Reason No. 1597 I Want RichRod Around
I was writing (in a not very good article) about how Rodriguez had to invent/innovate a purpose and place for our above-average tight ends, whether it was because of landing Kevin Koger and promising to play him on offense in 2008, or just because we have good tight ends who can catch (sometimes).
It made me realize again why I want Rodriguez to succeed. The man is rewriting how college football is played with each new formation (the rise of the H-back in 2009) and innovation he throws on the field. It's been tempered in our case because he has to find a base first, but he's really an interesting and innovative mind to have on our side should he remain. I'm excited to see how our offense evolves over the course of this season—how he can get Gallon and TRob and Koger, and, shoot, Denard, more involved.
One of the strengths of his coaching resume is his ability to reinvent the attack, which is never something you could say about Lloyd, with all due respect to the man (and he probably wouldn't deny it).
P.S. I do not mean this as an attack against Lloyd, to anticipate the accusation. But I took someone's advice and tracked down the games on Hulu and watched our comeback against Minnesota in 2003, and it was funny how even the announcers knew that at the time we had no mid-range passing game. It was either screens or bombs—until the second half, of course ;).
These last two years have stunk up the joint big time, but I believe in what RR is doing. I'm treating this as his second year. The 2008 season was a waste any way you slice it.
How does that figure into Coach Rod's strategy?
FARTBUTTS
This isn't funny. At all.
Overly-simplistic approach based on MSU, OSU, and potential bowl game scenarios (my assumption is that we bowl with 6 wins):
8 wins or greater = he stays
7 wins including win over OSU = he stays (no matter all other losses)
7 wins, which includes a bowl win, but losses to MSU and OSU = he stays (momentum)
7 wins including a win over MSU, but losses to OSU and a bowl loss = he stays
7 wins, but losses to MSU and OSU and a bowl loss = he goes (iffy)
6 wins including win over OSU, but a loss to MSU and a bowl loss = he stays (iffy)
6 wins including win over MSU, but a loss to OSU and a bowl loss = he goes (iffy)
6 wins, but losses to MSU and OSU and bowl loss = he goes
5 wins or fewer = he goes
has been given a minimum of 15 months then RR should get two years.
What happens if Rich Rod gets hit with 19 federal indictments?
will appeal.
I think it would be a mistake to fire him after this year no matter what the record is. Give him that fourth year with the talent he has brought in. We seen glimpses of what that team could do last year, but the team wasn't deep enough to go through all the injuries that happend. IMO it would be worse without RR in year 4.
if rich rod has a losing season this year you have to get rid of him. i believe that dave will do the right thing when he needs to
I haven't seen too much evidence of RR reinventing the attack during the game, typically if a defense can figure out RR's offense (Pitt, OSU, PSU or any other good defense), they've done a good job of shutting the team down. Now I agree that RR won't wait to be down 14-0 like the 99 orange bowl before going on the offensive, and that's a valid criticism of Lloyd. First things first, let's see how RR's offense can do against average defenses like Wisc and Illinois this year and then we can hope for good offensive performances against the better defenses.