Brandon with Classic Response on WDFN

I wasn't clear: Option A is the coach I loathe. 

with like 5 different fans at the 2007 Oregon game about how great Lloyd Carr was and how good Oregon's football team was and how everyone bitching about the program should shut up.  I've got your back on that one.  

No, RR isn't getting anymore support than Lloyd. The same people who the RR needs to get canned, and that it would be horrible for him to come back are the same who wanted Lloyd gone. They aren't the majority, but on a whole are the loudest. You just feel RR is getting more support because you are reading stuff here, and didn't do that when Lloyd was still coaching.

it's no longer his fault at all.  Remember when Michigan had good defenses?  They usually had quite a few 5th year seniors, and almost no players below the true junior/redshirt sophomore level.  Those youngest players usually had to be NFL-caliber stars to see the field (think Dhani Jones, who split time during his sophomore year, and saw that time due to another player's injury). Lloyd Carr's last class, the one he split with RR, is currently true juniors and redshirt sophomores.  Here is a list of Carr players that start right now, and remember that if he had done a good job recruiting there should be 11 of them:

1.  Van Bergen

2. Martin*

3.  Mouton

4. Demens*

5.  Ezeh

6.  JT Floyd*

7.  Rogers

8.  Kovacs*

* Members of the Carr-Rodriguez split class

No fifth year seniors.  Four players with four years experience.  Four on their third year, only one of whom (Martin) is the NFL-caliber star that usually breaks in to a strong defense at this point in a career.  Yes, we should have Woolfolk instead of Rogers, and maybe Warren instead of Floyd, but if that were true, the defense also would be less awful.  And even with those players, still no fifth-year seniors, and three spots given to redshirt or true freshmen. 

In short, it's not all Lloyd Carr's fault, as the injuries completely depleted the secondary and forced us into a bend-don't-break style to keep the corners from getting toasted deep, but the fact that we had so few seniors, and even some of those (Ezeh and Rogers) would hardly see the field if they had played for U-M ten years ago, is attributable to Lloyd Carr's recruiting. 

Now, if we still suck on defense next year, we can blame the  current coaches.  This is why you give a new coach four years. 

We never should have had to resort to true freshmen in the secondary.  Rich Rodriguez was wrong to break Woolfolk's ankle and force D. Warren to go pro.

Scoring was an issue against some teams, but it's not like we didn't rack up yards consistently. The offense just needs to get better in the red zone.

Our offense, however, has struggled mightily against EVERY SINGLE good defense that we have faced.

I disagree entirely. Illinois? Iowa? They got shelled and don't exactly have weak defenses. For the record, we DID put up 28 in one half against Wisconsin, who never backed off on defense because Bielema's a cock. The truth is that there would be no talk about the few weaknesses of our offense (besides turnovers) if our defense could stop someone once in a while. Oregon's offense struggles at times. California is NOT a good team. By your standard, that game means Oregon can't consistently score even against BAD teams. But no one says that because their defense is just good enough to cover their ass.

Our offense, however, has struggled mightily against EVERY SINGLE good defense that we have faced.  To me, our offense may be dominant in many statistical categories, and has shown flashes of brilliance and the potential to be Oregon-like (we looked amazing against Illinois), but until we can come out and consistently score (before the game is out of reach) against decent to good defenses - and not just against Illinois, Indiana, BGSU, Purdue - we are not a top offense.

This.  Our amazing #6 in the nation offense is no better than #35 when it comes to scoring in games vs. conference teams.  That number drops to #49 when you look at how we performed in games against ranked teams.