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发帖数: 11198 | 1 Last Updated: November 26. 2010 12:57PM
Lynn Henning
Enough is enough: Michigan should make the change
This all-day, all-night media world has its pluses, and also its
entanglements.
A couple of radio interviews early this week in which I said something that
had been written a few times before — a personal opinion that Rich
Rodriguez will be fired as Michigan's head coach and replaced by Jim
Harbaugh — led to alarmed Tweets and a late-night phone call from the
Michigan Daily.
Supposedly, I was "reporting" that Rodriguez would be gone by Monday. That's
eminently different from thoughts and expectations that Dave Brandon,
Michigan's new athletic director, will have seen enough to justify making a
change in Michigan's football program — which, in fact, is what I believe
will happen after three seasons of substandard football in Ann Arbor.
There was never any "reporting" that this would be done. It was made clear
on those radio interviews — in response to direct questions — that this
was an opinion and that I could be dead wrong.
But changing coaches remains a personal expectation, all because Michigan
stands to have a terrible time Saturday at Ohio State as an exclamation
point to a season that hasn't been as good as its 7-4 record.
Brandon understands this fundamentally. It is why he has refrained from
saying the one thing that by now would have made the Rodriguez issue moot:
Rodriguez is my man.
But he won't say that because he appears to doubt that Rodriguez will get
things fixed in Ann Arbor: the defense, the slovenly play, the restoration
of a football tradition that never should have undergone such disruption.
Brandon instead seems poised to do what he has been doing since taking over
as Michigan's AD earlier this year.
He has been making changes — in staff, in culture, and in attacking soft
spots that a new CEO has identified in his 81/2 months as AD. It's logical,
if not imperative, that he make the same move in tackling a sport that is
Michigan's brand identity: football.
To believe otherwise is, in this view, to underestimate Brandon's mission to
turn around an athletic department that has been underachieving in its
spotlight sports.
To repeat, that this three-season nightmare at Michigan Stadium ever evolved
was as unnecessary as it was bizarre, given that the program had a 40-year
run of winning and a competitive roster when Lloyd Carr retired three years
ago.
Michigan got away from its Schembechler-Gary Moeller-Carr ways when Bill
Martin, who never seemed to understand that having Carr's successor in place
might be a good idea, went far afield, geographically and philosophically,
in hiring Rodriguez.
Frankly, it seemed at the time like a great call. Rodriguez had national
cachet. He had done a sterling job at West Virginia. He was also reputed to
be tough, fiery, intolerant of mistakes — and didn't this sound like a
certain coach who had begotten the modern era of football excellence at Ann
Arbor?
But for various reasons — and, yes, he should have had a few more players
aboard when he arrived — it hasn't worked. Rodriguez's offense is
interesting and entertaining. But there's not enough substance to the
football product in a conference where size, strength, and defense all count.
To believe that Brandon sees it otherwise is a stretch, if not fantasy. He
understands how U-M's return to bowl status, following a two-year sabbatical
, all came about:
Beating a so-so Connecticut team, scoring a touchdown in the final 27
seconds to win at Notre Dame; escaping against Massachusetts, 42-37;
bludgeoning Bowling Green; winning in the final minutes against Indiana;
outlasting Illinois by the comical score of 67-65; knocking off a banged-up,
second-division Purdue team.
Against the better competition, it hasn't gone as well, nor is it apt to be
a pretty sight at Ohio State on Saturday.
Does a new athletic director, not enthused over a football team's
performance, and very likely its prospects, stick with the status quo?
Beyond gut instincts that he won't, Brandon had an interesting response last
Friday when he was asked where he saw Michigan football in 2010. How would
he size up his football program at the end of this season, or any season?
"We expect to compete, and we want to have a program that regularly competes
for championships," he said.
"If there is progress, we continue to invest in the program. If you wake up
and see that we're moving sideways, and you don't see a clear path to
success, that's when you think about making changes."
What will he see following Saturday's expected demolition at Ohio Stadium,
all within the context of what has — and hasn't — happened with Michigan
football in 2010? Progress? Or a program that's more horizontal than
vertical?
Beating patty-cake teams and playing unimaginably bad defense figure to be a
combination Brandon won't easily accept when he decides where Michigan
football is headed, if, in fact, that decision hasn't already been made.
If he does opt for a new coach, Harbaugh is by far his best choice to do
everything the Wolverines are obliged to do — in a hurry.
I believe he would leave Stanford for Michigan in a heartbeat. He grew up
there when his dad was on Schembechler's staff. He played quarterback for
Schembechler and took the Wolverines to a Rose Bowl.
He wants to coach again in this conference, absolutely. He deeply wanted to
be considered for the Michigan State job four years ago before Mark Dantonio
was hired.
He would hit Ann Arbor like an intercontinental missile and provide as much
turnaround energy as any coach in the land could bring. And if you doubt it
for a moment, you don't know Harbaugh, or the job he has done at Stanford.
Those who say Harbaugh is more likely to opt for an NFL job are forgetting
his Michigan ties. They also are underestimating his football savvy.
Harbaugh understands that a college coach is his own personnel director. He
has control over his talent. He recruits his roster, with little
interference from above.
In the NFL, you must answer to a general manager, or bow to differences with
a personnel guru. Harbaugh is too good, too smart, to put up with conflict
there, a lesson Nick Saban learned during his brief and regrettable time in
the NFL.
The Wolverines are Harbaugh's dream job. He knows what can be achieved.
Almost instantly.
So, too, in all likelihood, does Brandon, who didn't take the job at
Michigan to accommodate football as it's now being played in Ann Arbor.
l**********[email protected]
From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20101126/OPINION03/11260389/Enough-is-enough--Michigan-should-make-the-change#ixzz16PlTOGUz |
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