Broken Down Carr on the side of the road

They are learning quickly in Ann Arbor what they already know in Columbus and Happy Valley and East Lansing and other stops along the national coach's caravan:

When spelling the name of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, be sure you start with two "L"'s (as in losses).

To be fair, Carr didn't make (or fail to make) any clutch tackles, blocks, or kicks, but if the buck stops with the head coach, and he makes millions in salary every year, then someone should turn down the temperature on his customized coach's seat. This week, it is scorching hotter than Lindsay Lohan's crotch supposedly does.

Yet, with all the talk about how Carr should be held accountable because he allowed his team to be under prepared enough to face a little a 1-AA school, allowing them to come into "The Big House" and take a big old dump in the middle of the field, to me there's a bigger issue that should be addressed - he, like many other coaches at all levels of football, can't seem to grasp "when to go for 2".

App State had a late 3rd quarter lead of 31-20, when Michigan tailback Mike "Coach, You Gotta Have" Hart scored on a 4-yard touchdown to close the gap to 31-26. With still one quarter left, and being "Mighty Michigan", many like myself figured they would kick the extra point and cut the lead to 4. But Carr decided to go for 2, and when they failed, the deficit remained 5 points.

This may not have seemed like a big play, but it was. Going for a 2-point conversion before the 4th quarter is risky, because it only has at best, statistically speaking, a 50/50 chance for success. And when you fail, you tend to chase after the "lost points" with every/any subsequent score. It reminds me of the story former New England Patriots great Russ Francis likes to tell about Pro Football Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks. One time, Hendricks was drinking so many beers that, as he was finishing his business "liquidating himself" in a locker room bathroom stall, he dropped a $10.00 bill he was holding. After announcing this to anyone within ear shot, and showing Francis the money floating aimlessly, Hendricks produced a $100.00 bill from his pocket, dropped it into the bowl, and reached in to scoop both of them out. Hendricks then stated, "I wasn't going in there for just ten bucks!"

It's the same concept when you go for 2 early in a game and fail - you wind up chasing after it the rest of the game. So when Hart's fourth quarter, 54-yard dash gave the Wolverines a fourth quarter lead of 32-31, Carr was forced to go for 2, to make up for his earlier mistake. Success would have meant a 34-31 lead, but again Michigan failed on the conversion attempt. Had they simply kicked extra points, as I pointed out to those watching the game with me at the time, the lead would be 34-31, and the eventual 24-yard field goal by App State with 26 seconds left would have only evened the score at 34 apiece, forcing overtime.

Instead, the field goal by Julian Rauch meant that Michigan needed a last-second attempt to win on a field goal that was blocked, creating the greatest upset in college football history.

It bothers me to no end to watch coaches, who seem to have 900 assistants nowadays, blow the decision of when/if to go for 2 points. As a Notre Dame fan who watched his own team struggle to gain first downs, much less score points, against Georgia Tech, I can only thank Lloyd Carr for at least providing some cover in the national spotlight for the "Fightless Irish".


BTW: Be sure to check out the premiere of the Friday Football Forecast this week, where we attempt to correctly predict the results of 5 NFL games this weekend.