A Full Eleven Warriors Blog on Rodriguez

describe RichRod's time in AA.  I'm glad he's gone and don't care what he does at AZ.

Fact:  RR was 3-9, 5-7, 7-5 in his three years at UM.

Fact: RR's defense got worse each year.

Fact RR's offense got better each year peaking at 5th in the country.

Speculation:  RR would have done better than 11-2 in 2011 as head coach of UM.

Speculation: RR would have done worse than 11-2 in 2011 as head coach of UM.

Fact: Hoke went 11-2 as head coach in 2011 and won the first BCS bowl game since 2000 Orange bowl.

Fact:  Mattison made the defense go from ~117 to ~17 in the nation in one year.

I'm not looking back.  Wish the best to RR and Co but I'm happy with Hoke.

for a few reasons...yes, one of them because RRod is the coach and I do have a respect for him because he is a good guy even if he wasn't the right fit for Michigan.  Secondly, because any success they have and potentially take more of a bite out of USC's ass is fine with me.  And three... this:

I feel that, under different conditions, he could have found success at Michigan.  As things were, he never stood a chance.  I feel no ill will towards him and I do hope he does well at Arizona.... unless somewhere down the line he ends up playing against Michigan of course.

....And even I I know better than to start an RR-centric thread on MGoblog.  I've seen many variations of that story and it never ends well.  That scab is not going to heal with people continuing to pick at it.  As it is, it may never heal.

I did get a chuckle from your disclaimer later down the thread that you feel this was board worthy, since it involved Michigan.  Are you really surprised to find Michigan related material during your regular lurkings at 11 Warriors?  I would be astonished if you didn't.  That's kind of what fans do.  They talk about their rivals.... but are any of that blog's offerings really interesting enough to be shared over here?  I think not.  That article was meant for an OSU audience.  Michigan fans are naturally going to recieve it differently. 

1.  No one should care what Eleven Woh-yahs thinks.

2.  RR isn't the coach here anymore.  We all know RR managed to piss of about 1/2 of the former players (and from what I can tell, the previous coach).   Unlikely he intended to, but he did. The losing, and the non-existant defense only made everything worse.

RR will likely do well at Arizona.  I hope he does.

We have Hoke, and he's doing well.   The only flaw I have seen so far is Borge's questionable usage of Denard, and perhaps some issues with recruiting WR's and RB's.   Considering where this program was just 2 years ago, those are problems I can deal with.

Time and time again:

Rodriguez simply showed up at the exact wrong time. His failure here was a combination of his own choices, his predecessor and outside factors that made Michigan football toxic. 

For me, I'll cheer for Arizona because RR coaches as exciting an offense as there is (and he seems like a much better guy than most of the Michigan fans I know). Once Casteel gets settled in (Arizona went from 115th to 88th in YPP in year one), they will be fine. People on here act like his defenses haven't been good to excellent his entire career, as if the numbers aren't skewed by the fact he's spent most of his time playing with speed spread offenses. They were a handful of stops away from being 10-2. 

My biggest worry: That Urban Meyer is going to do exactly what we thought RR was going to do, mainly because he arrived at the exact right time, with full support and got to bring the DC of his choice along with him. Its going to be maddening if that is the case. 

I already read 3 & Out

I normally don't care about posting a thread topic, but if posters want to read Ohio blogs, they can do it without creating a thread about it.  Especially this.

Considering the automatic grain-of-salt mindset one must assume with the source, I think it was a fairly even-handed article. Not especially enlightening, but sort of interesting to see it from the Ohio mindset.

11 Warriors smug uppiness about how they would never talk about whether a football coach is a Buckeye man or never fully support a coach is sure to come back and haunt them sooner or later.  I live in Ohio, and I heard for years all the comments about Cooper's lack of knowing what it meant to be a Buckeye and how he never understood the UM vs OSU rivalry as he went 2-10-01 over his time period there.  When Tressel was hired, all I heard about was how he understood the rivalry and was an Ohio man and blah, blah, blah.........Now, after going 12-0 following their 6-7 tire fire season, they know everything.....Payback is coming in 2013 boys, when we beat the dastardly Buckeyes twice, once in A2 and once in Indianapolis!

I'm all kinds of mad at Rodriguez for some of the things he did at Michigan...

...but I'm still rooting for him out there at Arizona.  Wherever Michigan is ranked in the polls, though, I'd like Arizona to be at least one spot behind.

WVU and he should do OK at Arizona. RR encountered a tough political situation in AA (Brandon cites the intransigence in the AD) and RR made mistakes to compound the struggle (RR admits it).

The 3 years were disappointing for everyone. I'm sure RR lost more sleep than any of us during a 3-9 season.

RR isn't coming back. 3-9 isn't coming back. Everyone is in a better situation. Onward.

I have observed two diferent threads.   There are those who claim R^2 is not a story and they do not care.   And others who declare that R^2 was just not a good fit for some reason.  The level of R^2's success at other programs is meaningful to me because if his success at Arizona is equivalent to West Virginia then the question is not whether R^2 was a good fit but what is wrong at Michigan.

This may seem to be a silly question but there once was a great company called General Motors.  GM onced owned 50% of the NA automobile market.   They thought they were the best and were ruled by insiders.  An outsider was never considered for a fresh perspective because he would not be a good fit.  GM had a long way to fall, but fall they did.  If the rulers and shakers of Michigan football treat themselves like 19th century European royalty where the only acceptable marriage material is your cousin from Bulgaria, questioning whether a long fall is possible is a reasonable one to me.

In my opinion if this team had been stuck back in 2009 or 2010 it would at best be a .500 team.  The only reason why it will not be a .500 team next year is the Big10 might arguablly be the weakest of all the major conferences.  When beating NW at home is your signature victory and you still are unable to recruit a blue chip RB or WR tells me that something is still amiss.  Is it bad luck or are the old boys out of touch with todays recruits.  If Green selects Michigan that concern will be less.  Some presume it is inevitbale that dominating seasons are inevitable.  But I would warn so did the board and their cronys also believe such destiny at GM back in the 80ties and 90ties.  We will be back at 50% market share in no time, I meant 40%, actually 30. 

So when I hear the words not a good fit for a person who succeeds everywhere but here, I shudder.