Does Harbaugh have an axe to grind?

[HipDigIt]

"I think they are 2nd to Nortwestern."

Well that's how we pronounce it here in "Minnysoda", eh!

[Big Swami]

Can someone tell me why the ` character is even on the keyboard? It's not an apostrophe, it doesn't serve any purpose as an accent mark. It's just useless.

[Zip Goshboots]

Swami:
It's a conspiracy. It stands for "Michigan Arrogance".

[Jethro34]

I'm sure it's not relevant, but Carl Tabb is in medical school. I wonder how he ever got there. After all, he's black and he played football at UM. It's crazy, really. I figured I wouldn't here from him until I saw him as a cashier at Whole Foods in Ypsilanti or something.

[Zip Goshboots]

I just hope he isn;t going to be a gynecologist. Man, with the way UM football players love to swing their dicks around, this could get ugly.

[Glenn]

Did anyone else chuckle when you saw the headline, "Stanford player ruled academically ineligible" on ESPN.com earlier today?

[Fool]

Nice.

[Zip Goshboots]

I didn't see it, but I'm chuckling now.

[Glenn]

Two interesting pieces from completely unbiased sources.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live...5.html?sid=101

Big upset could send Harbaugh to Michigan

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 3:38 AM
By Rob Oller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Sportswriters love those mouths that constantly move. But does Michigan?

When Stanford shocked Southern California on Saturday, the upset overturned more than the top of the college football rankings. Most fans tend to view upsets only in the context of how they affect the polls, but the fallout goes well beyond the game of musical chairs that has schools jumping in and out of the top 10.

More than just seasons are saved or lost when heavy underdogs lift their leg on the favorites. Losing coaches get canned. Winners get elevated to savior status.

Some, such as former Michigan quarterback and current Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, might even get to go home again. Whoo doggie, wouldn't that be a riot? I mean literally, a riot in Michigan faculty and board of trustees meetings. I can hear it now …

Haughty humanities professor: "This institution hires Harbaugh over my dead body."

Maize and blue-blooded trustee: "Open casket or not?"

Undoubtedly, some Michigan profs and plenty of fans wouldn't touch Harbaugh with a 39 1/2 -foot pole. During the summer, that Grinch had about as much chance as Rush Limbaugh of being greeted warmly in Ann Arbor. Harbaugh called out his alma mater for accepting recruits who were then encouraged to sign up for easy majors.

"Michigan is a good school," Harbaugh said. "I got a good education there. But the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in, and when they're in, they steer them to courses in sports communications."

Coach LLLLloyd Carr called Harbaugh's comments "elitist" and "arrogant," which in my way of thinking makes him the perfect choice to coach at the "Harvard of the Midwest."

Major upsets have a way of changing minds. Stanford still stinks, but suddenly Harbaugh is being hailed as the next Charlie Weis -- pre-2007, of course.

Harbaugh might have embarrassed Michigan with his words, but you better believe that today's topic of conversation in Ann Arbor concerns whether Captain Comeback might soon embarrass Ohio State the way he did in 1986 when he guaranteed a victory against the Buckeyes during the week of The Game. True to his word, Harbaugh rallied the Wolverines to a 26-24 victory that sent them to the Rose Bowl -- and him to the top of the OSU enemy list.

Many big-money boosters and alumni who watched Stanford pull off what some are calling the biggest upset in college football history are asking themselves, "When was the last time Michigan was on the spoiler end of an upset?" (Easy answer: against Ohio State in the 1990s. Pick a year, almost any year).

Before the 24-23 victory over the then-No. 2 ranked Trojans, forgiving Harbaugh's tongue from its transgressions might have been pretty darn difficult. Now?

USC was favored by 41 points against a team that had been outscored 141-51 in its first three Pacific-10 games. The Cardinal, 1-11 last season, was starting a reserve quarterback who had completed one pass in his college career.

The suspicion is that Carr will call it quits after this season. He already was considering retirement before Appalachian State rode into town and humiliated the Wolverines in the opener.

Talk about a cosmic coincidence: replacing Carr, victim of the most shocking upset in college football history, with Harbaugh, proud owner of the biggest upset. Also, what could be better, at least from a media viewpoint, than replacing a coach who says nothing with one who says everything?

During the Pac-10 media day this summer, Harbaugh said of USC, "Not only is it the best team in the country, but maybe the best team in the history of college football."

So Michigan might have a chance to hire the coach who defeated the best team ever.

Harbaugh said in another recent interview that his research revealed that Cal, Stanford's biggest rival, has a football graduation rate of only 44 percent. Never mind that those numbers were a decade old; Harbaugh's mouth had already moved.

"I just speak what I feel," he said.

I smell an upset in the making. Michigan hires Harbaugh. Tress vs. The Mouth? A reporter can dream, can't he?

Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

Remember, the "O." is for "objectivity".
http://www.dailytribune.com/stories/...aputo001.shtml

Michigan full of 'embattled' coaches

By Pat O. Caputo
Journal Register News Service

The term "embattled" and "football coach" fit snugly.

When isn't an NFL or major college football coach "embattled?"

This week, around these parts, we are 3-for-3.

In Allen Park, Embattled Football Coach No. 1 Rod Marinelli's skin is proving to be tissue paper thin. The Detroit Lions head coach verbally jumped a reporter from the Detroit Free Press during a news conference Monday.

He was rude, curt, disrespectful and unprofessional. In other words, everything the party line out of the Lions' headquarters claim him not to be.

The Lions lost 34-3 at Washington on Sunday. It was the second time in three weeks Marinelli took his team on the road and they were not properly prepared -- and in every way. When the going got tough, Marinelli's team rolled over.

But instead of taking accountability, Marinelli chose to strike out at the messenger.

In the process, he became radio talk show fodder, while presenting the impression he is starting to come unglued.

This is the undisputed truth about Marinelli's tenure as Lions' head coach.

In two years, he has led his team to a 6-15 record. His team has played sloppy, mistake-prone and uninspired football many more times than it has not.

Yet, understanding the mess he has inherited, Marinelli has been given an inordinate amount of slack from the media and fans.

Marinelli doesn't seem to appreciate the benefit of the doubt he has been given that Marty Mornhinweg and Steve Mariucci clearly were not, does he?

And while he is wise to focus on the Lions' 3-2 record rather than two blowout road losses, Marinelli's method for delivering the message Monday was pompous and asinine rather than dignified.

It not only reflects poorly on Marinelli, but on the Lions' organization as a whole.

Embattled Football Coach No.2 is Michigan State's Mark Dantonio. He had become the darling of Mid-Michigan following the Spartans' surprisingly impressive 4-0 start.

Now doubt is starting to burst into the collective psyche of Sparty following an extraordinarily poor performance in Saturday's loss to Northwestern.

Like Marinelli with the Lions, Dantonio is attempting to change a losing culture. Unlike Marinelli, he is accepting responsibility for his team's poor play.

"You can't point the finger without your thumb pointing right back at you," Dantonio said.

Now there is a coach who gets it.

Embattled Football Coach No. 3 is Michigan's Lloyd Carr. Over the summer, Carr let a petty talking match transpire when Michigan running back Michael Hart -- with the support of former Michigan running back Jamie Morris, who is a university employee -- said former Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh is "not a Michigan man."

Harbaugh, now the head coach at Stanford, had pointed out some of the double standards Michigan -- and just about every big-time college football program -- allows for football players.

Now Carr is wearing egg on his face because Harbaugh, as a six-touchdown underdog, led Stanford to a victory over USC Saturday night.

Carr has never beaten USC, including getting routed by the Trojans in the most recent Rose Bowl. And adding significance to Stanford's shocker was it coming the same season Carr's Wolverines were beaten at home by Division I-AA Appalachian State.

The big debate in college football circles this week is about which was the bigger upset.

What if Harbaugh turns out to be a brilliant head coach? Does it mean Michigan should pass on him because he drew the ire of Carr?

I firmly believe this: Bo Schembechler never would have tolerated Hart's comments about Harbaugh, let alone supported them.

I also feel what happened Saturday night in Los Angeles was poetic justice.

Pat O. Caputo is a columnist for the Journal Register News Service. Contact him at pat.caputo@oakpress.com.

[Fool]

The "S" on my chest stands for "straight down the middle".