Rich Rod said he would have won 10 games also

Submitted by UofM Die Hard … on

This is my first forum post so I apologize if this sucks.

 

I was reading an articile and it was about how Rich Rodriquez was quoted saying he would have won 10 games AT LEAST also.  Now I was one of the supporters of Rich Rod so I was a little sad to see him go, he had a tough situation to deal with.  I do think he needs to refrain from saying some things, its making me lose some respect for him.  Can you just focus on your new job please?

He did give credit to our coaching staff which was nice but what he said came off very childish.

 

Please read the article and tell me what you think:

http://detnews.com/article/20111208/SPORTS0201/112080478/1131/sports020…

 

expatriate

December 9th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^

What do you expect him to say?  I mean, if you got fired and your replacement did well, wouldn't you say you would have done at least as well?  It's a matter of personal and professional pride.

I mean yea, he probably could have dodged the question, but I don't blame him for feeling perhaps a little stung about seeing the guys having so much success without him.  I can't say I wouldn't have wanted to say "Yea, I'd like to think I would have done just as well."  It's a tough spot for anyone to be in and I am sure that this year he has felt like he had something to prove.

Yeoman

December 9th, 2011 at 5:57 PM ^

"Sorry, mr. huge, I won't be able to be on your radio show this week. I'm a tad busy...we want to hit the ground running here in Arizona and we've got a lot of work to do."

Why is he doing radio interviews in Michigan? Is Charlie Weis on the air today in South Bend, talking about old times? The way to avoid questions like this is to avoid the situation altogether.

Never

December 9th, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^

Not sure what he was supposed to say if he truly felt he could have won ten. Everyone knows he is proud and has always shot from the hip.

Now whether or not he would have is another matter entirely, but it's not as if he sat down and introduced the subject himself. Then I could see how some could say "awww come on Rich..."

PurpleStuff

December 9th, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^

And what the fuck is childish about any of this?

"They've done a terrific job. You've got to give their coaches a lot of credit, but it's just frustrating for me to watch them at times, because those are all my guys. I'm happy for them. To see your kids be happy — I think that's the ultimate goal in life, isn't it? Whether it's the kids in your own family or the kids you recruit and coach. To see them be happy is the greatest thrill as a coach, and to see my kids be happy this year and win some games, it was just terrific. I'd like to have been there and shared that with them, but I think I'm in a great place right now."

The fact that this sort of thing would continue to bother Michigan fans is mind boggling.


 

Blue boy johnson

December 9th, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^

I don't know why you find it mind boggling. Part of the fan base is fixated on the "lack of support", RR received in AA. Another portion of the fan base is fixated on the horrible coaching job done by RR and his staff in regards to defense and special teams. Both sides are correct, and when you bring them together in a thread mayhem ensues.

jmblue

December 9th, 2011 at 6:20 PM ^

And he chose to do the interview with Huge.  He also chose to complain the other day, while talking to the AZ press, that he had nothing but walk-on QBs when he came to Michigan.  How can anyone argue that this man has moved on?  Heck, I'm not sure he's ever gotten over the WVU stuff.

Regardless of how any of us feel about RR, I think we can pretty much all agree on one thing: he is too thin-skinned.  He lets criticism get to him and then tries to excuse himself, which only makes things worse. 

mbrummer

December 9th, 2011 at 6:31 PM ^

Says all this great stuff about missing his players.  Talking about kids being happy being the ulitmate thing in life.  Talking about it being your greatest thrill.  Just awesome quote and from the heart you can tell he believes it.

Then misses has a poor choice of words.  " I would have won at least...."  

Everyone jumps on that part thus ignoring the awesome first part.

Thats just RR media relations in nutshell.

I Bleed Maize N Blue

December 9th, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^

Sorry, Rich, I wanted you to succeed here, but I can't see how you could have done it, barring a number of miracles:  you firing your defense and special teams staff and hiring all the right replacements, who would be willing to take a chance on a one-and-done and improve an abysmal defense into a top one.

Bosch

December 9th, 2011 at 9:47 PM ^

which I took to be "I have confidence in the players I recruited" and not "I could have done better than Hoke", he was quick to add that things would have to play out right for that record to happen.

Why did he do the interview?  Who the hell knows?  Maybe he wanted the chance to congratulate the coaches on the season, which he did on more than one occasion.  Maybe he wanted the chance to mention how he still cared about the players he brought to Michigan and is proud of their accomplishments.  I doubt it was for the chance to talk about what he thought the record would have been had he stayed, but the question was asked, and he answered it with the way he felt.

Of course, the mouth breathers preferred to assume the worst..... and run RR down, partly because of this belief that RR was being condescending in that interview, and largely because they feel they deserved better than the results of the past three seasons.  Yes, those years sucked and, for a variety of reasons, Michigan and RR were a terrible combination.  But you can't say that RR didn't care about his players and you can't say that he didn't want to succeed.

The responses in this thread as well as the previous one define the reason that we are one of the most hated fan bases.  Every top program has hit a rough patch in recent years, but when it happens to us, how do we react?  We OVER react.  We become bitter and irrationale........ because we are entitled.

Commence labelling this as flamebait......

JD_UofM_90

December 9th, 2011 at 9:29 PM ^

the interview didn't go down like:

Huge: "Hey, Rich think you could have won 10 games at Michigan, like Coach Hoke"

RR: "Sure, 10 plus games."

Huge: "Wow, you think you would have had that good of a year, with your staff?"

RR: "Oh, you ment all of them in this year?  OK, nevermind.  How about them Wildcats?  Hey, why not us?  Boy does Rita make a mean Nacho dip..."

jrt336

December 9th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^

The only chance he had at winning 10 would have involved him firing every coach on the defensive side of the ball, which he obviously wouldn't have done because some of them are with him in Arizona now. 

PurpleStuff

December 9th, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^

In one we gave up 34 points to a true freshman QB and our universally praised DC got outfoxed by a guy just about every OSU fan wants to see get canned.

In the other we gave up 31 points to a team that twice dropped the ball and handed it to us without making contact with a Michigan defender first.  Two weeks later that same team was held to 15 points by a staff with all those guys Rodriguez just hired at Arizona.

Gorgeous Borges

December 9th, 2011 at 5:43 PM ^

Interesting that Pitt did so well against ND defensively. I never made that connection that Gibson somehow managed to stop ND, but he did.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, but if you're going to compare giving up 34 to Ohio State and 31 to Notre Dame with some of the things that happened last year...this is not going to end well.