Bo and why he was/is important

Submitted by Amaizing Blue on
I turned 50 last Tuesday, and am realizing many on the board are too young to remember and "get" the impact Bo had on this program. You can watch him on film, but it isn't the same as having seen the man live on the sidelines. Multiply that by whatever factor you want to feel the impact of having played for or coached with him. When it comes to Michigan football, he was the Godfather. Loyalty was valued above all, and dissent was not tolerated, but Michigan always came first. Rich Rod is absolutely right when he says if Bo had been alive, he would have had it easier. Rich is the Michigan coach? Get in line and do everything you can to help him succeed. Shut up, Lloyd, Michigan won the NC, not you. Bo had many faults, clock management the most glaring. But...He was a Michigan Man. Meaning, Michigan came before anything else. That's all, full stop. We need another Michigan Man. A great coach who puts Michigan first. THAT is a Michigan Man.

Baloo

October 12th, 2014 at 7:36 PM ^

If Bo had been alive, he would have punched Rodriguez right in the face when Wisconsin ran against us 29 straight times.

Also, the term "Michigan Man" is stupid and should be banned from the English language.

snarling wolverine

October 12th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^

No idea what you're getting at here but the similarities between the 2003 and 2010 Michigan teams are few and far between.  The '03 squad got better as the year went on and beat Tressel and the Bucks by two touchdowns.  Aside from that Gopher game, it was pretty stout defensively.

 

 

 

 

mgeauxblu85

October 12th, 2014 at 8:21 PM ^

Are you speaking of the Minnesota team that went 10-3 and 5-3 in the Big Ten? The Minnesota team that ran on everybody they played? The one that beat Oregon in the bowl after we lost to them? The same team that UM had one of the greatest comebacks on? How did Rich do against that Wisonsin team? 

OP you really need to stop blaming Lloyd. Rich Rod had no class and blamed Lloyd for everything his first year and then turned around and cried he didn't have support after he took a giant shit on Lloyd. If he fielded a DEFENSE one year during his three he would still be here. No question.

clarkiefromcanada

October 12th, 2014 at 9:07 PM ^

I don't get OP putting words in a dead man's mouth about Lloyd and Michigan and how "Michigan won" or how Lloyd acted as though he won etc. It's stupid conjecture.

What I know is that Lloyd ran a clean program, won B1G championships, is the coach of the 1997 National Championship team and that he served the university with dignity. He and his legacy deserve better than OP's imaginative post. 

BlueFab5

October 12th, 2014 at 11:35 PM ^

Carr, and his ego, are in fact one of the main reasons RR failed. Carr, and his lackeys, also have blood on their hands for the hiring of Hoke and current situation.

It makes me sick how he is considered a figure head at Michigan and represents everything currently wrong with the program.

Ego.

Baloo

October 12th, 2014 at 9:06 PM ^

The notion that fans or the administration didn't stand by Rodriguez is a ridiculous myth.  Yes, Lloyd Carr didn't like him and probably made the first year slgithly harder for him.  Outside of that, can anyone point to a single concrete example of Rodriguez not being supported and how it impacted his ability to field a good football team?

When he started out hot in 2009 and 2010, fans loved him.  They chanted his name in the stands and held up signs saying "In Rod We Trust." His spring game was attended by 70,000 people. He was given a larger budget to hire assistants than he currently has at Arizona.  The fans and administration turned on him because his defense was historically bad and caused us to be uncompetitive against any real opponent. End of story.

BigBlue02

October 12th, 2014 at 9:57 PM ^

Recruiting can be affected by players coming out against the current coach. When ex-players go on Monday night football and proclaim they are from "Lloyd Carr's university of Michigan" and say their high school instead of their college, it shows a very large lack of support.

I get that you don't think RRichRod is a good coach, but to imply he got full support from the University is fucking ridiculous.

bo_lives

October 12th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^

Different people sometimes have different opinions. Go figure!

The "lack of support from the Michigan family" was always nonsense and didn't affect the play on the field. Lloyd telling his players he would sign any transfer papers wasn't abnormal - it's pretty standard procedure, considering Lloyd was essentially breaking his word from when he recruited them.

Still should have given RR one more year.

BigBlue02

October 13th, 2014 at 12:52 AM ^

You said to point to one concrete example of RichRod not being supported. I would say famous alums on national tv disassociating themselves with the football team and the coach would be an example. You know, like all the NFL guys coming out to tell everyone to support Hoke and the team. Don't ask a question and then get bent out of shape when someone answers with factual info that you don't like. But that wouldn't fit your narrative, so you ignore it. Kinda like you mentioning Lloyd Carr not liking RichRod and not even mentioning he was a prominent figure in the athletic department. Of course, why would the former coach, who is a legend and had a job in the athletic department, not liking the current football coach, play any part in him struggling?

Baloo

October 13th, 2014 at 1:21 AM ^

I asked for concrete examples of fans or administrators not supporting him that negatively affected his ability to win. You responded by citing lack of support from people who are not fans or administators that did not affect his ability to win. Sold work.

I concede that two NFL players spent literally three seconds slighting Rich Rod and that Lloyd Carr told some players he'd sign transfer papers. If you can explain how that contributed to Rich Rod's defense being ranked 109th in the country in his third year, I would love to hear it. But you can't.

BigBlue02

October 13th, 2014 at 3:01 AM ^

You yourself said Lloyd Carr didn't like him and made it tougher for him. And Lloyd Carr is part of the athletic department. The fact that someone was able to have a job in the athletic department and make things hard on the head coach should tell you all you need to know about our athletic department's role in RichRod's failing here. I also remember plenty of fans who didn't like him before he coached a game here. They cited bullshit reasons like his real estate dealings and his buyout problems. I don't think a single person here thinks that RichRod had zero fault in failing at Michigan, but you seem to be the only one who refuses to admit that maybe the university of Michigan played a part

Gulogulo37

October 12th, 2014 at 11:37 PM ^

Actually, there were a lot of examples. Have you never heard of stretchgate? Did you not hear about when Hoke got hired and a bunch of former players came back, and they asked Van Bergen about how awesome it must be and he basically said, "Yeah, it's great. But then again, where were these guys last year?"

Baloo

October 13th, 2014 at 12:18 AM ^

The primary cause of Stretchgate was irresponsible reporting from the Freep, not the University. In any event, it had nothing to do with the failures of his teams.  It was a relatively minor event that people cited as additional grounds for firing only after the collapse in his last year.

Regarding your second point, I'm not even sure I understand it. Are you arguing that Michigan had a harder time competing because after Rodriguez was gone, some former players came back into the fold?  Huh?

Gulogulo37

October 13th, 2014 at 6:00 AM ^

Right. What does the media have to do with how a coach is perceived? Calling it relatively minor is ridiculous. It was just as much of a PR storm as the Morris debacle. I'm not at all saying RR doesn't deserve a lot of the blame for screwing up here, even though some here do make it sound like an evil plot by Carr and his former players, and even without Casteel his defenses shouldn't have been as bad as they were (at least not continually), but it's just wrong to say it was all on him. Not saying you disagree with this, but I just wanna say that RR is going to get back to a big program at some point, probably sooner rather than later, and I bet that program is going to be damn good.

Uh, maybe you're just being obtuse, but the point about the former players isn't that the lack of support somehow traveled back in time to harm RR(!?!?), but what they didn't do when RR was here. Maybe that didn't affect the team. Maybe it did. But if you're claiming it didn't have any effect on the morale or performance of the team, then you have to admit the former players showing up to support the team like before the PSU game couldn't have had any effect either.

You Only Live Twice

October 13th, 2014 at 8:34 AM ^

You're correct that it was irresponsible journalism on the part of the Free Press.  However you can't discount that institutional support, or lack of it, has a lot to do with how events play out.

 

switch26

October 12th, 2014 at 8:29 PM ^

No he probably would of helped or allowed RR to have the D coordinator of his choice...  According to a current players parents Martin forced RR to hire that idiot Gerg and gave him no other choice as to who he could hire.  Not sure if this was public info in the past, but just another example of how the AD's of our program have had their hands in the coaches business in more ways than one

snarling wolverine

October 13th, 2014 at 6:47 AM ^

The issue with Casteel was not money but contract length.  He wanted a multi-year deal and at that time we didn't do that for assistants.  But RichRod didn't press the issue either.  It's not like he was desperately pleading for Casteel and Martin said (to the very man he hired) "No."   A higher priority for RichRod was upgrading the weight room, and Martin allocated $1 million to do that.

 

 

goblue16

October 12th, 2014 at 7:34 PM ^

Agree with everything u said but sadly those days r long gone. This Michigan man thing will not work anymore. We have got to come up with a new identity with a completely new caching staff and hope we don't turn into Tennessee

nyc_wolverines

October 12th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^

We came from different paths and chose Michigan because of what the institution, through policy and practice, sought to instill in the "Leaders and Best".

 

Bo's personal ethos as AD was to have the same "Michigan Ideal" in his coaches. Much like a Harvard Man presents Harvard's ideals a Michigan Man presents Michigan's ideals.

 

There are a number of youngsters here, and in M fandom, who don't get the impact of Bo. While he may loom large, and certainly wasn't perfect, he put in place a system that held for his entire career.

 

Where else, apart from FSU, can one say that a HC has had such resounding long-term success sans scandal?

 

Bo was Michigan football and his ideals need to be carried on by the next man who chooses to be a Michigan Man.

snarling wolverine

October 12th, 2014 at 8:04 PM ^

The original concept of a "Michigan Man" was someone who simply fulfills what this school is supposed to represent.  It was not a statement about someone's résumé.  Bo understood this when he stated that Bill Frieder was not a Michigan Man despite having gone here.  Frieder ran a shady program, and when Bo ordered him to clean up his act, bolted for Arizona State instead.

John Beilein OTOH absolutely is a Michigan Man.  He embodies what we want in a coach.

 

clarkiefromcanada

October 12th, 2014 at 9:26 PM ^

The modern "Michigan Man" interpretation requiring baptism in all things Ann Arbor, a degree (minimum...but only from AA not Dearborn or Flint) etc. etc. disenfranchises what is probably the largest segment of the fanbase: the "Walverine" or "Meijerverine"

In terms of the coaching/AD it means the pool is limited to former players, former coaches in the tree of Bo, Mo, Lloyd or those similarly connected. Michigan is a school with national reach. A Michigan Man should be, simply, "Leaders and Best" which would allow for the fanbase to accept hiring of simply the best coach and not need the resume tick box "Michigan Man" as it has come to be defined.

If the Walverine side of the fanbase is disenfranchised then what of these kinds of shirts? "Michigan Man" has sadly become a limiting term.

 

 

Gulo Blue

October 13th, 2014 at 9:31 AM ^

It can't be said enough on here. If people understood what a Michigan Man was, there's no possible way they could have a problem with it. Keep positing correct explanations at every excuse.

Maybe there should be a main page post once a year explaining what it is and what it isn't. It's a positive, motivational thing. Not a nepotism requirement.

snarling wolverine

October 12th, 2014 at 8:44 PM ^

If Bo had been alive, Miles would have been hired and not RichRod.  Bo would have forced Carr and Miles to resolve their feud.   And that would have been for the best.  Hiring RichRod, even under the most optimal of circumstances, required radical schematic overhauls on both sides of the ball and thus a painful rebuilding process.  That would not have been the case with Les.