For Carr, This Is Indeed Happiest Place on Earth

Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr told reporters this week that this was his 25th Christmas away from home.

And that for the 25th time, as a member of the Wolverine coaching staff, he couldn’t be happier -- having received the ideal gift, another bowl game in which to play.

Now in his 10th season as head coach of the nation’s winningest Division I-A college football program, Carr talked also of this being his 10th Rose Bowl appearance, and of how proud he was to be leading his team into Saturday’s game against Texas.

He beamed as he spoke from his pedestal at the foot of Disneyland’s Main Street, where both teams were being officially welcomed to Southern California. He reflected on Michigan’s rich legacy; boasted of a team that has won a remarkable 842 games in its 125-year history; and added more modestly that he considered himself fortunate to have been at the helm for 95 of those triumphs, versus only 28 losses.

His was a tone you’d expect from someone who still harbors a deep passion for the game and for all that coaching entails. It was not one you’d expect from someone reported to be considering retirement.

Carr, 59, dispelled those rumors three weeks ago at Ann Arbor, Mich. And just to make sure, on a dark and blustery Monday afternoon at Disneyland, with storm clouds rolling across the sky, he took a break from the Rose Bowl revelry to do so again.

“I still love almost every phase of the job, some more than others,” he maintained, referring specifically to the recruiting process, the relationships with his players and the educational role he fulfills as a coach. “Those are the things that I’ve always enjoyed, and as long as I still enjoy those things I’m not going anywhere.”

Rumors of Carr’s impending retirement started circulating on the Internet late last month. Carr was on a recruiting trip and learned of them from the recruit, who asked whether he was, in fact, going to step down before the four years he has remaining on his contract expire.

Carr was floored by what he had heard and called an impromptu news conference to publicly deny the reports, which he guessed had originated from the coaching staff of a competing school. He said he had an idea which school was responsible but declined to identify it.

“I don’t know where all of [the rumors] came from, but certainly a part of it is from within the coaching fraternity, in terms of the competition and people who use it in recruiting,” he said during the news conference. “I know who some of those people are. You know, John Kennedy had a great line. He said, ‘Forgive your enemies, but remember their names.’ ”

He went on to tell reporters to spread the word to “all the young people out there that we are recruiting at the University of Michigan. I just want them to know that none of these rumors are accurate.”

Some of the reports cited visible weight loss as the season progressed. Carr countered that ever since he was a high school coach, he has lost 10 to 15 pounds each season.

“It is a job that takes its toll physically,” he said.

Another report said he looked shaky. Carr mused that perhaps that’s because of all the coffee he drinks.

“I’m not sick, and I’m not retiring,” he said.

At Disneyland, the coach who worked as an assistant for Bo Schembechler and Gary Moeller appeared healthy and with rosy cheeks, perhaps caused by the chill accompanying the arrival of the first of this week’s storms.

The Big Ten Conference champion Wolverines are 9-2, ranked 13th in the nation and will play in the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive season. It will be their ninth consecutive New Year’s Day bowl appearance, and they’ll be shooting to give Carr a second Rose Bowl title to go with Orange, Outback and two Citrus Bowl titles.

The reward for their previous Rose Bowl triumph, a 21-16 victory over Washington State that capped a 12-0 season, was Carr’s only national championship, awarded for the 1997 campaign. There was nothing quite like that season, he said.

Asked whether his passion for coaching remained as strong as it was then, he sat back, smiled reflectively and explained in a manner that seemed truly genuine that his love of the game really hadn’t changed, despite the added wrinkles on his face.

“I’m 59, and when you get a little older there’s always something going on,” Carr said. “Either you’re going to get fired because you’re not winning enough, or you’re going to take another job, or you’re not going to be there for whatever reason, or you’re just going to retire. It’s just part of the game, I think.”

It’s the one part, the coach acknowledged, that he could do without.

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Dandy Decade

Lloyd Carr’s 10 seasons as Michigan coach and where his teams finished in AP poll:

*--* YEAR REC PCT BOWL GAME (RESULT) AP RANK 1995 9-4 692 Alamo (lost to Texas A&M;, 22-20) 17 1996 8-4 667 Outback (lost to Alabama, 17-14) 20 1997 12-0 1.000 Rose (defeated Washington State, 21-16) 1 1998 10-3 769 Citrus (defeated Arkansas, 45-31) 12 1999 10-2 833 Orange (defeated Alabama, 35-34, OT) 5 2000 9-3 750 Citrus (defeated Auburn, 31-28) 11 2001 8-4 667 Citrus (lost to Tennessee, 45-17) 20 2002 10-3 769 Outback (defeated Florida, 38-30) 9 2003 10-3 769 Rose (lost to USC, 28-14) 6 2004 9-2 818 Rose (vs. Texas, Jan. 1)

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