I appreciate your perspective. I never considered his comments as a statement summarizing the entire Michigan football season. I took them as a statement regarding his disappointment about being passed by Florida in the eyes of the voters.

Carr’s comments are not a “lobby for sympathy”. He was asked a question during a press conference and answered it. Do you think a man that did not lobby for selection into the game would turn around lobby for sympathy after the fact?

I think you are letting your bias influence your thinking too much. You are hoping to create bulletin board material that just isn’t there. In 2003, Pete Carroll did talk about how the system let them down. USC dealt with similar disappointment in not getting a shot a the Sugar Bowl. I doubt the Trojans are disrespected by Carr’s disappointment.

Thanks for stopping by.

I suppose I feel that his “bad bounce, things not going our way” comment is elitist because things did go his way; he had an 11-1 season, is playing in the Rose, will probably finish as the #2 team this year (and be #1 next year until he loses).

After all those successes, to say that this is the most disappointed he’s been in 27 years of coaching seems pretty “elitist.” Lots of division I-A coaches have been coaching longer than he, and without the treasure chest he sits on up there in Ann Arbor, and would kill for the chances and opportunities he had.

Right on down to the OSU game – as I wrote, he was given opportunities that all coaches dream about… the game was practically handed to him, and he didn’t win. You can almost hear them saying, “I can’t believe, after the season he’s had, after the talent he’s got playing for him, after having the title game placed into his hands and dropping it, and still managing to get to a major BCS game, he’s the most disappointed he’s ever been as a professional coach.”

So I feel that most coaches would see his lobbying for sympathy to be fairly elitist. He gets things they only dream about, then complains about them.

As for your second question, just switch the roles, and maybe you’ll understand what I mean. Let’s say USC was shut out of the BCS title game to Florida, and had to play UM in the Rose. And all you hear Pete Carroll talk about is how disappointed he is the system failed, the players complaining that they deserver better than the Rose, better than UM.

It would be tantamount to saying “we don’t deserve to play UM, they’re beneath us; we should be playing OSU.” Don’t you think that the UM players would use that as motivation to get fired up for the game?

I don’t take Carr’s comments as “whining” at all. Maybe if you took off your “I hate Michigan with the passion of a thousand suns” glasses, you would too.

Question #1: How is stating “sometimes things don’t go your way” an elitist statement ?

Question #2: How is expressing that you are disappointed by not getting “selected” by a bunch of voters in anyway disrespectful to USC ?

Those left out are always accused. While those let in are accused of campaigining- which might be accrurate. But that’s the system we have.

Go Bucks and lets hope for a playoff soon!

But now, way afte the fact just makes him look old yeller….