In 2007 Lloyd Carr was Michigan coach and was coming off an 11-2 season, the season ended in disappointment with losses to hate rival Ohio State and a painful Rose Bowl loss to USC. Michigan was ranked #5 in the nation at the start of the 2007 season, with a bad loss to App State and Oregon and finished of the season with an 8-4 record and a 4 straight loss to Ohio State, rumors had been swirling for awhile for Coach Carr's head. Personally I was quite disappointed in the season but I didn't feel like Coach Carr should has lost is job for this season and past seasons. He had lead us 10 year earlier to our first National Championship in 50 years. He had a good team coming back, but the fans for calling for Carr's head so our Athletic Director instead of having our Coaches back and look at what he was returning turned on the coach and forced him into retirement. Now this is were the craziness comes in. Michigan thought they has a sure fire new coach Les Miles from LSU, all the reports said he was going to take the Michigan job. Michigan put all their eggs in one basket, and sure enough it felt through, Les Miles was like what?? No I am not taking the Michigan Job. So the chaos starts for Michigan. Who were they going to get to replace Lloyd Carr, any assistant Coaches No, there was really no one out on the Market. Until Rich Rodriguez the Head Coach from West Virgina wanted to move on to bigger and better things, also is relationship with the West Virgina athletic Department had started to deteriorate. On December 17th 2007 Rich Rodriguez was hired as Michigan's new head coach. Coach Carr last game came against Heisman winning QB Tim Tebow and the #9 Gators no one gave Michigan a shot. Michigan upset Florida is a very impressive performance winning 41-35 and took Coach Carr out into the sunset on their shoulders.
This is just part 1 of 2 or possibly 3 depending how everything plays out.
But looking back at it Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin how he handled this situation I found that he handled it very poorly. I feel like he didn't stand behind his coach and let the fans and Media pressure both him and Carr into making the decision of Carr Retiring. I also feel like they didn't go a very good job at looking for coaches. It only took them a month to find a coach. I know they wanted to hurry because of recruiting, but I feel like they could have gotten a coach that had a system that could have fit Ryan Mallett who is now the starting quarterback at Arkansas and is predicted to be a 2st round NFL Draft Pick. They still had lots of pieces that I feel would have stayed if they had found a coach that better fit the system they already had in place.
But all of them left because they didn't feel like they fit in Rich Rod's system. Which is quite understandable. Also I feel like, Rich Rod scheme isn't a good fit in the Big Ten. The Big Ten is know for pounding the ball down the middle. None of the teams in the Big Ten are fully spread teams. They have a spread to throw a different look at the defense but they can still pound the ball down the defense's throat. Another thing was the defensive of scheme that Rich Rod brought which was a 3-3-5. As I said before most teams are running the ball between the tackles with 300 pound plus linemen Having only 6 in the box we knew they were going to be out matched. But people were really excited because it was something new. I was quite disappointed to see Carr go. I thought he was a great coach and had a lot going for Michigan and its program. But now I had to back Rich Rod. I knew it was going to be a long process, and I was ready for it, but it seemed that Michigan Fans weren't ready at all for what was to come.
