Finally Letting Go/End Of An Idea

Excellent post.

I agree with every word and couldn't have said it better.

... Well, I'm not sure if Harbaugh is the only guy who can turn things arround. But I have a hard time thinking of any other likely options who could instantly change the mood surrounding the program like he could.

Thank you for an excellent summary of what many of us feel about the situation.  In Tibetan Buddhism it is said: "May you live in interesting times.", and we True Blue Michigan fans have had a taste of that - with more to come.   I am not sure if JH is the only answer to this problem, but he may very well be the best answer.  As you implied this would embolden the very ones who have contributed so much to the demise of RR.  So be it.  We have all learned a lot about humility over the past three years so swallowing the hubris of that nettlesome sect of the fan base may be part of the price we pay for a return to glory on the field.

Thanks again...... Go Blue Whatever

It's just a complicated situation that could be viewed and explained in so many different ways. We can just say that everyone was at fault and move on. I think the Orange Bowl is going to be watched extra closely by all the fans of maize and blue. Come to think of it, they might even be watching it down in Columbus and in East Lansing. They might need diapers, though.

"People from within the very university we cheer for, its own alumni started something out of nothing before a game was ever played under the new regime". I think this may be a little overstated. I don't recall a single person or article hating in rod before the game. Maybe cautious optimism about the spread, etc but all the negativity was related to the bizarre wvu exit.

I think the negativism started when he let mallet go as if it were no big deal. And then the losses came. Michigan fans are not used to losing seasons. Let along losing 9 games in epic fashion. No coach, I don't care if it was rich rod, Lloyd, Bo or harbaugh. You fail that epicially in year one you are going to have people questioning the coach

is the players.   It really sucks how much they believe in RR and how hard they've worked for three years to be able to win the championship under him. 

how can anyone say he didn't have a chance. /s

Remember when we paid that kid's dad $200,000.00? Oh, wait, I mean when we stretched too much? Right in the middle of defending ourselves against that, Jim Harbaugh made his public statements about Michigan's academics. Until I can understand that, I won't be happy with JH. I won't be happy if he is in California, and I sure as hell won't be happy if he is in A2.

You covered it very well.  After all that has transpired, I have a very difficult time hanging it all on one coach being the answer.  Many of us did that in Rich.  I can't come up with one coach other than Harbaugh that I "trust" enough to fix what is fractured.  Of course, I don't know any of these coaches personally or professionally either. 

The shift that will take place over the next several months and seasons will feel much the same and much different than the last three years.   If it all goes as we hope and expect, then it will be much different and JH will be come seen as another iteration of Bo.  If he stays for only a few years and jumps to the NFL, or things don't go as anticipated we could be right back here again in several years.

Frankly, I don't see the latter happening.  He may not stay 15 years, but if he stays long enough to right the ship and put a unique, but familiar stamp on this program then he should be in a position to "hand" the program off to someone who will be a good stewart and leader for many years to come.

No matter what, we are blue and we will continue to be.

Go Blue!  Go Stanford.

Perhaps the anti-RR crowd had better insight into RichRod than I had. 

I still think he is a good coach, but not a good enough manager.  He did not have good enough assistants.  

What makes Jo Pa successful at Penn State? 

High-caliber teams require more than just a head coach. 

The work load is huge, and must be delegated.  Every coach has to be excellent.

Brandon & Harbaugh need to build a football coaching school in this program.

Just like in business...seek out and hire the best young coaching talent, build a program to teach them how to coach the details, and mold them into the best young coaches in the country. 

Then when you lose a coach, you have a replacement on the shelf.

Coach Rodriguez had a difficult job, with unreasonable expectations.

Then, his job was made very much more difficult; even artifice was employed by some to make the job all the more difficult.

And now, for all of that, Coach Rodriguez must be fired.

Got it.  Go Blue.

These are my feelings exactly. The environment has been such that no new coach could succeed. People better change their attitudes or the next coach will face the exact same problem. Michigan football is supposed to be fun! This should have been a fun season, watching Denard and the crazy offense like we've never seen in Ann Arbor. But no. The negativity prevailed. The defense sucked. The running backs weren't good enough. Special teams sucked. 7-5 (at the time) wasn't good enough. Each complaint is valid but the glass is always half-empty and that is and has been a recipe for failure. The so-called "fans" have been parasites on this season and I'm glad it's over. I hope they get their way just so they'll shut up. But it won't end. Their beloved next coach won't be good enough and they'll start complaining eventually. Sh-t, they already are with their fears that he'll leave for the NFL some day.

I'm just thankful you didn't go down the road of Brady Hoke.

waiting to take off and get back home. I'm still kind of blah about everything and I just wanted to thank you for writing this.

I'm also convinced that a fair portion of the fanbase still holds it against RichRod that he quotes the Lion King instead of Shakespeare...

This is probably one of the most thought out, well written diaries to get posted here.

but I can't, so +1 for your excellent post.

Go Blue

After a lot of thought, I have come to the same conclusions as you but could not have expressed it as well.  Thank you for taking time to express. clearly, what many believe.  Rich Rodriguez is a good man who has brought a lot of very nice young men to our alma mater to play their hearts out for our school.  I have always thought him a good man, and I have always been proud of our players.  But, I, too, have come to the conclusion that he will never be given a fair chance and that a fourth year would have no positive impact.

Nice work,  EZMIKEP.  I'm not convinced that RichRod would have been able, even in favorable circumstances, to lead the Wolverines to prosperity, but it seems clear that he was dealt a mediocre (at best) hand of cards at multiple levels (worst QB selection in the modern era, Les Miles Fan Club, Mike "Family Values" Boren, little Rosey, MAJOR {huh, huh} violations, shallow upperclass talent pool).  It would be nice if his detractors (who have made more than a few decent points) would acknowledge that.

I can't say I 100% agree with you, but your passion and thoughtfulness is appreciated.  The theme, though, is indisputeable - RR is a good coach; maybe a great one.  But it was a bad fit here.  Not because the offense won't work in the Big Twelveleventen (of course it will), but because his personality was a bad fit with the Michigan culture.  We can argue whether that culture is counterproductive, or annoying, or arrogant, or whatever, but we can't argue that it exists.  Regardless of whether we LIKE the culture, or agree with it, you cannot IGNORE it when hiring the next guy.  Which is why Martin gagged on the biggest decision of his tenure, and why the blame for the current state of affairs must rest 90% with him, and only 10% with the coach himself.  And it's why Harbaugh is the obvious fit - he gets it. 

I've met Harbaugh a couple times at some UM functions, and talked to him.  I'm telling anyone who is unsure if he's the right guy or not - he is.  He is old enough to understand and embrace the Bo legacy and the significance of Bo v. Woody, and at the same time young enough to understand that college football, as currenty constructed, is can no longer be exclusively about Bo v Woody. 

I'm sure Richrod will succeed elsewhere.  Just not here.  And it's not his fault, but he has to go.  With one caveat - if Brandon doesn't land Harbaugh and have the deal done already, he needs to keep Richrod for one more year, make him hire a real DC, fully realizing he will probably never get Harbaugh at that point.. 

You've captured the situation so well.

Unfortunately, I think if you believe the things you said about why what has happened, then I don't see how you can conclude you're still a fan of Michigan Football.

Rich Rodriguez is a good coach. He will be a good coach when he leaves here. He will win big somewhere else. But here it isn't going to work, ever.

If this is true, as I believe it is, then the problem isn't Rich Rodriguez, it's Michigan Football.

Ignorance. Nepotism. Cronyism. They all found a way into Michigan football in a way that has left a black eye on us. If you don't think so then I believe you to be foolish and as many outside of our own fanbase perceive-arrogant.

Again, I agree 100%.  And these values have won.  They got what they wanted.  Those that threw up obtacles and stopped Rich from doing what he does, have won.  Is that what we want?  Is that what we value?  I thought that Michigan (the University, not the football program) was bigger than all of them.

And does not the University of Michigan represent honor and integrity?  Does it represent undermining, backstabbing, and sabotage?  Because that, in my opinion, is what has de-railed the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan.

And if we, as fans, alumni, employees, devotees give in to this kind of behavior, this kind of manipulation, this kind of value system, then we have lost.

I will be keenly interested in how Rich Rodriguez does after he leaves here.  He definitely made mistakes here, and if he goes somewhere else and struggles as a head coach, I will conclude he wasn't right for Michigan.

If, however as you suggest, he goes on to win big somewhere else, and do what he did before he came here, then I cannot support a football program and an environment that behaves like a bunch of whining cry-babies that doesn't support its coach when it doesn't get what it wants.  I will give up all my gear, I will never go to another game, and I will no longer root for Michigan, because they will not be worthy.  They won't be the "Leaders and Best" because leaders and "the best" don't operate this way.  I will no longer be a supporter of Michigan Football because it will be a lie.

While the details may not be 100% accurate (and maybe they are), your thoughts equal mine.

I don't think that Rodriguez got a fair shake.  Nor did he "shock the world".  

The only thing I would like to add is that nasty "Parity" word.  It is a different era.  Michigan's number one requirement for a coach should be his ability to recruit.  Michigan has traditionally had to recruit from everywhere - and will continue to.  Great players can make a pretty good X's and O's coach look great.

I wish the Rodriguez family nothing but the best - they deserve to be somewhere that they are respected and are happy.  Thanks for your best efforts, Rich!

I entirely agree with you that Rich Rodriguez wasn’t a good “cultural fit” at Michigan, and to some extent he was undone by circumstances beyond his control.

But the alumni and the broader Michigan community don’t coach the players, and they don’t call the plays. The Michigan team was not well coached on defense and special teams, and Rodriguez has to take some of the blame for that. Even allowing for the obvious talent deficit, with freshmen and sophomores starting at positions where there were no juniors or seniors, the team was not well coached.

The offense, which was supposed to be Michigan’s strength, was held scoreless for eight of its last twelve quarters, including the whole second halves of both the Ohio State and Mississippi State games. With a whole month to prepare for the Gator Bowl, Michigan ran its vanilla offense, without even trying to surprise the Bulldogs with a wrinkle or two.

So yeah, the boosters and backstabbers let Rich Rodriguez down. But most of them would have turned around pretty quickly if he had won, or at not lost quite as ugly. Rich owns this debacle too.

+ Infinity. I wish I had written that.

Great read, but I think many of us understimate the power of the WIN. If we start winning games, no matter who is at the helm, 90% of this bullshit goes away. I don't buy that RR won't work here even if we win.

If we beat MSU (that MSU) next year and win 10 games, things get MUCH better. God willing if we beat tOSU?!?? You can't tell me that people are still calling for his head. Not true.

You play to win the game. It's that simple.

If JH is best suited to do that, let's go JH! If RR is best suited to do that, let's go RR!

but it would be unfair to try to take credit for your work.  Excellent post.  As others have commented, this pretty much sums up what a large portion of the M fanbase -- including me -- thinks. 

I just don't get it.  Bo wasn't a "Michigan Man" when he came to Michigan.  He was born and raised in Ohio; played for Woody Hayes at Miami and assisted him at Ohio State -- Ohio State for god's sake! Woody Hayes for god's sake!; and coached Miami before he came to Michigan.  Sounds like an "Ohio Man" to me, maybe even an "Ohio State Man."  Yet he became the prototype of the "Michigan Man."  I don't see why someone born and raised in West Virginia, who played football -- for a Bo protege -- and coached at WVU, was disqualified from the beginning from becoming a "Michigan Man."  If there were any justice in the world (apart from Justice Hayes), there would be a special circle of hell for the Mike Rosenbergs of the world; it would be a room painted scarlet and gray, Dantonio would continually gives lectures about "zero tolerance" and how to mold young men, and there would be no Zingerman's or Bell's, just Natty Light and whatever else passes for good culture in E. Lansing and Columbus.  Maybe RichRod wasn't the right guy, but a big F-U to all those who prevented us from legitimately finding out.

I sure hope that, if RichRod is fired, we have an actual succession plan in place, not a crapshoot like last time. Did no one expect Lloyd to ever retire?  Seems like it.

I gotta stop now.  I'm losing my zen.  Can't break the New Year's resolution so early.

I'm a 60-yr-old nutcase, sitting here in honolulu at 4:30 in the morning, thinking about our situation. Might it be that with the demographic change of large michigan/midwest populations migrating to all points south, and given the depressed economies of the big industrial cities, we are left with smaller pools of talent in our underfunded h.s. football programs, we simply cannot recuit top 5 classes consistently? We must resort to recruiting from the larger pools in Texas, California, Florida were we can only hope for sloppy seconds as all the elite 5 stars go to their home state schools as life time fans, fullfilling childhood dreams. "Leaders and Best" is over. Even with Harbaugh, the best we can achieve would be Big 10 relevance and Bowl losses (That's all Bo could do.) Reality...it sucks.