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If youre a Michigan fan, a word of advice: identify
your priorities before the Wolverines take the field in South Bend this
Saturday. |
If Big Ten championships and Rose
Bowl appearances are your top priorities, be prepared to lay off Lloyd Carr this
weekend. But if beating Notre Dame is a bigger goal, being frustrated with the
Michigan coaching staff is an understandable emotional posture.
Yes, when
the subject matter is Michigan-Notre Dame, the blood pressure rises in Ann
Arbor. Lloyd Carr--a quality football coach by any reasonable standard--has
suffered so much stress in recent years because of his performances in this
classic college football rivalry. Carr always gets his teams to respond in
October, when the leaves turn and known conference foes are waiting to be taken
down. In two of the past three seasons, Carr has stood on the fresh green grass
of Pasadena on New Years Day, fulfilling what is ostensibly his mandate as
Michigan football coach: winning the Big Ten. But in the pursuit of a conference
crown, Carr has--to his own detriment--neglected to place sufficient emphasis on
beating the Fighting Irish--not emotionally, mind you, but certainly from
tactical and technical perspectives and, perhaps, even politically. The soul of
a loyal and accomplished Michigan Man might be so locked into Pasadena that the
will to conquer Notre Dame has been flagging in the past several years of the
Carr Administration. Give Carr credit for his Big Ten record and his national
title; Notre Dame, however, is the Waterloo of his Michigan
career.
Everything about this Saturdays game in Notre Dame Stadium
revolves around Michigan and its coach. The way Carr coaches this game--and the
way his players (not Brady Quinn or Darius Walker or Jeff Samardzija)
perform--will ultimately tell the tale. If the Wolverines play scared, theyll
get drummed out of Indiana so badly that the reverberations could send many a
Michigander over the edge. Why? Because theres just no getting around the fact
that when Michigan has come to South Bend in recent years, the Maize and Blue
have folded like a corn tortilla (gotta have Maize in your corn,
right?).
In 2003, when having the luxury of playing at home, Michigan
crushed the Irish, 38-0. But a year before and a year after that game, the
talent disparity between the two teams never emerged, because the Wolverines--in
South Bend for the 2002 and 2004 editions of this rivalry--couldnt handle the
heat of a road environment. With timid play calling and fraidy-cat
quarterbacking--two things that go hand in hand--Michigans coaches and players
looked on, dumbfounded, as profoundly less talented Irish teams scored upset
victories over Wolverine ballclubs whose immense speed on the
edges--particularly at the flanker position--was completely wasted. A year ago,
it didnt even matter that Michigan hosted the Irish, as the same basic dynamic
played out in a 17-10 Irish victory. Notre Dame almost always manages to ensnare
the Wolverines in an ugly game that brings forth all of Michigans
dysfunctionalities and coaching weaknesses. When Big Ten title time comes a
callin, Lloyd Carr and his boys usually deliver the goods and carry the
Michigan name with honor. Against Notre Dame, the Maize and Blue become
body-snatched impostors. This isnt literary hyperbole; the results are quite
damning on their own.
So will Michigan finally throw the kitchen sink at
Notre Dame in South Bend? Its been a long time since a Lloyd Carr team played
with distinction in the Catholic enclave of Indiana, and this lack of quality
from the Michigan side is a big reason why Wolverine fans have been increasingly
upset about the job performance of a fine football coach whose Big Ten track
record is worthy of considerable respect and praise. Everything Lloyd Carr has
done in conference play over the years has been increasingly more obscured by
his lame efforts against the Fighting Irish. Will Carr bring his A-game to South
Bend on Saturday? Thats the question the citizens of Ann Arbor--not to mention
the whole college football world--will have answered under the long
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