Interesting dialogue out of the Free Press on Michigan football breaking NCAA rules relating to amount of time spent on strength & conditioning in the off-season. We will see what becomes of this, but in all honesty, this part of college football has been one of the least enforced areas for years - and NCAA rules and enforcement has been lax at best. Still, while the ES is no fan of Michigan football, the question is: how much of this is with a strength coach around, and how much is "voluntary." We all know that the amount of "voluntary" time put in by football players is far in excess to anything reasonable at Michigan and everywhere else in major college footbal. How much more is Michigan beyond the norm?
Seemingly, scUM is WAY BEYOND the norm, if you read a response by ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, who asked several other players. What is amazing is if players actually signed documents not to tell the compliance director about exceeding NCAA conditioning regulations. If that's the case, the documents will turn up -- but why have them sign anything? That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard, to put the proof of violations in writing. HAHAHAHAHAHA....
But... let's get to the real point. What IS interesting is the amount that current players are willing to talk about this. There is seemingly no love lost by several (or many) of the players and their families with Dick Rod, and this is yet another tale of the amount of issues bleeding out of Ann Arbor relating to a poor relationship between the head coach, players, and the community.
You would have never heard this under Bo or Lllloyd Carr. Simply fascinating the unhappiness.
Yes, folks, Michigan football seemingly is up the creek without a paddle - and in real trouble. This is their time of glory, and they can welcome a nice dish of scandal and deceit into their new $300 million palace next year.
The ES loves it. Hilarious, the ES is roaring in laughter.
I bleed green and white and have no love for scUM, but it would be interesting to see how much of this is related to players recruited by the old regime versus DRod's recruits. On the other hand, any distractions for UM heading into the season are welcome to me. I can only hope that DRod has enough success to not get fired, but not enough success to bring their program out of the depths. Is it possible we are seeing a phenomenon in state of Michigan football that we saw in basketball (i.e., is Dantonio to football what Izzo has been to basketball?)
ReplyDeletethis will come out just like anything the SCum dose. The internal investigation will find nothing, just like asking a kid to punish him self for steeling a candy bar! Then the NCAA will step in and take two scholarships from Northwestern and 3 hours a week practice time from Minnesota. Just like always SCum has deep pockets and NCAA has full ones.
ReplyDeleteAs an alum of both MSU and UM, I find your blog's title "The Enlightened Spartan" misleading.
ReplyDeleteI'd hoped to find a Spartan without an inferiority complex. Not here.
yes, the last guy is right; your little brother syndrome is ridiculous. At any rate, "We're Back"
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin would say.....
ReplyDeleteThe announcers during the Western game were downplaying this whole thing and sugar-coating it (I'm not one bit suprised). I've come to the conclusion that UM fans just like to stroke themselves; when bad news comes up the fans sugar-coat it because they want a good strokin'. The winged helmets give 'em a good strokin', their 'tradition' gives 'em a good strokin', the big house gives 'em a good strokin', an occasional win gives 'em a good strokin', the colors and fight song alone REALLY give em a good strokin' and Dick Rod gives 'em a good strokin'. And lastly, ESPN and the rest of the sports media get a good strokin' from this because it gives 'em something to talk about and take UM's side at the same time.....Its just one big state wide cross country maize and blue stroke job. That's all it ever has been....