Holy F@#$in' Sh#$!

As I walked my son to the gate at the north end of the stadium at halftime, I found myself wondering just how bad this season was going to get. Could they keep the bowl streak alive? Could they even get to four wins? As bad as the first half had been, nothing was guaranteed. I felt going into the season that this was going to be our toughest game outside of Columbus, and after seeing us get pushed around a little by a pretty ordinary Notre Dame rushing attack, I was intellectually prepared for this to be a loss. But emotionally, I wasn't ready for what I witnessed in the first half against the Badgers. 21 yards total yards. Negative passing yards. 3 dozen turnovers. No blocking from the Oline, bad throws by the quarterback. This was a nightmare. And what's worse, unlike the twin disasters that opened last year, there was no promise that it was going to get better.

So when my six year old son asked to go home with about a minute left in the half, I agreed to call his mom to come pick him up. I wanted to tell him to tough it out, that you never leave a game early. But he's still a new football fan, and I didn't want to sour him on the experience. When we met my wife at the gate amongst a rush of fans looking to head back to the tailgate, my wife asked me if I was going to stay. I'd like to say I chose to stay because I thought they had a snowball's chance in South Bend of making the game interesting. I'd like to say I stayed out of some sort of "never give up, never surrender" attitude. But the truth was, I simply didn't have anything better to do. I was resigned to our fate, and felt if I was going to be depressed about it, I'd rather do it with my dad, my friend, and 100 thousand other suffering fans.

When they got their first first down in the third quarter we joined the entire stadium in a sarcastic Bronx cheer. We decided to keep score ourselves, giving Michigan three points for every first down, to see if they could catch up to Wisconsin that way. About halfway through the third, I realized that the nation's longest scoring streak (October 1984 at Iowa was the last time we were shut out) was in jeopardy. When we scored the first TD, I was just happy they were fighting a little bit, maybe finding something that might help them next week. When Brandon Minor scampered in from 40 yards out on a great call from RR and Calvin McGee, I turned to my friend and commented, "Wouldn't it be ironic if that tackle of the Wisconsin defender at the three as time expired in the first half ended up being the difference in the game?" I think we all figured that Wisconsin would move the ball down the field, chew up some clock, maybe kick a FG and that would be that. We were just happy that they had fought back.

When John Thompson intercepted the tipped pass on the very next play and followed a herd of defensive lineman into the end zone, I kept shouting at the top of my lungs, "Holy F'in Sh#$, Holy F'in Sh@#!!" We had no business even being in this game, let alone leading it halfway through the fourth quarter. The Badger fans near us were absolutely stunned. I thought about taunting some of them, but I didn't have the heart, and I knew the game wasn't over. When Steven Threet pulled off that beautiful fake and 70 yard run, I kept shouting it again, and could hear echoes of the ghost of Bob Ufer, "He faked the ball to Minor, and the whole Wisconsin defense and yours truly went with Minor, and Threet tucked the ball and went down that sideline like a penguin with a hot herring in his cummerbund." When McGuffie punched it in a few plays later, the nightmare had become the unlikeliest of dreams.

The Badger offense finally awoke, helped by their all everything TE Travis Beckum, who hadn't played all game, and pulled off two stellar drives with a number of plays where we seemed to be just a step late for the game sealing interception. Only when that onside kick went out of bounds, did we exhale and exult. We had stolen a game, plain and simple.

I think this was Rich Rod's Virginia game. In his first career game, Lloyd Carr's team came back from 17 points down to beat a good Virginia team 18-17. Like this game, it was a game the other team dominated all game, but just didn't cash in their opportunities when they had them. That win was Carr's signature win for most of his first season, until they upset Ohio State, and it showed everyone that Michigan football was going to be just fine under Carr. This game is a signature win for Rich Rod, at least for right now. There will be more ups and downs in this season, but this win was reassurance for all of us who were worrying as we walked around the stadium at halftime that Michigan football will survive. That resiliency that we loved so much under Coach Carr hasn't gone away. There will be new heroes, new thrills, and many triumphs to come.

While You Were Away

This post is mainly for my dad, who unlike the rest of us, has a life, and doesn't obsessively check the blogs, message boards and RSS feeds for news everyday of the off-season.

Michigan has had a pretty active off-season, perhaps the most eventful in 40+ years. A little synopsis for you. Please take notes as there will be a quiz before you enter the stadium for the first time this year.

Lloyd Carr retired the Monday after the OSU game. Said most of the usual retirement press conference stuff (had a great time, will miss lots of people, no opinion on who the next coach is, trusts Bill Martin to get it right, etc). The coach search was a wild ride of rumors, non-denial denials, plane tracking, and all out meltdowns on various message boards. At one time or another, the following coaches were rumored to be coming here: Les Miles (2 or 3 different rumors), Kirk Ferentz, Greg Schiano, & Jim Grobe. Finally, when it looked like all hope was lost, Rich Rodriguez was announced as the new coach. He dismissed all of the prior assistant coaches, hiring only RB coach Fred Jackson back. He brought a number of his coaches from West Virginia with him, and hired a new LB coach and defensive coordinator.


People in West Virginia were not happy that Rodriguez would leave his alma mater to come here. The University sued Rodriguez shortly after he left to collect his $4 million buyout. Rodriguez vowed to fight it. A six battle ensued, which included a lot of name calling, some silly posturing, and eventually ended up with Rodriguez paying WVU $1.5 million over two years, and the UofM paying $2.5 million. Some people in the local media saw this settlement as indicative of a character flaw on Rodriguez's part.


A number of players left the team after the bowl game. Receivers Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington declared for the NFL and were drafted. QB Ryan Mallet transferred to his home state of Arkansas, stating that he didn't feel that he was a good fit for Rodriguez's new spread offense. Rumor around the blogs was that he might have transferred even if Lloyd had stayed. Offensive lineman Justin Boren, who started 12 games at center and guard last year and is the son of former linebacker Mike Boren, announced he was leaving after the first day of spring practice, stating that he felt that the "family values" of Michigan were eroding under the new staff. He subsequently enrolled at Ohio State, along with his younger brother Zach, who was offered a scholarship there only after Justin transferred. Despite comments from former players, like Desmond, who supported Rodriguez and cited rumors that Boren left because he wasn't guaranteed his starting spot back, some people in the local media saw this as indicative of a character flaw on Rodriguez's part.


Recruiting went well. The Wolverines received commitments from nine players after Rodriguez took over, including a number of players who committed on or right before signing day. A couple of players actually decommitted from other schools to commit to Michigan. This prompted a tirade from Purdue coach Joe Tiller, where he chastised Rodriguez for breaking a "Gentleman's Agreement" between Big Ten coaches not to recruit players who have publicly committed to other Big Ten schools. Tiller referred to Rodriguez as a snake-oil salesman in a wizard hat. Some people in the local media saw this as a character flaw on Rodriguez's part, even though recent history shows that just about every big ten schools has poached recruits from other big ten schools in a similar manner.


Rodriguez brought with him Mike Barwis, the strength and conditioning coach at WVU. After getting a big upgrade to the weight room facilities, Barwis has proceeded to totally revamp the strength and conditioning program, and has become somewhat of a folk hero among the Michigan blogosphere. Depending on which urban legends you choose to believe, he owns a couple of wolves for pets, he used to be an mixed martial arts participant, has never had a player miss an entire season due to injury, and will turn mere mortals into superhuman football machines. He has gotten rave reviews from all of the current players, a whole host of former players now playing in the NFL, both from here and West Virginia, who came to Ann Arbor this summer to work out with him. The hype about him got so deep at one point that MSU had to put out a story about their S&C guys, and how they were just as good as Barwis.


In March, the Ann Arbor News unvailed a huge four part story about Academics and Athletics at Michigan. The articles claimed, among other things, that the athletic department steered kids to certain easier majors (general studies), certain professors who were friendly to the AD, and encouraged independent study programs, and athletes were admitted to school who normally wouldn't go to college. The University of course quickly refuted the report's claims. The reaction from the national media was was one of indifference. When I saw Golden in April, he wondered why this was even a story. This is just standard operating procedure at Division I schools.


Our stadium is undergoing some significant upgrades. Despite some initial skepticism, most reaction seems to be positive. The AD has been warning people to arrive to games earlier, however, do to longer lines to enter the stadium. Construction of the $250 million project is due to be completed prior to the 2010 season. Also under construction is a new practice facility.


After signing a multi-million dollar in July 07, Adidas introduced the new Michigan jerseys. The home jersey remains virtually the same as the last Nike jersey, with the swoosh replaced with the three lines. The road jersey contains large yellow stripes along the sides that has not been warmly received.


So there you have it. Despite all the negativity from the main stream media and national pundits, the Michigan blogosphere seems somewhat upbeat about there chances, with predictions centering around 8-4 or 7-5, with promises of death and destruction for Michigan's enemies in 2009 and beyond.

Catching up with the Michigan Blogosphere

Items:
1) M Zone says goodbye, so long, and thanks for all the fish. They will be missed. How else are we going to keep Colin Cowherd in line? I moved them down from Daily Reads. Our source for BBall recruiting news, UMHoops, takes their place.

2)Ronald Bellamy's Underachieving All-Stars returns with great post about setting up an interview with Lloyd Carr that highlights all the things we loved the most about our former coach. Hopefully RBUAS will find a contact in the new regieme and will be able to continue his excellent work. I've returned him to the Other Fine Sites to See list.

3) Brian from MGoBlog writes of any interesting court case involving Duke football @ AOL Fan House. To summarize, in order to avoid damages for breaking their four game contract to play Louisville lawyers for Duke had to argue that Duke football is so bad that Louisville wasn't really harmed by not playing them, since any college team they pick up will be a suitable replacement. Apart from being really funny for North Carolina fans and all others who dislike Duke football, this case does have some implications in the Rich Rod vs WVU case. Now I'm no lawyer, but my understanding of the case is that in order to prove that Rod's departure has caused them damage equal to $4 million dollars, WVU lawyers will have to prove that his replacement is significantly worse. Just about every 'Neer fan alive will be rooting for an undefeated season for WVU and a crash and burn for Michigan, but it might be in their interest for the opposite to happen.

4) A Michigan blog with large type called Go Blue Michigan Wolverine (not apparently related to the Scout site of similar name) posts a interesting article about academic support for the athletes. The upshot, despite publicly rejecting the conclusions of the infamous Ann Arbor News report, the AD appears to be taking steps to shore up some of the issues raised in that investigation.

5)Finally, Fingerle Lumber has put their 7 acre site in AA up for sale for $21.95 million. Why is that relevant to sports fans? Fingerle's site is just to the north of the athletic campus and there have been some rumors around town that the university is looking to purchase that land to possibly expand the campus. Perhaps some more athletic facilities, or possibly even a new dorm.

Oh, one more thing, I added a section with non-sports sites. Mostly friends' blogs, but I will put a few other things there from time to time.

Glasnost

For many years, off-seasons in Michigan football was about as exciting as watching paint dry. The only time you ever got any verifiable news was at the signing day press conference, the spring practice news conference and at the start of fall practice. Even then you hard to read between the lines to figure things out: "Lloyd only used one 'tremendous' when describing Steve Schilling, but used two on Mike Boren, so Boren must be further along in practice." You'd hear rumors of things from Rivals or Scout message boards, but you could never be sure of what was real and what was just rumors. Information was horded like water in the Sahara. You needed a kremlinologist just to figure out what was going on. In short, there was a reason why the football building was known as "Fort Schembechler"
But in the last two days, we have gotten more relevant information from Rich Rod than we did in 13+ years of Lloyd Carr. First, he went on the Jim Rome show and announced that in all likely hood Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington were leaving for the NFL, and he hadn't heard from Ryan Mallet. He then followed that up with an impromptu news conference at half time of the Michigan / IU basketball game, where he confirmed the departures of the three offensive stars, and stated we hoped to get a full class of 25 players. Now, in a normal off-season, the loss of most of our offense from this year would send most M fans into a funk. But the fact that this info came from the head coach pretty much as it was happening is so mind blowing as to soften the blow of losing these players.
This truly is a Brave New World.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

I don't understand why everyone seems to think the SEC is all that great. Every time we play them we win (13-4-1 all time now, including 7-3 in bowl games) Don't know why the Buckeyes seem to have so much trouble;-)

All kidding aside, what a great win against a very dangerous offensive team. The coaching staff gets all the credit in the world for coming out swinging, and not letting up on the offense all game. While fans around the country might think this was something radically different for Michigan, this is actually something that Michigan fans recognize. For a long time Michigan fans have lamented Lloyd Carr's "two offenses" philosophy. Carr has admitted in the past that the offense has two purposes, one is to score, the other is to possess the ball to keep it away from the other team. This philosophy manifests itself most of the time in a conservative, run or die trying offense that is the dinosaur that most fans associate with Michigan. But sometimes when Michigan gets down big, or needs to score late in a game, they will come out in four or five wide and will throw the ball all over the field. The difference in this game is that they played the entire game as if they were down 14 midway through the fourth quarter.
-They also added a number of trick plays, or variations of things that they normally don't run. The attempted a pass to tackle Jake Long. They ran a number of WR sweeps to Manningham. They ran a throw back pass where Manningham threw it back to Henne who threw it down field. They ran a beautiful throw back screen to TE Carson Butler that went for big yards. Basically they left no stone unturned, and tried everything but the kitchen sink. It was a thing of beauty, and something Michigan fans have been clamoring for for a long time. I wonder if Rich Rod offered any help with the game plan.
-Henne and Arrington probably made themselves a bunch of money today. There will be other QBs taken ahead of Henne, but he could be a real steal for some team. His performance today was the best by a Michigan QB since Tom Brady's 3-TD, 369 yard game against Alabama in the 2000 Orange bowl. Hopefully Arrington will be back next year, but he looked like the next great Michigan receiver. It would be a huge plus for us if Rich Rod can convince him and Super Mario to return.
-I think today's game, and the preparation leading up to demonstrate why Scott Loeffler and Erik Campbell should be rehired.
-If anyone tries to tell you that this was a win for midwest muscle over southern speed, tell them to go back and check the tape. Michigan was the faster team. Yes, Harvin is very fast, but Michigan's receivers ran circles around the Florida DBs. The Michigan Dline dominated the Florida offensive line by stunting and blitzing them to death.
-So what does this win mean in the grand scheme of things? They broke their bowl losing streak, showed an exciting, dynamic offense, and beat one of college football's "golden boys" in Urban Meyer. It means that we aren't as stuck in the stone ages as had been talked about. The transition to Rich Rod might not be as painful as we thought. The Michigan personnel isn't as incompatible with the spread as some in the media suggested. The next month or so should be very interesting, with new coaches, and new recruiting news almost every day.
-Finally, this win just feels right because of Lloyd's departure. He's a real mensch who always cared about developing men as much as developing players. It just wouldn't have been right for him to leave with a three game losing streak.

Other Stuff:
-Memo to the *uckeye fans who were congratulating Michigan fans on the win Thanks, but don't go thinking that our win tells us anything about your game with LSU. The team that played today was totally different than the one you beat in November: focused, healthy, and loose. If they played against you the way they did today, you'd have lost to Florida today, while we would have been subjected to another loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. And of course, LSU doesn't the same weaknesses Florida does on defense.
-Too bad the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl couldn't have switched opponents to create USC-Georgia and Illinois-Hawaii match-ups. Those would have been a lot more compelling. I like that the lower conferences have a shot at the BCS now (albeit a slim one). Hawaii deserved a BCS bid, just like the champion of the Atlantic Sun deserves a spot in the Big Dance. The fact that they were blown out doesn't change that. Illinois, on the other hand, didn't belong in the Rose Bowl. Certainly not when Missouri was available. I wouldn't be surprised if they a big disappointment next year and miss a bowl game.
-As an outsider, I like the Neuheisel hire by UCLA. Despite his past transgressions, he will bring a an excitement to the program, and might be just the guy to match Pete Carroll's youthful exuberance. If he gets Norm Chow as his OC, things could get real exciting in the City of Angels.

Viva La Revolution!!

After almost a month of stumbling, public rejections, message board panic attacks, and a weird mating dance with a certain SEC West coach, Sailor Bill Martin and his first mate Mary Sue Coleman managed to back their way into a top five coach, Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia.
-My initial reaction: shock, excitement and relief that the whole search process is finally over, and the new era of Michigan football can go forward. I can finally get some work done, because I don't have to check the message boards and blogs every fifteen minutes to see the latest rumor from "insiders" who were just as in the dark as we were. I'm still pinching myself to see if this is real. Rich Rod is a better coach than each of the guys we were rumored to have talked to previously. Outside of Stoops, Meyer, Carroll, and Tressel, he is probably the hottest coaching commodity out there. He is young, has extensive head coaching experience, and is know as on the great offensive innovators in coaching today. We were able to pry him away from his alma mater without paying him a ridiculous SEC-type salary ($2.4 / year).
-After listening to his press conference, there is no doubting that he is a complete 180 from the last 40 years. He is warm, personable, accessible to fans, and will keep press conferences light and funny. He seemed to indicate that there will be some open practices in the spring, something that Carr would never even consider. Perhaps there might even be a real spring game. Of course he brings an offense that will look totally different than Carr's tradition pro set. He has run both pass heavy and run heavy spread offenses in the past, and has said he will adept to the personnel here. The guess is that the offense will be more pass and less run the next couple of years, until they get decent running QB in here after Mallet graduates.
-It sounds like he will bringing a lot of his own assistants with him, which means favorite whipping boys Andy Moeller, Mike Debord and Mike Gittleson will probably be leaving.
-Despite my excitement at the hire, I do feel a little melancholy that it was not Les Miles. Although Miles is clearly not in Rich Rod's league as an offensive coach, his very strong emotional connection to Michigan would have been very special to watch. Whereas Rodriguez was very matter of fact in his press conference, saying he had to learn about Michigan's tradition, Miles would have had everyone in tears at his press conference. I feel like a high school kid who asks the prettiest girl in the school to the prom, figuring the worst she can do is say no. When she says yes, he is amazed and thrilled, but feels bad for his next door neighbor who he has know forever and had said she would go to the prom with him if he couldn't find a date.
-I do wonder where Les Miles goes from here. Clearly Miles wanted the job. The fan base and alumni wanted him. There were reports that he had tried to contact Bill Martin and Mary Sue Coleman over the weekend, looking for one more chance to plead his case. On the radio after the press conference, Detroit News writer, Angelique Chengelis, who is generally well connected to Lloyd Carr, said that she thought that the infamous meeting Miles had with Martin and Coleman consisted of Miles trying to convince them to offer him the job. She also stated that she didn't think he was ever going to be offered the job. Reading between the line, you can surmise that Lloyd Carr probably stood in the way of Miles and the job. So now, having been rejected by Michigan, Miles has to go back to LSU, knowing that he won't get another shot at the job, and knowing that his opponents in the SEC are whispering in every recruit's ear that Miles wanted to leave LSU, but that Michigan didn't want him. As competitive as the SEC is, that might be just enough for his program to get off track and end up 7-5 or 8-4, instead of 10-2 or 11-1.

-Over one hundred years ago, an offensive genius from a little town in West Virginia and turned a football program that was little more than an intermural program into the greatest tradtion in college football. Here's hoping that Rich Rod can be half as successful at Meeechingan as Coach Yost.

Abyssinia, Lloyd

We've suspected it was coming for some time, but I must admit my heart sank a little when I read Mgoblog's post yesterday. We may complain about his stubbornness or his play calling, but on the whole, I think that Lloyd is one of the best coaches in college football. I've said before that I think that a college coach has to do five things well to be successful. They have to recruit, teach, motivate, strategize, and publicize the program. Although he is not a great X and O guy, Carr makes up for it by being among the best recruiters in the country, an excellent motivator, a great teacher, and a tremendous ambassador for the program. He has won 75% of his games, has a record against top ten teams that is among the best in history, and brought Michigan its first national championship in 50 years. He's done all this without so much as a hint of a scandal. Although he can be a little bit of a curmudgeon when dealing with the media, he is as classy a coach as you can find. He never runs up the score, and often goes out of his way to commend the opposition for their efforts (remember his Orange Bowl post game interview).

My Lloyd Carr story took place in the spring of 1997. Carr's team was coming off back to back four loss seasons, and there was some suggestions that Carr might be in over his head. At the time I was student teaching at a middle school here in Ann Arbor. The teacher that was coordinating the 8th grade graduation ceremony was a huge basketball fan and she wrote Steve Fisher and asked him to speak at the graduation. He accepted, but later backed out less than two weeks before the ceremony. The teacher then contacted Carr and he agreed to speak. Leading into the graduation, I was not expecting much of a speech. I figured Carr would pop in, say about 2 minutes of typical gym teacher stuff and be on his way. What we got instead was a 20 minute speech that was engaging, eloquent, funny, and spoke to both the adults and the graduating 8th graders. He encouraged the students to find their path and follow it. He used an old Eleanor Roosevelt quote: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their own dreams." As he signed autographs for students and adults after the speech, it occurred to me that he was more than just your average meat head coach. This was a guy who would be just as comfortable teaching English as coaching football. He was a teacher, not just a coach. His lessons for his players didn't stop at the sidelines. Looking back on it, I think this all-worldly approach is part of the reason why Carr always seemed to be more than a sum of his parts, and why he never got enough credit. To the casual observer, he seemed like a decent but not great coach. But because he was good at all the things most casual observers miss, he always did better than expected.

Good luck to you Lloyd. If there is any justice, we will win on Saturday and give you the send-off you so richly deserve, a big ten title, a winning record against our arch-rivals, a ride on the shoulders of your players, and 110 thousand fans chanting your name, "Thank You Lloyd, Thank You Lloyd, Thank You Lloyd..."

How soon till Hockey season starts?

Well, it's official, the App game was no fluke, and the Schembechler era is over.

Just about anything that could go wrong, went wrong. The offense moved the ball but couldn't put any points on the board (four red zone trip in the first four possessions resulted in one TD). The defense got beat every possible way. The tackling was horrible. The D line got no pass rush. The linebackers were constantly out of position. The defensive backs got torched repeatedly. Oregon scored 39, and probably left 20 points on the field. Michigan's three stars on offense, Mike Hart, Jake Long and Chad Henne all were injured. Henne didn't play the entire second half, left the locker room on crutches, and is doubtful for next week's game against the Fighting Leprechauns. His replacement, super freshman Ryan Mallet had his moments, but also looked very much like a freshman at other points.

So the high hopes of the season are gone, and a reassessment of priorities for the team and the coaching staff is in order:
-Priority number one is getting six wins and keeping the nation's longest bowl streak intact, even if it's a trip to the Insight or Motor City bowl. Where those wins are going to come from is any body's guess. If yesterday is any indication, a Ryan Mallet led offense will be extremely limited, especially if the opponent can limit the effectiveness of the running game. The defense is not likely to be good enough to win games on its own, even though there aren't any spread teams left on the schedule as dangerous as Oregon.
-Priority number two is a win this saturday. The last thing you want to do is be the one that gets Notre Dame healthy. Much has been said about the historically bad levels of these two teams. It is the ultimate pillow fight, the offense that couldn't move across the street, against a matador defense that would do any Spaniard proud. But no matter who the coach is next year, they will have to recruit against the little tuna, and a win in this game will help keep his bluster to a minimum. In a sense this might be priority number one, because I don't see how they will get to a bowl if they don't beat the Irish.
-Priority number three is a win up at East Lansing. While they might be able to get to six wins without a win there, a win by the State will be marketed by the Sparties as proof that the balance of power is switching in the state
-Priority number four is a win over Ohio State. Normally this would be the top priority, but as it seems highly unlikely, and Tressel's record against Carr will be irrelevant with a new coach coming in, I put it down the list. If a bowl game is secure by this point, this game will be all about sending Carr out on a high note, and helping the heal the psyche of the fan base. If I'm Carr, I'm thinking of announcing my retirement the Monday before the game, and turning all the negative energy that's pointed my way right now into positive, gratitude type vibe. If they get to six wins, and Carr announces before that game, he will get a huge standing ovation before the game. For as much as he is being reviled right now, there is still a lot of love for one the classiest coaches in the land, who has represented the school and the team with the greatest honor in the last dozen years.

Meanwhile, the task at hand for Bill Martin and the AD's office is as follows:
-Say nothing about Coach Carr that is not positive until he makes his retirement announcement. Something similar to the quote you made about you and Amaker being joined at the hip.
-Prepare your list of candidates. I would suggest starting with Tedford, Rodriguez, Schiano and Ferentz. Each candidate should have head coaching experience at the BCS level, should be a good Xs and Os guy, and should understand that their job is as much media relations as it is football coach.
-Quietly send out feelers to each person on your list to see if they might be interested. Make sure that none of these feelers can be discovered. It is better to not contact someone than it is to risk them being put in the awkward positions of having to deny their interest, or you being put in a position where it looks like you are pushing Carr out the door.
-Once Carr announces, near or at the end of the season, begin your negotiations in earnest. Ideally you should be down to two or three candidates within a week after he announces. Remember that any coach who is going to play games in the media about the position is probably not worth hiring.
-Set a goal of announcing your new coach by the time the national championship game is over. This gives the new coach time to shore up the recruiting class.

If Carr handles the team with class and the team rededicates itself to improvement, I think they can get to six wins. If Martin handles the football search like he did the basketball search, we'll be in good shape.
But of course, what do I know, I thought they'd beat Appalachian State

Through the looking glass

Ok, so the plan was to leave town directly from the game on Saturday and head over the shores of Lake Michigan away from internet, the tv, and any media. There would be plenty of time to recap the game online on Monday evening. After all, this was just a tune-up, there really wasn't much analysis needed. Oops.
The following was written the old fashioned way (pencil and paper)late Saturday night as I was still trying to digest what I witnessed.

Wow. So this is what it feels like to be a Spartan football fan. You know, the part about inexplicable losses. Hopefully there will be some unexpected wins to go with it. Actually that's not fair to State fans. They've never done anything so unbelievably inept. Hours after the game, I still can't believe what I saw. The word "upset" just doesn't do it justice. It is so surreal, I am wondering if it was a dream. I keep repeating it to myself to see if it sets in: We lost to Appalachian State. What? We lost to Appalachian State. Huh? We lost to Appalachian State? In what? Women's Basketball? It is an outcome so unbelievable that if it happened in a video game, you return the game to the store, claiming the game play wasn't realistic enough. Strike that, Appalachian State is even included in most college football games. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to wear my Michigan hat when I walked around this small Lake Michigan town.

So what happened, and what does it mean? Let's break it down a little, realty vs perception.

Realty: The team we lost to is better than at least half the teams in I-A. They returned 17 starters, and have won 15 straight games since barely losing at NC State a year ago.
Perception: We lost to a community college. In this case, it's the perception that matters. This is a potential program changing loss. It's the type of thing that will be used by opposing coaches in recruiting against us for years. It's something that shouldn't happen to "elite" programs.

Perception: This was a fluke win for the Mountaineers, if they played the game again, Michigan would win.
Realty: I'm not so sure. Michigan never really stopped them. App State only slowed down in the second half because they got conservative. They turned the ball over three times in the second half, two of which were totally unforced errors, and that led directly to 10 Michigan points. Appalachian State was the better team.

Perception: Michigan lost because of a number of mental mistakes or execution errors.
Realty: Well, yes and no. True, if they don't miss an assignment on the final play of the game, they kick a field goal and win 35-34. But there is no way this game should have been this close. It was clear from the beginning that coaches and players didn't take this game very seriously. The offense and defensive play calling was very vanilla. No blitzing, no stunts, no reverses, nothing that was any different than what Appalachian State saw on film. We treated this game like a scrimmage.

Perception: This loss means that Michigan won't win the Big Ten this year.
Realty: I don't think this loss changes the Big Ten race at all, other than to make painfully obvious to everyone where the holes are in Michigan's defense. But anyone who watched the last two games last year should have been able to figure that out. Michigan still has enough offensive talent, when Mike Hart is healthy, to score on anyone. They still have too many defensive holes to shut anyone out. They'll be in the race, along with OSU, PSU, and Wisconsin, and maybe MSU, Iowa and Purdue.

Perception: Lloyd Carr is on the hot seat.
Realty: He is not on the hot seat, but only because it is universally believed around these parts that this was going to be his last season regardless of the season outcome. What this loss does do is guarantee that this will be his last season, and eliminate the chance that any of his assistants (i.e Mike Deboard or Ron English) get the job. Bill Martin should begin the search (i.e. call Rich Rodriguez and Jeff Tedford) now.

Perception: Things can't get any worse.
Realty: Oh yes they can. How teams on the schedule will play some sort of spread now? Lose to Oregon, Notre Dame and Penn State, and things will be a lot worse. Give first year MSU coach Mark Dantonio some life by losing to State, things will be worse. Finish the season by losing to OSU, again, things will be unbearable. Miss a bowl game...

Finally, we realized on the sad, slow drive across the state that we are now 0-3 since Bo died and we have showed none of the defensive fire (104 points) that characterized Bo, and Bo's teams. It occurred to us that there is a very real chance that we have reached the end of the Schembechler era. For the last 40 years, Michigan has been one of the preeminent football programs in the country: 38 of 40 years finishing in AP top 20. 24 of 40 years in AP top 10. Every major power has suffered a down turn of some length in that time period: USC, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, OSU, PSU, Miami, Texas all have gone through bowl-less losing seasons. Perhaps this is our turn. We also realized that there was no moment of silence or mention of Bo at the game today, despite this being the first home game since his passing. Coincidence? Karma?

I've been lucky in my life, I've never really lost anyone close to me, other than some cherished pets. I've never really suffered any great tragedies. So I can honestly say that today was one of the worst days in my life. I'm guessing it will get worse before it gets better.