http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/SPORTS0201/805200377/1004
Howard: U-M may struggle
Desmond Howard, the former Michigan receiver and Heisman Trophy winner who covers college football for ESPN, visited Ann Arbor last Sunday for the Griese/Hutchinson charity golf outing.
As always, he had plenty to say.
Angelique Chengelis, Michigan beat writer for The News, caught up with Howard to discuss coach Rich Rodriguez, the coaching search process (Howard was a member of the committee), and what a Michigan Man thinks of a former Michigan player transferring to Ohio State.
Q . Your ESPN colleague Kirk Herbstreit has said Michigan will go 6-6 this year. What do you think of the Wolverines' chances this year?
A . It's going to be a challenge. I think when you look at the Big Ten, I think that you automatically think Michigan will be better than a .500 team. But when you factor in that there's a new system, that there aren't the athletes that coach Rodriguez would usually have to run this system, then that may be what people are looking at to say, 'OK, it may be a 7-5 or 6-6 season.' I think that's what they're looking at when they say that. I don't know Coach's history, but I think this is probably one of his biggest challenges as a head coach simply because this is the biggest stage he's been on. ...
He's trying to build a house with someone else's materials right now. So, I'm just real interested what that product is going to be like in September.
Q . What did you think of the hire?
A . I think I was on record for (LSU's) Les Miles simply because, first of all, I never wanted people to think just because he coached here, he went here, that's why I was on record. I was on record because I cover college football for a living, and I knew he was the most qualified person for that job that I had seen. Les Miles ... can coach his (butt) off. He has a winning record. He was a winner at Oklahoma State, he coached as an assistant in the pros, and you've seen what he's done for LSU.
Rich Rodriguez, I do think, is a very good coach, and I do think he has a tremendous challenge ahead of him. I've had a chance to sit down with Rich, and he's very likable as a person. Very likable.
It was a raggedy (search) process, and it took turns that it never should have taken, starting with the report that Herbstreit gave, but we are where we are now with it and hopefully it works out.
Q . What was your take on the Herbstreit's report when he said Miles-to-Michigan was a done deal?
A . I was in Hawaii doing ESPN, so I had no knowledge of anything. I put the (earpiece) in my ear, and I'm hearing Herbstreit break this news, and I'm thinking, 'You know, things happen overnight, maybe it did.' He's a seemingly intelligent guy, so if he's going to say it, I don't think he's going to go out there and blurt it out. He must have believed what he said. Whether it was true or false, there's no doubt in my mind that Herbstreit believed what he was saying on TV.
Now, should he have dug deeper, should ESPN have dug deeper? Of course. They have a Michigan guy on their crew and they knew how to get in contact with me, but no one ever called me.
It put Les in a bad position. That was wrong on so many levels. As a former player, unless I spoke to that coach and he told me it was cool, I would never have done that because he was still coaching a team that's about to play in a (SEC) championship game. ... His team, the first thing they saw when they woke up was that report. It was not fair to him and not fair to the players. ... And no one from this side of the story (at Michigan), as far as I know, came out and refuted it. The only one who said something was Les Miles that day.
Q . When a former player like yourself sees a player (Justin Boren), who had harsh comments about the new staff, transfer to Ohio State, what do you think?
A . At first, I was like, 'Wow, he's talking about family values.' And sometimes you use key words, and I read that, and I was like, 'Damn, this thing is just blowing up.' So I came up here (to Michigan) and I watched them practice. I was in the weight room working out, and two players started talking to me, and in general conversation they said, 'This guy, Desmond, was a complainer. He complained about workouts, he complained about practices.' And this is what they told me: 'Really, we're better without him.' I said, 'Wow, that's a different side of the story I hadn't even thought of.' I knew they were training in a way they've never trained before.
So then he went to Ohio State, and I was like, 'Well, how loyal can this guy be? All the colleges available to him, and he goes to Ohio State?' I talked to Rich, and Rich told me he talked to him, and Rich said (Boren) never was really happy no matter what they did. And Rich said, 'Desmond, I've got to do things my way.'
I tell people all the time, this is college football. It's not tennis, it's not golf. At the end of the day, Rich is going to do things his way. He's going to separate the people who can take it from the people who can't take it.
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