Michigan coaches in their 3rd year: from Eleven Warriors

It's tough for MGoBlog to maintain it's high level of content because all of our best writers/insiders keep getting tapped up by recruiting services, but I agree our diarists and mods do a great job trying to fill the void.

I think the bloggers at 11W do an excellent job with the topics they cover and their posts offer great insight into the OSU side of the rivalry.  Good content, informative posts, very respectful of the Rivalry, fair criticisms of both Michigan and OSU.  They clearly think that Meyer walks on water, but in fairness, if Michigan had hired someone of Meyer or Harbaugh's profile and then went 12-0 in the first season with him as HC, we'd all be thinking the same thing.

The problem I have with 11W is the posters in the comment section.  Good Lord those forums are filled with complete idiocy.  I know that some of the comment sections on mgoblog are filled with elements of retardation, but by and large I find the comments in here to have a good mix of humor, insight and, most importantly, fair criticism of the home team.  Are there obvious trolls or morons who think that "Buck the Fuckeyes" is a real clever way of making fun of OSU?  Sure, but most of those guys get taken to task by the other posters and/or mods.  At 11W, it's scUM this, scUM that.  Most of the posters on that site go out of their way to sound like 20 year old blind fanboys with no concept of reality or respect for the opponent.   

What chafes me the most is their perception of Meyer vs. Hoke.  I will be the first to admit I'd rather have Meyer as my favorite team's HC over Hoke.  I love Hoke, but Meyer is one of the top 2 or 3 coaches in the country, and if my goal is to have a team that can win the NC, I feel my chances would improve by employing Meyer over Hoke.  That said, you'd have to be a fool as an OSU supporter to not at least begrudgingly acknowledge the tremendous job Hoke has done so far, given what the program was like when he came in here.  The improvement of the defense, breaking the streak against OSU, the Top 10 recruiting classes, etc.  Is the program where we all want it to be yet?  No, but it's certainly trending in the right direction and it's very clear that Hoke and his staff have done a good job of coaching up the RichRod players while mixing in new talent that's a better long-term fit for their system. 

Hoke goes from 7-6 to 11-2 in his first year, and the 11W posters give him no credit for this, pointing to a favorable schedule only and OSU having an awful team in 2011.  Meyer goes from 6-7 to 12-0 in 2012 with an even easier schedule than what we had in 2011, and it's all because he's the best coach ever, OSU will never lose another game until 2019, etc.    The reality is that both coaches executed similar turnarounds in their respective first seasons on the job, and Hoke's record in Year 2 was clearly impacted by an unusually tough schedule and D-Rob's injury.  They've both done very good jobs so far, and each has more work to do.  I think that the mgoblog posters do a better job of seeing and acknowledging this reality than the 11W posters do. 

The mgoblog posters definitely whine about Meyer too much (implying he's a cheater, liar, etc) but you rarely see anyone accuse him of being a bad coach.  Over on 11W?  Most of those guys act like Hoke is big, fat idiot who has no idea what he's doing.  I find this to be particularly self-loathing because that description could easily be applied to most of the residents of Ohio (I kid, I kid!). 

Their recruiting take is comical.  Dozens of posts indicating that the only reason an awesome recruit doesn't end up at OSU is because Meyer doesn't want him.  Blatant disregard for the reality that there are several top programs who can recruit nearly as well or even better than Meyer.  Why they can't just be happy with the fact that Meyer is a fantastic recruiter who will always bring in a strong pipeline of talent is beyond me.   I think that while mgoblog posters obssess in a crazy way over recruiting as well, they're a bit more realistic regarding expectations for the home team (aside from the fact that we always assume if a top recruit turns down Michigan for the SEC, it's because he's on the payroll).  

I think a lot of 11W's problems would be solved if they moved to the points system for commenters  that exists on mgoblog.  Compared to other sites with comment sections (not just sports, but news, technology, etc), mgoblog does a tremendous job of weeding out trolls and assholes.  As a result, a lot of times the comments section can be just as good of a read (or at least as entertaining of a read) as the actual blog post. 

11W definitely has the content and blog post part down in a good way - they just need to find a way to lessen the flamebait going on in their comments section.  If they did that, I would probably hit their site just as often as I visit mgoblog. 

I appreciate the info.