Ask and ye shall receive

IrishCorey · Dec 11, 2007

ND fans have been waiting for these to come in the national media. We had to wade through a lot of these things from all directions. Now the national pundits are finally proclaiming Michigan/Arkansas to be programs that are no longer what they once were..

For the record, I think this article is a joke.

Stupid is as Michigan does; same goes for Arkansas
Dec. 9, 2007
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!

Michigan has stumbled so stupidly in its search for a new football coach, the Wolverines have made Arkansas look smart.

Any idea how hard it is to make Arkansas look smart? It's damn near impossible. But Michigan did it by hanging up a "gone fishing" sign -- literally -- when it should have been locking up LSU coach Les Miles. Michigan then failed in its attempt to lure the football coach from Rutgers, a sentence that brings me such pleasure, I'm not sure I'll be able to write again for at least five minutes.

OK, I'm back. Michigan? It's gone. The Michigan we knew and feared has been replaced by a smarmy, screwed-up bunch of elitists who think Michigan is still great because, well, we're Michigan. No, you're not. You're not even Arkansas.

And Arkansas is a complete tragedy.

Arkansas can't do anything right. Arkansas couldn't even fire the intensely fireable Houston Nutt, who bumbled around for years -- losing winnable games and alienating blindly loyal fans -- and still was begged to stay.

This is how bad Arkansas football has become: Houston Nutt took a paycut to leave ... for Ole Miss.

And now as it lurches for his replacement, Arkansas is making the Nutt era look serene and sensible. Arkansas can't find anybody good to take over a program that controls an entire state for recruiting purposes and also is able to dip into Texas and the deep South for talent. When it comes to football, Arkansas should be the perfect school. Instead it has become a fool. Or a tool.

The only thing Arkansas has done well since losing Nutt is obtain raises for coaches all over the South. Tommy Bowden used Arkansas to get a raise and an extension at Clemson, which I find amusing considering Bowden has produced something between squat and bupkis at Clemson. Tommy Tuberville used Arkansas to milk some extra money out of Auburn, which I find admirable considering the way Auburn tried to go behind Tuberville's back with that tramp Bobby Petrino in 2003. Since then Tuberville's salary has risen from $1.1 million to $3.8 million by 2013. When all is said and done, he could bankrupt the university and then parachute out for another job, where he will continue to kick Auburn's ass.

That job better not be at Michigan, though. Michigan is only good at kicking Michigan's ass, which is the way I like it. Ever since then-athletics director Bo Schembechler uttered those haughty words in 1989 -- "A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan" -- Michigan has set the bar for arrogance. Whenever a job opens at Michigan, especially in men's basketball and football, it is treated as reverentially as an appointment from God.

The Michigan job has long been considered one of the plum positions in college basketball, for reasons that elude me. Crisler Arena is a dump inside, it's freezing outside, and the Wolverines' wonderful tradition includes one of the ugliest NCAA investigations ever. Other than that, it's a kingmaker of a job. Ask Steve Fisher or Brian Ellerbe or Tommy Amaker.

Plus, Michigan is a football school. Or it was. We'll see what it becomes now -- women's golf? -- but Michigan's days as a football giant are in jeopardy. A football giant might lose a bidding war with LSU, but not with Rutgers. And a school as great and mighty as Michigan doesn't conduct its business as ineptly, and then as unethically, as this one.

Michigan was farcical in its pursuit of Miles, seeking permission to speak to him in the days leading up to the SEC title game. Michigan got that permission, and was set to officially negotiate with Miles after the SEC title game, so in the meantime Michigan's athletics director went underground. Or overboard. The Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan AD Bill Martin was unavailable to Miles' representatives while attending a boat and yacht show at his exclusive Key Largo, Fla., country club. LSU was putting on the full-court press to convince Miles to stay. Michigan was coldly silent. Miles chose LSU.

Martin learned his lesson from that fiasco and decided to cut the next school completely out of the equation. Breaching protocol in college athletics, Michigan never officially sought permission from Rutgers to speak with Greg Schiano, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. Martin just interviewed him on the sly -- and still couldn't win him to Michigan. Schiano chose the reality of Rutgers, and presumably the possibility of Penn State, over the Wolverines. Michigan now goes to Plan C.

Arkansas is just about on Plan F of a process in which the only state entity that has looked more incompetent is the media, who have flailed blindly for imaginary news. Fort Smith television station KNWA was among those to report that Tuberville would be hired, and then the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette led a group of outlets reporting that Wake Forest's Jim Grobe would be hired.

Don't be surprised if soon you see a headline out of Arkansas that has the Razorbacks hiring Gus Malzahn, the former high school coach who pimped out his best players to get a job on Nutt's staff in 2006 as offensive coordinator and left one year later when Nutt refused to entrust the offense to him. Malzahn is an assistant at Tulsa, but he has interviewed for the Arkansas job and might be the last candidate left after the Razorbacks have been rejected by Tuberville, Bowden, Grobe and Butch Davis. And possibly others.

The hiring of Malzahn would be a joke, but those in charge at Arkansas are too dumb to get it. But at least Arkansas isn't Michigan, whose leaders are too smug to understand we're already laughing.
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http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10521564#

gipper · Dec 11, 2007

Michigan elitist? Hey, what makes them think that they can be elitist like us ND folks?
Can arrogant be far behind???? :roll:

Sid · Dec 11, 2007

Can arrogant be far behind????
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If you think ND people are arrogant, then you are just a piddling little know-nothing........and your team is irrelevant. 8)

kp · Dec 11, 2007

If you think ND people are arrogant, then you are just a piddling little know-nothing........and your team is irrelevant.
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:lol:

Tennessee Tom · Dec 11, 2007

........and your team is irrelevant.
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Sid... King of throw back humor! :wink:

IrishCorey · Dec 11, 2007

LOL

<t>So basically this writer just got teabagged by the Petrino announcement today. Now if Miles bolts for Michigan (please God please), this guy will officially win the 'egg on face' award passing Herbie the wonderbuck.</t>

Sid · Dec 11, 2007

So basically this writer just got teabagged by the Petrino announcement today.
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I just emailed the guy asking how it felt to be an idiot. I'll bet he's getting buried by similar emails. Serves him right. Live by the pen, die by the pen. :twisted:

HUSKERMAN-HUSKERFAN · Dec 11, 2007

Not so fast my friends, sources say that Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett are getting ready to interview....

JO'Co · Dec 11, 2007

8)
UCLA still doesn't have a coach either, but they have announced that Slick Rick Neuheisel will not be considered for a position at his alma mater...ouch!

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