I hope this blog gets back to its roots some day soon. Witty and unbiased coverage of Michigan sports. Great content mixed with clever / funny editorial writing. All of this whining about RR and what could have been and how terrible things are going to be is killing this blog. I don't even enjoy reading it anymore. Please get over RR being fired and get back to covering what is actually happening with Michigan football.
A couple observations. If it was unfair / wrong to prematurely judge RR's program then it is unfair / wrong to do the same with Brady Hoke's program. Coaches say shit people want to hear all the time. Saying what fans, recruits and parents want to hear is part of the job description. Judge the coach based on the results on the field not on what he says during the offseason. Ignoring statistics is stupid but so is blindly following them or twisting them until they support your point of view. Yards per whatever is a useful stat but so are points scored and wins and losses. People are not stupid just because they take a qualitative view of what is going on with the program. You can win with a variety of strategies and schemes. If you argue people are stupid for saying the spread is a gimmick offense that can't work in the Big Ten then you are equally stupid if you argue Michigan can only win with a spread scheme. Good players, good fundamentals and good coaching almost always beat scheme. Alabama seemed to do just fine two years ago playing manball just like Auburn and Oregon did great using the spread last year. What do they all have in common though? Great players and great coaching. ( And cheating.)
Finally a little opinion. Talking about and more importantly instilling toughness is not a stupid concept or just talk. Football is a violent aggressive game based on imposing your physical will on the other team. Watch the first half of the Wisconsin game or the bowl game. Ask and then honestly answer this question. Was Michigan a phyiscal, aggressive team imposing its will on its opponent? In football, you can only fool people for so long. At some point you have to line up and kick the ass of the guy in front of you. If you ever played the game at any level you understand this fundamental truth. If you haven't played the game you may or may not get this point. Michigan needed to get tougher and more physical to be an elite team again. I like all the talk about toughness but at this point it is only talk. If we see toughness in the fall this program will be back on the path to being great again. I for one am going to wait and see what happens in the fall before I render any judgements about this team or its coaching staff. I hope this blog and its readership can learn to do the same.
The analogy I have been using lately is a transplant patient rejecting the transplanted organ. The body needs the organ but it rejects it anyway because it is different. We all knew Michigan football needed to change to keep up with the truly elite programs but the fanbase and the program weren't prepared for radical change. Some PR mistakes and poor on field results have only accelerated the rejection process.
I think RR might have success at UM if allowed to stay but the situation has deteriorated to the point where the program should move in a different direction. Like it or not, JH is the solution straight from central casting if you buy my analogy. Brandon has set this up to go after JH quickly and quietly as soon as bowl season ends. If he whiffs, it will be in private with no embarrassment to the University. He then forces RR to make wholesale changes to the defensive staff and essentially installs a co-head coach as defensive coordinator. If the on field results improve great. If not, the decision is obvious and the new DC may even be a head coaching candidate. I think we whiff on JH and he goes to the NFL setting up a really dysfunctional 2011.
Kovacs is the least of our problems on defense. I don't think he is going anywhere. He is probably the second most consistent player on our defense behind MM. He almost always plays his assignment and he has made plays when put in position to do so. In short, he does his job consistently which is more than most on our D can say right now. I think it is more likely and makes more sense that C-Gordon replaces T-Gordon. That position has been all but invisible on game day.
The first rule of coaching is put your players in positions and schemes that match their physical talents and allow them to suceed. Kovacs is a great example. He struggled as a deep safety last year and he has been solid but not great, in a combo box safety / linebacker role this year. Roh playing in space is a great example of a player being put in a position to struggle because his talents don't match the role. These position switches all seem pretty natural and obvious based on what we have seen on the field. I have to believe or hope the mental aspects of the secondary positions have held back some of the freshmen and limited the coaches ability to switch positions. Make a mental mistake in the box and it costs you a first down. Make a mental mistake at deep safety and its a touchdown. I can understand the hesitancy to have a true freshman back there. It can't get much worse so I'm all for trying new things at this point. Coming off a bye week is the best time to try it. Let's pray it works
Understand your view on 2008. It's fair to say Martin knew what he was getting. I'll confess I'm from the school of thought that says you coach the players you have not the ones you want to have. I think you have to adapt your system some when you don't have players to intially fit your scheme. The Toledo game just really sticks with me. I live in Toledo and have season tickets. I just remember how awful that team was in 2008 and we still lost to them. Anyway, I'm curious if you agree with the second part of my comment about the next five weeks. I know you have a football background and you seem to be pretty objective when you assess the team, the coaches and our personnel. Curious if you read it the same way.
Long time reader but first time commenter. I think the intense fire R-rod now crowd and the intense just give him time crowd both have it wrong. I evaluate coach Rod by asking is he maximizing the potential of his team. A good coach almost always wins the games he should and ocassionally pulls off upsets. My concern with coach Rod is the bad losses the last two years and the lack of a meaningful win. No one will ever convince me Toledo and Purdue in 2008 and Purdue and Illinois in 2009 were games we should have lost. I could get over one or two losses like this but four bad losses in two years makes me at least question the direction of the program. So far so good this year. We beat the five teams we should and lost to two better teams. I think the last five weeks provide the perfect test for determining if the program is heading in the right direction. We have had a week off, our team is healthy and we will be the best team on the field each of the next three weeks. The last two games we will be decided underdogs. I think the semi objective standard should be win the next three or win two of three with an upset in the last two. Accomplsih that and I think R-Rod should enjoy our complete support and confidence. If not, I think there are legitimate questions about the trajectory of the program. I personally think he will make it to year four at which point he owns all the problems and should be judged by the bottom line reults on the field.
Recent Comments
I hope this blog gets back to its roots some day soon. Witty and unbiased coverage of Michigan sports. Great content mixed with clever / funny editorial writing. All of this whining about RR and what could have been and how terrible things are going to be is killing this blog. I don't even enjoy reading it anymore. Please get over RR being fired and get back to covering what is actually happening with Michigan football.
A couple observations. If it was unfair / wrong to prematurely judge RR's program then it is unfair / wrong to do the same with Brady Hoke's program. Coaches say shit people want to hear all the time. Saying what fans, recruits and parents want to hear is part of the job description. Judge the coach based on the results on the field not on what he says during the offseason. Ignoring statistics is stupid but so is blindly following them or twisting them until they support your point of view. Yards per whatever is a useful stat but so are points scored and wins and losses. People are not stupid just because they take a qualitative view of what is going on with the program. You can win with a variety of strategies and schemes. If you argue people are stupid for saying the spread is a gimmick offense that can't work in the Big Ten then you are equally stupid if you argue Michigan can only win with a spread scheme. Good players, good fundamentals and good coaching almost always beat scheme. Alabama seemed to do just fine two years ago playing manball just like Auburn and Oregon did great using the spread last year. What do they all have in common though? Great players and great coaching. ( And cheating.)
Finally a little opinion. Talking about and more importantly instilling toughness is not a stupid concept or just talk. Football is a violent aggressive game based on imposing your physical will on the other team. Watch the first half of the Wisconsin game or the bowl game. Ask and then honestly answer this question. Was Michigan a phyiscal, aggressive team imposing its will on its opponent? In football, you can only fool people for so long. At some point you have to line up and kick the ass of the guy in front of you. If you ever played the game at any level you understand this fundamental truth. If you haven't played the game you may or may not get this point. Michigan needed to get tougher and more physical to be an elite team again. I like all the talk about toughness but at this point it is only talk. If we see toughness in the fall this program will be back on the path to being great again. I for one am going to wait and see what happens in the fall before I render any judgements about this team or its coaching staff. I hope this blog and its readership can learn to do the same.
The analogy I have been using lately is a transplant patient rejecting the transplanted organ. The body needs the organ but it rejects it anyway because it is different. We all knew Michigan football needed to change to keep up with the truly elite programs but the fanbase and the program weren't prepared for radical change. Some PR mistakes and poor on field results have only accelerated the rejection process.
I think RR might have success at UM if allowed to stay but the situation has deteriorated to the point where the program should move in a different direction. Like it or not, JH is the solution straight from central casting if you buy my analogy. Brandon has set this up to go after JH quickly and quietly as soon as bowl season ends. If he whiffs, it will be in private with no embarrassment to the University. He then forces RR to make wholesale changes to the defensive staff and essentially installs a co-head coach as defensive coordinator. If the on field results improve great. If not, the decision is obvious and the new DC may even be a head coaching candidate. I think we whiff on JH and he goes to the NFL setting up a really dysfunctional 2011.
Kovacs is the least of our problems on defense. I don't think he is going anywhere. He is probably the second most consistent player on our defense behind MM. He almost always plays his assignment and he has made plays when put in position to do so. In short, he does his job consistently which is more than most on our D can say right now. I think it is more likely and makes more sense that C-Gordon replaces T-Gordon. That position has been all but invisible on game day.
The first rule of coaching is put your players in positions and schemes that match their physical talents and allow them to suceed. Kovacs is a great example. He struggled as a deep safety last year and he has been solid but not great, in a combo box safety / linebacker role this year. Roh playing in space is a great example of a player being put in a position to struggle because his talents don't match the role. These position switches all seem pretty natural and obvious based on what we have seen on the field. I have to believe or hope the mental aspects of the secondary positions have held back some of the freshmen and limited the coaches ability to switch positions. Make a mental mistake in the box and it costs you a first down. Make a mental mistake at deep safety and its a touchdown. I can understand the hesitancy to have a true freshman back there. It can't get much worse so I'm all for trying new things at this point. Coming off a bye week is the best time to try it. Let's pray it works
Understand your view on 2008. It's fair to say Martin knew what he was getting. I'll confess I'm from the school of thought that says you coach the players you have not the ones you want to have. I think you have to adapt your system some when you don't have players to intially fit your scheme. The Toledo game just really sticks with me. I live in Toledo and have season tickets. I just remember how awful that team was in 2008 and we still lost to them. Anyway, I'm curious if you agree with the second part of my comment about the next five weeks. I know you have a football background and you seem to be pretty objective when you assess the team, the coaches and our personnel. Curious if you read it the same way.
Long time reader but first time commenter. I think the intense fire R-rod now crowd and the intense just give him time crowd both have it wrong. I evaluate coach Rod by asking is he maximizing the potential of his team. A good coach almost always wins the games he should and ocassionally pulls off upsets. My concern with coach Rod is the bad losses the last two years and the lack of a meaningful win. No one will ever convince me Toledo and Purdue in 2008 and Purdue and Illinois in 2009 were games we should have lost. I could get over one or two losses like this but four bad losses in two years makes me at least question the direction of the program. So far so good this year. We beat the five teams we should and lost to two better teams. I think the last five weeks provide the perfect test for determining if the program is heading in the right direction. We have had a week off, our team is healthy and we will be the best team on the field each of the next three weeks. The last two games we will be decided underdogs. I think the semi objective standard should be win the next three or win two of three with an upset in the last two. Accomplsih that and I think R-Rod should enjoy our complete support and confidence. If not, I think there are legitimate questions about the trajectory of the program. I personally think he will make it to year four at which point he owns all the problems and should be judged by the bottom line reults on the field.