Our Carr is a bit old, we need one with Les Miles

I, by far and away, have the least amount of hatred for Lloyd Carr out of anyone I know. I will let the statistics do the talking for me....116-38 record in his 11 year and 5 game stint as Michigan's head football coach, and that puts him among the winningest active football coaches in the NCAA Division I-A. His teams have won five Big Ten titles and one national championship in 1997. In addition, Michigan had been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for all but nine of its games under Carr. He became the first Wolverine coach to win four straight bowl games, beating Auburn, 31-28, on New Year's Day at the 2001 Florida Citrus Bowl, after leading Michigan to victories in the 1998 Rose Bowl, 1999 Florida Citrus Bowl, and the 2000 Orange Bowl. He has finished no lower than 4th in the Big Ten, and that happened in his second year as the head coach, in 1996. Carr has a .500 or better winning percentage against every one of Michigan's rivals, including a 9-3 record against Michigan State and a 9-2 record against Penn State. Even with these impressive numbers, Carr can't seem to find any support from the Michigan faithful. It seems that Carr has been on the fans' hot seat for the past 6 years, with countless "Fire Lloyd Carr" websites and t-shirts that can been seen every football Saturday. So what's the big deal? Why does everyone hate him?

Michigan fans expect to win a national championship every year, or at least be in contention for it. Although it appears that Michigan has don't that the past few years, they have ended every season on a sour note, and have been overpowered, over matched, and over coached in their late season "championship contender" games. Carr has a 5-7 record in bowl games, and has lost 5 out of the last 6 bowl games. Michigan has won 1 out of 4 Rose Bowls they have played in, and have lost each of the last 3 times they have gone to Pasadena. Michigan was dominated in both Rose Bowl appearances against USC, when it looked like the teams were fairly evenly matched before the games. Bowl games (especially the games around New Year's Day) are when all of the football watching country tunes in and finds out who the best teams are. When Michigan consistently lays an egg in their bowl game, it doesn't tend to sit too well with Michigan fans and their pride.

Now the biggie.......Carr has a 6-6 record against Ohio State, and he pulled off a couple of upsets early in his head coaching career that kept Ohio State from winning the national title. But Carr has lost 5 out of the last 6 games against Ohio State, and has been visibly and thoroughly out coached by Jim Tressel. This more than anything has the Michigan faithful up in arms and ready to take Carr out to the woodshed. The Appalachian St. loss and Michigan's inability to handle anyone who has a spread offense or a running quarterback (ahem, Vince Young running all over us in the Rose Bowl, Troy Smith last year, Dennis Dixon this year) have only reinforced what most people already knew: Michigan needs to enter the 21st century of college football. No more underachievement, no more stagnant offense, no more conservative coaching, and definitely no more being out coached in the big games. Michigan has the talent, now the coaching just needs to catch up.

So what do we do? Where do we go? The best thing about this whole situation is Lloyd Carr's contract. Michigan reworked Lloyd Carr's contract in 2003, extending it through the 2007 season with automatic one-year rollovers and stipulating that, at its conclusion, Carr will be appointed an associate athletics director. In other words, Michigan can usher Lloyd Carr into a front office role, without having to fire him from the head coaching job. This is a move that befits his records and his accolades, and one that I would personally like to see happen. That leaves an opening after this year for a new head football coach. All I ask from Bill Martin, Michigan's Athletic Director, is to please please please please please not promote from within. I know Ron English is getting a lot of publicity lately but he is not a head coach. He can't even get his defense to make a freaking tackle. Mike DeBord can't seem to call a third down play where a receiver actually runs a pattern past the first down marker. How many times did Braylon Edwards and now Mike Hart bail out the play calling? Can't think of a good play? Throw it up to Braylon and have him single-handedly make a spectacular catch. Can't come up with a new pass play? Hand if off to Mike Hart and have him carry 7 defenders for 20 yards. How many of those "immediately throw the ball to a receiver who takes one step and turns around" plays can we run for 1 or 2 yards before they stop calling that play? At times it's unbelievable how many times the entire crowd knows exactly what play will be called next.

That would leave Michigan looking for outside coaching prospects. With the list too numerous to name, I will make a case for the one guy who has stood out to me and made me think that this change can and will happen: Les Miles. Les Miles is currently the head football coach at LSU, but has deep roots in the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan where he was a two year letterman under Coach Bo Schembechler from 1974 to 75. In 1980, Miles returned to Michigan as an assistant coach under Schembechler. He left Michigan in 1982 to coach at the University of Colorado with Coach Bill McCartney, but he returned to Michigan in 1987 and, for the next eight years, helped lead the team to eight consecutive winning seasons and bowl appearances. In 1995, Miles became offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State University and during the 1998 through 2000 seasons he was the tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Miles returned to OSU in 2001 as the head coach, and joined LSU in 2005. Miles has a 26-4 record at LSU and has consistently won big games and bowl games. When was the last time Michigan did something like this:



Ummmmm, the answer is never. Just look at how the players and coaches react to him on the sidelines. You can just tell that they love playing for him and that he is the type of guy that can connect with his players, and keep things fresh and exciting. Miles has also done very little to hide the fact that he would love a chance to be the head coach at Michigan. He is an honest guy and tends to show that during interviews. He doesn't say outright that he won't leave LSU for Michigan, and he does leave the door very open with some of his quotes. LSU athletic director Skip Bertman has always known that this was a possibility when they hired him, which is why he wrote up the contract in which Miles must pay $500,000 to leave before his contract expires at the end of 2011, and $1.25 million if he leaves for Michigan. That shows that Bertman has been scared of this happening from the beginning. There is no question that Michigan would cover that cost for him if he ends up being hired, it's just that it almost seems inevitable when you include something like that in the contract.





Michigan needs a new coaching staff, and with a very good senior class graduating this year, it just seems like a good time to make that change. Whether or not Michigan goes with Les Miles won't be clear until after the season, but I for one will be a Les Miles supporter. Now, if they don't make a change AT ALL, my Michigan posts may just become a little more harsh.....





Don't hesitate to leave us a comment and let us know who you think the next Michigan head coach should be!