Coach Rod and Justin Boren

Submitted by Raback Omaba on

Obviously this is an old topic and probably better forgotten, but a friend of mine made a great point about the whole Boren incident recently, something that had never occured to me -

Coach Rod had full control over whether or not to release Boren from his scholarship and allow him to play elsewhere. Now, it would'nt make much sense to keep the kid here against his will - but Coach Rod also had the ability to give him conditional release and prevent him from going to certain schools. From what little I know about transfer rules etc, it is very common for coaches to put restrictions on where their transfers go to school (i.e. Randy Shannon restricting Robert Marve from going to a Florida school and much of the SEC.)

Now, we all know where Boren went - our biggest rival, Ohio State. He took some pretty nasty parting shots at Coach Rod on his way out - and the media rode those shots to the high heavens, painting Coach Rod as a bad guy.

I feel very strongly that Coach Rod should get some credit for his handling of the Boren situation. I feel that he handled it well. Although we lost a great players skillwise that could've helped us in the past two seasons, I am confident that it's gonna work out for the better.

Kudos to RichRod for sticking to his guns and building the program the right way. It may not look like it now, but we're going to be very happy very soon.

MGoRob

March 28th, 2010 at 10:31 PM ^

Actually, I believe the head coach only has a say in where someone ends up if they use a scholarship. I was under the impression that Boren transferred to tOSU and is paying HIS OWN WAY through college. Thus, not using a scholarship and not requiring any limitations put upon him by his old school. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression I was given... anybody care to back me up or refute me?

Magnus

March 28th, 2010 at 10:32 PM ^

I have no qualms with how Rodriguez handled the situation. However, most new coaches would do the same. I think you'll find that most coaches who are hired at a new school allow the holdover players to leave. In my opinion, it would be a dick move to force a kid into playing for a coach who didn't recruit him.

It would be a different story if Boren was recruited to play for Rodriguez and just didn't like it after a year or two. Then Rodriguez might have been perfectly within his rights to put some restrictions on a Boren transfer.

Blue Ninja

March 28th, 2010 at 10:34 PM ^

The way I see it RichRod handled it about as well as he could. He could have put all kinds of restrictions on the kid but let him go free and clear. To me it was Boren taking his shots that showed a lack of class.

Praetor951

March 28th, 2010 at 10:37 PM ^

I believe MGoRob is correct.

Is there also a rule that transfers are forbidden from receiving a scholarship from a school within the conference, regardless of if the coach gives the release?

mgowin

March 28th, 2010 at 10:40 PM ^

Here's is the espn article on the subject:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3363195

"Boren, who went to high school in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb, will be paying his own way at Ohio State for the rest of his collegiate career. Under Big Ten rules, he will not be able to receive an athletic scholarship from the Buckeyes."

So he is paying his own way, and that most likely rules out him being given a release from his UM scholarship. Although, it looks like the B10 kept him from receiving a scholarship, and not RR.

blueblueblue

March 28th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^

"I'm bored, trying to sleep, got nothing better to do and waiting on the results of the Hockey team."

You just described my night to a T.

But yeah, it is ironic that the media take that situation and use it against RR when he was just being a good guy and Boren was the jerk. Says a lot about the biases out there.

6tyrone6

March 28th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^

would Boren be so openly negative. RR might have thought about how bad Boren would be if he didn't get his way. I wonder if Boren had more on RR (practice hours for example). Or maybe there is no conspiracy and RR is as you see him, "if you don't want to play for me see ya".

Section 1

March 28th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^

elsewhere in the Big Ten, Rich Rodriguez deserves amazing credit for just staying quiet in the face of the absurdly, exotically, imagined Boren family press release complaining about "an erosion of family values" at Michigan.

That stupid line has stuck with the program, largely because the lazy and complicit media allowed it to. There was a story there; it was the story of psycho-dad Mike Boren and his rage when Michigan didn't offer little brother Boren, Zach. (Credit to Zach for his outstanding performance as an OSU freshman.) It wasn't a Rich Rodriguez story. But just think of all of the weird, fabricated urban myths that bounced around the internet after that -- "Rich Rod uses bad language," "Rich Rod is too tough on players," etc. (I even feel bad for the two Boren brothers, in a way; Justin Boren was blasted as "fat" and "lazy" by Michigan fans.) It was all bull. A good and hardworking press corps would have straightened that story out. Too bad there's no good and hardworking press corps anywhere close to Ann Arbor.

Section 1

March 29th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^

No, I did not mean to absolve Mike and Hope Boren. They started it. Mike and Hope Boren deserve all the blame that anyone cares to heap upon them

Mike Boren is the villain who went unnoticed by the press.

Rich Rodriguez is the innocent who was hung out to dry by the press.

Justin Boren is the poor sap who was made a hate-object by the Michigan fan-base when he just wanted to go hom to his mom and dad and his snow-plow.

The press are just shit-heads for not doing their jobs on the Boren story. And I single out the Free Press for special blame because they actually did a puff-piece profile on Justin when he was a freshman. Son-of-Mike Boren-who-played-for-Bo-and-came-here-from-Columbus. All of that crap. What the story mentioned, in passing, was that at his Pickerington North games, Mike screamed at Justin so viciously that Justin said he "thought somebody might call the cops."

"Erosion of family values?" W.T.F. If, after the Boren family press realease, that isn't a story waiting to be written, I don't know what is. Especially after Mike Boren pulled Zach out of school at Pickerington North to put him into Pickerington Central. Pulling his kids out of programs that he doesn't like is a habit with Mike Boren.

It had, and still has, NOTHING to do with "family values" under Rich Rodriguez at Michigan.

SysMark

March 28th, 2010 at 11:43 PM ^

He has been unbelievably professional through this whole mess and that is going to serve him very well when this thing turns around this fall. He doesn't need a list of nasty quotes for the media to go dragging out and kill the buzz we're going to have. I can't wait.

uminks

March 29th, 2010 at 12:05 AM ^

IF any player no longer wants to play here, I agree with RR to let him go. The worse scenario would be to keep a kid who no longer wanted to play for your program.

RR took the high road and did not comment on Boren's family value statement.

Realistically, it's going to take a few more years to get our program back to the normal UM standards. I sure hope we can go 7-5 in 2010 to take the pressure off RR, but it will be tough and we will have to win some close games. My key for 2010 is to see the team improve through the season. By 2011 we should finally see the team be in competition for the big 10 title.