Rod's in-game coaching

Let me preface this: I'm glad Rich Rodriguez is our coach and I think he's a brilliant offensive mind. I hope he's around for a long time.

BUT, I have concerns about his in-game coaching. There were several times yesterday when I was frustrated/baffled with our playcalling, most notably on the 3rd and 1 call with about five minutes left when V. Smith got wrapped up in the backfield. Apart from a few big gashers, our RBs had trouble running up the middle all day, Smith hadn't been able to shake loose on a single run, and we desperately needed a few first downs to FINALLY put the game away. A Denard sneak is almost 99 percent guaranteed to get us 1 yard. Instead we hand it off to our smallest back who's still clearly not the player he was a year ago before his knee injury. If we were going to pound it, I would have at least liked to see a fullback and tight ends in there to prevent what happened from happening, i.e. a DE coming completely unblocked and blowing up the play.

Another frustrating moment that comes to mind for me was the decision not to call a timeout at the end of the 2nd quarter against UConn, when they had the ball at our 1 or 2 yard line and our defense was obviously disoriented. We had 3 timeouts, and there were  about 15 seconds left in the half. Clearly the clock was not going to run out on UConn, and I was screaming at my TV for Rich to call a timeout and get our guys prepared for a stand. Instead we watched UConn easily punch it in, gaining momentum headed into the half.

I feel like there have been numerous moments like these during the past three years.

So my question to fellow M fans: What do you thing of Rich's in-game coaching, solid or suspect? Like me, have you been frustrated by sporadic what-the-hell-are-we-doing moments? Do you believe that when we're involved in a very tight game, Rich's coaching will be the difference-making factor for or against us?

Hope I don't get crucified for this, just curious if you're seeing the same things I'm seeing.