Red Berenson and Michigan hockey are collectively one of our greatest athletic traditions. I couldn't be prouder of Michigan than when I am at a game at Yost.
That Denard was not going to win the Heisman has been a foregone conclusion for many weeks now. You have to be on a great football team to win the trophy, regardless of your individual statistics.
I think there are definite similarities, as I allude to above. Both were considered "hot commodity" coaches when hired who were going to bring in an exciting new system to a previously successful program/franchise.
If this is not the "progress" that Brandon claims to be seeking, then I'm not sure what is. If we beat Mississippi State convincingly I think you have a very hard time letting go of Coach Rod. He deserves to stay.
The defense automatically improves as a result of an extra year of experience and Woolfolk coming back from injury, even if we keep GERG and do nothing at all. That said, I would love to see a completely revamped Michigan defensive scheme as well.
Admittedly I haven't been in the RR camp for a while. To be honest, I actually feel a lot better about him after last night's speech. I don't care if the Groban song is cheesy. Clearly he and the players were all in it together. The team still believes in him and it was a sentimental but important moment.
I would ask everyone to stop hating. Coach Rod deserves our respect, particularly after last night.
Look I respect Rich Rod and if he is our coach next year then I hope he does amazing things. But come on, really? You would rather lose a few more games here or there than have Harbaugh? Crazy talk. Don't confuse honor with a loser mentality.
I don't think anyone in Columbus is worrying about moral victories or honor, having smacked us in the mouth for pretty much the entire decade. Let's get back to being winners people!
I totally agree with Brian's thinking on this point. This is definitely a situation where Michigan gives Rich Rod one more year to prove him himself. The problem is the availability of Harbaugh, and subsequent lack of availability of Harbaugh next year, that make this problem more pressing.
Keeping Coach Rod wouldn't be a bad decision. I believe that we will prove a lot of haters wrong next year with a 10 win season, competing for the Big Ten title.
Of course we pull for the Lions. Come on really? Rooting against Drew Stanton on the Lions is very little brotherish. Go Stanton! (But please come back soon Matt Stafford.)
I agree that patience is definitely needed. Coach Rod has shown improvement each year. That said, I think it is a bit of a straw man to talk about "entitled alums" and "wealthy" donors who support our football program. The idea that it is rich, ignorant old alumni who are ruining it for younger, more football intelligent alumni seems pretty silly.
I think most of the garbage thrown at Coach Rod is completely false. He is a quality coach who has largely done his best with a lot of factors that have been out of his control.
I agree with some of the sentiment from the turnovers and special teams "attention to detail" argument. Frankly we were almost worse on special teams this year than we were on defense. Between missed field goals, lack of onside recoveries and putting our defense on the field with bad field position from poor punting, we did ourselves no favors. Youth and inexperience nothwithstanding, we needed to have better special teams play.
Turnovers are a bit tougher to analyze because they are definitely correlated to talent, but again I think Coach Rod needed to do a better job getting the turnover margin closer to positive territory.
Even though the tough defeat to OSU is fresh on my mind, it does give me a lot of hope to think about our healthy roster with a full year more experience. Particularly on D, which should be much improved. Whoever coaches this team next year will have 9 wins, hopefully more.
Smart college coaches recognize that the NFL is not necessarily the end all be all. Spurrier, Saban, Petrino are three prime examples of guys who tried their luck in the NFL with high paying contracts, only to return to their roots.
It's not just about the money. I think Harbaugh will seriously consider taking the Michigan job, even if there is more money to be made coaching the 49ers.
I agree that there are many Michigan fans who have an entitled mentality and do whine about things they shouldn't. We are all lucky to have been Michigan fans over the past 30 years.
I do think there is a legitimate place to express intelligent concerns about the state of our football program. The tough part is separating "the whine" from true fans who express concerns about the past three seasons.
I agree that you need to take these rankings with a grain of salt. They are an imperfect measure of the Michigan team and its potential going forward. They definitely lose credibility by not having Denard on the first team.
There isn't another player in the history of college football who I dislike more than Justin Boren. Good riddance to this chump. A Michigan win on Saturday would feel really good...
There was definitely a sense of futility at the 2007 OSU game that year. We punted the ball a million times and let Tressel control the game. Lloyd wasn't "at fault" per se, but there was a frustrating sense at the time that Ohio State had his number and was going to continue beating us annually.
I remember there were lots of obnoxious OSU fans with "We Love Lloyd" t shirts on at the game. Was he our version of John Cooper? No, far from it. But our program 3 years ago still had great difficulty hanging with Tressel's Bucks. In Rich Rod's defense, the Michigan program he inherited was getting beaten consistently by our rivals down south.
I think we all agree that hiring Jim Harbaugh is not some magical coaching change that will bring national championships over night. I do recognize in Harbaugh an excellent coach with meaningful ties to Michigan.
I think he would be more inclined to coach at his alma mater than with a mediocre NFL franchise like San Francisco.
The point being that it is disingenous to claim that Rich Rod and Harbaugh have both had similiarly slow starts. Harbaugh's record as Stanford's coach (through year three) is a hell of a lot better than Coach Rod's at Michigan.
In Harbaugh's third year at Stanford, he led them to an 8-4 regular season, and a 6-3 Pac 10 record. They lost their bowl game to Oklahoma. Stanford beat #7 Oregon at home and #11 USC on the road that season.
You should also note that Stanford was the doormat of the Pac 10 before he arrived. He inherited a crappy program and made it great. Not the same story here in Ann Arbor in year three.
I think Greg Robinson deserves more of the criticism these days. Our potential on offense is unbelievable and I credit Coach Rod for that. I think our scheme on D has been prettty awful.
I agree about blue chip recruits. Our ability to recruit top flight players improves by hiring Jim Harbaugh, not the other way around. No disrespect to Rich Rod, but Harbaugh makes this program better for the next two decades.
Bad luck has been a huge factor this season with injuries that I don't think most people fully take into account. Our attrition rate, particularly on defense, has been astounding. Martin and Roh are critical parts of our defense who simply can't be replaced.
Obviously we're all Michigan fans here so I agree let's cut through the vitriol. That said, there should be a reasonable forum to discuss our coaching staff in a non-douchey manner.
I felt like Spielman made some pretty good points about our football team today, though I'm not usually a huge fan of his analysis. The comment about defensive talent was spot on. Almost every Carr team had several players on defense who were legitimate starters in the NFL.
The "shitty girlfriend" analogy doesn't quite work, but I understand the frustration. It hasn't been an easy three years. Even with injuries and Lloyd's so called "bare cupboard," this defense is about as bad as it gets.
Recruiting and talent aside, can we emphasize fundamentals? Tackling well and taking the right angle are critical pieces to any defense. We are failing miserably in this department and it's not simply a talent issue.
Recent Comments
Red Berenson and Michigan hockey are collectively one of our greatest athletic traditions. I couldn't be prouder of Michigan than when I am at a game at Yost.
That Denard was not going to win the Heisman has been a foregone conclusion for many weeks now. You have to be on a great football team to win the trophy, regardless of your individual statistics.
I think there are definite similarities, as I allude to above. Both were considered "hot commodity" coaches when hired who were going to bring in an exciting new system to a previously successful program/franchise.
If this is not the "progress" that Brandon claims to be seeking, then I'm not sure what is. If we beat Mississippi State convincingly I think you have a very hard time letting go of Coach Rod. He deserves to stay.
The defense automatically improves as a result of an extra year of experience and Woolfolk coming back from injury, even if we keep GERG and do nothing at all. That said, I would love to see a completely revamped Michigan defensive scheme as well.
Admittedly I haven't been in the RR camp for a while. To be honest, I actually feel a lot better about him after last night's speech. I don't care if the Groban song is cheesy. Clearly he and the players were all in it together. The team still believes in him and it was a sentimental but important moment.
I would ask everyone to stop hating. Coach Rod deserves our respect, particularly after last night.
Look I respect Rich Rod and if he is our coach next year then I hope he does amazing things. But come on, really? You would rather lose a few more games here or there than have Harbaugh? Crazy talk. Don't confuse honor with a loser mentality.
I don't think anyone in Columbus is worrying about moral victories or honor, having smacked us in the mouth for pretty much the entire decade. Let's get back to being winners people!
That's a ridiculous comment. You hope Denard leaves Michigan if Rich Rod is gone? Go back to the Red Cedar Board, dude.
I hope CU hires a great coach. It's a shame what happened to that program under Dan Hawkins over the last five years.
I totally agree with Brian's thinking on this point. This is definitely a situation where Michigan gives Rich Rod one more year to prove him himself. The problem is the availability of Harbaugh, and subsequent lack of availability of Harbaugh next year, that make this problem more pressing.
Keeping Coach Rod wouldn't be a bad decision. I believe that we will prove a lot of haters wrong next year with a 10 win season, competing for the Big Ten title.
More cowbell/snake oil. And lots more 5 star athletes for our defense.
d
Of course we pull for the Lions. Come on really? Rooting against Drew Stanton on the Lions is very little brotherish. Go Stanton! (But please come back soon Matt Stafford.)
let's get this guy! More snake oil in the state of Indiana!
I agree that patience is definitely needed. Coach Rod has shown improvement each year. That said, I think it is a bit of a straw man to talk about "entitled alums" and "wealthy" donors who support our football program. The idea that it is rich, ignorant old alumni who are ruining it for younger, more football intelligent alumni seems pretty silly.
I think most of the garbage thrown at Coach Rod is completely false. He is a quality coach who has largely done his best with a lot of factors that have been out of his control.
I agree with some of the sentiment from the turnovers and special teams "attention to detail" argument. Frankly we were almost worse on special teams this year than we were on defense. Between missed field goals, lack of onside recoveries and putting our defense on the field with bad field position from poor punting, we did ourselves no favors. Youth and inexperience nothwithstanding, we needed to have better special teams play.
Turnovers are a bit tougher to analyze because they are definitely correlated to talent, but again I think Coach Rod needed to do a better job getting the turnover margin closer to positive territory.
Even though the tough defeat to OSU is fresh on my mind, it does give me a lot of hope to think about our healthy roster with a full year more experience. Particularly on D, which should be much improved. Whoever coaches this team next year will have 9 wins, hopefully more.
I'm psyched to have Dee Hart as our featured back in the years to come. D Rob and Devin Gardner are excited about this.
Smart college coaches recognize that the NFL is not necessarily the end all be all. Spurrier, Saban, Petrino are three prime examples of guys who tried their luck in the NFL with high paying contracts, only to return to their roots.
It's not just about the money. I think Harbaugh will seriously consider taking the Michigan job, even if there is more money to be made coaching the 49ers.
I agree that there are many Michigan fans who have an entitled mentality and do whine about things they shouldn't. We are all lucky to have been Michigan fans over the past 30 years.
I do think there is a legitimate place to express intelligent concerns about the state of our football program. The tough part is separating "the whine" from true fans who express concerns about the past three seasons.
I agree that you need to take these rankings with a grain of salt. They are an imperfect measure of the Michigan team and its potential going forward. They definitely lose credibility by not having Denard on the first team.
There isn't another player in the history of college football who I dislike more than Justin Boren. Good riddance to this chump. A Michigan win on Saturday would feel really good...
There was definitely a sense of futility at the 2007 OSU game that year. We punted the ball a million times and let Tressel control the game. Lloyd wasn't "at fault" per se, but there was a frustrating sense at the time that Ohio State had his number and was going to continue beating us annually.
I remember there were lots of obnoxious OSU fans with "We Love Lloyd" t shirts on at the game. Was he our version of John Cooper? No, far from it. But our program 3 years ago still had great difficulty hanging with Tressel's Bucks. In Rich Rod's defense, the Michigan program he inherited was getting beaten consistently by our rivals down south.
I think we all agree that hiring Jim Harbaugh is not some magical coaching change that will bring national championships over night. I do recognize in Harbaugh an excellent coach with meaningful ties to Michigan.
I think he would be more inclined to coach at his alma mater than with a mediocre NFL franchise like San Francisco.
at least Ohio State is still excited about being our rival.
The point being that it is disingenous to claim that Rich Rod and Harbaugh have both had similiarly slow starts. Harbaugh's record as Stanford's coach (through year three) is a hell of a lot better than Coach Rod's at Michigan.
In Harbaugh's third year at Stanford, he led them to an 8-4 regular season, and a 6-3 Pac 10 record. They lost their bowl game to Oklahoma. Stanford beat #7 Oregon at home and #11 USC on the road that season.
You should also note that Stanford was the doormat of the Pac 10 before he arrived. He inherited a crappy program and made it great. Not the same story here in Ann Arbor in year three.
There was an article in the San Jose paper this week. He's leaving Stanford. The question is whether he comes to Michigan. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this to be his dream job. http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16653442?nclick_check=1
I think Greg Robinson deserves more of the criticism these days. Our potential on offense is unbelievable and I credit Coach Rod for that. I think our scheme on D has been prettty awful.
I agree about blue chip recruits. Our ability to recruit top flight players improves by hiring Jim Harbaugh, not the other way around. No disrespect to Rich Rod, but Harbaugh makes this program better for the next two decades.
I really like the idea of playing Boise at the Big House. They are an increasingly legit program and would love to put them to the test in Ann Arbor.
Bad luck has been a huge factor this season with injuries that I don't think most people fully take into account. Our attrition rate, particularly on defense, has been astounding. Martin and Roh are critical parts of our defense who simply can't be replaced.
Obviously we're all Michigan fans here so I agree let's cut through the vitriol. That said, there should be a reasonable forum to discuss our coaching staff in a non-douchey manner.
I felt like Spielman made some pretty good points about our football team today, though I'm not usually a huge fan of his analysis. The comment about defensive talent was spot on. Almost every Carr team had several players on defense who were legitimate starters in the NFL.
The "shitty girlfriend" analogy doesn't quite work, but I understand the frustration. It hasn't been an easy three years. Even with injuries and Lloyd's so called "bare cupboard," this defense is about as bad as it gets.
Recruiting and talent aside, can we emphasize fundamentals? Tackling well and taking the right angle are critical pieces to any defense. We are failing miserably in this department and it's not simply a talent issue.