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71 scholarship players
The fact that Michigan only has 71 scholarship players on its roster is a big part of the reason for its problems on the field. The fact that Michigan is playing 3 walkons and a true freshman on defense is making it very difficult to succeed. This team badly needs one more win and the 15 bowl practices that go along with that accomplishment. Let Rodriguez get 85 scholarship players on his roster and then judge him.
Wolverine demise
Rodriguez should be fired if he doesnt can whoever is running that sorry defense. Someone is sleeping at the wheel. RichRod 's good ole boy act is wore out. Adios amigo!
short memories
Your article is accurate in that UM was a successful program for decades. But you fail to address the fact that people wanted Lloyd out of town as well! Being a winning program was NOT ENOUGH. For years the complaint was our inability to win big games or not to be competing for a National Championship every year (we were more a "lets compete for the big ten title" type of a team). The last two years with Rich Rod have been mostly painful, but IF we want to be a USC-caliber team (i.e. in the mix for a national title every year for nearly a decade), then perhaps a change was necessary and business as usual (winning records, big ten top 3 finishes, 2nd tier bowls, etc) would no longer be sufficient.
Sent an email, but I'll put it here anyway
Carr left the cupboard bare according to RR suporters last season.
Lets look at this.
2008 Michigan's defense was top three in the B10 preseason rankings(D-line, nations best). Mallet recieved expierence in his freshman year and was primed to take over for Henne. You would have retained Manningham, Arrington, Carson Butler(None of which were ready for the NFL) as well as 2 starters on the O line had Carr remained coach. Instead of adapting to talent available, RR chose to overhaul immediately destroying a vast number of relationships on and around the team. RR, please refrain from using the cupboards bare excuse. 3-9 and 5-7 seasons fall at your administrations feet. Take ownership of this and learn to adapt to the B10. There is no grace period at Michigan. You have damaged the program badly.
the truth about the cupboard
This article is a disgrace. The cupboard was bare. Please go to mgoblog.com, and read two diaries regarding the defense and recruiting, http://mgoblog.com/diaries/decimated-defense
and
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/decimated-defense-part-ii-statisticating
it proves it.
time to make a call
to Cincy & have Kelly make that trip up 75/23 & quit jacking around. M Go Blue
The "Process"
Show me one RR coached team that was known for its defense. There isn't one. That was the one thing his system has always lacked. He is known for focusing on the spread offense. Frankly, I see nothing wrong with the offense Michigan used to run. Virtually every QB that started for UM over the past 20 years has played in the NFL. Michigan WR's and OL can be found all over the NFL as well. The knock on their offense was that it couldn't beat a good defense. UM's defense was always good enough in the Big 10, but too slow against speedier teams come bowl time. They still managed to have plenty of players go on to have NFL careers as well. All that was needed was a little imigination on both sides of the ball. What wasn't necessary was throwing everything and everyone out and starting from scratch.
The sad thing is that Michigan will no longer be a school with a plethora of talent making it to the NFL. The NFL isn't interested in spread QB's, tiny WR's, and RB's. They aren't interested in defensive players from the worst defenses in college either. Les Miles was the obvious successor to Lloyd Carr, but for some reason Carr was allowed to ruin that.
Michigan's Collapse
You want Ivy League? Then go to an Ivy League school.
This is MICHIGAN and it will always be MICHIGAN. Apparently you missed all the good Bo accomplished off the football field. Stop being so narrow minded and do the right things for MICHGAN
Mystifying, I think NOT
Mystifying? Not really. Rodriguez doesn't know how to coach in the Big 10. He has undersized players playing with Big 10 caliper players throughout the rest of the Big 10. Rodriguez plays a style of football that is fine for the small leagues, but not the Big 10.
Did Bill Martin watch any of the Big East games prior to considering hiring Rodriguez? Good grief, Rodriguez was fresh off a huge loss to Pitt. He walked off the field after that game with the same look of bewilderment we see week in and week out now that he is at Michigan.
I would suggest that Bill Martin move his retirement date up to November 22 and take his lousy coaching staff with him.
U-M's lack of success under Rich Rodriguez is mystifying
JT1....you're the bigger problem...trying getting out, even crossing the border (that does NOT mean a different county!). Michigan is a laughingstock throughout the US, but you say "Keep Hope Alive." You probably have the same approach with the Detroit Lions, or even the auto industry. IT's not going to get better. Let me see, Penn State has Jo Pa and they have the same schemes, with a little mix of the new stuff to keep things fresh. We have RailRoader and he enjoys sitting home fr the holidays. When you get a new manager and he's lousy, do you tell everyone to just give him time? This is not pessimism, it's realism! Believe in your own head what you like...you have to live with RR in the tundra...I DON'T!!!
lynn henning is mystified!
ScottieK...sorry to disagree with you, but Michigan HAD talent before RailRoader stepped in. To explain a bit about football, or life in general, success comes from the situation you place yourself. From a football sense, the schemes RR has devised does NOT fit the current talent. It is RailRoader's fault. You look at the people around you a develop a scheme which will bring out the best in the player. Instead, RR has hisown scheme, his own way and he tells everyone else THEY have to change. So long Ryan Mallett, our next star QB. Along with others, who saw RR lack of vision and left for other schools, the cupboard was never bare when RR took over. Michigan cannot run an offense and defense like the one in Southern Cal. Michigan needs big bodies, toughness, and above all intelligent players. All you need at Southern Cal is speed and talent. RR thinks he's bigger than U of M; he's not and never will be. Go back to to WVU, where you great success and could take a program with a smaller heritage. Again, we are who we are...We are Michigan..and now we're in the toilet!
U-M's lack of success under Rich Rodriguez is mystifying
Factoid: PSU had back-to-back seasons of 3-9 and 4-7 before going 11-1 in 05.
They re-tooled for the spread and have had good success ever since.
And by the way, they didn't have major coaching changes.
Were PSU fans "mystified"?
If you cannot be positive, then please be neutral: negativity and lack of objectivity waste others time dealing with your destructive comments.
If you are not part of the solution, you are the problem.
The beatings WILL continue if.....
you don't fire this guy!I have heard from U of M bleeders (I used to be one) I'll regret this stance. I won't because RR (RailRoader) doesn't understand Michigan and its environment. The prestige of having this top honor ONLY goes to a person who understands what Michigan football is about...academically gifted, tough, dedicated, and talented young men, willing to apply as much to the classroom as they would on the field. Dispute all of the above? Okay, dispute this...Could a student from Tulane, West Virginia or Clemson really be Michigan material in the classroom? Maybe some...but that's why Michigan is who they are. RailRoader is NOT Mr. Tressel (I'd wish he'd go back to Youngstown State, I liked John Cooper!) and Michigan had a style about them that others respected. Yes, I want to win National Championships, but you're not going to do it w/RR. Only someone who understands and lives Michigan Wolverine football or Big Ten Football should ever be allowed to run this team. RailRoader ran this team into the ground and damaged it's reputation. 5-7 this year (and should have lost to IU)..Wolverines weren't built to be roadkill!
Sent an email, but I'll put it here anyway
There is a problem with what your stating. Mich football didn't need to blow-up the program to become successful, it already was successful. The program needed a good coach that complemented the team as it was, not a new system of doing things. With a new coach comes excitement and recruits to fill the gaps, not rebuild an entire roster to run the spread. There was enough talent already here. Remember this team also beat Florida in its bowl game. But once RR was hired no one wanted to stay. RR might turnout to be a winner, but it at the expense of four to five years! It was the wrong hire. RR should have gone to a team that was 3-9 and needed hope.
Sent an email, but I'll put it here anyway
Dear. Mr. Henning,
Your most recent article regarding the state of Michigan football under Rich Rodriguez does not accurately represent the Michigan. There is so much more to a program than wins and losses. You need to take into account the skill level of the opponent. While we were 9-4 in Carr's final year, we lost to Appalachian State, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, and that was with a team which had four year starters with Jake Long, Chad Henne, and Mike Hart, as well as two dynamic receivers in Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington. There was no reason for us not to compete for a National Title with the experience we had. Michigan and it's fans alike had grown complacent. Prior to the 2006 season (which we lost to both OSU and USC) we had the following records since 2000: 9-3, 8-4, 10-4, 10-3, 9-3, 7-5, 11-2, and 9-4. You make it sound as if Michigan was always in the National Title hunt, where as since 2000 we have only been close once (2006 season). We had become accepting of season in which we lost 3-4 games a year, yet you make it sound as if Michigan under Carr had been an elite talent, which we very much were not.
Your point on recruiting top tier talent is very much based soley on the rankings of high school players, which does not always pan out. At mgoblog.com, and member of the website posted two diaries regarding the defense and recruiting, http://mgoblog.com/diaries/decimated-defense
and
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/decimated-defense-part-ii-statisticating
These both have enlightening statistics. Michigan has had smaller recruiting classes for defensive players, but most of the "highly rated recruits" have yet to make an impact. This year's defense alone has two walk-ons starting over scholarship players, because they are better than those players. The lack of talent on defense is not due soley to attrition. While that has played a role, the fact that many of UofM's highly touted recruits have simply not panned out, causing them to transfer to lower competition schools.
"But what has happened since in Ann Arbor has shaken those of us who never believed Michigan football had to deconstruct in order to reconstruct." It is naive to think that UofM would not need to blow up their entire team and start over if we wanted to run a spread offense. Not only was their a talent deficiency on defense, our offense consisted of players that fit a pro style offense. Rich Rod's first recruiting class in which he had a full year to recruit his guys was just this past year, so freshman. 2008, he started recruiting kids in December when he was hired, and half of the recruits were players already committed to play for Carr's pro style offense.
To say that UofM football did not need rebuilding is absurd. When Rich Rod was hired, it was to turn the team into something completely different than what it was. You cannot expect a coach that runs a spread option offense to be hired and have him adjust his offense to fit players recruited that fit a traditional pro style offense.
While yes, we do have Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson to run Rodriguez's spread, both of them are only freshmen, and to think that there would not be a learning curve for them is absurd.
To say that "There were enough athletes when Rodriguez got here to have allayed anxieties there" is extremely off base. This year, we only have 58% of players we recruited on defense still on the team. Most players we recruited did not pan out and transferred because of their lesser skill level.
Also, Stevie Brown is a linebacker, so he has nothing to do with th secondaries blown coverage.
"What some of us can't understand is how, at a school with such pronounced strength, this football chasm could ever have been created." It's quite simple actually. It was going to take patience. In year 3 for Rodriguez, the players he had a full year to recuit on offense will only be sophmores. Most of our team is freshmen and sophmores, and next year will be bumpy as well. Our defense will not have Brandon Graham and quite possiby Donavon Warren, so that will be an area of concern. Our offense should at the very least be more consistent, which shoud allow Michigan to perhaps out score opponents and play a "bend but don't break defense."
It saddens me to have to read an aticle like this. While I have no problem with stories which are negative, they have to have solid facts to support them and not opinions which are not researched. I highley reccomend reading the two links I provided to see statistics o how little talent wise Rich Rodriguez has.
Thank you for aking time to read my response, and the best of luck with your future articles, which I very much look forward to reading.
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