• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!
Keep in mind that Bo never actually made it a goal to win the NC, or even the Rose Bowl. He said time and time again that a successful season at Michigan is getting to the Rose Bowl by way of beating Ohio State. That was always borne out in his preparations. Once the OSU game was over, everything else was gravy and Bo would insist his players focus on their academics after that.

Bo was the greatest coach at the winningest program in all of college football. That has to count for something. He won 200 games in less time than any coach but two: Tom Osborne and Joe Paterno. He never had a losing season. Not at Miami and not at Michigan. Paterno can't say that. Bowden can't say that. Bear Bryant can't say that. Bo failed to reach 8 wins just once in his tenure at Michigan. Were it not for a bad ticker, it's not a stretch to suggest Bo might still be coaching - he was younger, after all, than Paterno and the same age as Bowden. Had he coached 10 more years (and who's to say he couldn't have, with a healthy heart), and continued to win at the same pace he had in the past, it wouldn't be Bear Bryant's record that Bowden and Paterno have broken. It would have been Bo Schembechler's.

I don't care about the national championships, not in the context of this debate. When you're 9th all time in wins in Div. I-A, and retired as #7, you're in the pantheon of the greatest.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
HailToMichigan;668464; said:
Keep in mind that Bo never actually made it a goal to win the NC, or even the Rose Bowl. He said time and time again that a successful season at Michigan is getting to the Rose Bowl by way of beating Ohio State.

If you actually believe Bo didn't want to win the Rose Bowl, you are more naive than I thought.

You sound like a child who didn't get the toy he wanted. "That's ok, I didn't really want it."
 
Upvote 0
7th All-Time definitely deserves consideration amongst the greatest...however, the no NC argument also deserves consideration. Unfortunately, that is how our sports society works...Barkley, Marino, Bonds, etc. Great players..but they never won the big one. If Michael Jordan didn't win the championships he is not revered as much...more like a Pistol Pete sideshow imo. Great player, but never got it done when it counted.

Then again, you look at some of the coaches that did win NC's...are they automatically great? Danny Ford at Clemson? Bobby Ross at Tech in 1990? Don James at Washington? Good solid coaches...but amongst the greatest?

To me it all depends on your personal criteria. Woody is great to Ohio State fans because of his entire body of work. Not just the NCs, but everything. To other fans who do not know the whole story, he is remembered for his temper and the Gator Bowl. Fair? Nope.


I see Bo as one of the great coaches for many reasons...but I do not see amongst the greatest of coaches.
 
Upvote 0
DaytonBuck;668497; said:
Don't let Clemson fans find out you questioned Danny Ford Grad or else you might be tossed into the Atlantic :biggrin:

They love him...but they also know how much sheesh he pulled to get that NC. Supposedly, the coach in "Revenge of the Nerds" is based on Danny Ford. I've heard the man speak quite a few times and even shared multiple pitchers of beer with him...great guy.
 
Upvote 0
scooter1369;668476; said:
If you actually believe Bo didn't want to win the Rose Bowl, you are more naive than I thought.

You sound like a child who didn't get the toy he wanted. "That's ok, I didn't really want it."
Naive? Please. I have the freaking "official Bo video" that was produced after his retirement as a tribute to his career at Michigan. In it he specifically says it was all about Ohio State. All about Ohio State. From the moment he was hired in 1969, it was about beating Ohio State. Even when Woody was gone, it was about beating Ohio State. Of course he wanted to win the Rose Bowl, as opposed to wanting to lose it, once the time came and they were actually going. But that's not what he preached. To Bo the ultimate prize was in Columbus, not Pasadena. He prepared his team all season for Ohio State, not USC.
 
Upvote 0
HailToMichigan;668464; said:
Keep in mind that Bo never actually made it a goal to win the NC, or even the Rose Bowl. He said time and time again that a successful season at Michigan is getting to the Rose Bowl by way of beating Ohio State. That was always borne out in his preparations. Once the OSU game was over, everything else was gravy and Bo would insist his players focus on their academics after that.

My goal today, just like every week-day, was to show up to work. I've achieved that goal X times in a row. Give me a raise. I'm a superstar!

I'm not saying that beating Ohio State is or ever was a cake-walk. Well, maybe it was back before football was football - say, before WWII. My point is that if someone gets to determine his own set of criteria for success, it can be pretty easy to appear to be successful.

I'm not going to jump on the "Bo sucked" bus. Anyone who was a friend of Woody (after Woody was done coaching) can't be a bad guy. But that excuse of "Bo didn't care about anything other than beating Ohio State" is pretty lame.

By the way, to make your argument only worse, he was 5-4-1 against Woody, and 4-5 against Earle Bruce. How many years into Cooper's tenure did he coach? Three years? Four years? To have 12 or 13 wins and 9 losses against his "only goal of the season" doesn't speak too highly of him.
 
Upvote 0
tibor75;668068; said:
There was an article I read today directed at those scUM fans ripping on LLLoyd for his losses to OSU. One thing nobody mentions that this article did:

National championships:
LLLoyd 1
Bo 0

If you are gonna be a dick tibs, get it right

National Championships:
LLLLLoyd 1/2
Bo 0
 
Upvote 0
287-sbj-lg-skully-fishing.jpg

http://www.dorkboycomics.com/comics/287-sbj-lg-skully-fishing.jpg
 
Upvote 0
Zurp;668570; said:
My goal today, just like every week-day, was to show up to work. I've achieved that goal X times in a row. Give me a raise. I'm a superstar!

I'm not saying that beating Ohio State is or ever was a cake-walk. Well, maybe it was back before football was football - say, before WWII. My point is that if someone gets to determine his own set of criteria for success, it can be pretty easy to appear to be successful.

I'm not going to jump on the "Bo sucked" bus. Anyone who was a friend of Woody (after Woody was done coaching) can't be a bad guy. But that excuse of "Bo didn't care about anything other than beating Ohio State" is pretty lame.

By the way, to make your argument only worse, he was 5-4-1 against Woody, and 4-5 against Earle Bruce. How many years into Cooper's tenure did he coach? Three years? Four years? To have 12 or 13 wins and 9 losses against his "only goal of the season" doesn't speak too highly of him.
It's not like Bo sat back after his career was over and decided that since he didn't win the Rose Bowl enough, his goal was instead to beat OSU. It was his mantra from Day 1. I know you don't think beating OSU is as easy as just showing up to work. Ever since lord knows when, they've been an elite team, and having a winning record against them is a hell of an accomplishment (11-9-1 was Bo's.) When did OSU ever have a down stretch during Bo's tenure? If he had a similar Rose Bowl record, even at 5-5, nobody would be knocking it. I'm pretty surprised that an OSU fan would look at an 11-9-1 record against them and call that nothing.
 
Upvote 0
HailToMichigan;668632; said:
It's not like Bo sat back after his career was over and decided that since he didn't win the Rose Bowl enough, his goal was instead to beat OSU. It was his mantra from Day 1. I know you don't think beating OSU is as easy as just showing up to work. Ever since lord knows when, they've been an elite team, and having a winning record against them is a hell of an accomplishment (11-9-1 was Bo's.) When did OSU ever have a down stretch during Bo's tenure? If he had a similar Rose Bowl record, even at 5-5, nobody would be knocking it. I'm pretty surprised that an OSU fan would look at an 11-9-1 record against them and call that nothing.

Note:I like Bo, and admire him as a coach and fellow Buckeye...but...actually, the problem is you are looking at an atrocious bowl record and saying that is basically "nothing" because it wasn't Bo's goal to win Bowl games. If his top goal was to beat OSU, and he did that more often than not, that is a good point for him...the fact he was 2-8 in the Rose Bowl, often against inferior competition, is a not so good point. We are not dismissing his record against OSU, but you can't turn around and blow off his bad bowl record by saying he really didn't care...even if he didn't. Everything counts towards a coach's legacy...not just the fluffy parts you like to brag about.
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top