This Week's Obsession: The Worst Part Is…
Basically the coaches have put guys who couldn't possibly succeed in a position to fail even harder. [Fuller]
Hey, UFRs are coming out today and tomorrow, but we can get most of the sad clown out now. Sad clowns: Brian, Bryan, Brett, Brandon, Brace, and Brseth. What I asked:
The worst part of it is…
Coach Brown: Man, what a loaded question. I think the worst part of it is, that we don’t know what the worst part of it is. Right now Michigan is 6-2 with a loss to Penn State that I don’t think they should have. The Michigan State loss was painful, but expected. That being said, there seems to be a list of issues that are present each week, with a few new ones popping up occasionally too.
Early on Devin was the interception king, while last week he played like he was so scared to turn the ball over that it might as well have been glued to his hand.
The offensive line has been different so many times I don’t even know who is playing what position anymore. Even the All-American left tackle has been moved around. The youth is inexperienced but talented, but so far has been pretty lack luster. Derrick Green is averaging around 3 ypc. Dymonte Thomas was thought to be all-world but he can’t get on the field. Channing Stribling has been there, but not quite. Kyle Bosch unfortunately has had to play. Shane Morris trips over yard lines. Jake Butt is being asked to do a TON. Jourdan Lewis shows signs of being the next Raymon Taylor. Brian, is he good or aren’t we sure yet?
Does the inverted veer have a counter in this offense? Does the coaches know what a counter is? [Upchurch] |
Granted a lot of stuff sucked against Michigan State and those memories are at the forefront right now, but a lot of these things have shown up in every game this season. Inconsistent line play and positioning, ball security issues with Devin, no running game whatsoever, game-plans that seem to be constructed as the coaches walk onto the field.
I’m not even going to try and address the coaching issues that seem to be unidentifiable, but are definitely present. Is it Hoke’s leadership? Is it Borges’s predictability and lack of creativity? Is it Funk not knowing what to do with young linemen? Is it Mallory purposely teaching DB’s not to look back for the ball? Is it Mattison being too NFL-like that he won’t blitz when a blitz seems to be an obvious choice?
I know these guys have been football brains for many, many more years that I have been and on a level I can’t even comprehend, but at some point shouldn’t those brains be able to get things get fixed? I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the war room to see and hear what the coaches talk about. They have to know these concerns right? And if so, where are the adjustments or the explanations for why things are happening the way that they are.
Michigan is 6-2 and could potentially go 9-3, while 8-4 is probably more likely, with 6-6 being….dammit, a very real possibility. There is a laundry list of issues with some being more glaring than others. Some things are controllable and some things are not. This team can’t get older and more experienced overnight.
I don’t have fool-proof answers and I don’t know exactly why these issues seem to be unaddressed, but one thing is clear, Team 134 isn’t that good. Facts are facts. What happens this year and next will be telling for the future of the entire staff and the direction of Michigan football.
[Jump. Or small hop if your ribs are still healing. Try not to step on the dead dove.]
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Seth: Definitely McGary's back injury, which terrifies me because those don't always go away. The rest of the team will be fine. Walton is looking exactly how we want him to look—a pass-first, relatively safe-with-the-ball proto-Burke. GRIII is still hella effective as a role player, though I'd like to have seen him do some of those ball-floor things. Stauskas and Levert have definitely progressed, Caris especially. And Irvin is pretty wow. I'm a bit surprised that Horford's been getting more play than Morgan, but not at all surprised that he's averaging 4 fouls to Morgan's 1. It could just be that they know what they have in Morgan and want to see what the 2014-15 center will look like.
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BiSB: I defer to the Mathlete, but by my calculations there are actually 74 Worst Parts Of It. For my money, the worst of the Worst Parts was that, like Brian noted, we kind of expected this.
In the past two months, the "Hoke's teams aren't good on the road" meme went from interesting, somewhat annoying factoid to a potentially crippling flaw in the Hoke regime. Up until this year, you could make excuses for most of the road flops; Trash Tornado, Notre Dame's Defense is Really Good, Goodnight Sweet Prince, etc. There are really no satisfactory mitigating explanations for UConn, Penn State, and MSU. If this was just a matter of players not executing on the road, it wouldn't be as large of a concern. Those kinds of problems tend to smooth out with experience; after all Michigan remains a young team (drink). Instead, we got to once again experience the dream in which Michigan was taking an exam for which it hadn't studied. This feels like a systemic problem somewhere in the coaching staff, and those don't tend to smooth out.
The other primary candidate for "worst of the worst parts" is the continuing failure to counterpunch. This was Ohio State '12 all over again; Michigan finds some success, the defense reacts, and Michigan stagnates. It's as if the offense plays a game of chess until it finds itself in an advantageous position, and then refuses to make any more moves because their previous strategy was working. The lack of counters, constraints, or even the slightest unpredictability is becoming maddening.
Is boss. [Bill Rapai] |
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Seth: Hard to find something to be mad at. Shooting percentage, I guess? They've now taken 240 shots and have 14 goals to show for it, but I guess this is just what they are now. Copp and Moffatt shots are the only ones around the 1-in-5 region you like to see—I can't imagine Moffatt's will stay there but neither do I think PDG is going to remain at 11%.
I'm not yet so sold on a lot of the young defensemen as Brian seems to be, but if you asked me three months ago if I'd take solid, non-scoring play from all the freshmen blueliners plus Mac Bennett playing Hobey hockey I'd leap out of my chair and hug you then jump up and down saying "Yes yes yes yes!" #justfriends. Their solid play plus the exact opposite of the backchecking from last year is winning Nagelvoort stars, and winning 1-goal games.
A brutal non-conference schedule that easily could have put Michigan into the Big Ten season under .500 stands at an astounding 6-1-1, with Nebraska-Omaha, Niagara, Ferris State, and the GLI left. The loss to UMass-Lowell won't even hurt them much in the pairwise given wins over BC, BU, and New Hampshire.
So not really complaining here that the forwards are a crew of fourth-line-plus guys who generate zero scoring chances but a ton of everything else. After last year I will ride that like a boss. Copp is boss!
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Brian: Oh man. There are many candidates. In no particular order:
I'm really sick of arguing about how much of the current problems are the previous coach's doing. Because this generally means that 1) it's quite a lot and 2) there is no quick fix. At least this time there's not a lot of pushback on the idea Rich Rodriguez really boned the program with his late recruiting.
Anticipating what will happen at the end of the year. It's going to be another game where Michigan fans bail en masse and those who don't end up within hailing distance of OSU fans yukking it up. Also Michigan is going to get their faces punched in like they're Purdue and struggle to get over 200 yards of offense. I thought we retired Lloyd Carr, you guys.
Again with the Notre Dame tease. Michigan beats Notre Dame, feels awesome about itself, displays worrying flaws for the next few games, and then pipers are paid, chickens flit home to roost, and Michigan ends up a crappy, crappy team. I thought we fired Rodriguez, you guys. The emotional state of the fanbase from post-ND ("Bring on OSU x2! Gardner for Heisman!") to now ("Fire everything twice") is a stomach-churning rollercoaster ride.
Not anticipating anything else. Is anyone actually looking forward to seeing this team play? This feels like watching the hockey team for most of last year: something you do out of momentum and loyalty without getting one single thing in return (unless you're playing Indiana). After the ND game this team has been torture to watch, mostly passive on D and discombobulated on O. There are jolly crappy teams (again, Indiana) and dour ones; Michigan is emphatically the latter.
Having the competence needle move in the wrong direction. The way Michigan has gone about trying to fix their offensive issues has just made them worse. They've made transparently nonsensical decisions that have blown up in their face, killing anything resembling chemistry on the OL, setting practice time on fire, and are once again stuck in a hodge-podge offense thanks to the fact that they cannot do what they want to do even a little tiny bit and have to resort to being a crappy spread team if they want to move the ball. Learning: we do not have it. I worried before the season that Michigan was on its way to being on the wrong side of history with respect to Ohio State; now I'm also worried that MSU has a sustainably better coaching situation than Michigan. /attacks wrist with highlighter
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Seth: It's losing a game to a rival and then watching my brain turn to basketball and hockey because everything about the football team was just exposed and there's no reason to think they'll improve because each game since the beginning of the year looks like a step backwards. I'm surrounded by Spartans, and right now I feel like the biggest one.
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Mathlete: Everyone knows this team had a major roster hole due to the coaching transition. This was supposed to be the last year it would be a major impact. The defense is what I expect from that. Doing most of it what it can with what it has. The defense isn't perfect but considering the roster I think most of our satisfied with their output relative to the pieces they are working with.
Sparty's execution, on the other hand, looked pretty on-target. [AP via Ledger-Enquirer] |
The worst part is the offense. Unlike the defense, the offense is maddening collection of frustrations. The OL is young. Whether they should be better or not is a matter of debate. They certainly could be better, but at the same time there is a significant amount of youth that is a very real factor. My expectation is as a football coach you have a philosophy, you assess your personnel and you adapt accordingly. You don't want a coach without a philosophy but you don't want one who will continue with it in the face of all reason.
Our offensive (mostly line) personnel issues aren't getting better this year. That isn't Coach Borges' fault. The worst part is continued pursuit of game plans that fail to acknowledge the limitations in front of him. Technically, yes, all of the problems have been execution issues. The same would be true if you trotted out an all-blogger offensive line. Our execution would be poor (but our executions would be swift). When you put players in a consistent position to fail, it becomes an issue of coaching execution rather than player execution.
The worst part is that at this point in time the offensive coaching executions seem a fundamental part of our nature and we are stuck in that worse spot as a fan, part of you hoping for failure to drive the change in coaching staff because you see no other practical solution to the problem.
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Ace: BiSB and Brian have covered pretty much all of it, so I'll add just a couple morsels to this already-depressing roundtable.
We're so sorry, man. [Upchurch] |
Hearing the same explanation for the same issues, and having the explanation not actually explain anything. I understand that this coaching staff isn't going to give much to the media by design, and that's not entirely a bad thing. When the same issues keep cropping up, however, and it seems like they're largely scheme-related, "well, we didn't execute" becomes a tired mantra. This isn't just about answering questions from reporters. It's about trying to relay to the fans why the program they're devoted to watching (and often throwing gobs of money at) is performing below the expectations that these very coaches set—this team isn't sniffing a Big Ten title. The coaches don't have to throw specific players or coaches under the bus; there's still a large chasm between doing that and saying "we didn't execute," which is both blatantly obvious and becoming a way to dodge accountability (and, from the way it comes off most of the time, pinning more responsibility on the players than the men coaching them).
Legitimately feeling awful for multiple players. I don't normally feel bad for scholarship athletes, even when their team is doing poorly. They have very bright futures, enjoy being the most popular people on campus, get plenty of top-notch academic support, and live out a dream that most of us are physically incapable of living (stupid genes).
After the MSU game, though, all I could really think about was how bad I felt for Devin Gardner, and how much his entire body must hurt, and how demoralizing it must be to trot out there series after series knowing that the reward for his bravery is going to be another helmet to the ribs—oh, and then some idiotic internet tough guys are going to question his ability to play quarterback afterward. And don't even get me started on Fitz Toussaint, who's got a daughter to support and such a rough background that he described an incident in which his father stabbed his mother's boyfriend at one of his high school scrimmages as "embarrassing." Two years ago, he seemed destined for the NFL draft; now it seems like he'll be lucky to get a cursory look as an undrafted free agent, and much of that turn was entirely out of his control.
Can the next TWO be about basketball, please?
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Seth: If the home game win streak ends, definitely.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:35 PM ^
I'm really sick of hearing how it's all RR's fault. If Brandon hadn't screwed up the team in a petty effort to inflict maximum pain on RR the team would have guys like Jake Fisher, (a hopefully healthy) Dee hart and Kris Frost on the team. Maybe even an Anthony Zettel, allowing Q Washington back on the OL where he belongs. Jack Miller would have been built up (thank you Mike Barwis) and coached up (thank you Greg Frey). By his third year, RR was starting 2 excellent OL he had recruited.
If Hoke and his staff did half the offensive player development RR and his guys did, if Hoke and his coaches didn't repeatedly develop pathetic game plans, Michigan would be a good team that was progressing.
People who called for RR's firing are getting what they asked for and, as H.L. Mencken said, "geting it good and hard."
November 6th, 2013 at 1:40 PM ^
I'm not sure how much I accept of the second part of all that, but I'm totally with you on the first sentence. Watch us go 7-5 in 2025 and still blame Rich Rod. It's like things will never stop being his fault and his fault alone, depending on what douchey poster you ask.
November 6th, 2013 at 4:02 PM ^
So an oft injured 3rd down back, a back-up linebacker, and another tackle on this team is what we're missing, because Brandon wanted to stick it to Rich rather than because Rich didn't win games.
BWAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
November 6th, 2013 at 6:19 PM ^
Rodriguez did win games. RR improved his won-lost record every year, despite never having the same QB start 2 years in a row and never being given the money for his DC.. The team had finally turned the corner when he was fired.
Hoke, in contrast, inherited a decent team and has done worse each year, (assuming this year plays out the way it looks like). The OL has regressed each year. The QB has regressed each year. The running game has regressed each year.
Rodriguez was fired after three years when he showed steady improvement. I hope your enjoying the fruits of Brandon's decision.
November 6th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 8:42 PM ^
An OL should be judged as a unit, because it is one. As a unit, Michigan's OL regressed from 2011 to 2012. It regressed further from last year to this year. It doesn't matter if we like it or not. It doesn't matter if we're disappointed. It's simple fact.
We can both come up with reasons why it has happened but it has happened, as you acknowledge later in your reply.
November 6th, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^
iirc, molk, shilling, lewan and omameh all had significant playing time under RR as redshirt frosh. and all were serviceable with some frosh mistakes (shilling i remember struggled a bit but got better). who under this regime has shown to be even close to competent? and we currently have more highly tauted OL recruits the past two years than RR had.
November 6th, 2013 at 9:33 PM ^
that was decided after summer camp. At least they would have gained experience and confidence. All this changing around the guards and center have really decreased the confidence of these young players.
I'm disappointed that the team has shown little or no improvement through the season. Most thought they would lose 4 games. I thought they would be at 6-2 at this point of the season, though I thought the first loss would be against ND not PSU.
I guess I'm concerned that this team will not finish at 8-4, about where they should finish. The OL is even more of a mess and the defense has not been playing too stellar. This could turn into a 6-6 season and will probably mean the end of the Hoke error, unless he has a miraculous comeback next season. My fear is another 8-4 season next year and may be 9-3 in 2015 with Morris as the starting QB. DB will probably give Hoke until 2015 to beat MSU and OSU and win the B1G. But at this point, I don't think it is possible.
November 6th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 9:03 PM ^
we now have OL who can't keep the other guys "busy" at all. i've never seen so many defenders (especially D-linemen) blow by our unit seemingly untouched. never ever here.
November 7th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
losing 52-14 was turning the corner as a program. We could go all over again on who inherited what again, but no one wants to read that. I'll add to the point on the previous post that if you think Gardner is just as bad as when he was a back-up here, you haven't been paying attention.
And yes, I'm fine with the "fruits" of 25-9 over 15-22 without a defense that was getting worse every year and showing no signs of getting better and recruiting worlds better than what it was which will make us better in all areas. I'd rather win sooner, and maybe I'd do some things differently, but no, I'm not stuck in an imaginary past like you.
November 7th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
If you think Denard didn't regress after Borges took over and if you don't think Devin Gardner has regressed since he became the starter last year, "you haven't been paying attention."
November 7th, 2013 at 3:27 PM ^
I just don't think he was a very good quarterback, just a great runner. If you wanted him to run a lot, great. If he actually needed to pass, we were in trouble.
And no, I don't think Gardner is worse than his limited action last year, where he's already thrown more passes this year for a higher completion percentage, greater yards per attempt, and more TDs. Yes he's throwing more INTs than before with a few really bad games in that category, but he's also had a third more sacks this year than he did all last.
And in any case he's loads better than he was in 2011, or any Spring Game anyone ever saw him in. So yes, that's improvement. People around here thought he was never even going to be a quarterback, no more a good one. Just because people said he was going to be Heisman #1 pick after ND doesn't mean he's regressed; it only means they were stupid.
November 6th, 2013 at 7:39 PM ^
Why the hell do people feel the need to put a "b" before "aha"? Or, in your case, an entire BWAH-?
November 6th, 2013 at 1:37 PM ^
Agree with Ace, anyone questioning Devin's toughness gets a free week as the scout team QB imitating Braxton Miller. We'll then do a toughness check on that individual. I'd anticipate a lot of NO MAS.
Even the MSU types are giving Devin props for scraping himself off the ground and going back to the huddle. He's a tough kid, rest assured.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:39 PM ^
Back in the days of lore when Bo roamed the land, Michigan took veteran teams on the road, had an air of confidence about them that they will prevail because they usually did, and had the home team concerned that they were playing MICHIGAN, not a cupcake.
We have lost all of those things over the past 10 years or so. They need playing experience to develop a veteran road team and they need to experience success on the road, instead of near total failure (UConn). The old "learning how to win" meme. A road win at MSU would have been very uplifting for the team. They get to try again next year.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:53 PM ^
Without Lewan and Schofield and Gardner who will definitely not return to play behind a line without them? Give me MSU - 14 next year. If we win next year at MSU I will consider that the greatest one year turn around in the history of sports. That is how far this program has sunk.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
I'll take that bet, name your terms.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:26 PM ^
Where exactly do you think Gardner is going to go?
November 6th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 9:06 PM ^
he has graduated. he could do that one-year transfer thing. i wouldn't blame him.
November 7th, 2013 at 1:00 AM ^
working on his masters. It's quite possible that will take another year...through next season anyway.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^
When you put players in a consistent position to fail, it becomes an issue of coaching execution rather than player execution.
The worst part is that everybody knows this, nothing will change, there is nothing we can do about it. The louder we scream, the more I see Brady and Co. covering their ears saying "La, la, la, la, la, la". We have to stay the course with Brady, he is recruiting well (as long as these disasterous outings don't turn players away), and his own players are RS Freshman and true freshman. I am disappointed with the season more than anything else because I set my expectations too high and totally underestimated what three interior lineman with no snaps would do to our team. Yowza. Go Blue!
November 6th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^
Everyone knows this...is false. (See how easy it is to speak for other people?)
The Mgobots are tendentious -- find cliche, repeat.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^
Amazing how people view a 6-2 record as a "tire fire." What would folks be saying if Michigan were 4-4 or 3-5? The coaches drive their cars over babies? This won't matter, but it's tiresome and almost vacuous at this point to repeat "coaches put their players in a position to fail!!!" If the blocking is historically awful, if Fitz runs with as much aggression as a kitten, if Gardner at times turns the ball over more than the average QB, what could the coaches do to "put the players in a position to succeed"?
Simplify? You mean, like, run the ball? Throw the ball deep? Change personnel? Throw short passes (many of which were the source of DG turn-overs)? "...put in a position to fail" is a tired, mindless meme -- as though the (statistically!!!) perfect gameplan is error-proof.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:44 PM ^
A few things that jumped out at me.
- I only watch Michigan because...it's Michigan. Truthfully, I hate watching this team play. I've never said that before. Yet, I'll still watch...because it's Michigan. And I like "Big Ten Football" so it's not like I need to be watching Oregon or Baylor. I look at last year's basketball team...I don't care what jersey they had on, that was fucking fun to watch, it just made it better that it was the team that I love.
- We don't know what the problem is --- that's disturbing. Two years ago, we all knew...we've got a option QB in a MANBALL offense, let's figure something out. Last year...we all knew, we've got a hurt QB and a former WR, let's figure something out. This year, there are no answers, just a bunch of questions.
- How I see impact freshman and sophomores all across the country, but we can't seem to find any that can at least be "okay." I'm not asking for impact players, but just contibute at a steady level. Eventually "experience" gets old.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:24 PM ^
Yost, how can you possible say "we don't know what the problem is"?
Here is the problem in clearest terms possible:
30% Youth/talent
60% Al Borges/Darryl Funk
10% Brady Hoke
Come next year when we see the same tire fire in East Lansing sans Lewan/Schofield/Gardner, it will be:
10% Youth Talent
50% Borges/Funk
40% Brady Hoke for not having fired the other two yet.
The year after that the problem will be:
40% Hoke
60% Brandon for not having fired Hoke yet.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
In their first year, Hoke/Borges/Funk went 11-2. I'm guessing that many people would argue that they did that well because of talent. Yes?
Does that mean they could have only had 1 or 0 losses if they had better coaches?
November 6th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
I think you'll find that many people recognize that bad coaching was largely responsible for losing to Iowa and MSU that year.
November 6th, 2013 at 5:39 PM ^
Was that really an undefeated-esque roster?
If so, our coaches are not so good because they lost two games the shouldn't have lost.
If not, then our coaches won some games that based upon talent they shouldn't have won.
November 6th, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^
We were only ranked below one team we played all year. That was a home game against Nebraska. Against Iowa the game plan was to play Denard under center. Against MSU Borges tried to prove he could win by throwing the ball in a storm. Coaching cost us those games. I'll go with "our coaches are not so good." Take a look at the schedule and tell me which game you think we would have lost except for our coaching.
Opponent | Rank | Date | Site | Result | Attend. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Western Michigan | -/- | 9/3 | H | W | 35-10 | 110,506 |
Notre Dame | -/- | 9/10 | H | W | 35-31 | 114,804 |
Eastern Michigan | -/- | 9/17 | H | W | 31-3 | 110,343 |
San Diego State | -/- | 9/24 | H | W | 28-7 | 110,707 |
Minnesota | 19/- | 10/1 | H | W | 58-0 | 111,106 |
Northwestern | 12/- | 10/8 | A | W | 42-24 | 47,330 |
Michign State | 11/23 | 10/15 | A | L | 14-28 | 77,515 |
Purdue (HC) | 17/- | 10/29 | H | W | 36-14 | 112,115 |
Iowa | 13/- | 11/5 | A | L | 13-24 | 70,585 |
Illinois | 22/- | 11/12 | A | W | 31-14 | 60,670 |
Nebrska | 20/17 | 11/19 | H | W | 45-17 | 113,718 |
Ohio | 17/- | 11/26 | H | W | 40-34 | 114,132 |
Virginia Tech | 13/17 | 01/03 | 1 | W | 23-20 (OT) | 64,512 |
Total | 433-226 | 1,218,043 |
November 6th, 2013 at 3:40 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 1:57 PM ^
Unless somebody has concrete evidence to the contrary, I see no reason from what I've seen to exempt the S&C staff from scrutiny along with the rest of the staff. Neither DL or OL have managed to get any kind of consistent push all season long, and frequently have been shoved backwards. They may be big, but they don't play strong.
November 6th, 2013 at 5:45 PM ^
November 6th, 2013 at 1:46 PM ^
I don't understand why this season has numbed me. Every game feels more like a task that I must do. I emoted nothing positive nor negative while watching the MSU game.
We're objectively a better team than even RR's 2010 team, yet I've never felt this feeling of pervasive apathy and aloofness.
November 6th, 2013 at 1:53 PM ^
How ironic that you posted this. I feel exactly the same way and the first time in over 25 years I am VERY seriously thinking of giving up my four season tickets next year. I am discouraged and deflated in a way I've never felt before - even during the dark years of 2008-2010 and I think it's because I do not have faith this staff either sees the problem or has the faintest idea on how to fix it if the do.
Not that it matters but I just sent a letter to Dave Brandon telling him he will probably have my four season tickets back next year and I told him why. It's just no fun anymore watching this team regress and regress badly.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:08 PM ^
Brady Hoke can't be anything other than who he is—it's one of his strengths as a recruiter that he doesn't try to be—but on a pure personal level I don't think he has the force of personality that would be more reassuring to some people in this situation. This doesn't mean at all that these problems aren't just transitory; after all, Tom Osborne had the personal magnetism and fire of a cold bowl of oatmeal and he maintained a powerful program for many years. Bill Snyder has the appearance and demeanor of an accountant, but he's built KSU up from tire-fire conditions twice now. Don James at Washington seemed to have the mildest of personalities, and he won a NC partially at our expense.
Don't give up the ship yet.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^
...Bill Walsh was reputed to be quite low-key, and look what he achieved with the 49ers.
November 7th, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^
If you think Michingan's staff is anywhere close in regards to intelligence, aptitude, or capability as Walsh and his staff were, you are still high on a Halloween candy binge. I am a Cowboys and Begals fan so I have had to watch my share of 49ers games from the 80's and 90's. I can assure you, not once, ever, did San Fran play a single game like Michigan has played against Akron, UConn, PSU, Indiana, or MSU. Walsh and his disciples held that level of excellence over a span of two decades. Michigan has had five poor games in one season.
November 7th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^
But Walsh was 2-14 and 6-10 his first two years, with the greatest QB of all time. In 1985 he lost 6 games, including the 7-9 Detroit Lions and the 5-11 New Orleans Saints. He lost 5 or 6 games 5 times AFTER those 1st 2 years. Don't tell me his teams never played any bad games. With some of the greatest talent of all time.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:38 PM ^
It's not the demenour Don, it's the seemingly obliviousness to the fact there's a problem and the almost defiant tone they take to anyone suggesting there is one. Watching a game this year to me is like debating math with my four year niece.
Niece: 2 + 2 = 7
Me: No it doesnt...it equals 4
Niece: No it doesn't...it equals SEVEN!!!!
Me: No sweetie..it really does equal 4....Let me show you....
Niece: Stomping feet, crying, SEVEN, SEVEN, SEVEN, SEVEN!!!!!!!!
I'm tired of driving three hours one way to argue with her. And I'm really tired of paying over $3000/year for the priviledge of the arguement.
November 6th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^
Maybe consider switching the symbolism of the roles in that dramatization? One character has experience and understands math. The other character is just scratching the surface in terms of understanding math.
Which role is the casual fan? Which role is the coach who has been coaching for years?
Eventually the four-year-old will come to understand that there was wisdom in the adult's calm insistence.
Also, the stomping feet, crying, and yelling sounds more like the casual fan, and the calm demeanor of the adult sounds more like our coaches.
November 6th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^
Oh snap! Someone got told!
November 6th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^
I don't mean it to be an attack. I just wanted to point out an alternative reading.
November 6th, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^
Haha, I didn't think you were attacking him. Things have gotten so stuffy and heated around here, I'm just trying to have some fun on the boards again.
November 6th, 2013 at 3:16 PM ^
Perhaps. But one party is making over 1MM/year to produce results and the other has to pay over 3k/year for the honor of watching it.
I have one vote that matters (my finanical contribution) and I do believe it's time to use it.
EDIT: It would be fasinating to me to see if there's any correlation between season ticket support and dissatisfaction with the team. I'm sure part of my angst is driven by how much I am spending and how little return I am getting on that investment (joy-wise). I am sure that if i dump the seats and enjoy the games on my TV at home next year I will be far less emotional given I have personally invested nothing in the outcome but my time.
November 6th, 2013 at 3:44 PM ^
I worry this feels like I'm attacking you; I really don't mean to. You have every right to feel how you do. And I think you have a great point about paying customers.
However there is one flaw in your reasoning: Hoke has yet to lose a game at home. He is 19-0. In that sense, he is earning his pay. All those ticket holders are getting victories.
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