Coach who knows Rich Rod says Arizona promised him they'd schedule Michigan
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2011/11/did_arizona_promise_r…
(with video)
High School Football coach told people at the New Orleans QB Club that Rich told him...
His expression to me was he felt he had a better chance to win the national championship at Arizona if he recruited properly and they promised him they would put Michigan on the schedule within three years.
I will probably hate myself in the morning for posting this, as it will deteriorate, and will never happen, because the chance Michigan says yes is zero...but it's news, and I thought it was interesting how people may view things.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^
I want to say we'd say no to this. And there are truly zero reasons as to why this would be in Michigan's interests.
Yet we put AppState back on the schedule, so... Maybe anything is possible?
November 29th, 2011 at 6:23 PM ^
tells Brandon that they'd play in Ann Arbor and not demand a return trip, I certainly see Brandon doing it.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:32 AM ^
November 29th, 2011 at 6:27 PM ^
Right, and we scheduled a neutral-site game against ALABAMA in a year when we only had two non-conference home games to begin with. So... yeah
November 29th, 2011 at 7:28 PM ^
Completely agree. Between Appy State and scheduling Bama next year, I put nothing past Brandon. With ND away, Bama and Air Force, they better get off to a fast start.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^
Well who thought App State would be rescheduled? It's not so crazy if it's a one time away game for Arizona. Dave Brandon's got an ego too, so I don't see him refusing a game outright. However, I don't know how they could promise him that in the first place.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:35 PM ^
If he brings back his defensive staff from Michigan, we'll crush him.
November 29th, 2011 at 7:43 PM ^
Considering Arizon is 108th in scoring defense this year, it would be nice to see what impact a first year defensive coordinator would have on Arizona's scoring D next year.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:35 PM ^
He has a better chance of winning a national championship if he "recruits properly"? What does "properly" mean here? What's the alternative that would be "improper" and also less successful?
November 29th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
You can recruit the players at Arizona to win a title, but not at Tulane.
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<br>Though I guess it could be taken as the only way to win big at Tulane is to be shady. Louisiana is pretty shady recruiting grounds, and even harder with LSU so good now.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:14 PM ^
no recruit would EVER pick Tulane over LSU (i'm seriously curious to see if this has ever happened, ever), so why would it be harder now?
November 29th, 2011 at 7:47 PM ^
For 20 years LSU wasn't that good, a sleeping giant that programs all across the Country pilfered recruits from their backyard; including Michigan. Did Tulane get a lot? No. But enough that they were going undefeated before LSU was.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:57 AM ^
i would assume that Tulane going undefeated vs LSU going undefeated is not that big of an accomplishment due to level of competition, but I didn't research this so I could be wrong.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:34 PM ^
"His expression to me was he felt he had a better chance to win the national championship at Arizona if he recruited properly" can anyone explain exactly what he is talking about? I'm going to assume/hope he is talking about Tulane (due to the location) but I find it strange to talk about a job you had years ago without specifically indicating it. Obviously, it could be taken out of context but at first it seemed like a slight towards UM.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
Recruit good athletes as opposed to bad ones? FWIW, "better" means "better than at Tulane," as that quote got snipped out of context from the article.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
It's no secret that he was restricted recruiting at Michigan from both the fallout of the Freepgate and by Michigan's admissions staff/AD from taking on too many academic risks.
With a fresh start, I could see how it would be much easier for him to recruit.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:37 PM ^
I mean only half his kids ended up sticking anyways by fall practice and I place that blame fully on him.
RR's biggest flaw; he recruited kids like he was still at WVU/Tulane/Clemson. Hoke came in took solid academic kids and we've heard nary a peep of a non qualifier, this my friends is how you build "depth".
November 29th, 2011 at 7:07 PM ^
recruiting guys like Denard and Gardner, Barnum, Omameh, and Lewan, Koger, Roundtree, and Odoms, Demens, Ryan and Morgan, Countess, Floyd and Gordon. People complain about Carr leaving the cupboard bare but RR really turned the program into a smoking crater by recruiting such low class kids.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:00 AM ^
one could argue that recruiting is easier for a team that is on the rebound (but has a storied history)...
November 30th, 2011 at 1:23 AM ^
They could. . . but they'd be wrong. This is nonsensical. Recruiting is easiest during times of sucess.
November 29th, 2011 at 8:37 PM ^
You just slandered a respectable school (Tulane).
I think Clemson is a comfortable distance (north) of WVU, too.
November 29th, 2011 at 10:13 PM ^
Morgantown, West Virginia is 500 miles north of Clemson, South Carolina.
November 29th, 2011 at 8:55 PM ^
There definitely were issues with recruiting academically questionable kids. That hurt. Particularly when one considers the secondary. Losing Witty and Dorsey left us with precious few recruits that when those recruits didn't pan out (JT Turner) or left early (Warren) it really hurt. I do think you are exaggerating the effect and underestimating other factors when it comes to depth. Depth was built from Carr's last couple recruiting classes which ended up terribly for us (for many reasons: injuries, schematic change, Carr recruiting academically questionable guys, to Carr signing transfer papers). Think of it like this: last year people said, "Okay, RR has to do it this year. He has his guys in place as his recruits are juniors and seniors." That was patently untrue. Most of 2007 recruiting class were Loyd recruits. Most of RR recruits were either true sophomores or redshirt sophomores with a few juniors (Odoms for example). Depth issues were primarily a factor that from 2007 to 2008 we graduated most of our offense, lost 2 Oline to injury, had a massive schematic change, and poor recruiting by Carr. 2008-2009 saw most of the starting defense depart. Thus poor depth.
Yes, RR did recruit more academically questionable kids and he paid for it and we are paying for it. But it is a risk/reward scenario. For example, this year we backed away from both Pittman and Burbridge as they were academically questionable. As such we lost out on both and now it appears that both will qualify to play. Those are two gamechanging players we lost to MSU (and maybe TSIO now). Sometimes it bites you and sometimes it pays off.
November 29th, 2011 at 9:58 PM ^
are great places for dumb people, atheletes or not !
November 29th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
I also wouldn't mind seeing it, because with our current staff i think there is about a 0% chance we lose that game. Probably not something Dave Brandon would like to do so soon after everything though.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
I feel like that is a bad idea for both schools to schedule that game. Michigan b/c we want to move on, Arizona b/c they'll get smashed.
November 29th, 2011 at 11:39 PM ^
Arizona already pretty much gets smashed by everyone already, so I dont think that is a consideration.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
Dave Brandon can't be that stupid can he?
November 29th, 2011 at 5:49 PM ^
Hey man, if next season's opener has taught us anything its that David Brandon has a price. Jerry Jones gave Brandon more than we make for a home game and Brandon did the deal.
Maybe Arizona offers us a one off game in the Big House with no return game and a very very minimal to no payout and Arizona takes it to fulfill their promise to RichRod. Who knows.
The point is, David Brandon definitely has his price.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:51 PM ^
Now we're just negotiating a price."?
November 29th, 2011 at 6:16 PM ^
playing Bama in the Jerrydome =/= playing Arizona anywhere, ever
November 30th, 2011 at 1:06 AM ^
first of all, i'm pretty sure everyone has a price.
second of all, what is wrong with playing Alabama next year? you scared?
November 29th, 2011 at 6:06 PM ^
Nothing about this is a good idea. UM people should want to move on, and Im sure Rodriguez just wants revenge...nothing good can come of this.
November 29th, 2011 at 9:01 PM ^
That is assuming he actually wants to play us. Isn't this from a high school coach form Louisiana? If he did want to play us, then revenge and redemption could be motivating reasons.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
And I don't think there's a chance in the world that Brandon would say yes to that.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:38 PM ^
What if it were a home game that required no return trip? Also, since Arizona is everyone's (except most people) 2nd favorite team now, fans will get to see their 2 favorite teams in action at the same time.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
This was my thought. We are constantly looking for ways to schedule BCS teams without away games. This would be a perfect opportunity to do so. I also think that Dave Brandon's ego would tell him it's an opportunity to prove that we ended up with the better coach.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
It gives RR the chance to cause people to perceive Brandon as having been wrong to fire him (even though that really wouldn't make sense). I can't imagine Brandon taking that chance. The headline if Arizona wins is "RODRIGUEZ BEATS FORMER TEAM." The headline if Michigan wins is "There was apparently some sort of football game today - details on page 14."
November 29th, 2011 at 5:58 PM ^
in Morgantown.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:59 PM ^
I wonder who they'd root for: the coach that spurned them or the team that took him.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:04 PM ^
Do Mascots get in for free?
November 29th, 2011 at 8:40 PM ^
Slippery Rock.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
to see a home and home with Zona.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
Think we would roll Arizona? For the record, Arizona may be easier than App State. With poor and old facuilities and being more than second fiddle to everyone else in the Pac-12, I don't see Arizona coming out of the dark ages. At least WVU had football relevance (bobby Bowden ) before Dick Rod was there. Put it on the schedule doesn't bother me. What still bothers me is having people boo App State when they show the score on the big screen. We don't have a rival with that school and we never will.
November 29th, 2011 at 7:02 PM ^
November 29th, 2011 at 9:04 PM ^
That deserves an upvote even though you are already at 5.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
This is what I was afraid would happen.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:49 PM ^
Never mind. Just saw the "Dick Rod" reference.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:54 PM ^
That's why I posted it. For or against, it's an interesting concept. The idea that they may have said they'd try and do it, or Rich may have requested it certainly makes it juicy. It's just going to be hard to speculate on motivations and feelings of the parties without it turning into our "favorite" meltdown.