I shouln't've left you/Without a post about the times and what the news do:
- Remember when I wrote all of this? Well, it looks like, as Cameran from Real World: San Diego would say, I "sercumbed" to internet rumors too quickly. This week, the Detroit Free Press reported that LaMarr Woodley is likely going to return to UM for his senior year:
"He's not going anywhere," said his high school coach, Don Durrett of Saginaw.
- Michigan's inability to recruit the best of the best at offensive tackle looks as though it will persist: A year after missing out on the Dan Doerings, Alex Boones, and Dace Richardsons of the world; and two years after missing out on the Thomas Herrings and Kyle Mitchums, Michigan may now be in position to miss out on the Sam Youngs, and probably the Daron Roses (I won't believe he's leaving Florida until I see it) and Steve Schillings (who the internets experts think stays west, and who's really a guard, anyway). The South Bend Tribune, quoting top Notre Dame recruiter and, oh by the way, supposedly unbiased national recruiting expert Tom Lemming, says that Sam Young has narrowed his college choices down to Notre Dame and USC, excising Michigan and Penn State from the list. Young doesn't talk to the media much and Lemming has been wrong before, so let that allow the ray of UM hope to live on as a glimmer, but still.... Any other reasons for hope? Well, this being the recruiting year that has given us Carlos Brown to Michigan and education-first Myron Rolle to Florida State, one may not want to believe anything until it happens. But it doesn't look good for Michigan; even fanzine operators can't come up with hokum needed to prevent a thousand internets deaths.
Losing Young would (pretty please allow this to still be a hypothetical) hurt UM. Not only is offensive tackle a position of great need for the Wolverines, but Michigan has an excellent track record for putting offensive linemen into the NFL. On top of that, Young is a good student reputed to care about his education to a degree somewhere between "You mean there's more to learn than just kinesiology?" and "I'm taking Great Books because Psych 111 has too many kids in it." If a Michigan degree, a near certainty of early playing time at a traditional power, and a proven ability to send its players to that proverbial "next level" can't lure recruits, you know you're in some kind of trouble. But at the same time, you can't have been watching UM's offensive offensive lines of recent vintage and come away terribly impressed. While we Michigan fans like to assume that the Best School Ever's built-in advantages help lure recruits, that's a rationalization pill that may have been taken too frequently during these recent years of inevitable underperformance. In college football, winning is the ultimate currency.
And besides, maybe Young doesn't want to come to school, gain 50 pounds, and lose so much flexibility that he needs his roommate to scratch his ass for him.
- You know who still likes Lloyd Carr? Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin:
"Lloyd's our coach, he's a fine representative of the University of Michigan, and it's an honor for me to work with him," Martin said Wednesday.
Please note that the article also discusses succession planning in decidedly good terms for anyone who thinks it will be a mistake for Michigan to hire presumptive Carr preference Mike DeBord:
He said he evaluates Carr as he does other head coaches and eventually will replace him the same way.
That means when Carr leaves, he'll be treated like his peers and Martin will search for a successor with a screening committee; he won't allow Carr to appoint a replacement.
"Of course, that's my job," Martin said.
Thank the fucking lord. I know that a guy who was an abject failure as head coach at Central Michigan (DeBord) screams "next Michigan head coach" for someone like loyal, inert, increasingly obsolete Carr, but for the rest of us? Well, let's just hope that Bill Martin isn't consumed by a pillar of fire or shanked in the shower by some Schembechler Hall (the real one) loyalist. Has anyone seen Bo?