Rich Rodriguez discussion on The Herd

Submitted by bdneely4 on

I know a lot of you around these parts are not too fond of Colin Cowturd, but I was listening to his show today and he had about a 10 minute segment stating that Rich Rodriguez is not happy at the University of Michigan.  He stated he spoke with several of his contacts over the weekend and this seems to be a buzz that continues to spread.  Does anyone else know anything regarding this?  I hate to take too much out of what Cowturd says, but I do not like him saying something like this about the coach of a team I have so much passion for.

Frank Drebin

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^

I wouldn't be happy going 8-16 as a head coach either. I wouldn't read too much into it, and just like with the angry fans, winning cures all. I am sure it would have more to do with the NCAA problems and losing, as well as constant talk of being on the hotseat that would make you not like a place. Plus, Cowherd knows Michigan fans are listening, and this will give him a bump in ratings and get the MGOCommunity talking and in a rage.

Eyebrowse

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^

Listen, RR is easy pickings for any asshat on-air personality looking to keep his pockets lined with the money s/he makes from blowing hot air out of her/his anus.  I wouldn't worry to much.

Beavis

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 PM ^

Put yourself in his (RR's) shoes.

- You haven't won the number of games you thought you would have by now

- You work 80-100 hour weeks

- You have an EXTREMELY large fan base breathing down your neck

What kind of person would be happy in that situation?  Satan himself? 

Like Bryan stated above, "winning breeds happiness".  Did you see the smile on RR's face after the ND game?  You gotta wait for it.

icefins26

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 PM ^

Come on - you know what he is doing?  He is pumping up the Michigan fan, such as yourself, with that statement the other day in order to lure you into thinking, "Hey, Cowherd isn't that bad!" and then he fires back today with this bullshit.  It's typical journalistic garbage that is occuring way too frequently.

Beavis

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^

Did you miss what I was responding to:

always anti-Michigan

Versus what I wrote:

I hate Cowherd

Doesn't mean you have to like the guy if he says your team is going 9-3 this year.  He is still a dirtbag, but he's not always anti-Michigan. 

Super J

August 2nd, 2010 at 4:44 PM ^

Living here in Portland I had several years of  Portland's media icon" before he moved to the mothership.  He has a Long history of bashing the Big Ten.  Most of his comments were aimed at Michigan. 

Remember people say the Harlem Globetrotters never lose even though the Generals have won in the past.  So by saying Colon Turd always talks bad about Michigan would not be to far off base, and not negated by one recent comment by him.

plaidflannel

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 PM ^

Cowherd said he spoke to one contact, I believe, not several.  He [Colin, not the source] said he was a Rich Rodriguez fan and pointed out that the fan base was split 50/50.  He did take one caller that was disparaging to the Rodriguez regime, but Cowherd himself gave our coach a fair shake.  I think you're trying to drum up more controversy on this board, more than anything else. 

And call him by his name, not a lame nickname that a five year-old can think of.

Giff4484

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:28 PM ^

Or an 87 year old man who doesn't understand why his beloved Wolverines would turn 3 yards and a cloud of dust into the devil worshipping Spread O?

Sure Rich Rod is not in Mary freakin Poppins mode right now. Half of our fan base is running him out of town and the other half of us are fighting to defend him but saying if he doesn't win X amount of games we need to let him go.

Sure losing sucks and he is losing sleep over how do I fix this in one season. The problem has been and always be the 'inside guy" here at Michigan. We will never compete for a national title being so divided as a school. I hope come Sept everyone one of us just supports the team and let this season play out as 1 Michigan.

bdneely4

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:34 PM ^

he has spoken to several Michigan "Insiders" and one person on the phone this weekend.  He did express that he was a Rich Rodriguez fan and thought he would turn this program around soon. 

He will still always be Colin Cowturd to me whether it is what a 5 year old would say or not, so get over it.

plaidflannel

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^

If I heard the number of sources incorrectly, then I apologize to you.  I won't apologize to you for the name calling.  It throws your credibility out of the window from the start, and it reflects poorly on this site that our members are unwilling to call people by their real names.  It is no different than when Sparty or Buckeyes call our coach DickRod.

bdneely4

August 2nd, 2010 at 3:21 PM ^

I understand your point and think you have made a pretty good analogy.  To answer you with the idea that I made this diary to drum up some more controversy, that would be false.  What better community is there to ask a simple question on whether anyone has heard anything regarding what was said on The Herd show today?  It is pretty awesome to be able to create a thread (this one may not have been the best I could have created) and have so many Michigan fans comment on it.  I will give you the fact that my creativity is not quite up to par with some of the others on this board regarding my name for Mr. Cowherd, but my intentions were definitely not to drum up controversy. 

plaidflannel

August 2nd, 2010 at 3:44 PM ^

Good retort. +1.  I just think this is a rehash of the same thread we have on a weekly basis that talks about the divide in the fanbase and Rich Rodriguez having trouble implementing his system.  I'm cranky; fall practice needs to start.

MH20

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:24 PM ^

Of course RR is probably not happy, who'd be happy with an 8-16 record over the past 2 seasons?  The dude wants to win more than this entire message board combined.  So no shit he's not happy right now, but as it's been said, winning will cure everything.

Wolverine318

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:25 PM ^

Here is a tack hammer



 

Hitting yourself upside the head with it is more enjoyable than listening to the ignorant crap coming out of the mouth of Cowherd.

Frank Drebin

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^

Honestly, I don't have a problem with Cowherd. He puts the big names on check (minus USC) and is entertaining. He drums up controversy and usually takes a logical approach to many things that get fanatics panties in a bunch. I know many on this board hate him because of his anti UM rhetoric, but there is a lot of homerism there. He is actually a supporter of RichRod and thinks he will be very successful at UM in the Big Ten. He didn't care for Lloyd and his style of ball, and that pissed some people off, but at the same time many on this very board felt the same way. He also had a dispute with the Michigan blog M Zone (at least I think it was) about the wonderlick test or something like that. This became ugly and he began bashing UM more after this. Either way, like any radio host, take him with a grain of salt as he is speaking to general sports fans who do not have the insight to the program as many of us do by reading Brian and Tim's updates.

MGoShoe

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^

...the MZone's Wonderlic bit, then when they called him on it, he refused to acknowledge it and was a complete asshat -- throwing out the I'm better than you because you're just a loser blogger bit.

He was exposed in that episode big time.

michgoblue

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:32 PM ^

Unfortunately, until we win our 7th or 8th game this year (and hopefully that occurs somewhere around week 7 or 8), there are going to be a ton of stories or discussion topics in the media like this.  RR is unhappy.  RR is on the hot seat.  RR led M to our first football NCAA violations ever.  RR can't recruit top flight talent.  RR has missed a bowl for 2 straight years and is in danger of being fired if we don't go to the Rose Bowl.  RR killed a homeless man.  RR will never be able to bring in deap threat receivers because he only knows how to coach his teams to run. 

What else is the media going to talk about?  As a few others have said, winning will make this all go away.  If we can run off 4-5 straight wins to start the season, the stories will shift to the "turnaround" "back from the dead" "surging" "not your father's Michigan" stories that were starting to emerge when we started off hot last year. 

Nothing to see here . . . move on.

GVBlue86

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:32 PM ^

Seriously. I thought a while back that if he started winning he may bolt for a better job and a place that would appreciate him more. And who could blame him?

The more I think about it though, the more I think this will just be the prologue to a great legacy here. 30 years from now people will say "You may not realize this, but RR started his UofM coaching career with two losing seasons in a row!"  "WHAT?!" "Yeah can you believe it? To think the guy that won us 4 national championships and 12 big ten titles couldn't win his first two years? I'm sure glad we stuck with him."

He may not be happy now, but I think when he wins, he will really think about everything he went through and that will make it much more sweeter to win here.

At least I hope so.

WolvinLA2

August 2nd, 2010 at 5:46 PM ^

Here the deal - if RR can't win football games, he's gone whether he wants to be or not, I think we all agree on that.  I love RR, but if he can't win we won't keep him.  Now, if he does start winning at a good clip - there's no way he leaves.  The NFL doesn't want him, and what other college team would he leave for?  He'd have to do all the same transition shit all over again, move his family, rebuild a team from scratch (likely anywhere, based on his style) and take the chance of having another couple bullshit years.  That's assuming there's a school he'd rather be at than UM, that needed a HC, and that decided that RR is their man, even though he showed how much time he needs to turn a team around. 

And then there's the money part - if UM is winning, we'll pay as well as anyone else will.  I don't see him leaving.

brice5

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:35 PM ^

I heard there will always be a spot for Cowerd at the Detroit Free Press and I can't when he eats his words when he watches Rich Rod jumping up and down after his bowl victory!

Steve Lorenz

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^

Who cares.....he's coaching our team this year and will continue to as long as he wins games. More than any other medium, talk radio is designed to engage the listener....often times in a negative fashion. Move along. 

markusr2007

August 2nd, 2010 at 2:45 PM ^

Come on.  Let's not pretend like we don't know this. Dirty laundry about Michigan is brilliant for the media business.  It riles up Michigan's huge global fan base and stirs the shit with all of Michigan's adversaries as well.  It's a slam dunk for media dollars.  They're still working out the financial algorithms, but it probably goes something like this: For every 15 seconds of raking Michigan through the coals on radio equals $955,123.22 in revenues.  Introducing variables like "Oklahoma" and "Texas and "Ohio State" reveal lower results.  It's science.

Don

August 2nd, 2010 at 3:18 PM ^

And of course we'll never know who this source is. It could be somebody with ties to schools we recruit against who is using Cowherd. It could be somebody with allegiances to the anti-RR faction here in town. It could be somebody who heard this from somebody else who heard it from somebody else.

Not only that, what is being "unhappy" here exactly? Is RR happy with how things have gone? Surely not. Does that mean he's looking to leave? That's a completely different matter.

I suppose anything is possible, but SwordDancer nails it: RR is an Oscar-worthy actor if he's so unhappy he's looking to leave.

I call BS in this instance. Remember how many people were assuring us that Lloyd had some horrible disease and wasn't going to be around much longer? LC looks pretty healthy and happy to me. I think this is most likely somebody using Cowherd to hurt us in recruiting, which oddly enough, is going on right now. What a coincidence.

pullin4blue

August 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 PM ^

I heard that RR is unhappy too. I heard that he is unhappy when we get freezing rain in Michigan in February. Aside from that, he is estatic about his team, the new recruits and the fucking awesome stadium and facilities he gets to work in. Every gameday he walks through the tunnel to touch the banner he has to pinch himself just to make sure he's not dreaming. Who could ever ask for more?

Remember, Colin Cowherd was the same one who last week was spewing garbage about a former Michigan player taking money (regardless of the fact that it was investigated and nothing found), trying to compare him to Reggie Bush. Colin is such a USC homer that anything he says about Michigan is all for effect. The best thing you can do is ignor him. Don't listen to him, don't watch him. When his ratings go down, the marketshare will decrease and he gets less influential.

Don

August 2nd, 2010 at 4:03 PM ^

nor do I have a problem with "Cowturd." I don't think he deserves all the negs he's getting; it's a legit story, whether it's fundamentally bullshit or not.

Unfortunately, since it was broadcast on a nationally syndicated show, now the whole college football world is whispering loudly about RR looking to book out of town as soon as he can get Greyhound tickets. I'm sure all the geniuses at MLive are having fun with it.

It puts RR in the impossible situation of trying to assure people who matter—fans, his team, recruits, and his bosses—that he's not going anywhere. How do you prove you're not going to do something in the future?

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Cowherd's "sources" included a couple of writers for a certain Detroit daily, and an afternoon host on an Ann Arbor sports radio talk show, plus somebody who's really a fan of MSU or ND or OSU.

bdneely4

August 2nd, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^

I was out of the office and heard Cowherd say this and thought I would get some insight from the MGoCommunity.  This is what this site is all about, and whether people are for my posts/comments or against them, I always love hearing opinions from Maize and Blue fans.

I would agree with the vast majority of the commenters that Cowherd just says these things for the attention, and traps Michigan fans like myself into posting his comments on a blog so we all can beat it to death. 

Darn you Cowherd!

 

Go Blue!