Wojo at it again
I'm not sure why Detroit needs so many columnists to write the same exact thing. I'm half expecting Drew Sharp to realize this and start a Save RR campaign.
Final straw: Latest loss shows Wolverines need changeNovember 28th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
Voicing frustration and making excuses are equally annoying.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:53 AM ^
with most of what you read, in fact the most irritating thing about Michigan football right now is its polarized fan base. However I do not see the 'this team will be special in two years'. After year one it was this team will be special in two years...etc, etc. Our defense is a disaster, not just scheme wise, or experience. Its a total cluster fuck week in and week out. We do not have anywhere near the defensive talent to compete at the Big 10 level, and that will take years to replenish. Kovacs and Vinopal shouldn't even be on Big 10 rosters, yet they are this teams best tacklers.
sad thing is, save for one season in 2006, the Michigan defense has't been up to our lofty standards for most of the past decade.
November 28th, 2010 at 2:01 PM ^
sad thing is, save for one season in 2006, the Michigan defense has't been up to our lofty standards for most of the past decade.
The 2003 team gave up only 16.8 points per game, which is about half of what this year's squad is surrendering, so that's another season that doesn't fit the pattern of a decade of bad defenses. But, more importantly, Rodriguez's defenses have been significantly worse than Carr's. Here are the points per game totals for the last decade:
- 2001: 19.8
- 2002: 20.4
- 2003: 16.8
- 2004: 23.2
- 2005: 20.3
- 2006: 15.9
- 2007: 21.4
- 2008: 28.9
- 2009: 27.5
- 2010: 33.8 (32.2 when the 20 scored in OT vs. IL is taken out)
Needless to say, the last three are by far the worst in the program's history.
If it was the defense that needed to be fixed after 2007, why did it make any sense whatsoever to hire Rodriguez, an entirely offensive-minded head coach?
November 28th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
Geaux Blue, if you want to argue for RR's retention, that's fine. But you need to stop acting like the contrary position is irrational. Think about the position you're taking. Rich Rodriguez has the worst winning percentage in school history, both overall (.416) and in conference (.250). He is 1-12 (.077) against OSU, MSU, PSU, Wisconsin and Iowa - and that one win came two years ago, with a team he mostly didn't recruit. You are trying to make the argument that this man, who has recorded these horrendous marks (again, worse than any other coach in school history), will somehow do a 180 and turn into a championship coach, just because his players will get older. Just how likely is that proposition?
November 28th, 2010 at 10:50 PM ^
OMG WE DIDN'T WIN 9 GAMES ARGH? I remember grumbling at 9-3 (When we will ever break out of this rut of losing a game we should have won early in the season, etc.). This is one entitled fan base.
November 28th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^
How upset will you be if RR is fired? After last year, I would have been angry. This year, just ambivalent. I think he deserves another year, but its a matter of degree. The fact remains there are plenty of reasons he should be fired.
An improving overall record, to which many RR supporters point, masks the fact that most of it has come against OOC opponents. His B10 record is: 2-6, 1-7, 3-5.
Ultimately, though, the negative press and swirling controversy over his job security will hurt his ability to recruit top players. It hurt Lloyd Carr for several years when there were questions about his health and retirement plans. The current situation is worse, because RR does not control his own fate.
As they say, this is why DB "gets the big bucks."
November 28th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^
In other words, you only read people who agree with you. You disregard the opinions of most observers -- professional football writers, with no vested interested -- who notice that, while RR's offense has great potential, his defense and special teams have been epic disasters. This is fairly obvious to many people who know a thing or two about the subject. Yet you dismiss all of them as buffoons "attacking" one of your relatives. It's not personal. It's a reasoned opinion. You may disagree with it. Great. Fine. It's not black-and-white. But it's a perfectly reasonable argument.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:12 PM ^
Also, sorry, but I wanted to add one question:
Why is that RR gets full credit for recruiting and building an exciting a potentially great offense -- potentially -- but gets a pass for the defense? Isn't that kind of a selective way of looking at the guy.
He started an offensive from scratch, having inherited scraps. He inherited more D players, but the defense got worse. He had some bad luck, no doubt. But all those transfers of late do reflect on him. He recruited guys who couldn't (or wouldn't) compete/qualify. Most of his players can't tackle, don't know what they're doing. They're both small and slow. RR is totally clueless re defense. He fired a good coordinator and hired a terrible one. Why would anyone think he's up to the task here?
And it took the guy three years to teach someone to simply catch a damn punt. It's cartoonish. Most high school coaches get that done in a month.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^
This is not news.
This is Wojo.
November 28th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^
Think about it this way, RR has had three years and only managed to score seven points on OSU. Now I think this is a valid point seeing as how his claim to fame is offenses that "score a lot of points".
Now you can talk about yards and statistics all you want, but at the end of the day you need to actually get into the endzone which they couldn't do.
2008: 47-7
2009: 21-10
2010: 37-7
Show me progress. The only thing I saw this year is Denard Robinson and the one man show. Everything else got worse.
November 28th, 2010 at 8:38 PM ^
so OSU is assumed to be exactly the same?