OT: 2017 outlook for U Arizona and RichRod
It's off-topic season, and this piece from the "Arizona Desert Swarm" blog (their Maize 'n Brew) might be of interest to some here. It's a preview of the 2017 football season for U Arizona and (of course) RichRod.
http://www.azdesertswarm.com/2017/5/5/15559524/arizona-wildcats-2017-pr…
It sounds like he's a goner. I didn't find anything in the piece unfair even though Arizona is a more challenging job than most. It's been interesting to see what he's done with a largely clean slate there.
I feel the comparison is pretty close actually. Arizona & South Carolina both produce decent talent, including a few elite guys a year, but not enough to fully sustain a good P5 program so you're left to competing for regional targets (California vs. Georgia/Florida) against very good in-state programs.
And since Richrod's offensive star is fading, I feel going against the better defenses in the SEC would not go well for him.
I still wish he took the Alabama job. This was right around the rise of guys like Pete and Clay Travis, the shirt rending and yelling would have been great
and a once in a generation QB talent in Pat White who like all his QB's he ran into the ground.
Richrod finishes with 3 straight top 10 seasons (11-1, 11-2, 10-3) and was on the cusp of making the BCS title game before a truly legendary choke vs Pitt. His offenses with Pat White and Steve Slaton (also Noel Devine) were truly dynamic
One could argue he benefitted from a weakened Big East, but his rep was built off more than a single season and a single bowl win
Did you read the objective prediction of their 2017 season record?
Perhaps last year was flukishly bad for him, but his Fiesta Bowl season was definitely fluky, too. He won a bunch of games in the last minute that season. It was like Hoke's first year here.
Overall, RichRod is Amakeresque, in that a typical year for him seems to involve beating up on non-conference cupcakes, then struggling in league play (he's only posted one winning conference season since 2008) followed by a second-tier postseason appearance. If that is what Arizona wants, good for them.
Arizona isn't really that bad of a job as it used to be. Mike Stoops won 7 and 8 games regularly and there is a ton of talent in the Phoenix area. Not a great job obviously but better than Rutgers or Illinois.
Mike Stoops won seven and eight games three times in eight years, and eight wins was his ceiling.
I was as enthusiastic as anyone when Rodriguez was hired. I guess acknowledging his historic and colossal failure as Michigan HC makes me part of your circle jerk. What amazes me, though, is how the litany of excuses justifying and explaining away his failures gets longer and longer with each passing year.
I know the anti Rodriguez circlejerk is strong here
You can let go of the persecution complex. MGoBlog has been one of the more pro-RR communities out there. It's just that making the case that he is a good head coach, in the year 2017 (not the year 2007), is increasingly difficult.
Yes, Rodriguez has only had one losing season while at Arizona. However, he only has one winning season in conference play. They went 7-2 in PAC 12 play in 2014. In every other year of his tenure, they were below .500 in conference. He's 19-26, .422 in conference. Who cares if he beats UTSA, Northern Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (as he did in 2015) to get above .500 overall.
1.Fiesta Bowl was 2014
2.He's 4-14 in the PAC12 the last 2 years. Yes, he is on a hot seat.
3.You're describing his seasons as winning except for last year, which is true on the surface. But the context is that he goes 4-0 against weak OCC teams and then posts a losing record in the PAC12. Only once in five years has he gotten to .500 in conference or finished better than 4th in a 6 team division:
| 2012 | Rodriguez | 8–5 | 4–5 | 4th (South) | |||
| 2013 | Rodriguez | 8–5 | 4–5 | 4th (South) | |||
| 2014 | Rodriguez | 10–4 | 7–2 | 1st (South) | |||
| 2015 | Rodriguez | 7–6 | 3–6 | 5th (South) | |||
| 2016 | Rodriguez | 3–9 | 1–8 |
6th (South) |
That's an aggregate record of 19-26 in the PAC12 or a 42% winning %.
To his credit though, he has led his team to 2 New Mexico Bowl wins...and...an Advocare V100 bowl win.
Arizona's had attendance problems in football. That needs to change for his job to be safe. Even if they are a basketball school, football still brings in the most money - or should be expected to.
Teams that win championships. If we were scoring 14 points against Ohio State or MSU, we better not be giving up 40 points on defense. If we had won those games 14-6, there wouldn't have been a problem. If we're not going to play much defense then we need to score 50 points against top defenses or else we'd get killed and that's exactly what happened.
I have no idea what your comment about our defense has to do with my response to a statement regarding our offense vs top defenses. You might as well have just said, "nah nah I can't hear you, RR sucks."
2012 - 4-5 conf, 8-5 overall
2013 - 4-5, 8-5
2014 - 7-2, 10-4
2015 - 3-6, 7-6
2016 - 1-8, 3-9
puffing up the record with non conference cupcakes doesn't make him a good coach
19-26 conference
0-1 conference champ game
17-2 non conference
That and they are projecting him to win all 3 non conference games, one of which is University of Houston, which despite the turnover still has Power 5 talent on the roster and is good enough to win almost anywhere as they have show. The thing I find interesting is the comments about recruiting and lack of player development. Sounds so familiar to what was going on at Michigan during both the RR and Hoke administrations.
- If he'd only gotten to bring his DC. Oops, no.
- He needed his S&C guy. Oops, no.
- The fan base didn't support him. Oops, no.
- He didn't get a chance to get the right kids for his system. Oops, no.
- He just needs to run some extra summer practices. Oops, no.
- He just needs to pull the bus over on the way to Happy Valley and hold open tryouts...
- The former coach sabotaged him!
I miss this guy zero. He wasn't accountable, he didn't understand how to motivate the players, the players didn't improve much if at all under him, his defenses, regardless of DC, are terrible, and he likes to recruit smurfs.Oh, and sanctions.
the only silver lining I see from Rodriguez. We had to be reminded that the excellence we had under Bo, Moeller, and Carr was not to be taken for granted. I never thought in a thousand years I'd see Michigan suck at the level it did under Rodriguez (and to a lesser extent Hoke), but good God man, we gave Harbaugh a ton of shit for some stupid comments about academics at Stanford...feel like an idiot now for ever being on "Team Hart."
We are a strange lot.
for Rich in the beginning. But you are right about not knowing how to motivate players. When he said that UM was no longer going to have captains, and that the coaches would lead the players, I knew it was going to be a shit show.
If he'd only gotten to bring his DC. Oops, no.
Yeah I said that
- He needed his S&C guy. Oops, no.
Yeah I thought that
- The fan base didn't support him. Oops, no.
Yeah I believed that
- He didn't get a chance to get the right kids for his system. Oops, no.
Dont remember ever thinking that
- He just needs to run some extra summer practices. Oops, no.
Definitely never thought that
- He just needs to pull the bus over on the way to Happy Valley and hold open tryouts...
Huh?
- The former coach sabotaged him!
I actually DO still kinda believe that
Ok here's a question. If you HAD to pick either Hoke or Rich to be our HC who would you choose? Yes I know - terrible options but still....who?
Given those two unappealing options (ugh), I'd take Hoke. Both guys will end up getting fired but Hoke will leave more talent for his successor, won't crater the program's APR, and won't have half the local media hate his guts.
I'm just glad we're done wandering through that desert.
Rich Rod because he can strike lightning in a bottle with the right QB. He did with Pat White and he almost did with Denard. Hoke brought you Alex Malzone.
Don't knock Hoke's recruiting. He may not have been the best at developing talent, espcially on the offensive side of the ball, but he certainly gave Harbaugh enough pieces to get off to a decent if not very good start.
At least he didn't concede the state to Mark Dantonio.
He also didn't recruit as many guys that were academic risks, and consequently we saw the great majority make it to graduation.
You think Hoke recruits Peppers if he doesn't win the Sugar Bowl with Denard Robinson and a poor man's version of the RR offense?
The Hoke years look good compared to the RR years, but if Hoke shows up in 2008 instead of 2011, I don't think Hoke ever has the one great year that makes the comparison so clear cut.
Oddly, for all the talk of "manball", Hoke never could assemble a workable OL, and his premier recruits were busts. Still haven't had better OL players than Lewan (RR recruit) and Molk (Carr recruit) since then.
You know those 11 players that just got drafted to the NFL?
Hoke recruited all of them.
He could recruit, just not develop (on offense).
I agree and think that 7-6, 8-5 would have been the norm. If Hoke shows up in 2008, he still gets fired but the bleeding for the program wouldn't have been as bad.
Ryan Mallett probably stays. Yeah Carr's recruiting had dipped, but there was still enough talented guys to win by running a pro style offense they were familiar with and playing some semblance of defense. I'd bet we beat Utah, Toledo, Purdue, and Northwestern.
Dammit I wish RR would've accepted the Alabama job. Saban probably stays in the NFL. Urban's anxiety probably doesn't act up and stays at Florida. Oh well, I'm more than thrilled with Harbaugh.
So many great pieces that Harbaugh immediately, and publicly, started looking at any and all grad transfers?
Yeah, ringing endorsement there.