In the aftermath of Appalachian State beating Michigan in Michigan to open the college football season, there is ample angst in Ann Arbor. The day after the loss, I found at least two web polls that asked if Lloyd Carr should be fired immediately because of this game. Let me use that huge upset and the knee-jerk reaction to “fire the stupid coach” immediately afterwards to shine the light of reason on the matter.
Let’s suppose that the powers-that-be at Michigan are sitting around and pondering what to do once they fire Lloyd Carr. After all, the season is underway; there are other games to prepare for. So, what coach would they bring in that would be a clear and unambiguous step up from Lloyd Carr right now?
How many unemployed top-flight college coaches are sitting around out there?
And if they are top-flight coaches, why are they unemployed?
What top-flight coach would want to risk his reputation to come in and coach a bunch of kids that he doesn’t know from tree trunks?
And if you name an interim coach from the inside, who would you pick? The special teams coach whose units gave up two blocked field goals? Or maybe the defensive coordinator whose unit gave up 400+ yards to a Division 1-AA team?
Here’s the answer, Lloyd Carr is the head football coach at Michigan now and for the rest of this season unless Lloyd Carr quits or is run over by a bus. Firing him makes exactly no sense at all for the Wolverines. And all of those angry Michigan fans need to keep something in perspective:
In the last 60 years (since 1948), only one Michigan coach won a national championship. And it wasn’t the beatific Bo Schembechler. It was Lloyd Carr about 10 years ago.
North Texas State hired a hugely successful Texas high school football coach to take over their football program. In his first 5 years at Southlake’s Carroll High School, Todd Dodge posted a 79-1 record. [Aside: Please note that Texas high school student-athletes find a way to play up to 16 games a year and still maintain academic standards that allow them admission to NCAA schools to play football. Just saying …] Well, Dodge got a rude awakening and a bad omen if he happens to be a numerologist. He lost his opening game to Oklahoma – not a surprise – but his defense gave up 79 points. Ouch!
If you get a chance to see photos from last weekend’s Oregon State/Utah game please do so. The new Oregon State uniforms have an orange decoration that makes it look as if the players are wearing orange brassieres. How long until orange brassieres become available for sale in the campus bookstores? Is there a secret contest going on between Oregon and Oregon State to see who can design and wear the strangest and ugliest uniforms?
As Pitt took the field on Saturday, Dave Wannstedt had a 9-12 record against Division 1-A opponents in the past two seasons. Saturday’s opponent was Eastern Michigan who is a 1-A school but who is ranked 116th out of 119 schools that play Division 1-A football. So now, Pitt’s record against 1-A schools under Wannstedt is 10-12, but maybe that “10” deserves an asterisk?
Cory Schlesinger has been to the Pro Bowl as a fullback. It’s not a glory position, but he is a good blocker and an adequate ball carrier/pass catcher in an emergency. He had been playing with the first team in Miami all summer and then was cut after the final exhibition game. That is strange all by itself; Schlesinger is not a bad player. But the guy that they kept in his place, Reagan Mauia, came out of Hawaii as a 380 lb nose tackle and switched positions and lost 110 lbs to become a svelte 270 lb blocking fullback.
Last week before the Cowboys’ final exhibition game against the Vikings in Minnesota, Jerry Jones said he doesn’t see the NFL expanding to put a team in Los Angeles; rather he sees a team relocating there. Jones is on an NFL Committee that is trying to figure out how to put a team in the LA market. Meanwhile, the Vikings’ lease on the Metrodome expires at the end of the 2011 season and the Chargers and Saints have leases that expire in the same general timeframe. This could get interesting…
The NFL quarterback rating system may or may not be a useful way to compare quarterbacks who play in the same season or the same era of football. But the retrospective use of the rating system to evaluate quarterbacks from distant eras is so obviously flawed that it should never happen. Consider these comparisons:
Mark Brunell has a higher career rating than John Unitas
Brian Griese has a higher career rating than Terry Bradshaw
Danny White has a higher career rating than Troy Aikman
Ask any Cowboy fan about the last one on that list. Ask anyone who ever saw Unitas or Bradshaw play about the first two. The rating system isn’t evil, but when it is applied to eras where offensive football game plans were created differently, it gives a very wrong impression to people who may never have seen some of the great quarterbacks actually play the game.
As of 30 August, you could wager on who will win next year’s Stanley Cup playoffs in the NHL. Stop any random 100 people on the streets of Peoria and ask them who won last year’s Stanley Cup. I’d be shocked if 20% could make that call correctly. [You needn’t go running to Google now; the Ducks beat the Senators to win the Cup.]
Finally, here’s a comment from CBS’ David Letterman on Pope Benedict coming to NYC for a visit in the spring of 2008:
“And the good news is, he’s bringing his wife, Posh Benedict.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…