BLUE

...the joy and despair of being a Wolverines fan.

December 3, 2007

THE PROCESS

Out of adversity comes opportunity. We all thought that this week we would be celebrating a dynamic new coach plucked from the bosom of a national championship contending team. For whatever reasons, that deal went badly awry.

An emerging consensus is that Bill Martin and Michigan were never intending to sweep Les Miles off his feet with diamonds and flowers and wild-eyed proposals of marriage. Like a team of pinch-faced accountants hovering over a prenuptial demanding exhaustive financial analysis, the Michigan folks seem determined that no one, not even Les Miles and a bevy of stud assistant coaches, will derail “the process.”

Well, the process, designed to use careful analysis to avoid a bad choice, threatens to achieve the exact opposite result: mediocrity. In a year with several high-profile coaching spots wide open, the methodical Michigan approach may result in the dynamic coaches being snapped up like Wii systems on Christmas Eve, leaving only safe and uninspiring choices cut from the Ferentz, Grobe, O’Brien, English, Debord cloth.  

The only chance is that Saturday – a day that shall live in infamy – was a wake up call for Bill Martin, a loud demand to can “the process” and move quickly on the best candidates. Did Martin hear the alarm? I hope so because the danger with the cadaverous choices that will remain once we get around to 4th and 5th interviews is that Michigan is good enough to support mediocrity for an extended period of time. Lloyd Carr was a mediocre coach the last 7 years, but Michigan supported that substandard performance because of the quality of players that choose the Wolverines. I have little doubt that Kirk Ferentz or Ron English or Jim Grobe could match that performance over the next seven years, but I have extensive doubts that they can do better than Lloyd did.

What is at stake is seven more years of famine, seven more years of 9-3 with the wrong games in the “3” column, seven more years of apologists arguing that nine meaningless wins with class are better than a disaster. Well, it is not. I would rather endure Weis-ian flames for a year or two if it meant rising like a Phoenix to the heights that this program deserves and is uniquely capable of. On Saturday morning, with the thought of Miles and Tenuta coming to Michigan dancing in our heads, we all sensed what Michigan unleashed would be like. On this Monday morning, Bill Martin had better realize that if he sticks to “the process” and ends up with mediocrity, his legacy for all time will be the Athletic Director who presided over the functional demise of the proudest of football programs.

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