DetNews/Angelique article
http://detnews.com/article/20090831/SPORTS0201/908310351/U-M-begins-its…
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Sean Griffin was not someone Rosenberg chose to interview.
August 31st, 2009 at 3:58 AM ^
This is a much more even-handed article than the one in FP.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:43 AM ^
Thanks for the link Brian...I am going to post quotes from it because this is the shit that needs to get out:
""One current Wolverine said Sunday night that he has never had an issue with Rodriguez or his staff.
"I'm getting a vibe that we were mistreated, that coach Rod and his staff mistreated us," the player said. "Nah, nothing like that. I don't feel we were mistreated."
Sean Griffin, long snapper for Michigan last season, said he assumes most of the allegations are from "disgruntled ex-players or guys who transferred."
He said he frequently worked with the special teams during the offseason and that an allegation in the report that Rodriguez's staff broke rules by monitoring offseason scrimmages was not true, as far as he could tell.
"When I was helping with the specialists, there was never a coach, a graduate assistant, or a quality control coach there," he said. "I wasn't sitting there writing everything down and reporting to a coach. I worked out with a few of the new guys.
"I would just do that because people helped me out when I was younger."
August 31st, 2009 at 8:50 AM ^
Wait, he was interviewed Sunday night? Why wasn't he practicing?
August 31st, 2009 at 6:40 AM ^
No offense to Griffin, but he might not be the best one to ask. As a guy who only played long snapper, he probably wasn't present at 7-on-7s and I'm guessing no coaches would show up to watch him participate in a voluntary long snapping practice.
He'd still have to be present at all team functions, but the real meat of this story is the 7-on-7 thing, of which he probably didn't take part.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:26 AM ^
well it's better than him not saying anything.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:52 AM ^
I agree, but he's probably not going to be the smoking gun for anyone's argument.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:18 AM ^
At least he came out and put his name on it instead of being one of the anonymous sources.
He does bring up a good point about disgruntled ex-players and transfer saying this sort of stuff. That freep article would carry a heck of a lot less weight if it was guys cited like Boren, Mallet, Wemers, Clemons and O'Neil instead of anonymous player.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:53 AM ^
Magnus, I don't get the same sense from reading the article. Where do they even mention 7-on-7's?
To me, this sentence is the meat of the story and the only part that really is news:
(Griffin) said he frequently worked with the special teams during the offseason and that an allegation in the report that Rodriguez's staff broke rules by monitoring offseason scrimmages was not true, as far as he could tell.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:33 AM ^
The 7-on-7s were mentioned in the Rosenberg article, not necessarily this one.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^
Stokes' father is posting at Rivals, saying Je'Ron told him the 7 on 7s were 100% voluntary activities that he and other teammates wanted to do.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:40 AM ^
Good.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:38 AM ^
this is a guy you take a quote from and believe at face value?
"As much as I want to say (Rodriguez) is the only one (to surpass the 20-hour rule) and to say he's the worst, I can't," said one former player, who asked to remain anonymous. "I'm sure that happens at every school. It is what it is."
It's obvious that someone who wants to say RR is the worst has an ulterior motive.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:02 AM ^
What I'd like to know is why anyone, even disgruntled ex-players on the team, would "want to say" that Rodriguez is the 'worst'? Why does he generate such animosity, if only with some players? I can't recall hearing players be so antagonistic toward a Head Coach before. Is it simply that they had to work harder and didn't get the chance to play? That would be a simple explanation, but would that be true?
I support Rodriguez in this, and unless more comes out this is much ado about not much, but it is remarkable to me that he generates sentiments like this, and I'd be curious as to why.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:19 AM ^
I really do believe that a lot of the players see Rodriguez as a football coach, plain and simple. They see him as the CEO of a company, who's a little more distant than the old coaching staff. This is not to say that Rodriguez doesn't foster a family-type atmosphere or a negative atmosphere. But the general vibe that I get from watching Rodriguez and reading about his players, I think he cares about FOOTBALL. And there's nothing wrong with that when you're a football coach. But when you don't have the warmest relationship with your head coach, it becomes a business deal for both parties.
When you quit a job because your boss was a jerk or it was boring or you weren't getting paid enough, do you think twice about saying "That place sucked"? Probably not. I hear friends complain about their jobs all the time.
But if you have a strong personal relationship with someone and move on due to geographical or emotional reasons, do you just decide to trash that person? I doubt it.
Anyway, this could be a whole Carr vs. Rodriguez thing. I don't know who that anonymous player was, but if these are kids that are already gone, they were likely here during Carr's tenure, too (I doubt Taylor Hill or Marcus Witherspoon was used as a source). People like Babb, Butler, Horn, Clemons, Chambers, Wermers, etc. experienced Carr for a year or more and then worked with Rodriguez. It could just be a difference in philosophy of the coaches.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:23 AM ^
I figure that with the new regime, there was a lot more tangilbe pressure to attend the voluntary stuff. That combined with the increase in voluntary stuff like more 7/7 scrimmages, it probably did rub a lot of holdovers wrong. Considering the attrition, we all have been inferring that all along.
I come back to something Shawn Crable said in the summer of 2007. He said they all considered Lloyd a grandfatherly figure. Ok.
Then 2008 rolls around, a new sherrif is in tough with tougher regimens and a flat bulldog like Barwis in your face. It was a culture shock and people left.
The kids, even if their PT was impacted by skipping voluntaries, felt the voluntary spirit was at least alive under Carr. But, with likely more pressure being put on them, they have invented in their minds that the voluntary spirit had been crushed.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:09 AM ^
"Then 2008 rolls around, a new sheriff is in tough with tougher regimens and a flat bulldog like Barwis in your face. It was a culture shock and people left."
And there you have the Vag Boren's comment about the "erosion of family values" IMHE.
I'd like to know the spark for this story. Could a sympathizer to the Boren's have banged on the Freep's doorstep over and over until a response was generated?
August 31st, 2009 at 8:23 AM ^
Well, it's pretty well-known that Rodriguez's style is, ummm... bombastic. All football coaches yell and cuss, but RR takes it to an extreme. Worse, Lloyd was at the other far end of the scale, so the contrast is pronounced. I think we've seen RR do a lot of really great things for his players that don't even fall under the category of football development - Elliott Mealer would vouch - but some guys just can't separate the screaming from everything else. Some guys don't respond to that coaching style and take it personal. I would hesitate to call them crybabies, unless they do other crybaby things like weasel on about family values on the way out the door.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:53 AM ^
She's not the most talented writer, and she doesn't really bring any new insight to football, but guess what--she's fair, she presents both sides, she doesn't have any axes to grind, and she has a sense for herself and her role in the process--she's modest.
These days in sports "journalism" those are rare qualities.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:58 AM ^
She does tend to write simply and plainly. I usually like her stuff, but not so much as to remember the next time. That's the way reporting should be. When you start to know the names of your reporters, they're doing something wrong.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:39 AM ^
Angelique has always been the best writer on the Michigan beat from any of the Southeastern Michigan papers. Her style is dull and she ain't winning any journalism prizes anytime soon, but she has gotten to the point where I'm willing to take her word as gospel, it's as good as an official press release.
The News has a much better sports section since the canning of Rob Parker. He was their last ass-for-the-sake-of columnist and since he's been canned the paper has been so much better... Wojo is the indisputable prince of Detroit sports columnists. Where the Freep's editorial policy is "piss off everyone because woody page is on tv every day with a denver post logo behind him" the News can't afford to piss anyone off.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:39 AM ^
Thanks for the link Brian.