Note: before you read this post, read this by dex.

…to address the “don’t whine here” stance of the WLA…I hate this fucking attitude.

Second guessing the coach is part of what makes football fun for 99% of the world.

I don’t get this. Acting like a spoiled child who can’t accept a loss and/or a know-it-all who thinks he’s smarter than the coach doesn’t seem like a healthy way to go through life. Perhaps we could resurrect the corpse of Andrew Carnegie to discuss coping with things that are bad. Having said that, though, I confess that when dex describes this guy:

…you watch Michigan football for some sort of validation…you believe that “your” team winning brings you some sort of superiority…you believe that fans should “demand” excellence from the team they watch…you are defined as a person by which college team you cheer for…

He struck a chord with me, because I used to be that guy. In the stands I was a nasty meat-gazing SOB who never respected Moeller or Lloyd, never liked the playcalling, and never liked “our” players’ effort. I hated 8-4, and yet that seemed all that Michigan was capable of.

Then 1997 happened. Michigan went undefeated, won the National Championship, tree nymphs and mermaids fellated me round the clock, unicorns gangbanged each other in Schembechler Hall, poverty and hunger were eliminated blah blah blah. But a funny thing happened that year as I watched Lloyd, DeBord, and SexStachioed Jim Hermann achieve perfection- I noticed that the difference between perfection and yet another mediocre 4-loss season was awfully, awfully thin. Notre Dame, Iowa, Ohio State, and Washington State were ALL games that required a turnover and/or a lucky bounce to have the game go Michigan’s way. Again- the difference was marginal. I decided that being pissed about 8-4 without understanding the context of that record or even appreciating improvement by the players is not the way I want to watch Michigan football, because I’ll never enjoy it that way.

Nowadays, I enjoy exploring and arguing about football strategy and philosophy, but I never, ever think I “know” more about football than the guys who are paid millions to think about it all the time, the kids who have played it and practiced it since they were toddlers, and even other random guys on the internet. I “see” and “believe” things, but I don’t “know” jackshit about college football. Any time I see an opportunity to learn something about football (e.g. when gsimmons is in a talkative and relatively typo-free mood), I snatch it and try to apply it to future football watching.

We all have our opinions and philosophies, and we all have various examples to back up our theories and philosophies, and we all have a right to express them on the intertubes. I don’t believe, however, there is any Grand Unified Theory of Football that only a few blessed coaches and fans understand. I see what I see, I offer my opinion, and I await others’ reactions to it, paying special attention to the feedback from guys who have actually played and coached (e.g. gsimmons) this game that I love but still don’t understand. I am secure enough in my own skin to openly express to everyone that I don’t know everything about this game, or for that matter anything else. Can it be any other way? How does one expect to learn anything about anything if one doesn’t first admit what he doesn’t understand?

In my opinion, Rich Rodriguez is a guy that philosophically doesn’t believe in “out-executing” the other guy and hoping it’s good enough for a win. He’s never had the luxury or the “upbringing” of always having more and better talent than most guys on the schedule, so he’s never been allowed the safety margin that a better football “upbringing” would have given him. THAT is what is so revolutionary- the guy will always scrap for points, no matter what the situation. No more lazily relying on superior talent to “out-execute” the other guys, which put an unnecessary ceiling on Michigan’s potential every damn year.

There are no free lunches, and this “gain” in scrapping for points comes at a cost of requiring a certain type and amount of players and experience in order for the scrapping to work. RichRod cannot have an offensive juggernaut if his offensive line is inexperienced, somewhat untalented, and (most importantly) broken down and hurt. NO ONE CAN. Further, a coach that is always scrapping for points will increase the odds of bad things happening, such as we saw right before the half yesterday.

I like the scrapping philosophy, but because I’m not a moronic cockjuggling thundercunt, I understand and accept that just like every other football strategy/choice/philosophy, there is a risk involved. Lloyd always turtled before the half, and I hated it…but at least Lloyd could say that he never really allowed for killer turnovers right before the half. There are tradeoffs, and I understand and accept that. I still prefer RichRod’s philosophy. It didn’t work yesterday, but I believe (but don’t “know”) that it will work tomorrow.

And let’s keep some perspective- despite all the whining about how our offense totally sucked yesterday, RichRod somehow scraped together 23 points, and was a missed 2 point conversion away from overtime. Go back and look at last year’s team and count up how many times that offense, which had Jake Long, Mike Hart, RoboHenne, Manningham, Arrington, etc. scored LESS than 23 points. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Yes, that’s right, that “efficient machine” that some of you are pining for often wasn’t much better than yesterday’s unholy fail, and it operated with much better and much better-fitting parts.

There is good upside here, but unfortunately we won’t see it for another season or two. Deal with it.

In football and in life, there are choices that unavoidably involve risk, tradeoffs, and sacrifice. To me, that means pretending to “know” more than the other guy is pointless- nobody “knows” what’s going to happen on the next play, just like nobody “knows” whether they’re going to get hit by a bus tomorrow. Nevertheless, we still have to make choices despite that uncertainty, and the coaches are no exception.

I don’t understand why some football fans don’t accept this. I don’t get the implicit assumption among our fans that there must be some “right” or “perfect” playcall and strategy that is eminently and obviously knowable by coaches and fans in advance. That strikes me as so absurd as to leave me somewhat speechless. Our world in general and this sport specifically is full of uncertainty and unpredictability that essentially means that we very rarely know in advance what the “right” and “wrong” choices are. Criticizing someone who makes the best guess they can given the circumstances in my opinion makes you look like a silly douchebag that doesn’t know how to enjoy life.

Finally, for like the hundredth time, ALL OF US HERE AT THE WLA CARE ABOUT MICHIGAN FOOTBALL AND ALL OF US HERE AT THE WLA ARE PISSED ABOUT LOSING TO SOME FUCKING POLYGAMISTS. But we understand that there are 11 or more games to play this season, and there’s plenty more to learn about RichRod and his Revolution. There is no need to give up and start crying for Lloyd after one frustrating setback.