reaction to RichRod "situation" (Freep)
In their own special way, the Freep covers the reaction to RichRod's "situation"...
(Sorry -- their print-only pages seem to have timed links.)
http://www.freep.com/article/20100807/SPORTS21/8070322/
Well, I've certainly been wanting to know what the Tuscaloosa News thinks about this. Why not put Morgantown's Dominion Post in there, too?
I'm sure Rittenberg's quote raised the article to their standards of fairness.
- - -
Edit: I'm sympathetic to the people who are tired of all the Freep postings. Really, I am. It might be worse than you think, though. I have (seriously) often had politely RichRod-positive comments to those types of articles deleted just a few minutes after posting them. If they were purely link whores they wouldn't bother doing that, right? No, I'm not making this up.
"Animal House" quote from Belushi's character
either way the germans didn't bomb pearl harbor
my bad for not recognizing the quote though
August 10th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^
I hate it when i miss stuff like that ;)
It gets a lot more common as I get older
thing I am concerned about is what the scoreboard in Michigan Stadium will say at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, September 4, 2010.
Michigan 28, U-Conn 17.
Definitely too low for Michigan. Probably too low for U-Conn.
Michigan 45, U-Conn 27
In 2009, we put up 38 on ND, 36 on Indiana, and 36 on Purdue. I think UConn's Defense is right in there, Michigan's offense will be much improved and healthy, and the coaching staff will have a whole off season to scout.
In the end, I don't care if we win by 3 or by 30. Just win.
It would be nice to start off hot again and go 4 or 5-0...but even a loss on the road to ND or another slip up won't throw the season. I'd like to see the team knock off those lower to mid level b10 teams, the ones where we have a load more of talent on offense and are comparable in talent on defense. The big game I have circled is at home against Sparty! This IMO, is a must win!
bull shit. My God just let the guy coach his team and see how the season plays out. He knows, his coaching staff knows, the althetic board knows, the fans know and everyone else at Michigan knows what pressure he is under this year but I don't have any doubt at all that he is going to use all of this to his advantage by winning games! All he has to do is have a winning season, make a bowl, win that bowl and then slowly the criticism will go down and he will look better. With that said he still must have a winning season in 2010. This does have to be his turn around year here at Michigan. The days of losing to teams like Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern have to end this year. I'm sure he's fixed holes and gaps in the secondary and done as best as he can to get this team prepared for this year. Like I always say about football let's just watch and see for ourselves. For all we know Michigan might stun the college football world this year.
I am soooo glad I don't waste my time on their website anymore. Since there are usually synopses and "highlights" of anything remotely relevant to Michigan here, I don't need to read them, anyway. Basically, when it comes to Michigan and RR, it's always going to be variations of this:
Same media outlet, same writers, same shit, different day.
I choose to observe something less predictable than the freep, like which direction sunrise is going to come from.
If you all think RR has been, or currently is, a good fit for Michigan, you all are kidding yourselves. Take off the maize-colored revisionist glasses. This coaching transition has been hell - because he was not a good fit for what Michigan was, and is not a good fit for what Michigan still is. Whether RR will be a good fit in the future will be largely determined by wins on the field, which will allow wins off the field. Only then will the staid Michigan culture finally adapt to this uncomfortable, ill-fitting coaching change.
Bo shouldn't have had the opportunity to coach at Michigan. The man that blessed us with over 40 years of the MIchigan winning tradition would never have been!
I think you are wrong, Michigan needed the change, some are still not ready for it.
Read a little more carefully before you respond. There is nothing in my 'theory' that says RR should not be the coach. In fact, my point is that the fanbase has to adapt to RR, and winning will grease the wheels of that process. Which is in line with what you wrote.
And thanks for the neg - as usual, the MGoBlog community is judicious with their negs and thoughtful in their actual feedback. /s
Times have changed. Things have changed. I'm sorry to have to tell you this. You, and Braylon Edwards and Mario Manningham and Morgan Trent and Lloyd Carr and all of the nameless and faceless chickenshit loyalists of past regimes; you're just not a good fit anymore and it is time for you to move on. Perhaps you could become supporters of the Cincinnati Bengals, or the Jets, or something. Maybe you could get together every Saturday in the fall and watch the Rose Bowl game of Jan. 1, 1998.
Or, you can get with the program. We have a new Athletic Director, and we have a great Head Coach in whom we have confidence. He's been attacked in the media, of course, and it has been unfair in the extreme. But we're doing our best to fight that, and otherwise we are moving forward the only way that anyone can successfully move forward; with confidence and trust and enthusiasm.
I'm not sure what you're saying in that first paragraph, but the second one is a laugher. Yeah, RR has gotten a hard time in the press. That's what happens when you lose like he has. It's kinda weak to blame the media for the team's problems. RR cleaned house and installed his new system. It may be that the only way such a system can work is to destroy what came before. Let's see what happens, but the last two years are not the media's fault.
How many scholarship defensive players have left since RichRod got here? I would think the defense is the main problem on the team, so when RR cleaned house to install his system, he must have gotten rid of all the defensive talent also, right?
I think blueblueblue pointed out that RR will only be a good fit "if he wins games". You say that "Michigan needed the change". Well, we might have needed "a" change, but many will disagree on what that change should have been. So far, the changes RR has brought are epic losing and NCAA sanctions. He CAN turn that around and hopefully he will...this year.
Using blue3's theory, Bo certainly would have had the chance to coach at Michigan - because he won games. Bo never had to turn around historic losing because he went 8-3 (Rose Bowl) his first year, 9-1 his second year and 11-1 (Rose Bowl) his third year. He won nearly as many games in his first year as RR lost in his first (and played less games). RR hasn't even taken us to the Blue Bonnet Bowl, but Bo put us in the Rose Bowl in his first try. Let's not justify RR's presence with comparisons to Bo.
Let's also remember not to justify RR's removal based on Bo's vs. RR's first three seasons. Different eras; different teams.
Although, I honestly think this is the year it gets turned around and we get to 8-9 wins. 2011 will look more like Bo's third year did (except without the loss and with an additional win).
...NCAA sanctions." That's fucking lie. A stupid, ill-informed fucking lie. I honestly don't care what you think about the Free Press, or Coach Rodriguez, or A.D. Dave Brandon, or Bill Martin or Bo Schembechler.
But Rich Rodriguez did not "bring... NCAA sanctions" to Michigan. He's not accused of one goddamned thing in the NCAA Notice of Allegations, apart from the ol' "failure to encourage an atmosphere of compliance" allegation. Which is the same kind of bullshit that the Freep ran him down with, only much, much worse and with less responsible, more hysterical allegations. And your University of Michigan -- our University of Michigan -- has taken the position that that allegation as to Rich Rodriguez personally, is a false allegation. Rich Rodriguez denies it. The University denies it.
The only way that Rich Rodriguez "brought" any "NCAA sanctions" to Michigan was by being Mike Rosenberg's unwitting hate-object.
You oughtta get with the program, sport.
August 7th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
Dude, you sound like a kid complaining that his team lost because the other team "cheated" or the "refs hated us". RichRod is the captain of this ship. This ship got nailed with sanctions. Those sanctions, then, belong to RichRod. Your 8 year-old logic does not work in an adult world.
Mike Rosenberg (and the Freep) did us no favors but it doesn't matter because we still broke the rules. Grow up.
August 7th, 2010 at 11:27 PM ^
And that is to read the NCAA Notice of Allegations. And then, from Lightfoot, Gene Marsh and Bill King's Michigan Response to Allegations 1 through 5, the Response to the Request for Information by the Committee on Infractions, and the two volumes of exhibits. And then, read Scott Tompsett's 86-page Response on behalf of Coach Rodriguez.
Nowhere is it agreed that Coach Rodriguez "brought... NCAA sanctions" to Michigan. There's not one single, specific allegation of persoanl, individualized wrongdoing on the part of Coach Rodriguez.
You made this personal. You didn't need to, and you shouldn't have. But now it's on you.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:43 PM ^
This is simple:
-Violations in the entire history of Michigan football prior to RR = 0
-Violations under RR = 5/6/whatever
-Possible sanctions for RR's prior program = on the way
Whether you think they are a big deal (I personally find them "minor" even if labeled "major"), they are violations. Clearly, with WVU now in trouble, these violations came with RR. He didn't walk into someone else's mess. He owns the violations just like he owns his record. This is HIS system. Just like the spread offense, he puts the parts in play and is responsible for the results. Who do you think sets up practice? Who do you think sorts out coaching (and "non" coaching staff)? Holy shit, it's unreal to think that someone would excuse RR from the violations.
By the way, citing UofM's Response to the allegations as evidence that RR didn't do anything wrong is ridiculous. A "Response" is a defense, whether in whole or in part to charges leveled. The goal is to minimize potential sanctions. It is a "best light" viewing of the situation. Frankly, the fact that the "best light" still reveals sanctionable wrongs is regrettable.
Dude, you might think RR is going to turn it around and become a legend at Michigan. That's possible and I hope it happens, but to pretend that he isn't to blame for the problems facing the program, from losses to violations, is embarrassing homerism.
Or yelling my lungs out.
Because now I know that I am a much better and more faithful supporter than some.
And yeah, until the NCAA has some better evidence of Rodriguez wrong-doing (all that exists from the Committe on Enforcement in the public sphere is the Notice of Allegations), you're damn right; I DO accept the University and Rodriguez Responses as fact.
If you think this is some adversarial proceeding, and you doubt "the defense," you had better tell us what the "the prosecution" says, in detail. Not just allegations. Factual details.
You want to know if I am taking Rodriguez's side? I say unequivocally, yes, I am. And I say further, the University has taken Rodriguez's side, per their written response.
So, having gotten that out of the way: Whose side are you on?
When all else fails, play the "I'm a better fan" card.
I immediately went to about -800 MGoPoints, for suggesting that it wasn't right, to basically flip off fans sitting behind [you] at Michigan Stadium, when [you] are standing with no other need to stand.
And here I am, 8000 MGoPoints later. Actually, with all the negging I get from some quarters, it's probably about 16000 MGoPoints.
So I've got that goin' for me. Which is nice.
Priceless. This should be in the MGoBLog hall of fame for how to not talk about points.
to defend Rich Rodriguez, on a Michigan blog.
You don't take the University and RR's side. You fail to believe that RR's program committed violations, but the University admits it did. RR admits it did. Brandon admits it did. You, in your cocoon of closed eyes and ears (regrettably not the mouth as well), refuse to believe what everyone else admits. RR's program committed violations. They also lost a shitload of games. Of course, you're a super fan, so it doesn't matter.
I'm not denying what the University has admitted. Of course the NCAA found some piddling, trivial, stupid "infractions." That is what the NCAA does, when it comes in with a team of lawyers from the Committee on Infractions. Almost from the time the NCAA arrived, we knew that there would be "infractions." Our host, Brian Cook, predicted it from the beginning. But I dare say, Brian's attitude about Coach Rodriguez differs from yours.
Michigan's football program had never been put under NCAA scrutiny like that. Of course, Michigan's football program has never been attacked like this in the press. (I note that when Mike Downey was with the Free Press, he attacked Michigan's foootball program too. And then he left town.) Michigan was investigated by the NCAA for one reason; because a Free Press reporter who does not like Rich Rodriguez decided to craft a story that would paint the program under Rodriguez in the worst possible light. The direct, proximate result of the Free Press story was the investigation. It was announced in less than 48 hours.
But now, with a complete investigation behind them, the University and Coach Rodriguez have denied Allegation Four. And they are going to Seattle to forecefully make the case that Allegation Four ought to be withdrawn. I'll be rooting for our side in that debate, over Allegation Four.
What side will you be rooting for?
August 10th, 2010 at 2:49 PM ^
"This is simple:"
No, YOU are simple.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:49 PM ^
The sanctions will always be associated with RR's regime at Michigan. There is no avoiding that. Try as you might to ridiculously place the blame with the media (I cringe at the absurdity of that), the first NCAA allegations the UM football program faced will forever be attached to RR's regime. It doesn't matter how they surfaced. They were there to a greater or lesser extent, waiting to be found. Face reality.
even inaccurate, but you "can't fight city hall." And you sure can't fight both "city hall" and "the city newspaper" at the same time.
what's in Section 2, I'm dreadfully tired of Section 1
Section 2 is nice. I used to sit there.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:50 AM ^
Same people, same myopic opinions and the same Quixotic quest to come on here and add their negative $0.02 worth any time RR's name is mentioned, decrying themselves the un-biased, non-homer voices of reason.
You can't argue with 'I don't care about evidence, RR was coach when it happened', despite the fact that it has been made clear that the Labadie issues predated his arrival by at least a year.
Nor can you argue with someone that wants to crucify RR for the situation beyond all reason, while maintaining that the media outlet that blew the entire situation out of proportion with a manufactured set of wildly inaccurate accusations bears no responsibility.
They are clearly going to perpetuate an anti-Rodriguez message any time they are given the opportunity, regardless of evidence and regardless of reality. One would wonder at their motives, but at the end of the day it is pointless to argue with them. They will disregard any positive information and continually harp on their meme of 'unacceptable!! 8-16!!!, sanctions!!!!' and in their simple world that is all there is. There is no room for a nuanced viewpoint and keeping an obtuse 'all RR's fault as captain of the ship' opinion is all that matters. They don't like Rodriguez and never will. If they start liking him if/when he wins, then, well, look up of the definition of fair-weather fan and there is your answer. If W's cure all and all their questions about RR's character go away with a better record, then i guess they would then be fan of bringing in Saban, since he pulls W's no matter what.
For the record, jury is still out for me on RR as a coach. I understand the situation he walked into, I understand that things take time, especially with the perfect storm of change that hit Michigan and made our rebuilding period so painful, more painful than other programs that have been through the same process. I will judge him after 4 years of on the field results and at that time it will be an opinion based on whether the team is poised to be a national contender for the next 10-15 years, not on whether he has won a Big 10 or MNC, because that just isn't realistic in terms of expectations.
I won't indict him or his character simply because some journalistis at a local media outlet want to drive hits on their web site or because some segment of the fanbase cannot get past whatever cultural problem they have with his background and accent. Looking at all the evidence before me, I have no problems with his character thus far; the positive feedback from the parents of recruits and players, the players that have bought in, his actions in dealing with the maelstrom of drama, Brock Mealer, tossing players that cross the line off the team, community activities/involvement, etc. etc.,....quite the opposite in fact. There is plenty of evidence that he will be an asset to the program in that respect for a long time, if given the chance.
If I see him do what Les Miles just did...I will be the first in line to run him out of town. If I ever see clear evidence of a real infraction, or anything that would cause me to believe that he does not have the welfare of the players first and foremost in his mind, or that he breached in any way what I would consider an ethical code of conduct, I will again be the first person to purchase tar & pitchfork. Until then, I support him as the coach at Michigan, the same way I support the players and the program as a whole, with my undying and unequivocal devotion.
Bo was hired from the "outside" by Canham, he inherited a great group of players that fit his system. RR did not. Bo did not receive the flack that RR did when he was hired about not being a Michigan Man. Bo was allowed to coach unobstructed, he was a tremendous coach and built the phenomenon that is Michigan football today. RR needed to rebuild this team to fit his system, it makes no matter that players left, they left under Bo’s first year also.
RR will win also, he has a proven record at the D1 level, just as Bo did RR will bring back Michigan to its glory. Rebuilding doesn’t happen in a season, it could and will take RR several years. I’m not a blind follower, but I will give RR his due. We shall see, the future years of MIchigan football depend on RR 's success!
August 10th, 2010 at 2:55 PM ^
Bo DID get some flack when he came on because so many players quit due to the new focus on hard work and conditioning and the removal of a lot of pampering/perks that were part of being a player at that time. The attrition during Bo's first season dwarfed the number of players that left in Rich's first season, this is the origin of the 'Those Who Stay Will Be Champions' sign and motto from the Bo era. He put the sign up in response to all the players that quit because they couldn't/wouldn't step up.
There were a lot of people at the time that thought a coach from Miami of Ohio would not be able to make it and plenty of grousing from some segment of the fanbase about his suitability and even some that questioned his loyalty due to his tutelage by none other than woody Hayes, of course.
Bo did actually bring in a new defensive scheme, a 5 man angle thing that he guaranteed to have working in 5 years. Think about that, a coach as great as Bo and a scheme change far less disruptive than the overhaul that RR has brought and still bo predicated it would take 5 years to implement.
dahblue nailed my point exactly. If 'winning cures all', 'losing sickens all' (especially when done in epic fashion). Bo won and was accepted as a good fit, even after having worked at that school down south. RR needs to win if he wants to fit in at Michigan. Because, well, losing in such grandiose fashion doesn't fit here.
--- transferred to reply above
Bo's Lasting Lessons: Chapter 29
You guys are forgetting that RichRod has so much experience against UConn, he knew them in 2007, they still have the same coach right? I remember WVU kicked their asses 45-10 once.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
To say the freep isn't anti-Michigan, pro-Sparty is just ignorant. They clearly didn't want to even give RR a chance to improve from 2008. The blow up over Feagan and Dorsey and not making a big deal about Winston was criminal. If RR had players that put on ski masks to beat people up the freep would still be talking about it.
I won't waste anymore space on the freep other than you deserve what you get if you read the freep. Sort of like going to a bar or casino where there's a bunch of people you don't like there. The smart thing would be to not go to that bar or casino anymore. If you go to the freep it's like going to a bar or casino where you don't like those people. If you get offended from going there, you can't blame anyone but yourself. You were warned.