And I really think that Michigan’s troubles are ending. The defense looks to be similarly inept, but hopefully some more experience shines through with nine returning starters. As for the offense, two and three year starters are going to be fully immersed in the offense and maybe the offense will do better without a walk-on or true freshman at quarterback.

Nobody thinks that Rodriguez is an asshole.

Every single person with an influence in the program has repeatedly supported him. The President, AD, and major boosters have issued multiple statements of support.

Michigan is notoriously slow to fire anyone, their previous basketball coach made it six years without making the NCAA’s, even when it appeared after year four that it would not get done.

Rodriguez is being smeared by local journalists, the allegations of violations have been proven false (yet the national media does not or will not pick up on it.)

Rodriguez recruits “athletes” from Florida such as freshman Denard Robinson who was recruited and signed late in the process, head-to-head with Florida, among numerous players. The running theme is that Michigan is not recruiting local in-state players, instead recruiting more players with “SEC speed” from Florida and Texas. One poster has it dead on, the Big Ten and Michigan need to play more of its great recruits on defense, but apparently it’s not happening.

Michigan will be successful if Rodriguez has multiple three and four year starters in 2011. The question is if they’ll be patient enough.

I drive a lot and I would rather listen to a three month old podcast of Finebaum on the iPhone over anything that Cowturd, (as the good Mr. White eloquently said) has to say. Colin Cowherd is just another ESPN tool that likes to hear himself talk. And, for the record I’m shocked that he spent time talking about Notre Dame. He usually wastes a minimum of 20 minutes espousing USC propaganda.

And am I the only one that remembers how he was such a dick to CNS?

Here’s a thought for Colin Cowherd….

Defensive players aren’t that smart? Right. Tell that to Myron Rolle, Kevin Carter, Troy Polamalu, DeMeco Ryans and Tom Landry.

What Cowturd is doing is making an excuse for Notre Dame and Charlie Weis. The issue for Notre Dame is that they want to be a contender for national championships, yet they refuse to allow championship caliber talent to attend Notre Dame.

Notre Dame could recruit better players if they reduced their admission standards. This, after all, is what Paul Horning was trying to say several years ago, only he was too stupid to choose his words. Hmm. Maybe if he had been a liberal arts major at Bama he would know how to make a point without sticking his foot in his mouth. Alas, it’s fun to see Notre Dame mired in mediocrity. They deserve it.

Cowherd is the typical liberal. Liberals love to villify stereotypes until they want to use them to make a point. Cowherd needs to be reminded that ESPN would be better, but it can’t recruit real on-air talent for the mid-day radio show because most talk show hosts from LA have their head up their ass.

i don’t think he’s good enough to convince that caliber player to play in the cold of ann arbor michigan in a second rate conference like the big (can’t count to eleven) ten.

if michigan’s smart, they’ll can him for harbaugh while they can still get him cheap. (and before lsu does!)

Uh, unless his own accounts are the only ones that count that would be about the most untrue thing ever written.

Even the dwindling number of people who think he’s a decent football coach pretty much uniformly agree he is a world class asshole.

Colin Cowherd has defended Weis because he asserts great defensive players aren’t (in general) as intelligent as offensive players. He posits this has hurt Notre Dame’s defense. It is an interesting theory.

However, I think you can field good defenses even if you don’t land the greatest players. And furthermore, Notre Dame does have relaxed standards for football players–so, some of his argument is flawed.

The one thing I would say about this is that simply, if you have a disadvantage, then you have to work harder than everyone else. It doesn’t sound like Weis is working harder on the recruiting trail.