Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Michigan Football Tidbits: Coach Rod and his approach to football


We here at GBMW have been very consistent and (somewhat humbly patting ourselves on the back) very accurate when describing Coach Rod and his approach to football. And this goes back to day 1

1) Coach Rod is a simple coach. He simply just wants to coach football and gets irritated by anything that does not directly apply to coaching. Some fans have always thought this was a slam when we said it, but it is true he just wants to be a football coach and not partake in the peripherals.

2) Coach Rod has had a very hard time understanding why people come after him and the program, since he previously held and currently holds the belief that every major program in the county has the basic same goal: to win football games.

3) Coach has adjusted (somewhat) to all the political "BS" that comes with coaching at Michigan, although others within the university community have been forced to adjust to him.

The Good and The Bad:

The Good:

1) Coach Rod, although a veteran college football coach, is learning fast that there is more to coaching at Michigan than just blowing the whistle. So he is either going to have to improve in the PR arena (especially if your going to be more open to the media and fans) or he is going to have to re-adjust/change the people around him.

2) Coach Rod is an intense competitor and in some ways this will motivate him even more.

The bad:

1) Credibility is everything in coaching, and now Coach Rod has to again mount a fight to regain this attribute. Even if the accusations are proven to be wrong, or are simply impossible to document, the credibility issue will linger and opponents, whether you call it dirty recruiting or something else. will flourish in the next few years.

2) Coach Rod may decide that he just wants to be at a place that he can be what he is, a football coach. That is what scares me the most.

One final point:

This will blow over in the eyes of the players, some fans, etc. But Coach Rod, or any coach on the staff, including Coach Barwis, will never forget this fiasco. They consider this a personal attack.

Some or all of us here totally agree.

Thanks for stopping by Go Blue Michigan Wolverine
If you have any questions please E-Mail

Written by MaizeMan and ErocWolverine


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed. After yesterday's press conference, I was as worried that Coach Rod would dump UM than visa-versa. There is much more to coaching at UM than blowing the whistle, and I don't think anything Coach Rod does will change that reality. It's a bit surprising if he didn't know that going in, but maybe it's just something you can't appreciate until you get there.

Here's a great video of Carr talking about it in what looks like his first press conference after he was named to replace Moeller (at the beginning of a video of UM-VA highlights).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebHOUIzgT94

"You have no idea ..."

(As always, Carr is 100% class act.)

Anonymous said...

In times like these, that whole video is a great one to watch for fans and I'd think for the team. It was a time of coaching transition, scandal, and a UM team losing on the field. It's great to see how the team responded then.

Anonymous said...

Guys, what are your views on the "Carr meddling in the background" charges that were spoken in some of the "message boards", both premium and free, yesterday and day before??

His involvement in the coaching search fiasco is well accepted, tacitly, by all. If the things mentioned in the boards are true, this further tarnishes his image.

Anonymous said...

An interesting column by Dan Wetzel at Yahoo sports about Rich Rod and being 'simply a football coach'

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-richrod083109

GBMWolverine said...

Anonymous:

Maybe you should read this article from today.

http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/2009/09/gbmw-time-to-stop-blaming-carr.html

Time to stop blaming Carr. The funny thing is whe Carr retired people said he needed to stay away from the program and not go around the program and get involved with Coach Rod's team.

Now all of a sudden people want him to do just that ... also they want him who is not the friendliest person with the media.

How funny is that.

bouje said...

I really don't see how people could use this as a negative recruiting tactic "Ya know Rodriguez is a tough son of a bitch and really gets his players ready to play but here you won't have to run at all"

I just don't get it.

And Eroc as far as the whole Lloyd thing goes yes people need to stop blaming Carr (the one's sticking up for RR) but the people who are completely anti-RR need to realize that Carr's country club BS is what caused this mess. If Carr wasn't such a "grandfatherly" figure to his players and let them do whatever the hell they wanted we wouldn't be in this mess today.

And as far as that goes I feel that whatever coach came in would have had these problems.

Anonymous said...

I don't like that he cried at the presser. Let's hope he is as good as everyone thinks he is.He is a modern day college football coach of an institution that shapes young minds. Carr has nothing to do with the hostility against Rich Rod. Will gameday get here already?

Anonymous said...

he didnt cry at the presser...he choked up and restrained himself from crying or blowing up in anger

if it were me, id have gone medieval on Rosenberg and it wouldnt have been pretty...

so he did a good job with restraint

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