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

[SeattleLionsFan]

I'm with Rock. I'm sure rich rod expects his players to work hard on football and school.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Rich L. Rod!

(SLF thats for u!)

[Rocky Bleier]

Adam Rittenberg:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/ncfnation/0-10-296/Michigan-allegations-suggest-friction-remains.html

[Malto Marko]

It doesn't matter if it happens everywhere else.

What matters is the players are not buying into his program and he is not consistent with decades of Michigan Football. By consistent I mean even if this is business as usual, you never heard players complaining about it before.

With that said. I am willing to bet while there have been many demands on the players in the past, they were not required to do 10 hours on the day after game day before.

I do not blame them for blowing the whistle. This jackass is going about doing the right thing, the wrong way.

[chemiclord]

It doesn't matter if it happens everywhere else.

What matters is the players are not buying into his program and he is not consistent with decades of Michigan Football. By consistent I mean even if this is business as usual, you never heard players complaining about it before.

With that said. I am willing to bet while there have been many demands on the players in the past, they were not required to do 10 hours on the day after game day before.

I do not blame them for blowing the whistle. This jackass is going about doing the right thing, the wrong way.

I would argue that "business as usual" was part of the problem.

There was a lot of complacency in Ann Arbor... "We're Michigan, we don't need to do this." A lot of people pick on USC for its entitled attitude, well, the Wolverines suffered from it too.

A lot of the complaints that have had names attached to them so far have come from the "old guard" of players who were used to the Lloyd Carr way, and don't like having to fight for the positions they felt they had earned once already.

As of right now, I don't see any reason to think this is any different from the bitching from the upperclassman that has come out before this.

[jaadam4]

F RichRod. Fire his ass now. I want to forget about this experiment

[SeattleLionsFan]

I don't remember when Bo started but I have heard former players talk about how little they worked when he took over the program. ;)

[tdbark]

Welcome to the modern college football program. The U of M is doing what all the other programs are doing. I have always believed that the time has come for the NFL to develop a minor league system. Get this crap out of our universities.

[ghandi]

Heh College football carries half the universities.....With that income alot of them would be in serious trouble.

[Kstat]

It should be noted that they spend a lot of them as well.

If RichRod should be faulted for anything it should be trying to coach up a bunch of pansies. Good lord I had no idea Lloyd's players had become this soft.

I guarentee you none of RichRod's recruits were bitching. It was most likely the country club softies Lloyd recruited.
Of all the things to be bitching about...Rich makes us practice too hard. What babies.

Regardless of if Rich gets fired or not, i'll be glad in a few years when their stench is removed from Ann Arbor.

And of course they don't want to name names...they don't want the world of college football to know that their daddy Lloyd Carr recruited women to play football.

[Rocky Bleier]

Study: College athletes are full-time workers

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
1/13/2008

NASHVILLE ? Rules say major-college football coaches can demand only 20 hours of their players' time a week.
But those players say they more than double that during the season and athletes in a half-dozen other sports indicate they, too, are putting in the equivalent of full-time work weeks, a newly released NCAA survey shows.

Some officials expressed concern with the findings, released Saturday during the association's annual convention.
"Once you get past 40 hours," NCAA Myles Brand agreed, "you're really pushing it, I think."

Brand added, however, "These young people are very competitive. It's in their fiber. .. and they will do everything they can to succeed.
"That's understandable, but we still have to help them understand that they need an education and (to) balance their lives."
Some 21,000 current athletes at 627 Division I, II and III schools ? including more than 1,600 football and 417 men's basketball players ? participated in the survey. In the top-tier Division I, almost two of every three said they consider themselves more as athletes than students.
That's reflected in their time commitments, both required and voluntary.
? Football players in the NCAA's Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) said they spent an average of 44.8 hours a week on their sport ? playing games, practicing, training and in the training room ? compared with a little less than 40 hours on academics.
? Division I baseball players said they spent 40 hours on their sport, 32 on academics. In men's basketball, it was 36.8 hours on their sport vs. 33.9 hours on academics.

? Women's basketball was little less time-intensive, players saying they spent a little more than 36 hours on their game vs. a little more than 37 on classwork.
? Other sports exceeding or approaching a 37 1/2-hour work week were men's golf (40.8 and hockey (37.6) and women's softball (37.1).
The survey, Brand says, doesn't address the degree to which coaches' implied demands drive up after-practice hours. Nearly one in four baseball and men's basketball players and one in five football players said they'd put in more time if they could, the findings show.
"Frankly, I'd rather have that student go to sleep early, wake up in the morning and do an extra run than I would (him or her) staying up late and going to the bars," Brand said.
"The fact that they choose to balance athletics and academics as a primary activity, I think that's fine."

[Kstat]

in other news, the Lions suck.

[Rocky Bleier]

From a NY Times article on Florida S&C coach Mickey Marotti:


In Marotti’s first season at Notre Dame, the Irish opened against defending national champion Michigan on a humid and nasty day. Urban Meyer, the team’s receivers coach, recalled that in the fourth quarter, many of the Michigan players rested on one knee on the sideline while the Irish were full of energy.
Near the end of a Notre Dame blowout, Meyer looked around and saw Irish players with their helmets above their heads chanting: “Mick-ey! Mick-ey!”

[chemiclord]

Here's what I suspect is happening;

Michigan is maintaining "voluntary" workout programs and practice sessions.

The "nudge nudge wink wink" part about it is that the coaches know who is attending these "voluntary" sessions, and the time and practice these guys are putting in is making these "voluntary" sessions pretty much "mandatory" if you want to see the field.

And some of the old guard that were used to Lloyd Carr doesn't like it, so they're bitching anonymously.

[Rocky Bleier]

Chad Henne: Players complaining about Michigan football team's off-season program 'don't want to be the best'

Posted: Today, 2 hours ago


Chad Henne doesn?t know what it's like to practice under Rich Rodriguez, but the former Michigan quarterback does know what it takes to play major college football, and he said it can?t be done in a 20-hour week.
?Twenty hours is a very, very small portion of what you do, especially if you?re a quarterback at a high-profile school,? Henne, now with the Miami Dolphins, said in a phone interview Sunday. ?Twenty hours isn?t enough for you. You have to be in there by yourself, studying film, no coaches around, and doing it on your own. That?s where the leadership comes in and that?s where, if you want to get better and play better, you have to do it on your own.?

In season, players can participate in up to 20 hours a week of football-related activities. Out of season, they get eight.

Players can exceed those limits so long as they're not forced to by coaches. Henne, who played under Lloyd Carr, said most put in extra time.
?I tried to be there as much as I could,? he said. ?If I wasn?t in class, I?d be down there studying film and trying to get the gameplan ahead of time just so I?m prepared for that week and that game.?

Was he obligated to be there by coaches?
"Nah," Henne said. "That?s the players. They have to know, 20 hours, you?re never going to be 20 hours limited. You think about it, you get done with class, you start practice around 2:30 for meetings or whatever, then you go through practice, you get done at 7. So that?s four-and-a-half hours. There?s no way - you?re going to use up 20 hours easily in practice.?
As for the anonymous players who complained, Henne suggested some might have ulterior motives.
?I really think whoever?s saying it really doesn?t want to be there,? Henne said. ?If they?re saying that then they?re not really worried about the team, they?re not worried about what they?re going to do during their season and they?re kind of just giving themselves up. That?s just negative talk right there. So whoever it is just really doesn?t care about the team, I would say.
?If they?re complaining about that, then they don?t want to be the best they can be and that?s their own fault.?