Hard Hittin’ Thursdays: Does It Feel Any Different?

It’s been more than two weeks since Lloyd Carr announced his retirement and I’m not sure I feel any different than I did prior to his announcement. The anticipation is no longer there. It left rather quickly in fact. LSU losing may have dampened my enthusiasm for Les Miles and the search in general but I’m not sure how enthused I was about him in the first place. How much of a difference can a coach really make? If I had the diligence and determination of a true Michigan or College Football blogger I might be willing to do the research required to try and figure out a statistical answer (certainly the task would be too daunting for someone that actually gets paid to report on such ideas). Or maybe I’d reach out to some former players or coaches or members of athletic administrations to ask them their opinions (certainly mine aren’t worth much more than a glance-over while looking for the pictures from a previous tailgate).I read a comment on a blog recently that suggested we hire Chuck Martin, GVSU head coach. He was the defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly, the coaching choice du jour, or at least the choice not named Miles. I read about his accomplishments (impressive) and sent the bio from GVSU’s website to our Webmaster. He called me immediately, as if he was a member of a first response team for Life Alert. He assured me that Les Miles was going to be our head coach and that we’d know sometime soon, maybe even this week, before the SEC Championship game. But more importantly he said Les was the safe choice. And he ultimately said he’d rather be safe than sorry. Chuck Martin wasn’t a viable option. He’s not a big name. He’s not Les Miles. He’s not safe.

Safety, the Michigan way. As much as we want to change, as much as we love the idea of stopping the spread offense and throwing on first down, we’re more scared than we are excited. We only like to go outside when it’s sunny. We stay in when it’s cloudy simply for the chance of rain. It’s safer that way. As a fan base, we’re more concerned about not going 5-7 than the potential of being 12-0. The risk is not worth the reward. You’d rather invest in GE than emerging markets. You are Michigan. Safety. Because trying and failing is unacceptable. You’d rather make excuses and complain than put your reputation on the line. Even though there’s water in the pool you’d rather wade in off the steps than dive in from the deep end…just in case that’s really not water. Our first national search since 1969 and 8-4 is suddenly ok again.

I’m still anxious about this decision, even slightly excited. But I don’t expect the impact of our next coach to be so great that we’ll be terribly different than we are now. We’re Michigan, the leaders and best. And isn’t great ultimately being consistently good? We want perfection. I want perfection. But this is college football. It’s played by teenagers. They’re brought here to get an education, to play football and to be representatives of our University. Success on the football field is a bonus. (Or at least that’s what they’re saying at Notre Dame!) And the one thing I can certainly be thankful for this holiday season is that we’re not Notre Dame. So this holiday season raise a glass to what’s really important, family, friends and kicking the shit out of everyone on our schedule next year, whether it’s Les Miles, Brian Kelly or The Spirit of Bo at the helm, here’s to taking our new leaf and flippin’ that bitch over!