Michigan's Carr answers critics with defiance

Six days from now, Lloyd Carr will run out of the Michigan Stadium tunnel to begin his 12th season as Michigan's football coach.

Nearly all of the 110,000 fans in the stadium will roar in support of his team.

What's less clear is how many of them will be supporting him.

Despite an overwhelmingly successful career record (102-34) and a .750 winning percentage, Carr is under more scrutiny than at any point since entering his third season.

That was 1997 and he was coming off back-to-back four-loss seasons, unsatisfactory for much of the Michigan fan base.

Now, he's coming off a disappointing season of 7-5 and many national pundits have said his job status is uncertain. While that's unrealistic and inaccurate, Carr is more determined than ever to prove Michigan is still an elite program.

And the naysayers? They're not pushing him out.

"I have a choice that I can do what I want to do with my life," he said earlier this month. "That's where I begin. I'm going to do what I want to do. To hell with anybody else and what they think. That's where it all begins for me."

"I love the game. I love the competition. I love the relationship with the players and the ability to have some kind of a positive impact as they try to pursue a degree and play this game."

If anything, that idealistic, defiant side of the 61-year-old Carr is stronger than ever.

He tells his team to look forward and put the outside distractions aside. And he does everything in his power, including limiting media access to the majority of the team for long stretches, to keep the focus on his message.

Ignorance is bliss

In Chicago at the Big Ten media days earlier this month, Carr explained that he doesn't read newspaper, especially during the season. Part of that approach came from the book "The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership," written by USC president Steve n B. Sample, who swore off reading the newspaper to avoid getting sucked into the criticism.

"You're still going to know because people are going to tell you," Carr said. "His deal was, rather than get it from a writer, I'm going to get an interpretation from one of my friends. He's going to have his biases too, but at least I know what those are."

Carr still checks out a national newspaper occasionally to be informed on world events, but the only outside information about his team is from the articles brought to him by the U-M sports information department or his secretary. And that's just to keep tabs on what his players are saying.

Anything about him _ and as Michigan's coach, there's always something _ he'd prefer to avoid.

Which leads to the written speculation about his job status. Athletic director Bill Martin, U-M president Mary Sue Coleman and the Board of Regents strongly support Carr.

"Lloyd Carr is the Michigan football coach and we are extremely grateful to have Lloyd coach this team and represent our university," Martin said. "He has been our coach for the last decade, he is our football coach and I cannot foresee any reason why he wouldn't continue as our football coach."

Trying times

For now, with the season about to begin, Carr's coaching future is the furthest thoughts from the minds of Michigan players and coaches.

"The hot seat's the hot seat," Michigan tailback Mike Hart said. "We're not worried about it, honestly. Coach Carr doesn't worry about it, and if Coach Carr worried about it, we would.

"If the athletic director came to him and said, `If you don't win this year we're going to fire you,' I'd be worried. But it's just people talking out there."

Last season forced Carr to face an adversity that Michigan hadn't endured in 20 years_since the 6-6 season in 1984.

Carr also faced one of the most difficult decisions of his decade-long leadership at Michigan. With it clear that he wasn't leaving after last season, pressure mounted on the next level down, his coordinators Terry Malone and Jim Herrmann, who both left for NFL assistant coaching jobs in the off-season. Carr declined to discuss their departures and whether they would have stayed without the NFL jobs_and he probably never will.

While he's thrilled with new offensive coordinator Mike DeBord , one of his closest friends who had that same role from 1997-99, and new defensive coordinator Ron English , considered one of the nation's elite coaching prospects, saying good-bye to his previous coordinators was difficult.

Of the nation's veteran coaches _ the Joe Paternos, Bobby Bowdens, etc. _ he's more involved in the program minutia than almost all of them.

Take the team's off-season's weight loss. Instead of writing off last season to injuries or bad luck, Carr personally sought a solution. Watching hours of game tape, he thought he found it with conditioning, demanding his players become leaner and faster.

Lou Holtz, who won a national title coaching Notre Dame in 1988, calls those coaches "chairmen of the board" because they let their coordinators run the strategy and they deal with public appearances, administration and off-field issues.

But he also realizes that status only comes by earning that plateau, as Carr did with the 1997 national title team.

"Once you win the national championship and it's on your resume, what I have found is then they put you in a different classification and everybody, including the media, can point out (flaws)," Holtz said. "From now on, the standard is going to be perfection. That's just human nature and that's how sports works."

On the horizon

Martin said he'll choose Carr's successor, but a strong final season could give Carr more input in the decision.

He won't publicly admit that's what he wants, but this program and this school have become Carr's life for the past 26 years. He's a strong proponent of all sports on campus and understands he's a university ambassador, even though he's paid mostly to win games. Players respond to his tough love. Parents embrace his trust and honesty. Yet fans, possibly because Carr remains publicly guarded, only see the won-loss record.

Maybe he's brought that on himself. It was his choice to quietly help players through family crises, keeping their adversity from the public. He's avoided his personal critics, instead saving his juice to defend his players. And he's tried to protect his friends, even when public sentiment shifted against them. The fifth-winningest active Division I-A head coach is content in the shadows but his job won't let him stay there.

He'll leave at some point as one of the great coaches in Michigan history. Yet because the standards are different at Michigan, as ABC analyst Craig James said this week, a 10-win, 11-win season may not satisfy the vocal minority. But Carr will tell you, he doesn't coach for them.

He's learned to make public peace with that aspect of his high-profile profession. And he's trying to be diplomatic about it.

"It's not like you ignore it, because there's a line in Kipling where he talks about, you can't be worried about the criticism and don't doubt yourself," Carr said.. "You also have to realize you can learn some things from criticism. It's a tough balancing act."