What is more embarrasing?

Submitted by blueman on
A 2-7 record? (on the way to 2 & 10?)  Being an underdog to Minny and NW on successive weekends?  Being a prohibitive 'dog against O$U? (Probably 40+), recruits decommiting?  UM football being totally irrelevant? Looking far worse than ND last year?  Getting beat by a 3rd string QB, former RB from OLSM?
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After the fall

blueman

November 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 AM ^

the arrogance to label anyone who is critical of the program as "fairweather" or "no better than...the ones we sneer at."  You are in denial and your arrogance will not allow you to deal with reality.  By many measures this is the worst team in decades, if not ever.  You can chose to be critical of those fans who have every right to criticize this team. That is your right as a fanatic, no matter how arrogant.  Or, is no criticism ever allowed?  That is penultimate arrogance.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2

Other Chris

November 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 AM ^

It is not the criticism that disgusts me,  it is the nature of the criticism -- knee-jerk, unsubtle, and mindless.  I am not in denial -- this team is not good.  However, having spent a career working with complex systems that occasionally need to be retooled to respond to advances in technology and theory, I realize that these things take time.  There are often bumps along the way.  Did I wish it had gone more smoothly?  Hell yes.

Michigan is still "my" team and I am not embarrassed by or for them.  Some of the people on this board, however, I am embarrassed for.  Especially the ones who use big words they don't understand.

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1219

Jeff

November 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 PM ^

What do you mean, "By many measures this is the worst team in decades?"  Do you mean, the worst Michigan team in decades?  Because that would probably be close to being true no matter who the coach was.  If we hadn't completely changed our system we might have had a better record this year, but it still would have probably been 7-5 at best.

If you mean worst team in Division 1-A, I'm pretty sure there aren't any stats that could possibly be even close to true except for possibly fumbles.  It's a little ridiculous how many fumbles we have, and I would love to know what the record is.

ND had a historically inept offense last year.  They were the 6th worst offensive team of the last 10+ years.  We aren't even the 6th worst offense this year (109/119).  There are 5 worse teams from BCS conferences (including 2 from the SEC).  Except for the Notre Dame game, I believe we've had a lead in every one of our games (and most of those were even in the 3rd or 4th quarter).  I think that ND didn't have a lead in more than 5 of their games.

It's entirely possible that we will have as bad of a record as Notre Dame did last year, but I think there is virtually no way that we "look far worse."

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 1435

KRK

November 2nd, 2008 at 10:03 AM ^

Minny is on the rise and Fitzgerald has turned things around at NW.  The playing field all across CFB is leveling.  I agree that UM should be better, but realize that it won't be UM and OSU forever in the B10.  I would highly doubt UM get 40+ against OSU.  OSU can't even count to 40, yet alone score 40 points.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 5497

hat

November 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 PM ^

People, enough with the straw man arguments.  It's possible to love Michigan football and still be concerned about what you see on Saturdays.  Watching us field one of the nation's worst defenses is unreal.  I can't accept that Scott Shafer is getting the most out of these guys, especially given that eight of them started on last year's defense which was considerably more competent than this.  I think he has lost his guys.  I don't see the same kind of fire out there that we had when English was our DC.  I want Shafer replaced because I think it's in our program's best interests, not because I'm a "fair-weather fan." (If I were a fair-weather fan, I wouldn't be paying attention to the team by this point.)

Anyway, here's a question I've been meaning to ask of the WLA guys: why is it OK to harshly criticize one of our players (Brandon Minor), but the coaching staff is off-limits?  I'm pretty sure Minor isn't getting paid six (or seven) figures to perform every week.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15

chitownblue (not verified)

November 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 PM ^

Speaking of straw-men, I'm not sure anyone "savagely criticized" Brandon Minor. I think we pointed out that he was fumbling at an absurdly high rate, and, thus, wasn't getting PT.

Again, speaking of strawmen, I'm not sure where I (or anyone) said you can't criticize the coaches. As a matter of fact, I think I wrote somewhere on this blog last week that I imagine that the failure of the defense is likely a combination of inexperienced players and some coaching mistakes. I don't doubt that there are things Schafer can do better. I do doubt, however, that he magically forgot how to coach this season.

Joined: 12/12/2017

MGoPoints: 0

wolverine1987

November 2nd, 2008 at 1:04 PM ^

because when a defense is this bad with 7-8 returning starters (granted with varying skill levels) and the disparity between last year and this is so great, the the glare of the spotlight must shine on him.  Results matter, stats sometimes mislead but don't lie--our talent level last year to this on defense is comparable.  IMO, this disparity lies with the coaching staff.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 18065

chitownblue (not verified)

November 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 PM ^

We returned 7 players from a defense that wasn't very good, at all.

Look, I think Schafer owns some of the blame here - I'd be an idiot to argue otherwise. But the perception that many of us had - about how awesome this defense was going to be, hasn't really been true since day 1.

Joined: 12/12/2017

MGoPoints: 0

Jill

November 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 AM ^

Let's fly in the USC team, put them in Michigan jerseys, and send them to the Ohio game.

Then we can discuss the definition of embarrassing.

 

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 181

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 PM ^

Here's what I'd like to know is more embarrassing?  A slow, dreary slide into mediocrity, clinging to an old, outdated mentality punctuated by repeated losses to the one rival we need to beat in order to validate our existence?  Or enduring a few lumps and bruises on the way to clearing out the cobwebs and becoming an actual national power again?  For the past six or seven years Michigan has been a regional power only, able to bully the Iowas and Minnesotas of the world but failing against the ones that matter (tUOS) and looking like ass-clowns against actual title-contending teams.  We had a choice: Content ourselves with regional bullying, or actually do something to shake out of it and go back to the Michigan that was assumed to be the Big Ten champ and always a threat to win the title.  It's a bumpier road than we expected for whatever reason, but college football fans always have extreme myopia and can't see past this season, except when overreacting to star-counts on a commitment list.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586