In all the hand-wringing regarding what RR needs to do to stay employed, I never thought I'd actually concern myself with whether he would stick around if given the opportunity. I'm not one for overreactions or irrational outbursts, either...I just think at some point something's gotta give.
It's no secret that RR has pretty much faced a never-ending nightmare from the moment he announced his intention to change jobs. I won't go into all the gory details but let's just itemize: lawsuits, anger/death threats from WV, endless cultural attacks coming from our side, losing a bunch of excellent players upon his arrival, Justin Boren's largeness, severe lack of depth/talent in certain areas of the team he was handed, 3 wins, 5 wins, a terrible media situation, more lawsuits that have nothing to do with his job, sanctions, Feagin, Witty and now Dorsey.
Yes, he can be partially blamed for some of these things. No, I don't cry myself to sleep over these things because he is a highly-compensated individual, an adult, and can handle adversity. I do recognize that he is human, however, and these things have an effect on people. I think we all forget that sometimes. If he wins, he is going to have some suitors. They will be promising him everything under the sun--up to and including more money, administrative departments that are not idiots that will make him look bad, media that will lavish him with praise, admissions that will not try to work against him, and a better shot at success in general.
It's not Michigan, but it will look pretty damn tempting. I think we have started to tread on a sacred area where coaches are often given the most leeway to make decisions (within the rules) to impact their program--recruiting. I could see how this whole Dorsey thing would hurt the coaches and staff as bad or worse than anything they have experienced so far. They spend an enormous amount of time researching players and selling them on their school and program vision. Without the proper recruits, the vision goes nowhere. I don't want to overstate the point, but allowing for unclear and shifting criteria for admissions purposes could be a fatal sort of flaw that helps shake RR's confidence in the school to back him in his decisions going forward. Hell, he can't even rely on the compliance department to properly push paper. The initial reports are that he is "furious" over this. I'm not sure I've ever heard him described as such outside of the context of an ongoing game.
I'm not Chicken Little-ing over here. I understand Michigan will go on with or without RR. But is this the kind of precedent we want to set? How will we attract, retain and motivate future coaches if this is the sort of environment they are walking into? Will we throw a crap-ton of money at them then boot them after a few years for failing to meet our inflated and unjustifiable expectations? I think I've heard this one before. I can see it on the horizon. I hope it doesn't come to fruition.
