Birk's Eye View: More from Shaun King on Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan football team
Sorry if I’ve been a little late responding to your comments and answering your e-mails this week. My wife and I just had our first baby, and I wanted to make sure my family values didn’t erode before I hit Chicago for Big Ten football media days.
Hopefully everyone’s finding their way around the site all right. We look forward to bringing you the most extensive Michigan coverage anywhere. Keep those e-mails coming, too, as I’ll be doing a mailbox once a week during the season, and I welcome any suggestions or story ideas.
For those who weren’t familiar with my Lions coverage, you’ll see some of my posts tagged Birk’s Eye View. Those entries will be more insight and analysis than breaking news and features. Something the camera lens doesn’t capture. An insight from someone plugged in to Michigan football. Or, like today, maybe a little leftover nugget that didn’t make it into another story.
I reached out to former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Shaun King, who played under Rich Rodriguez at Tulane, for a story that appeared yesterday. King spoke highly of Rodriguez, said his greatest attribute as a coach is his ability to tweak his system to his players’ talents (the un-Mike Martz, King said), and made one very relevant point why some have been so slow to embrace him at Michigan.
“When you’re dealing with Michigan you’re not just dealing with wins and losses,” King said. “You’re dealing with a tradition that you respect, a certain way of winning. It’s not just about winning. When you won a particular way for so long, any time you get some change there’s going to be some resistance.
“That’s what they found out when they got to Michigan, they’re reluctant to accept that college football has changed. I think the Big Ten as a whole. That’s why they haven’t had a lot of national success since Ohio State beat Miami, because the country as a whole, the country’s changing.”
The Big Ten’s shortcomings on the national college football stage are well documented. Since the Buckeyes beat Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl (a win I still contend wouldn’t have happened if not for Willis McGahee’s gruesome knee injury), the conference is 0-2 in BCS title games and 0-5 in Rose Bowls.
King, like many observers, blames the Big Ten’s stodgy style of play and its inability to attract top athletes.
“They still play such more traditional offense,” King said. “That’s all well and good. You can still win football games running the football, playing great defense. But the thing is, when you get in a bowl game - and I’m talking national championship, I’m not taking the fourth-place Big Ten team versus the fourth-place ACC team; I’m talking the big games, the Floridas, the Oklahomas, the Southern Cals - you aren’t used to going against that type of athlete all year. It’s culture shock.”
Rodriguez, King said, is changing that about Michigan.
“If you want to take that step and try to compete for national championships than you got to evolve a little bit,” he said. “You think about the teams they had with Chad Henne at quarterback. Who were the great athletes on that team? (Mike) Hart’s not a great athlete. (Mario) Manningham’s not a great athlete. Jake Long, you could argue, was the best athlete on the team and that’s your tackle.
“It’s one thing to be successful, it’s another thing to get the type of players in there where you can compete for national championships.”
Dave Birkett covers the University of Michigan football team for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidbirkett@annarbor.com
Comments
Donny Donowitz
Fri, Sep 11, 2009 : 8:19 a.m.
mike hart was a suck player
friend12
Mon, Jul 27, 2009 : 8:58 a.m.
Same old stuff. I have high hopes this year, but, what happens at game time will be the true test. I think RR will have a much better showing this year and cant wait fro the first game. There was nothing new in King's comments. They were pretty typical actually. I do think he did make one wrong/baseless comment that shows his prejudice against the Big Ten: "King, like many observers, blames the Big Tens stodgy style of play and its inability to attract top athletes." The Big Ten has never had trouble recruiting top athletes and in general those that truly want to play in the NFL have always given the Big Ten a serious look considering on average the Big Ten has the highest number of drafted players. RR because he runs a spread (non-NFL style) will have challenges in recruiting, but, the true test of his program in the long run will be in overcoming those challenges and to field a consistently winning team.
Mattman
Mon, Jul 27, 2009 : 7:54 a.m.
Agree to a considerable extent with King's analysis (which is hardly revolutionary). But it doesn't explain the royal arse-whipping that Lloyd laid on Pope Urban on the way out the door--nothing shocking about those SEC players to M's B10 guys. We now know that UF was a dynasty-in-the-making, that Michigan would f up spectacularly just a year later. My theory--employing Occam's Hatchet to cut through the endless b.s. about the B10--is that a) admitting that the B10 needs to adapt further, b) the conference really was, generally, a big 8 and little two. If one of the two has some down years, or spectacular bad luck, the conference looks bad. The SEC, where academic standards are minimal and the actual educations abysmal (several exceptions aside) is more competitive than the B10. It hasn't always been that way in the SEC either, but that's the real, inescapable nub of this comparative biscuit, not likely to change radically soon. One can point to signs of revival (Illinois, Iowa PSU of course, even Northwestern; still). Personally, I'm okay w. that, one of those wierdos who prizes M's status as one of the world's top 15 U's even more than its football factory. But a couple of bad breaks less and Michigan would have been merely mediocre last year; people would have seen it as a transition year and there would be lots less alarm.
bigblue1
Mon, Jul 27, 2009 : 1:36 a.m.
the good thing about this year is that all michigan has to do is go to a bowl game. i know that is a weak standard for michigan but it is reality. if michigan is not at least in the nc talk by rich rods 4th or 5th year then it will be time to evaluate the progress at michigan.
uminks
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 10:46 p.m.
Actually, I'm really looking forward to this season. It will be interesting if Fourcier will hold on to the starting position or will Robinson contribute a lot at QB this season. My thoughts are that Fourcier has the better arm and will be much more accurate passing than both Threet and Sheridan were last season. This offense could really jell with a true spread QB at the helm. If the offense can keep a greater time of possession this season and cut back on the turnovers it could really help out our young defense! Given an easy schedule this team should win 7 games but if they start out 4 or 5-0 then I think UM could be the surprise team of the country. Usually after a poor season, UM bounces back with a rather good season. I'll be happy with a 7-5 record and a bowl game after the 3-9 disaster last season. No matter what the record this season, RR should be given 3 more years to turn this team around.
Kubrick66
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 10:29 p.m.
It's gonna be a great year 10 wins. Archive it!
eaglesandbirdies
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 5:01 p.m.
Birk wrote: "Will, Tater, you guys out there?" I could give you a long story about cookies, registration, etc, but let's just say Tater got a case of "green-is envy" and is now Eaglesandbirdies.
eaglesandbirdies
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 4:58 p.m.
Once again, King nailed it. For those who don't remember, King was a mediocre-footed but quick-witted QB with a decent arm whom RR "coached up" well enough that he got an extended "cup of coffee" in the pros. Check out these stats with RR as his QB coach: 1998: 244/364 (67.0%) for 3495 yards and 38 TD vs. 6 INT. 156 carries for 633 yards and 11 TD King is really saying what I have felt all along; the game had passed both Carr and the Big Ten by, and RR can lead UM to the NC, or at least make them contenders. It's great to hear King talk about UM, especially after Adam Rittenberg's "coverage" of the Wermers mini-fiasco. Rittenberg did redeem himself with the second article, but it seems like the only coverage ESPN has given to UM all season is when somebody transfers or says something bad about the program. I know this isn't really true, and that someone can find the exception, but it does seem like the media really wants to drive the "disgruntled transfers from UM" angle into the ground. Thanks, Birk and Shaun, for providing some much-needed balance to UM coverage.
ohiowolverine
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 3:22 p.m.
I am looking forward to the start of this season. Living 50 miles north of columbus I've heard enough of the Buckeyes. When the wolverines stsrt winning again it should shut up a bunch of people. GO BLUE!!!
jimtrashel
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 2:57 p.m.
Let's not mince words here. Other than RR, there is an obvious genius amongst us. The only thing that could make this day any better is Theo's return. Will, Tater, you guys out there? Michigan 67 WMU 0
Dave Birkett
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 1:14 p.m.
Thanks, Taddle. Don't know where that came from. It's been corrected. I think Florida and USC are the premier teams in college football right now just because of their recent success. That's not to say Texas or Oklahoma, with their QBs, can't win the title this year. But it's hard to argue with what Meyer has done at Florida and what Carroll has done at USC.
Taddie
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 12:41 p.m.
Ohio State beat Miami in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.
MetricSU
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 11:38 a.m.
As for Michigan State, I think they might beat Montana but then I see them struggling to get another couple wins. They might finish something like 3-9. When Michigan goes up to E. Lansing this year, look out!!! MSU has no defense and Tate and DRob will absolutely steamroll the Spartans. For MSU, last year was just a flash in the pan (which ended with a "thud" anyway when Georgia showed that speed kills). RR is bringing speed to the Big 10 and will dominate the conference for many years. Tiller couldn't do it because, well, Purdue is just NOT Michigan. Go Blue!!!
aareader
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 11:16 a.m.
This will be an interesting year to see how MIchigan evolves. Your analysis has merit and may be the measure of where Michigan could/should go in this year and be used as a blueprint for the future. In my opinion USC is the current standard of college football. If MIchigan can be making a challenge to them in the near future it will be a great accomplishment. I look forward to the journey. Go Blue :+}
BlueRayder
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 10:59 a.m.
It'll be exciting to see how the team evolves over the season.
wavsav
Sun, Jul 26, 2009 : 10:19 a.m.
This is one fine article. Well done!