dragonchild

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:25 AM ^

It makes certain tasks easier, but the challenge is, it's made it easier for everyone.  So whereas back in Carr's day you could schedule a game with an FCS school and expect them to lack the resources to do in-depth scouting, these days an intern can download enough game footage to exploit weaknesses in your offense inside a week.  In other words, even the FCS schools have technical capabilities the biggest dozen programs in the country would've considered prohibitively expensive 20 years ago.

So, it's gotten harder for big programs, in as much as they "only" have name recognition and better facilities and more money, but they lost some of their cheat codes.  Boo-hoo.

UGLi

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:17 AM ^

Why would the power five shrink?  I know it had been projected that one of them (B12 or ACC) would be catabolized by the other, stronger conferences (SEC, B1G, PAC), but is Lloyd suggesting that programs will fold?  Drop down to FCS?  Leave to a lesser conference?  

The Mad Hatter

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^

think that the smaller P5 schools won't be able to keep up with the big boys in the financial arms race.  What exactly that means for their programs and/or conference alignments, no one knows.

Does anyone really think Purdue should be in the same conference as OSU and Michigan?  

trueblueintexas

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^

I think his point is that schools like Purdue, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, TCU, Kentucky, Utah, etc may eventually decide it is too expensive trying to be competitive with schools like Michigan, Alabama, OSU, FSU, USC, Texas, etc in football. 

The Power5 conferences could feel a lot of pressure to keep those schools in the conferences for all other sports while letting them play a lower level in football. 

 

TorturedClassof11

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

I had the opportunity to attend the Big Brothers Big Sisters event last night that Coach Carr was at. Before dinner, I had the chance to introduce myself and chat with him for a few minutes. I had planned on quickly mentioning that I'm in my 8th year at UM (undergrad + PhD will do that to you) before talking football and memories of the old days. Instead Coach steered the conversation toward the state of academia in the state and country. We each had our 2 cents to share about it and ended up talking about that for the entire time, before I ended by mentioning that my fandom began when attending my first game, 1997 vs. Iowa, a comeback win that he remembered as "a pivotal game" that season.

And no, I didn't ask for a selfie with him.

/coolstorybro

Danwillhor

June 23rd, 2015 at 11:32 AM ^

My extended family (it's huge but was still big back then) had a family picture taken. Every child & their family of my Grandparents wore a different color of turtleneck sweater. My immediate family had dark navy blue (nice) but it's still visits to look at how 90s it was. ANYWAY, it was the day of that Iowa game I had to listen by car radio at the location. Going back and forth, being yelled at to get in position, etc. In the actual picture I'm about 14 and I'm visibly PISSED OFF to an hilarious degree. We were not only losing but the radio made the first half sound like a beating. I'm not quite sure if that was the Tavian Banks year but Iowa gave us a huge scare that year. Every family member has that photo in their home and I laugh at it whenever I see it to this day. When others comment about my face I just say "Iowa.....we were getting beat by Iowa".

Vote_Crisler_1937

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

Tavian Banks was on the team that year and was the big name threat in the media. However Tim Dwight made that score look a lot scarier by breaking a punt towards the end of the first half. That was a killer. Dwight looked Breaston-like every time he touched the ball that day in that you were terrified he would break away from everyone.

I remember thinking the offense looked unprepared and lethargic and special teams again seemed like an after-thought despite a really dangerous opponent.

The second half of '97 Iowa has become my coping mechanism to face the fear of Michigan trailing at half-time and looking unprepared as they have too often in the recent past.



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Brimley

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:24 AM ^

Pretty vanilla, which is what I expect from Lloyd.  Interesting that he's famous for the ONE time that he snapped at someone.

I wonder if someone followed up on the technology thing, or it if the writer didn't report his full answer.  It's possible he's comparing things to 70s recruiting where a guy like Bo would get his men and announce who they were in spring.  MUCH less drama.  Easier in that sense?  Wish they would've asked...

EGD

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

And even then, he didn't really "snap" at they guy.  He just sort of gave him the evil eye and then slowly backed away without answering his question (which, IIRC, had to do with why Lloyd didn't try to score when he got the ball back about :30 before halftime with a 2 TD lead on OSU).

DrMantisToboggan

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^

Well that's good that we don't have worry about Lloyd ensuring his downfall and ruining the program for another 7 years.

Lloyd lives down the road from me. Has been nothing but wonderful every time we have spoken. He was an underrated coach probably, I was an ardent defender of his in the Fire Lloyd years of 05-07(ish). But after how he handled the 07 coaching search and RichRods tenure, I can't look at him quite the same way.



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Brian Griese

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:43 AM ^

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  More good than the other two catergories, but oh man does the ugly stand out (IMO) more than the good.  It's probably since he won the NC so earlier in his career that the Ugly is more easily remembered since it happened at the end, but you can't deny how bad it got. 

93Grad

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:07 PM ^

Pretty good summary IMO. Lloyd's greatest failing was not having better coordinators in place which would have helped slow the decline and provided a viable replacement as Head Coach. He compounded that problem by wanting to promote the mediocre coordinators he had and failing to fully support RR. That being said he otherwise acted with class and integrity and gave us the greatest season I can remember.



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cobra14

June 23rd, 2015 at 11:04 AM ^

Would hate on arguably the best coach in Michigan history. Absolute fantastic human being that did it the right way. It's a shame some of the fan base blames this man because RR(horrendous coach) couldn't get the job done. This story is written because a knob like Tom Beaver was able to spread flat out lies about Carr not liking Harbaugh. In fact he was spreading it while the coaching search was going on. Then some of you take 3 and out as gospel though it was told through the eyes of the worst coach in Michigan history!! Yet RR is glorified by uneducated Michigan sports fans. Maybe because you guys loved watching that offense operate in between the 20s yet can't get it in the end zone against good teams. Or maybe you loved watching Wisconsin run it 30 straight times with no adjustment just sit in the 3-3-5. Or my favorite is sitting in the 3-3-5 when opponents were on our fucking 2!!

DetroitBlue

June 23rd, 2015 at 11:27 AM ^

Carr was not even close to being best coach in Michigan history and it's not even arguable. We get it, you hate RR and that's fine, but if he's such a shitty coach, why has he been successful everywhere else? Was he a good fit here? No, but that doesn't make him an idiot.



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The Mad Hatter

June 23rd, 2015 at 11:44 AM ^

I'm pretty sure it wasn't me, but I'll respond anyway.

RR failed at Michigan for many reasons, some his own fault, some not.

 

RR's fault:

Complete lack of defense.  This in my opinion is the main reason he failed here.  The only team that should be putting up 65 points against Michigan is the New England Patriots. Hoke's first team went 11-2 mainly because defense was more than an afterthought.

Not understanding expectations.  A few things can go here, number one being that a 3-9 season is never acceptable at Michigan.  Also, he kept trying to force unqualified players through admissions.  Michigan is a top academic school.  RR never seemed to understand that.

 

Not RR's fault:

Lack of institutional support.  There were people in the AD (and media) that wanted him to fail from day 1.

Sac Fly

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^

And those special teams were still better than they were under RR.

Come on. Have you forgotten what it was like to not be able to hit 30 yard field goals?

They dropped punts like crazy, almost never brought a kick past the 20 and his last year at Michigan they averaged like 7 yards a punt return.

I would take Hoke's special teams over that every day of the week.

BigBlue02

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^

In no way were RichRod's special teams as bad as you think they were. This is the problem with any discussion on RichRod. People remember what they want to about his time here, facts be dammed! Didn't one of RichRod's guys break Breaston's kick return yardage record? I find that hard to believe if they almost never brought it past the 20. And all jokes aside about his kick returners getting more opportunities, it is comments like yours that are based on nothing but the way you feel that are the most frustrating. "I remember dropped punts all over the place! Argh!...but I don't remember record setting kick returners because it is popular to say RichRod's special teams were shit."

snarling wolverine

June 23rd, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^

What are you talking about?  You can look it up right here, on the Michigan football statistics archive:

http://statsarchive.ath.umich.edu/VS-Football/indmaster.php

Here's the top five if that doesn't come through:

1.  Dennis Norfleet - 2,203 yards

2.  Steve Breaston - 1,993 yards

3.  Anthony Carter - 1,606 yards

4.  Darryl Stonum - 1,538 yards

5.  Desmond Howard - 1,211 yards

BigBlue02

June 23rd, 2015 at 2:54 PM ^

That stat shows that Michigan averaged more per kickoff return than their opponents and were ranked 65th. That is average, not awful. And your comments aren't based on nothing as I remember his special teams not being the greatest. That doesn't mean Hoke running out 10 guys and letting up a TD is better.

BigBlue02

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^

Richrod didn't have a horrible defense in year one, when he had some upperclassmen on the roster. I swear some people have no idea what decimated defense means. Then, all his players he recruited get a little seasoning and they go 11-2. No, his defenses weren't good in his last two years. There were also numerous walk-ons in the defensive two deep, with very little of that being his fault and a large chunk of that falling on Lloyd's shoulders. Bringing in Mattison helped, but so did bringing back 20ish players in your two deep

cobra14

June 23rd, 2015 at 11:52 AM ^

Arguably and yes you can argue he was. It wasn't the Big 2 little 8 like when Bo coached. I always love the Gary Moeller lovers. Always quick to point out "He would have been" but there is a couple problems with that thinking. One he wasn't because he got fired for his incident(that some on staff including Carr swear something was put in his drink) and two no one knows what would of happened because he got canned! I loved Mo also so it's nothing against him.