Cowherd says Rodriguez is gone after this year.

Submitted by MGolem on

I know Cowherd is not well liked round these parts but he did profess to be a big Rich Rod fan. He also said that his agent and lawyer are M guys (maybe he thinks that makes him an insider) FWIW. Ultimately he believes RR's record will doom him and cites his record against non Indiana and Minnesota Big Ten teams as the most telling stat (1-16). While I can understand all that, he seems to think that if we hire Harbaugh (apparently his insiders are telling him this will happen) we will be rebuilding for 3-4 years because of the inconquerable task of transitioning from a spread to a pro-style. He said that RR recruited all of these tiny players that can't play in the "thick" pro-style offense that Harbaugh favors. I know there are a lot of mgobloggers that believe this too but I thought I would offer up a possible offensive depth chart to allevaite some concerns.

QB - Gardner (maybe the black Andrew Luck? - moves well, is big and strong and can make all the throws)

RB - Shaw/Hopkins/Cox - good sized backs with some burst

FB - McColgan/Random walk on

WR - Stonum (good size), Roundtree (would be great in any offense)

TE - Koger (typical TE build with good hands)

OL - Lewan (future all-american in any offense), Campbell/Q/Barnum (tons of beef except Barnum), Molk (man among boys), Omameh (still developing) and Schofield/Huyge (both adequately sized OL)

While no one wants RR to be fired and see M go through a tough rebuild, I would offer the above as a rationale for why we will not be a better looking and more popular Notre Dame.

ShruteBeetFarms

November 4th, 2010 at 2:06 PM ^

All our D needs is experience (it can't get any younger) and a new DC with his trusted crew, yet I read so much RR is gone crap. Obviously, THERE ARE people that want RR gone in just 3 years. 

CleverMichigan…

November 4th, 2010 at 2:10 PM ^

Angry man leaving student section during 1st half of Wisconsin game says Rodriguez gone after this year!

-CMRNews Archives, September 2008

Que sera, sera.

/snark, me giving a fuck about speculation until the season's actually over.

Ben from SF

November 4th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^

Colin Cowherd is probably the least important client in his agent / attorney's portfolio.  He probably made those comments because they haven't returned his calls.

His insiders = mgoboard posters.

While I am admittedly not a RR fan, national guys like Cowherd need to stop pretending to understand what we are going through.  Our recruiting has got to suffer with all the nonsense these turds are spewing on the air.

RR will finish the season, and Brandon will put him on a performance improvement plan.  Brandon will only consider firing him if he doesn't think that RR will go through with what is suggested to him.

Should RR be replaced, Jim Harbaugh coached in Div-1AA San Diego, which did not offer scholarships.  He coached at Western Kentucky where half of their players were the smaller, slower cousins of our boys from Pahokee.  He will adjust and we will be fine with RR's players.

dahblue

November 4th, 2010 at 3:02 PM ^

While I agree with your eventual statement that Harbaugh will be able to adjust to RR's players (a number of whom Harbaugh tried to get at Stanford), it's not talking about RR's job performance that hurts recruiting...it's RR's job performance itself that hurts recruiting.

Also, I have a feeling that DB already has RR on a "performance improvement plan" and we'll know about DB's final review in a handful of weeks.

chug1219

November 4th, 2010 at 2:15 PM ^

I'm fairly confident Tate could run Harbaugh's offense at a high level. Denard could be our Percy Harvin. Like this year, I don't think the offense would be the problem. Harbaugh would HAVE to work some recruiting magic in order to start bringing in elite defensive talent.

Captain Obvious

November 4th, 2010 at 2:21 PM ^

The past 3 years we have recruited for a spread offense.  The fact that we could field a player suited to be in a pro style offense in most (not even all) positions ignores the reality that spread-type players or air (due to transfers) will be backing up these players.  Moreover, there will be a 3 year gap of players that were not recruited for the pro-style offense going forward, meaning that pro-style coach will have to put a bunch of true freshman types in the 2 deep to field an effective offense. 

We could lose Denard.  Awesome.  Tate wouldn't be far behind.  Luckily we have Gardner but then we are in a Pryor-like situation (nothing behind him on the depth chart).

Then there's injuries.  Then what?  Our offense could look like our current defense in a hurry if we switch to a pro-style offense.  A switch in offensive philosophy WILL require transition years and rebuilding...again.  Then we perhaps start the Notre Dame death spiral.  Fun.

MGolem

November 4th, 2010 at 2:39 PM ^

In your situation, I believe it is more than likely that Harbaugh lands one or two sleeper QB's or even a couple blue chips due to his reputation as a QB guru and our barren dpeth chart. Also Gardner and Hopkins are freshman, our line has other big guys in the wings (Mealer, Khoury) that I did not mention and all of our freshman recievers, all four of them (Miller, J Robinson, Jackson and Williamson) are big. Sure we could use some more depth at almost every position but RR has recruited well, the cupboard is not empty and Harbaugh will recuit well enough to fill in the holes behind the starters. This is all speculation of course but couple what we return with our schedule next year and I think we will more than okay.

Captain Obvious

November 4th, 2010 at 3:01 PM ^

There's no guarantee we'd land a good QB in short time (remember RR's attempts?  and he's a damn good recruiter).  Even if we did, he'd be a true freshman.  Again.

Hopkins is pretty good and may be good in the future, but having 1 non-awesome RB on the depth chart isn't going to cut it.  Oh, and Dee probably packs his bags as well.

TE depth is not good at all for a pro-style offense.  Fullback depth is essentially nonexistent.  WR depth is OK but would need some help.

Face it, the transition would require moderate to significant rebuilding, depending on injuries and last minute recruiting success.  Getting back to full, quality depth would take at least another 3-4 years.

And, we are still ignoring the rebuilding project on the other side of the ball...

jmblue

November 4th, 2010 at 6:03 PM ^

Given the amount of returning talent we have on offense, we should not need to rebuild there if the coach handles it properly.  Not every coach goes through a difficult first season where the offense can't score.  Those who do usually start out with very limited talent.  Barring transfers, that won't be the case for us.

TNWolverine

November 4th, 2010 at 2:22 PM ^

cowherd is a douche bag.  He comes to Ann Arbor and acts like he loves RR, and now he thinks he is gone because he has "insider" information? what a joke.  I'm sure his "connections" know he has radio and tv shows and would be stupid to tell him anything, if they even know what they are talking about.

Stuck in Ohio 2

November 4th, 2010 at 2:32 PM ^

Who cares what this self-proclaimed "expert" thinks..Michigan has two winnable games coming up..Throw in the possibilty of an upset against Wisky or OSU and a bowl victory and RR is back at it in 2011.

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the D come home to the Big House and come out fired up after a rough trip to Happy Valley and make some big stops.

Go Blue!

dr eng1ish

November 4th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

Do we really need a thread anytime a blowhard says something about the program? We all know Cowherd just says things to get air time and publicity.  I mean did you hear what he said about John Wall what a joker.  

 

Pointless thread.

MGoShoe

November 4th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

...and a bowl berth will be enough to secure RichRod's return. 

Cowherd is a blowhard self-promoter.  His "insider info" deserves no credence.

jmblue

November 4th, 2010 at 5:09 PM ^

I'm not sure that DB's thought process.  I think it may take two more wins.  Going 2-6 in conference with wins over Indiana and injury-riddled Purdue may not be sufficient progress.

AMazinBlue

November 4th, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^

worked out his deal with Florida, the only schools he agreed to bypass the buyout $$ was Michigan and ND.  He has already passed on ND.

Since we're speculating...

blueheron

November 4th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^

I'd like to put all 'blog readers on notice (in case any of you care) that I *am* going to strangle the next person who says "pro-style offense" in my presence.

Speed Kills

November 4th, 2010 at 2:46 PM ^

Thankfully you don't get to be CEO of a multinational corporation by having knee-jerk reactions to things when evaluating the progress of a program/initiative. I'm sure Brandon has established metrics (not just wins and losses) for what he deems acceptable and critical for the continued improvement of our football program, etc. IMO, RR will get another year, although his reins might be pulled in a bit, if he doesn't shore up the total FAIL that is GERG.

Maximinus Thrax

November 4th, 2010 at 3:59 PM ^

He also believes that KISS is the greatest rock band ever because they gave him a hard on when he was little, plus they sold so many records.  On the flip side, the Velvet Underground and Radiohead are shitty bands because nobody buys their records (except he is wrong because Radiohead sells tons of records) and only critics like them.   He went on about this for like 10 minutes, eventually linking it to politics and letting some of his half-formed opinions there slide out too.  The worst part is that my co-workers were right there with him and agreed with him, despite the fact that I am 110% sure that they have never heard either Radiohead or the VU.  Yes, Cowherd is an idiot to the 10th power who spews stupidity like it is his job (I guess it is). 

UM Fan NY

November 4th, 2010 at 2:54 PM ^

is a d-bag tool that stole his 'opinion' from a website. he has no thoughts of his own because he knows noting about sports. anyone that listens to him and actually values his opinion should be locked in a room and forced to watch our defense against psu on a loop.

SysMark

November 4th, 2010 at 2:59 PM ^

The argument as stated doesn't make sense - we are scoring on everyone.  The problem is the defense and the reasons for that have been discussed here and elsewhere at length.

blackie6

November 4th, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^

CArdo', JJ, J. Robinson, those guy's are big WR's.....   Pro-Style is not a problem from the WR standpoint.....  of course, Stonumn, Hemmingway and Roundtree, as well as Odoms would be our top WR's, but those 3 freshmen would do just fine.....  

hfhmilkman

November 4th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^

Lots of comments how Harbaugh would implement a prostyle verses spread.  However, that is not UM's problem.  How is Harbaugh going to fix the defense short term?  No one has mentioned that.  This is the same coach who let Oregon put up 50 on his team.  So its not like Harbaugh has any special schemes.  So now were going to completely rebuild the offense while our defense remains horrible.

griesecheeks

November 4th, 2010 at 3:58 PM ^

to be fair, everyone's letting oregon put massive points on the board. that's a well-oiled machine.

While many agree with you, my principal concern with Rich is that he's being irresponsible in the management of the defensive side of the team. Brandon's not paying him to be an offensive coordinator. There's been no improvement, and in some ways, a regression, defensively-speaking. If you bring in a new head coach, the idea is to see if someone else can manage both halves of the team responsibly. Sure, it's not going to happen next year, but a new coach cleans house and brings in a new staff and philosophy. Our defense badly needs that.

I'm fine with Rich getting another shot, provided we get to ANY bowl game, and major defensive staff changes occur.

If that happens, though, next year is a serious put up or shut up season. He'll need to win big games against good opponents or that experiment is over.

NateVolk

November 4th, 2010 at 6:42 PM ^

Take away garbage time against half interested defenses, what has the offense done against good teams in conference this year?

Rich needs to show this offense does more than put up gaudy stats against weak competition or in blow outs.  Brandon has to know the difference between the numbers and being truly dominating.

Otherwise why hasn't he extended Rich's contract? 

funkywolve

November 5th, 2010 at 1:37 AM ^

Everyone talks about the great stats the offense is putting up but in the last 3 games most of those stats have come after UM has found itself down 20+ pts.  In both the MSU and Iowa games, the offense had a number of opportunities to put points on the board before the games got out of hand and didn't.

BigBlue02

November 5th, 2010 at 1:51 AM ^

We are half way through the B10 season and have the 4th best offense in the nation. You are right, they haven't done anything special.

Also, I am sure Iowa and Penn State were drinking celebratory beers while the team was up 7 with 8 minutes to go. They must have just let us back in the game because they didn't care if they won or lost. Please stop using this meme. We have one of the best offenses in the nation, not just the B10, and we are halfway through the B10 season. I guess if we had the #1 offense, you would complain that we couldn't compete with NFL teams.

mGrowOld

November 4th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

It doesnt matter to me what size players Stanford's coach likes to play.  OUR present coach, who will remain OUR future coach, is putting together the roster that fits his system.

Zone Left

November 4th, 2010 at 4:12 PM ^

I've just about switched my position to being ready for a change.  The team is still young, but that's the problem.  The current staff has been unable to retain a lot of players who may have been able to contribute on defense, and roster management is an inescapable part of a coach's job.  A few key defections are understandable, but at this point the departures are destroying any chance Michigan has of being a solid team.  

If Woolfolk comes back at 100%, which doesn't seem like anywhere near a slam dunk, then Michigan will have exactly two good Big 10 defenders and a whole slew of guys that need to make huge improvements going into next season.  This can't happen every year if the team is going to be successful.