I really have no idea how I feel about the guy. He claps like a retard, he eats grass, he is a horrible clock-manager, his play-calling and schemes seem so disjointed at times... ...but then he goes and coaches a brilliant second half to the Alabama game and pulls of the win. I say second half only, because the first half was vintage LSU (only 45 yards of offense). It's hard for me to forget about the Ole Miss game last year and the Tennessee game this year. It's really hard. But the man has LSU at 8-1 and ranked #6 in the country. He is 2-1 versus the all mighty Saban. If he gets rid of the LSU's OC (Gary Crowton) at the end of they year, I'll be happy and welcome Les back, but if he keeps Crowton again, after 2 years of having an offense ranked in triple digits, I'll hate Les all over again. Like I said, I have no idea how I feel about him. Atleast he keeps things interesting.
I noticed that for the first time this past Saturday and remember thinking to myself, "What exactly is Les Miles doing?" I also particularly enjoyed his half time interview with Tracy Wolfson.
*shudders at the thought The problem with the union of Les Miles and Gary Crowton are their 2 complete different offensive philosophies. Les Miles is an I-formation, power back style coach. Gary Crowton is a spread offense guy. The 2 combined makes for now offensive identity and a disjointed offense. And the results are horrible.
Shows you can win with a great defense, and terrible offense. The other way around doesn't work so well...right Rod?
We won, LOL I was there, the place was rock'en. One of the most exciting games I have been too this year.
I guess I should have been more specific. A great offense and terrible defense can beat most bad teams. That better?
As long as we have the ball last In all honesty the defense did played better, if it was not for the 5 turnovers on MI side, I bet the game would have been a blow out. We started 6 freshmen on Defense. All DB's
Its not hard to play "better" when you rank 114th in total defense, and play in a league known for sluggish offenses. Thats scary stuff. A Michigan team should be able to play its second string D, and not rank half that bad. It doesn't look good. I can't ever remember watching a Michigan before this year, where they were forced to punt on the opening possession, and I said out loud, "they're in trouble". Yup, I'm a
This weeks opening possesion went rather well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXbjz4al7A As for the second team, we past second team a long time ago on D. I am not a hater, I just look at the facts. 2007 Michigan had 23 Scholarship Defenseive players, that is out of 85 In 2007 we were 25 Scholarship short on players. Think about this MI has 12 Seniors in this class, I think 2 start on defense and 2 on offense. MI offense is ranked 3rd and their defense is 3rd worst I believe Think about having a 3rd rank offense that is mostly SO and FR running it right now.
People can blame Lloyd all they want. I'm sure people will stay blame him 3 years from now too for not getting enough 6th graders to commit. Rod had no problem starting over on offense. The defense didn't need a complete overhaul, but its somehow getting worse. Hmm... The defense is not bad, it is completely awful. So bad in fact, people say they played better last week...and still gave up 561 yards...to a team that averaged 338 going into that game.
While I agree injuries had a lot to do with it also and players leaving early. There is no magic bullet. It was not just Carr, nor was it just RR. When he got there the defense was suppose to be pretty good, well they were not The offense was not in good shape. There was more wrong at MI then we will ever know, take a look at the 2006, 2007 recuriting class at MI. MI's decline started a while ago, the 2002 class was MI last great recruiting class.
They had a decent o-line, and a core of Mallet, Manningham, Arrington, and Mathews. Who knows if Manningham would have stayed, but Arrington said publicly he would have. You could have plugged any runningback in with that passing attack and they would have done fine. Just sayin... I wasn't a fan of the Rod hire from the beginning, so its easy for me to see the negatives. Besides an offense that does well against mediocore-to-bad defenses, I haven't seen much to sway my opinion.
Sure could and what running back would you have plugged in? Minor or Brown were hurt most of the 2008 season? If the coach would have got Carr's blessing I bet the defense would have played better also. Super Mario was gone and Mallet had one foot in Ark before MI named a head coached. So all the offensive talent left in 2007, and MI was left with a walkon and Threet for QB. Don't forget about Cone
Maybe Minor and Brown wouldn't have got hurt if they weren't forced to practice all those extra hours! Yeah, I said it. I don't think Rod is going anywhere, anytime soon. Michigan would need to have someone in their pocket before firing him. They don't have that right now. They are stuck with Rod for the time being. If he can get the defense to at least be "ok", then he might have a decent team at Michigan. I would consider "decent" by Michigan's standards as 8-4. A good defense and you would think they could contend for a Big 10 title. 7-5 or 6-6 won't keep you employed at Michigan. If they do that again next year, I would be surprised if they keep him.
LOL, yes the extra 15 mins killed them I only want one guy if RR gets let go Harbaugh I am impressed you know who Nehlen was, most do not. Most don't know Nehlen is RR mentor, and Nehlen was a big reason RR came to MI. Did you also know RR was on Bo's short list of coaches to take over MI?