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Do IT this week: Layering
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
POSTED: 08:22 p.m. EST, Nov 21, 2009
ANN ARBOR, MICH.: They played Hail to the Victors as Michigan's players trudged off the field Saturday at the Big House.
Some Wolverines walked arm in arm.
Others shed tears of men.
Others walked off with heads down, forlorn.
This was Michigan after a 21-10 loss to Ohio State.
Mighty, proud Michigan humbled one more time by Jim Tressel's Ohio State Buckeyes.
A few minutes later, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez spent the better part of his postgame analysis acting like a battered, badgered coach. He mentioned all kinds of factors that affect his team, most important a ''faction'' of ''negativity'' that surrounds it.
Unlike his team, he was very defensive.
''I'm tired of being humbled,'' he said, leaning over a podium, smirking at some questions, shaking his head at others.
Cleary this is a man who feels cornered — trampled by what he views as unfair criticisms of his two seasons as a coach of the Maize and Blue.
''It's what we do,'' Rodriguez said of his record. ''It's not who we are.''
Spoken like a coach who has gone 8-16.
Rodriguez started with a nine-loss season, a school record. His second season started 4-0 and ended 5-7, the only win in the final eight games over Delaware State.
The consecutive losing seasons are the first at Michigan since 1962 and '63.
Michigan used to be known for punishing offensive linemen, an unforgiving running game and sound, fundamental, classy football.
Rodriguez brought an entirely new system up north, with players running around like potato bugs and things like tempo and pace emphasized.
Pace should be reserved for the first lap at the Indianapolis 500. Michigan football has become a phantom of itself, with the phantom haunted by a ghost in a sweater vest.
''It was a humbling season for us,'' Michigan wide receiver Ray Roundtree said.
''How much does a man [have] to be humbled?'' Rodriguez asked.
The problem is not Rodriguez's spread system. It can work, and he can win with it.
The problem is that in hiring a guy from out of the ''family'' and paying his $4 million buyout to West Virginia, Michigan turned its apple cart upside down and inside out.
Rodriguez's spread offense required a complete do-over.
He can say he saw his team's problems two games into his tenure (which he did say Saturday), but that's the easy cop-out.
Lloyd Carr isn't around.
Carr simply recruited a different kind of player for a different kind of system. To convert to the spread requires three years, minimum, of new recruits. It requires some of the inherited players to transfer — and some did, including Justin Boren to Ohio State — and new ones brought in.
This leaves once-mighty Michigan playing with two freshmen at quarterback, one of whom turned the ball over five times Saturday. Truth be told, Michigan had chances to beat OSU, but for the turnovers. (And but for the rain in Johnstown, it was a lovely day.)
Add on an NCAA investigation and possible sanctions — emphasis on possible — and the success that Jim Harbaugh is having in Stanford and Rodriguez's hunker-down-in-the-bunker moments shouldn't be surprising.
Harbaugh is a member of the Michigan family, after all, and there are many Michigan fans who would like nothing better than to see him return.
Doing that, though, would mean the Wolverines would have to fire a coach two years into a five-year contract, and it would mean the school is what it's always said it's not — a university that stresses football over principles.
Asked if he had been told anything about his job security, Rodriguez smirked and looked away. Pressed on the question, he said no and then said he expected to be back.
He also said he sees better days ahead.
''Maybe some of y'all don't,'' he said. ''Some people don't want to paint a positive picture because they like to be negative.''
He said people have tried to divide the team and added folks who want ''instant gratification'' are not realistic.
''But I'm a big boy,'' he said. ''It's a big-boy business. I've won a few in the past, and we'll win some more in the future.''
When Tressel was hired at Ohio State, he pointed to the Michigan game and knew the number of days until it was played.
He has won six in a row over the Wolverines, an Ohio State best, which matches the longest streak in the series (Michigan won six in a row in the 1920s).
He owns the rivalry.
He might even have eliminated the rivalry, because it's not a rivalry when one team dominates.
''We'll beat Ohio State when we're better than them,'' Rodriguez said.
Charge through the tunnel on that one, men.
Determining when and how that happens will be an interesting challenge for folks in Ann Arbor, where athletic director Bill Martin will retire in September.
Sticking with Rodriguez means another class recruited to his style, which means if next year is bad and a change is needed, a new coach will need two or three more years to get his players in place.
That could add up to six years of struggles. At Michigan.
Just a hunch, but it does not seem that any of this causes much anguish in Columbus.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohio.com/mcmanamon/. Follow Pat on Twitter @patmcmanamon.
ANN ARBOR, MICH.: They played Hail to the Victors as Michigan's players trudged off the field Saturday at the Big House.
Some Wolverines walked arm in arm.
Others shed tears of men.
Others walked off with heads down, forlorn.
This was Michigan after a 21-10 loss to Ohio State.
Mighty, proud Michigan humbled one more time by Jim Tressel's Ohio State Buckeyes.
A few minutes later, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez spent the better part of his postgame analysis acting like a battered, badgered coach. He mentioned all kinds of factors that affect his team, most important a ''faction'' of ''negativity'' that surrounds it.
Unlike his team, he was very defensive.
''I'm tired of being humbled,'' he said, leaning over a podium, smirking at some questions, shaking his head at others.
Cleary this is a man who feels cornered — trampled by what he views as unfair criticisms of his two seasons as a coach of the Maize and Blue.
''It's what we do,'' Rodriguez said of his record. ''It's not who we are.''
Spoken like a coach who has gone 8-16.
Rodriguez started with a nine-loss season, a school record. His second season started 4-0 and ended 5-7, the only win in the final eight games over Delaware State.
The consecutive losing seasons are the first at Michigan since 1962 and '63.
Michigan used to be known for punishing offensive linemen, an unforgiving running game and sound, fundamental, classy football.
Rodriguez brought an entirely new system up north, with players running around like potato bugs and things like tempo and pace emphasized.
Pace should be reserved for the first lap at the Indianapolis 500. Michigan football has become a phantom of itself, with the phantom haunted by a ghost in a sweater vest.
''It was a humbling season for us,'' Michigan wide receiver Ray Roundtree said.
''How much does a man [have] to be humbled?'' Rodriguez asked.
The problem is not Rodriguez's spread system. It can work, and he can win with it.
The problem is that in hiring a guy from out of the ''family'' and paying his $4 million buyout to West Virginia, Michigan turned its apple cart upside down and inside out.
Rodriguez's spread offense required a complete do-over.
He can say he saw his team's problems two games into his tenure (which he did say Saturday), but that's the easy cop-out.
Lloyd Carr isn't around.
Carr simply recruited a different kind of player for a different kind of system. To convert to the spread requires three years, minimum, of new recruits. It requires some of the inherited players to transfer — and some did, including Justin Boren to Ohio State — and new ones brought in.
This leaves once-mighty Michigan playing with two freshmen at quarterback, one of whom turned the ball over five times Saturday. Truth be told, Michigan had chances to beat OSU, but for the turnovers. (And but for the rain in Johnstown, it was a lovely day.)
Add on an NCAA investigation and possible sanctions — emphasis on possible — and the success that Jim Harbaugh is having in Stanford and Rodriguez's hunker-down-in-the-bunker moments shouldn't be surprising.
Harbaugh is a member of the Michigan family, after all, and there are many Michigan fans who would like nothing better than to see him return.
Doing that, though, would mean the Wolverines would have to fire a coach two years into a five-year contract, and it would mean the school is what it's always said it's not — a university that stresses football over principles.
Asked if he had been told anything about his job security, Rodriguez smirked and looked away. Pressed on the question, he said no and then said he expected to be back.
He also said he sees better days ahead.
''Maybe some of y'all don't,'' he said. ''Some people don't want to paint a positive picture because they like to be negative.''
He said people have tried to divide the team and added folks who want ''instant gratification'' are not realistic.
''But I'm a big boy,'' he said. ''It's a big-boy business. I've won a few in the past, and we'll win some more in the future.''
When Tressel was hired at Ohio State, he pointed to the Michigan game and knew the number of days until it was played.
He has won six in a row over the Wolverines, an Ohio State best, which matches the longest streak in the series (Michigan won six in a row in the 1920s).
He owns the rivalry.
He might even have eliminated the rivalry, because it's not a rivalry when one team dominates.
''We'll beat Ohio State when we're better than them,'' Rodriguez said.
Charge through the tunnel on that one, men.
Determining when and how that happens will be an interesting challenge for folks in Ann Arbor, where athletic director Bill Martin will retire in September.
Sticking with Rodriguez means another class recruited to his style, which means if next year is bad and a change is needed, a new coach will need two or three more years to get his players in place.
That could add up to six years of struggles. At Michigan.
Just a hunch, but it does not seem that any of this causes much anguish in Columbus.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohio.com/mcmanamon/. Follow Pat on Twitter @patmcmanamon.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 10:06 PM, 11/21/2009
After the way Rodriguez scrooed West Virginia, he deserves all the failure he can possibly get. The fact that it's at Michigan just makes it that much sweeter.
Metairie, LA
Posted 11:16 PM, 11/21/2009
Give Rodriguez a 20 year contract at Michigan.
