A Full Eleven Warriors Blog on Rodriguez

Submitted by StephenRKass on

So, I haven't been to Eleven Warriors, one of the better Ohio blogs, for about a month, or before the game in Columbus. I happened to run over, and whaddaya know, they have a full column by Johnny Ginter focusing on Rich Rodriguez and Michigan.

LINK:  http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2012/12/17692/the-rodriguez-redemption#more

I guess this is what you can expect when they are going through a bowl ban and have nothing to write about in terms of Ohio football. The piece has been up for a day or so, is about Michigan, and actually references mgoblog and Brian several times. For some of you, it will be an interesting read.

I'm not going to put a whole bunch of quotes in:  if you're interested, go to the link. If you're not, well, I didn't waste your time. Basically, Ginter goes through the whole thing of Rodriguez being a decent coach who made some missteps, was never given a real chance by Michigan, being both mistreated and having some rotten luck.

However, I'll put in two quotes that were intriguing.

So now you have a choice, Buckeye fans. Do you root for the guy, knowing that each successive victory angers the Wolverine fanbase in a vague, irritating way? Or do you root against him, forcing him to walk the earth as a shadow, forever branded with the mark of Cain that is Michigan football?

You can link to see which way Ginter goes.

The other quote is from a Michigan fan in the comments, regarding our blog:

You could send MGoBlog into a complete meltdown with this post.  Not because it is in any way inflammatory; it isn't.  But because anything related to Rodriguez now seems to divide Michigan fans.  Through no fault whatsoever of Brian Cook (always fair to Rodriguez, and sometimes critical of Rodriguez such as when Brian Cook was about the first person anywhere to doubt the wisdom of Greg Robinson), the mostly anti-Rodriguez MGo readership -- with many notable exceptions -- sort of convulses in a denial of service attack whenever Rodriguez's name comes up.

I kind of agree with this analysis, and can see why Brian wants to just roll his eyes, disappear, and put his fingers in his ears when RR comes up . . . "LA LA LA LA LA LA I Can't hear you LA LA LA LA have you gone away yet LA LA LA LA LA."

Hopefully we'll be able to have rational and non-meltdown discourse on RR at some point in the future.

One thing for sure (unrelated to the Eleven Warriors Blog) is a terrible legacy of RR:  his recruiting, even for the different "spread" scheme, has set Michigan back, and left Hoke at a disadvantage. It irks me to have heard the "cupboard bare" complaints about Carr, when Hoke and Mattison and Borges have not complained once (that I've seen) about the players they inherited, but have made do and coached them up.

jmdblue

December 18th, 2012 at 2:15 PM ^

a year or two ago 11W piece would have irritated me from both a content perspective and because it told a truth about me/us.  Now?  RR's effect on me is completely dissipated.  I don't really care how he does in AZ.

jmdblue

December 18th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^

One of the options in the "moderate" box is "redundant".  I'm pretty sure that there are no thoughts on RR that shouldn't automatically register as such.

Newbs

December 18th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^

I honestly couldn't care less about Rodriguez as long as he isn't coaching here. His 3 years were probably the worst I've ever seen and ever hope to see here in terms of on field performance and off the field problems. He's gone and Thank God for Hoke.

Tuebor

December 18th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^

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.

GoWings2008

December 18th, 2012 at 2:56 PM ^

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:

TwoFiveAD

December 18th, 2012 at 3:02 PM ^

Rich Rod gave us 3 of the worst years in school history.  He set multiple negative records on the way to a whopping 15 career wins while in Ann Arbor.  I could care less what he does the rest of his career. He did absolutely nothing where it really mattered.... Michigan.  Good riddens.  Now lets please forget he ever happened and encourage the present and future!

TwoFiveAD

December 18th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^

He also gave us....A loss to Toledo.  No wins against OSU.  No wins against MSU.  One bowl appearance which happen to be a very embarrassing loss to Miss St in the who gives a fuck.com gator bowl.  Broke our bowl streak.  Produced the 3 worst defenses in school history.  Recruited countless players that couldn't even make it to school due to grades.  Had an endless amount of players transfer.

But hey he gave us Denard and Denard had 500 total yards vs Indiana. 

You can have Denard if I can take back the 3 years RR was here.

Ready go!

Bosch

December 18th, 2012 at 3:38 PM ^

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. 

 

BlueGoM

December 18th, 2012 at 3:28 PM ^

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.

 

jdib

December 18th, 2012 at 3:29 PM ^

After reading much of the posts there, there was inherent RR praising and Hoke bashing.  Now why do you think that is.. Gee Eleven Warriors.. let's see... probably because The Game was largely irrelevant during the RR tenure and you secretly LOVE it that way.  So don't get on your high horses spouting off how much you respect RR then blindly bash Hoke. Now that we have Hoke, you bash him because you are scared we're going to put up a good challenge for the years to come.

I'm sorry I've read alot of Eleven Warrior forum posts and it screams, "I have the intellience quotient of a middle schooler" and the insults to boot.

jdib

December 18th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^

Because I don't remember using "Suck Eyes" and every other middle schoolish insult in my post ala Eleven Warriors such as "Walmart Wolverine", "TSUN", "scUM," or how they refer to Hoke as fat, etc.   Maybe you should take a look in the mirror before you criticize.

 

Good job on trying to be witty, you almost got there.

ChopBlock

December 18th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^

Nah, I'm just yanking your chain.

As a less snarky version of what I'm trying to say, what separates MGoBlog from other sports sites out there is that the quality of posts is really high around here. That includes proper grammar and punctuation. I found your post a little difficult to read because of some rather odd sentence constructions (and a strange use of "inherent"). I'm thinking that use of more commas might help (for serious). Readability is paramount.

Welcome to the blog by the way!

GoWings2008

December 19th, 2012 at 6:05 AM ^

I think you're being just a little too critical.  Other than the slight misuse of the word inherent, I found the structure of his post to be more conversational than "formal" which is its own style of readability.  Nothing wrong with that, imo.  Readability is paramount, but so is getting your point across, which I think he did just fine.  

coastal blue

December 18th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^

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. 

 

jsquigg

December 18th, 2012 at 4:55 PM ^

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.

StephenRKass

December 18th, 2012 at 10:52 PM ^

I really debated whether or not it was worth posting the link. I knew upfront that if I posted:

  • It would be negged.
  • Some people would moan, "not this again."
  • Some would defend RR
  • Some would say, "who cares what Ohio thinks."
  • Some would say "good riddance."

The thing is, their post was completely about RR. And there was more than a passing reference to Brian Cook. And MGoBlog.

So, I decided to throw it out there, 'cause the negs don't really matter.

Here's the thing that intrigues me, and that really hasn't been addressed yet in the thread: is RR a template for what will happen with Urban Meyer? I think that some at Ohio are worried about what the future will bring under Urbs. And I myself am really interested to see what happens in 2014 and beyond, after our OL has taken hold and we have 3 full classes of Hoke recruits on campus. I'm looking forward to what the future brings for Michigan, and also think that Meyer is not going to be all that for Ohio.

GoWings2008

December 19th, 2012 at 6:10 AM ^

I couldn't agree more about Meyer at Ohio.  I've said it time and time again and still feel the same way.  There might be a day a few years down the road that they will regret hiring him.  Maybe not next year, or the year after, but when they look back and say, "Well, we took a shot and we got burned.

A guy like him and the controversy under which he left Florida...I don't think he'll necessarily change who he is just because he's wearing different colors now.  

Time will tell, though.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

December 19th, 2012 at 8:32 AM ^

I'm not sure OSU fans will ever regret Urbie altogether - 12-0 for their win-at-all-cost mentality is justification. They may regret the turmoil and losses in a few years. Not sorry they did it, but sorry for "getting caught".

Urbie's Achilles Heel is a "superstar program". He believes, recruits and pampers a group of playmakers to execute his scheme. Over time, he'll have some bad apples in the special group and discord in the general ranks. Lucky for him, Braxton seems like a humble and decent guy who won't abuse his platform and it might take a few years for the wrong mixture.

When the bad apples occur, Urbie is tortured by the realization that his program is actually threatened by the superstars forming the foundation. The program and Urbie start to rot from within.

He'll win for 4-5 years and we'll watch for the implosion ...

EGD

December 19th, 2012 at 8:43 AM ^

Meyer will fail because he recruits too many superstar players? Come on.

I don't see any objective reason why Meyer shouldn't do well in Columbus, unfortunately. I just hope UM can do a little better.

GoWings2008

December 19th, 2012 at 9:47 AM ^

He said that the superstars will be pampered and it will have a negative impact on the team and himself. 

And I don't see an objective reason either, but its just a feeling I have that he will create situations that cause internal conflict, such as the aforementioned pampered superstars.  Its one of the critcisms of his tenure at Florida, along with overlooking certain transgressions by certain players.  Sound like any other former Ohio coaches we know?   

" Lucky for him, Braxton seems like a humble and decent guy" -- Yes, and lets raise a glass to hoping he declares after his junior year.

Optimism Attache

December 18th, 2012 at 9:41 PM ^

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.

burtcomma

December 18th, 2012 at 11:39 PM ^

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!

Magnus

December 19th, 2012 at 8:19 AM ^

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.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

December 19th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^

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.

hfhmilkman

December 19th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

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.