WVU alum says RR will get it done
I went to an out of town basketball tournament that my son played in this past weekend. At the first game a stranger comes up to me and comments on my Michigan visor I was wearing and asked what I thought of coach RR.
I told him that I thought he was a good coach coming into a situation with not much to work with and I hope he has the opportunity to get it done, but I had talked to some alums and people associated with the school at the PSU v Michigan baseball games and got the feeling that RR may be in his last year unless he produces now since the pressure is really on.
He said that would be a shame because they guy is a great coach. He then told me that he's a WVU alum, but he thought RR made the right move since Michigan is a step up from there and that anyone who thinks it was a lateral is just fooling themselves. Told me that he knows RR personally, but not as close as some of his friends and that RR has had them to AA for some games.
We talked a bit more and he made some very clear points...
If RR had a Pat White in his first year at AA none of the firing conversation would be happening now. The WVU guy liked Tate a lot, but thinks he's too small/frail to play an entire season in that system. Said there is no way Tate is the size he's listed at and pointed out a kid playing in the basketball game to show how big he really is. Wasn't sure about DRob, but thinks if RR makes it to the Gardner era things will turn out just fine.
I thought I'd share this because even the rational WVU alums think RR can get it done with the right tools.
coming from a WVU alum, it has to be true.
Glad you reported this. I was really worried.
Did he happen to mention anything about our defensive coordinator as well? I am hoping he pans out too!
That injury could just as easily have happened to a bigger guy in the same situation. People seem to forget that guys who are 6-3 and 235 are hardly immune to separated shoulders or blown knees.
I saw Tate in a t-shirt and shorts in downtown A2 last summer. While he's certainly not tall, people are just plain wrong if they think he's some frail, skinny kid. He was very solidly built even then, and the past 12+ months in S&C can only have made him stronger and sturdier from a body mass standpoint. Now it's up to him to learn to avoid unnecessary contact, and luck.
But yeah—can't we give people a break some times? He wasn't spouting the Freep nonsense or the whole "RR isn't a Michigan Man" crap.
but consider Tates style of play and combine it with his stature. It doesn't match. He is way too much sandlot and not enough reading the D in his game right now. I hope this develops and then this is not such an issue. Tate over exposes himself to hits with the way he runs the O at this point.
Anyone who even has to think about whether a move from WVU to Michigan is "lateral" is either brain damaged or an alien from another planet (and not an advanced planet either).
Good discussion, but I don't think it's a ground breaking point that if Rodriguez had had a "Pat White" that things would have gone better. While I have said often that it is better to be patient with RR, there were some definite coaching mistakes made that were baffling at times.