At what point is Lloyd to blame?
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by Tstelnicki03
I've always been a firm believer that those who blame the coaches for a team's misfortunes, big or small, are often misguided in their hatred. Sure, I know how much influence a coach has over a team, I play sports, I know how much they matter. They run the practices, they set the lineup, they prepare you for the upcoming game, they lay out the gameplan, they're your leadership figure in the lockeroom. Agreed.
But when a quarterback throws an interception, or the defensive backs miscommunicate and their opponents capitalize, the profanity-laden rants courtesy of the die-hards, or the spiteful columns calling for the head of the coach on a silver platter just seem, at least to me, headed in the wrong direction. A coach has influence over his team, but his players' mistakes are not always his mistakes. The head coach and his coordinators control the pre-game preparations, the mid-game adjustments, and recieve the post-game heat or glorification, but when the lights go on, the players play, the coaches coach.
I hope we're on the same page. There's a fine line between coaches and players. Established? Good.
The question remains, has Lloyd Carr crossed that ever-so-fine line? Being present in Ann Arbor this weekend and getting the first hand perspective on the Michigan Wolverines' second debacle in as many weeks has shed new light on the issue weighing heavily in my mind. Is it the Coach's fault? Should he be blamed? Are the cat-calls and boos raining down upon Ol' Lloyd this week and in the weeks to come justified?
Well, it just so happens that line wasn't as fine as I had thought. Sorting through the team's (many) malfunctions might help see that line a bit more clearly.
The past two weeks of Michigan football have been horrendous in every possible aspect of the game, save two: the running game and the punt team. The latter has been so effecient that it's the only reason Oregon was held under 50 points on Saturday. Zoltan Mesko's 46 yard punts sailing through the overcast Ann Arbor sky became one of the only bright spots of the afternoon for the Wolverines, and led to this fan, who stuck it out all four quarters, to cheer his arrival onto the field, and hastily await his impending field-position masterpiece. But aside from Mike Hart and Zoltan, Michigan can't do much of anything right.
Chad Henne's two quarters were atrocious, and, as is usually the case, his stats won't tell the entire story, (12/23, 172, TD & a pick), although they aren't exactly sparkling either. Henne's 7.5/yard per pass average seems about right, most of his completed passes were screens to Hart or short routes run by Greg Mathews or Adrian Arrington. Rarely did Chad air it out to star wideout Mario Manningham, although it wasn't like Super Mario was having difficulty beating the Ducks' corners. On one second quarter play, Manningham made a move at the line and burst past his man, leading him by, at the very least, 6-7 steps. Even as the safety came over to help, it looked like a sure 6, that was until Henne uncorcked an erratic, wobbly pass, sailing over the opposite shoulder turned towards the play and well behind the streaking reciever. As the boo-birds came a-calling, (and this particular fan cheered the reappearance of Zoltan the Magnificent for another 4th down), Henne walked off the field, shaking his head, in as much disbelief as every Maize and Blue clad fan in the Big House.
Henne has depreciated into form reminiscent of his sophomore season, when his rock, Braylon Edwards, departed for the NFL, leaving him with scattered recieving corps and no confidence. For Henne's sake, the injury to his leg gives him time to think out his problems, come back and straighten out his senior season, which was worthy of passing on the NFL draft for a year.
As if the quarterback problems weren't enough, the Wolverine defensive corps could not look any more unlike last year's group, which reminded some of a solid brick wall. If one was to take that imagery literally and try to think of the actual, exact opposite of a brick wall, one might come up with a warm, fuzzy blanket, or perhaps even a few feathers, blowing about in the wind without a purpose or care in the world. And true to my imagery, Michigan's '07 defense does somewhat resemble those feathers, or a blanket.
The spread offense that Michigan has faced the last two weeks has torn the secondary to shreds. Dennis Dixon floated passes over the heads of trailing corners and into the gaps between the safeties all game long, and he did without so much as a hesitation, or much faking or other tricks either. It wasn't necessary. Michigan's defense can't stop some of the most basic plays in the book, and it's not just the secondary. The front 7 might just be some of the worst mine eyes have ever had the unfortunate mispleasure of gazing upon. (My Grandfather, a lineman for Michigan in the 50's could not stop, and I repeat, could not STOP, yelling and complaining about the weak, pathetic arm-tackling performed by those linemen all game long. "You can't tackle someone with your forearm! HIT SOMEONE!" Amen, gramps.) But not only did Jeremiah Johnson and Jonathan Stewart run ripshod all over them time after time, they couldn't get a lick of pressure in the pocket. Dixon had time to glance over to his girlfriend in the stands, wave, blow a kiss and then, perhaps doze off for a bit, but not too long, he didn't want to miss his wide open reciever on his crossing route.
But are any of these problems Lloyd Carr's fault, at least directly? I'd say no, Henne's problems are his own, and the defensive embarassments are D-coordinator Ron English's responsibility.
But is Lloyd prepared to tell Maize and Blue Nation that in a week's time he couldn't figure out a way to, nevermind STOP, (SLOW would've been perfectly acceptable), a spread offense? App State and Oregon ran the EXACT same kind of offense, two straight weeks, and the same results? In a week's time nothing was fixed? What went on in practice all week, pray tell? Did the team just sit on their hands and let some of their tears out after getting their buttcheeks handed to them by a I-AA team? I guess practices aren't for adjustments, they're for sharing feelings.
Even during the game, when the coaching staff saw, clear as day, the problems their defense was having, no problems were solved, no adjustments made. Oregon sure came in prepared. That much is for sure. They damn sure took a look at the tape of the App State game and were probably a bit worried, I mean, they're almost the exact same team, how could Michigan NOT make any adjustments during the week? When UO Head Coach Mike Belotti watched the first few minutes and saw that Michigan hadn't changed ONE BIT in 7 days time, he must've danced a little jig, and chuckled to himself at the abject putresence that was Michigan's lame attempt to win that football game. He's probably still dancing that little jig, I wouldn't blame him. I'd like to ask him if he can remember facing a team that had made absolutely no attempt to fix their mistakes coming off a loss.
So now that line appears a little more clearly, the line separating players' mistakes and coaching mistakes. The Wolverines went out there and played like they didn't want it, and everyone in the building knew that. Their confidence has been shaken to the core, if they can't win in front of 108,000 of their own screaming fans to save their season, they can't win anywhere. That has to be in the mind of every single Wolverine, no matter what they tell the press, doesn't it?. (Except maybe Mike Hart, he won't quit and you know that much).
But the coaching staff didn't hold up their end of the deal either, and that seems to be more important. They didn't prepare the team for this game in the slightest, putting the players in a situation where the talent they possess is of no consequence, they weren't going to be ready come game time. The coaching staff didn't make ONE foreseeable adjustment when they knew they were going up against the exact same type of team that they had just lost to. What did they think, that they were going to just figure it out second time around?! "Changes are for the weak, right? Who cares if they run a no-huddle offense, our defense will figure it out, they're smart kids, let's just wing it, right?" Wrong. The defense couldn't even get in their stances by the time Dixon was already running through his cadence.
Lloyd better be thankful that Notre Dame is going to be led by just as inexperienced a QB as his Wolverines are right now. He also better be thankful that Notre Dame won't be running that spread offense, because, ya know, changes, adjustments and preparations are just...too much work. Even if Michigan adjusted now, it'd be too late.
Two horrifying losses too late.
