Breaking Down Year Three Of Rich Rodriguez

Michigan’s Marcus Ray, a member of the 1997 national championship team, talks about the Wolverines heading into the 2010 season, how they have to improve all facets of the game, a win goal for Rich Rodriguez and what Ray would do if he was the athletic director at Michigan (run time is 9:32).

[podcast]http://www.lostlettermen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ray1.mp3[/podcast]…..

Lost Lettermen: This is Jose Bosch and I’m being joined by Michigan’s Marcus Ray. Marcus, thank you very much for joining us today.

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Marcus Ray: Thank for having me today, Jose.

LL: You’re a defensive guy and I think everyone can agree going into the season that it’s not really the offense that’s going to be a major concern even though the quarterback position is in flux. It’s really the defense.

You have the two best players on the team last year on the defensive side of the ball, Brandon Graham and Donovan Warren, leaving. How concerned are with the defense going into the season? Especially with the injury to Troy Woolfolk being lost for the season?

MR: Well I think Michigan needs to work on all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. I don’t think the offense was just completely unstoppable and lights out. It was just the strength of the team.

Obviously we’ve had trouble on defense at Michigan the last couple of years and defense wins championships. Offensive teams always tend to start off a little bit slower at the beginning of the season and come together a little bit later and the defense usually stops people because the offense has to adjust and get their timing down and the defense reacts.

But, I think there should be a holistic concern for all three aspects of the game. I don’t think by all means Michigan is a great team. I think at times, on the offensive side of the ball they didn’t perform very well. They fumbled on the one-yard line against Ohio State and stuff like that.

Now I know they have young quarterbacks and this is the new year for this new coaching regime and they still haven’t settled in and truly hung their hat on a quarterback. Any time you’re in a situation like that where you don’t know who your quarterback is going to be week to week, there’s no way your offense can have continuity.

And as far as losing Brandon Graham on defense, I think that’s a definitely blow. I don’t think losing Donovan Warren is going to necessary kill Michigan’s defense. That experience probably could’ve been useful this year. And definitely losing Troy just from a leadership stand point, that hurts them. But Troy wasn’t out there tearing it up either.

So Michigan has got to find a way to get big-time talent to play on a high level, on all three stages of the ball.

LL: You played on some great Michigan teams and played on some great Michigan defenses. How frustrating is it to watch Michigan look downright mediocre and at some times awful the last (two seasons)?

MR: It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to not … Watching Michigan now, growing up, I would’ve probably would have went to Ohio State being that I’m from Columbus. Michigan became Michigan because of the coaching staffs and because we had great players. So if you look at it, all the games Schembechler won, all the titles, all the games (coach Gary) Moeller and Lloyd Carr … that’s Michigan.

So Michigan was built on winning success. A winning successful tradition and passing that torch on, passing that winning torch on and maintaining a high level of competent coaches and five-star football players.

So the team I played on, I believe our ’97 team had 34 guys that I can count off the top of my head that played in the National Football League at least one season. I don’t see 11 to 34 guys on that (2010) roster that I can see playing on Sundays eventually.

And that’s no knock on anybody. It’s just the name on the front of the shirt has remained the same but we don’t have the same caliber of athletes that made everyone fall in love with Michigan and help build that empire to the level that it once was.

So that’s why we’re having 5-7 seasons, 3-9 seasons. We don’t have the same talent. Some of the best players in the country won’t even open Michigan’s recruiting mail right now. And Michigan has one of the best facilities in the country. When I came (to visit), I felt like the tourist instead of family because everything was new. And I wish that I could’ve played in an indoor facility like that or the luxury suites at the Big House.

But the guys that came (inaudible), this new new generation that made this possible, they’re no where near playing Michigan football. And when you have talent that’s average to a little above average talent on paper – because people can say what you want coming out of high school. “This kid was this kid,” “This kid has four stars. He’s a four star.”

Well I saw a one-star kid like Glen Steele come in and be an All-American at Michigan. We have to find football players and not get caught up in who’s ranked where, but we have to find a way to get those football players; those mean rough tough, mentally tough strong football players that are coachable that want to come in and win for Michigan. Now guys are leaving Michigan left and right. They don’t want to be there.

LL: Does Michigan have to make a coaching change after this season?

MR: Do they have to? No.

LL: I’m sorry, would you like them to?

MR: Would I like them to? I would like them to make any change necessary to win games. If they have an unsuccessful season, then yeah. There has to be some change at some point. Now if they have a successful season … you gotta define what a success is. Michigan used to win eight games and used to call that a losing season. Now we’re just fighting and setting up a up a weaker schedule to just to make a bowl game. So is six wins a successful year?

If Michigan does not show at least a competitive 9-to-10-win season, then there probably needs to be some changes. I don’t know if it’s top down or you start to weed out some of these guys and try to find the best coaching staff in America you can put together. I’m not sure that’s the best coaching staff that they could put together.

When I look back to ’94 and I saw Les Miles, I saw Greg Madison, I saw Lloyd Carr, I saw Gary Moeller, I saw (inaudible). Now I’m naming future college head coaches, professional head coaches, national champion head coaches. Then we had guys like Erik Campbell, Vance Bedford, Stan Parrish. Our coaching staff was a who’s who.

So if Michigan is not going to win, then Michigan is going to have to make the changes they need to to get whoever they need in. Whether they created a who’s who list. if they get the who’s who as far as players, the Michigan is going to be back in business.

So to answer you question specifically, if Michigan has an unsuccessful year, then I say yeas, make some changes. If they win it all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

LL: Dave Brandon has come out and said that judging Rich Rodriguez’s performance at the end of this season just by wins wouldn’t be smart. But let’s say you’re the athletic director and you decide you want to set a benchmark for Rich Rod.

Where would you set it at in terms of wins and where would you tell him, “This is where we’d like you to be at the end of the year or else we’re going to be making changes.”?

MR: If I was the AD, we’re talking Michigan AD Marcus Ray, I would say “Run a clean program, no violations. Do everything by the book.” If Michigan is a football program of integrity, character and class and kids are on pace to graduate and they’re no kids fighting and getting into trouble with the law off the field.

If we got a program that can run like that, that’s the hardest part. The wins and loses are the easy part of coaching. It’s managing the program that makes it tough. So we can minimize the NCAA violations, do everything by the book, practice 20 hours a week, treat kids with respect. Do not curse them out or make them leave and run them out of town.

If we can nurture our athletes and teach them how to be men, then you’ve probably got the right coach.

Now, if you get all that on track, kids are able to graduate, now if we win a few more games, then that shows the program is headed in the right direction and seven or eight wins, when you look at the schedule, shouldn’t be out of reach.

Now if you just get beat by a team you’re supposed to lose to, then that’s something different. If you play a team that you’re legitimately not as good … I mean there were teams that we played, Lloyd Carr said, “We’re not better than this team but we can win if we x, y, z, a, b, c.” That’s the honest truth.

So I don’t think a number … I know that we can’t have another losing season. But as an AD I want to see a clean program that can be represented throughout the country as a model program for leadership, mentorship, execution, integrity, character.

Once you have a program like that and the right kind of guys living the right way off the field, the program is always heading in the right direction. And the wins will come. It’s just this team needs to have everything happen at the same time right now.