The Michigan Wolverines went 11-2 this season, a great turnaround from 7-5 back in 2005. In the time since then, two new coordinators have come aboard and fans' hopes in Lloyd Carr came back. Over the course of this season, all of the talk to fire Lloyd Carr disappeared, but after back-to-back losses to Ohio State and in a bowl game again, Carr just got put back on the hotseat. I was appalled to see so much hate directed toward Lloyd Carr following the loss to USC on New Year's Day. It was expected that some people would be calling for Carr to be canned as frankly this trend of ending every season on a losing note is getting tiring. However, let's look at how this season was going up until November 18th. Prior to the 3 point loss to Ohio State last November, this team was looking to be headed down the right path. Even after Michigan lost to OSU, the Wolverines were 11-1 and were playing in a 3rd Rose Bowl in 4 years. Now, following a loss that I will blame on coaching, people want to just axe Carr. I'll admit, after Michigan went 7-5 last season, I would've been fine with Lloyd Carr being fired. That was before moves were made to replace Jim Herrmann and Terry Malone. With new coordinators on board, a definite change was seen, mainly defensively. The hope that this season would be better came up after the changes were set into place, and obviously they did have a big effect. However, I do think the situation has to be evaluated. In no way should Michigan fire Lloyd Carr this year, and they obviously won't. Bill Martin is too stubborn and too loyal to do that, no matter how loud the outcry is. Plus, with the amount of talent that will be on this team next season, to get rid of the coach would just be an idiotic move. Sure, Carr has lost the so-called "big games" in the last few years, but back in the late-90's, he won them. Maybe it comes in cycles and next year he will break the streak. Who knows? I don't necessarily want to say that a certain mark of achievement should be set for Carr next season and he will be fired if that mark isn't met, but at this point I think something relatively similar should be put into place. It's kind of like the basketball situation in a way. Now, I'm not saying that these situations are even close to being in the same state as the basketball is a complete joke, but there needs to be a certain point set. For Amaker this year it was making the NCAA tournament, it's obvious that won't be happening, so I believe he should be fired after the season. For Lloyd Carr, there's a few different possibilities. With the talent that Carr will have next season, anything less than a national championship will feel like a disappointment. That doesn't mean that if the Wolverines don't finish #1 that Carr should be given a pink slip, but if Michigan isn't very close then that will have to be considered. I'd say that the only way Lloyd Carr should be fired after next season is if he loses both the Ohio State and bowl games or has some other type of complete collapse prior to the end of the season. I don't want to say that he will be John Coopered, where losing to your rival gets you fired, but at this point it can't happen anymore. And if anyone should be fired for their performance this season, then it should be offensive coordinator Mike DeBord. His offense against USC was a complete joke. Plus, he took so long to made any adjustments that the game was already out of reach. That's something I'll get to later this week in an evaluation of both DeBord and Ron English.
