tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601570846052634662.post5982258879979931582..comments2023-03-21T13:09:01.851-07:00Comments on Sports et al.: General concerns of the new regimeGregGoBluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11492205497063889306noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2601570846052634662.post-27475139385207487372008-07-02T11:44:00.000-07:002008-07-02T11:44:00.000-07:00While I appreciate your concerns, I do not share t...While I appreciate your concerns, I do not share them (at least not exactly). <BR/><BR/>1. The defense: While it's true that "RR" did not land a prominent defensive player, he does get a reprieve here because there are enough returning players to still be the strength of the team. Our defensive line may be the best in the big ten with the return of Terrence Taylor, Will Johnson, Tim Jamison, and Brandon Graham. Additionally, Warren Donovan looks to be the next star in the long line of top-tier U of M cornerbacks (And he will not be playing pass coverage alone with Brandon Harrison patrolling at safety). Overall, 7 defensive starters are returning, and while RR didn't do anything to solidify the future of the unit, the more pressing needs were surely on offense where nearly every key player is now gone.<BR/><BR/>2. Character Issues: this is the pinnacle of dilemmas for every college athletic program. It has now unfortunately become the climate of college athletics that kids are offered money and cars and all sorts of other promises at a young age. Given that many come from poor families its hard to blame them for taking it. Since this has become an increasing trend, especially among championship-caliber teams (think Reggie Bush/OJ Mayo at USC) one wonder's if a team can even be competitive without it. I am not condoning this behavior of course, but in the light of money scandals going down at big programs all across the country I don't find it difficult to look the other way on a marijuana possession or a fight here and there. Lord knows I did both those things in college and I didn't even have to deal with the unimaginable pressure of living up to an entire universities expectations.<BR/><BR/>3. Weather: I reject this claim completely. OSU has been the best football team in the big ten since 2004 and they play the closest thing to spread offense in the conference until the arrival of RR. Their offense is predicated on speed (troy smith/ted ginn jr.) and works quite effectively. Snow is a rarity during the season, even in big ten country, because our conference finishes the season several weeks before the teams from the south. Rain happens everywhere in the country during the fall, and while it may make footing unsure, it makes the defensive secondaries job even harder when guarding a spread offense because they have to be reactive. One false step and it could easily be 6 points. Weather is no issue.<BR/><BR/>This brings me to my chief concerns: <BR/><BR/>First, RR has brought his fair share of controversy along with him to Ann Arbor. It is something that needs to be laid to rest, because the longer it hangs in the air the more of a distraction it will become for everyone involved in the program. I realize that his break from WVU was an ugly one, but he's here now and we have to embrace him as our coach regardless of whether we would have preferred a michigan man. <BR/><BR/>Second, I'm concerned to what extent he will try to implement the schemes he used at WVU here. While I appreciate the the spread offense is the way of college football now, I'm afraid our offense will struggle even more than it has too by virtue of a square peg/round hole experience. Most of the players on offense were not recruited to play in such a system and unless some adjustments are made it will be very hard for them to achieve success.<BR/><BR/>Third, While the earlier-discussed issue with defensive recruitment gets a pass this year, the general recruiting needs to take a big step up. Although the hype set the bar at an impossible level, losing out on the tyrelle pryor sweepstakes was a colossal blunder on RR's behalf. He had essentially everything going for him, and yet he still lost out to OSU. We need to beat the bucks early in RR's career to get out of this one-sided rivalry and give young talent reason to believe we will contend for titles again. We will need to focus on recruiting defense much more heavily next year. We cannot afford to lose 5-star prospects to other regional powers anymore. <BR/><BR/>I believe in our program, and I believe that if RR can get his troubles behind him that he will be extremely successful. Given that the offense is basically completely new it will be a tough season. Our defense will keep up in games, and our stable of running backs plus the individual excellence of Greg Matthews and Carson Butler will ensure that we aren't without claws on offense.The Aryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10459538849607238870noreply@blogger.com