RR's Quote about "wanting to be a Michigan Man"

I posted this before, but I want to reiterate:

To those who say he is not already a Michigan man:

At what point does one become a Michigan Man?

• He is the Head Coach of the University of Michigan Football Team, one of the most reveared positions in all of college football. 
• He has implemented a completely new offensive scheme in just 3 years (and a dominant one at that). 
• He has shown great poise on and off the field.
• He's lead successful fundraisers for many of the charities we've associated with Michigan Football
• He has shown that he cares deeply for his players. 

Are those not enough? 

If the criteria is that and more, then none of us, not one of us on this board is a Michigan Man/Woman. 

Coach Rich Rodriguez IS a Michigan Man.  Period.

I agree with you 100%!  RR has been a Michigan Man since the day he was hired.  

Unfortunately, somehow many fans have gone from supporting the team to supporting the W-L record only. 

We can't control the situations we're thrown into, but we can control how we conduct ourselves when we're going through them.  Through all the drama, negativity and mistakes (some of which were his own doing), he's handled himself with dignity and class and he's never given up.

I love just about anything with a maize or blue block M on it, but I'm also pulling for this man whom I still respect.

A tissue!

Bo would turn over in his grave by the notion of our AD not honoring Rod's 5 year contract. That's as simple as I can put it. I don't like the way DB has handled this whole situation and we're starting to see the ramifications now in the reported Dee Hart's decommit. For all teh praise he's received thus far DB has handled tis whole thing like an amateur...And yet I like the guy...

Class Act. Always has been. Always will be. Whatever happens I'll always know that in my heart regardless of anything someone else tries to say. 

I feel bad for Rich. It seems like he's tried pretty much everything to gain support and there still are alums and others who's main goal is to try and find negativity with whatever he does. It's such a shame that some people say "I'm all in for Michigan" but bash the coach. True Michigan fans stick together through thick and thin...(not these part-time fans). Yes it's been rough these past couple of years but chanting "Harbaugh" at the games...???? C'mon seriously....all in for michigan (sarcasm)???? Hopefully we don't have more recruits decommit. All in for Blue and RichRod. Go Blue!!!

Sorry....I gotta keep going with this thought: 

I posted it as kind of a joke in the Miami thread, but seriously what the fuck is a Michigan Man? If he had come in right away and won, none of this other shit would even matter, everyone would be calling him a Michigan Man and things would be peaches and cream and jhackney wouldn't be posting atomic bombs in every other thread. 

I'm done with the Michigan Man shit.....seriously, it annoys the hell out of me. The game is about wins and losses to 99% of the fan base. You want to question his commitment to the University and to the players that play for him and use some ancient and ambiguous phrase to hide behind it? Fuck off. 

As a Michigan fan you sign up for the good the bad and the ugly.  RR was bent over from the day he got here.  I am surprised he is still walking.  I am proud to have him be our coach.  The media has caused all this BS....yes he has brought some on himself with the defense issue.  But what he has done with the offense and what he has done off the field is truly amazing.  Go Blue!

... are some other shit.

I can't wait to find something else to criticize Rich Rod about while sitting anonymously behind a computer.

I watched a Michigan defense shut down a BCS opponent (in UCONN) and despite underperforming, the very valid assumption is that they're going to get better with experience.  Time will tell if it's enough, but I think we all agree that 5 sophomores >> 5 freshmen.

I watched the story about Brock Mealer and how it was Rich Rod's idea for him to lead the team out of the tunnel.

I see him work with Tressel to raise money for cancer.

I see 2 more wins a year (3, 5, 7, 9?, 11?, 13?)

I see a fan base that is probably the least supportive of any college football team ("Michigan fans" on the radio rooting for the team to finish under .500 this year so David Brandon would fire Rich Rod).

Yost, Schembechler, etc. were not all Michigan men by nature -- they became Michigan Men.  Why are people so hell bent on running Rodriguez out of town without giving him a chance?  Bo even said it takes 5 years before you'll know if you have your coach.

people of all time, he came from outside of Michigan and became the ultimate Michigan Man. I am pretty confident that if Bo was alive he would ordain RR a Michigan Man simply because he wants to be one and acts like one. I am not so sure Bo would be as kind to all the people that are trashing RR. I am pretty confident that he would be telling them to go fly a kite. UM hired RR I am assuiming the AD told him we want your philosophy on O and D, we support you and understand this is going to take awhile. There has been progress over each of the last two years, his team plays hard for him even when getting beat and for me the biggest difference right now is extreme youth on D. That is the fact. The problem is the haters are going to overlook the facts and want him out, I am hoping that he gets the next year to pull it together because I am very confident this team will improve from this year.

Seriously what the hell is a Michigan man?? Is it those that go to the games decked out in Michigan outfits but bash the coach...(sarcasm)??

the SHAFT since his arrival, both from our great Detroit media and our fair weather fan base. All I can say is that it is a damn shame. RR never stood a chance, I for one and as a coach hopes DB will give him another year, he deserves it. The worst thing RR has done since he arrived at M is leave West Virgina!

then I, with my three degrees from the school, am not either.

Look, he wasn't forced to come here, and neither were his players.  He made the decision to take the weight of the program on his shoulders, and despite a sharply divided opinion on how successfully he has done that, he's made the effort. 

If that doesn't define a Michigan Man, then I poop on my fellow alumni for making the definition so unattainable that only Bo Schembechler and Gerald R. Ford would qualify.

Rich Rodriguez is a "Michigan Man" already.

It's UM whiner fans and alums who can't see the forest from the trees.  RR shouldn't have to make statements like "want to be". 

He already is a "Michigan Man" in the same way Bump Elliott, Bo, Mo and Lloyd are/were.

Elliott lost to Ohio State in his final game in Columbus 14-50. Nobody made Bump hand hand in his "Michigan Man" card.

I wish people would stop using the "Michigan Man" moniker anyway.

It reminds me of the same context of the line "Baird Men!" in Scent of a Woman.  Conversely, there's also "Alabama Man!" from South Park spoof.

I mean, it's just dumb.   Unless it's an a scientific and archeological find in the Upper Penninsula or something, do you think UM alums and fans can realize how ridiculous this is and stop using phrases like "Michigan Man" in the future?

He didn't need to say he wants to be a Michigan Man. He is one and he always will be no matter where he goes.

This whole thing is very sad. Part of me wants him to just tell UM to fuck off so he can go to a school where he will be appreciated.

If you leave your Alma Mater a place where you are loved and well respected because you want to part of something bigger.  That makes you a Michigan Man.  Ask Bo. 

I am torn about the use of the term at all. On the one hand, it was the subject of one of the most epic displays of autocratic power in the history of geopolitics--Bo canning Frieder before the '89 NCAA tourney.

As others have said on this and other threads, Bo used the term to refer to Steve Fisher, who, the Wikipedias tell me, was an Illinois State Redbird and coached at Western before coming to A2. Not the most Michigan Manny of backgrounds, n'est-ce pas?

RR, on the other hand, IS FROM THE BO FUCKING SCHEMBECHLER COACHING TREE and, as others have also said, is currently the coach of Michigan. Hence, if all it took to be a Michigan Man was being an assistant coach (as Fisher was), then I think RR has that part covered. If it means having connections to the most- or second most revered coach in Michigan history, then he's got that covered, too.

Finally, I will throw up if Brandon cans RR. That is so fucking insane on the face of it I can't even believe it's being discussed. I simply don't see how you can fire a coach after a season with a winning record, with 19 or so starters and the reigning B10 OPOY returning. We will truly be ND at that point, and Fat Charlie even got 5 years. Fucking hell.

I wish he would have said "I am a Michigan Man, let me lead you to the promised land."  I think that would have rallied the troops a little bit more than what appeared to be a plea for acceptance, which made him seem a little weak.

Sometimes you have to take what is rightfully yours. 

He'd already be a Michigan man if he was winning Big Ten tittles, beating OSU, MSU, ect.

Being a "Michigan Man" isnt about winning or losing.  Its about commitment and love for the University. 

I will support whoever DB believes deserves to be the HC. There is no reason to wait for an anouncement if he is going to have RR back next year. Let's not forget that DB is a business man first and foremost and he knows after Jan 1, 2011 the buyout drops 1.5 million. Let's just say that puts a nice dent in a new contract.

To say that one wants to be a "Michigan man" (or any arbitrarily defined group label) implies that one does not believe one is already a "Michigan man."  That's all.  It's not about fault (not his), fairness (not present), or the Freep (not relevant) - it's just an insight into the thoughts of the man speaking the quotation.

Sure, successful business persons and business managers place a lot of weight on objectivity, the bottom line, measuring achievement of strategic and tactical goals, and establishing new strategies for growth. That's a given.

But great business persons also understand the mortar that runs in-between: human behavior, human relationships and the customer. 

When we say "DB is a business man", I think it implies that only the stone-cold, numbers-based, logical, objective business approach will be taken.  I'm just not sure that's accurate, or what David Brandon is going to do.

...to all!

A little emotion? Great. But the guy pulls the weepy poor-me act every time things get tough. This is at least the third time he's done this. Too much.

Believe it or not, most fans don't really care so much about the MM thing. It's nice and all. But, really, if fans felt good about the team's progress, the MM thing would be out the window.

All RR does, by mentioning it, is keep it alive. Obviously, he's doing this so, when he gets canned -- and, clearly, he knows the end is nigh -- he can blame that: "I tried, but those mean kids wouldn't let me play." He's working an angle. He's very good at finding things (other than himself) to blame. The pattern is clear.

Three years from now, should he stumble at Miami (or wherever), it will be: "Oh, well, nobody told me about how all that sunshine impacts linebackers. When I took the job, I thought we'd be wearing more green than orange. Players in orange really take longer to mature. And now, please welcome my friend, Josh Grobin..."

This statement by RichRod, combined with this:

http://www.wtka.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.podcasts_sel&id=9406

Listen to the Stan Edwards call.

" ... hearsay ...  is the problem with this program "

Suggests strongly that there is  division amongst the former players and influential alums who apparently never accepted RR as coach.

It is incredibly sad that the HEAD COACH of your program has to publicly beg to be accepted.   What the hell.  Yeah OK I understand NCAA violations, 3-8, and so on.  I'm not happy about it either. I'm not happy about getting dominated by Wisconsin and OSU this year.

But you'd think that people wouldn't be actively undermining the program they supposedly love.

Bo was not a Michigan Man until he became HC!  I consider all of our past and present coaches MIchigan Men!!!!

I am not a Michigan Man.

Fuck me right?