Why Rich Rodriguez was Fired.

Wow.  Thanks for this.  I'm sure none of us knew that Rich Rodriguez lost a lot of games.

Well shit.



Btw, this post is completely unnecessary

and from what I hear they are building rome with it.

For stating the facts.

Oh and +1000 on the h8terz

...numbers don't lie. But we would have had Frost and Hart (and possibly more) if he were still on board. That's called an "intangible."

The board was better on lockdown mode.

But, he was treated so poorly.  The Michigan fan base actually lost all these games.  He never had a chance to be successful.  

I disagree.  There may have been some, but most wanted to.  However, his poor handling of existing players with talent and his rules violation are what they are and complicated his stay.  Yes the wins and losses mattered, but they were a byproduct of losing what talent was here in the transition that could have helped give him some time to make his changes.  He took a scorched earth path and it came back to bite him.

Rodriguez is old news....Glad he is gone...

The Harlem Globetrotters over the Washington Generals.

Breaking news...

Great, you posted in letters what DB just said 2 days ago in his press conference.

I applaud you for your diligent effort to show how bad RR was.  We've all been here dude.

If we'd at least kept it close against Wisco, OSU and MSU (NTMSU) I doubt he would've been fired.

RichRod was fired because of people like you...kthx

RichRod was fired because of people like you...kthx

.....because DB succumbed to the outside pressure, without having a solid plan in place. 

Hence no Harbaugh, the repeat of a Bill Martin like coaching search......unless he pulls something out of his ass, going to have a hard time regaining my respect for him. 

I've actually come around to the conclusion that RR's handling of the 2010 offense played a large part into why he was fired.

Redundant.  Thanks for sharing your exclusive insight into Rich Rod's coaching tenure.

Now that he is gone it seems that we are going to rock next season (sarcasm). I mean just look at today...1)We have no coach 2) We were 0-3 on recruits 3) and Dee Hart said a reason he chose Bama was because of the coaching change. O yeah...great idea to let RR go because next season looks promising...I hope our coach will do a good job....wait...who is our coach????

RR did not win as much as he lost

Big Picture. Slash how does Belien still have a job? RR goes forward Belien goes backwards. What has Dave Brandon done that makes anyone think this decision or any coaching decision he has made is an educated one. Wow, some of you are so blind.

Umm, yeah. Thanks for this fresh information.Never really looked at it this way. /s

Umm, yeah. Thanks for this fresh information.Never really looked at it this way. /s

RR did not win as much as he lost

For me, that's a big deal. If he went 7-6 a second time, I would have said, yes, he's gone. But dont you think he had a legit chance at winning 9 games next year?  There's a difference between winning 7 then 5 then 3 games and the reverse.  Denard is going to be even better next season, and the defense will be one year older.   I still think he should have gotten a fourth year because of the trajectory. Every year this team did get better. (I know the defense got worse, but you can't argue against the fact that 2010 michigan >>> 2009 michigan >>> 2008 michigan.)

Also, MSU, OSU and WISC were all top 10 teams this season, that's rare and surely next year would have been an easier conference schedule.

Anyways, water under the bridge.

RR did not win as much as he lost

RR cost the university $12.5 million in his 3 year tenure. I would say that he got fired because, with only 15 wins he was getting $833,333.33 per win. 2 years ago when FL won the NC game Meyer only got $357,142 per win. Same thing with Bama last year. Seems like a pretty costly deal we had with him.

I'm so confident in his coaching abilities I bet my buddy $50 that RR would take a team(he doesn't even have a job) to a BCS game before UM. I truly believe it too. The numbers may not lie but they don't always tell the entire story. JH had damn near the same record after 3 seasons at Stanford as RR had at Michigan. Now one is treated like a god and one is treated like a bumbling hill-billy.

I'm so confident in his coaching abilities I bet my buddy $50 that RR would take a team(he doesn't even have a job) to a BCS game before UM. I truly believe it too. The numbers may not lie but they don't always tell the entire story. JH had damn near the same record after 3 seasons at Stanford as RR had at Michigan. Now one is treated like a god and one is treated like a bumbling hill-billy.

Jeebus

Cool story bro.

And is one year too soon to fire an AD?

That still doesn't make it the right reason. The question should be about the future, not the past.

I agree with OP. RR was fired because he didn't win enough.

This is why Rich was fired ultimately.  He hired Greg Robinson, he stayed loyal to the defensive staff, he was INSISTENT on playing the 3-3-5 and it cost him his job.

If the defense was even MIDDLE OF THE ROAD this year, his job would have been preserved and a complete vote of confidence would have been given.  We also would have won a few games we lost (Iowa, PSU) and been far closer in the others.  

The defense killed his coaching career - he will hire a philosophically in tune defensive coordinator next time and leave him alone to recruit the players he wants.  If he doesn't he will run into the same problems he ran into here - the problems that Casteel basically helped cover up.

Those are excellent points, of course. Happy Jack.

To be fair, I don't comdemn David Brandon for possibly canning him because of the possible threat to the university's brand equity - a threat that has apparently materialized, given the results from the All-American Game.

Lets just start this off at RR getting here people like you just hated him from the get go and made his time here complete hell, why do you think no coaches have stepped up wanting this job? because of people like you they seen how certain michigan fans treated him and want no part of it, guys like you gave all michigan fans bad names.

Lets look at the problems on defense these are the players that have been drafted since Carr left that he recruited.

2010 NFL
Rd. 1 - Brandon Graham, DE, Philadelphia Eagles (13)
Rd. 5 - Zoltan Mesko, P, New England Patriots (150)
Rd. 7 - Stevie Brown, S, Oakland Raiders (251)

2009 NFL
Rd. 4 - Terrance Taylor, DT, Indianapolis Colts (136)
Rd. 6 - Morgan Trent, CB, Cincinnati Bengals (179)

And we can add mike martine will be drafted and obi will be drafted this year if hes lucky. Do you see the problem with this list? its a joke Carr is the one to blame for michigans struggles. And if you notice there is not one offensive player on this list.

Lets look at Carrs career at michigan we won one NC and lost all BCS games Hart and Henne are two of the greatest players we have ever had at their postions and neither of them ever beat OSU.

So my conclusion is every michigan fan that acts like you should go play in traffic somewhere or go be a state fan and p.s we just lost two great players on defense and the army AA player of the year cause RR was fired thats awesome.

Does is occur to anyone that DB is now getting a chance to walk in RR's shoes for awhile  ???

that miserable winning percentage was, in the main, RichRod's fault, or that it couldn't over time be raised (concept!) then I wouldn't have argued he had another year coming. 

These are facts, too: 

He won 3, 5, then 7 games. His offense was #2-5 in the country. He had the first QB to run and throw for 1500 yards. Next year he had everyone coming back. WE HAD NO ONE IN PLACE TO TAKE HIS SPOT, IN JANUARY. 

Next year RichRod would have had no excuses, and--if he failed--he should be let go.

THE CHANCES WERE STRONG FOR A WINNING SEASON, CONTENDING IN THE B10.  

Brandon made the situation worse. 

Thanks for your input. 

Well OP, it looks like you lost a couple hundred points pretty quickly!

elven warriers and rcmb it seems.

FuManBlue, keep your spirits up, I think you'll be free sooner than you might have thought!

Remember the good old days?  Back when there were only 4 monster threads per day and we didn't get crazy posts?  *sigh*

I think that the single biggest problem with the team was actually the kicking game, not the defense.  Sure the defense was terrible, but given its youth, that's (relatively) understandable.  The kickers, however, were off-the-charts bad and there was no good reason for it.  Rich Rod said himself that they were making the kicks in practice, just not in games.  What do you do as a coach?  Ultimately, you're never going to have a stable of kickers equivalent to the stable of RBs, WRs or DBs.  You have one or two guys and expect them to perform.  RR eventually started trying out guys from the student body, for chrissakes! 

Anyway, throughout the first half of the season, our offense was able to cover the holes that our defense certainly had.  But once it became apparent that our offense had to be perfect - that is, they needed touchdowns on every drive, because FGs were not an option - defenses were able to adjust.  And all of those 4th and longs that any other team could have taken 3 points on turned into either 0 points for us or 0 for us and 7 for our opponents. 

How do you fix that problem?  You work on the defense, sure, but you get a new kicker.  And we did.  He is(/was) and I honestly think that with a half-decent kicker, we win one or two more games next year.  Just completely changes the nature of how we play and allows the defense to mature.

I don't mean to ignore the defense here, but people tend to think about the defense, which is a big, hard-to-solve problem, when I think the kicking game might have been as bad and is smaller and easier to fix.  In my opinion, it would have made a big difference next year.

You want to know RR was fired?  Because he didn't win enough AND because, from the first day he stepped into Ann Arbor, people have been taking shots at him in a way that is just embarrassing.  Before he coached a single game, people were already calling for his head because he (a) was trying to install a new-fangled spread offense that people didn't like, (b) wasn't Les Miles/Bo, and (c) wasn't a "Michigan Man", that stupid talking point people use when they can't generate legitimate arguments for or against someone. 

I feel bad for RR because he tried to push UM into the 21st century and people in the media (and some in the AD's department) were terrified what that might mean.  So now we'll probably return to that safe cocoon of 9-3, 10-2 with losses to OSU and any other team that isn't afraid to roll the dice.  But hey, we'll probably start beating Wiscy and MSU again, so yippee!

The fanbase suffered through 3 years of crap because the potential payoff was a team like Oregon - a team playing for the MNC and one of the more dynamic and innovative programs in the country.  Instead, we are going to suffer through a couple more years of "meh" so that we can return to MAYBE being as good as OSU in 5-6 years.  Ugh!

Agree, bronxblue.  I believe that Brandon does not like the spread (it's a gimmick to an old football man, such as himself), and we go back to 3 yards and a cloud of dust, contending for the B1G and losing the bowl games.  In a conference locked in a time capsule.  And when one of the upper echelon teams in the B1G goes spread, we won't even compete for the B1G title.

Only if Rich's d could have given up twenty points per game...Michigan would be playing this Monday.

Just think what could have been for Michigan if we had kept the pro-style offense, and retained Mallett, Manningham, and Arrington. We probably would have been on the outskirts of a national contender this year. If you argue against that, you can't deny we would be a lot better off than we have been.

I was one of the individuals lobbying for a more potent offense, like a west-coast, or hybrid spread. I have been disappointing, as has everyone with the team's performance, but I still think RR should have been more adaptable with the player he had. Scraping the team and throwing away two seasons to set up your team is ridiculous and if he thought that the UofM community would tollorate it, well... he knows the answer to that now.

On another point, Dave Brandon is correct saying we need to rally around our new coach, and be a cohesive entity. The negging on opinions outside of your own, only shows your lack of bipartisanship and closed-mindedness. This is an outlet for all of those associated with and connected to the univerisity to exchange their thoughts and opinions. If you disagree with this then you may as well call yourself a facist. This is a new chapter in Michigan football and as history has shown we can only progress as a program if we are all in agreement of the direction we are going. This is the time for us to begin this, and it starts with the intruduction of our new HC

Hail!

Here's a quick story about a college basketball coach.  In the early 80s, he took over a once great program - a founding member of the ACC with 4 final four appearances and 10 conference championships under its belt - that had fallen on hard times.  This is what the team did in his first three seaons as coach:

1980-81: 17-13 overall, 6-8 in conference (T-5th)
1981-82: 10-17 overall, 4-10 in conference (T-6th)
1982-83: 11-17 overall, 3-11 in conference (7th)

In those three years, his team went 1-6 against their hated rival, often losing by 10-20 points.  By the end of season three, the alumni were FLIPPING OUT and many wanted him gone asap. Instead cooler heads prevailed and he kept his job.

It was a good decision - I am describing Mike Krzyzewski, one of the most successful coaches in the history of organized sports.  If he had been fired after 3 seasons, the story would have gone much differently - for both the coach and the school.

I will support who ever David Brandon brings in, but you will never convince me that he made a good decision firing Rich Rodriguez, after 3 seasons, with 18-20 starters set to return.  I believe it was enormous mistake influenced by a petulant, impatient and spoiled fanbase.

Bo and Canham would have said 2 more years then assess. That is the logical obvious choice with a 5 year recruiting cycle etc. The impatient short-sighted  whiner alumni and big donors are an embarassment to  what UM used to stand for. Excellence embodies common sense, logic, and fairness. This very premature axing of RR flies in the face of "Leaders and Best" and in the process it moves us toward losers and worst. After 55 years around the program as former scholarship athlete and alum it is deeply disappointing and frustrating. We were headed for much better things. Now we move to become the corporate UM and quickly building our "brand" and marketing our image etc, etc. What a cruel joke. 

Its stupid to fire the guy this late without having a replacement ready to go.  its killing the image we have as a university and an organization.  Hire Chip Kelly

So you're saying if he'd won 3 straight national championships instead maybe he wouldn't have gotten fired?

Rich Rod was fired?

No, Jack. If we let him coach more seasons he would have beaten all the crappy teams on our schedule and lost to the good ones. Eventually, he would build up a better winning percentage than DFL among M coaches.

People are attached to the idea of what RR could do. It didn't happen. Let it go.

Happy Jack isn't saying anything outlandish (unless provoked, perhaps), but he's getting treated like an MLive goon. Doesn't make sense.

That said, Jack is missing the antecedent cause. I know the real reason Rich Rodriguez was fired:

Nice guys finish last

Why do I like Rich and am sad to see him go?  Because when he was the coach of the University of Michigan I hitched my wagon to him just like everyone else should have but didn't.  Now I will sadly unhitch my wagon and wait for the next horse.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5996783

"Rich Rod didn't have a chance because no one agreed with the hire from the top to the bottom of the school and all over town," Hart said. "I'm going to be 100 percent behind whoever the coach at Michigan is and I hope everybody that loves Michigan is the same way, too, even if they don't like who Dave Brandon hires."

I think Mike Hart says it best. 

As for me, I am very much against the portion of our fanbase, alumni, former players and administration that would sabotage the program just to get their man in.  Rich went through more mud for our University, with very little verbal acknowledgement or support, than any head coach should.  I will not ask for forgiveness for liking that man and think that if he were given a fair chance the University and its fanbase would look substantially better than it does right now.

The reason RichRod was fired? Three fold.

1. He failed to win games. (This is number one by a lot)

2. He failed to win games in a way that looked bad to the average Michigan fan. Not having any sort of defense in year three makes the team a laughingstock--and given the high profile makes the University looks bad. Something I hated.

3. Personal issues. For every one thing I liked--spring game importance, the walk--there were four bad things he did. The walls, running players off, his badly sliding APR ratings, his personal shady business dealings.