If you haven't read the book yet, 3 and Out gives us the "behind the curtain" look at the Rich Rodriguez disaster at Michigan. It also sheds some light on 4 individuals that I will "take behind the BHB wood shed" today. I have already taken Bill Martin there. I still can't believe how he screwed up the coaching search and was so disconnected from the program. He acted like a paid consultant who worked 10 hours a week and spent more time Up North or in Florida.
The 4 guys taken to the wood shed today are Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez, Mike Rosenberg and David Brandon.
Lloyd Carr
If you follow this blog, you know I have mixed feelings on Lloyd Carr. To summarize those feelings, I thought Lloyd never wanted to be the head coach at Michigan. He was going to be a "Fred Jackson type" that was just a life long assistant coach who coached for Bo or one of Bo's guys. Lloyd found himself head coach "overnight" as Gary Moeller drank his career away in Southfield. Lloyd gave us a National Championship and confusing losses to OSU, USC, App State and Texas. He was regularly out coached by his peers outside the Big Ten.
I thought Lloyd was a fish out of water in the Big Chair of Michigan Football but I thought he ran a clean program, recruited hard, loved Michigan and was a man of integrity. Those last two points take a hit in this book.
Why?
#1: LC calls Rich Rodriguez out of the blue to ask if he is interested in coming to Michigan to coach. The reason he does this is to make sure Les Miles doesn't get the job. It's a known fact that LC hates the grass eater and would do everything possible to make sure he never coaches here.
#2: For reasons only Lloyd knows, he turns his back on Michigan Football and Rich as soon as he gets the job. He doesn't give RR direction and lets the former players take shots at Rich and what the program has become. Don't forget, Lloyd is still on the payroll at this point. His title is Assistant Athletic Director. Which was just a way for Michigan to pay the remaining years on his contract. From my perspective, Lloyd should of helped Rich because he recruited him and was getting paid to!
#3: After Rich was hired, Lloyd called a players meeting and told them that he would sign transfer papers for anyone who wanted to leave. Are you F'ing kidding me! Was this just the man at his retirement press conference that said, the reason he was announcing today was due to recruiting and making sure the program was on solid footing 2-3 years from now? He then goes and tells his players, if you want to get leave - I will help you. The players hadn't even met Rich or the his staff yet. This a clear attack against the establishment.
The book also details Rick Leach calling Lloyd out and pretty much keeping silent during the entire 3 years of the Rich Rod experience. Lloyd let the Michigan family fall apart around him and he acted like he either didn't care or masterminded the fall out. His love for Michigan and his professional ethics now should be highly in question.
Rich Rodriguez
I don't think this book did any favors for RR getting another job. It actually shows that he is a pretty good coach but a poor leader. Good leaders are great when times are good and bad. Rich felt the world was against him (and he was probably right) and he acted like it. He took hits from the media, WVU, fans and former Michigan players and the lawyers at Michigan just told him to stay quiet. He kept quiet and it killed him at Michigan.
He also made some major mistakes on the field. His defense is what killed him on the field at Michigan. He let Jeff Castell stay at WVU because they were going to pay him $10,000 more. Give me a break, he could of peeled that off his Salary or take it out of the $1M weight room. If Jeff was that important and most people "in the know" said he was. Find an extra $25,000 and get him here. What a terrible decision.
We know about other bad decisions like the banquet and how he handled many of his press conferences including the one on the first day of the job. He struggled with a Michigan Man complex and looking back at it now was not a very strong recruiter. He recruited a number of borderline guys academically and it cost him. He was recruiting scared and that is not the way you attract kids to Michigan. They didn't offer Jonathan Hankins a local DT until late in the recruiting cycle when he already had offers from OSU and Oklahoma. He is now starting as a Sophomore for the Buckeyes and played a ton as a freshman. Terrible decision. Jonathan wanted a Michigan offer and even camped at Michigan to get one, but the Michigan coaches thought he was too out of shape.
Rich had a ton against him at Michigan and he was clearly hired to be fired. Guys like Bill Martin hired him when he had a foot out the door and Lloyd Carr who recruited him suddenly came down with laryngitis for 3 years straight. With that said, he could have proved them wrong by going to two bowl games instead of one.
Regarding my earlier statement on his next job. If you were a major program looking for it's next coach would your read the book? It's basically is a 433 page resume on how he runs a program. I can see why RR didn't enjoy the final version of this book. I think the guy can coach, I just think neither he or Michigan did the proper research on this job before he took it. He was never the right fit, he was just a big name that was looking for a new gig.
David Brandon
David kept saying he didn't want to make a coaching decision until after the Gator Bowl, since the players and coaches had earned this trip. Instead of playing like they earned a "special treat" the Wolverines laid down during the 1st quarter. I was on the field after the game at it was 100% clear it was over and everyone knew it. So I'm not sure that strategy played out well.
Another theory in the book is that David wanted to make sure he kept attrition low with the upcoming coaching change and doing it in January would do that. I really don't see the logic in that strategy.
David should have fired RR and Staff after the OSU game. It would have allowed RR to get the Maryland job and David would of had much more runaway to discuss the job with The Harabaugh Brothers. Yes, John was offered as well. The book also says that they offered it to Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald. I think Pat is a good young coach, but what made him Michigan ready? How was he any different then RR? He has had very limited success in the Big Ten and was a defensive guy but has no idea on how Michigan works. This seems like a strange offer.
Lastly, David always says he has an open door policy to the players. But the book says he said No to meetings with Denard on the coaching situation a number of times. I hate hearing things like this, we all know Denard might have been supporting Rich Rod, but it's David's job to take the meeting. Mostly when it's your top guy.
Michael Rosenberg
This guy comes out off in the book as a buffoon who was un-prepared for the fallout against him. It amazes me how he thought he could write a story with little to no research that cost the University Millions of dollars, while at the same time releasing a book on the U of M. Rosenberg and Synder thought they were going to be Woodward and Bernstein and they came off like Abbott and Costello.
Michael was quoted that he couldn't believe the negative comments on Amazon regarding his U of M book right after the story released. Really? How could you not have known. He should feel lucky he has a job and that Michigan didn't sue him and the Freep for the damage he did to the program and the University. Make a smart decision and go cover Nascar or something. It seems to me the Freep needs a guy covering the Arena Football league.
This book is a difficult read and it changed my perception of many of the major players in the program. Everybody that was mentioned in the book, pretty much hates it. Those 3 years killed careers and some people's legacy with the program. It's a painful, sad read and I couldn't put it down.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Three and Out: Wood Shed Edition
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Do you want to know what makes me more upset then a terrible 4th and 1 call?
You know I have been pimping the book 3 and Out by John Bacon. He was asked a number of questions from the readers of Mgoblog and is responding to them in a series of posts on the top Michigan Blog.
Here is an excerpt from one of those posts which makes my blood boil:
The Rodriguez reign was fatally damaged by two main causes: the harm done by detractors inside and outside the program, and his own missed opportunities – from PR problems to those seven lost match points in 2009 and 2010, any one of which would probably have been enough to deliver him to a new era when he could focus more on football than survival. In particularly, I believe the 2009 game against Illinois, which blew up when Michigan failed to score on a first and goal from the one-yard line, marked the Continental Divide of the Rodriguez Era.
So, it’s not true that Rodriguez had no chance. He had seven. It is true, however, that his chances were greatly diminished by detractors inside and outside the program.
Assigning blame essentially boils down to weighing the factors above. But on one crucial point – really, the most important of all – there is absolutely no shade of gray whatsoever. Rodriguez, his staff, and his players (after the 2008 team graduated) worked extraordinarily hard to win every game.
Some powerful insiders, however, were working just as hard to see them fail. That is not a matter of degree. It’s a clear-cut, black-and-white difference – something I have never seen in all my years researching Michigan’s long and admirable history. But the people who suffered the most were the least to blame: the players.
Let me understand this; you use your power, influence and money to help destroy the program that you love? You actively work to hurt that program because you don't agree on the hire of the head coach?
Let me be 100% clear: You love and support this program un-conditionally a 110% or you can get the Hell OUT! I am not saying you have to agree with everything that happens in the program, I sure haven't. Everyone has the right to their own opinion, what I'm talking about is different.
I don't care if you were a coach for Michigan, attended Michigan, played for Michigan or lived in Ann Arbor your entire life. If you proactively try to hurt the program for any reason, you need to get the Hell Out and should never be welcomed back to Schembechler Hall ever!
Congratulations Insiders! Your plan worked, RR is gone and so is his staff. It only cost us, 3 seasons and the hard work of 100 young men where their only reward was a butt whipping in Jacksonville. As John points out above, the people that were really hurt in this process were the players.
I am happy where the program is headed but I don't think we needed to ruin lives to get here, I really don't. If Bo was alive he would never have let this happen, never!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Michigan Monday: 3 and Out 1-100
I'm not a big novel guy. I don't read fiction, it really doesn't interest me at all. My parents growing up tried to get me to read novels but I just wasn't interested. If I was going to read something it was going to be the sports page in the newspaper. I found it much more entertaining watching a movie then ever reading a book.
All my life I have been watching the most intriguing movie ever written, called Michigan Football. From the days of Anthony Carter beating Indiana to now watching the electric Denard Robinson. I still get that nervous feeling on game days and can't imagine a better Saturday afternoon then watching football at the Big House or on TV with the family.
Like most Michigan fans, I have been eagerly waiting for John Bacon's book called 3 and Out regarding the behind the scenes soap opera which has been the last 3 years of Michigan football. I have been looking for the answers to all my questions:
- How could have Bill Martin not been prepared to replace Lloyd Carr?
- Why was the coaching search such a train wreck?
- Why did the Freep have it out for RR?
- How did RR not see how bad the defense was?
- Where was all this negative information about RR coming from?
- Where the hell was Lloyd Carr?
- Was Tate just lazy and didn't want to go to class?
IBooks has the first 100 pages available to download with the release of the book due out in a couple of weeks. I sat down and read them in what seemed like a few minutes last night. The first 100 basically starts to paint the story of John getting behind the scenes access through a common connection with RR. The goal was write a success story similar to Fielding H. Yost who grew up in West Virgina and became a Michigan legend. As we know, that story never played out and Rich's story became an Ann Arbor tragedy.
John does a good job telling the history of Michigan football and Rich's early coaching experience. None of what I read really surprised me, except one thing. John talks about how Michigan Football changed the day Bo died. I never really thought of it that way, but boy was he right. Even when Bo wasn't the AD or Head Coach he still controlled the program. The day he died the Maize and Blue world changed and it wasn't a change for the better. Michigan lost 4 straight games after Bo died and we all know the stories of those on the field losses.
What I didn't realize until reading this book was that Lloyd Carr wasn't really the head coach, Bo was. Even if he was President of Tigers or sitting at home. He controlled Michigan Football, sure Lloyd and his coaches recruited and called the plays but Bo still had his finger on the button. I personally never felt Lloyd wanted to be the head coach of Michigan. To me that never seemed to be his goal. He got thrust into the job after Gary Moeller had a very bad night in Southfield and he sort of felt it was his duty to continue Bo legacy's or mission. I didn't know what type of leader Lloyd was or if he really could coach. His situation always reminded me of Steve Fisher, both of them found themselves head coaches of a powerful Michigan program overnight and they both had a National Championship to their credit.
I was very critical of Lloyd in his last year as coach. He had one of the most talented teams in the country and one that was clearly not prepared to start the 2007 season. I wasn't sure what his issues were but he clearly no longer wanted to be the head coach of Michigan. His retirement came as a relief for me and a chance for Michigan to get some new blood in place and a chance to turn this battleship into something special again. A team that could beat any team in the country on any given Saturday.
Love or hate RR, it really doesn't mater. We all can agree that his time was up after the Gator Bowl and we seem to be back on the right track sitting here with Hoke, Mattison and Borgus at 6-0. But back 3 years ago, when Bill Martin pretty much messed up the coaching search in every way possible, he tripped over and landed one of the hottest coaches out there. A guy that had just turned down Alabama; a guy that could run an offense and knew about getting teams to BCS Bowls. What he really didn't know was the mess that was going on behind the curtain at Michigan. There is an old saying in coaching; "you don't want to be the guy that replaces the legend, you want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaced the legend". I always thought at Michigan the guy that replaced Bo was Gary Moeller, it turns out that it really was Rich Rodriguez.
We all know the story on the field, I hope the rest of John's book will lets us connect the dots off the field. The first 100 pages really makes you think, I am betting the rest of the book with shine a light on how the program was in decline even before RR got there and what he did and didn't do to try to right the ship. We know now that RR wasn't the savior that I had hoped he was but was he cannon fodder? Use Alabama as an example - how many coaches did they go through after Bear Bryant retired and before Saban came to town and turned the program around? (The answer is 6, if you don't count Mike Price who never coached a game at Bama before getting fired) Maybe Michigan should feel lucky if Hoke is our guy and that it only took 3 years to find him*
It's clearly a must read.
*Common Michigan Disclaimer: I know Hoke is only 6 games into his Michigan career and even though he seems like the guy that lets his coordinators coach and goes for it on 4th and 1 in the first half, it still might be a little pre-mature to crown him the next Bo Schembechler.
