December 6th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:04 AM ^
OK by me, because 1 spot is now cemented in the Final Four.
It's kinda hard to believe that RichRod beat these guys last time. It's hard to beat a team twice in one season, yeah, but I at least expected some kind of semi-close game tonight.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:04 AM ^
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December 6th, 2014 at 12:06 AM ^
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December 6th, 2014 at 12:09 AM ^
Great coach, but not elite. I feel like his ceiling in the Big 5 leagues will always be 9-3/10-2
December 6th, 2014 at 12:10 AM ^
The annoncers just made an important point, noting the large number of transfers (JUCO and otherwise) RichRod has brought to Arizona. He couldn't do that here. I would assume moreover that Arizona has lighter standards for incoming freshman athletes, too.
Those who assume Arizona is what we'd have looked like if we'd kept Richrod around longer - it's not necessarily true. At Michigan you have to win with four-year guys, and you can only bring in so many academically borderline kids. RichRod brought in too many of the latter and got burned when they couldn't survive academically here.
The guy's a good coach, but not a great fit for us.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:49 AM ^
I would love to see a breakdown of starters and promiment backups that were jucos and transfers.
I would also love to see academic records, just for fun, to see if there is any way to make a viable comparison.
It just wasn't going to work out at M for RRod because he is 100% a football coach. He's not about graduating players, or helping young men get an education. He's a damn good football coach, period. His record of academic risks and kids with legal issues showed that in Ann Arbor.
And like SW said, that kind of thing just isn't a good fit for M. And I hope it never will be.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:13 AM ^
All bands or schools that use Seven Nation Army in any way, shape, or form will face the death penalty SMU style.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:17 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 9:28 AM ^
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December 6th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
Yes, it started with a Belgian soccer club, then made it to Italy, then crossed the Atlantic over here a couple years later.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:17 AM ^
Nebraska fans picked the wrong Oregon school for a coach.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^
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December 6th, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^
For now, it's Oregon's turn. That's all I've got.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:26 AM ^
Rich Rodriguez is a 4 to 5-loss power conference coach. He had a few good years in an awful conference, and that's about it. Opposing coaches figure out his offense quickly. His defense, though improved from Michgan, is still a liability. He will never win the Pac 12, but he will win 7-9 games a year, and for Arizona, that's pretty good.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:38 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
the Saints/49ers/UCLA/LSU.
December 6th, 2014 at 9:05 AM ^
I really hope that's true and signs are encouraging....but why shit on RRod on our way to greatness. A lot of people on this board seem to take great pleasure in watching him fail and that attitude is what got us here in the first place.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:10 AM ^
So I'm arrogant because I don't believe Arizona will become Oregon ok then. That's like saying Mississippi State is going to become Alabama. As a neutral RR debate person you pro RR people are insane.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
Opposing coaches figure out his offense quickly? That didn't help Oregon much earlier this year, or Utah.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:02 AM ^
The thing is...it's like being a .400 hitter in July and at home in October. if you're shooting for the top it won't get you there.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:08 AM ^
I'd be willing to entertain the idea that RR can't win "the big game" -- the loss to Pitt could be cited, among other things -- but that's totally separate from the claim that opponents easily figure out his offense. If that were true shouldn't it also be true in October and November?
I think that it's much more plausible to believe that Oregon's a much better team that Arizona, and that AZ was lucky in October and not so much tonight.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:23 AM ^
It's an "equalizer". it's designed to compensate for an overall deficiency in size and talent. It's inevitably overwhelmed. It may not fit someone's narrative but it is what it is.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:39 AM ^
In a sense that's true of all option football, isn't it? You're isolating someone on the other side, and it's your scheme against his athletic ability. At some level of ability that won't work (it's an empirical question, for any given scheme, whether that level is humanly attainable).
I started to understand this when I saw what Fairley did to Oregon. They tried to read option off him; he destroyed it because he was so big and fast he could play both backs. In high school and below you never see that; if you run your stuff correctly it's almost unstoppable. The higher you go, the more likely it is to get stuffed no matter how well you run it, especially if you run a steady diet of it like RR does, or the wishbone teams.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:47 AM ^
That's why it will never work at the championship level in the NFL. You can win some games and look good doing it but eventually the wheels come off when you run into a defense that matches your athletic ability.
December 6th, 2014 at 9:13 AM ^
Philadelphia's an interesting experiment. Kelly's offense is a lot more diverse than any of the college versions (probably including his own--you can't do as much with college players), and it has the advantage that they don't have all their equity tied up in a quarterback and can't have their season destroyed by a single injury. And maybe since they aren't blowng their wad on an elite QB they might be able to out-athlete the league at other positions?
For now he's got it working at mediocre-NFL level, which is probably better than a lot of NFL people expected. (They're 15 out of 32 at Fremeau--if it seems better it's just the usual tempo illusion.)
It's possible he'll be able to come up with something where the athletic ability required to nullify it is beyond human--I think the jury's still out. But right now they're winning with defense (#8) and special teams (#1); the offense has been their weak link.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:55 AM ^
Because this sounds an awful lot like "the spread won't work in the SEC." I thought we had put that to bed.
Or do you mean that Rich Rod's version of the spread won't work but Urban's and Gus's did?
December 6th, 2014 at 1:05 AM ^
You're using the term "recency bias" incorrectly. Recency bias describes an irrational tendency to view recent events as predictors of what will happen in the future. It doesn't apply here because I'm using this game as an additional data point to support a conclusion about Rodriguez based on his entire record, including this game.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:12 AM ^
More generally it refers to the tendecy to put too much emphasis on recent events.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:16 AM ^
Okay, I've never heard it used that way, but regardless, my point stands. It's not just about this game. It's about the guy's entire career.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:58 AM ^
(1) You said that he's a 7-9 win coach at AZ. He has 10 wins this year so far (so max 11), including 3 wins over ranked teams: Oregon, Utah, and Arizona State.
(2) You said that opposing coaches figure out his offense quickly. They scored 31, 42, and 42 points in their three wins against those ranked teams. Really his offense was only shut down twice this year: once by UCLA and once tonight. Sure, that's not championship caliber. But it's not horrible and it's not true that his offense is easy to defend.
You're right that he was a disaster at Michigan (no argument from me here, and I don't think that we'd be okay now if we had retained him) and sure, he had 5 losses his first two years at Arizona. I guess I'd say that the jury's still out on him (if we concede, as I do, that the Big East is a crap conference so his achievements there don't materially contribute to this discussion).
December 6th, 2014 at 7:14 AM ^
And he should have lost to Washington and came really close to losing to UTSA, Cal, and Neveda who are bad football teams. They were an 8-4 team that got really lucky. They also had a Baylor esque non-conference schedule.
December 6th, 2014 at 8:51 AM ^
.. to cherry pick data to support a conclusion. A real scientist collects data, analyzes it, and then comes to a conclusion.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:27 AM ^
He lays an egg! Oh well, may be the B1G championship game will be good? The SEC championship game looks like a real yawner! Alabama is going to thump Missouri!
December 6th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:32 AM ^
Michigan is winning again.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:56 AM ^
No Rich Rodriguez will be argued about past Michigan winning and until the end of time. I wish the debate would go away but it won't.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:11 AM ^
Nah, it'll die down if we're winning. It'll become a minor bit of speculation, like the occasional "What if Moeller hadn't been fired?" posts.
If we do actually hire Harbaugh, no one's going to be pining for RichRod - or anyone else.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:32 AM ^
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December 6th, 2014 at 12:35 AM ^
This is hilarious watching our "fans" take shots at RR and his team when our sorry asses are sitting at home with a sweet 5-7 record in year 4.
Add in the fact that this Zona team would crap on us rather easily and the butthurt for some with RR having a little success is hilarious.
So, he got beat badly tonight I wouldn't mind at least being in the fucking conversation for a CCG much less even being in the discussion for a division title.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:37 AM ^
Not a single person here has argued that Michigan is a better team than Arizona or that Brady Hoke is a better coach than Rich Rodriguez.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:44 AM ^
I'm not even quite sure that anyone is enjoying UA getting decimated.
The slightest connection with M at most here, is that we're seeing RR's team turtle against a good team.
Because I tell ya, my butt still hurts from seeing that happen here.
December 6th, 2014 at 3:23 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:11 AM ^
They were better than us every year RR was here; they've been better than us two of the three years he's been there. EOS Massey ratings (except of course that 2014 doesn't include tonight or the bowls):
| AZ | MI | |
| 2014 | 10 | 65 |
| 2013 | 27 | 43 |
| 2012 | 36 | 24 |
| 2011 | 79 | 17 |
| 2010 | 29 | 55 |
| 2009 | 35 | 84 |
| 2008 | 31 | 86 |
| 2007 | 40 | 20 |
They've been top-40 six of the last seven years; we've managed it twice.
RR or no RR, they're just better now.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:18 AM ^
Okay. I agree.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:39 AM ^
Tell me, what does it mean? What does pain in one's buttocks have to do with the discussion of sports?
December 6th, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^
If you believe that Rich Rodriguez is a mediocre coach, you have been sodomized and are feeling anal pain as a result. Obviously.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
I bet dear ol' Rich is feeling a bit violated right now.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:53 AM ^
DickRod is a mediocre coach...so hes awesome becuz he won pac12 COY? I seem to remember a certain coach winning COY's in 3 diff conferences and also nat'l COY in 2011..gee, i wonder who that was....fyi, just cuz ur named coach of the year in a conf, doesnt mean you're a great coach..this year was a mirage very similar to hoke's 11-2..could have been 7-5 quite easily with a fialed hail mary, a lucky fumble when UW was running out clock...dick rod got dicked in his rod...it was typical of what he did at mich, predictable play calling, NO defense to be seen for miles and zero adjustments...Mar-eee-O-ta..,,ta ta!