Sparlimb
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Ahh no. Not unless there are A LOT of changes high up at Michigan.
Ex-QB Michael Taylor rips Michigan football, leadership
Mark Sydner
USA TODAY Sports
September 23, 2014
Former Michigan quarterback Michael Taylor has multiple issues with the Michigan athletic department - and the university as a whole - and he let loose in a radio interview today.
Speaking on the "Ryan and Rico" show on WMGC-FM (105.1), Taylor shared his thoughts on the state of Michigan football ("a propaganda football team, telling people how great we are"), former players ("treated like glorified fans"), coach Brady Hoke ("his pedigree did not deserve to be a $4-million coach here at Michigan"), athletic director Dave Brandon and his personal frustration with the school.
- On the failed promotion of getting two free tickets for buying Coke products: "Sad. It's very, very embarrassing. I would never have thought, in my lifetime, that you couldn't give away Michigan tickets because folks wouldn't buy them. That is due to the leadership going on in the athletic department. ... As a former player, we're not treated any better. They try to come in and treat us like glorified fans years ago and now can't get guys to come back. Now there's so many gimmicks that you see and now they want us to come because they're having trouble filling up the stadium. That's a sad state of affairs, in my opinion."
- On the disrespect of former football players: "That's been the calling card for quite awhile now. It's sad. To give a person one ticket when you've got empty seats in the stadium. Most of us have families, and I don't think that's doing our legacy any justice. Two, they call themselves having a weekend of champions where they try to lump us in with these other sports. Now I have nothing personal against any other sport or anyone who played any other sport at Michigan. But I played on one of only six teams that won the Rose Bowl in 135 years at Michigan in football. So you cannot honor us on our field for all the blood, sweat and tears we have done. The most appalling part of that last year was we had to buy a ticket to come back and get honored. Michigan football is not going in the right direction. The leadership is bad, there are many more issues on and off the field than I care to talk about. It's just sad."
- On talk among his former teammates: "How mediocre we are. That's pretty much it. I'm not one for all the talk. Actions speak louder than words. What we've become is a propaganda football team, telling people how great we are when we're mediocre. When, in your last 12 games, you've only got victories over Northwestern, Appy State, Indiana and Miami of Ohio, that is not good. That is not good. We're mediocre right now. Will it stay that way? I don't know. I don't work there. I don't have the say-so. But I do know this: I know a few hundred players who are not happy with what is going on and definitely think changes need to be made."
- On what causes the disconnect: "It came to a certain point where folks wanted to root against our own program. When Rich Rodriguez got the job, I don't think people understand how difficult of a job it was that he took over. First of all, he didn't have 85 scholarship players when he took over the program. … We all understand he took over 50-55 scholarship players. You can't win in the Big Ten or anywhere else with that number of players. While we were going through our toughest times, guys decided they were going to sabotage recruiting, badmouth the program on their social media outlets. This is a new day and era where these kids are social media-driven. When you have those type of things, you lose recruits, you lose support."
- On his experience: "I've heard guys give excuses and said Jim Harbaugh lied about what Michigan steers you in, as far as where you go as a degree. That's the farthest thing from the truth, because I was accepted into Michigan in the engineering school, and they took me out of it and put me in LS&A. That's a fact. So before people talk about what Michigan will and won't do, they took away your dreams. I wanted to be an engineer. It just so happened that I graduated from the school of business. … Michigan has never talked about Michael Taylor being a Michigan business school graduate."
- On the coaching search in 2011: "We didn't get the coach who should have been our coach here (Harbaugh) because we insulted him in the first place. So then look who we get. It's nothing personal; Brady's a nice guy, I'm sure all you guys agree. I'll agree to that. Really nice guy, very personable guy. However, his pedigree did not deserve to be a $4-million coach here at Michigan."
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