Say your team is up 21-7 with 30 seconds left in the half, and you have the ball on your own 30-yard line. You've got two timeouts, and your team's offense has essentially been pushing the other team all over the field for the entire first half.
Sounds like you've got a chance to throw a few sideline passes, and maybe tack on a field goal before the half to extend your lead.
That's the situation Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr faced today in Ann Arbor. But instead of trusting his team, Carr told his starting quarterback, John Navarre, to take a knee and run back into the tunnel for halftime. Naturally, ABC's sideline reporter (whose name I can't recall at the moment), asked Carr about his decision before he got off the field.
Instead of answering the question, the little tin god looked the reporter in the eye and said, "What kind of stupid question is that?' To his credit, the reporter kept his cool, explained why he asked the question, and asked it again. Carr just grimaced, and turned away without answering.
Michigan eventually won 35-21, but Carr has no class.
I was shocked at Carr’s response as well. It’s not like the reporter asked an unreasonable question. The most basic arm-chair quarterback/coach could see that UM had an ideal opportunity to score again before the half and that taking a knee was an unecessarily sportsmanlike decision, especially in such a rivalry as exists between UM and OSU. Considering Ohio State’s ability to come back in games and pull out a win, any possibility of scoring points on them should have been exploited. It’s not like the game had no importance. If the game had come down to a field goal or a touchdown, you can be sure Lloyd Carr’s job would be in question today. His remarks to the reporter implied that his decision was so obviously right as to be completely unquestionable, when in fact, his decision was not so. Carr deserves some heat for how he treated that reporter, for sure.
Carr is a classLESS act. Always has been. A poor, poor man’s Bo…Bo could be salty, but was never dumb enough to be just plain rude.
Especially so since the question was reasonable. What a complete buffoon…he makes the whole program look bad.
I cringed watching the way Carr abused that reporter. His rudeness was absolutely inexcusable. As a parent with a daughter at Michigan I feel Carr should be forced to publicly apologize to the reporter.
Keith Jackson and Dan Fouts questioned Carr’s decision to run out the clock at the time. Is LLoyd calling them stupid too?
If I had a son being recruited by Michigan for football this incident would be enough to make me cross Michigan off the list. I prefer hardnosed coaches, however there’s a big differnence between being hardnosed and being a jerk.
I am not a UM or an OSU fan but I was disgusted by Carr so I took it up with the Wolverine ESPN message board. Some of the repsonses I got were pretty out there.
http://boards.go.com/cgi/ncaa/request.dll?LIST&room=col_130&ref=71384
Llyod Carr had every right to sit on the ball and take his 14 point lead into the locker room and not give OSU another late chance, especially with the momentum swing on OSU’s late TD. But why can’t he just say that instead of acting like an ass on national TV – I agree with Rod, that alone would take my son’s name off the Michigan list.
I was shocked at his comment also but it is about time a coach said something about that. I mean ask something that 90% of the people watching do not know. Yeah, Michigan was driving down the feild most of the game, but Ohio has one of the top defenses and the live for the other team to make a mistake. Why not go into the half with 14 point lead and the momentum going in your favor. No reason to rush down the feild and put pressure one the team just to make a little mistake and lose the ball for a possibly Ohio run back.
I think Lloyd Carr’s actions were way out of hand. I was rooting for Michigan because I really hate Ohio State. But when Carr did that, my decision shifted. That was totally classless by Carr.
I also feel bad for the reporter because he asked an intelligent question. I thought that Michigan should have tried to add a field goal. They had two timeouts and their offense was dominating Ohio State.
I have no respect for Lloyd Carr after his act. I like Michigan but I think they need a coach who represents the respect and tradition of BIG10 Football.
How many times does Ohio State come back and when a game with their defense? I would say about every game. In those games how many times does the other team have the lead? Ohio’s defense is just good and they usually pull out miracles. When Ohio is losing, the defense can change the game speed and go on to win the game. Carr knew what he was doing when he told his team to kneel. It is call strategy. You have a 14 point lead, the game is going your way, you players are pumped up, you playing a top defensive team, and this defense can take advantage of the smallest error at any given time, I would have played it safe also. Obviously his decision was right. So in my opinion, it was a dumb question. If you follow the Michigan/Ohio rivalry, you would know a lot more on how each team plays, and then Carr reasoning becomes apparent. Which makes the question dumb.
Why bug the man anyways? He is playing one of his toughest and most important games of all year, plus it is for the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl chance, I think he has A Lot on his mind. I am sure he was thinking about what to say to his players, and how to keep his lead and win the game. His actions should be excusable.
Do get me wrong, he was wrong and came of as being a dick to the reporter, but there is more behind the situation. I would not let it change the way I think of him.
To come at this from a different angle, if Ohio State’s coach Tressel had been questioned by that reporter going into halftime, he would have shown class and answered the question regardless of how he felt about the question. He would would have set the example even though his team was down. Carr was up two touchdowns and still had an attitude!
I am not a Michigan fan, but I certainly have more respect for the Michigan players than I do their coach. They need to take Carr off of the ‘Big 10 sportsmanlike behavior’ commercials.
Can someone please tell me what the question was for Carr at halftime that he felt was so stupid?
Carr’s comments were inexcusable. he was so rude that i went from rooting for Mich to OSU, i couldn;t help it given the way he treated that reporter. public relations are a part of football at that level and carr should feel gratitude that he gets to coach a team with so much talent. behavior like that sours the whole thing for everyone. this man acted like a complete boor, no class. compare him to tressel, who brings some sportsmanship to the game–from what i’ve seen anyway.
I don’t think Carr was out of line. The question easily is translated into “Why didn’t you give OSU’s defense a chance to capitalize on any mistake you may have committed in those 30 seconds?” Any number of things could have happened. An interception returned for a touchdown. A fumble return caused by a sack. Those types of things can easily change the momentum of a game. For example UGA’s 98 yard fumble recovery against Tennessee this year. If Tennessee scores it ties the game and gives them momentum leading into the second half. Instead Georgia opens up a 21-7 lead and with the swing comes out swinging in the 3rd quarter on their way to a 41-14 victory. Carr probably felt that anybody with any sense would have done what he did and felt his actions above reproach. After all he was doing a fine coaching job to be leading in the first place. Just my two pennies.
Whether Carr was out of line or not is in the eye of the beholder. His decision in my opinion was sound. OSU had just scored, Michigan had the ball back with two timeouts. Why not drive? OSU defense number one. Keep the mo number two. Michigan has the ball first in the 2nd half, number three. Remember, they always defer when they win the coin toss, so Lloyd knew, as did the reporter, that Michigan would have first crack in the second half. Remember what they did? Scored first in second half. Dumb question.
testing
I too “was” rooting for michigan jesst to piss off some friends of mine HAHA!! But then lloyd carr made a complete ass of himself !! It doesnt matter who had the ball or the momentum … fact is carr gets paid more than all of us to coach a football team !! That reporter was simply doing his job , and carr denied him the opportunity to do so !! what if the michigan players decided to jesst turn thier backs on carr when he calls a play , and run thier own game , he wouldnt be so happy now would he ?? Carr is an ass who deserves to be tied to the back of the team bus an drug to the next game …… jesst my 2
for those who love michigan football as I do I hope you admit the lloyd carr is just an awful coach.
his conservative. cover his butt coaching performance in the rose bowl was a disgrace.
with the talent michigan gets year after year carr should resign if he had any respect/love for michigan
re: lloyd’s comments to todd harris… bad reaction by lloyd, but the harris’s delivery was poor. essentially, “coach, you’ve been secondguessed all week (not a good way to start). why not go for another score with 2 timeouts remaining?” it could just as easily have been interpreted as “you’ve been secondguessed all week, and i’m doing it again, even though you’re dominating your arch-rivals in the biggest game (thus far) of the year.”
as for michigan’s performance in the rose bowl, give all the credit to usc. they were the better team. were there some coaching mistakes? yes. but you have to look no further than the sugar bowl for the same type of mistakes by ou.
is carr doing the least with the most? if UM hadn’t won 3 big 10 titles since 1997 or made it to 2 BCS bowls in that time span, then i’d think about what it would be like with another coach as well. mack brown arguably has better (or at least as good) talent at texas, but has NEVER played in a BCS bowl or won the conference championship. in fact, texas has only played in the conference title game ONE time since brown came on board.
or what about VT? as good as everyone says beamer is, he’s taken his team to ONE BCS bowl game and one conference championship in the BCS era.
and speaking of osu, what about cooper? he finished in the top 5 several times, his biggest flaw being a terrible record against UM. was he such a bad coach? he did keep his team in the title hunt several years.
finally, what about stoops? does his team’s poor performance over the last 2 games negate his ability to coach? does it negate what he’s done over the past few years?