Lloyd Carr Talks to WTKA
Didn't see any notion or discussion of this on the board, but Lloyd was on this afternoon, talking of course about the Hall of Fame induction and the Mott fundraising, but touched on a variety of topics, including things like "why wasn't our offense like the Capital One Bowl all season long?" and the whole 2007 season. Podcast is up on WTKA's site-
http://www.wtka.com/pages/9395307.php
I'm thinking it's the one labeled "Lloyd Carr" on the list. They really don't have things in perfect order or separated by show right now. But at least they have them. Worth a listen if you have a half hour to kill (also surrounding podcasts with talk pre and post about him).
Did Coach Carr point out what a stupid question that is (the one about the 2007 offense)? That team never scored fewer than 28 points when Henne and Hart were remotely healthy and played the whole game. Shocking that not having your senior QB (leading passer in school history) and your senior RB (leading rusher in school history) at 100% might have an impact on the team's performance.
There was still no good excuse to finish 10th in the conference in total offense. Come on.
Actually, that is a pretty good excuse. We have seen first hand the effect of having a freshman QB, even if that QB is talented. As goes the QB goes the team. When Henne went down, we were forced to play a much hyped, but completely inexperienced and unprepared freshman QB. Add to that the fact that our run game was based around Hart and his incredible ability to grind 3 yards out of nothing, running 25+ times per game. When he went down, there was no real quality backup. So, with these two guys out, we couldn;t run and couldn't throw. Can you explain how we were supposed to score points without these pretty important aspects of offense?
I recorded the radio broadcast of the Florida bowl game, have listened to it a few times, (yes I am a hopeless M football fan) and they claimed that Henne was about 90% (IIRC) for the Florida game. Still wasn't 100%, that I do recall with certainty. After injuring his shoulder he barely practiced at all, that's how bad it was.
Having said that, after Hart and Henne went down the offense pretty much ground to a halt.
I remember reading that in the MSU game Henne had to pop his shoulder back into joint between plays. So I think you're right - dude was pretty injured (and ridiculously badass.)
"why wasn't our offense like the Capital One Bowl all season long?"
Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but the most commonly given answer is injuries. However, that doesn't explain Appalachian State. They were totally healthy for that game and the offense really stalled in the second half despite going against a linebacker-sized defensive line.
Everyone talks about our defensive meltdown in that game. To me, the offensive performance was far worse given the talent we had and who they were going against. All of App State's talent was on offense, as was ours (half of our starters got drafted the next spring). It's the closest thing you'll ever see to an NFL team struggling against a high school squad. Truly mind-boggling to this day.
Update: Listening now. I wish you had warned us that Jeff Fucking DeFran was doing the segment. Ugh.
Mike Hart ran for over 8 yards per carry. Hardly "struggling". What more did you expect? The game was lost because the defense didn't show up at all in the first half, not because of any problems on offense.
Watch the game. Look at the talent differential on the field. It wasn't asking the offense too much to put it in the end zone every drive. Relative to what they should have done, yes, they struggled. Henne's interception was horrific.
Henne certainly had an off game, but was that really on the staff? Going 19-37 passing was not like him. If he'd just had his usual performance, with 60-65% accuracy, we'd have almost certainly won. Granted, it would have been an ugly UMass-like win, but a win nonetheless.
IMO, the far greater issues that day were on defense and special teams.
The App state players said that they knew exactly what Michigan was going to do on offense and defense, that the UM players weren't intense at all, and were out of shape.
And it looked like they were right. The App state game and the following Oregon game started the chorus of "Michigan can't stop the spread offense" that lasted until Rich Rod was hired. (then it became Michigan can't stop any offense /rimshot/ )
Point being I think that game was largely on the coaching staff.
The App State guys talked junk after the game, but we scored 32 points and gained 479 yards, and that was with an uncharacteristically bad performance from Henne. Their D didn't really stop us. If Henne had been on-target, it would have been a UMass-type ugly victory, with lots of offense and very little D.
The playcalling was awful, dude. They threw almost no deeps routes even though Henne obviously didn't have it all day on outs, flats and and hitch patterns.
The hallmark of the second DeBord era was making actual game plans in big games and kicking up his feet and taking the day off against lesser opponents while calling zone stretch left, zone stretch right and short-to-intermediate passing routes. This game defined the problem with that thinking more than any other.
My recollection of DeBord was more that it was basically the same gameplan every week, with the wrinkles coming out only when we fell behind.
That said, I don't think offense really was the problem that day, other than that Henne was off.
Put in in the endzone on every drive against other teams. Considering out healthy, all everything offense couldn't do that against a U-Mass team ranked 50 places worse than App State, I'm not sure you have realistic expectations. Shocking, I know.
BRCE is still wielding a huge, bitchy axe against the entire Carr era. Don't expect rational thought.
Going out every other series after he was injured.
I'll admit that my memory of the game is spotty, because I was (thankfully) nearly blacked out while standing in the stadium, but wasn't Hart out for like 3/4 of the App. St. game?
IIRC, he played the first and fourth quarters. He was held out of the other two with some kind of leg injury. Given how well he played in the fourth quarter, holding him out looks like a mistake.
One really sucky thing about that game was that Hart had an amazing TD run in the fourth quarter, of about 50 yards, that's been forgotten because we lost.
IIRC he was held out of the game due to the same injury that dogged him the whole year, a high ankle sprain.
He only missed a few series. When he came back in, he looked 100 percent. Had 23 carries on the day.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=272440130
Looking at the box score, it brings back memories of how out of sync Henne was that day. Before that bomb to Mario that set up the infamous field goal attempt, he had completed just 50 percent of his passes for under 200 yards. Still have no idea how that happened.
The box score also teaches a lesson that two-point conversions should not be attempted until maybe the final eight minutes of the game. Michigan had two failed two-point attempts in the second half. We lost by two...
But would it matter for you? You didn't like Rich (so you were on the same page there), don't like Carr...who would mimic your views?
fwiw, his answer was that henne was too banged up and they needed to keep extra guys in to protect him because he couldnt get hit or he was done.
he said the cap one bowl offense was based around no-back 5 man protections that would have been suicide earlier in the season with a lame qb
Lloyd sure has opened up since RR was fired.
I am sure Lloyds talking to the press recently has nothing to do with promoting whats going on with Mott and everything to do with his secret plan to undermine Rich Rod succeeding.
/s
"Where was that when we played USC in the Rose Bowl?"
Having flashbacks of navarre hitting braylon in the back of the foot, causing an interception...AHHHHHHHHHHH
why the Appalachain State game ever take place. Appalachain St. had just won back-to-back championships... I realize the game was probably scheuled before they won the 2nd one but nevertheless... why put your historic football program under the gun like that?
Lloyd Carr does not deserve to be grilled over stuff like this. Why does Bill Martin get a free pass?
Is there a translator in the house?
We should have been doing that for years. If we had, it's possible that the mess from the last few years would have been avoided. I know injuries played a role, but it goes beyond that, into the arrogant mindset that we could just line 'em up and dominate.