PERSONALLY I strongly prefer “Because Lloyd’s a massive failure” but hey you’re answer was pretty good too…

It’s been a hard to watch season if you enjoy College Ball, otoh for people who only care casually this year has been an absolute dream.

At this point I’m still pretty pissed at Michigan for both losses, one of which was shocking, one of which was merely a shocking lack of effort.. Otoh I KNOW Lloyd is done and headed to an assistant AD role… sooo hope springs eternal and I’ve been thinking about next year since umm… Labor Day.

Then I noticed Michigan lost to Appalachian State. Good for App State. Chalk more humiliation to Lloyd Carr and his coaching staff.

People get irrational in Lloyd’s defense. If this was the Illinois Fighting Illini, then defending Lloyd’s record might matter.

This is the Michigan Wolverines, however. They’re one of the greatest overall college organizations, in terms of all-time record. The school’s program is royalty. To expect a perfect season every year is the only expectation. If they lose, it has to be at the hands of Ohio State or the opponent in the bowl.

I could care less how many more Top 10 teams get upsets this year. That’s just another argument, one for playoffs, a December Demolition similar to March Madness.

I think my careless attitude toward the organization began to crack between a steady diet of Lloyd’s excuses plus the multi-fecta of Bo’s death, then the Ohio State victory at the horseshoe, then watching as Michigan lost for about four straight weeks as the BCS turned into another political expression as Florida hopefuls and arch-rival Ohio State began to chant, “anyone but Michigan,” after the polls came back with OSU #1 and Michigan #2, followed by a demotivated Michigan accepting a lesser bowl, followed by a demotivated Michigan getting bounced hard in that bowl, followed by Ohio State squandering their dubious calling for opponents besides Michigan treachery with a laughable loss to Florida. That’s where my divorce began.

When did college sports become so awful?

The SEC’s one enemy. The other is Myles Brand.

How does a non-connected bystander fix it? One can’t. They can either accept what’s happening, or they can turn their back on it. I chose the latter.

As for the rest of it….. whatever, you were being a smart assed know it all and babling a WHOLE LOT without saying anything.. and that’s about all I have to say on this subject.

Done wit dis guy… again.

Anyway, this might be the topic for Matt W to tackle - since Allan Houston is not going to play for the Knicks, is he going to return to Detroit as a coach?

INTERVIEWER: There are those in the American media who say you are a very good player but too soft to be considered great - how do you answer them?

DIRK: It makes me sad, but since I am very soft, I cannot complain too much.

INTERVIEWER: How soft is “very soft”?

DIRK: Extremely soft. Like butter or a pillow.

Then they talk discuss whether or not David Hasselhoff is the greatest musical mind of this or any generation.

I’m not going to get into a pissing contest about Michigan football knowledge, but when has your program (and until I starting going to IU 6 years ago, they were my program too) ever been a joke? They haven’t, because they’re Michigan. It’s not so easy to shake that mentality of being a joke and react appropriately to big games. THAT is something that no matter what amount of UofM knowledge you possess, you’ll never have to be exposed to as a fan of the program. You should be thankful for that. It was a Saturday night home game on national TV for Illinois. You think they’ve had a lot of those featuring a stadium filled with fans carrying certain expectations? No, they haven’t. You said Illinois IS bad. They’re not at all. They PLAYED badly, and it’s not a shock. Playing badly and being bad are two different things. The Bucks are bad. In the ECF, the Pistons played badly.

As for the national championship hopes that you seem to have had, I hope you tossed them after the result in game 1, because they were done after that. And in that vein, as I said, once they lost to App. St., the loss to Oregon becomes kinda meaningless other than general frustration.

For someone who called for a “rational debate” in the other thread, you’ve sunk to calling my argument “nonsense” (which it isn’t), saying I explained it in a “smart assed” way and even accused me of making a claim that “You don’t understand” (which I also never said). That’s pretty biting, especially when it’s finished by a vulgarity. PG4L, you’re a mainstay here, and you always come with it on the opinion front, but it seems to me like you have no idea how what you’re saying actually comes off. It seems to me to be either that case, or you want to make rules apply to things when you feel like it, and then ignore them when it’s no longer convenient. You could seriously benefit from checking yourself on that front, and bring the same level of fantastic consistency to your arguments about behavior, word choice and the like, as you already bring to your arguments about issues of sport.

On a less annoying note, I didn’t get to see the game but the stats looked AWFUL (and defiantely in favor of TB) how the heck did Detroit win that game? (Seriously, I didn’t get to see any of it because of work just read the box-score and ESPN’s awful early recap)

Either way congrats to the Lions for finally beating a good team. I know Tampa is alot like they are (as in not great on paper but finding ways to win anyways) but still that kinda team is traditionally EXACTLY what the Lion’s can’t handle.

Michigan played horribly and if not for a kid MUFFING a damn return would have lost to a sad sack team like Illinois, WHO BECAUSE OF TALENT AND EXPERIENCE DIFFERENCES HAD ABSOLUTELY NO BUISNESS EVEN BEING IN THAT GAME….

And FWIW you don’t get “experience” holding onto kicks. You either do or you “Experience” some fumbles and then “Experience” being moved to another position.

THAT’S MY point.

Here, even their damn coach said it:

“We had opportunities to win the game,” Illinois coach Ron Zook said. “We let it slip away from us.”

How about Drew Sharp from the Freep:

“Not as long as the Illini willingly self-destructed in an embarrassing display of stupid penalties and careless turnovers. A scared Illinois lost this one more than Michigan won it, but the Wolverines happily accepted the 27-17 gift from their guests.”

The loss vs Team Nike matters as much as ANY loss in a season one had national championship hopes… your arguement is like saying “it doesn’t matter that the house fell over it was already busy burning down”.

We aren’t disagreeing on anything relevant except you feel the need to educate me about Michigan football when frankly I would bet money I’m more knowledgable on this subject than you are.

If Illinois hangs on to the ball, Michigan loses that game period. Explain it whatever smart assed way makes you feel better but please spare me the “You just don’t understand” bullsh*t.

And the Lions did win. Incredible. Maybe their schedule isn’t too hard after all.

1) Michigan is REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky that Illinois is so freaking bad. The offence kept hanging themselves out to dry without hart, all fits and starts but no continuity. Illinois would have won if they didn’t find a way to comitt a critical turnover at almost every moment we needed one. This is still the same team that lost to App St and Oregon, don’t let the 6 wins in a row and 4-0 Big 10 record fool ya, that’s the 2nd big 10 game this year they had NO buisness winning and won anyways.

2) Our punters name is Zoltan. Which sounds like a giant transforming robot to me. So my idea to improve michigan’s offence is to start this Zoltan kid at left tackle and just have him transform into something really big at the snap. I’ve looked into this, NO place in the rulebook does it say your left tackle can’t transform into a giant tractor trailer. IT DOES say he has to line up a certain way, but by telling him to transform AFTER the snap, we get past this. Even if a speed rusher does somehow managed to get under him in the 2 seconds it takes to transform he’ll probably be crushed by the rear end of the truck. A dead pass rusher makes no sacks baby. Someone call Lloyd about this immediately.