Overtime with Lloyd Carr; MSU safety injured
For those who attended Thursday's Duffy Daugherty Memorial Award banquet, you got to see DeWitt twins Caleb and Jacob Higbie receive $500 apiece in scholarship money on their way to Saginaw Valley State; Rockford coaching legend Ralph Munger receive the high school award (presented by Joe Staley, the former Rockford and CMU star and current 49ers tackle) in front of seemingly the entire community of Rockford; and Lloyd Carr take home the college award, with Brady Hoke, Mark Dantonio and many of their respective assistant coaches in attendance.
Thornbladh mentioned meeting Bob "Spartan Bob" Stehlin before the event, lamented that controversial 2001 loss and the one in 1990 (Eddie Brown-Desmond Howard, for those who aren't good with years), said he figured the MSU crowd would appreciate his creative grammar and "run-on sentences" and get two credits for being there, and called the Rich Rodriguez era "my own personal three-year nightmare." He credited Mark Dantonio for turning MSU around and winning three straight in the series, and promised one thing about next season -- that Michigan would return to "blocking and tackling." Lots of laughs on that one.
Carr's acceptance speech included a mention of the MSU ties detailed here and here, along with his appreciation for the late Daugherty -- who had a lot of family in attendance as usual.
I hit on a few other topics in my conversation with Carr on Tuesday, including...
* Whether his perspective has changed on his career now that he's had some time away. He mentioned a talk he had with the late Chuck Daly:
“He said to me, we were talking about the media and all the things that go with it. It’s such an intense, when you’re in a high-profile job it’s an intense experience. And he said to me, ‘The one thing you’re gonna find out once you get away from it, is that it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought it was.’ And I find that to be true. Because I read, I’m pretty selective with what I read. But what I do see on TV, what I hear during the season and what I read, I can see the other side a lot better. But I also think it’s, even in the three or four years since I retired, it’s a tougher environment. I mean, I guess there’s a lot of reasons for it, but I think it just gets more difficult for the players and the coaches.
“Coaches always talk about, you remember the difficult losses or the tough times. But what I really enjoy is the guys I coached, those player-coach relationships have become friendships. So I really appreciate all the great people that were part of my life and part of my career, and that’s what’s special.”
* On the way media has changed:
“The blogging, I mean, I used to think sometimes it was intense when somebody in the local media got on you. I used to think that was tough. But now you’ve got all the bloggers. Absolutely all of the, when you talk about the parents and the agents, and there’s a lot of misinformation that’s put out there. So it’s just created a much, much more difficult environment. One of the things I always tried to get across to our players, and when I had an opportunity in the media, is that these are college kids and I think they should be treated like college kids and not like professionals.
"But I think today, there’s not much blur between that. Today when a player makes a mistake, to cost a game or whatever (he's treated like a pro). The good news is that there’s so much because of all the social media, there’s so many things being written, YouTube and all those things, it doesn’t last as long because there’s always something new coming up in the next day or two.”
On Brady Hoke's chances of returning U-M football to prominence:
“I really don’t have any doubts. I think he has a proven record. He did a wonderful job in two places that were down when he went in there. And I think the other thing is, Brady was an outstanding recruiter when he was here. He’s from Ohio so he’s got a firm background there. He knows all the Michigan coaches, the high school coaches. And of course he’s got a great foundation on the west coast because he coached at Oregon State. And in California, he recruited really well as an assistant here. He’s a coach’s coach and he’s plenty tough enough. I think he’s hired a good staff. It’s never easy because with the addition of Nebraska, there’s no doubt that makes this conference even stronger, just as Penn State made it tougher. Nebraska’s gonna make it more challenging. There are a lot of great coaches in this conference. But I think he’s had a great reception, a lot of support from the former players so I think he’ll do very well.”
On MSU and Michigan both being strong at the same time:
“There are times when both can be. I look back in my time when Michigan State dominated the 1960s, those 1965 and ’66 great teams. But there’s no doubt that, I’ll never forget the day George (Perles) got hired, Bo saying, ‘Get ready. This is different from this day forward.’ Because George was an aggressive recruiter and he brought back that spirit, all the things that he believed in. But I don’t think there’s any question that Mark Dantonio has done one great job. I mean, watching his teams, he has really turned that program in my opinion. And the other thing, they’re always related -- if you’re successful, it’s not only that you’re doing a good job coaching, you’re doing a good job recruiting. And Mark, he’s got an Ohio background which in my opinion helps because of the recruiting part of it. They’ve won three in a row and, hey, when you do that in this rivalry, that’s significant. And I think that’s indicative of the job he’s done there.”
* On whether the Michigan football family is unified again after three divided years with Rich Rodriguez at the helm:
“I think so. I don’t know of any family where it’s perfect. And I think in a large family, there’s always, no matter how strong that family is – and I think we have an incredibly strong family here, Michigan football – but there’s always disagreement. And there’s room for disagreement. And when you believe in something it becomes sometimes emotional. But personally, I just believe very strongly that there’s nobody in this family that doesn’t love Michigan. And we have to agree to disagree. And hopefully when we do, we can do it without rancor. But in the long run, Michigan football I think will prevail. I mean, we’ve got such a long, storied tradition. And in the end, it’s tradition that can sustain you. And I think that will happen here.”
One more word on Carr. I have some very good friends who covered/cover Michigan, and one thing reporters like to do is share notes on their respective beats and tell each other what they really think about the people they cover. Talk about some colorful, off-the-record conversations. And in all that time, I have never heard one person say one negative thing about Carr as a human being. Football's one thing, integrity's another, Carr has it and everyone who knows him well is fond of him.
I do have one MSU football update this morning. Safety Jairus Jones suffered an Achilles' tendon injury in practice, confirmed John Lewandowski, and he will miss the spring game. Lewandowski is not sure on the extent of the injury, we'll learn more Saturday, but this obviously could be a hit to MSU's depth at the position for the 2011 season. Isaiah Lewis moved ahead of Jones this spring, but Jones has been part of MSU's nickel package.
