Winning the Sugar Bowl was the worst thing that ever happened to Michigan football

Submitted by Brodie on

It is amazing... less than three years ago, we lost to Mississippi State by 38 points in the Gator Bowl. A year after that we won the flukiest bowl game ever to cap the flukiest season ever and suddenly people thought we were therefore good enough to beat Alabama. A year later, we played a competitve bowl game against a good (not great SEC team) and then lost a large number of our best upper classmen on offense to graduation. This year, we seemed to be expecting a Big 10 title or bust.

In retrospect, two things are obvious:

 

1. a decline, severe  or not, on offense was inevitable

and

2. our fanbase has had stupidly unrealistic expectations since 2011, the weight of which could potentially crush the on-going rebuild.

I am not a Borges fan. I don't much care if he's fired (though if the best we can hope for is Loeffler, I'd rather they not all things considered). I support Hoke, but not unconditionally so. It's time for us to all take a step back, look at where we are, accept that there are huge gaps in this team and that solving them will take more than just firing everyone in the Ann Arbor tomorrow. We should hope that they win any and all remaining games but otherwise back the fuck off. As such, this will be my last post on MGo until season's end. Beat Ohio, etc. 

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uminks

November 10th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^

But what I'm shocked about is the lack of development of our young players! This concerns me the most and is why I question the current coaching staff and am now bleak on the future of the coaching staff. Sure the natural think is to say, yeah give them another couple years. But it looks as if we will finish at  6-6 and my fear is they may only get back to 8-4 in two seasons.

Joined: 11/10/2009

MGoPoints: 32037

UMFoster

November 10th, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^

I don't think most people are mad that we are losing its the way in which we lose that is the frustrating thing. If the team was playing well but the other team is just better that's not a bad loss. The reason people are frustrated is because we are the worst running team in the FBS. We settle for field goals when we get the ball deep in the opponent's territory. The other team stacks the box and we run a small RB right into it or we run long slow developing routes. Yes, we do have a lot of youth on the line but we aren't the first team to start redshirt freshmen. Nebraska's back up linemen did a fine job and they aren't nearly as good as our line could be. I'm not one of those guys that is all about firing Hoke because I think that sets us back even father than we are now but, there needs to be changes on the offensive side of the ball. Whether it's getting new offensive coaches or our coaches spending all off season studying and getting better we need to get better offensively.

Joined: 01/24/2011

MGoPoints: 1485

Wolverine Devotee

November 10th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^

If for some reason Hoke isn't the guy, let him have 5. He is killing it in recruiting.

Let the next guy hit the ground running. 

 

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

jabberwock

November 10th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^

is pretty pointless, take the wins, but realize that you lucked out and all is not perfect.

I think a larger problem was that Dennard's skills (and to be honest his weaknesses) masked a lot of this teams problems . . . perhaps even from the coaches.
 

I also think it's hilarious the amount of posters on here that are trying to blame 90% of this problem on RR!

He didn't leave a lot of O-line bodies, but If these coaches are worth anything, then they would have seen what was left within the first month, and then coached what they had & what they recruited.

The fact that they recruited heavily indicates they noticed, but near the end of your 3rd year even a complex position like O-line should show talented youngsters progressing much better.

Have we had a slew of catastrophic injuies to decimate the o-line?  No.  Are we playing a freshmen QB (you know the type that has career games against us)?  No.We have talented skill players.

Defenses find our offense easy to figure out, thats telling.

Is RR at fault for 10-12 yard cushions by our DBs?  Is RR at fault for Hoke the D-line coach doing such a poor job with that unit as well?

Plenty of other teams are playing youth at many positions, they adapt.

I'm all for giving Hoke a year #4 as long as he's willing to face the reality of making a change and booting Al.  
If he's too stubborn,  well thats telling as well.

Joined: 07/04/2008

MGoPoints: 51146

fukkyt

November 10th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^

Obviously, it is both. But I think it is more talent than coaching. Year 1 showed that the coaching is decent. How do u explain such a big improvement from RR's last year to Hoke's first year. I think the worst thing that has happened is the high recruiting accolades that UM received that caused the unrealistic expectation. If Michigan got the 30th ranked recruiting ranking, I dont think we would be that disappointed. The past two recruiting class could hv been overrated!

Joined: 01/04/2010

MGoPoints: 262

cp4three2

November 10th, 2013 at 1:05 PM ^

Hoke's first season was against possibly the easiest schedule in decades, if not ever. We played one ranked team at home and they were ranked 19th. We still lost 2 games. It's hard to believe that Rich Rod, with Denard as a junior, wouldn't have been able to get to 10 wins. Would the defense have been worse? For sure. But, the offense would have been much better, Rodriguez had improved every year. 

Joined: 08/03/2009

MGoPoints: 4828

bjk

November 10th, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^

if we are to speculate on an RR defense in a hypothetical year four, we should allow for DB to give RR a Mattison-level piggy bank to hunt for a top-level DC in the interest of giving RR a level hypothetical playing field. I am sure RR realized defense was bad at least as much as Hoke understands offense is bad. Why would RR hand-cuff his DC to the scheme he wanted? If it is for the same reason that Hoke/Borges are handcuffed to the 0.97-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense (which did work well for Woody Hayes in the '50s and '60s, before the Rose-Bowl dark ages descended on Manball in the '70s, consigning it to no more than regional relevence), then it is because that scheme was relevent to how the team practices on both sides of the ball and what he needed was someone who could make the scheme he relied on as head coach succeed. As in, well enough to make his over-all scheme succeed. Actually, to be fair, my memory of those years was that, in big games, the O was constantly putting the D in a bad position, giving them a short field to defend, failing to answer scores, not staying on the field and for the wrong reasons, etc. The D ended up with bad numbers, but I often had the feeling that the failures on D started with failures in the O. I don't know if RR could have pulled it off at some point with the current coaching budget for coordinators. A change in D was absolutely mandatory to even discuss a year four, because it is not clear the team was growing more positive in outlook despite the improving record over the first three bad but not incomparably bad years (9 losses was a record, but the '34 and '62 seasons were still worse on a percentage basis). I thought it was a bad decision to let him go after year 3 because of the horrible face the Michigan community showed through those 3 years and because I thought 3-and-out was a Notre-Dame type thing to do and might come back to haunt UM. Starting a real coaching search for '12 while giving RR a fourth year to field a junior QB in his scheme and a first-tier budget to look for a DC would, I think, have left M in a better position to look for a solid replacement if RR hadn't had a decent '11 and maintained his pace thereafter. Having given him a chance, UM could seek a replacement without going all Notre Dame, just as OSU had done in '87 and '99 and as UM did after Elliot's 8-2 season in 1968. At this point, M has to give Hoke 1-2 more years, at which point I don't know what replacement choices there will be absent a striking turnaround from the post-Minnesota profile this team has shown us.

Joined: 11/26/2009

MGoPoints: 3993

Bluestreak

November 10th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^

that is the legacy of our previous coaching staff.

 

Give it 2 years - we'll be back.

 

I know it sounds like something we've been saying the past 10 years - but with coaching continuity I think it is very much possible with the kind of talent coach Hoke and co are bringing in.

Joined: 09/26/2010

MGoPoints: 1956

cp4three2

November 10th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^

Despite our coaching change, we have outrecruited everyone in this conference besides OSU (who is crushing us in recruiting by the way, which is why I don't get this "Hoke is master recruiter" meme).

 

The Big Ten is atrocious. You shouldn't need to have Stanford's Oline to score a touchdown against a team that Wymoning and South Dakota State gashed on the ground. 

Joined: 08/03/2009

MGoPoints: 4828

MGoBlue24

November 10th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^

to any marked degree, but as continuing to fuel them.  Realistic or not, because there are a lot of variables out there, expectations are pretty high for the average Michigan fan. 

Joined: 08/22/2013

MGoPoints: 12900

NoMoPincherBug

November 10th, 2013 at 2:36 PM ^

Disagree with the Premise of the Original poster...

But...Michigan played like CRAP in that Sugar Bowl game and were very, very lucky to win.  Basically they played like Michigan plays on the road under Hoke...and won because VT was horrible and on lucky call got overturned. (TE in end zone).

Joined: 04/08/2011

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Greg McMurtry

November 10th, 2013 at 3:29 PM ^

Nope. I originally thought 8-4 maybe 9-3 before the season. But this team is barely squeaking by UConn (0-8) and MAC (akron 3-7) teams, with piss-poor play-calling and blown assignments that you have to blame on coaching. And it's the same problems every week, with no fix.

Joined: 02/25/2009

MGoPoints: 135460

BlueinLansing

November 10th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^

that it increased expectations to an unreasonable level.  However I think most of us agreed this year would be kind of tough with many predicitions in the 8-4 range, which is still possible.  What we couldn't invision is that in year 3 of the Hoke/Borgess/Mattison era is that this team would be resembleing the same roaring tire fire of the Rich Rod years in certain areas of the team.

 

I'm on board that RR's recruiting of offensive linemen was the primary reason we suck so hard, jesus 3 olinemen left out of 6 his last 3 years.  Thats negligent.  But what nobody talks about is that RR left us one QB who is really just a great athlete trying to be a QB behind an awful offensive line, hardly any WR's of substance and hardly any RB's left from his classes.  So yes the depth chart is a problem and I'm sure the coaches and fans like myself were hoping we could scrape through and get to the years where we have more than 9 players in a recruiting class of 27 stick around and get their degree.

 

But,   I forget what part of the game it was, Michigan lined up for a 2nd and 15 with Gardner under center, I was of course livid and then Hoke called timeout.  I was hopeful that it was the point Brady looked out at the field saw the formation and said 'what the F is this Al' and would put a stop to it.   We called a flipping timeout and came back out and ran the same god damn play.  That is just stupid play calling at its worst.

Joined: 09/01/2009

MGoPoints: 23520

MGoBlue96

November 10th, 2013 at 5:56 PM ^

How the hell is it unreasonable to not expect a team to go two straight games with negative rushing yards. Regardless of any excuse you want to throw out there, that shouldn't happen.  Nebraska's rush defense coming into the game was giving 5+ yards a carry on the season, with some of those games coming against what should be less talented teams than UM.

Also is it unreasonable to expect even a tiny bit of improvement throughout the season? Not only has this team not made improvements, but they have regressed instead.

Nobody was expecting this team to win a national championship, but it was not unreasonable for this team's goal to be to reach the Big Ten title game. That goal is completely gone with three games still left in the season. If some people want to continue to bury their head and the sand, and try and claim unreasonable expectations or make other excuses that is of course their prerogrative, but back in reality the rest of us will wonder what the hell has gone wrong with the team this year.

Changes most likely need to be made on the coaching staff, whether that means an entire clean of the offensive staff or a more limited change such as letting Funk go as o-line coach is of course the million dollar question. Just don't try and shield the coaching staff behind nonsense about unrealistic expectations, when that is clearly not the case. This is a 6-3 team that could easily be 3-6, despite playing a weak schedule and in a garbage conference. You can't sugercoat that.

Joined: 12/26/2010

MGoPoints: 26035

Cold War

November 10th, 2013 at 9:44 PM ^

It's a bit over the top to call it the worst thing that ever happened to Michigan football, but it certainly did create unrealistic expectations. As much fun as the first season was, I had an uneasy feeling the entire time about fan reaction to coming seasons, which were likely to be less fruitful.

Joined: 01/15/2012

MGoPoints: -3144

jaysvw

November 10th, 2013 at 10:17 PM ^

It seems like we have been a more-often-than-not tire fire of a team since the 2007 Rose Bowl.  Looking back on it, to me, that beatdown combined with the subsequent Horror and Oregon debacle really signaled a turning point for this program.  I really don't think most Michigan fans are unreasonable.  When you are paying a coach near as makes no difference Nick Saban money, you want results.  Instead we have massive regression on almost all fronts.  

Joined: 09/27/2008

MGoPoints: 2838

User -not THAT user

November 10th, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^

Here's why:

  1. The players deserved it.  Guys who stuck with the program after being redshirted during Carr's last year, who sat on the bench during the loss to App State and the win over Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, and the ESS, EEE, SEE in the What's-In-YOUR-Wallet Bowl, who might have seen SOME playing time during 3-9 and saw most of their development under a coach they hadn't imagined playing for and then saw THAT coach dismissed after the asskicking in the Gator Bowl, those guys stayed through it all and became, as Bo's sign says, "champions"...of the Sugar Bowl.  I hear the rings you get for winning one of those BCS games are pretty sweet...the last group of Michigan Men to win one played with Tom Brady.  That was a long damned time ago...like, last CENTURY, even.
  2. The fans deserved it.  A lot of the players aren't necessarily Michigan fans until they get their scholarships confirmed.  It's different for the fans.  A lot us are born into this.  Others find their way in through different means.  But once we're in, it's pretty much for good.  And for those us who have been around long enough to remember when things were good, sitting through the times when things were bad was no damned fun at all,  What other program could, within ten years, go from winning the MNC to losing at home to App State?  Could go from owning its biggest rival in one decade to winning TWICE IN THIRTEEN YEARS (forgive me, I'm counting 2013 already) the next?  We haven't had a lot to cheer about as the state of Michigan's program has descended to where we find it today...the Sugar Bowl, as imperfect as it was, was a nice reprieve; it was fun watching the team (the team, the team) win a bowl game that was actually worth buying the T-shirt for.  It made getting housed in the Gator Bowl the year before worth it.
  3. The coaches deserved it.  And not just Brady Hoke.  If you were a RichRod supporter (I was), seeing the players that he recruited and coached during his time here succeed in what would have been his fourth year vindicated your faith in the notion that yes, he actually DID know what he was doing when he got them to sign on the line which is dotted.  If you weren't a RichRod fan, you were able to say with that much more conviction that he was wrong for Michigan because Hoke was able to take his players and win with them in a way that RichRod couldn't.  And of course, Hoke deserved something that would give HIS critics pause, as a number of fans (our dear blogmaster included) did NOT want to see Hoke get this job.

Now.  There were A LOT of crazy-assed, flukey things that happened to make 2011 the year that it was.  Start with Ohio State and the tattoos, costing them their coach and their star QB.  The coach they got stuck with was without a doubt the most incompetent man to run that team since the Great Depression.  That was as close to the 2008 Michigan squad as OSU will ever get.  Then you have the complete insanity of the Under The Lights game with ND, the ending of the Northwestern game (Denard is obviously a very religious man, but the number of prayers he threw up that were answered favorably that year make you believe that he was indeed favored by the Creator), and then you had to have the BCS and the NCAA conspire to give everyone the ESS, EEE, SEE rematch between LSU and Alabama in the title game that no one save Alabama fans really wanted, opening up the Sugar Bowl for a team that finished 2nd in a weak conference (see West Virginia's result against Clemson in the Orange Bowl that year for further clarity) to play another team that didn't EVEN finish 2nd in its conference (and yes, Kirk Cousins' tears still taste as sweet as Sugar).  Michigan not only made it to a bowl they may not have deserved to be in, but they also got dawn to play the one team that they probably had the best chance to beat.  Naturally it didn't come easy and there were a whole new set of bizarre plays that resulted in the win and after all was said and done and a more careful analysis was made, it turns out we really didn't know that much about the state of the Michigan football program after all. 

Still, I'll take it.  The way things are going lately, it doesn't look like we're going to see a season as good as 2011 (flukes and all) happening for Michigan football for a loooooooooooong time.

Joined: 06/05/2012

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