He's bad--just don't ask why!
On the Barking Carnival link on the side bar listing the top 10 coaches RR is number 6. However, it starts with this bit, “Say what you want about his ethical makeup, the guy gets results.” They say that about 2 other coaches Saban and Erickson. I am curious where this idea that RR is unethical came from. Is it Pacman Jones and Chris Henry? Is it the media blitz from WVU that ensued after he left? I am not personally concerned about either of those issues because Jones and Henry weren’t problems at WVU and anyone who’s a coach for that long will have some bad eggs. There’s at least as much to question Tressel’s ethics in this area. WVU and the media associated with it is clearly insane so I ignore most of that irrational, unreadable crap. Is it the whispers of the Michigan Men combined with the oddly hostile Michigan media? It seems to me that the press has decided in the absence of published evidence that RR is unethical. Am I off base here?
I think if they're lumping him in with Saban, they're definitely taking a shot at his ethics.
And I think the assumption about that comes from the fact that most media coverage about RR has been from West Virginia. And the further assumption is that coverage out of Michigan is just trying to defend him because he's "ours", while coverage out of West Virginia is stuff from people who "know what he's really all about."
Well, the ethics, or complete and total lack thereof at Alabama, are hardly in question given that "Alabama" and "death penalty" were mentioned in the same sentence rather frequently a few years back. A wee bit shady, hell.....Bama's shadiness stands out the Shady Ethics Conference. That's saying something.
But I don't think there's anything unethical about asking a coach under contract somewhere else if he's interested in the job. Happens all the time. I believe it would be tampering within the conference (depending on conference rules), but outside the conference is fair game. If coach says no, it might be unethical to pressure him, but just asking is not a no-no, IMO.
What "past", exactly, are you referring to? The horrible crime of looking at another job? A non-existent history of misbehaving players that you manufactured while ignoring the crimes of Michigan athletes during the past decade? The winning?
Lloyd's a good dude, for sure. But jesus, you act like Rodriguez is straight out of Wall Street or something and doing blow in Schembechler Hall with Chris Henry while banging a cheerleader.
This is kind of strange that I see some dovetailing of this Grady thing with what is going on with Iowa.
Iowa was a total criminal thing and should have been immediately handled by the police, with criminal prosecution if warrented (with potential punishment appropriate to the crime). It was not something that should have been handled "informally" by the athletic department, which has the maximum punishement of, what, loss of [pratice time, playing time, hot-tub time, or, God forbid, scholarship???] or some such less-than-adequate nonsense.
Then there is Grady, who, while not on campus grounds, gets picked up for [DWI, DUI, I am not sure] by the police. It is a police matter, and is being handled, appropriately, by the police and court system. And that is the proper arena for this to be resolved.
Any "punishment" that UM, the football team or the AD give at this time is premature (Grady hasn't been found guilty nor pleaded). This is what happened to the Duke LaX players - they were found guilty by the U and AD before they ever had a chance to clear their names. I am also not comfortable in having a player punished for something both by the courts as well as by the university.
Tiller and Tressel getting all holier-than-thou and angry at RR for poaching their recruits. Fans across the entire Big Ten now have this image of RR as a shady recruiter who commits the horrible sin of recruiting "committed" kids. I don't mind the fans so much. All fans are lemmings anyway. We'll believe whatever we want to. Tiller and Tressel though.....Brian did a masterful job of proving the raging hypocrisy of their criticism of RR. Tressel's was even more egregious than Tiller. Tiller probably spoke in the heat of the moment. Or it was the dayabeetis talking, one or the other. Tressel had the gall to make a snide, sideways crack about it. tUOS fans, who think Tressel is the messiah, will tell you he didn't specifically say "Rich Rodriguez" or direct his comments at RR. Then again, neither has he bothered to correct basically the entire MSM world who took it as such.