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

[Drew]

What a sad state of affairs. Say it ain't so, Bo.

[Drew]

Apt ending. A missed 26-yd FG that could have tied it.

The University of Michigan, the nation's all time leader in wins, has lost to Toledo.

WTF.

[whatever_gong82]

Right is left, up is down, black is white.

A very strange year so far.

Man, if the Lions win tomorrow, then the world has flipped upside down!!

[Niffla]

Reality is it will probably be a while before things get better.

UM has some nice prospects at quarterback coming in, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still freshman next season. We probably won't have a competent quarterback to run the system until the season after next at the earliest.

[Rocky Bleier]

Could a freshman be worse than these two?

Steven Threet was benched in the second half after completing 7 of 11 passes for 55 yards with a TD and an interception, a light toss that Herbert stepped in front of in the end zone and ran back for a score.

Nick Sheridan wasn’t much better and that was a problem for Michigan.

Sheridan was 8-of-16 for 65 yards and threw two interceptions.

[gjdodger]

LOL. All of this begs the question--could Michigan have beaten Toledo simply by not throwing a single pass and just running the ball at them? When I went to ESPN and it wasn't on the front page, I figured Michigan won; I guess Toledo beating Michigan in Ann Arbor isn't big news anymore.

[bimmer84]

Not since Appy beat them.

[Timmy]

I'd ask when is basketball season but that's not likely to look any better.

[Rocky Bleier]

Even I didn't think it would be this bad. Toledo isn't even a good MAC team.

[Mainevent]

Hey, at least Steve Breaston's looking like a bonafide NFL WR, that's a suprise.

[gjdodger]

The knives come out.

Rich Rodriguez has failed so far at U-M



BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • October 13, 2008

Rich Rodriguez may yet restore Michigan to Big Ten supremacy. He might win a national title and justify athletic director Bill Martin’s decision to hire him.

In the meantime, this needs to be said:

Rodriguez has done an awful coaching job this season. Michigan is 2-4 and just lost to Toledo, which should never happen.

Toledo isn’t just a Mid-American Conference team; it’s a bad MAC team, a much worse outfit than Appalachian State last year.
Appalachian State, despite being in the FCS (formerly Division I-AA), was one of the 60 best teams in the country. Toledo was 123rd in the Jeff Sagarin’s ratings, behind 18 I-AA teams.

Rodriguez talks about “building” the program. But literally no college football program in history was built as solidly as the one he inherited. U-M has been to 33 consecutive bowls, and that number would be 40 if the Big Ten could have sent more than one team to a bowl before 1975. Since 1968, Michigan had lost more than four games in a season only twice: in injury-ravaged campaigns in 1984 and 2005.

He has said his players played “soft” and routinely says they aren’t “executing” well. But when he was asked Monday if he personally would have done anything differently, he said this:

“No, no. It’s fair for everybody to question it. I think they’ve questioned everything I’ve done since I’ve been here, for the last eight or nine months. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s fair game.…”

He added that his only regret was that “I wish I had had more time to spend with the players,” but he didn’t because of NCAA rules. It was an odd comment, considering that the Wolverines spend as much time in their football building as any players in the country.

On the first day of 2008, before Michigan beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl, Rodriguez said this:

“We’ll adapt. I like winning too much not to adapt a little bit to our personnel.”

Has there been any sign that he will adapt?

Rodriguez says that every spread offense is different, but his scheme looks exactly like the one he ran at West Virginia, even though his players don’t fit the scheme.

Rodriguez also said Monday that “I couldn’t have foreseen this situation. To be honest with you, I didn’t look into it before I took the job.”

But this wasn’t the situation he inherited. Rodriguez was left with better talent than this. He could have had Ryan Mallett, one of the most gifted passers in school history. Mallett had a lot of flaws — he was cocky, immature and irritated a lot of his teammates and his coaches with his attitude. But the same could be said of Chris Perry, Braylon Edwards and David Terrell as freshmen. Mallett still had a chance to be a great player.

Rodriguez said he wanted Mallett to stay. I’m still not convinced that he did. The guy Rodriguez really wanted was high schooler Terrelle Pryor, who burned Rodriguez in two ways — by choosing Ohio State, of course, but also by making his announcement so late. If Pryor had chosen the Buckeyes in, say, late December, I suspect Rodriguez would have recruited Mallett to stay a lot harder than he did. But Pryor waited until the spring.

Mallett’s departure created a domino effect. Receiver Adrian Arrington, who was probably coming back, left for the NFL. He could have been the best receiver in the Big Ten.

Rodriguez also made minimal attempts to keep Justin Boren and Alex Mitchell. Neither Boren nor Mitchell was perfect, but both would have started on the offensive line this season.

Despite the carping of a certain segment of fans, the Michigan football program was not a horrible underachiever. The Wolverines made BCS bowls in three of the last five years. Their final Associated Press rankings at the end of those seasons: 6, 14, unranked, 8, 18.

People harped on Lloyd Carr’s 1-6 record against Jim Tressel, and understandably so. Michigan-Ohio State is the biggest rivalry in college football, not to mention the basis of a wonderful new book. But Carr also won nine straight against Penn State and 10 of his last 12 against Michigan State.

Rodriguez, who faces Penn State and Michigan State in the next two weeks, is about to find out how impressive that is.
Once again: Rodriguez might win big. He is six games into his Michigan tenure, and it would be foolish to give up on him after six games. He might win championships when he gets “his guys” into “his system.” But the guys who are already here should have a much better record, and that falls on the head coach.

[Rocky Bleier]

And Bryce McNeal decommited, though that could have something to do with the two WRs who gave verbals for the 2010 class.

At least someone stlli has faith...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-michigan101408&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[dsred]

Those who are so quick to criticize are probably Lloyd disciplines who probably didn't want Rich Rod in the first place.

The man needs time. They'll come around.

[DanO]

Agreed dsred.........and this talk about firing him are foolish.

GO LIONS "08" !!!!!!!!

[Timmy]

Anyone who didn't see a big downturn this season coming was dreaming. Everyone who knows the program and isn't Pollyanna knew this would likely be the case. Give him two years and see how kids he's recruited perform before throwing him under the bus.