ESPN is currently running a two-hour documentary about Michigan’s Fab Five (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, and if you haven’t seen it, I’d definitely recommend it. Webber didn’t agree to participate, but the interviews with the other four members along with members of the coaching staff were quite compelling.
Yesterday, the internet was abuzz with comments made by the former Michigan players about Duke and especially Christian Laettner, whom Rose thought was an “overrated pu**y,” until he actually played against him and saw that he had some serious game. I’ll leave those comments alone since Rose eventually gave Laettner credit, but there are a few other moments in the documentary that jumped out at me:
1. Rose hated Duke because they wouldn’t recruit someone like him; they only recruited “Uncle Tom”-type black players. He also admitted he hated Grant Hill because Hill grew up in a great home while Rose grew up poor with an absentee father. Rose probably hit the nail on the head with regard to why many inner city blacks resent/criticize suburban blacks; it’s out of envy. They see lives that are more comfortable than theirs, and they lash out in anger. The Fab Five translated this to a hatred of the Duke players, including guys like Grant Hill and Thomas Hill.
I suspect if Mike Krzyzewski were asked about his recruiting habits and answered honestly, he’d say that he had the luxury of recruiting players (of whatever race) that he thought would fit into his team-first concept. He already had a successful college program, so why recruit a ‘risky’ player like Rose who may or may not fit into what he’s trying to build? The last thing he wants is to have a to battle a player on a daily basis.
In the end, Duke was 3-0 against the Fab Five, so I’d say the Blue Devils got the last laugh.
2. Forget the shorts, shoes, socks or even the style of play. The thing that bothered me about the Fab Five was the in-your-face taunting. The film was great because it reminded me of what I didn’t like about the Fab Five. Their play was outstanding. Nobody hogged the ball and winning was paramount, so from a pure basketball respect, they were wonderful. It was all the antics that drove me nuts. There were several highlights that showed the players getting into the face of the opponent after the guy was just dunked on. It’s one thing to over-celebrate with your teammates, but to show up an opponent like that is just bad sportsmanship. This was explained away as being part of the inner city playground culture, but my guess is that if they would have gotten into someone’s face on the playground, they would have been punched in the nose (or worse). At the time, officials didn’t really call taunting technicals, so there were no consequences to those actions. Oh, and Juwan Howard was the worst. Webber or Rose would dunk and there comes Howard, getting into the grill of the guy who just got dunked on. It was no surprise that against Ohio St. in their first Final Four, Howard got headbutt to the nose at one point in the game.
Les Miles isn’t headed to Ann Arbor, which means Brady Hoke is.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that after meeting with Michigan officials about the Wolverines’ football vacancy on Monday, Miles will stay at LSU. The former UM graduate is 62-17 with the Tigers, which includes five bowl victories and one national title in his previous six seasons. Following Miles’ decision, Michigan moved quickly to hire Hoke.
When Rich Rodriguez was fired last week, two names emerged as leading candidates to replace him: Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh and San Diego State’s Hoke. And once Harbaugh agreed to terms with the 49ers, Hoke become the clear favorite to land in Ann Arbor.
It would have taken a truckload of money to get Miles to come to Michigan and in the end, it would have been a riskier move than what AD David Brandon wanted to make following the Rich-Rod debacle. Hoke is the safer choice and he may be the better long-term fit for the program, too. He has ties to the team, he’s an up-and-comer and he’s cheap. It just makes sense following what happened with Rodriguez.
Is Hoke the right fit? We’ll see. He certainly isn’t a big name but the Wolverines got a big name in Rodriguez and look how that turned out. I know some UM fans would have rather seen Rodriguez retained for another year than hire Hoke. But at least he’ll put the emphasis back on defense after Rich-Rod completely ignored that side of the ball for three years. (Maybe Hoke will actually recruit a kicker that knows that the ball is supposed to go between the uprights and not to either side of them, too.)
Hoke may be a ho-hum hire in some people’s minds, but maybe that’s exactly what UM needs right now.
Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez shouts instructions in the 1st half of their NCAA BCS bowl football game against Mississippi State at EverBank field in Jacksonville, Florida January 1, 2011. UPI/Mark Wallheiser.
Just three days after Michigan suffered its worst bowl loss in school history, the university has decided to fire head coach Rich Rodriguez according to FOX News Detroit.
Rodriguez finishes his three-year stint at Michigan with a 15-22 record. He lost a school-record nine games in his first year and went 5-7 after starting 4-0 last season. He also managed to turn a 5-0 start into a 7-5 finish in 2010 and apparently Michigan AD David Brandon had seen enough after Mississippi State embarrassed the Wolverines 52-14 in this year’s Gator Bowl. (Michigan was also 1-10 against ranked opponents and was a combined 0-6 against Ohio State and Michigan State under RichRod.)
This news hardly comes as a surprise. Rodriguez was a freaking embarrassment to a proud program like UM and obviously a total mismatch for the Big Ten. He found a gem in quarterback Denard Robinson but his offenses struggled against top competition year in and year out. When a team racks up 65 points on Bowling Green or 42 on Indiana but only scores 17 against Michigan State and 7 against Ohio State, there’s an obvious problem with consistency. Making matters worse, Michigan’s defense was brutal this year and special teams were an absolute embarrassment. (Brandon should demand that the coaches he interviews bring a place kicker with them for on-the-spot tryouts.)
That said, if UM doesn’t land Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh (who is currently mulling over his choices after his team destroyed Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl), then whom will they get to replace Rodriguez? Brady Hoke? No offense to the current San Diego State head coach but would he really be the right fit to turn around a program in disarray?
Regardless of whom Brandon hires, the next head coach has a long journey ahead of him. Not only does he have to recruit heavily on the defensive side of the ball, but he also has to work with offensive players that Rodriguez handpicked to run his offense. Brandon will no doubt go with a “Michigan Man” as his next head coach, which means someone who will implement the run-heavy attack that they employed before Rodriguez was hired. It’s tough to go Power-I when your personnel is built for the spread-option.
Just because UM has rid itself of Rodriguez doesn’t mean its problems will be instantly fixed.
I don’t know if you’ve been able to figure out over the course of the season which team I root for when it comes to college football, but I’ll admit that it’s not Michigan. I do, however, live near thousands and thousands of Michigan fans, and most of my friends root for the Maize and Blue, so I’ve heard a lot of this lately: Fire Rich Rod!!! (Their exclamation points, not mine.)
Ohio State defeated Michigan 37-7 today in a game that really wasn’t competitive past midway through the second quarter. It’s the seventh straight loss to the Buckeyes for Michigan, and it could be the final game for Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor.
Let me rephrase that, it should be the last game in Ann Arbor for Rich Rodriguez. Through three years, Rodriguez has won 15 games, six of which have come in Big Ten play. One of those wins came against the top half of the conference — a crazy victory over Wisconsin in his first season — and none of them have come against Michigan’s two biggest rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State.
Those are incredibly damning statistics, and while this team is obviously better than the last two years, there is no way any Michigan fan can claim enough progress has been made over these three years to be satisfied. The defense is awful, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change too much next year, as it will still be young and void of talent at most positions. That can partially be solved with a new defensive coordinator and scheme, but then again, it will be the third coordinator and scheme in four years, which can only cause confusion.
Then there’s the matter of the offense, which has the potential to be incredibly explosive. It also has the ability to completely sputter against good, physical defenses, like it did today against Ohio State.
The only reason to keep Rodriguez around is because of his offense, and I suppose you could make a decent argument that the Wolverines should score a lot again next year as most all of the offense is coming back. But one more year of that system, and the recruits Rodriguez is bringing in to run it will only further create a problem for the next coach, who no doubt will be in the “Michigan Man” mold, and run a power-based, play-action offense that has proven it can work in the Big Ten.
There’s also the thought that Michigan’s most prized target, Jim Harbaugh, has reached his peak at Stanford, and when Andrew Luck leaves for the NFL, Harbaugh could do the same. A Michigan offer could be the one thing to keep Harbaugh in the college ranks, as he’s an alum. But once he goes pro, he’s not coming back to the college game without being fired.
Michigan AD Dave Brandon has a big decision to make, but it also seems pretty crystal clear at this point. He has to fire Rich Rodriguez.
After Friday’s games, today might be a little anti-climactic, but there’s still plenty to be determined on college football’s more traditional day.
The Big Ten title is still up for grabs, with three teams — Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State — all tied at the top with one loss. If all three win, the BCS standings will decide who goes to the Rose Bowl. That will likely be Wisconsin, which has that edge going into today. If Wisconsin loses and the other two win, the BCS will again decide who goes to the Rose Bowl, as Ohio State and Michigan State did not play each other. It’s a problem the Big Ten will have solved next year when there’s a title game (two title contenders not playing each other, that is. As the Big 12 showed us two years ago, the BCS can still decide a divisional race if all hell breaks loose).
If Wisconsin wins, however, and either Ohio State or Michigan State lose, it will be a lot more clear cut. The Spartans get the bid with an Ohio State loss as they have the head-to-head edge over Wisconsin. The Badgers get it if Michigan State loses, because they hold that same edge over Ohio State.
So those are your scenarios (sure, there’s the “all three lose” scenario, as well, where Iowa is back in the mix, but I don’t want to force that upon you before noon). Here’s how it will play out. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember the first time you saw this picture — if you’ve seen it — and thought to yourself, “someone’s going to get killed catching a post pattern.”? Well, apparently the Big Ten — and the NCAA — thought the same thing, and Illinois and Northwestern will play their game today at Wrigley Field like you used to play in your backyard — always going toward the “good” end.
No, your eyes aren’t fooling you there. That is the goalpost attached to the wall at Wrigley. The wall that literally cuts into the paint of the end line.
The good news for Northwestern, Illinois and the Big Ten is that this mess of a field has drawn a lot of attention to a game that really doesn’t mean anything. People will tune in to see the wall in the endzone, and how the teams react to always going the same way.
It’s not the only game that is using a baseball field to create attention and ratings, as Notre Dame will play Army at Yankee Stadium tonight. The thought of these two playing at Yankee Stadium — even though it’s the new Yankee Stadium — has evoked a lot of memories of this historical rivalry. And these are two programs that love it when you’re focusing on history, because their history is a lot better than their present.
Both games are pulling in huge money for tickets, probably just for the spectacle. But even on a weak day in college football, neither game is big enough to crack the top five games of the week. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a huge fan of tough, defensive football. Not sloppy, crazy turnovers which make the defense look better football, but simply teams that make plays on the defensive side of the ball.
That being said, I don’t know if many games this season will match the excitement and entertainment value that Illinois and Michigan provided today. Michigan won 67-65 in overtime in a game that featured over 1,200 yards of total offense. It was the highest scoring game of the season between two Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
It featured everything that we have come to expect from a Michigan game. No defense. Explosive offensive plays. Long third down conversions. An injury to Denard Robinson. A great play from Tate Forcier. A brutal interception from Tate Forcier. A brutal fumble by Tate Forcier. A redemption TD drive by Tate Forcier. An absolutely atrocious defensive breakdown in overtime. A tip-drill touchdown on a crucial play in overtime. It really was a treat.
It’s a tough loss for Illinois which was in the middle of a huge turnaround year (it still is, with a chance to turn three wins into eight), but it’s not going to change anything the Illini do going forward. For Michigan, however, this could get interesting.
I have no clue what the Michigan administration is going to do with Rich Rodriguez, but I have to imagine that a bowl berth is enough of an improvement for him to see another year. At least that’s what I hear from my Michigan-fan friends.
This certainly cements the fact that Rodriguez needs to fire Greg Robinson in the offseason, if not yesterday. I understand Michigan’s defense is young, and there have been key injuries all around. But this is ridiculous. Purdue is pitiful, and it will probably score 30-plus against the Wolverines. I can’t imagine any scenario short of a Big Ten rule that states Michigan opponents must play offense with seven players that will see Wisconsin and Ohio State not score 40.
Although keeping Robinson around for a year would make for good viewing for the rest of us.
There’s no shame in losing to Iowa, even at home. I just want to get that out of the way right now.
There is shame, however, in winning four Big Ten games (two against Indiana) in a little more than two seasons. That’s what Rich Rodriguez and Michigan are looking at right now. Needless to say, that’s not sitting well with Michigan fans.
And it shouldn’t. Rodriguez is in his third year at Michigan, and the same problems keep coming up. He has an offense that’s explosive, but prone to turnovers and breakdowns against good teams. A big part of that is the fact he’s had a first-year starter in each of his three years. As good as Denard Robinson has been this year, I think people forget that he’s a sophomore who didn’t start until Week 1 against UConn.
The real problem, however, is the defense. Oh, the defense. Part of it’s scheme, as Michigan has recruited for, and dedicated itself to the 3-3-5. I don’t think that defense is built for the Big Ten, which features mostly teams that want to run the ball down your throat and hit you with play-action passing. But even more than that is the general lack of talent and fundamentals on the field. Sure, injuries have hurt, especially in the secondary, but that shouldn’t excuse a linebacker’s inability to tackle someone.
Today’s loss to Iowa dropped Michigan to 5-2 on the year, which isn’t bad, especially considering who the losses came to. But unless something changes quickly, the losses are going to continue to pile up. I have a hard time seeing the Wolverines beating Ohio State (which would put Rodriguez at 0-6 against the Buckeyes and Michigan State, his two biggest rivals), which is three losses. Wisconsin at home is winnable, but would you put your money on the Wolverines? How about against an improved Illinois team? Or even at Purdue, which seems to have found new life lately?
Michigan could realistically be looking at 7-5, or even 6-6. There’s no way Rodriguez survives that. The Michigan fanbase would have Dave Brandon’s head on a silver platter if he did.
At 8-4, I think there’s a clear improvement, but with losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State at the end of the year, would there be a bad enough taste in Michigan’s mouth to go elsewhere?
A couple things need to be looked at here, though, before Michigan thinks of pulling the plug. For one, Rodriguez has recruited specifically for his style, especially on offense, and if the Wolverines brought in a pro-style coach, you would expect at least one more transition year. Second, the man Michigan covets more than anyone is Jim Harbaugh. Would he be receptive to leaving Stanford for his alma mater? Would he go elsewhere if Michigan isn’t hiring this offseason? Let’s not get into the meltdown that could occur if Michigan fires Rodriguez and Harbaugh says no.
Michigan has a bye week coming up, and it couldn’t come at a better time for the Wolverines on the field. Off it, however, this will be the only topic of conversation for two weeks.
Both quarterbacks are crucial to their teams, as they’re perfect for the systems their coaches run. Mallett’s big arm is just what Bobby Petrino needs in Arkansas, and coming back at unbeaten Auburn could be a very difficult task without him.
Robinson is exactly the quarterback Rich Rodriguez needs to run his spread-option offense. His injury has forced Tate Forcier into action. Forcier responded by forcing a pass into coverage on his second drive, throwing an interception that led to a touchdown and a 21-point Iowa lead.
Meanwhile, in Nebraska, star freshman Taylor Martinez has been benched in favor of Zac Lee as the Cornhuskers are getting beat on by Texas.
Not a good day to be a Heisman-candidate quarterback, I suppose (unless you’re Cam Newton, who is carving up the Arkansas defense). Worried at all, Ohio State fans?
