U of M thread (in the Lions Forum) :)

[froot loops]

8-4 should save his job and give him security.

[DanO]

You're high Dodger. He goes 8-4 and there's no way in hell they fire him.....Nor should they.

GO LIONS "10" !!!!!!!!!!

[Desert Lion]

8-4 and in a bowl game. But it won't save RichRod.

Unfortunately I think you are wrong there. 8-4 and a bowl game probably will save his sorry ass.

[gjdodger]

We'll see. I still think his death warrant was signed a year ago, but they couldn't oust him until the new AD came on board to have a say in his successor.

Edit--badly worded. The AD makes the final call, and doesn't "have a say."

[Mainevent]

Not unexpected State getting the win, but was dissapointed in Robinson's two goal line INTs. On at least one of those (the first one I think) it would have been an easy TD if he had lofted the ball up and over the LB and let the receiver continue the route into the endzone (similar to Cousins clinching TD against Wisconsin). Hopefully, with more experience he'll learn to make those type of plays.

Also, RR gave up on the RBs running the ball way too early. They were havnig some success in 5 yard chunks early. But it seemed like due to the success they had moving the ball in the air in the first half and the lack of big plays in the running game, that RR became impatient and wanted to get big chunks in the passing game. Though, with the zone read, some of that also goes on Robinson

[Niffla]

Re: firing RR

Again -- here's the problem. RR has for 3 years now recruited a specific type of player for a highly specialized specific type of offense.

If you scrap him and start all over AGAIN...do you realize how far this team could/would be set back? If you think we're set back now compared to the storied past, just wait until you axe Rich and start all over again.

We had to go through 2 of the darkest years in Michigan football to get to this point where we are finally seeing some fruits of the labor. And now they're going to fire him?! Come on now. Barring a collapse of last year's proportions, there is no chance they fire him. Zero.

[gjdodger]

Re: firing RR

Again -- here's the problem. RR has for 3 years now recruited a specific type of player for a highly specialized specific type of offense.

If you scrap him and start all over AGAIN...do you realize how far this team could/would be set back? If you think we're set back now compared to the storied past, just wait until you axe Rich and start all over again.

We had to go through 2 of the darkest years in Michigan football to get to this point where we are finally seeing some fruits of the labor. And now they're going to fire him?! Come on now. Barring a collapse of last year's proportions, there is no chance they fire him. Zero.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, "Throwing good money after bad"?

[froot loops]

You're right on the bad ints, I think that is because he is young. Don't forget his counterpart Kirk Cousins has had some bad ints down in the red zone when he was young. Even this year he's had some gaffes! You hope he learns from his mistakes.

One word of caution about focusing too much on the ints. I was listening to WTKA and Sam Webb pretty much blamed the whole game on some bad ints. It sounded like we did when we had Looney Smith relying on Stanton to win games. When you run this offense I believe you are relying too much on a QB.

You have to be balanced, Robinson has had a great season so far, but he cannot be 75 percent of the offense. Its too much. You can't have a defense ranked in the 100s.

[froot loops]

Re: firing RR

Again -- here's the problem. RR has for 3 years now recruited a specific type of player for a highly specialized specific type of offense.

If you scrap him and start all over AGAIN...do you realize how far this team could/would be set back? If you think we're set back now compared to the storied past, just wait until you axe Rich and start all over again.

We had to go through 2 of the darkest years in Michigan football to get to this point where we are finally seeing some fruits of the labor. And now they're going to fire him?! Come on now. Barring a collapse of last year's proportions, there is no chance they fire him. Zero.

Mark Dantonio took over a team in a similar situation, probably even worse and he installed a power running team and got to bowls in every one of his seasons.

[Rocky Bleier]

The risk is that you stay with more of a bad thing and waste 2-3 more years. He's never shown any talent for building a good defense. I'm sick of looking like Purdue.

[Niffla]

Have you ever heard of the phrase, "Throwing good money after bad"?

Yeah, I have. But that really doesn't hold water unless the Wolverines finish badly again this season. If they do, fine. I'll agree with you.

But if they go 8-4 and get to a semi-halfway decent bowl, that would be a vast improvement over the past 2 years. And there's actually a lot to look forward to.

UM has 2 and a half years left of Denard running this offense. There's a 5 star, top 35 in the nation RB coming into the fold, and really the offense is pretty close now to what Mich fans envisioned when RR was hired.

Obviously the defense is in shambles and it goes without saying that it needs to fixed ASAP. But scrapping this whole thing now (assuming they finish 8-4 or better) would be pretty stupid. You just spent 3 years restructuring this whole thing and now the moment you start seeing some improvement you're going to scrap it all?

Makes zero sense.

[Mainevent]

You're right on the bad ints, I think that is because he is young. Don't forget his counterpart Kirk Cousins has had some bad ints down in the red zone when he was young. Even this year he's had some gaffes! You hope he learns from his mistakes.

One word of caution about focusing too much on the ints. I was listening to WTKA and Sam Webb pretty much blamed the whole game on some bad ints. It sounded like we did when we had Looney Smith relying on Stanton to win games. When you run this offense I believe you are relying too much on a QB.

You have to be balanced, Robinson has had a great season so far, but he cannot be 75 percent of the offense. Its too much. You can't have a defense ranked in the 100s.

I was thinking the exact same thing about some of Cousins gaffes from last year. I certainly don't think the INTs definitely cost them the game, but it cost them from being in it and putting more pressure on Sparty. MSU got a lead and pounded them with the running game and set them up with play action.

[froot loops]

Yeah we're probably on the same page with that. To me it looked like if they score those TDs it might have been a different game, but I kind of thought if they had to score more, State could have very easily.

[Mainevent]

Yeah, probably would have been 42-35 or something like that. Just would have liked to seen MSU have to do it, because maybe Cousins makes one of those bonehead plays in the 2nd half to give UM a shot.

[gjdodger]

Yeah, I have. But that really doesn't hold water unless the Wolverines finish badly again this season. If they do, fine. I'll agree with you.

But if they go 8-4 and get to a semi-halfway decent bowl, that would be a vast improvement over the past 2 years. And there's actually a lot to look forward to.

UM has 2 and a half years left of Denard running this offense. There's a 5 star, top 35 in the nation RB coming into the fold, and really the offense is pretty close now to what Mich fans envisioned when RR was hired.

Obviously the defense is in shambles and it goes without saying that it needs to fixed ASAP. But scrapping this whole thing now (assuming they finish 8-4 or better) would be pretty stupid. You just spent 3 years restructuring this whole thing and now the moment you start seeing some improvement you're going to scrap it all?

Makes zero sense.

Unless you acknowledge RichRod was a mistake from the very beginning and does not fit in with the way the University has tried to run its football team. My wife is way more astute than I am, on this and other things, and she thought things stunk with RichRod from the get-go. I was like you, gauging his progress on how many wins he got per year. I just think he's a mistake. Send him back down south somewhere.