obviously just as bad and maybe worse through that span. Not coincidentally, I think, those are our biggest problem spots today. (Although I think our players' lack of experience in a 3-4 is also a big part, which also means the coaches deserve more time to prove their worth, or lack thereof)
Again, check the archive for Sept. 2007 on this site when you can. It's shocking how many problems we have from that time period are still around today. I love LC, but it has become obvious that the game passed UM by. We thought just running through the tunnel wearing the winged helmet was worth 14 points. It was in 1991. But as more and more teams were shown on TV all over the country, players realized they could go anywhere and get exposure if they were good. Our talent supply was diluted, and the failure to modernize our offensive and defensive schemes lost us a lot of games we should have won with talent that was superior, although less and less so with each year. Brian details some of these in Sept. 2007. It was very frustrating then an it is very frustrating now to be reminded of these.
Here is what I propose:
Let's value LC for doing the best he knew how (his passion for Michigan is likely unmatched; you cannot question his motivations even if you question some of his decisions).
But let's also realize that RR was put behind the 8 ball from day one because of the way 2007 went down and try to take RR at his word that he hates losing more than anyone, and that he is not making excuses by pointing out that we don't have the personnel that we need right now.
Go blue!
November 17th, 2009 at 12:53 AM ^
Good post.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:55 AM ^
That's OK, I am too.
Go Blue
November 17th, 2009 at 1:00 AM ^
Defense has been a problem since following the 97 defense. We have never had that dominating defense in which we put fear in our opponents. even the 06 defense didnt live up to expectations. They failed miserably in the two biggest games of the year.
What i can see from Robinson's defense, if you can actually see anything promising, is that were going fast and bringing heat. I still have hope for robinson and even though next year might be that much better (because of the lost of Graham and a young secondary) we should have the comfort of the offense managing the time and putting up more points.
Good analysts though about the situation of our defense. I would rather have a dominating defense and a mediocre offense then a dominating offense and horrendous defense.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^
Remember in '06, injuries and a lack of depth were a major culprit for our frustrations at the end of the season.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:17 AM ^
It really has been a building problem, and it all came crashing down on RichRods head. Its nice to see people looking at sports rationally despite every effort by todays sports coverage to just accept everything at face value.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:24 AM ^
I agree with a majority of your post. However, I think Michigan fans have a tendency to want everything. They want fast, nose-for-the-ball linebackers...and they want shutdown corners...and they want defensive ends who terrorize quarterbacks...and behemoths to clog the middle...
We've had some good defensive ends over the past decade or so. Woodley, Graham, James Hall, etc. We've had a steady string of shutdown corners (Marlin Jackson, Woodson, Hall, Warren).
You have to remember that Miami was REALLY good...and then bad...and then REALLY good...and then bad...
USC was really good...then bad in the '90s...and now they're really good again.
Michigan went to a bowl game for 33 or 34 years in a row. You might be lamenting how we aren't Miami or USC, but I'd rather have 33 straight good years than 5 good ones, 5 bad ones, 5 good ones, 5 bad ones...
November 17th, 2009 at 2:03 AM ^
Your point is well-taken. I am actually probably in the minority of people who was fine with the "great, but not elite" posture that we had for a long time, but who was and is really excited with the prospects that RR brings to the table. You certainly can't take for granted how well we did during that span, and we owe that to Bo/Mo/LC and the tradition built by those before them. My point was that parity caused the rest of the world to catch up with us, and I think we just beginning to realize it. Most of us anyway. There are some who believe you can just take a page from some book Woody Hayes supposedly wrote and keep running the ball up the gut and "we will win b/c we are Michigan and just more talented than everyone else because we just have to be." These people are convinced that the house of cards wouldn't have collapsed last year with LC, Debord, English, Loeffler, Miles, Harbaugh, Kelly or some other flavor of the month at the helm.
I would wager that if you look at the 13 or so "power programs" of the last 40 years (Michigan, Nebraska, USC, ND, Miami (last 30 yrs), OSU, UPenn St., Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Texas, OU and maybe Tenn or Georgia), most of these teams were in the final top 25 in each of those years until about the early to mid-90s. I then suspect, because of a combination of NCAA sanctions, coaching changes and the wide spread saturation of cable television across the US, and the Worldwide Leader and its evil progeny showing more games as a result, that parity took hold. As a consequence, we see the power programs starting to dip and everyone else improve. More and better athletes started going to more programs and the talent pool for all of these schools, including our beloved Michigan, started to shrink, I believe. Now, with more parity, you can have Utah embarrassing Pitt and Bama in BCS bowls, and, unfortunately, even Toledo beating Michigan.
I am not calling our team "unacceptable" now or during the LC era. These are 18-21 year old kids giving it everything they've got for their school and for coaches, who are also giving it everything they got. These people aren't perfect, and they are on a national stage so they can and should be criticized. But let's do so with reason, facts, consideration, compassion, the humility that none of us knows everything, and a positive attitude about the future that is coexists with the acceptance that RR is doing everything he can to fix a house LC probably didn't realize was in bad disrepair, despite his best and most honorable intentions.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:08 AM ^
Hooray for rational thinking! I hope this disease is contagious.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:50 AM ^
It all started when Lloyd Carr fired Hermann after the 2005 season. Not that the defensive breakdowns started then, necessarily. But the instability did. Michigan has had three defensive coordinators in the four years post-Hermann. And the defense has gotten progressively worse.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:57 AM ^
Herrmann, during his stand, recorded 5 or the 6 worst defenses in Michigan football during his tenure (not including these 2 last years). Herrmann was the biggest problem when it came down to our defense. He squandered so much potential and blew so many games with his patented prevent defenses. In 05, we had double digits leads in every single lost last year when entering the 4th quarter.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:27 AM ^
I also think it had something to do with recruiting linebackers who were built for a "three yards and a cloud of dust" 4-3 defense in which the d-line served as blockers of the opposing o-line. That makes it easy on the linebackers. In the 3-4, which is a near necessity for effectively dealing with a spread qb, the linebackers have to be more assignment sound. In sum, we didn't have enough "football smart" players that could play fast, as opposed to run a 4.5 and practice fast, and I suspect that became a reputational problem for us in recruiting as time wore on.
Again, for those who don't believe me, check out our defensive strategies for The Horror and Oregon. We were built on defense (i.e. loads of slow, non-football saavy linebackers) to be destroyed by those teams and we did everything we could schematically (although the blame goes to English as Hermann was gone by then) to screw ourselves. See e.g., Brian's comments about us stunting on the d-line for the first half of The Horror, when we gave up 28 points by being gashed on the ground by a D-IAA qb with a "noodle" for an arm that ended up running the same zone read play something like 20 times that game.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:52 AM ^
Also, let's not forget that our LBs also had some issues with long td runs. See OSU 2006, Minn 2005, et al. That speaks to a toxic combination of poor recruiting / bad schemes.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:21 AM ^
While I do agree with most of your post and believe that RR was at an extreme talent disadvantage when he arrived, I think the talk of a slow decline since 1997 is exaggerated. Let's not forget this team was one Crable late hit from playing for the National Title 3 years ago. I would also remind you that the linebackers in that 2006 season were Crable, Harris, and Burgess. Obviously lack of talent at that position is a problem now but I don't buy that it's been a problem since 1997.
I just can't help but wonder what the perception of LC would be if Michigan got that rematch against OSU in 2006 and won the game as I feel they would have. Obviously we were disappointing and got blown out in the Rose Bowl but that team could have very easily won the National Championship.