Tremendous question, Chunks. Just tremendous.

the theory is that English (former DC under Carr) who wanted the job, and Stapleton his friend in the AD worked behind the scenes to sabotage RR, and that the Freep story was planted by them to try to take down Rodriguez. 

Mind you, this is not any sort of "reporting" on my part.  Just a kind of loose explanation of competing theories and rumors.

First, the short cast of characters:

Ron English - Michigan's former DC under Lloyd Carr.  Discharged along with all of the rest of the Carr staff, after Carr's resignation.  Very widely criticized in his last year as DC for App St and Oregon debacles, which were defensive debacles as much as anything.  An African-American, and therefore in a unique posture as a possible replacement HC for Carr.  An obvious candidate for Michigan to interview in its coaching search.  Rejected, then hired as EMU's HC.

James Stapleton - A professional hanger-on in the world of University oversight and collegiate athletics.  Michigan grad; former member of Michgan's Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics (since renamed); Democrat Party playa; appointed by Gov. Granholm to the EMU Board of Trustees; has a consulting business of some kind that is sort of amateur-athletics managment-related.  Even while at EMU, highly active in Michigan affairs though friendships, professional connections, alumni associations, etc.

Lloyd Carr, Percy Bates, Compliance Services - Okay so no introductions needed.  Percy Bates has for about one millennium been an academic advisor on the Athletics Board.  He was recently inducted into something called the Minority Collegiate Athletics Hall of Fame or something like that and just so you know, Tom Goss was inducted as a great example of a minority Athletic Director.  Percy Bates would have been copied in on the July 27 2009 CARA-form audit memo that (Rosenberg refuses comment on) was apparently leaked and found its way to Rosenberg and/or Snyder and which launched Stretchgate.

So the story, such as it is, was that there was a cadre of people led (or at least exemplified) by James Stapleton, who wanted Ron English installed as HC.  And when that didn't happen, they were pissed off and sought to undermine Rodriguez.  It is thought that Stapleton, Bates and Carr are all kindred spirits.  Kindred political spirits, especially.  That is, politics in the ordinary sense and local interpersonal politics.

If anybody has more to add, be my guest.  Again, I caution -- this is not reporting on my part.  Somebody asked; and that's the answer from my perspective.

I've often wondered about the thought process that put Devin Gardner on the field last year.  Did RR really think that he was better than Tate Forcier or was Forcier in some sort of doghouse and RR was willing to burn a redshirt over it?

In all honesty, a lot of RR's decisions were puzzling to me.

1.  3-3-5 against Purdue in '08

2.  Fake punt against MSU in '09

3.  Just about any 4th down attempt in '10.

I think the book will provide facts related to #2 and you will be able to make your own decision.

did you see how Gibson's (Pitt's) secondary did against Iowa last weekend in the 4th quarter?

what really happened with Scott Schafer and the Purdue / Ohio State games?

That avatar is uber-creepy

How much influence did Carr have on the hire? Did he really block Les Miles? Would Les Miles have ended up in Ann Arbor if Martin hadn't been yachting?

...without having read the book, but based on everyone involved being upset about it, and also my own gut feel:

Everyone played their part.  And it was the combo ("perfect storm", if you must) that led to such a disaster.

Right out of the door we had signs that some newspeople were gunning for Rodriguez. Those "pay $x (huge number) if you take another job" clauses are legally very hard to enforce. You have to demonstrate that this sum is a plausible representation of the actual harm to you of the contract's being broken, so that the money can be represented as compensation for harm. Otherwise it would be closer to involuntary servitude, which contracts are not allowed to establish. That's why every single time in the history of coaches taking new jobs, the settlement is negotiated down to some fraction of the contractual number. I assume Brady Hoke did it, that's what Beilen did when he left WV, etc. Going to court just costs a lot of money for both sides and the result would be some smaller number. 

But this time, because all of the state of West Virginia was whipped into a state of outrage, not just about the leaving but about all sorts of bulls**t (OMG he shredded files! Yes, if they are confidential personal files with academic and personal information about athletes, that is what you are supposed to do. Are you going to put them in a caretakers bin out in the hall?) some elected judge decided to grandstand and insist on the whole amount. The ruling would never hold up on appeal, but it would be a p.r. catastrophe to drag things out (and expensive) so the U. said - look, just pay up and let's put this behind us. 

From this, lazy journalists got licence to make snide remarks about alleged "contractual controversies" every time RR was mentioned.

I say this not as any particularly huge RR fan, but to be fair: The spinning of that episode was an intentional hatchet job by people who had it in for him. 

No one from the Carr coaching tree was qualified.  Harbaugh (who is a stretch for inclusion), pre-Stanford, and Hoke, pre-SDSU, would have been reaches at the time.