Pre-emptive Strike
Still trying to decide whether I'm going to stop by here tomorrow or not... I'm leaning towards no, but I doubt I'll be able to hold myself to that.
Folks, we're seeing two things that we've known for a long long long time right now, and one thing we need to remember.
1. No one can contain Juice Williams when he's on. He hasn't been on this season, but today he's broken out and made the right decisions. Not to mention the best handoff fakes I've ever seen. A lot of his performance is on our D though, which brings me to point 2...
2. This team is STILL incredibly young, believe it or not. They're vulnerable to the emotional swings, they're vulnerable to the handoff fakes, etc. etc. etc. We're starting walk-ons. The coaching is partially to blame, IME, but missed assignments on offense and defense have killed us.
3. This is still Michigan. This is our team. There are going to be a lot of criticisms of this team, and the board is going to go ballistic over the course of the next couple days, but please, please, PLEASE try to keep it to football criticisms and nothing else.
Also, Tate is a sophomore next year, and Devin Gardner will be here. So there's that.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:23 PM ^
shut the fuck up I'm pissed and you are too. Bitching makes you feel better.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:26 PM ^
But also makes you look like an idiot.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:34 PM ^
It really does make you look like an idiot. Like my dad always says are planes falling out of the sky? They're a young team. Give them some time. Its whatever man.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:26 PM ^
HAD ENOUGH YET?
October 31st, 2009 at 6:29 PM ^
Who in your right mind would come in here with this team and take us back to the glory days? Who is your magical hire?
Rich rodriguez is one of the best coaches in the country and if we run him out of town then I'm ashamed to call myself a "Michigan man".
October 31st, 2009 at 6:29 PM ^
Are you going to post this on every single thread?
Have I had enough losing? Sure. Have I had enough of RR? No. Those two are not synonymous.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:28 PM ^
I hope so but wtf happened? One play, and this team implodes. Our oline sucks and idk, I have no idea what to think.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:34 PM ^
I asked a simple question?
October 31st, 2009 at 6:35 PM ^
We haven't done that in a LONG while..
October 31st, 2009 at 6:39 PM ^
We already have two more wins than we did last season, and we've got three games to go, still a relatively good chance to get to a bowl game, and will only be getting more experienced on offense. This is a large improvement from last year.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:36 PM ^
I am SUPER upset, but I refuse to be a knee jerk arm-chair type guy and call for RR's head. In the long term that would be unbelievably detrimental to the program as a whole.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:37 PM ^
point #1. The Juice is a Michigan killer.
Still a bad loss to a lousy team.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:39 PM ^
Brian Kelly.
He would be a great hire.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:41 PM ^
This is an honest question: Besides the fact that many people have it out for RR and that might not be the case with Brian Kelly, what about his resume indicates he'd be BETTER than RR? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just wondering.
I understand that the last 5 weeks haven't gone the way we hoped or expected after the first four games of the season, but I just don't see another coach doing a much better job than RR has so far with this set of players.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:10 PM ^
What makes him so different from RR at WVU?
Aren't you looking at a VERY similar situation, just with a more typical offensive scheme?
October 31st, 2009 at 7:53 PM ^
Kelly produces better defenses and somewhat weaker offenses than RichRod did.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^
Juice may have been great today, and this team may be young, but that provides little consolation for me, since, presumably, RR will still be the coach next year. While I've always considered myself a RR supporter, and continue to have hope for his tenure at Michigan, I just can't see this team being great under his leadership. Too many of RR's coaching decisions have been of the WTF variety. Way too many.
Lloyd Carr retired atop a wave of complaints that his three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust style had long ago become an anachronism, and, on that front, I counted myself among his biggest detractors. Needless to say, no one was more excited about RR's hiring than I was. Multiple RB formations, a running quarterback, and slot receivers: Michigan fans could look forward to the football equivalent of Chuck Norris on steroids (or is it steroids on Chuck Norris?).
Sadly, this dream hasn't been realized. While I can accept the inevitable broken plays, the fumbles, and the interceptions, the playcalling has been unacceptably poor. No timeout with a minute left in the first half, just before Michigan was about to get the ball back? No downfield passing game whatsoever? Running Carlos Brown--instead of Minor, Grady, or Moundros--three consecutive times from the half yard line? Going for it on fourth-and-six when Michigan is down by three scores with nine minutes left? These are not the decisions of a competent coach.
I hate to admit it, but today I found myself longing for the warm embrace of LLLLLoyd's predictable schemes. At least they worked better than RR's predictable schemes.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:07 PM ^
We had two passes of over 50 yards today. It's tough to get the downfield passing going when the o-line isn't protecting the QB.
Many of your complaints are valid, though, and I hope we can get those things sorted out as soon as possible.