Carr's Country Club

​If nothing else comes from the "transition" that has resulted in the unceremonious exit of Justin Boren, it's that whatever was going on before Rodriguez was not good. And by "not good" I mean bluntly that players over the last several years were not pushed to their potential. I've bared my soul about this before, and it's no secret that I was the number one supporter of the Michigan coaching staff under Carr. The elephant in the room on the field was that top 10 recruiting classes consistently made their way to Ann Arbor, but rarely did they produce near the level of expectation. I used every excuse in the book, often blaming the players, and going as far as to question the validity of the recruiting evaluators, remarking that sure, we had a top ten class...but who really knows how good these high school players are? My other favorite arguement: parity. I could recite the evidence of the scholarship limitations, and moreover the discerning college athletes that chose small schools over major programs for the sake of early playing time.

Well, I was wrong, and the naysayers...I think you were right. With my Maize and Blue blinders on, I couldn't see the forest for the trees, especially in the last 4-5 years, a time in Michigan Football history in which the underachievement level reached it's pinnacle.

The inspiration for my epiphany? An article by Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated who got to see the team practice...

It was similar to practices I've attended at USC, Florida State and numerous other football powers. Yet according to offensive linemanSteven Schilling, "The first couple weeks were a shock to the system. It's a different culture. It's a lot higher paced, it stresses sprinting everywhere. I can't really say which is better."

All of which makes you wonder: If this new approach is really as shocking as Boren, Schilling and others have expressed, what kind of country club was Carr running all those years? And is that why Michigan, for all its considerable talent, has largely underachieved in the decade since its 1997 national championship, including six losses in seven years against Ohio State?

And that's it, folks...that's the story. Of course, all smoke and mirrors until we see a finished product, but I for one am beginning to believe.

Weekend Roundup, Frozen Four Edition: March 31, 2008

​What you missed this weekend while Michigan Against the World raised another banner...

• My previously dismissive attitude toward Michigan Basketball signing Zack Novak might have been a little premature, as he was selected to the all-state first team in Indiana.


• The guys over at the Hoover Street Rag are celebrating Michigan heading the Frozen Four by making the trip. It feels good to call your shot, and they did, purchasing a ticket to Denver long before they made their run. Bring it home fellas.


• Steven Threet seems to be the leader in the clubhouse at QB in spring ball...theToledo Blade has a write up about his reaction to the "family values" comments. Just remember Steve, Feagin is coming.


• In-state commitment alert!!!! Cass Tech's Teric Jones has signed with the Maize and Blue for 2009.


• Even The Sporting News knows that Justin Boren is a bitch.


• MVictors gives explicit (almost uncomfortable) directions on how to get into the Michigan Spring Game.

No Apologies From RR

Jim Carty, fresh off a diatribe about athletics and academics at Michigan that stirred up about 1/10th of the attention he thought it would, scored a phone interview with RR. A year ago, we would have likely gone on without any rebuttal from our coach. Actually, a year ago, Lloyd would have probably banned Jim Carty from University property and not accepted his phone call. Not the case anymore.

Don't mess with the family Justin:

My players and my coaches are my family. They're coached that way.

But we're not going to apologize for being demanding. We told that to the players. We also told them our job is to take them some place they can't take themselves, on the field and off the field, and I think the majority of our players understand that."

There's lots more worthwhile quotes in the article, check it out here.Also, MVictors provides audio of RR on Jim Rome today, which was hosted by the Sklar brothers.

One last thing...if the information provided here comes to fruition, I...I just don't know what to say.

Rodriguez = Schembechler or Elliot = Carr?

​The parallels between the 2008 arrival of RR and the 1969 arrival of Bo Schembechler are beginning to become uncanny. That's not to say that RR is Bo Schembechler, because that would be a bit premature, but it's possible that the state of the program in the final year under Lloyd Carr was very much like it was under Bump Elliot. In the interest of Tuesday's post alluding to Those Who Stay, and in lieu of Mr. Boren's impromptu and unnecessary press release, I present the following words of Bo Schembechler from his book Michigan Memories...

We inherited a good team (in 1969). They had gone 8-2 the year before. But one of those losses was brutal. They were humiliated at Ohio State, 50-14. There's no question that, at that time, Ohio State had the best team in college football...arguably the best ever.

At Michigan, we just couldn't let that happen.

The Michigan team had a lot of talent. We made it our goal to make that team TOUGH.

We had to take that talent and make it MEAN. I wanted them so mean that they'd scare themselves when they bumped into each other.

NO-body was going to out hit us. NO-body was going to out hustle us. If we got beat, it was because the other team on that day played a little better than we did. No team, though, was ever going to out work us.

NO TEAM!

That spring practice was hell for all those players. I mean true living hell. We had a lot of attrition.

That's when I put up a sign that hung over my office over the years --- "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions"

.....

All those young men who stayed did become champions. And so did the one's after them. And the ones after them.

Champions...are carved out of character. Without character, talent can be beaten.

Dude

​I can't begin to describe the disdain I have for Justin Boren's press release. I hate to harp on someone that is a student athlete, and I rarely find myself taking the time to pick apart a 20-year-old kid. That being said, let's start with this...

I regret leaving behind my friends and teammates, but I need to stand up for what I know is right,"

Delusions of grandeur much? Unless the new coach has supported the forcing of an object into one of your orifices, or has told you that you aren't going to play because you are Caucasian, or you are uncomfortable with a swastika watermark on each of the pages of your playbook...I can't imagine what could be wrong. Let's not pretend you are attempting to save the souls of the remaining members of the Michigan football team by walking out based on what you "know is right." There is no right or wrong, there is only Coach and Player. You are the player, and outside of something illegal, you do exactly what the coach says, or you pack your bags. 

We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It's that simple. Are we clear?

Michigan football was a family, built on mutual respect and support for each other from (former) Coach (Lloyd) Carr on down. We knew it took the entire family, a team effort, and we all worked together. I have great trouble accepting that those family values have eroded in just a few months.

The erosion of family values is something I'm used to seeing from the Democratic party... and Murphy Brown. Is Michigan Football sleeping with an intern? Does Michigan Football have a second whole wife and kids on the west coast that it visits under the guise of business trips? Is Michigan Football living with it's domestic partner? Please tell me Justin, what the hell are you talking about?

I don't understand. You want to be coddled? Did Lloyd coddle you? When he asked you to run, and you were tired and whined about it, did he just let you off the hook?

This really validates my worst fears of the last 5 years or so. Lloyd Carr, the delightful, grandfather-like figurehead of Michigan Football, was outwardly a nice guy. In fact, I think Lloyd is genuinely a nice guy. But I always imagined...always hoped...that once the gate to Fort Schembechler closed behind him he was a tough sonofabitch. I thought he got every last ounce of effort out of his players, that he was the ultimate motivator. Perhaps that's not true. As we saw at the Citrus Bowl, there seems to have been a lot left in the tank. And whatever is left, RR is going to get it. Even if he has to beat it out of them.

This is football kids. This isn't supposed to be fun. It's a war. It's a business. You don't want to work harder? Fine. But don't slander the program because you need a bullshit excuse to tell your dad. We are still a family here J.B...you're just no longer a part of it. Now run home to daddy...or walk, if you're tired.