Originally Posted by HailToMichigan
Yet he was going to go to Ohio State anyway.
Closer to home? Liked Tressel better than Carr? Depth chart issues? Who knows?
So I'll revise what I said a little bit.
Either there really was no legacy pull, or the legacy pull was unbelievably strong and it was the only thing keeping him at Michigan. Now Carr is behind a desk, and Bo, God rest his soul. RR could be a complete saint and there'd still be no legacy pull.
In either case, he ended up liking Carr's regime. Not one coach would have come in from another program and kept the entire coaching staff or had the same philosophies. Greg Schiano? No legacy there. Les Miles? Was last a Wolverine fourteen years ago. Pure speculation, to wonder whether he'd have stayed under those coaches, but it was a coaching change, not a family values change, that Mike Boren alluded to.
Other than the fact that I'd have chosen different phrasing than "the desperation of UM fans to distance themselves from everything Carr", this, and the unquoted following, is probably the most accurate assessment of the state of mind of U-M fans I've seen.
We are being blasted for hypocrisy for dumping on Boren for leaving, and there's probably a bit of truth to that, but there's consistency in our approach too. Before Carr even announced his retirement, we were wanting a coach who had a pedigree of success, who had a little bit of a drill-sergeant attitude at practices, who would shake the complacency out of the program, and would start grinding the players into better shape. We got one. As a bonus, he can recruit, his record of recruiting violations is spotless, and his teams never gained a reputation for playing dirty ball. All those accusations that we're spoiled would certainly have rung true if we'd reacted to the RR hiring with contempt, as in, "oh, well we also wanted a guy who will keep every single player in the program, and his departure from his last school wasn't clean enough, so, fire RR!!"
I haven't partaken and won't partake in any Boren-bashing. I don't believe he's "soft", not under what I'd define as soft. You'd better at least be able to tolerate practice, otherwise it definitely is time to go, because that's where you're gonna see the most of your coach. So I don't blame Boren for his decision to leave. But the accusations shouldn't be so offhandedly dismissed either. Consider: Mallett, Mitchell, and Ciulla left some time ago, but with plenty of time to see RR's approach and get to know the guy. OK, fine, they leave 'cause they don't like the new coach; it happens everywhere, and I don't recall any outcry. Boren, on the other hand, has been working with RR and his crew for three months now. No coach is a huggable teddy bear with a finely tuned sense of legacy and family values outside of practice, and then goes into practice a frothing-at-the-mouth, insulting, screaming, philistine who'd belittle his own son just to motivate by fear. A coach is a coach, and surely Boren must have had some kind of inkling what he'd be in for at practice from having gotten to know the guy over three months, and from working in his conditioning program. Many fans see a guy who was totally on board with the program until he actually had to get on the field. What changed his mind once practice started? The running back to the huddle, or what? While I don't agree with the end result of that thought process, I can see where it's coming from.
P.S. Saddler committed to Pitt before RR was hired at U-M, so it's certainly possible he didn't like RR while he was still at WVU, but his three finalists were WVU, UVA, and Pitt. Eliminated Michigan before he eliminated Rodriguez.
|