Rawls if he can hang onto it, I'd guesss
jim48315
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- You can cheer because this program, this team, and this school care more about being worth cheering for than whether or not you're cheering.
- Well said, Misopogon.
| Date | Title | Body |
|---|---|---|
| 24 weeks 2 days ago | Weak or balanced? |
I disagree. This is one of the strongest B1G conferences I have seen in 40 years, even if the top two aren't the 1973 Bucks and Blue (the two best Big Ten teams relative to the rest of the NCAA I ever saw: OSU on 1-1-74 killed a very good USC team and M was idle due to the Rose Bowl or nothing rule. As for this year's B1G, when did it last have this many good teams who spent nine weeks beating up each other? Michigan, Wisconsin, State, Penn State, Nebraska, Ohio (once it got back the suspended players), Northwestern, and Iowa are all very to pretty good teams. Michigan and Ohio are both teams which have improved continuously during the season. From top to bottom this B1G is better than it has been in a long time, even if there is no one (or two) dominant team(s). Let's be glad M has a team to be proud of and this senior class can graduate with a good taste in its mouth. As for Schadenfreude, that is for meaner and pettier people than the M community I know.
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| 42 weeks 2 hours ago | Why gild the lily? |
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| 51 weeks 2 days ago | Michigan bias is irrelevant |
Brandstatter's point is well made regardless of where he went to school and regardless of whether he is a fan. Ohio State has strayed from being a University which was proud of its student athletes and worked at making their experience great (the Woody days). Hell, Ohio State's faculty after the 1961 season voted not to permit the football team (a "national champion") go to the Rose Bowl. After the 1940 Michigan game, the fans in the Horseshoe gave Tom Harmon a standing ovation after he single-handedly destroyed the Buckeyes, a feat of sportsmanship seldom equalled by anyone. Those are things more to be proud of than a modern national championship fielding the likes of Clarett and Katzenmoyer. Yes, Michigan had some guys who weren't perfect. Hell, they had some guys who committed felonies (after Michigan football). But it was never a part of the coaches' plan. Bo, Mo, and Lloyd preferred to lose rather than to shame the school. This is a step toward leveling the playing field in the Big 10. Can the SEC be that far behind? One can only hope.
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| 1 year 18 weeks ago | thanks, but |
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I really was looking for information because I am genuinely befuddled as to how the program sank so far so fast.
I think it very possible that the offense will be at least similar to what it was considering the number of players eligible to return. As for making progress, I think "objectively" a great deal of the statistics rung up were directly attributable to the remarkable individual talent of Denard Robinson, and, no, I don't expect he'll get worse. I also think that the offense had a lot of trouble scoring against better defenses (something hardly unique to Michigan's situation, true), even to the point of near ineffectiveness (Ohio State, Mississippi State), How was that problem on its way to solution?
What I am reading is that (1) young players will get better because growth and experience will make them so, and (2) injuries to defensive backs are largely to blame for the defensive problems of last year. What I was looking for was an analysis of what it was that RR was doing, as opposed to a general maturation process, that would lead to better things. Where did I miss it? And, no, I didn't want him to fail, much less am "the most jaded RR hater." That would have been unfair to all those kids who deserved to have the best coaching they could get. My real question is whether they got that during the past three years, and, if not, why not? Thanks again for your reply. |
| 1 year 19 weeks ago | Rethinking DB |
Dave Brandon has been on a pretty long honeymoon. Can anyone explain why? The timing of the firing and the announcement in January of a "nationwide coaching search" strike me as capricious as opposed to carefully planned, unless he decided months ago to can RR and hire anyone, and when Harbaugh was unavailable, to choose Hoke, and the rest was just theater. I would also like to see a detailed explanation (not a set of conclusions) why RR was making progress and would have been a success soon. Really, I would. Any takers? |
| 1 year 19 weeks ago | No brief for the Freep |
I didn't "defend" the Free Press. My argument is that no newspaper (or blog, for that matter) caused 3-9, 5-7, 7-6, multiple losses by embarrasing margins, a defense that probably demoralized the poor kids on the team, or Michigan fans preparing to watch their favorite team play with only the faintest hope that team might win. Even assuming Nemesis and Loki were mendacious, can one hope that the NCAA investigators separated wheat from chaff and relied on evidence other than what was printed on litter box liners? As for quoting Nemesis, did you read the quote? Even the OP would likely not have written such a paean to St. Richard, Missionary and Martyr. I envy you your acquaintance with Mr. Carr. Would you be good enough to share more of his thoughts? |
| 1 year 19 weeks ago | The fault lies not in our stars... |
The same Michael Rosenberg, who, when Rich Rodriguez was hired, wrote:
That was in December, 2007. This site's spam filter doesn't permit a link to the entire piece. Don't blame the newspapers. Drew Sharp tried for years to get Lloyd Carr, or at least some of his assistants, canned. He wasn't alone. And Lloyd left on his own terms. One man is responsible for the end of the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan. Accept it. Who doesn't think that Brandon started his evaluation the moment he hired on as AD? And who really thinks Rodriguez made a strong case to stay on? Now let us hope that Brandon handles the hiring better than he did the firing. |
| 1 year 23 weeks ago | Extension? |
Hmmm. DB won't say now that RR is going to be the coach in 2011 but is also contemplating an extension of his current contract, which has three years to run if M wants it to run that long? |
| 1 year 23 weeks ago | Probably the right answer |
I agree that this analysis is the most likely scenario. If Brandon had decided to keep RR he probably would have announced it because (1) it would be better for recruiting than uncertainty, (2) it would show him to be a decisive CEO type (Brandon is clearly possessed of a non-zero vanity), (3) it would keep the assistants focused on the task at hand instead of scrambling for their next jobs, (4) there is more than a non-zero chance RR can be successful, notwithstanding his disappointing (other words also come to mind) showing to date, and (5) it would give him and his talent scouts a full year to find another Tressel in the small schools (something Martin should have begun doing in 2005, despite LC's hope that one of his assistants would succeed him). But DB knows a lot of alumni are very unhappy and he is a little concerned that one more year might do lasting damage to what he so felicitously calls "the brand," so if he can get a definite crowd pleaser like Harbaugh, he leaves it open. Thus, RR's job is hanging by a thread, but the DB won't cut that thread without someone to replace him. DB is Lincoln to RR's McClellan. Some people think DB is actually using the time to reflect and to think. I am not one of them. He is likely either using the time to find out if he can get the sexy choice in January or he is unwilling not to fire RR if the Gator Bowl is another embarrassment. As for the second, I don't buy that, because if Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State weren't embarrassment enough, a debacle at the Gator Bowl won't be either. If DB hasn't yet decided on a course of action, even this waffling one, he's not the right man for the job. |
| 1 year 24 weeks ago | How about... |
a comparison to Gerry Faust? Terrifically successful where he was before arriving at Notre Dame, incredibly enthusiastic about having arrived at Notre Dame, and perhaps the most gentlemanly major college football coach ever to live. Take a look at Under the Tarnished Dome. Once, after someone, I don't recall who, unmercifully ran up the score on an outmanned Notre Dame team, he headed across the field to shake hands with that other coach. When asked why he would do that, his reply was something like, "that's the time you most need to do it." Gerry is quoted as having said, "I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame; that's when we lost. Other than that, I was the happiest guy in the world. I loved walking on the campus, loved being there, loved being a part of Notre Dame." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Faust . He was replaced by Lou Holtz, a very different sort. My point is that however wonderful Coach Rodriguez is as far as wanting to be a "Michigan Man" or visiting the sick and comforting the afflicted, it is separate from his technical ability to help football players succeed during games. And I have yet to see any negative comment, even from the likes of Sharp and Valenti, about his support of the Mealer family or visting hospitalized children. As far as Bo insisting on being supportive of the program when troubles happened, his actions showed he wasn't stubbornly insistent on a single style of play or staying the same no matter what. The man won with QBs as disparate as Tom Slade, Denny Franklin, John Wangler, and Michael Taylor. When he arrived at Michigan he said there would be changes made, true. Many of those were to facilities like nails instead of lockers for the coaches. And in his first three years, his overall record was 28-5, 20-2 in the conference, and a defense which gave up 321 points in three years. So, does RR remind me of Bo, or what? What. |
