The one thing about this data that I was thinking about. Assuming the data uses the final rankings, what are the odds that a team would stay in the top 10 or top 25 with a loss against WV on its resume? Obviously it wouldn't be as big of an issue in the 2005-2007 range, but in the early 2000s WV didn't have the greatest reputation and a loss to them may knock a team out of the top 10/top 30. It would be interesting to see both the record vs. top 30/top 10 at the time of the game as well as the end of the season.

2008: 3-9 2009: 7-5 2010: 12-1 Seems pretty linear to me.

When we made the hire. Not that we hired a bad coach but that being an elite contender would require us having the perfect storm of talent. I felt like we might start being the 9-3, 8-4, 10-2 teams that always compete for our conference championship & make a good bowl but over the course of a couple decades would only be in serious contention for national titles a small percentage of those years. Mainly because I feel that this system needs guys like PW & SS to make that next step. Scheme can only get you so far. And this system doesn't recruit just any ol players we want, especially because we are up north and the south AND west really does have a lot to offer kids in the attractive wow factor dept. that are playing the true spread offense. But hell maybe RR can actually start getting those types and finding them easier than he did at any school before here?? I think the jury is still out and will be for some time on if that is true or not, but I feel its obvious that we made a change that could at least put us ahead of a conference that is truly a step behind in the evolution of college football, IF we are patient. But I also feel that being ahead of the Big 10 isn't getting us all the way into true national contention & that is ultimately where I think all the die hard true blue Michigan fans are starving for us to be. We want to a program that is legitimately in the conversation year in and year out. I just hope that over the course of the next few seasons with improvement on the football field & with hard work on the recruiting trail, since it will obviously be easier for RR to recruit here than at WV, that UM football will get the elite talent needed & stay loaded with it so we will contend every year once the first few years of building this system are out of the way and the major hurdles are crossed.

Just to be clear, my original post was in response to a post someone had copied from the ESPN board pointing out Rich Rod's relatively poor record against teams that finished the season in the top 10 or top 30 of the Sagarin rankings. I don't know why they chose those cutoffs, but that was the source of my rankings. I didn't exactly triple check my work, so it's possible my numbers are slightly off. I don't know the details of what went on at WVU in those years, so I can only speculate as to what exctly caused the major leap from 2004 to 2005. But I'm sure Pat White and Steve Slaton were a huge part of it. Some people have viewed this as a knock against Rich Rod -- i.e. he was only able to win because he lucked into getting a couple of low-ranked recruits who turned out to have NFL level talent. In some sense, this is true. You need to have high level talent in order to compete at the highest levels. But great talent doesn't always lead to great results (see Ron Zook), and even with White and Slaton, I'm sure Rich Rod had less talent to work with than Georgia or Oklahoma. Another thing to keep in mind is that the huge leap at WVU came after four years of Rich Rod as coach. At that point, basically everyone on the team was recruited by RR for his system, and there wouldn't have been as much of a need to play freshmen (except freshmen with incredible talent, like White and Slaton). If you went back and looked at WVU in detail, I bet you'd find that they had the supporting cast in place in 2005 to take advantage of White and Slaton's talent. This probably supports your point that we shouldn't expect a major leap upward next year. P.S. Always trust content from I Blue Myself, in spite of the name and avatar.

Enjoyed the post and perspective that this is not merely a function of time to install the spread, but also a function of the talent we bring in....That being said, and perhaps out of arrogance, we Michigan fans assume that given our tradition and national recruiting base, we could bring in the necessary talent for RR's system after a couple years of recruiting, and it would be just a matter of a couple years before the offense was humming. And to be honest, as disheartening as yesterdays loss was, it in no ways implies that the offense is not on schedule. Remember, if we assume that 08's class was half RR's, and half Lloyd's, and 09's class was all RR's, the significant offensive improvements have been made with a mix of primarily freshmen and sophomores, and only from 1 and a half RR recruiting classes. I am not concerned about the offense for the future. With Tate (remember....only a freshman) and gardner coming in, and speed all around, we should be ok there....especially once we get the linemen we need. My concern is definitely the defense. We need studs on the lines and at cb. And seriously, why can we not recruit LBs anymore. I think this will be the test for RR and his staff going forward. I also have one off topic remark to make about the SEC love in the media.... At some point someone needs to point out that the offense they play in the SEC (outside of UF's explosive group last year) may not always be a function of "Great SEC defensive speed." It's really annoying. Maybe the SEC offenses just suck?

regardless of the conference. 1. Athletic veteran QB with skills for the system he plays in. 2. A solid veteran O-Line. 3. A disiplined defense capable of making a stop when needed and not routinely giving up huge chunks of yardage. I.E. the consistent leaders of the SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10. Whether it is USC, Texas Florida, LSU, Alabama or to a lesser extent Oklahoma, each of these teams over the last several years has played with a veteran QB that fits the system, Solid OLine play from upper classmen and a relatively stout defense. The Big12 pretenders can score a ton of points, but can't stop anybody (Okie St and TT come to mind). What happened Saturday, and the trend that seems to be playing itself out right now, is that the most important position on the team, QB, is VERY young with little experience in big games. The O line is undersized and over-matched and the defense is young, inexperienced and seemingly clueless in the back seven. No coach, and I mean NO COACH can win consistantly with that recipe. This process will take some time. Unfortunately, the HORROR, and last season have made most of the fanbase very impatient. We all want to see this team improve quickly and begin to restore the glory to which we have all become accustomed. This will not happen in a season or two or maybe three, but it will happen. Tate needs to stay upright (better blocking), he needs to make better reads and they have to do much better on 1st down. Look at the stats and you'll see, this offense hums when they aren't in 2nd and 10 or 3rd and 8. We need linebackers in the worst way and safeties that don't get faked out of their shorts on every play-action move. Michigan was beaten by a top-15 team that will compete for the Big-10 championship and a Jan. 1 bowl. We all got sucked into the hype of PSU not really being good and UM being on the edge of being very good. Michigan is not there yet, but they will be.

I don't think that we'll see D-Rob switch to another position until there is an established back-up. Michigan has to have two QB's who can run the offense (and it's not really worth using Sheridan at this point). The switch could be next year if Gardner doesn't redshirt. More likely, it will be 2011. I agree that Robinson should not get entire drives with the game in question. I was listening to the game on the car radio Saturday and cringed when it was 3rd and 9. I just knew what was coming next. The same thing applied to the Iowa game on the last drive. Obviously, RR knows more about his personnel than I do but from what we've all seen on the field so far this year, it's pretty obvious that D-Rob has questionable passing (and decision making) skills when throwing anything over 5-7 yards downfield. I realize that he's a true freshman (yada, yada, yada...) but that doesn't change the reality that he won't get it done in those circumstances this year. TF at least has a realistic chance.

"can you only use specific guys to run this offense?". Meaning White in particular due to his ability to make the correct reads. I remember watching RR on TV a long time ago talking about the complexity of the reads that White would make in split instant. Not saying others cannot do that, but I know his backup could not do it against an average Pitt team that ultimately send RR here. The backup had to be in the system for multiple years as well.

I agree except that Florida has shit for defense this year and is only undefeated because they have the SEC financing their ref payoffs. They're sick of hearing about how the Big Ten has the only two-time Heisman (although, I hate hearing it's Griffin). Look what happened when they played a decent offense in the 2007 Michigan team. They couldn't keep them out of the endzone unless Hart was fumbling on the goal line.