It is official: RR to Zona

Wow, congrats to Coach Rod and Arizona!  

Like someone else said above, I now have a second team to follow.

Anyone know of any good Arizona football blogs?

It'll be fun to watch RR take on Chip Kelly.  Time to put my money where my mouth is.... Arizona is now my 2nd fav team.

Has he learned anything yet about forming a defensive staff? Time will tell. If he brings Gibson over, that will not be a good sign.

I wouldn't be surprised if Barwis eventually ends up there.

Just get yourself a DC coach, and you'll be just fine

And just to review, GERG is not a DC.  He's a scourge on any football team that is made up of people who don't make millions of dollars to make you look good.

Tell Barwis to start packing the wolves for the trip out west.

Ok, now I know who my second favorite team is not....

Best of luck Rich Rodriguez...

...but keep away from Chuck Heater the DC at Temple..k...

.... look at that smile; it's great to see him happy...

And to think some on this board last week said that Tulane was the best he could do!

He will put some real offense into the Pac 12; Stanford is about to trend toward the mean and Oregon should go on probation soon.

And right now, on the Arizona Wildcats athletics website, there is a great picture of RichRod, announcing the news conference tomorrow.  Here it is, with a slight annotation:

As an Arizona student and close (an underestimate) follower of Michigan football, I am ecstatic about this hire.

JIZZZED

IN

MY 

PANTS

but RR's first game with UA will be against Toledo.

I kid you not.

Everybody hide your recruits..its that guy in the wizard hat..hes back

Add his snake oil to the list of things to bring

Here's to many years of beating USC.  Best of luck.

I'm glad Rich Rodriguez is back coaching at a BCS school. However, I wish he would have waited a bit longer and surveyed some of the other potential opennings. I can't imagine that the North Carolina job won't be available at the end of the year, along with Arizona State (a better job than UofA - but I'll get there in a moment), Penn State (even with the whole mess still has a ton in place), and others with the possibility of being open such as NC State, UCLA, and I still can't say for sure that UGA wont' do something all SEC and fire Richt if they don't win the SEC championship (yes even if that means they have to beat a #1 ranked team - it's the SEC, that's how they do things).

Tucson is not a great place to try to recruit kids too, the facilities are lacking, and the support is kind of non-existant. At least ASU has Phoenix, some national noteriety, and actually has been to a Rose Bowl occassionally (though it's been well over a decade). North Carolina, if/when it comes open is a sleeping giant, and with the right coaching, could dominate the ACC. Plus, I think Rodriguez did pretty well their coaching offense while the OC at Clemson. Just seems like he might have rushed to taking this job. 

Of course, there isn't a lot of pressure at this position, as Mike Stoops was given eight years despite proving they were going nowhere after four seasons. So this would be a nice change from Michigan in terms of fractured fan base/athletic department and expectations. However, he'll have less support in Tucson than he ever had in Morgantown, and a HUGE step down in facilities from the Michigan he left (and even compared to the one he inherited).

That all being said, I think he was a good guy, a class act, and deserved better at Michigan. Still might not have worked out, but I wish him the best of luck, and might make the drive down to see a game when my fall sports season is finished. 

As luck would have it, I learned of the RR to AZ rumor late this afternoon, just as I was preparing to go to a book signing event with John U. Bacon hosted by the UM Alumni Association of Cleveland.  When he walked into the room (I was there fairly early), I asked him right away "what do you think about the RichRod to Arizona rumor."  He held up his iPhone and said "its no rumor.  I just got a text from RR's sister."  It was 6:45 or so, before the public announcement.

I wish the best to RR and hope he gets a top notch defensive coordinator and some good advice about whatever the heck it takes to be an Arizona man.

John Bacon was as entertaining and good in person as he always is on film and in print.  I understand that he has another Q and A coming up on MGoBlog some time after the game this weekend.  I'm looking forward to it.

Isn't the Arizona football program similar to Indiana or Kansas, a school know primarily as a basketball school?  Granted, they have not been quite as bad at football at those two schools, and while I think he will have success, it will be a difficult job to pull off.  Looking at Arizona's schedule this year, the only conference wins they have are against UCLA (whom they dominated--interesting that those championing Houston point to their squeaking by UCLA as a quality win) and Arizona State. They are 3-8 and all but one of those losses is by 10 or more points.

Will he bring Greg Robinson?

What's the over-under on transfers from Pitt to Zona?
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<br>Good luck to him. I am happy that he landed another BCS level job and can move on. (Hopefully this will also allow the RR holdouts to move on.)

Pitt just lost half their staff?

I wish him good luck. Seems like a nice guy.

I think 'Zona's lack of tradition and his humbling years here will help him to avoid anything like the fatal overconfidence, to put it as kindly as possible, that he had on arrival in A^2 ("I was like anyone else... I thought, it's Michigan, just roll them out there and you'll win your share.") The lack of pressure on the HC (Stoops gets 8 years?) should be great for RR too.

My prediction is that he's a solid 8-4 within a couple of years, though I don't think he'll ever get to Chip Kelly levels consistently (admittedly that's a high standard).

 I wonder what the chances are for a home and home with Arizona! I would love for Michigan to come out to AZ and play!