Desmond Howard OMG!!!

Former Michigan Heisman trophy winner Desmond Howard spoke at the Black Coaches and Administrators Convention last night. His main topic was the feeling of "Entitlement" he thinks current players have. He does not like their recruitment being treated as a major news story - like an individual player could make or break a program.

He used Denard Robinson in the coaching turnover as an example.

"I'll give you a perfect example: Michigan fires coach Rich Rodriguez. All the noise in Ann Arbor is, 'Is Denard Robinson going to stay or leave?' I'm like, 'Hey, if the kid wants to go, don't let the door hit you on the way out.' You looked fantastic for five games against nobody. That's what you did. I'm not going to deny his talents, but you ain't won nothing in Ann Arbor, son! Not so much we need to worry about if you're going to be here next year or not."

This has caused quite a stir on WTKA, AnnArbor.com and MGoBlog.

Callers and commentors were not happy with Desmond. Questioning if he was jealous of Denard, wondering why he never says anything nice about Michigan. I felt like it was almost tipping towards the way Buckeye fans have forced Kirk Herbstreit to move away from Columbus because of all the complaints and threats he was receiving.

Is anything in that quote not factual? I don't think so. I've seen DRob do some amazing things but his performance was not up the same level against better quality teams.

Is Desmond being somewhat hypocritical - after all he left Michigan early? Michael Taylor e-mailed the show hinting at that in his message. At least he could argue he had WON big games at Michigan - he had won the ultimate individual award.

Ira on WTKA was mostly upset that Desmond had chosen Denard as his example and not Justin Boren. Later Sam defended Denard and to some degree any player who would contemplate leaving in a coaching situation. I wonder if Boren falls under that umbrella? I would guess not...

Here's to hoping that DRob's decision to stay was the right one for him, but more importantly the right one for Michigan.