Question for those who want RR gone

Submitted by tbliggins on

What kind of coach do you think would want to come to AA after RR was canned after only getting 2 years? Keeping in mind that he wasn't even judged by having his own players, but years w/ an extremely depleted offense and another w/ a depleted defense. Also remember that last time we had a coaching search there really wasn't any A-list candidates on the radar until WV lost to Pitt.

Now I am as frustrated as everyone else about how the season has gone and don't think that RR has performed particularly well. It is even more frustrating considering RR's reputation to do more w/ less talent. That said, he deserves to be judged on what he builds not what he inherited. Also a change now just sets back whoever the B- or C-list coach that we could get that much further.

bronxblue

November 8th, 2009 at 10:52 AM ^

Ah yes, because GERG and RR failed to coach kids in tackling or being slower than the WRs running past them. You clearly like Kirby Smart because you read a sports blog that mentioned he was a good coaching candidate. Of course, he's only been a DC for a year and hasn't been a head coach at any level. And he has benefited from years of Saban and Co. recruiting top-notch kids and having solid returns (see the decimation article). You kill RR and GERG because they apparently cannot recruit good kids or maximize the players available, but you are blindly stating that an assistant coach who inherited a stacked defense will undoubtedly turn around a bad defense with maybe 2 or 3 legit NFL players on it? Go home or troll somewhere else.

TIMMMAAY

November 8th, 2009 at 1:11 PM ^

So, if we had ourselves a real defensive minded coach, all of our problems would just magically disperse into the ether? Ok,-and I'm just going down your path of skewed logic here- what about the offense? You have to score points too, you know.

goddamnit- I really do feel stupider after writing this, not sure why I even humored your post...

imablue

November 7th, 2009 at 9:57 PM ^

Fire RR? Not this year. This offense, when executing, can
score points. Unfortunately this D, when executing, can't
stop the other team from scoring points. It will get better.

wolverine061592

November 7th, 2009 at 10:05 PM ^

I hope it does get better. I am not hoping for Rodriguez to fail at Michigan. I want Michigan to win games they should and in the games they lose they should deserve to lose while not beating themselves. Rodriguez has proven he can win at West Virginia, but in year two he has always shown great improvement with his teams. Michigan is improved on offense for sure, but defense has been awful and is getting worse. I hope Michigan wins out and wins a bowl game, but if they don't I just don't want to hear the same excuses that I had been preaching when I believed in Rich.

wolverine061592

November 7th, 2009 at 10:14 PM ^

I know people hate it when someone says anything they don't like about their beloved team. I did not come on here to make people mad I just want to figure out what fans like me are thinking about the team this year and what they think should be done if anything, because in my opinion what is being done isn't working and Michigan needs to look in another direction. But when I make a post I don't want people to call me an idiot just because I am saying bad things. I want people to explain to me why I am wrong and why I should look forward to watching games.

BlueCheez

November 7th, 2009 at 10:23 PM ^

I wonder if jon gruden would be interested in the Michigan job.I thought at one time he seemed a possibility. I'm not for firing richrod but just curious if there would be any interest from gruden.

BlueCheez

November 7th, 2009 at 10:24 PM ^

I wonder if jon gruden would be interested in the Michigan job.I thought at one time he seemed a possibility. I'm not for firing richrod but just curious if there would be any interest from gruden.

MichiganFootball

November 8th, 2009 at 3:41 AM ^

Look at the other top coaches throughout the country, it's the second year when you figure out whether they are going to be successful or not. If a coach does not get it done by the second year, then they generally don't get the job done. Meyer, Tressel, and Stoops won national championships the second year. And Pete Carroll and Nick Saban were 11-2. And at least for Carroll and Stoops you had teams that had been pretty poor the previous five years. And none of those guys were walking into situations that were any worse than Michigan Even this year look at Duke, they have not gone to a bowl game since like 94 and they have 5 wins this year and a decent chance of going to a bowl game.

Or Cal who won 4 games in the previous 3 years to Tedford and 8 in his second year. Even Michigan St won 5, 5, and 4 games in the year previous to Dantonio and 9 in year 2 (though they were very lucky during this year and probably didn't deserve 9 wins). Only coaches who really got it done after year 2 were Ferentz and Iowa, Pinkel at Missouri, Mangino at Kansas, and Schiano at Rutgers. And none of these situations were at all comparable to Michigan coming off a 9-4 and 11-2 season. And for those that argue about teams that are changing systems dramatically, there was not big fall off when Mike Leach took over Texas Tech and even improvement when Paul Johnson took over Georgia Tech.

As for worrying about the next guy to come, do you really want a guy who is too scared to come to Michigan because he is too afraid that he might be fired. Would a guy with that level of confidence really be the right guy for U of M.

M-Go-Bleu

November 8th, 2009 at 10:22 AM ^

He has connections to the State of Michigan and he is famous for winning right away with sub par athletes. Look at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, and now Cincinnati.

M-Go-Bleu

November 8th, 2009 at 11:37 AM ^

I just posted the article from the detroit news:

U-M's lack of success under Rich Rodriguez is mystifying

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091107/OPINION03/911070389/U-M-s-lack-…

The post was removed after a number of people statrted negging it. It seems strange to me that anyone who is not happy with how things have developed under RR are immediately attacked by RR Fanboys.

I don't advocate getting rid of him at this point, though next year is really my personal limit. Just like in politics having fanatic fanboys who defend you and blaming the previous coaching administration will only get you so far, and next year is as far as I think it will get him. I hope we can somehow turn things around, I just don't yet see how there is hope for our defense and it is difficult to win games when your defense can give up 30 plus to any team on any given Saturday. That's more pressure than the offense should have.

bronxblue

November 8th, 2009 at 7:31 PM ^

I read that article, and it sounded like most articles by the local media - they smell blood in the water and know that it is easier to just blame the current guy and dress up the past as compared to actually, you know, looking into why the team is struggling. Henning points out that Carr was 9-4 his final year and 11-2 the year before, but fails to note that the 9-4 year included the Horror, the subsequent obliteration by Oregon, and continued domination by OSU. 2006 was a great year, but even then the team struggled to beat the elite teams on their schedule (USC and OSU). The year before, 7-5, with another loss to OSU. This followed a 9-3 campaign which saw UM again lose to OSU and Texas as well as ND.

Listen, I liked Lloyd Carr, but those last few years his teams were a shadow of the teams in the late 90's/early 00's. They were teams that could get by the mediocre teams in the Big 10, but who struggled against good-to-great teams like OSU and most other big players nationally. As jamiemac noted in another post, Carr was really good at keeping the team from falling apart, but it also seems that he didn't have the ability to keep them up with the elite teams in the nation.

That's why I take issue with Henning's assertion that the recent UM teams were elite nationally - those '03-'07 teams were consistently beaten by the top teams from the Big 12, the Pac-10, and OSU. 2008 and 2009 under Carr might not have been this bad, but they would have still be mediocre. But instead of fielding a young team with room to grow, it would be a mediocre team continuing to lose ground in the Big 10 and nationally.

umchicago

November 8th, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^

i'm as disappointed as anyone, but many of you need to chill-out and get some perspective.

granted, we have a couple of tough games left and we have played a few cupcakes. that said, we are averaging 32 pts a game and giving up 26 pts per game. last year it was 20 and 29, respectively. to me that's huge improvement.

bear in mind, the last time UM averaged 30 pts per game was back in 2000 with henson, a-train, et al. does anyone in their right mind think our current team has the talent of 2000? yet, our pts per game is comparable and better than the henne, hart and company.

now, i know our D sucks, but try to convince me that RR doesn't know what he's doing and should be fired.

MichiganFootball

November 8th, 2009 at 1:56 PM ^

John L Smith teams also scored quite a bit but I don't think that any would argue that he was a good football coach. Note that I am not comparing Rich Rodriguez to John L Smith in any form because John L is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen, instead I wanted to point out that just because one has an offense that can score points doesn't mean that they can be effective as a football coach.

bhallpm

November 9th, 2009 at 1:26 AM ^

What kind of coach could Michigan get?
Michigan?

You mean the winningest program in NCAA history. The Big House. A multi-million dollar paycheck. On television every week. 2 of the top 10 and 3 of the top 15 rivalries in all of college football? Some of the finest facilities in all the land?

When/if Rich is canned, Michigan can get a fantastic coach. This silliness about not wanting to get rid of RR because we might do worse -- than 3 big ten wins in 2 years -- is just on its face dumb.

tbliggins

November 9th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^

Well, the last coaching search, coming off 11 and 9 win seasons didn't really attract any big names until WV lost to Pitt. We were turned down by Miles and Schiano. What makes you think we could get a fantastic coach coming off 3 and 5 win seasons? I don't know if you were paying attention in 2007, but this premium you give to the Michigan brand name isn't worth as much as you think it is.