Disillusionment

Michigan State 34, Michigan 17; 5-1, 1-1

I said yesterday we'd find out a lot about this Michigan team based on the actions and events that took place during this football game.

Well, as it turns out, we did. As it also turns out, a football team takes on the personality of its head coach; and that matters. If you had to treat a football team like some sort of dish with a bunch of ingredients, the personality would be something that has to be thrown into the mix. Other things matter, like how you recruit, how fast your players are, how big and strong they are, etc. It's a very complicated process that is even harder for outsiders like us to decipher.

Today, it was simple: Michigan State takes on the personality of its head coach. Dantonio is a lot of things. He's a hypocrite, a trash talker, and way too dramatic. But he's also tough, hard-nosed, determined, and he has successfully instilled that mindset in his football team.

On the other side, Michigan's defense plays like it's an afterthought - just like their head coach treats them.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, or even any of the answers, really. If you come here looking for seer-like wisdom about what has to happen for things to be fixed, you're probably better off going elsewhere. All I can offer here is my opinion about the state of affairs and why things are the way they are. I don't pretend to have all the facts. I base what I believe off the information that becomes available to me. So if what I have to say here upsets you and you accuse me of being a "fairweather" or "fake" fan, I respectfully tell you to kiss my ass. I've been keeping this inside since the UMass game because I didn't want to be one of "those guys" that feels the need to harp on negativity when the overall outcome is still positive. Well, after today, I no longer have that obstacle, and I'm about to bust out the flamethrower. So here it is.

Rich Rodriguez is an offensive genius. It's not his fault that Denard Robinson missed Stonum in the endzone, and misjudged a pair of crossing patterns that resulted in redzone interceptions. Certain people in certain circles will use this game as more "proof" that the spread doesn't work in the Big 10. I don't buy that even a little bit. Before the game got out of hand, Michigan went up and down the field against MSU, and their sophomore QB in his 6th career game finally cracked under the weight of having the carry an entire program on his shoulders. What Rich and the offensive coaches have done is very, very impressive.

On the other hand: Rich Rodriguez is guilty of borderline criminal negligence in regard to this so-called defense. Did Lloyd Carr leave a stocked cupboard? No. But this is Year 3, and we have no direction, no goal, no ANYTHING on defense. Why? Because our head coach is a glorified offensive coordinator who pays no attention to the other side of the ball. Because Rich Rodriguez hired Scott Shafer in 2008, and then stood by as his buddies cut Shafer's balls off and ousted him as defensive coordinator. Shafer was fired after the season, rendering the entire 2008 season moot. The stench of 3-9 sticks, but any miniscule lessons any of the players learned along the way went swirling the drain when the coordinator and scheme changed.

And then, as if trying to one-up his own stubbornness, after another catatstrophic meltdown in 2009, Rich Rodriguez "recommends" the 3-3-5 defense to his second year coordinator, Greg Robinson. It's bad enough that in Year 3, we were once again headed down a new path, defensively. It's even worse that we decided to go to a scheme that takes a defensive lineman off the field and puts an extra defensive back on. I don't have an issue with the 3-3-5 in principle. With the proper personnel and proper coaching, just about any scheme can succeed. But we decide to install a scheme (with a coordinator who has never run it before) that marginalizes our defensive line, puts more strain on our worst unit, and calls on our linebackers to react quickly and fill gaps, something they have almost no capability of doing. It's asinine, it defies logic, and it'd be laughable if it wasn't so ridiculous.

So who's to blame? Obi Ezeh was a Lloyd recruit...and in year 3 Rodriguez has failed to find anybody to get Obi off the field. Rodriguez has failed to dedicate himself to a scheme on defense like he did on offense. Rodriguez has failed to hire the proper coaches to coach the defensive side of the ball. There are massive, massive personnel deficiencies in the defensive backfield, I understand. Rodriguez didn't tell Boubacar Cissoko to lose his mind and become a thug. He didn't tell JT Turner to be lazy and not put in any effort. He didn't break Troy Woolfolk's ankle. He didn't tell Donovan Warren to leave early and go undrafted.

But he did take a gamble on Vlad Emilien after an ACL tear; didn't work out. He chose to pursue Demar Dorsey and Adrian Witty instead of trying for other recruits with better academic prospects. He has chosen to leave Tony Gibson in charge back there, when Gibson is universally mocked as nothing more than Rodriguez's drinking buddy. This kind of nepotism had Michigan fans breathing fire at Lloyd Carr for employing Mike Debord as offensive coordinator. Rodriguez isn't exempt.

So what's the solution? I ask, because I don't know. There is not a single redeeming quality about this defense. It does nothing well. I thought they'd be able to hold their own against MSU's running game. That thought was comically extinguished when Edwin Baker was GONE the second he got past the line of scrimmage, because I knew our linebackers had blown it and our DBs weren't going to be able to stop him. In a sense, this game was lost in the first quarter just like last year, because our own ineptitude allowed MSU to dictate control of the game. Last year, it was the defense being unable to get off the field despite three (!!!) MSU personal fouls, giving up a 12-minute drive culminating in MSU's touchdown to make it 7-3. This year, in a situation where we know the defense sucks and we know the offense had to be balls to the wall...we get 3 points in two drives in the redzone. Should've been 14-0 Michigan and an entirely different complexion to the game. Instead, it was only 3-0, and MSU was allowed to get into a rhythm with their offense, and of course, our defense was entirely incapable of doing anything correctly.

This is a radical thought considering what we've seen the last two and a half years, but it really DOESN'T take an act of God to install a sense of toughness and basic fundamentals in a defense. All you need are competent coaches and the proper attention to detail. Michigan has neither. Rodriguez pays no attention to the defense and leaves them to their own devices, running a scheme they (and their coordinator) are new to. The results are predictable. Apocalyptic, but predictable.

And with that, my patience runs thin with this whole experiment. Having a glitzy, rock and roll offense only goes so far. Try to remove the maize and blue glasses and look at today's game from an objective point of view. One team was physical on both sides of the ball, more or less fundamentally sound, tackled well, played solid assignment football and executed their gameplan brilliantly. The other team failed to execute in the redzone and lacked any kind of competence, execution, or toughness on the other side of the ball. Which program looks to be in better shape going forward?

Again, this isn't a blind "Fire RR" post. I'm asking. What's the solution? If you think Greg Robinson is the problem, what coordinator is out there that can stabilize things? Who can step in and install some form of toughness? Look at how the tables have turned. In a matter of what, four years, Michigan and Michigan State have become complete opposites. Michigan has gone from the old-school "boring" offense and more or less smashmouth defense to the explosive spread offense with nothing even close to a mediocre defense, while MSU has gone from the John L spread and no D to the old Michigan look of run, run, playaction, play D. Curious how this reversal of attitudes has accompanied a reversal of game results...

I'm out of answers. Disillusionment has set in, and I now look at every game left on the schedule as one we could very well lose. What's different about Iowa that will make it a different result from today? Wisconsin and Ohio State will do the same. Penn State? On the road? At night? Even with their issues, do you expect this defense to shut them down? Illinois and Purdue? Even with their personnel losses, after all the points they've put up on us the last two years, how can they be viewed as slam dunks?

With this defense, nothing is a slam dunk. And against the first truly sturdy, competent defense they've seen, this offense stalled. How many times this scenario repeats itself will determine the future. But even then, if he survives, has Rich Rodriguez done anything to cause any sort of optimism about the defense after this year?

Sure hasn't for me. In fact just the opposite. Frankly, I'll believe a Rodriguez-coached Michigan team will field a competent defense when I see it. And the way I see it, we're light years away.