Isn't it remarkable that for the first time in most of our lifetimes, we all witnessed quite possibly the worst season of Michigan football in 129 years? Think about that: this is the first time in FORTY years that the win-loss record has been below .500. I saw a thing where Michigan State had 2 consecutive winning seasons for the first time in almost that long. All Michigan does is win football games! It's only natural then, that a ton of the old-fashioned types or the panicky types fear for the future of Big Blue. It is to those folks and any others who are waning in their faith for the Yellow and Blue that I offer my manifesto.
Things change, but the tradition of Michigan does not. I don't have to sit here on a soap box and go over all that's been said about why Rodriguez was or was not the perfect hire for Michigan. I personally believe that in 2 seasons Michigan will be in Pasedena. People like Jim Carty say Rodriguez eroded the family values put in place by his predecessors. Maybe, but only to replace them with new ones. Rodriguez personally met with each player when he got to Ann Arbor, and on Senior Day accompanied Brandon Harrison on the field because his parents were late getting to the Big House. I have a different view: Rich Rodriguez was caught off guard by the aura of Michigan. Can anyone besides Bo, Carr, Moeller and now Rodriguez truly explain what it's like to step into the head job at the most legendary program in college football? No. Rodriguez just simply could not have been prepared for what to expect. No one jumped on him at West Virginia because he told some critical fans to get a life...because he was their guy, he was from within. If Lloyd Carr had said something like that we all would have laughed and said, "That's 'ol Lloyd, sticking up for his program." Why is it any different when a guy from outside the program does it?
Michigan's bowl game streak may be over, something many thought would never happen (Ha!), but if that's the casualty for putting something in place that will enable the program to win for years to come, then fine.
There's one redeeming aspect in all of this: At least we aren't Notre Dame
Number of players that left when Bo was hired: 65
Number of players to leave so far in the Rodriguez era: 7, may be 8 if McGuffie bails
- Rich Rodriguez Contract: 6 years, $2.5 million/year
- Cost to the University if he were fired after year one: $4 million dollars plus $300,000 base salary plus $1.65 million for one year of compsenation = $5.95 million
- Charlie Weis contract: 10 years, $4 million/year
- Cost to University of Notre Dame if Weis is fired in year four, after a 6-6 season: $20 million
And so, my fellow Maize and Blue brethren, it is thus said:
Rich Rodriguez is not Lloyd Carr. In fact, just about the furthest thing from Lloyd Carr. That's a good thing. Isn't it weird that the media could actually access the Michigan football coach? This falls into my point about how RR was so underprepared to deal with the baggage that comes with being the head football coach at Michigan: at times you could see frustration in his mannerisms, he snapped at reporters, but in the good like "why did you ask that" way, and was a little too off the cuff, but in a way it's good because RR has a PERSONALITY. Now, that's nothing against Carr, especially since I have personally met the man. I have never been in awe of anyone more than Lloyd Carr.
We can finally stop having to say Michigan wastes its talent by going 8-4 every season. Because after 3-9, how can it get any worse?? Do you think Rodriguez will allow any recruit to come in from this point on with the same phone-it-in attitude that a lot of Carr's guys had (see: Morgan Trent)? No. Anyone that doesn't buy into his system and what is expected of them as players will be stripped of their starting job or will leave the program in a pissy fit of anger (see: Justin Boren -- seriously, the guy left because Rodriguez cursed at him too much and Barwis made him feel fat.) Tate Forcier is coming here on January 2nd and is already pumped to take away Threet's job.
We have witnessed the one and only season in the history of Michigan football in which a walk-on quarterback was asked to lead a horrendous team and thus cause him to be even stinkier. I have never seen a quarterback as bad as Nick Sheridan, and it just shows how Lloyd Carr completely forgot to recruit other quarterbacks to fill in for Ryan Mallet, his assumed starter. What in the world would we have done if Steven Threet had not transferred last year?
Badges of Fandom were earned this past season and helped to attrition the less-than Michigan faithful. Those of us who stood in utter shock as Toledo charged onto our field, victorious, or those who held onto hope at halftime of the Wisconsin game and stayed put as thousands of others filed for the exits. Or those who stood in the combination rain and snow storm, shivering, ever-hopeful that Nick Sheridan would complete one damn pass to put Northwestern to bed. WE are true Michigan fans. I'll remember all these games this year almost more than any others in the 17 years I have been sitting in that stadium watching champions being born. It tested our will as Michigan Men, but we still came to the stadium every Saturday because we know what is at the end of the tunnel.
Never again will we endure a season with losses to ND/OSU/MSU in the same season. Rodriguez will never forget Weis attempting to throw a 60 yard bomb with a 3 score lead, or that dick Dantonio saying that only if his team had a 3-9 record would they have been embarrassed losing to Penn State, or Tressel putting his benched senior quarterback in a game he had no danger of losing control of to pile on two more TD's, with Woody Hayes's famed 50 point beatdown in 1967 lurking in the back of his brain (anyone who says that wasn't what he was trying to do is fooling themselves).
Just keep this vision in your head: Rich Rodriguez, standing on a platform, hoisting a crystal football, marking the awakening of the Sleeping Giant of college football. Desmond Howard said during Ohio State week that he believes. We all should, too.
We. Will. Be. A. Fucking. Machine.
1 comment:
Awesome post Bunk.
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