Well, I think all of us saw it coming the moment the Michigan Wolverines lost to Division IAA Appalachian St. for the season and home opener for the 2007 season, because according to ESPN Lloyd Carr, head coach, is expected to announce his retirement this coming Monday November 19^th. For me I think this move is long overdue and should have happened last year after Michigan’s season ending loss to Ohio State. Although Carr is a good Head Coach and is easily competent to successfully lead 90% of any other major college program out there, however, he has proven that he cannot succeed in the current BCS environment and he really struggles in big games that count. As such here are the top three reasons why Lloyd Carr should not be given a head coaching position for a major BCS contenting program.

#1 Lack of Ability to Win Games that Count – Ever since the National Championship in 1997, Carr has really struggled in BCS bowl games and against top notch programs. For example, he has only won the Rose Bowl once out of four tries, and of those he has lost by an average of 10 points per game. In addition to his struggles in big time Bowls he also has been lacking in delivering against his greatest rival the Ohio St Buckeyes. Over the last 7 years Michigan is a pathetic 1-6. To me that say he has lost his edge to win any game that really counts.

#2 Zero Appearances to the BCS Championship Game – With the size of recruiting budget and conference affiliation it is amazing that Carr could not have put one team into the big dance. Every year each sports publication rates Michigan as one of the top three recruiting classes. With that amount of depth and talent to utilize each year it is baffling that he could not put at least one team into the big game. The only conclusion I can draw is Lloyd Carr cannot coach. No matter the talent or depth he may have players do not respond to his coaching philosophies the way that translates into Championships.

#3 Playing to the Level of Competition – This is I believe Carr’s biggest fallacy. It became evident this season when they faced a Division IAA program Appalachian St. Being the season opener, at home and with the talent he had, Carr still did not have his players motivated enough to come out and totally demolish the opponent. Rather they took the opposite approach. The players assumed the moment they walked on the field Appalachian St would simply whither away and crawl back into their cave where they came from. Obviously that did not happen and Division I football suffered its most embarrassing defeat in each storied history.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Discussion, Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.