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Michigan players turning on Rodriguez
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
CUinDC
Member
As a die-hard Michigan fan, born and raised in Ann Arbor (I'm also a 2x CU grad, which has been a tough combination at times), I have read a lot of messages over the last few days, and I would summarize the comments of the fans in general somewhat differently. Obviously, as with any fan base, there are a few nutjobs with opinions like those posted above, but for the most part they are pretty solidly in a couple of camps.
The Michigan community (fans, players, alumni, etc.) is badly fractured right now, at least by Michigan standards. The decision to hire someone like RR angered a lot of people that were loyal to the Carr/Schembechler lineage, and didn't see any reason to move in a new direction. These were the people that wanted Les Miles, and have (often vocally) refused to put their support behind Rodriguez, even after the decision was long made (the boat thing is a myth, if Bill Martin had wanted to hire Les Miles, he could have, and would have, done it). The controversy with RR leaving WVU, the 3-9 season, and now this, have provided this group with a continuing reason to hold firm that the program is going in the wrong direction, and they will not stop until RR is gone. A lot of people on the other side blame this group for actually causing a lot of the current problems, and sabotaging RR as much as possible.
The second group are the people that were pushing for Carr to be fired during his last few seasons, and were pumped when RR came in promising a more high-powered offense, and a break from the complacency of the past. This group has clearly been the most vocal now, focusing on the "everybody does it" excuse, and the "these are just the quitters that are bitter and bitching to the media instead of staying and working hard" line.
I tend to fall somewhere in the middle, although I would probably trend towards the first group. I liked the idea that Michigan had a unique line of coaches/players (not because of the "we are always squeaky clean" attitude that people accuse Michigan fans of having, but just the continuity of having the same general belief system in the program going back to the late 60s). I don't disagree that the program had become complacent and needed some changes, but I didn't like the idea of changing for the sake of changing, and I don't think they should ditch the values that the football program had established (but obviously not the AD overall, see: UM basketball in the early 90s) to win a couple more games. I was, and to some extent still am, willing to give RR the benefit of the doubt, but my optimism is pretty low at the moment.
Manly, though, I'm just exhausted with scandals and bad press. The situation at Michigan does not feel all that much different than the separation between the Barnett haters/supporters, and the witch hunt over recruiting practices that happen at every school, but burned CU. I absolutely don't condone bending/breaking the rules at all, and if they did, they should be punished, but I also hate that all of these stories seem to be written or blown up by people who have an obvious ax to grind with a program, and have more to do with gaining publicity for the people with the story, than they are about exposing the problems below. Oh well, hopefully both programs will end up better for it in the long run.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. Didn't feel like posting on the UM boards b/c I figured it would just get lost in the mess.
The Michigan community (fans, players, alumni, etc.) is badly fractured right now, at least by Michigan standards. The decision to hire someone like RR angered a lot of people that were loyal to the Carr/Schembechler lineage, and didn't see any reason to move in a new direction. These were the people that wanted Les Miles, and have (often vocally) refused to put their support behind Rodriguez, even after the decision was long made (the boat thing is a myth, if Bill Martin had wanted to hire Les Miles, he could have, and would have, done it). The controversy with RR leaving WVU, the 3-9 season, and now this, have provided this group with a continuing reason to hold firm that the program is going in the wrong direction, and they will not stop until RR is gone. A lot of people on the other side blame this group for actually causing a lot of the current problems, and sabotaging RR as much as possible.
The second group are the people that were pushing for Carr to be fired during his last few seasons, and were pumped when RR came in promising a more high-powered offense, and a break from the complacency of the past. This group has clearly been the most vocal now, focusing on the "everybody does it" excuse, and the "these are just the quitters that are bitter and bitching to the media instead of staying and working hard" line.
I tend to fall somewhere in the middle, although I would probably trend towards the first group. I liked the idea that Michigan had a unique line of coaches/players (not because of the "we are always squeaky clean" attitude that people accuse Michigan fans of having, but just the continuity of having the same general belief system in the program going back to the late 60s). I don't disagree that the program had become complacent and needed some changes, but I didn't like the idea of changing for the sake of changing, and I don't think they should ditch the values that the football program had established (but obviously not the AD overall, see: UM basketball in the early 90s) to win a couple more games. I was, and to some extent still am, willing to give RR the benefit of the doubt, but my optimism is pretty low at the moment.
Manly, though, I'm just exhausted with scandals and bad press. The situation at Michigan does not feel all that much different than the separation between the Barnett haters/supporters, and the witch hunt over recruiting practices that happen at every school, but burned CU. I absolutely don't condone bending/breaking the rules at all, and if they did, they should be punished, but I also hate that all of these stories seem to be written or blown up by people who have an obvious ax to grind with a program, and have more to do with gaining publicity for the people with the story, than they are about exposing the problems below. Oh well, hopefully both programs will end up better for it in the long run.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. Didn't feel like posting on the UM boards b/c I figured it would just get lost in the mess.
AlferdJasper
Well-Known Member
good insight, I appreciate it.
The best outcome would be some watchdogging at ALL schools to prevent any kind of 12-hour days that do border on abuse of student-athletes. It has to be a changed mindset across the board.
Yes, winners work hard. But there is some intangible part of being a student out in the world for the first time that these guys give up to play ball. There's a reason the NCAA set limits, and we need to get back to them.
Wyo Buff
Well-Known Member
What you fail to mention is that the Coach Robert Smith ran afoul of at the OSU was our own Elliot Uzelac. I loved Coach U and would send a kid to play for him any day. The point is, this "infraction" is the norm at any D-1 school. As far as "voluntary" practices go, you can voluntarily choose not to participate and thus hurt any chance of seeing the field during the non-voluntary season as well. That being said, any person of average intelligence can treat it like a job and still show up for class and get a degree. I would say this is more about the hearts and minds of a bunch of Lloyd Carr recruits than it is about Rich Rod's ethics. I can speak from experience, going from one coach to another is difficult especially when the new coach comes from an entirely different organizational culture.