Amazed to read that some alumns are already calling for Harbaugh

Submitted by Webber's Pimp on

I'll repeat last night's post and those of you who are critical of the current coaching staff would be well served to internalize it...

This is the first time in 3 years RRod has had a QB in his system that fits exactly what he wants to do. And what are the results? The kid (in only his second start I might add) runs for 250 yards and passes for another 250 yards. Nevermind the fact that only 8 players in college history have accomplished such a feet and that Rich Rod has been the architect behind two of them. Don't look now but the Buckeyes are getting nervous... Rich Rod started a walkon QB for the better part of his first year. Anybody who's critical having witnessed the last 3 weeks of our offensive packages has been reading the Freep too much. The bottom line is the cupboard was bare when Rod got to A2 and I'm sorry to say this is still a below average (talent wise) Michigan squad in comparison to the Carr and Moeller years. We are a talent depleted team on defense!!! There's not a scheme or a coach in America that can change that! Despite this Rod has beaten ND twice already. Note that last weekend's victory is something we've only managed to do 4 times over the past 30 years (ie. road victories at ND). Cut the guy some slack for Christ sakes!! Once we get the right personel on defense I guarantee you the results will be there. Until then support your coach and your school. Calling for his head only promotes further program instability which is exactly what the MSU's and OSU's of this world would like...

Oner last note...In today's college football landscape Michigan faces more challenges than ever before in it's history. We have higher academic standards than most schools. Most schools also have a natural advanatge over us in terms of weather (selling palm trees etc). Unlike Ohio State, Texas, Florida, and USC we do NOT reside in a hotbed of recruiting talent. We have to go out of state to get most of our players and in doing so we have to go head to head against home state schools who always have a natural recruiting advantage against us. So what does it all add up to? In my mind we need to have a system in place (read: the spread offense) to compensate for some of these disadvantages. Right now we have to win with less talent than ever before until we can prove to the country that we are still a national powerhouse. Our slide began during the last few years of Lloyd Carr's regime (his last few recruiting classes were horrible) and it's up to RRod to change things. I have no doubt that he will get the job done. The offense is already in place. Now it's just a matter of getting enough athletes on defense. The only thing that can stop us now is our own fan base...

 

Yes, I borrowed someone's Avatar. Chill out Dude...

Michichick

September 19th, 2010 at 12:42 PM ^

People have been bitching since RR got hired that B. Martin should have hired Harbaugh. Seriously. Harbaugh has done some good stuff at Stanford, but when Lloyd announced his retirement, he had one 4-8 season at Stanford under his belt, after his success at USD. Not to mention he threw Michigan under the bus after Bo died with his rant about UM academics to ingratiate himself to Stanford donors. Then they gave him a $50k bathroom. I loved Harbaugh as a player, but he's got some apologizing to do. For all the people saying RR is not a "Michigan man," a true Michigan man would never have done what Harbaugh did.

lilpenny1316

September 19th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^

...they would almost be willing to give him to us for a player to be named later.  All Les has on his resume is coach of a rare 2-loss national championship team with someone else's players.  I don't dislike him but I just have never heard what makes him such a great, desirable coach.

I only hope he has moderate success there because we recruit nationally and like to grab players from their backyard (Helloooo A-Train!).

The team the t…

September 19th, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^

It is essential that RichRod is given time here.  He's a great coach, but he can't play DB anymore.   I grew up watching Harbaugh and he's one of my all time favorites, but this would be a terrible time to make another dramatic change.  I wish him all the best at Stanford and look forward to a Meechigan vicotry over Stanford in the Rose Bowl soon!

Great post!  

wolpherine2000

September 19th, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^

...to all of the hysterics calling for Coach Rodriguez to be replaced is the equally hysterical reactions to that minority view.  Methinks the lady doth protest too much. 

Deep breaths, people.

coldnjl

September 19th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

I would love to have JH as our coach, but progress has been shown this year, enough to give RR next year barring an amazing implosion. However, the constant drain of his recruits and continued lack of depth on the D is on RR and if it isn't solved, then I would have no problem making the move.

Nosce Te Ipsum

September 19th, 2010 at 12:02 PM ^

There are some things Rich can be blamed for at the moment. Number 1 is the attrition we've experienced this year. Our defense will never be anywhere near average until we maintain and develop the talent we recruit on that side of the ball. But that's been stated ad nauseam the last week or so. If this defense was servicable then we'd be looking at a BCS berth possibility.

mackbrune

September 19th, 2010 at 1:37 PM ^

Is it really that ridiculous? Really? Will it still be ridiculous if (god forbid) Sparty beats us? Our D will remain mediocre at best. Hopefully, we're an 8-win. 7-5 might save RR. Or it might not. Plus, the unresolved sanctions issue.The situation is tenuous. Nobody's suggesting a mid-season coaching-change. But it would be foolish to not contemplate a Plan B for next year (given the ridiculous last-minute chaos we saw post-Lloyd.) And Harbaugh might be the guy. He'd have to eat a little crow. But he would. 

dearbornpeds

September 19th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^

1.  it is only fair to give him a chance to win with HIS players

2.  the offense is light years ahead of where it was and most of the skill players are young

3.  from what i've seen and read about brandon, i would wager that he has already has a short list of people he would contact if he felt it necessary to replace the coach.  he didn't achieve his success in the business world by being tentative.

Rashman

September 19th, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^

Why exactly would you want to use somebody else's avatar?  I don't know the who's who of mgoblog posters, but if you actually ripped off the avatar, that's pretty poor.

UMxWolverines

September 19th, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^

Yesterday a guy that knows my uncle came up to our truck as were about to leave, and he said something about being glad that nebraska is going to be in our conference next year so we can beat the ahit out of them (sarcasm). Then he said something about waiting until after the 2007 national championship to hire a coach, and that we should have got Les Miles and now he wants Harbaugh. I wanted to slam this guy so hard, but I resisted.

AZBlue

September 19th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^

in response to your title - skimmed your post.

Michigan fans by and large are entitled, whiny, bitches (I include myself in this group.)

We also are pessimists and as with human nature in general (imo) would rather complain and criticize than search for positives.

DO you think these same people weren't complaining EVERY year about Lloyd when we would lose one or two winnable games on the way to an 8-4 or 9-3 record?  Now they are the most vocal LC supporters.

Some of our negativity as fans is a defense mechanism - and in some cases well earned --this coming from a fan who was in the stands for both Kordell Stewart's bomb and the FSU come from ahead loss.  (and yes I was one of the students doing the "goodbye" chant against FSU--#$%^&$#%^&!!!!!!!)

For those fans I suggest searching out an Iowa message board from last year  after their undeserving win over Northern Iowa Tech (whatever the team was - I forget).  That season turned out OK for them - so maybe we should wait a before proclaiming the end of the world.

PurpleStuff

September 19th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^

Harbaugh, with a Heisman trophy finalist at RB and a top ten draft pick at QB, went 8-5 last season (his first winning season as a D-1 coach).  He's lost two straight to archrival Cal (not exactly OSU).  This year he's beaten Sacramento State, Wake Forest, and a bad UCLA team.

Rodriguez built a team that won two BCS bowls at West Virginia.  Now that he doesn't have a freshman QB and has just a little experience on his roster at Michigan (we'll return nearly 20 starters again next season), we have one of the best offenses in the country.  Considering the defense lost their two expected starting corners (to Woolfolk's injury and Warren's dumb departure) the defense hasn't been all that bad (take a look at Harbaugh's defensive numbers last year at Stanford if you don't believe me).

How is this even a choice?

jmblue

September 19th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^

Not to mention that there are some questions about Harbaugh as a person (including a rumored problem with the bottle). 

I don't think the man actually paid to make these kinds of decisions is gaga over him.

TSimpson77

September 19th, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^

But I'm not a Greg Robinson fan, I think someone else could get more out of our defense! Look at what Florida is doing with freshman and redshirt freshman. I do realize that they have many star recruits, but we have some talented freshman and redshirts. There is no reason for letting UMass drive up and down the field on us like they are Ohio State or something! We shouldn't be play 8 yards off a slow split out tight end like we did Kyle Rudolph. We shouldn't be giving up 400+ and 37 points to a FCS school!

EGD

September 19th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^

Yes, let's play press-coverage on opposing receivers with JT Floyd and James Rogers.  Since we have a veteran safety in Cam Gordon, let's run a ton of blitzes and get max pressure on opposing QBs.  In fact, our safeties (Kovac and C. Gordon) are so fast, maybe we should try some corner blitzes and rotate the safeties into coverage.  And we might as well let our senior LBs freelance, becaue they have shown how fundamentally-sound they are throughout their careers that neither will be caught out-of-position or miss a tackle in space. 

 

TSimpson77

September 19th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^

I'm not saying press cover everyone and move our great linebackers around but come on it was a tight end split out that got past our safety. I was always taught that a safety should be atheletic and fast, not getting beat in a 80 yard dash by a huge tight end. Gerg needs to get more out of the talent we do have instead of making us look stupid against FCS UMass, hardly a offensive juggernaut. Oh well I forget obviously everyone here is smarter about football than me

BigBlue02

September 19th, 2010 at 7:10 PM ^

Were you also taught that the best tight end in the country is usually going to run by a safety starting in his 2nd game ever who made the mistake of backpeddling at the wrong time? Also, I would like to know why you think UMass is a horrible offensive team? Have you done some in depth analysis or did you just do what everyone else looking to bitch about the game does and say "they are DII, they must suck and their offense can't be good."

TSimpson77

September 19th, 2010 at 8:23 PM ^

Yes I did, they're good for FCS not FBS. Sorry if you all want to see Greg Robinson stay and settle for mediocre, I don't. Like I said before I like Rich Rod and support him 100% but I don't have to support GERG and like I also said before I tend to forget almost everyone on here knows more than me or almost everyone on here. Probably unlike most people on here I did play football in hs and college

Brodie

September 20th, 2010 at 4:18 AM ^

Because there's a magical rule that all FCS teams are inherently worse than all FBS teams.

UMass could probably beat a number of AQ schools. They would almost assuredly win a league like the MAC. Their conference, the CAA, is easily the best in FCS. So good, in fact, that one of its teams was just invited to join the Big East in football.

EGD

September 20th, 2010 at 12:57 AM ^

Are you seriously blaming Gerg for the fact that our safeties lack speed and athleticism? 

As far as the Kyle Rudolph 95-yarder goes, the fact of the matter is that Cam Gordon was in position to make the play, he just failed to execute.  So you can't blame Gerg for not getting us into the right coverage.  I suppose you could blame the coaching staff for not teaching Gordon better technique, but the guy is a redshirt freshman who came in as a WR and isn't going to learn everything overnight. 

j-turn14

September 19th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^

Gordon basically came to a complete stop thinking he could leap up and intercept the ball. Even if you're a good bit faster than me, I'll probably beat you in a sprint if: A) I start 20 yards behind in order to get to full speed, and B)  you don't get to take off until i'm 3 or 4 yards past you.

dahblue

September 19th, 2010 at 1:21 PM ^

I wonder how many times people drop the "bare cupboard" excuse each day.  Whether it's 100% accurate or not accurate at all, it now appears that RR is having trouble "filling" that cupboard (at least on defense).  How many players have left his cupboard this year alone?

Some here have noted (I don't know if it's accurate or not) that RR has no involvement in the defense.  That seems unlikely to me, but I do assume that his focus lies primarily with the offense.  Maybe some people get excited about Harbaugh because his defense looks prepared (ours doesn't), executes (ours doesn't...sorry Mike Martin, you're a monster but are surrounded by small woodland creatures) and plays with intensity (were our kids smiling and joking yesterday?).

I'm not calling for Harbaugh but think that rabid RR defenders are no more on point than the bring-Jim-now crowd (if that exists).  This season needs to play out to get a better sense of where our program stands.  It's time to stop blaming past coaches for anything that happens with the current program.  We're 3-0 and, hopefully, have shaken off the false confidence we had prior to the UMass performance.

PurpleStuff

September 19th, 2010 at 1:42 PM ^

Go look at the numbers for Stanford's defense last year.  They were terrible.  Of course, things like not playing good defense or losing to teams like Wake Forest (who went 5-7 last year in the God awful ACC) get ignored because nobody is paying attention to Stanford/Harbaugh unless they do something positive.

EDIT: Just to illustrate the point, Stanford played 7 teams last year that finished the regular season with a winning record (or were named Notre Dame).  They held one of those teams (USC playing with a true freshman quarterback) under 30 points.  This despite being able to control the ball with one of the best rushing attacks in the country.  By this measure, our defense so far this year is rad.

dahblue

September 19th, 2010 at 4:55 PM ^

Who is a lesser opponent?  UMass or Wake?  Stanford handled Wake; how'd we do?

Again, I'm not lobbying to bring in Jim now, I'm only saying that it's understandable someone might be excited by a team that looks to be solid on both sides of the ball.  But let's roll with your awesome quote:

Saying things doesn't make them true

Stanford is #6 in the nation in team defense.  Did you hear me?  #6.  Michigan is #100 (out of 120).  So, not only did I say something, I gave you the NCAA statistics which, amazingly, back up my thought that Stanford is playing good defense.  Their offense isn't too shabby either (#16 to our #10; although for scoring offense, they're #3 to our #37).  So, roll with the facts as you will.  At this early point in the season, the facts seem to show that JH can score points and play defense.  You can use any "measure" you want to imagine, but our defense is not "rad".  It's terrible...and, at the same time, the Coach has been unable to keep his kids in A2, creating the possibility that our defense will continue to be bad and undermanned in the future.

PurpleStuff

September 19th, 2010 at 6:58 PM ^

I'm guessing our defense will be a lot better next year too when when we bring back 9 starters and aren't running out a bunch of freshmen.  Wake Forest is awesome.  They beat Duke by six (I think UMass could do that) and kicked the tar out of Presbyterian (I think UMass could do that too).  UCLA has been great at offense lately.  Sacramento State, those guys are rad as well.

In Harbaugh's third year (the same year Rodriguez is in right now) he lost to a 5-7 Wake team and fielded an atrocious defense (gave up 30 points to anybody with a pulse despite having one of the best time of possession offenses in the country).  Yet you think one guy is great and the other one is totally shaky because...oh that's right you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

And you're right about Rodriguez running guys off.  He really should have hid his depth chart better so guys couldn't see they were fourth stringers and decide to leave.  Vlad was behind a RS freshman position switch, a walk-on, and a two-star true freshman, not to mention a freshman student-body walk-on played ahead of him last year when injuries hit (meaning they probably would have just shuffled the secondary to make sure the guy with the busted leg never saw the field).  Lalota was probably lower on the depth chart.  Or are you suggesting Rodriguez should have told those guys to go fuck themselves when they asked to go somewhere they might have an opportunity to see the field?

dahblue

September 19th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^

I'm sure the points make you feel warm and fuzzy, but that's maybe easy when you make up things that I supposedly said and then speak inappropriately in reply.  Look, guy, my point was simple...Stanford is playing good defensive football.  For that reason, it is understandable that some folks might look toward Harbaugh.   Why's that make you so upset?  Were you not held as a child?

I never said "Harbaugh is great".  I never said RR is "running guys off".  I merely said that Stanford is playing good ball and presented the statistics to back that up.  I further noted that RR, in trying to "fill the cupboard" has lost a large chunk of his kids.  Those are facts.  Nothing to dispute.

For that, you say, "I don't know what the fuck I am talking about".  Really?  What was the cause for you to speak like such an asshole?  I think different opinions are great, but it'd be nice if people could express them without someone anonymous asshole being unnecessarily rude in reply.  You need to relax...and don't be so upset when facts get in the way of your petulance.