State of the Program (long)

If you're going to read/comment, please read the entire thing.

I'm not sure who I am more disappointed in... the team or the fans. Let me start with the fans.

You boo the Detroit Lions. You boo the referees. You boo the opposing team. You boo Brent Musberger. You do NOT boo your own school. You do NOT boo your own fight song. I have little respect for those who do. I think part of it comes from going to games my entire life, games where booing backfired. Just to name a few...

1995 Michigan/Virginia-- Opening game. Michigan is down 17-0 going into the fourth quarter. The boos were everywhere. Michigan completes (at the time) the greatest comeback in their history with a Scott Dreisbach to Mercury Hayes TD pass in the corner of the endzone (my favorite play in U-M history, to this day).

1997 Michigan/Iowa-- Michigan goes to halftime losing and getting booed of the field after Tim Dwight tears the special teams apart in the first half. Check that year again... yeah, that worked out pretty well.

2004 Michigan/Michigan State-- Two words: Braylon Edwards.

The only things preventing booing from being the runaway winner for stupid things fans do are the overrated chant and the wave. It's not just that booing backfires, as it clearly does. Booing accomplishes nothing positive. Everyone always says, "Well, if they know we don't approve of how they're playing, they'll change." Yeah, and Bill Parcells was going to control TO. Regardless of what Lloyd Carr and the players will tell you, they hear you booing. And it affects them. It's not as if they don't already know the fans are disappointed with their play. The fans aren't half as disappointed as the players themselves are. If I came into a room when you were taking an exam, you answered several questions in a row incorrectly, and I started booing... would that encourage you to do any better? No, it would embarrass the hell out of you. It would just make you feel like shit and it would put you in the wrong sort of mentality for the remainder of the exam. The same thing goes on the football field. So, cheer... please. If you don't, I *will* find you and I *will* call you out.

Next... if you don't know anything about football, shut the fuck up. Here are a few signs that I'm talking about you.

1. Brandon Minor fumbles the ball and you start chanting "Fire Lloyd."
2. You complain constantly that Michael Hart isn't in on every single offensive play.
3. Chad Henne throws a bad interception and you start chanting "Fire Lloyd."
4. You were (seriously) chanting "We want Mallett" against Oregon.
5. An opposing WR catches a 4 yard pass against a zone coverage and you bitch about how bad our secondary is.

Seriously, Chad Henne, Lloyd Carr, and the secondary aren't responsible for every bad thing that happens on a football field. This is John Navarre all over again. In fact, I bet some people wish they had John Navarre back. Michigan fans anointed JN as the worst 4 year starter in college football history (paging Reggie Ball). When did Navarre ever overthrow a wide open Braylon Edwards consistently? 2003 Ohio State was supposed to be his signature game-- the game that would "define his legacy". (Michigan won that game.) That shows how rational some Michigan fans are. When you lose to Appalachian State and get blown out by Oregon at home, you have much deeper issues than just two people and a position group. I'm as unhappy as the next guy, but please don't blame all of Michigan's troubles on Chad Henne and Lloyd Carr. If you're one of these people, I have some lake front property to sell you in downtown Ann Arbor.

On to the team... the coaching has just been bad. Ron English got all of the credit last year when things were going well, so he certainly deserves a large amount of the blame now. He has essentially rendered his best defender useless. Shawn Crable is an excellent SAM, he plays very well off the ball. But, when you put him at DE and he gets blocked initially, he is out of the play completely. Put him back at LB, let him roam and make some plays. You have Brandon Graham at DE... the same Brandon Graham that was an All-American coming out of HS. I don't care whose doghouse he is in.. put him on the field. He can make plays, which is more than can be said for 9 other guys on the defense. Johnny Thompson and Chris Graham need to be benched. They both have tons of talent, tons of speed... but it just doesn't translate to the field. It definitely makes you appreciate David Harris. Chris Graham would beat Harris in a race on the track. Put Harris on the football field, and the game speed differential is enormous. Graham and Thompson (along with every safety not named Brandent Englemon) make themselves much slower with poor fundamentals and poor pursuit angles. Maybe they all just need a geometry class. Or, somebody could just tell them the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. David Harris understood that. And, he didn't miss tackles, something the entire defense struggles with. Look at the Oregon game tape and notice all of the "form tackles" on defense for them. I noticed this difference just in warmups. It's something that is very easy to be corrected... and it needs to be corrected badly. As for the secondary... communication is a huge issue. We saw this in the Ohio State game last year. The play that sticks out in most peoples' minds is the play action pass to Ginn across the middle. Leon Hall stays short/outside on Ginn because he's expecting safety help over the top. That's the CB's job in a Cover 2. This has happened at least 3-4 times this year already. When you see the CB trying to catch the WR from the outside, that's generally a safety issue. Brandon Harrison has done this several times expecting safety help. It's a simple matter of communication.

The offense has been my biggest disappointment. Against Applachian State, the defense gave the team a chance to win the game in the second half, and the offense just laid an egg. Who would've thought that Michigan's offense would be 11th in the Big Ten after games with 1-AA and Pac Ten opponents? Playcalling and execution have both been problems. The problem with playcalling isn't running the ball too much, I would argue that we haven't run the ball enough. But, when we choose to pass the ball, we are far too safe. Without knowing what plays are called, it's impossible to know whether this falls on DeBord or Henne. Henne does seem to be living up to the nickname Chad "Checkdown" Henne, though. The middle of the field is there... Greg Matthews (who deserves to be suspended) is getting open. The over-the-top pass to Manningham is there. The fade to Arrington is there. Use it. Don't just throw swing/screen passes all game. Note to Mike DeBord: When we line up trips left to the far side of the field, THE OPPONENT KNOWS IT IS A WR SCREEN. When we have the FB in, the opponent knows that we are running the ball. Check the film... that's why they are putting 9 in the box in that situation. Use this to your advantage. Go trips left from the shotgun and run a draw. Put the FB in and use some play action. This isn't difficult... it's simple football. You don't need to get fancy, just be a bit more creative. In the end... you have better players than the other team when you are on offense. Put them in situations to succeed.

As for the state of the program as a whole, Michigan is still Michigan. The assertion that Michigan football is mediocre now is ludicrous. If Michigan was mediocre, they wouldn't be getting the publicity (albeit negative) that they are. If Michigan State lost to Appalachian State and Oregon to start the season, no one would care. In fact, most people would expect it. We are not Notre Dame... we have had legitimate success in the past 10 years. 1 National Championship and 5 Big Ten Championships is more than most can say. It's clearly time for a change. This "change" is not just the head coach. Lloyd Carr is not the coach he used to be, but he isn't the biggest problem. It's the Bo mentality. Time changes, Michigan needs to as well. This doesn't mean moving to the spread offense, this just means a change. Maintain tradition, maintain integrity, but change. Michigan is still Michigan... and that will be evident when the search for the next leader of Michigan football begins.

I leave you with this, a Teddy Roosevelt quote, one that Lloyd Carr quotes all of the time. As long as any of us have been alive, it has been easy to be a Michigan fan. Now, it's time to man up. Show some pride, show some loyalty to a school and a program that have given you countless memories.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."