Notre Dame and Michigan no longer elite football programs
Michigan
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in Sports Talk
From the Detroit Free Press:
Neither is the prettiest girl in the room any longer, guaranteed the suitors of its choice with a wink of the eye or a purse of the lips.
But the problem with Michigan’s and Notre Dame’s storied football programs is that neither has figured that out.
Both cling to fond memories of yesterday, when their Midwestern traditionalism defined their excellence — work hard, keep your mouth shut, and good things will happen. But the days of the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish annually contending for national championships are over.
Their programs might have an opportunity every three or four years. It’s not the coaching as much as it is the lack of access to championship-quality talent. College football has become a Sun Belt sport.
Does Notre Dame actually think that if it can lure Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops or Florida’s Urban Meyer back to their Midwestern roots, they somehow could bring the Texas or Florida talent pipelines with them?
It doesn’t work that way any longer. The programs that regularly contend for national championships are those that attract the plentiful talent in their own backyard.
It doesn’t matter that U-M or Notre Dame might attract the top player in California, the second-ranked player in Texas or the third-ranked player in Florida. The programs that consistently find themselves among the nation’s elite are the ones that regularly attract seven or eight of those states’ top 10 prospects.
Florida State should contend for national championships with its new coach quicker than Notre Dame or Michigan.
It’s not a coincidence that Ohio State is the only Midwestern program to have won a BCS championship. Ohio is the lone Midwestern state in which the majority of its supreme athletic talent plays football instead of basketball (save for LeBron James, of course). The Buckeyes annually get their pick of the tree.
Charlie Weis and Rich Rodriguez were desperate, reactionary choices to coach Notre Dame and U-M. The schools needed something glitzy as compensation for their inability to attract their initial candidates. Both brought with them tremendous reputations for their offensive prowess.
Notre Dame this season might be a preview of U-M next season: playing exciting, high-scoring games but having an inability to stop the opposition in the fourth quarter. That’s what puts a team closer to .500 than the BCS.
You can coach offense, but you recruit defense.
That’s the inherent geographical advantage of the southern programs and why once-impenetrable giants like Michigan and Notre Dame must finally recognize their vulnerabilities. They must reinvent themselves or risk banishment to the also-rans.
But that first demands that both programs understand what they are as it relates to what they want to be.
Neither is the prettiest girl in the room any longer, guaranteed the suitors of its choice with a wink of the eye or a purse of the lips.
But the problem with Michigan’s and Notre Dame’s storied football programs is that neither has figured that out.
Both cling to fond memories of yesterday, when their Midwestern traditionalism defined their excellence — work hard, keep your mouth shut, and good things will happen. But the days of the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish annually contending for national championships are over.
Their programs might have an opportunity every three or four years. It’s not the coaching as much as it is the lack of access to championship-quality talent. College football has become a Sun Belt sport.
Does Notre Dame actually think that if it can lure Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops or Florida’s Urban Meyer back to their Midwestern roots, they somehow could bring the Texas or Florida talent pipelines with them?
It doesn’t work that way any longer. The programs that regularly contend for national championships are those that attract the plentiful talent in their own backyard.
It doesn’t matter that U-M or Notre Dame might attract the top player in California, the second-ranked player in Texas or the third-ranked player in Florida. The programs that consistently find themselves among the nation’s elite are the ones that regularly attract seven or eight of those states’ top 10 prospects.
Florida State should contend for national championships with its new coach quicker than Notre Dame or Michigan.
It’s not a coincidence that Ohio State is the only Midwestern program to have won a BCS championship. Ohio is the lone Midwestern state in which the majority of its supreme athletic talent plays football instead of basketball (save for LeBron James, of course). The Buckeyes annually get their pick of the tree.
Charlie Weis and Rich Rodriguez were desperate, reactionary choices to coach Notre Dame and U-M. The schools needed something glitzy as compensation for their inability to attract their initial candidates. Both brought with them tremendous reputations for their offensive prowess.
Notre Dame this season might be a preview of U-M next season: playing exciting, high-scoring games but having an inability to stop the opposition in the fourth quarter. That’s what puts a team closer to .500 than the BCS.
You can coach offense, but you recruit defense.
That’s the inherent geographical advantage of the southern programs and why once-impenetrable giants like Michigan and Notre Dame must finally recognize their vulnerabilities. They must reinvent themselves or risk banishment to the also-rans.
But that first demands that both programs understand what they are as it relates to what they want to be.
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Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.