RichRod subtly draws comparison between Arizona and Michigan welcome

The transition from "Bo's" Michigan to a National Championship (type) Program only took 7 years, that's short compared to how long some other programs struggled after losing Legendary coaching lineage.

The coach that replaced Lloyd Carr had 99.9% chance for failure no matter who it was; but, the fact that the RR era was such a departure from what fans were used to, actually helped to make it a much more clean break from the past. 

UofM now has that legacy coach back with just the right amount of connection to the Bo era plus the advanced football knowledge to be successful in today's game.

And, safe to say, no matter what type of offense we may have to adopt to compete for 'ships in the future, no Michigan Coach will ever treat the defense as an after thought like RR did. 

Starting a Rich Rod thread should be an auto-ban.

Did he get a raw deal here? Absolutely, he had a contingent of infulential people that were lying in wait for him and things were made un-naturally difficult.

But was he the right guy for Michigan? Absolutely not. I personally never liked the hire when it happened for all the reasons that eventually played out.

1. He's recruiting was not, never has been and never will be the level it needs to be if you are seriously trying to build college football's elite program. There is no way around recruiting for reaching and sustaining the game's top perch. RichRod's ceiling is an ocassional 10 win season and an outside chance at a playoff berth, sprinkled with more than their share of 7-8 win seasons.

2. A blind committment to one system and one side of the ball, that limits what you can do, and when you can do things in a game. Spread plays are all fine and well, but some football situations call for a power running game, you should build a team that has personell and plays for any situation that might arise in a game, including the ability to run the ball in the gut and take time off the clock if that is what the situation calls for.

3. A lack of understanding of the Michigan landscape. Being the head football cocah at Michigan, means you are the figure head of the program and ears perk when you speak and the faithful want their feelings and aspirations for the program echoed back to them. So when you said you understand the UM-OSU rivalry because you were involved in the WV-Pitt rivalry, that doesn't lend itself to a lot of confidence. Even if he really believed those two rivalaries carried the same cache, you should be assute enough to not make that comparison publicly.

Until now, I had no idea what opinion to have about Rich Rod, but now it is all clear.

I am a Michigan fan, so I support with the benefit of the doubt.

I think RRod probably should've been further along, just as he admitted by Year Three, I found the complete lack of familiarity of one side of the ball concerning (just like with Hoke), and I had never seen so many legal, disciplinary, and academic issues come up within such a short span of time in Michigan football.

So...maybe he "deserved" another year, maybe he didn't...but I have an honest question:

In RRod's 3 years, did M beat any good teams? And I'm not talking about good games...we had plenty of those, so much excitement during those years...but did we have a single quality win? 

In 2008, that win against #9 Wisconsin seemed to be a great one, but that team went on to go 7-6 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

What I saw during RRod's tenure (besides a defensive clown show) was an exciting first half on offense that was always shut down completely after halftime by any team that was half decent.

Again, I'm not in either camp for/against RRod, I'm interested in the facts. Overall it just seemed that if we adjusted for quality of opponent wins, I'm not sure anyone would be satisfied with RRod's performance over 3 years at Michigan, regardless of who the coach was or how good certain stats looked.

So, to my first question "In RRod's 3 years, did M beat any good teams?", I'll add: "If so, do you think that was enough over 3 years? If not, do you think it was all external factors that lead to his inability to create quality wins?"
 

Any word on whether or not he plans to play You Raise Me Up at the end of year Wildcat Banquet?

I met a dude while on a business trip who was talking about MICHIGAN football and how his brother was on the Rich Rod defensive staff.  He said he guaranteed Rich Rod would get to a Rose Bowl with Arizona before MICHIGAN ..

I told him he might not want to go around bragging about his brother and the 110th ranked defense he coached in Ann Arbor.

Especially to a MICHIGAN fan/Alum....

to recover from his disastrous 1st year 3-9 record! His offense may have improved but his defense just  went down the tubes. I think RR is still upset that he could not be successful at Michigan, which was still a major powerhouse program at the time he took over.

In 200 years, long after all parties involved are dead and long after football as we know it has ceased to exist MgoBoard will continue to act as a stage for these RichRod battles. 

It will be like civil war reenactments only with even bigger lunatics.