Ex-players write letter to current U-M football team
Nice gesture by some recent grads.
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In the aftermath of Brady Hoke's firing as Michigan head coach on Tuesday, former player Ryan Van Bergen told The Detroit News he hoped to organize a group of former players to help the current players adjust and handle the transition to a new coach.
Van Bergen played for three coaches while at Michigan — Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke — so he has first-hand knowledge, as do others who went through the transitions, how challenging this situation can be for the players who are waiting to find out what's next.
"It's sad to see someone get fired, but it's important to help the players now get through this," Van Bergen said Tuesday after Hoke had been fired.
To this end, an open letter to current players and the Michigan fan base has been drafted and will be shared via social media beginning at noon Saturday to encourage a "welcoming environment" so the next coach and his team can be successful....
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December 6th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:10 PM ^
I agree - it's really to everyone affiliated with Michigan if you ask me. If you think about it, there is really nothing good that can come from disagreeing with whoever the next coach is. Might as well get behind them.
December 6th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 4:28 PM ^
This is the most reasonable post I have found on this site in quite some time.
I think it's weird also how many people here were so offended about the 'muggles' thing. We fans are not in Schembechler hall every day. We don't know what happens in practices or in team meetings. We are profoundly uninformed relative to the players and it is flat out wrong to insist that we know what is best for them.
I spoke with a former player at a bar here in Chapel Hill last night, and the topic of Michigan naturally came up while we were watching Arizona lose to Oregon. His experience was that when something goes wrong on the field it almost never has anything to do with the coaches and almost always is caused by the guys lining up across from you being faster, stronger, or more talented.
December 6th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 7:41 PM ^
Do you really believe all of those teams were faster, stronger or more talented?
December 6th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 6:13 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 6:24 PM ^
Normal guys don't get their "feelings" accounted for in life. You do your job. Period.
Fuck their feelings.
Win.
That is all.
December 7th, 2014 at 1:34 AM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 8:02 PM ^
This is absurd. Hoke could not have had more goodwill from the fanbase and alumni. How do you think things turned negative? People turned on him because his coaching was mediocre at best.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
The fans don't get to choose the coach, only the University has that luxury and responsiblity. The fans are, like it or not, customers and if the customers don't like the product being offered they have every right to state as much just as they have a right to cheer a product they do like. If RVB and his former teammates want everyone to be happy happy then they need to direct their concerns to the people actually hiring the coach and who will have to sell the coach to fans and players alike.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
I like the letter. I have no issue with it being posted on social media because it was stated to be a letter to both the current team as well as the fans. The only critique I have is that the letter does seem to be blaming the attitude of the fans for the attitude of the players, and while there is some truth to that and we in the fan and alumni base do have our own share in the blame for the failure of the Rodriguez era it was not strictly on our shoulders, that is to say that those players who saw our hesitance and reacted by transferring out and not buying in did so of their own accord.
Having said that I believe that this letter needed to be written, and I'm not sure how aside from the use of social media one would go about getting this to circulate among the fan and alumni base. We as a fanbase do need to get behind the new coach regardless of who it is because that will inevitably effect the feelings and reactions of the players. Again they are still responsible for their own reactions and decisions in the transition, but a divided fanbase is going to be very hard to overcome.
December 6th, 2014 at 8:13 PM ^
People are getting way too paranoid about this us vs. them mentality. He doesn't single out the fans. He said the "fans and players". He in no way insinuates that the fans' sentiments is what caused the players to not trust Hoke.
December 6th, 2014 at 2:15 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 2:36 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 8:17 PM ^
"It is just human nature that there would be reservations on player's parts." No, it's pretty much a Michigan problem.
And you're really faulting RR for bringing in his own coaching staff?
December 6th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
This letter acknowledges how the petty assholes who didn't support RR caused a lot of problems for the team. It's too bad former players didn't do this when RR was hired, but better late than never.
The only "red flag" for many should be that if Harbaugh was hired, there wouldn't be any need for a letter like this because his supporters will so grossly outnumber his critics. That means that a JH hiring may not be as likely as it has been starting to look the last few days.
December 6th, 2014 at 2:24 PM ^
Les Miles?
December 6th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
were the ones that hired RR. They were absolutely tone deaf and out of touch and did little to nothing to sell RR. For his part RR failed to sell himself (talking about the critical interim period immediately following his announcement). Moreover, right or wrong, Michigan fans, then as now, feel as if the coaching hire should be self-evident and not have to be sold to the fans and players (shouldn't be the 4th choice).
You want to blame RRs failure at Michigan on the fans and former players, why? It was Bill Martin and MSC that set him up for failure.
December 6th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
I'm cancelling Christmas for everybody.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:10 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:41 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
Dom "The Bomb" Ingerson
December 6th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:07 PM ^
Or rather that the leaders we have had behind the scenes (excluding the coaches themselves) have been part of the problem.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:03 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:05 PM ^
I could see from the perspective of being a young player with no college experience and having everybody hate on your new coach being a problem and a distraction to the team. That is likely why the seniors who were once freshman stood up and lead the team that first year Hoke came in. Hoke did have more support from everybody.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:07 PM ^
Compared to Nebraska where there was so much bashing and hatred against everything going on.
I know it's different because they fired a 9-10 win coach and hired a coach that appears worse on paper but still.
The part that seems weird is where the letter is worded as if the new coach is in place already; where it says things such as "we support the new coach" etc vs we will support the new coach when hired.
Maybe they know who this new coach is going to be already?
December 6th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
in the generic sense when he says "we support the new coach," meaning that it doesn't matter who it is, they're going to get behind him unconditionally.
I would be shocked if a bunch of ex-players knew who the next coach was. 1) Hackett doesn't seem to be operating that way 2) If a large group of people know that kind of secret, it's virtually impossible for word not to leak out. No knock on former players. That's just human nature.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^
Grads need to pool sentences together to form a letter."
-My snarky Mom, who is visiting and reading over my shoulder (and angry at the basketball game)
December 6th, 2014 at 1:32 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^
really needs to get RVB a job in the AD
December 6th, 2014 at 2:07 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 2:11 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
Don't see much downside. It's not like he's airing dirty laundry that's not already known. Like the transparency, if indeed he's speaking for a large number of former players.
I don't necessarily think he's taking a shot at fans or ex-players or other camps, but I suppose it could be interpreted that way. To me it was more about "everyone wants the same thing" ... for the team to be successful on the field, off the field, in the classroom, in the community.
Seems to be saying that that goal is tough to pull off if people are pulling in different directions, and that the "noise" around the program influences young kids, both positively or negativelly depending on what the noise is. If he's trying to lead a group of ex-players to committ to build positive energy around the next hire, then all the power to him. It couldn't hurt and it very wall may help. I think we've seen what the other approach can produce.
December 6th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
This appears to be an old baseball mangerial technique. Sometime a manger when frustrated with an umpire will start screaming at the pitcher. This way the manager doesn't "show-up" the ump (resulting in ejection), but gets his point across.
Given how RVB talks of divide in the "community", my guess is that the "fans" aren't the real target of the letter.
December 6th, 2014 at 4:53 PM ^
He's simply contrasting the welcome Hoke got with the obstacles RichRod faced and is encouraging people to support the new coach.
It's amazing to me how self absorbed some are, to the point they think this is a jab at them.
December 6th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 6:03 PM ^
December 6th, 2014 at 7:12 PM ^
It's interesting that they call Hoke "Coach Hoke" and they call Rodriguez "Rich Rodriguez"
It makes sense. No one on the 2015 team ever played for RichRod - he was never their coach. OTOH, they've all played for Hoke.