Casteel to Arizona tomorrow. Unofficially officially official.
A source indicates to the Tuscon Citizen's Anthony Gimino that Casteel will be announced tomorrow afternoon.
It's not any great surprise, of course, and it won't end any arguments here about Rodriguez, defense, the 3-3-5, what might have been, etc.
But one argument will be ended for good. It was the notion, advanced without the slightest substance as far as I could tell, that maybe deep down, Jeff Casteel might have just not liked Rich Rodriguez, 'cuz why else didn't Casteel get on the plane to Ann Arbor with the other guys? 'Cuz a friend of mine had a friend who knew a guy who saw on WeMustIgniteThisCouch.com that Casteel and Rodriguez yelled at each other, and... Myth. Busted.
I've been looking forward to this day (tomorrow, I suppose) for just that reason. Gettin' the band back together indeed, lol.
The interesting news tomorrow might be that Casteel has insisted on bringing 2-3 WVU assistants with him, which may necessitate positional shifts among the other assistants already hired. As well as news on contract terms. Tomorrow should be interesting.
January 13th, 2012 at 3:22 AM ^
January 11th, 2012 at 7:08 AM ^
Except that even the players themselves commented about how much better shape they were in under Barwis.
Barwis did his damn job, and did it well. Remember App State players laughing at Michigan players, saying they were out of shape?
January 10th, 2012 at 8:15 PM ^
January 10th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
Vince Lombardi is just glad RR isn't summoning his name. I guess that won't happen until they start playing and somebody needs a good one liner as to why the defense isn't up to snuff.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
Section One you were right.
Section One you were correct
Spot on Section One
Section One you da man
Hip hip hooray for Section One
Section One with the big brain
Section One you amaze me
Section One all the mods think you're swell
Section One, Brian says you and him share the same opinion on this and various other topics.
Section One you are omniscient
Section One you would rule on "are you smarter than a fifth grader"
Way to go Section One
Correcto mundo Section One
Section One your shit no stinky
Section One, You, are a very good man
January 10th, 2012 at 6:37 PM ^
Insightful.
January 10th, 2012 at 8:58 PM ^
Man, you take sports bloggin' seriously.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:44 PM ^
Don't forget:
- Section One scored a 38 on the ACT. The test creators had previously thought 36 was a perfect score.
- Section One's tears cure cancer. It is a shame he never has cried.
- Section One had the power to rid the world of Hussein, Bin Laden, and Qadaffi just by thinking of Michael Rosenberg in a positive light. He chose not to, as he believed dictators, murders, and terrorists were the lesser evil when compared to Free Press columnists.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:36 PM ^
look like the Big East offenses. It's going to be interesting to see how the defenses adjust and develop.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:50 PM ^
I think deep down, Jeff Casteel just did not like Rich Rodriguez while RichRod was at Michigan, cuz why else didn't Casteel get on the plane to Ann Arbor with the other guys? I believe he would have never been our DC here. Then, once RichRod was dismissed from Michigan, they reconciled, and now we get to read about the intricate details of the University of Arizona's coaching staff.
I have no proof of any of this but this is what I'll believe until you can show me specific evidence to the contrary. Only because I dislike your self-righteous threads.
January 10th, 2012 at 9:46 PM ^
no, more likely that Casteel felt comfortable at West VA, and also thought he might get pegged for the HC position if he waited them out. Now, Dana Holgorsen's got a choke hold on that, so if Rodriguez wants him that badly at U of A, why not go there for a few years and see what happens?
January 10th, 2012 at 6:53 PM ^
This should make the Pac-12 South interesting in a couple years. It would be nice to see another team other than the Trojans NOT be a tire fire in this division.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^
Seriously. I hate SC so much, and their division basically gift wraps them a spot in the Pac12 champ game every year (that they're not on bowl ban).
January 10th, 2012 at 7:01 PM ^
If the BIg10 is scheduling Pac 10 teams couldn't the chances of RRod's Arizonia playing Hoke and UM come sooner rather than later?
January 10th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^
It's not going to start until 2016 or 2017.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
It could, but I would expect the scheduling to be similar to the Big Ten/ACC challenge where the goal is to have evenly matched games. Michigan will probably be playing USC, Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford before they get to Arizona.
However, if Arizona becomes a legitimately good squad, then it would make for a good storyline, that's for sure.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:38 PM ^
fortunately, U of A fans are used to getting trounced by USC, so it won't change anything. If Coach Rod can get U of A to a perennial 8-4 record and beat ASU, they will proclaim him a pooper of gold.
January 10th, 2012 at 8:08 PM ^
Seriously, USC will start to feel the pain in a few years. The schollie reductions will leave them with no depth after the current seniors leave. AZ's uptick could coincide with a downturn in USCs program.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:44 PM ^
I will root for him against every Wildcat opponent—especially USC—except for when and if we play them. In that case, I hope the Wolverines beat their asses just like I would any other opponent.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:55 PM ^
and for RichRod. He must be relieved to get the original ingredients back on the table so he can finally make a forkin' cake again!
I think Casteel's 3-3-5 will surprise some people in the PAC-12. At least it's one less thing for RR to worry about, and he can concentrate on behind HC. Casteel knows what he's doing.
I think the QB situation at Arizona for 2012 isn't as hopeless as it was at Michigan in 2008. It's not great, but having a dual-threat kid like Matt Scott in there is certainly better than nothing.
Arizona's September 8th game vs. Oklahoma State in Tuscon ought to be real interesting.
Hope Rodriguez can somehow be a positive part of Arizona football history. The Wildcats are only original PAC-10 team that has not played in the Rose Bowl (Both UA and ASU joined the PAC-8 from the WAC in 1978).
January 10th, 2012 at 8:14 PM ^
...to sign Tate.
January 10th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^
January 10th, 2012 at 9:02 PM ^
Thank you for your witty and erudite contribution to the discourse. Your participation is greatly valued. You may now return to MLive.
January 10th, 2012 at 9:55 PM ^
did you see what he did there? If you look closely, the joke is subtly hidden within the statement "BIG LEAST." You see, Rich Rodriguez once coached a Big East conference champion team. Coincidentally, the word "East" and "Least" rhyme with each other. By replacing the word "East" with "Least", he has implied that the "Big East" is actually an inferior conference to most. This, in turn, denigrates the prior coaching accomplishments of Rich Rodriguez. And he rhymed! Genius!
January 10th, 2012 at 8:28 PM ^
January 10th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
No doubt RR will now win multiple NCs at UA. Or finish middle of the Pac-12. Either way, he's not here anymore and I'm still enjoying our Sugar Bowl win.
January 10th, 2012 at 10:00 PM ^
As happy as I am for Rich I couldn't help but watch last nights game and wonder what Alabama would've looked like had Rita said "OK" to the offer they made to him in 2006. For some odd reason I have a hard time believing the 85 Chicago Bear defense impersonation Bama unleashed in the MNC yesterday would've happened if RR was there - Casteel or no Casteel.
January 11th, 2012 at 6:51 AM ^
If RR had oversigned and abused medical redshirts like Saban does, he probably would have done pretty well.
January 11th, 2012 at 12:07 AM ^
RR is a good "As The World Turns" MGoTherapy for the board. We can all cluster around the news-box and draw our own conclusions.
January 11th, 2012 at 12:11 AM ^
January 11th, 2012 at 8:16 AM ^
Can't wait to whip that AZ ass in the future, I don't care if they have V. lambardi as thier DC. "Bear Down" and remember AZ "Space Bitches, Space".
January 11th, 2012 at 8:31 AM ^
What's the over/under on National Championships Arizona wins during RR's tenure? I remember it being set somewhere around 2 when he got here.
Hell, with Casteel, a full cupboard, no cockroaches, I think he could win 2 national championships this year!
January 11th, 2012 at 9:18 AM ^
I'm very curious to compare the salaries of Shafer/Robinson, Mattison and Casteel.
January 11th, 2012 at 9:28 AM ^
It's not as if relatively low pay for assistants was something new, done just to hurt Rodriguez.
January 11th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
But we never lost a bidding war for the services of Ron English. We didn't lose Jim Hermann to another team because they made a more attractive offer. Nobody stole Scot Loeffler away from us with a better deal. And back in the day, when Bo Schembechler lost assistants it was because they had gotten HC jobs, not because a school like Auburn or Alabama offered a Jerry Hanlon more money to be an OL coach or an offensive coordinator.
See? This is not so much of an exercise in blaming anybody. The Big Ten -- everybody -- has been dragged into an era of higher-priced Coordinators basically since 2007. It may be that the Casteel/Michigan example was just the first in a long string of similar cases. I was looking at OSU assistant salaries; they were doing better than Rodriguez's assistants, but now Michigan has leapfrogged OSU with the Mattison contract. MSU almost lost Guido Narduzzi to the Gambino family Crips Latin Kings Texas A&M. Some kinda bidding war there.
Kudos, to Dave Brandon for being forthright about it. Before Brandon, and his contract with Mattison, Michigan had a problem in terms of competing nationally for assistants.
And we should always remember; while John U. Bacon gave us an invaluable inside view into the Casteel negotiation story, it is likely that Jeff Casteel's own decisionmaking was not just about money. Which is why the reported move to Arizona would be so interesting, including but not limited to the money...
January 11th, 2012 at 11:47 AM ^
I wasn't paying much attention to the business end of things in Bo's day so I honestly don't know: did anyone ever offer his assistants more than they were getting at Michigan? Did they not bother because they knew Bo's assistants wouldn't likely be willing to make a lateral move just for money? We know Bo himself turned down a large offer from A&M; I can't imagine him ever getting pulled into a bidding war for anyone. (Carr's approach was to bargain increases for his assistants by cutting his own raises, but as far as I know that was just to address the perceived inequity, not specifically in response to any particular offers.)
And Bo never had a particular assistant who was essential to his success. That's a unique weakness of Rodriguez that puts his AD in a bad position--I'm having trouble thinking of another head coach who's tied at the hip to one coordinator to the point that his schools are forced into bidding wars for his services.
January 11th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
Carr was reputedly interviewed for the Wisconsin HC job, with Bo's semi-blessing. (Bo turned down that job himself and didn't think much of Wisconsin's p.c. administration.) But when Carr was offered a ND assistant job, Bo was said to be really upset. Maybe it was a Domer thing.
Hard to compare assistants, Bo and RR. Bo had 21 years to build a legacy at Michigan, mostly in an era where scholarship rules allowed him to stockpile players and perhaps assistants. Michigan as an institution has a rather massive "coaching tree," even apart from Bo's great record. Carr did not produce a tree like Bo, to be sure, but Fritz Crisler did.
January 11th, 2012 at 10:56 AM ^
I'm glad for RichRod to see that he learned from his managerial mistakes (re: the defense; and 2 because of both how he handled Scott Schafer and fact that he hired Greg Robinson at all) at Michigan and managed to get Casteel at Arizona.
WARNING: Minor RR evaluation ahead. If you consider the subject off-limits, cease reading immediately. Otherwise, don't hate. You're on notice.
Although I think that RR's firing. after: (1) Toledo (2) two bowl-less seasons (3) Greg Robinson's patented end-of-season defensive implosions two years in a row, (4) the sheer uncomfortableness of the Josh Grobin incident, and (5) (putting the nail in the coffin) the complete embarassment that was the Gator Bowl; it had to happen.
Nevertheless, I think RR was also hosed by the ineptitude of Bill Martin and the nationally-spread lies of Rosenberg and the FREEP and a bitter WVU from the start, he was the coach of my team my senior year, and I wish him well. I didn't really have a team to root for in the PAC anyway, so I'll root for Arizona. That's the end of my little tangent-- bottom line: Glad to see he knew he had to get Casteel.
January 11th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
Left to right: Jeff Casteel, Rich Rodriguez, Rod Smith, Calvin Magee.