"The worst team that I ever covered???"

Submitted by gustave ferbert on

per Angelique Chengelis on "A View from the Backfield."  Wow

 

Even worse than the 3-9 team

 

alum96

November 30th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^

The 3-9 team was a transition year to a brand new system with a brand new coach after a lot of transfers, and losing Henne, Hart, Long.

This team was year 4 of an established coach, with a 4 year DC, with loads of 4 star talent everywhere, in probably a worst conference than in 2008.   Add all the off the field stuff and the fact this season was over by the first week in October (Utah and Minn games effectively ended the season), and she is right.  This team did not have all the excuses the 08 team had.

DetroitBlue

November 30th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^

I'm honestly not sure who would win between RR's 3-9 squad versus this one, but there's no question that this has been the most frustrating and depressing season I've ever witnessed. At least during 3-9 there was the Wisky game and legitimate reasons for optimism. This team had a ton more talent but was soft, slow and dumb. A lot like our soon to be ex-coach



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RJMAC

November 30th, 2014 at 11:15 AM ^

Worst SEASON she ever covered. With all the AD turmoil,concussiongate,Clark incident, apologies, stakegate,etc, etc,..and a very disappointing team on the field,it made for the worst SEASON ever covered.

BigBlueKC

November 30th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^

Expectations were not as high if we really cared to admit that fact to ourselves. We knew RR didn't have the cupboard he needed to play his style of ball. We were certainly a lot more spoiled back then and expected a 9/10 win season regardless of who was the coach or the players Carr left.

We expected a lot more for the team with a seasoned QB and the piss poor quality of the Big Ten. We thought we make some great strides and were even pointing to 2015 as the year we were going to stick it to OSU and MSU. Well here we are again but this time there is no way anyone can or is on here arguing to give Hoke another year.

His inability to lead this team was prevalent and he was nothing more than a cheerleader on game day.. Very few "successful" head coaches would go a whole game without wearing a head set and knowing exactly what play what called on every play not to mention what defense they were running. Going up to you OC and whispering in his ear at some point is not to be mistaken for having control. The players know it and everyone in the stands can see it.

Perkis-Size Me

November 30th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^

I don't know if this team was worse than the '08 team, although its certainly close.

But if she's taking everything into consideration, from the athletic department fiascos, Frank Clark's situation, dwindling attendance, and everything in between, then yes, this could possibly be considered the worst season ever.

Everything that could possibly go wrong for this team did go wrong, and the things we thought couldn't possibly get worse indeed did get worse.

BloomingtonBlue

November 30th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^

That is incredibly humbling and sad. All the people that were putting down those two schools and saying how much lesser programs and institutions they were. Woops, This is Michigan!



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McSomething

November 30th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^

Dude neg me all you want, but it's true. Go ahead and perceive us as having a better and stronger program than those schools all you want. The only place it really matters (on the field), they were better than us this year. I don't care how much better on paper we appeared to be going into this season, the scoreboard after 4 quarters said we weren't. So drone on about how far beneath ours their programs are. It does not matter come Saturdays. Not with this program. Not right now. So this mindset that other programs that beat ours right now are still "beneath us" really needs to go away. We aren't entitled to shit right now. One of our biggest issues is one of mindset. And that's one of the first ones that needs to go away.

ghostofhoke

November 30th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^

This isn't even a controversial statement. Is anybody surprised by this? Is it not the worst team that any of us have ever seen? I'd love to know how much more perspective her "inside view" allowed her to see to come to that conclusion. I have no doubts it was so much worse behind the walls than we can even imagine. The amount of talent inside the the program alone should've been good for 7 or 8 wins.



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Polisci

November 30th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^

2008 v. 2014

FEI Rank:

Overall: 70 (2008) 62 (2014)

Offensive: 81 (2008) 90 (2014)

Defensive: 44 (2008) 40 (2014)

 

Hard to claim there is much of a difference there.

steve sharik

November 30th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^

52-14 over FEI #114 App. St.

34-10 over FEI #107 Miami (OH)

18-13 over FEI #51 Penn State

34-10 over FEI #77 Indiana (whose rating is boosted  by their early season performances when they still had their QB)

10-9 over #47 Northwestern

We averaged 16.5 ppg against Power 5 teams, going 3-7.

All this with a roster that is top 10 in talent.

Not to mention, there's more to a team than just the results.  As the beat writer, she's been around Schembechler Hall since spring practice and fall camp.  

KSmooth

November 30th, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^

In strictly statistical terms, the 2008 3-9 team would have to the worst.  Wins and losses trump all other considerations.  Two additional losses is too much to cover by comparison to yardage, turnovers, etc.

But if you want to play feelingsball and make allowance for the intangibles, then there's a pretty strong case for this being the worst team -- the visual evidence for our quarterback regressing even while his offensive line and running backs improved, Funchess mailing it in against Maryland, the competent defense with the tendency to break down against quality opponents at the worst possible moment, all the controversy over concussions and gameday management in general.

Chengelis is a beat reporter, not a stathead, so from her perch this makes sense.  Whether you agree with her depends on just how much you are oriented toward stats versus everything else.

Statheads and sentimentalists should all be able to agree on one thing though:  This season was pretty bad.

ChampionsofThe…

November 30th, 2014 at 1:15 PM ^

This team and that team are actually very similar. This year, we have 11 seniors compared to 2008's 15 seniors. Back then, we lacked a qb with many offensive struggles, just as we did this year. we even lost to Utah in both 2008 and 2014. However, this year, we were expecting more, because it was Brady's 4th year, with a new, $830k offensive coordinator. Also, we have much more talent this year than we did in 2008. Our defense this year is much better than it was in 2008, but our offense was actually worse this year than it was in 2008. In 2008, we put up points with one good player, Brandon Minor. This season we should've been putting up points with DG, Funchess, Drake Johnson, Derrick Green, Amara Darboh, etc. All of these differences and similarities show that this season did in fact showcase the worst Michigan Football team in a long time. I just wonder how this year could've been different if we ran a spread offense instead of a pro-style offense

Cranky Dave

November 30th, 2014 at 5:10 PM ^

Can agree on is Michigans football program has been disastrous for the past 8 years 2011 aside. Items to be more of a RR supporter but obviously he was a bad hire for Michigan at that time. Maybe under the new administration he would have worked out better. Brady Hoke would be a bad hire to run Michogan at any time. Lets not argue and bicker 'bout who killed who....

Cranky Dave

November 30th, 2014 at 5:10 PM ^

Can agree on is Michigans football program has been disastrous for the past 8 years 2011 aside. Items to be more of a RR supporter but obviously he was a bad hire for Michigan at that time. Maybe under the new administration he would have worked out better. Brady Hoke would be a bad hire to run Michogan at any time. Lets not argue and bicker 'bout who killed who....

BlueHills

November 30th, 2014 at 5:33 PM ^

This fuss over what a journalist like Angelique says entirely misses what I think is the most interesting tidbit on the broadcast.

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=901&c=17623&f=3630103

In Segment 5 former player and assistant Bob Thornbladh states that Les Miles would crawl over razor blades to coach Michigan, and that Harbaugh has "a great love" for the school, "so these men are available."

He's in a pretty good position, better than most, to have a feel for these coaches.