Rich Rodriguez and Michigan in 2009
From the Coaches Hot Seat Analysis:
“Whatever was in Rich Rodriguez’s mind when he decided to accept the Michigan job in December of 2007, there is little argument that Rodriguez chose one of the most difficult places in college football in deciding to take over in Ann Arbor, because of both the nature of Michigan football (and as ESPN’s Tom Luginbill has pointed out many times) and the type of players on the Wolverine football team compared to Rodriguez’s style of coaching. A good comparison is to imagine for a moment if Rodriguez had taken the Alabama job in the fall of 2006 (which he was offered and may have accepted, if only for a short while before Saban took the job), where the talent on the Alabama football team starting with QB John Parker Wilson who had played in a spread system in high school and the dozens of other players on the ‘Bama roster that knew the spread system as well from their high school days. Rodriguez could have taken over at Alabama and been set-up with many players that both fit his offensive system and his style of coaching and that is a massively different to what Rich Rod faced when he arrived in Ann Arbor. Of course, Rodriguez clearly wanted out of West Virginia in the fall of 2007 and Michigan was one of the last, and clearly the best job left open when Greg Schiano turned UM down, and Rodriguez jumped, but did he know then the length of that jump and the very real challenges he would face in Ann Arbor? That is a very good question, but it doesn’t mean bumpkis now, because Rodriguez must face his troubles head on and attempt to institute his coaching systems and turn around the Michigan football program, just like he did at West Virginia.
Last summer at about this time we predicted that Rodriguez and Michigan would put up an 4-8 record in 2008 and the Wolverines actually came in one game worse with 3-9, and the thing we were not able to predict then was the lack of any consistent QB play and the very inconsistent play on the defensive side of the ball. Add in the natural tension that comes with such a drastic coaching transition, and Lloyd Carr to Rich Rodriguez was probably the biggest major school cultural coaching change since Ray Perkins and then Bill Curry replaced Paul Bryant at Alabama, and one can understand some of Michigan’s bad play last fall. As Michigan heads toward the 2009 season Rodriguez has added a pretty good recruiting class that has a handful of players that can have an impact this fall and he has changed defensive coordinators adding Greg Robinson (formerly of Syracuse, Texas, etc.), who fits much better with Rodriguez’s philosophy of coaching than the last DC. The real question thinking about Michigan in 2009 revolves around the same two things that caused such problems in ‘08, namely can the Wolverines get consistent play at the QB position and can they stop some teams on the defensive side of the ball. Very simply, if Greg Robinson can hold down the Michigan opponents by just 4 or 5 more points a game on average (In ‘08 Michigan gave up an average of 28.92 points per game, 84th in the country) to something below 24 points per game, Rodriguez should be able to find enough points in his offense to get some more wins in 2009. We shall see… Now let’s look at the 2009 Michigan season.”
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Rich Rodriguez and Michigan will have a ____ record in 2009.
Rich Rodriguez and Michigan in 2009
BCS Boys meeting in lap of luxury at The Broadmoor Resort while the economy is in the tank
We here at Coaches Hot Seat are certainly not surprised that the BCS Boys have scheduled a meeting this week at one of the swankiest and most expensive resorts in the country, The Broadmoor Resort (go to the website and check out the room rates! Yes, very expensive!), when the economy is in the tank and college athletic departments are cutting fat wherever they can find them, but what arrogance, oh what arrogance…. The Broadmoor is not just a resort, it is a 5-star resort that has everything any Grand Pooh-Bah could want or expect, especially if he was spending someone else’s money, as are all of these BCS Boys (Remember, college football fans and American citizens pay every dime of the salaries and expenses for these BCS Boys, not that the BCS Boys understand or care about that). We here at Coaches Hot Seat know all about The Broadmoor because many of us have spent time there on vacation or for business conferences, but we were not there on the back of other people, especially the majority of a group that is against the very thing that these BCS Boys so arrogantly defend. Yes, the bogus BCS. Isn’t it so very nice that that the BCS Boys feel that it is appropriate for them to spending a few days at one of the most expensive resorts on the planet, living the high-life, kibitzing with the glitterati, when they do not even have the decency to set-up a postseason in college football that treats ALL Americans in an equal, fair, and in our opinion here at Coaches Hot Seat, in legal way. Yes, this is rich even for the BCS Boys, but par for the arrogant course…
Yes, the BCS Boys jet off to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs while the rest of the country is mired deep in recession with job losses piling up everywhere one looks and the precious little BCS Boys are all too ready to spend thousands of dollars of other people’s money for a meeting that could be held somewhere else for a lot less money. How nice for the BCS Boys, but how so very arrogant. Not that we would not recommend The Broadmoor Resort, that is for people that are spending their own money, not others. The rooms at The Broadmoor are incredible. The golf is unmatched. The restaurants are numerous and terrific. The spa will melt your wife’s heart. The service is impeccable, but is The Broadmoor, a 5-star resort, really the appropriate place for the BCS Boys to be meeting in the current economy? We think not, but then again the BCS Boys don’t give a damn what anyone thinks, because very simply the BCS Boys are in our opinion collectively the most arrogant and discriminatory group of men in the United States of America today. Don’t believe that point of view? Just read what Boise State president Bob Kustra thinks: BCS System fundamentally flawed, unfair.
What possible other conclusion can one come to when the BCS Boys so proudly run a postseason system in college football that excludes and treats with great disdain a group of student-athletes like “second-class” citizens that have every right to have the opportunity to play for the national championship in college football. Yes, only a group of greedy jackasses like the BCS Boys would meet at The Broadmoor Resort in a time when the economy is in the tank, but then again we would put nothing past these Greedy Bastards. The bad thing for the BCS Boys is that their little bogus party, their altogether un-American bogus BCS, is on its last legs and it makes sense that just like the Roman emperor that the BCS Boys would be living the high life while Rome burned. The BCS Boys are now facing a completely different situation than one year ago and that is why almost to a man, except of course for the incredible arrogant asses of Jim Delaney and Grant Teaff, the BCS Boys have completely shut-up in the press about the BCS, because they know the more talking they do the bigger hole they will dig.
The BCS Boys should be proud though, that their standing in the way of student-athletes that have every right to have the opportunity to play for the national championship in college football is something that has been done before in America. Yes, there have been big arrogant asses in the history of our country that believed that they should have the right to be to discriminate against certain Americans within a collegiate educational system that took billions of US taxpayer dollars, and the best example in our opinion of deep down of what these BCS Boys are really all about can be summed up in one picture:
That’s right, the BCS Boys are running in what our opinion is an illegal cartel, the BCS, which denies the opportunity for all student-athletes playing Division I-A football the right to play for a national title is no different than George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door denying black Americans the right to attend the University of Alabama. How proud you BCS Boys must be, but we here at Coaches Hot Seat will tell you the same thing we would have told George Wallace if we had been alive in June, 1963:
To George Wallace:
“You have no right your arrogant ass to deny any qualified American the opportunity to attend the University of Alabama.”
And to the BCS Boys today:
“You arrogant asses have no right to deny the right of student-athletes that attend I-A schools that receive hundreds of billions of dollars in US taxpayer research and student aid the right and opportunity to play for the national championship in college football. No, you do not have the right to treat these student-athletes at “second-class” citizens, and your current positions will not stand. That is something that the BCS Boys can count on.”
Therein is where the rubber really meets the road, that the schools that make-up the BCS conferences and other conferences in I-A college football are all schools that receive hundreds of billions of dollars in US taxpayer financial aid every year and the BCS Boys cannot separate out the fact that it is the US taxpayer, via our representatives that will determine whether the BCS is legal or not. The President and the Congress work for the American people and there is a very real consensus across the United States and with a majority of college football fans that the BCS is a bogus way to determine the national champion in college football and that it is not right for the US government to let the BCS stand in its current form. In fact, it will not be allowed to stand and the BCS Boys can sip their $20 dollar cocktails and eat their $50 dollars steaks over the next few days at The Broadmoor Resort, but in the end it will be the American people, the one’s that are paying all of your salaries and are funding to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars these colleges and universities that will have the final say in this matter. Of that, you can count on BCS Boys.
John Henderson of the Denver Post was out with a story yesterday, Radical BCS proposal to get inspection, but we certainly don’t think that the BCS Boys will give two seconds thought to the proposal by the courageous Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson because we know these BCS Boys all too well and there is only one way they are going to abandon their bogus BCS, and that is kicking and screaming with the US federal government leading the way. Thinking about how the BCS will meet its demise, we certainly hope the BCS Boys do not believe that the US government which is funded by US taxpayers is going to allow the bogus, and in our opinion illegal BCS to stand, and when the time comes for the BCS to be brought to an end here is how we believe it will go (In the opinion of Coaches Hot Seat mind you):
Telephone Call between US government employee and Gordon Gee, the president of The Ohio State University (the same call will be made to every president or chancellor of every college or university with a I-A college football team):
Gordon Gee’s Secretary: President’s Office.
US Government Employee: Hello, my name is Mr. ___________ from the Department of __________ with the US government. I would like to speak with President Gee.
Gordon Gee’s Secretary: May I ask the nature of the call.
US Government Employee: Well, it is confidential, but it is very important that I speak with President Gee today.
Gordon Gee’s Secretary: OK. Let me see if I can get him.
Intercom: President Gee, Mr. _____ from the Department of ______ with the US Government is on the line and he would like to speak with you.
Gordon Gee: OK. I will take it. Thanks.
Gordon Gee pushes the button to take the call: Hello, this is Gordon Gee.
US Government Employee: President Gee, this is Mr. ______ with the Department of ______________ and I am calling to tell you about a finding that has just been made by the US Justice Department and a filing in federal court to suspend the BCS with a federal injunction.
Gordon Gee (silent for a few moments): What? The Justice Department and the BCS….
US Government Employee: Yes, President Gee, the US Justice Department has concluded in a finding that the BCS is illegal and violates several US laws pertaining to competition and US education law and the Justice Department has just filed for and received an injunction to halt the BCS for the foreseeable future.
Gordon Gee: OK, so you are telling me that the US Justice Department has determined that the BCS violates US law and that a federal court has placed an injunction that will stop the BCS from continuing for the foreseeable future?
US Government Employee: Yes, that is right President Gee.
Gordon Gee: What does that mean for Ohio State?
US Government Employee: Well, I am calling to ask you a question as to whether you as the president of Ohio State will honor this finding by the US Justice Department and federal court and will thus instruct the commissioner of the Big Ten to meet with the commissioners of the other sports conference commissioners to immediately institute a postseason playoff in college football that provides equal and fair opportunities for all student-athletes in Division I-A football to play for the national championship, as is the case in every other sport in collegiate athletics? I have a list of university presidents in the Big Ten that I am calling, because if you will not instruct the Big Ten commissioner to institute a playoff in college football we will have suspend all US Government and Taxpayer funds to the Ohio State University including all research and aid funds, effective starting the next term at your institution.
Gordon Gee (Silent for a very long time):
US Government Employee: President Gee, are you there?
Gordon Gee: Yes, I am here. Now, I guess you know that I feel very differently about the BCS and that….
US Government Employee (breaking off President Gee in mid-sentence): President Gee, this is not about your opinion on the BCS, but rather that the US Justice Department has concluded in a finding that the BCS is an illegal entity and that the Justice Department plans to sue the BCS in federal court representing the American people and that an injunction against the BCS was sought and received in US federal court, until this court case against the BCS can be resolved. I am not calling for your opinion, but I am only to calling to ask you a “Yes – No” question:
“Yes or No, will you as the president of Ohio State follow the injunction against the BCS by the US federal court and the finding made by the US Justice Department and instruct the Big Ten commissioner to meet with other conference commissioners to institute a playoff in college football’s postseason, which would mean an answer of “Yes” to my question, or will the US Government have to suspend all US federal research and aid funds to Ohio State University, which would be the answer of “No” to my question? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Silence……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………President Gee, are you there? What is it, “Yes or No?”
Gordon Gee: _________________________
Yes, that is in our opinion how this the Bogus BCS will come to a whimpering end. Also, I think we all know how Gordon Gee will answer the above question and the answer to that question will be the end of the Bogus BCS.
Of course, Gordon Gee and other university and college presidents can continue to support a system in the BCS that treats one group of Americans in a different, unfair and in our mind, illegal way, all that is within federally funded system of college and universities (public and private schools since all except for perhaps Hillsdale College in Michigan receive some type of federal aid) or they can institute a postseason playoff in college football that is exactly like every other sport in collegiate athletics.
It is the BCS Boys and the Gordon Gee’s of the world choice, but for not much longer Boys, but as long as you stand for a system that treats one group of Americans in an unfair and in our minds, illegal way then you are treating one group of Americans unfairly compared to other Americans. That is just not right, and it will not stand. Very simply, if you stand for the BCS, you stand with the George Wallace’s in the history of our country, and the BCS Boys should be ashamed that they are standing alongside such an outrageous man and thus they must believe like Wallace that one group of American can be treated as “second-class” citizens.
Of course, when you have a group of arrogant asses that are partying it up at a place like The Broadmoor Resort when families across the country are struggling just to put gas in their cars and food on their table and the US economy is reeling from hundreds of thousands of job losses each and every week, is anyone really surprised what these BCS Boys think or will do?
Didn’t think so….
Have a nice few days at The Broadmoor Resort BCS Boys, but don’t think that the American people and our representatives in Washington DC and elsewhere are not watching very closely your actions and planning to put an end to the very un-American and in our minds disgraceful BCS.
The BCS Boys would be very wise to take Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson up on his proposal, or something similar to his proposal, or end up having a change in the BCS forced on the BCS Boys by the representatives of the America People. Yes, think long and hard about that BCS Boys as you live like kings this week in Colorado Springs.
(What college athletic directors and college presidents and chancellors think about the BCS Boys holding a conference at a 5-star resort like the Broadmoor in these incredibly trying times for college athletic departments and colleges/universities is something we would love to know. Yes, that is something we would love to know.)
The Iranian Vote
We here at Coaches Hot Seat certainly applaud the Iranian people for standing up to the dictators that are running Iran. As Frederick Douglass once said:
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.”
Yes, Mr. Douglass was right, “Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it will never will.”
That quote of Frederick Douglass’ applies to not only to the brave Iranians that are in the streets today that are fed up with the dictators in Iran, but to the brave Americans that stood up to the British in our Revolution, and even to these arrogant bastard BCS Boys. One must always speak truth to power and we say Bravo! to the Iranian people for standing up for what they believe in and against evil. No doubt, the current Iranian government is evil and although we haven’t a clue to what the main challenger to the current Iranian president (Ahmadinejad), Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s views are on Iranian nuclear weapon (not energy, but weapons) development or if Mousavi would be willing to work with the US and Israelis to hasten peace in the Middle East, but here is one thing were here at Coaches Hot Seat do know:
We are fed up with the current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahadinejad and it is more than time for a change in Iran away from what is nothing less than a man that poses a clear and present danger to the security of the globe.
Yes, we say Bravo! to the brave Iranians that are standing up to the dictators that are current in charge in Iran and be assured that the majority of the American people, and everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat, stands with you fully, forcefully and proudly.
As one of the bravest American revolutionaries said during the battle for American freedom said:
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” Samuel Adams
Stay strong and keep standing up for what you believe in because….
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”
As for President Obama and his Administration they have in our mind set just the right tone towards Iran and the brave Iranians that have taken to the streets to protest the dictators that run their country and rule so harshly over them. President Obama and his advisors should keep in mind though that revolution very rarely comes quickly, but rather builds over time and explodes at the end in a new government for the people of the revolution.
The Boston Tea Party was carried off by our brave revolutionaries on December 16, 1773, two-and-a-half years before the United States declared its Independence from England.
Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to power in the Soviet Union in March 1985 and it was not until November 1989 before the Berlin Wall came down and not until December 1991 that he handed over power to the new Russian president Boris Yeltsin (with an attempted coup throw-in there against Gorbachev in August 1991).
It is hard to know what could emerge in Iran or even if Ahadinejad was replaced by someone else as president of Iran if that person would be any better, but we should all remember what then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said about Mikhail Gorbachev even before he replaced Cherneko as the leader of the Soviet Union:
December 17, 1984 Margaret Thatcher Interview (John Cole interviewer):
John Cole
[Summary of question] Does meeting Gorbachev , make you more optimistic or less regarding detente and world peace next year?
Prime Minister
I am cautiously optimistic. I like Mr. Gorbachev . We can do business together. We both believe in our own political systems. He firmly believes in his; I firmly believe in mine. We are never going to change one another. So that is not in doubt, but we have two great interests in common: that we should both do everything we can to see that war never starts again, and therefore we go into the disarmament talks determined to make them succeed. And secondly, I think we both believe that they are the more likely to succeed if we can build up confidence in one another and trust in one another about each other’s approach, and therefore, we believe in cooperating on trade matters, on cultural matters, on quite a lot of contacts between politicians from the two sides of the divide.
John Cole
[Summary of question] Gorbachev spoken of as possible successor to Chernenko, more flexible and, in Soviet terms, liberal. Did you form that view of him?
Prime Minister
[ Mikhail Gorbachev ] He was very ready to enter into full, detailed discussion; not to stick to prepared statements. So we had a genuine discussion. As a matter of fact, I also had a genuine discussion with Mr. Chernenko , President Chernenko , when I visited Moscow in February last year, and I also got on very well with President Chernenko , so the two things, really, were very very well worthwhile doing and I am very pleased he is here, and I hope he has an extremely successful visit.
There really is no telling what kind of leader will emerge in Iran, but the United States should be ready to engage him if he is ready to really sit down and talk about how the world can bring Iran fully into the Nation’s of the World. If the current Iranian president or any new leader is not willing to join the rest of the world and live peacefully with the rest of us, then we will deal with Iran and its leaders in an appropriate way. Yes, it is that simple and that is why it is very important that Iranians that want their country to be a part of the world and to eventually to be a good friend and ally of the United States, should stand up for what is right, for what is good, and for what is best for their country and the world.
How much the BCS is costing collegiate athletics and how much no Big Ten championship game in football is costing Big Ten schools:
We got a couple of number from our friends in New York yesterday on what the BCS, instead of a playoff in the college football postseason, on how much the BCS Boys and their Bogus BCS is costing collegiate athletics and we expect to get a final number today and we believe that college football fans and many people across the game will be stunned at what the BCS has cost and is costing college football. Very simply, the BCS is costing college football “hundreds of millions” of dollars each year and once we get the final number in today and we compare it to our numbers on what a college football playoff would generate in real dollars we will post those numbers in this blog.
To say the least, the BCS Boys are costing college football and collegiate athletics hundreds of millions of dollars each year, all to prop up what is a bogus, unfair and in our opinion, illegal system to crown a bogus national champion in football.
Stay tuned BCS Boys, your real stupidity will be out there for all to see…
Enjoy yourself BCS Boys living like kings the Broadmoor Resort while our nation suffers terribly in this economy, but don’t think this gravy train will continue forever…
No, it most certainly will not!
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