Rich Rodriguez’s Recruiting = Michigan Win vs. Bama?

Did anyone witness LSU vs Oregon last year?

Yeah, that Oregon team who would have been light years ahead of Michigan in running the spread and still got steam rolled?

Thank your lucky stars we have Hoke and company who know how to develop talent and motivate kids to play past what they preceive as their ceiling. 

We may lose but one thing is for sure, we will get the most out of each player on Saturday. 

Well, it wouldn't be his defensive schemes that let us beat 'Bama, that is for sure.

As for recruiting, I don't feel as if RR recruited exceptionally well.  Yes Denard and some star players come to mind.  Carr however was bringing in people like Branch, Woodley, Robohenne, Hart, Edwards, Avant, Manningham and the like even at the end of his career.  Moeller brought in lots of talent.  Bo brought it in.  

Basically it is the exception for the headcoaching posistion that you bring in high talent players to Michigan.  I don't feel RR did that job better than anyone else.  So he doesn't get any special kudos.  If we win it is because the current staff did a good job of shaping the talent that Michigan has (and always should have), not due to prior recruiting.  If lack of O-Line depth costs us the game, then we talk about RR's role in all this.  If it is lack of upperclass DT's we can all take a moment to curse Hopson's name.    

Actually given the state of Alabama's secondary, I'd actually say we'd have better odds in this specific game if we had RoboHenne 2.0 throwing to Edwards 2.0, Avant 2.0 and Breaston 2.0 right now.  

True enough RR sucked while he was here.

2008 defense was bad, 2009 (players one year older), defense sucked, 2010 (players one year older) defense sucked worse, but we are to believe that 2011 (players one year older), defense good. No thanks I ain't buyin' it. Totally buy it if Hoke is coach.

Can there be any doubt in anyone's mind that M bowl streak would be intact had Hoke been hired in 2008. How that team won only 3 games has to go down as one of the worst coaching jobs in history.

Your co-workers are ignorant noobs.

Chunkums - Can you create some sort of gif utilizing Shatner's "KHAAAAAAAAAAN" gif with a text block that reads: "RICHROD THREAAAAAAAAAAAAD"? We need to stop with the bipartisan divide and endorse one MGoBlog meme we can all agree on for these types of posts.

Pro-tip: If you plan to premise a thread involving other peoples' analysis around the background of those doing the analyzing, and that background is "my buddy" or "my co-workers" or "this guy at the bar", as opposed to "program insider" or "Coach Mattison" or "the_knowledge", then do not start the thread.

By this logic, every win we had last year was thanks to RR.  It is a simple truism that a new coach wins with the other guy's recruits.  It simply HAS to be that way and there is NO example of a new coach who wins right away with his own recruits.  

When the OP suggests that credit for a win over Bama has to go to RR, he has grossly oversimplified things. I believe that credit would go to the players, but also to the job of coaching done by Hoke and his staff, especially Mattison.

However, I also think that too little credit is given to the recruits that came in under Rich Rodriguez. Let's look at this in a bit of detail.

1. Denard Robinson. The face of Michigan. Would definitely not have come, nor been recruited, if not for RR.
2. Ricky Barnum. A late steal for RR, and a great lineman.
3. Taylor Lewan. The next Jake Long. Again, RR's recruiting.
4. Fitz Toussaint. A feature back, pulled out of Ohio. Where would we be without him.
5. Jordan Kovacs. Even if he wasn't recruited, RR had the sense to add him to the team and start him and give him a scholarship.
6. Craig Roh. A solid player, who has been jerked around all over the place. Mattison has developed Roh, but he was recruited by RR.
7. Will Campbell. Recruited by RR . . . here's hoping he pans out.
8. Patrick Omameh. Recruited by RR, good lineman.
9. Blake Countess. He committed to Michigan while RR was here, and is potentially  the first elite CB we've had in a long time.
10. Thomas Gordon. Another RR Recruit.
11. Michael Schofield. Another starter, RR Recruit.
12. Jake Ryan. Sleeper recruit, stud LB, from RR.
13. Roy Roundtree. Our best WR, recruited by RR.
14. Kenny Demens. Anchoring the LB Corps, a solid RR Recruit.
15. Devin Gardner. Backup QB, possibly a huge WR this year, RR Recruit.
16. J.T. Floyd. Turning into a lockdown corner, a RR Recruit.
17. Jibreel Black, starting DT. RR recruit.
18. Jeremy Gallon, best WR in camp, RR recruit.
19. Desmond Morgan, starting WLB, RR recruit.
20. Brennan Beyer, WDE, RR recruit.
21. Brendan Gibbons, "Brunette Girls," Field Goals, RR recruit.
22. Will Hagerup, punter, RR recruit.
23. Elliot Mealer, starting OG, RR recruit.

My point? I believe with the possible exception of Thomas Rawls, every projected starter this year was a recruit under the previous administration. I can say unequivocally that the OL recruiting under RR was atrocious, and that the entire defensive coaching staff sucked.

However, RR WAS responsible for recruiting our entire starting OL. The starters are very stout, and if they stay healthy, we will have an incredible line.

RR did recruit solid defensive players, and once Mattison, Montgomery, and Hoke got ahold of them, they have done a tremendous job.

And to reiterate, RR was responsible for recruiting Denard Robinson as our QB. That in itself is a legacy worth having. I don't care what Denard projects to in the NFL. RR had the vision to see that he could be an excellent college QB, which is exactly what has happened.

There's a big game coming up, it's almost the beginning of football season, and some people still feel that it's necessary to "stir the pot."  Will Lou Czirr please pick up the courtesy phone?
 

(and I can't believe nobody caught this yet) is that your grammar sucks, mr. ivy league guy.

It should be "my co-workers (a couple of WHOM are fans of SEC schools)..."

Geez, people.  You are off your games today.  Glad y'all aren't playing Saturday, or we'd get steam-rolled! 

So you're basically tossing up a what if consisting of a hypothetical win on Saturday and whether or not Rich Rod deserves credit and how much for such win? Damn. Are you going to say that about every game we win this year or is it just for Alabama? Rich Rod coaches at Arizona, end of story.

If RR did a good job recruiting we wouldn't have 12 Freshman on the depth chart. RR recruited all the seniors and junior plus most sophomores. Who else is going to start. Your co-workers are idiots. Are you managing a Wall-Mart and your co-workers are the stock boys (HaHa couldn't resist that one). Also RR also couldn't coach the few recruits he did get. "Hand Denard the ball" isnt good coaching or strategy. If we win its because Hoke and company has to out coach a Bama team with recruits at a level that RR couldn't come close to getting.

I have always believed that a man is not measured by how he treats those who he knows and loves but how he treats those he does not know and fear.  R^2 because he was different was shunned by much of the Michigan football alumni base.   Who knows how much better a job R^2 could have done in recruiting if he had the complete support of the Michigan network and the assistant AD who despite being in the Athletic Department insisted he would have nothing more to do with football.   How many recruits did we lose out on because of a word from a HS coach or a former alum at a camp?   How many were turned away at every contrived uproar?

What makes football great is that as long as you have a scheme and fill players to fit that scheme you can win.  Yes, if you recruit 30 5 star recruits at Bama or USC you have more room for error.  Then it makes sense to pro set and out athelete your opponents.  But Oregon with their tiny defense did as good a job as anyone else staying in the game against Auburn.   Wisc and Iowa seem to just fine without top15 classes.   If one is so blind that there is only one way to play football, you will get destroyed like UM constantly was against good spread teams. 

 

I think it is reasonable to assume R^2 made some mistakes.  His problem was every set back was compounded because he had no room to work with.  I always wonder what would have happened if Fitz had not been hurt and discovered in 2010 instead of 2011.  Then DR would not have been beaten up which means his shoulder is not hurt going into the state game.  I wished we had the opportunity to see what R^2 could have done without interference.  If I had twice the support R^2 had as football coach I know I would not have succeeded at my job either.

 

 

...is an empty statistic if I've ever heard one.

Freshman and true sophomore starters being relatively rare, the only way a substantial majority of starters on the 2012 team wouldn't have been recruited by the coach who was here from 2008 to 2010 would be if we'd somehow gotten the death penalty along the way.

It demonstrates absolutely nothing, good or bad, about any current or prior coach.