Rich Rod Faces Make or Break Season

When a college football program announces the hiring of a high profile coach there is much fanfare and the coach is welcomed to the campus by students, fans and alumni.  This wasn't exactly the case for Rich Rodriguez when he came to the University of Michigan to take over as Head Football Coach and it hasn't gotten any easier for him since.

It all began with the selection of Rodriguez to succeed Lloyd Carr.  It was no secret that Michigan wanted Les Miles (a former Michigan player) and many of the alumni blame Athletic Director Bill Martin for 'fumbling' the hire of Miles--forcing the university to seek other candidates.  Martin reached out to Greg Schiano, but finally offered the job to Rodriguez.  Martin couldn't get the hiring of Rodriguez right either.  Not only is he the second premier coach that Michigan has hired away from the Mountaineers (the WVU basketball coach, John Beilein had been hired away by U of M the previous year) but Michigan botched the negotiation of Rodriguez's buyout with West Virginia forcing legal action before it was all settled.  So, the hiring of Rodriguez left a terrible taste it the collective mouth of the Michigan faithful, but never fear, winning cures all ills, so . . .

This is where the wheels came off the bus for Rich Rodriguez.  His staff came into Ann Arbor, completely reconfigured the weight and fitness facilities and installed their new offense and defense.  The result was player transfers and a steep learning curve for the remaining players that resulted in the worst season in the history of Michigan football.  That bears repeating.  Michigan has been playing football since the 19^th century.  It is the winningest program in college football history (total wins and winning percentage) and has one of the richest traditions in all of sports.  Rich Rodriguez's first year as the head coach was the worst season in the history of Michigan football.  Rodriguez had all of the wrong firsts.  First season in 34 years with no bowl appearance (longest streak in the nation), first ever loss to a MAC team, first time losing to all of Michigan's key rivals in one season (Notre Dame, Michigan State, Ohio State-as well as Penn State), first season with 8+ losses and it goes on.  For Michigan fans, this was the first year in history that their holiday plans weren't influenced by what day their team was playing in a bowl game.

 So, with the alumni upset with the Athletic Director (and by association, Rodriguez), player transfers and then the worst season in school history, Rodriguez really needed everything to go well in the offseason.  And it has to be said that, essentially, it did.  Michigan welcomed a good recruiting class including two quality quarterbacks whose skills fit the spread offense very well.  After a full year with the program, the returning players had made significant progress in their fitness and their understanding of the new systems.  Tate Forcier, the top quarterback recruit had a great spring game and it looked like Michigan football was back on track.  Then controversy hit during the week before the first game of the year.  The Michigan coaching staff was accused of violating NCAA rules regarding organized practice time for the players and now, the University's administration is investigating the allegations themselves.  It appears that Michigan probably did nothing wrong or at least nothing different from every other program in the country, but Rodriguez must feel as if he can't get a break.  So, what can he do?  He has to do what John Beilein did in his second season, win.

Rich Rodriguez is in a position where anything less than a winning season will probably result in his getting fired.  The influential alumni have been disappointed with his hiring from the start and their frustration with Bill Martin means that they aren't eager for Rodriguez to succeed.  The typical fan is tired of the losing streak with Ohio State and wants to see the program return to national prominence.  The key to remember is that Rodriguez didn't take over a losing program with little talent.  He took over a program well stocked with talent with a long winning tradition.  It was his changes that resulted in a 3 - 9 season last year-not that the season would have been spectacular otherwise. 

There are a few key things that Rodriguez has to do to keep his job this year and prevent the alumni from pressing Bill Martin to go hire coach Jim Harbaugh away from Stanford.   First, it has to be a winning season.  Fans have been patient watching the transformation of the football team into a spread offense and 3-3-5 defense.  Like Beilein's change with the basketball team, the football change has to show progress by turning in a winning season and a bowl game (any bowl game).  Second, he cannot lose to opponents they are expected to beat.  In other words, when Western Michigan and Delaware State come to Ann Arbor, they better leave defeated.  Third, he cannot go 0-for against his rivals.  Rodriguez probably won't be expected to defeat Ohio State, but losses against Michigan State and Notre Dame will probably do him in, even if he has a winning season otherwise.  So, he needs to beat at least one of the 3 schools if not 2.  Finally, since Michigan is likely to go to a lower tier bowl game, they better win.  Doing these things, showing significant progress with the program, should save his job.  Failing to make big leaps forward, probably means he and his staff are updating their resumes.

As this year's NBA Finals come to a close it becomes evident that the 2007-2008 Los Angeles Lakers need more than just a healthy Andrew Bynum to become a legitimate championship contender.  Nothing about this Laker organization resembles a champion. 

It starts in L.A. with the fans that show up to the Staples Center.  It is great to see all of the stars come out with Diane Cannon and Jack Nicholson as the old holdovers from the Magic Johnson/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "Showtime" era, but that is where the comparisons stop.  Never has there been such a weak crowd watching their team play for any championship in any sport.  The current crop of Laker fans give their team exactly no home court advantage.  Once the Lakers sprinted out to big leads at home, the Staples Center became as quiet as a church.  In contrast, the fans in Boston were loud and supportive of their team from the opening tip.  Watching on TV, deafening chants of "De-Fense, De-Fense" coming from the Celtic crowd could be heard.  Their team was up by 30 at the time.  Laker fans, where is "Dancing Barry" when you need him?  Of course we also see a stark contrast of arenas.  Staples Center is designed for maximum revenue with three rows of luxury boxes separating the upper and lower decks.  Luxury boxes do not equal crowd noise and the silence was deafening.

On the court, it starts with defense.  Through the entire series, the Lakers could not solve the pick-n-roll of the Celtics.  Any fan watching this series watched Laker players make fundamental mistakes time and again as the Celtics took advantage of the Laker inability to adjust to anything Boston did.  The story of Game 6 was the Celtics' second chances.  The Lakers could not buy a defensive rebound while Boston consistently took advantage of the second chances given them by the Lakers.  Rebounding is a team effort and throughout the series the scene was one Laker surrounded by 3 Celtics fighting for a rebound.  To top this off, the Lakers could not make their free-throws.  This is heart.  This is focus.  This is fundamental basketball.  This is all missing from this Laker team.

By contrast, the Celtics played incredible defense throughout the series.  Yes, there were some opening quarters where the Lakers put on an offensive show, but they were always short lived.  The Celtics defense took over and the leads always disappeared-including the largest come from behind win in NBA Finals history.   The Celtics put on a clinic for all to see on how to play great team defense.  Paul Pierce shut down Kobe Bryant and the Celtic team bottled him up and made him an almost non-factor in this series.

And that is the final point about this year's Lakers.  Kobe Bryant is a great player, but he is not the second coming of Michael Jordan.  Despite his great regular season, Kobe showed us why Michael was so special.  Jordan was never shut out of a playoff series like Kobe was this one.  There was never a time when Jordan was unable to put his team on his back and find a way to get the bucket they needed, the assist, rebound, steal or get to the foul line.  Kobe simply could not make it happen.  Kobe's supporting cast has to improve significantly as well, but his performance cannot be explained away by his teammates' inconsistent support.

If Los Angeles wants to get to the finals next year and if they want to have a shot at beating next year's Eastern Conference Champions (read: Celtics), they better make a commitment to defense, to fundamentals, focus and 48 minutes of intensity.  Simply returning a healthy Andrew Bynum will not be enough.  Phil, its time to fire up the Zen and find a way to mold this team into a champion.

Congratulations to the Celtics.  You outplayed the Lakers in every way that mattered and now you have banner #17 to hang in the rafters. 

Wow, that was more painful to write than I thought it would be . . .

This NFL season will be remembered for many things.  The Patriots have gone undefeated and if they win the Super Bowl this season will be remembered as one of the most incredible in the league's history.  There is much to talk about; Brett Favre, at 38, is playing like he is 28 and leading the Packers to a division title and probably a run to the NFC title game.  Tom Brady has broken Peyton Manning's single season touchdown record while having the most impressive statistical season of his already hall-of-fame career.  Devin Hester has proven that last year was not a fluke by shredding kick coverages like Sandy Berger shredding top secret documents from the National Archives.  But one of the most interesting stories has to be the fact that Terrell Owens and Randy Moss are getting more attention for what they are doing on the field rather than off the field.  Both are behaving very well (by comparison) and doing most of their talking on the field rather than off.  The press has been so desperate to find a misstep that they stretched the non-story of Owens' (obvious joke) comments regarding Romo's 'girl jinx' into a two day story.  Why is this?  No doubt in part it is because each of their teams are doing well and, of course, they are getting the ball.  But, that does not entirely explain their 'good' behavior.  I attribute their behavior to something I call "The Jordan Factor."

Even casual fans of the NBA are aware of the second three-peat of the Michael Jordan led Bulls that featured one of the craziest characters in league history, Dennis Rodman.  Dennis Rodman was a key part of the second title run by the Bulls by being the ultimate roll player in support of Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan.  However, his previous stop with the San Antonio Spurs was not the same success even though the Spurs were led by a legitimate star of their own, David Robinson.  Rodman acted up in San Antonio until they finally ran him out of town.  Unlike in Chicago, his antics were frequent and were detrimental to the team.  Rodman never respected David Robinson and, as a result, never acted liked he cared about the team.  Things changed when he went to Chicago and now had to answer to Michael Jordan.  Rodman clearly respected Jordan and other key players on the team because they were already proven winners.  He was far from perfect, but he showed up and played hard every game and didn't snipe at his teammates.  He was happy to go out every night, play defense and grab 18 boards and help the team win.  Rodman needed a proven superstar and proven performer to help keep him in line.  No coach was going to do that, it needed to be a teammate.

Randy Moss and Terrell Owens have similar situations for them in this season.  This theory holds truer with Moss and Brady than it does with Owens and Romo, but the Randy Moss situation has really been amazing.  Anyone who has followed Moss' career knows that he would take plays off when he knew the ball was not going to him and was a ghost when asked to block on running plays.  Not so in New England.  Not only has Moss set a new season record for touchdown receptions, but he is also saying all the right things and doing the dirty little jobs on the field that he never would before.  I have actually witnessed Moss throwing a block on a running play.  More than once.  I have heard him say in interviews that team goals are more important than personal achievements.  Yeah, that was Randy Moss that said that.  Owens has also been on good behavior but probably not for the same reasons.  For Owens, I believe it has more to do with the fact that he does not have to fight with Romo for the biggest ego on the team.  Romo defers to Owens and does not fight with him for the spotlight.  Plus, the Cowboys are winning and Romo has made it clear that Owens is his number 1 target.  That makes Terrell a very happy boy.

Conclusion?  First and foremost, winning tends to cure all ills.  But, even more important, you either need a proven superstar to supplant the ego of the malcontent or you need a superstar who will not fight for the spotlight and play to the ego of the tough personality.  Either way, it has created winning seasons and the two best records  in their respective conferences.

Boy, these playoffs are going to be fun!!!

Boy, did Anthony Smith learn the hard way that you do not tug on Superman's cape unless you are ready to take him on.  And he was not ready, at all.  Anthony Smith's Steeler teammates must have been cursing him after he said that they would beat the Patriots and then reaffirmed his guarantee to leave no one in doubt as to what he said.  Tom Brady had a cool response to Smith's guarantee before the game saying:  "Well done is always better than well said."  Well, for the Patriots, it was well done on Sunday and the rest of the league is left scratching their heads.

Right when it looked like the Eagles and the Ravens showed the rest of the league a formula for toppling the undefeated Patriots, all hopes got dashed.  It looked like the Steelers should be able to give the Patriots a good run with an offense better than either the Eagles or the Ravens and a defense almost as good as Baltimore's, but it did not happen.  New England did not go out and beat up on the lowly Dolphins or Jets.  They took the division leading Steelers out behind the woodshed and gave them an old fashioned whooping.  What looked like a close game in the first half became a laugher in the second as Anthony Smith's foolish guarantee made him look all the more pathetic as he watched Randy Moss fly by him for a long touchdown.  Brady put on a clinic throwing for 399 yards and 4 touchdowns (should have been 5 touchdowns but Moss dropped a pass that hit him in the hands).    Of Smith, Brady said that he would have to show up on Sunday and try to guard them and that they were going to try to make it hard on him.   That was exactly what happened as 7 different receivers caught passes with the 4 touchdowns going to 3 different receivers. 

Smith showed how silly it is to challenge a team that has great talent and feels they have something to prove.  Now the rest of the league has seen what it means to face a focused Patriots team with a chip on their collective shoulder.  You think Mangini is keeping a lid on his players this week or is it enough already that it was his team that instigated video-gate?

If you are a Bears fan like me, you are thrilled to see that teams are still kicking to Devin Hester.  By the way, get out your ballots--Hester is the league MVP.  Tom who?  Also, if you are a Bears fan you can't believe that teams still kick to Devin Hester!  Hasn't anyone read his stats?  Watch his rookie season?  Did everyone miss his 108 yard runback of a missed field goal vs. the Giants last year?  Did they see his game winning return against the Cardinals.  The 2 kickoff returns vs. the Rams?  How about returning the opening kickoff of last year's Super Bowl?  That season was filled with enough highlights to fill a career.  Was his entire rookie season missed by the Special Teams coaches of the NFL?   Apparently it was--or was it?

I believe that I have finally figured out why teams insist on kicking the ball to Devin Hester.  Hester has done it so many times, no one believes that he could possibly do it again.  Its like going up against a pitcher who just tossed a no-hitter or a goalie that has 5 shutouts in a row.  They must figure that lightning can't strike again.  They're safe. 

"The team before them just had 2 run back against them, he's used up more than his share of runbacks.  We're in the clear."  They say. 

My theory (and believe me its the only one that makes any sense to me) is that teams in the NFL still don't believe that there is anything particularly special about Hester.  Yeah, he's a good return man, but nobody takes kick returns to the 'house' with any consistency.   Hester might have done it against the other teams,  but the Bears next opponent believes that it won't happen to them.  Kickoff returns are like winning the lottery--it's rare and it always happens to someone else.

So, they keep kicking and the Bears' return team keeps blocking and Devin keeps running, and running, and running, and running . . .

Run Devin, run.