Wolverine Liberation Army

Dear Asshats (aka people who think RichRod should be fired now):

Hello. You don’t know me, but I’m the guy that’s going to tell it like it is. If you’re upset with the direction Rich Rodriguez is taking the Michigan football program and would like to see him fired now, there are some unavoidable realities you need to face.

1. Firing Rich Rodriguez After Two Seasons is an Extremely Bad Idea

I don’t know what your next step would be, so help me walk through the timeline here. First, do you want RichRod to be fired right fucking now, before he’s even allowed to finish his second season? If so, then wow- conceivably, the team could win one of these last two games (unlikely, I know) and go to a bowl game…and you’d still think it wasn’t good enough to stop the termination of the head coach before his second season was finished. Wow.

But suppose we take the more likely finish of 5-7, and you believe he should be fired but only after that’s occurred. Ok, that puts Michigan (back) in a national coaching search in early December, when all the “good” coaches are preparing for bowl games and while several other programs are trying to land those very same “good” coaches, and you know what? We went through this already and it sucked donkey balls. How much confidence do you have that a retiring Bill Martin is going to do a better, more aggressive hiring job now than he did then (back when he barely lumbered up and offered Greg freaking Schiano)? Best case scenario is that Martin finds somebody, anybody by the end of the month. Worst case scenario is, well, worse- we don’t have a coach until mid-January, mere weeks before National Signing Day. Awesome.

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Popularity: 3%

Dear Asshats (aka people who think RichRod should be fired now):

Hello. You don’t know me, but I’m the guy that’s going to tell it like it is. If you’re upset with the direction Rich Rodriguez is taking the Michigan football program and would like to see him fired now, there are some unavoidable realities you need to face.

1. Firing Rich Rodriguez After Two Seasons is an Extremely Bad Idea

I don’t know what your next step would be, so help me walk through the timeline here. First, do you want RichRod to be fired right fucking now, before he’s even allowed to finish his second season? If so, then wow- conceivably, the team could win one of these last two games (unlikely, I know) and go to a bowl game…and you’d still think it wasn’t good enough to stop the termination of the head coach before his second season was finished. Wow.

But suppose we take the more likely finish of 5-7, and you believe he should be fired but only after that’s occurred. Ok, that puts Michigan (back) in a national coaching search in early December, when all the “good” coaches are preparing for bowl games and while several other programs are trying to land those very same “good” coaches, and you know what? We went through this already and it sucked donkey balls. How much confidence do you have that a retiring Bill Martin is going to do a better, more aggressive hiring job now than he did then (back when he barely lumbered up and offered Greg freaking Schiano)? Best case scenario is that Martin finds somebody, anybody by the end of the month. Worst case scenario is, well, worse- we don’t have a coach until mid-January, mere weeks before National Signing Day. Awesome.

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Popularity: unranked

I really like Boubacar Cissoko. Prior to this season I had no opinion on him, but now I really like him. I like him and am rooting hard for him the rest of the season because his name has the word “boob” in it because he has already demonstrated one of the most-treasured of attributes in football and in life- the ability to deal with and overcome adversity.

Adversity comes in many forms, and he is certainly not the only player on the Michigan team that has faced it (see: Mealer, Elliott). However, when adversity arrives on a player’s doorstep as FIRST HALF FAILURE and that failure becomes visible to many, many people as an unfair and premature judgment of “I don’t think Cissoko is any good, injured shoulder or not”….well, I can’t help but root for the guy, if only to make the people who make those judgments EAT IT.

We’ve all had rough days and we’ve all been put in impossible situations. Our beloved Michigan players are no different, and I love to see these kids grow up in front of our eyes and become MEN. That is something I can and will root for every damn Saturday in the fall. So with that in mind, let’s look at what Boubacar Cissoko dealt with this past weekend, how he responded to it, and then offer a hearty “FUCK YOU” to the haters among our fanbase.

PART 1: FACING ADVERSITY

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Popularity: 1%

Part 1, here.

Strategy

A frequent complaint under the Lloyd Carr regime was that the offensive play-calling relied too much on “throwing rock” - plunging Mike Hart into the defensive line, through the same hole, ad nauseum. Frequently, fans complained of a lack of “halftime adjustments” of some sort. Many hoped that Rodriguez, architect of the NCAA’s most dangerous rushing attack, would freshen the offensive playbook, providing it’s first update in virtually twenty years.

Grade: 3 Molotovs. This was a boom-and-bust area for Rodriguez. The degree to which the offensive was under-manned, under-powered, and under-experienced has been chronicled ad nauseum. The question, however, is how did Rodriguez do with what he had? Despite Michigan’s first offensive line in memory that lacked a single All-Big-Ten performer, and no discernible passing game, Michigan’s rushing attack averaged 5.1 yards-per-carry, net of sack yardage – equal to 2007 (when they had Michigan’s all-time leading passer, rusher, a first round pick at left tackle, and two NFL Wide Receivers), and considerably better than the 11-2 2006 team (which all of the above, plus a 3rd NFL Wide Receiver).

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Popularity: 1%

Over the course of the season, the evil capitalist media has made much of Comrade Rodriguez “refusing to adapt” his offense to the Michigan personnel. Media nay-sayer turned blogger-nay-sayer Jim Carty has complained about play-calling not favoring the players, specifically on the offensive line. Columnists Michael Rosenberg and Lynn Henning (whom we’ve linked too much in the past) have joined Carty in pining for Lloyd Carr, while peddling the “square-peg/round-hole” meme. Many comment threads from the wild-west of MLive to the saner ground of MGoBlog have blown up with similar complaints. Comrades, we are here to tell you not to believe the bourgeois media that would fill your head with lies in the hopes of dampening Comrade Rodriguez’s revolution.

First, let us investigate the claim laid by invetigativve journalist par-excellence, Jim Carty. First, Carty claims that this season would have never occurred under dear departed Comrade Carr:

“Well, when’s the last time Carr lost to a MAC team? When’s the last time he lost to a 1-4 team?”

The answer, clearly, is never. However, Mr. Carty, when was the last time Coach Carr coached the 2008 Michigan Wolverines? Rodriguez did not coach Chad Henne, Tom Brady, Drew Henson, Michael Hart, Jake Long, or Charles Woodson. Jon Jansen, Steve Hutchinson, and Jeff Backus were not starting on this offensive line. Larry Foote and David Harris were not covering the running game and passing game simultaneously. No, this team returned a single offensive starter, something unmatched in Carr’s experience (when Henne and Hart started as freshmen, the other 9 offensive positions were occupied by returning starters). Would Carr have won more than 3 games with this team? Possibly. Would he have won enough to avoid making this the worst team in recent memory? No.

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Popularity: 1%