Personally, if we can get cornerback to lineup within 5 yards of the line of scrimage, i'll be a happy man. The sight of cornerbacks backpeddling before the ball is snapped has cost me many a night of sleep!
I think English will do well, and furthermore i think Carr will actually let him pretty much run the show. Carr at least realizes change has to be made.
Overall though, I agree with your comment Brian. Debord.....will be interesting. I'm hoping the rumors of Lefty's passing game w/ Debord's running game, and MAYBE a new blocking scheme will at least have promise!
Sorry for the long comment!
I think the silver lining in all of this is that Carr is finally realizing that he needs to turn things around.
As you stated, this needs to start at the top.
As Carr proved after the Wisconsin game when he seemingly acknowledged an epiphany that Michigan needs to be more aggressive, when pressed he reverted back to ole' afraid Lloyd, with disasterous results.
However, on the decade where even baby steps from Lloyd are more than we have seen , this is on balance a positive development. That he had to do it kicking and screaming is sad, but better than the alternative.
I am getting hyped for next season with all of the changes. DeBord doesn't excite me but I do remember his offenses being clutch and sealing games with sucessful ball control in the 4th Qtr. If Carr can let the defensive coaches run the defense and we get a decent LB coach, I think English and Stripling can come up with a very solid D. If Carr insists on imposing his will over every facet of the team we are looking at 9-4 or 8-5.
To be fair, we have no idea what went on behind the scenes. I'll bet that some national search was conducted, and that they just couldn't get a slam-dunk DC to commit quickly enough. RE's NFL offer forced Lloyd's hand, and in the end he weighed the pros and cons, and made the call.
I believe Lloyd makes sound business decisions. On-the-field decisions... well, you know. But he seems like the analytical type. I get the feeling that he analyzes problems pretty thoroughly. We'll know soon enough.
Regardless of what people think of him as a coach, I think he'll make a top-notch AD someday.
Actually, they used to say that "the proof of the pudding is in the tasting," but our scorched-earth warfare on our language has left us with the nonsensical "the proof is in the pudding." (Don't get your fingers sticky looking for it.)
Or maybe you just don't want to imagine that English's prowess as a defensive coordinator can only be measured by tasting him.
In any case, I completely agree with your final assessment: If this team fails this year, there's reason to believe it'll be interesting to watch. That alone makes the change worthwhile.
I can't wait to watch a Jets/Falcons game. A mobile quarterback will run for 200 yards, and this time we won't lose a bowl game because of it...
On your comment about Michigan not holding bowl opponents under 28 points, i did a little fact checking.
Did you know that prior to the 1998 season, only one school had ever scored 28 or more against Michigan in a bowl game (Washington, twice). Since the 1998 season, every bowl opponent has scored 28 or more. 8 out of 8. I can only describe that as "not good"
Hawk Harrelson reference? If so...much awesome.
Love the bunched panties comment, perfectly sums it up. Also:
>I'm not ramping my expectations up to unreasonable levels quite yet, but at least if we fail next year it will be in new and interesting ways.<
Exactly, it'll be nice to see a script that none of us could have written beforehand.
Brian,
I know it was a joke, and I shouldn't respond seriously, but Herrmann actually had a pretty good track record as an LB coach going for quite some time. A bunch of 1st team All Big 10 players and Michigan's first ever Butkus Award winner, and until the late 90s he was doing it with guys that weren't all-world talent athletically (Erick Anderson, Matt Dyson, Steve Morrison, Jarrett Irons). It's really only very recently, with a major injection of raw athletic ability into the LB corps, that Herrmann's LB coaching has come into question.
Let's just say that I am suddenly following the real estate market in the NYC metro area quite closely.
Just keep it non-threatening but annoying, Joey.
ny: Yes, it's just been the past couple years that the linebacking has been spectacularly ineffective.
Hobson was the last good one and he was done in 2002? Or was it Foote? But right now we have quite a few good LBs in the league who also played very well while at Michigan.
FWIW, "The proof is in the pudding" is a reference to alcohol. I don't know that much about British deserts, but the idea is that you pour rum over the bread pudding and light it on fire (much as they do with Saganaki cheese at Greek restaurants). If the proof of the alcohol isn't high enough, then you can't light it. The pudding isn't done and ready to eat until the 'proof' (eg alcohol) has been added.
And agreed that "Scorched Earth" is definitely a good description of our language.
I'm perversely proud to have the kind of blog where the origins of various idioms are debated. Carry on.
intresting comments on this blog, let me shine a little light on the linebackers comments and put the blame where it neeed be.
I've commented way too many times on this with this same comment, "why can't Michigan defensive players tackle?"
Just think, for the past four years or so if they could, hermann would still be in Ann Arbor!
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