Applauding RR's integrity and courage for suspending Hagerup for OSU
Comrades,
As much as our special teams suffered for losing Hagerup, I have to admire RR for suspending him even though it had a huge negative impact on the game and given that RR is under fire professionally. RR knows that if he lets Hagerup play in that situation, he'll never be able to enforce team rules again. That is a guy who is trying to build a program, and whatever you think of RR, I respect him for that.
I wonder if we'll ever find out what Hagerup actually did.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:15 PM ^
with Dantonio
November 27th, 2010 at 9:11 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 8:33 PM ^
and this is not a knock at the OP for the post. If you truly possess it, you don't really need any affirmation of it. Integrity is not something one does for someone else.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^
Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you, but these are not normal circumstances. As we all know, Rich Rodriguez has been the subject of an enormous amount of bad press alleging a lack of integrity and an unwarranted reputation of being a "win at all costs" coach. It is not a bad thing to highlight incidences such as suspension of a key player whose talent would have made a difference (in punting, not necessarily the outcome) under these circumstances, when the press has been less than balanced about RR and the decisions of other coaches.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:41 PM ^
I am still sick after the game this afternoon but the way Rich Rod handles these situations is commendable. He knew the back up punter situation and still took the high road. This is a plus in my opinion.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:14 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^
Heard that today and immediately thought of some other coaches in the B10 and what they would do in that situation. Would they do as RR did, or not?
Paterno - Yes
Tressel - Yes(Even though I dislike tOSU and the players, I respect Tressel)
Ferentz - Yes
Fitz - Yes
Lynch - Maybe, but I don't know enough about him to state either way really.
Now the jagoffs
Hope - Nope
Beilema - Nope
Zook - Don't think so
Dantonio - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I don't think he knows what integrity even means.
I haven't listed Minny's coach since I know even less about him than I do Lynch.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:56 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 10:34 PM ^
Tress also suspended our/his starting QB the Monday before the 2001 Michigan game.
November 27th, 2010 at 11:10 PM ^
...and on two separate occasions didn't give so much as a wagged finger at players arrested for DUIs, the same thing the quarterback got nailed for. Bellisari was publicly feuding with the new coaching staff when he got his, and Krenzel was already pushing him out at that point. Fan reaction was generally "we're better with the sophomore than Mr. I.N.T."
It was my understanding that Tress is pretty much universally regarded as being on the low end of the integrity scale (caveat: "...for the Big Ten"). Pimp cars on loan from local dealerships, tutors taking tests for kids... I mean, this is coming from a rival fan of course so take it with a big blue bias disclaimer, but Tressel as a model of collegiate class seems laughable on any measure.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:37 PM ^
I don't know what to think about The Vest anymore... he definitely called off the dogs today. If Tressel were Beliema, we would have lost by 60 and Wisky would be going for two like they did against Minny. Dare I say The Vest throttled back today out of respect for the rivalry?
November 27th, 2010 at 9:39 PM ^
I think we are reaching to find anything good coach has done in a disgusting loss. I'm glad that our coach has integrity.....and yea thats about all I'm really glad for at this point. Go Blue.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:49 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 9:54 PM ^
There is a lot to like about Rich's program as far as the way these players conduct themselves and the way he has handled himself against relentless pressure. I have no doubt he is a good man.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^
This thread reminds me of a line from The Rock.
"Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen!"
The only prom queens getting any tonight are in Columbus. You want to put RichRod on a white horse, go for it. As for me, I'll take a couple more W's. Actually, I will take one W against a good opponent. We had none this year and its getting real old real quick.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
Ew. Columbus prom queens getting "some"
Must.
Get.
Image.
Out.
Of.
Mind.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:15 PM ^
I agree wholeheartedly. And it did have a significant impact on the game. First, the TD KO return was caused in large part by a low, short kick -- not sure if Hagerup would have done better, but he's been handling KOs the last few weeks for a reason. As soon as he caught the ball on the 15 without a coverage guy in sight, you knew it was trouble. The shanked punt had a big impact as well. All in all, it provided a nice teaching moment for my son (who I had "suspended" during our backyard football game yesterday for, let's just say, unsportsmanlike conduct).
One of the reasons I love Michigan (in addition to being a brainwashed lifelong fan and alum) is that we do things the right way. And it gives me confidence that our AD will make what I believe to be the right decision in retaining RR. In many places (cough, East Lansing, cough), a coach might have felt the need to bow to the UNACCEPTABLE crowd in order to keep his job, or at the very least felt that his AD wouldn't care about the shoddy discipline so long as the product on the field was good. At Michigan, it's the opposite -- I believe the coach knows that letting a player play despite the rules violation would be a bigger black mark in the AD's book than the blowout loss.
November 27th, 2010 at 11:48 PM ^
If Hagerup broke team rules then I commend the discipline. My concern is that we do not have a good back up. Anything can happen to any player and we should have excellent back ups for all positions.