Rich Rodriguez "Some Michigan Players Felt Entitled"

Submitted by IvyLeague on

Sporting news article on Rich Rodriguez.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2013-01-29/arizona-rich-rodriguez-turnaround-rose-bowl-michigan-mike-stoops

Interesting Quote:

“The Chad Hennes and the Jake Longs put the work in and succeeded before us, and guys behind them thought they were entitled to the same status but hadn’t proved anything.”

 

 

jmblue

January 30th, 2013 at 4:41 PM ^

Whenever you succeed a popular, successful person (in any line of work) you're going to encounter resistance, especially when you introduce new changes.  That's just reality.  You have to find a way to get those guys on board.

At Arizona, RR's job was aided by the fact that his predecessor was unpopular and unsuccessful.  There, he didn't have to sell himself - the players had quit on the old coach and were ready for new leadership.  (This same dynamic worked in Hoke's favor at Michigan, particularly on defense.)

Wendyk5

January 30th, 2013 at 5:19 PM ^

I think a lot of factors went into his failure here (and recent success there). Partially the players, partially the Michigan culture and everything that goes along with that, partially the fact that he came in unprepared, having done virtually no homework on the roster and the culture. He's a smart guy and he learned from all of it. There's no way he went into Arizona with the same mindset he had in 2008. And yeah, Arizona's expectations are much different from Michigan's. Less pressure, more open to RR as a coach who can shape the program and instill his own philosophy, rather than having him fit into theirs. 

jsquigg

January 30th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^

Rodriguez didn't name names and spoke the truth from his perspective about the past.  I don't know how anyone can look back on the Rodriguez era and say that he had the full support of the athletic department.  With that said, when you are hired to a big time program in an environment that has always been hostile to losing, you better deliver results.  Ultimately it is the losing that cost Rodriguez, and no excuse is acceptable for the absolute disaster and abortion that was the Michigan defense.

AMazinBlue

January 30th, 2013 at 4:37 PM ^

the problem is, he was a terrible fit in Ann Arbor.  Congrats on a good season and good luck down the road.

And, if we ever meet up in Pasadena...we'll kick your ass.  Have a nice day.

Princetonwolverine

January 30th, 2013 at 4:49 PM ^

Guys on my high school's football team felt entitled. Same with high school soccer, basketball and baseball etc. It goes with the territory of sports "stars".

Seth

January 30th, 2013 at 4:54 PM ^

I for one prefer he remains like he is. I don't get anything out of Rich Rod learning to keep his mouth shut. He's got an informed opinion on the players he coached, and he's not the first person to make an accusation of this kind at certain returning players in 2008. We're passed the "this is news to us stage." As a fan I'm just happy at least someone's willing to be honest about which players weren't the most committed.

saveferris

January 30th, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^

I don't see it changing anytime soon.  While he may have learned from some of his mistakes while here in Ann Arbor, he still doesn't seem to have any apprehension in continuing to be candid with the media.  I imagine as the coach of a lower profile team like Arizona, he'll want as much publicity as he can get to attract recruits to this program.  And as long as media-types want to talk to him, they're going to ask him about Michigan.  This isn't the last comment we're going to hear from Rich Rodriguez about the University of Michigan.

Charlie Chunk

January 30th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^

The only thing Michigan lacked when RR was in A2, was leadership.  I mean leadership from a competent coaching staff.

Weak minded coach is still showing his hand.  I'm glad he's gone.

energyblue1

January 30th, 2013 at 6:11 PM ^

It didn't work.

Blame Michigan for not accepting him, rolling out the financial red carpet..oh wait, he got more money for recruiting, got the facilities, got the total treatment to succeed from Michigan.

Blame AD Staff and support staff...  You mean to tell me they didn't show up to do their jobs every day?  You mean to tell me they talked bad about him and didn't support the guy running around like a bull in a china shop saying you guys don't know how to win in football, I do in a place that was very highly successfull for a very long time.  Wow, color me crazy...  cause if it was that bad, tell me why those support staff people weren't fired?  I'm waiting.

People outside but former players, coaches and alumni didn't support him?  Are you kidding me?  How many supported Bo when he walked in the door and turned the world upside down with what was considered a good team for Bump coming back?  Nobody except his AD until he beat ohio st.......

 

Rich...  He hired 4 db coaches to run the defense.  Fired all of Lloyd's assistants (his right), assasination style...which burnt alot of bridges immediately, his right  though...,  We saw tons of players leave, 36 by my count that first yr total, but Rich kept saying we will win with them and we are going to install our system now and not worry about who is here.  He put out the single worst defense in school history.  He put out the lowest win total in a 12 game season in school history...........,  it was that bad....

Rich ran off the players he needed to win, his recruiting never took shape as half of his classes were having about 30% never make it in or gone by the end of their freshman year. 

 

So, you can blame anything you want on Michigan, but the fact is, just like Bo, the tools were there, were given to Rich and he didn't get it done.  Had Rich worked harder to endear himself to everyone as they claimed he is a genuine people person, then maybe we would be more forgiving....but the fact is, 2 wins against nd, msu and osu and multiple blow out losses, and 3-9, 5-7, 7-6 records and 6 total bigten wins in 3 yrs got him fired.  Not one person who did not like him or support him caused that, or made Dave Brandon fire him. 

energyblue1

January 30th, 2013 at 10:20 PM ^

So lets say they open the bank and give Casteel 800k a year.....Rich still hired 3 other db coaches to run his defense, and you think Casteel would fix that? 

Not one true dline coach among them.  You think it's an accident our 2 most talented position groups on defense Dline, then lber were the most under performing and led to a defense giving up the most points in school history consecutively, yearly for 3 seasons?

Oh, Casteel better then Shafer?  Yeah....get back to me when you figure that one out. 

Swazi

January 30th, 2013 at 10:34 PM ^

You do realize that Casteel was the LB coach while he was defensive coordinator at West Virginia, right?

 

Bruce Tall, yeah, that was a booboo.  However, you cannot deny that Casteel fielded top defenses year in and year out, and would have been worlds better than, yes, Scott Shafer.  Not saying Scott is bad or anything, but Casteel actually knows what the hell a 3-3-5 defense is that Rich wanted to implement.

saveferris

January 31st, 2013 at 8:10 AM ^

How many supported Bo when he walked in the door and turned the world upside down with what was considered a good team for Bump coming back? Nobody except his AD until he beat ohio st.......

Bump Elliott himself publicly offered his support for Bo Schembechler while he was assuming command in his first season. Bo himself credited Coach Elliott with smoothing the path with all the doubters early in his tenure at Michigan. Rich Rodriguez pretty much had nobody advocating for him when things got rough out the gate, so suggesting that we gave him the star treatment is a bit of selective history.

Michiganguy19

January 30th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^

I know he hasnt said much on the old job. And he shouldnt, its a fraternity of sorts and most coaches get fired or move on. But there was some entitlement issues in the late Carr era locker room. It is probably part of why we lost to App State, and couldn't get over the hump vs. OSU. 

All reports back this up. And Rich wasn't the coach to get them all in line from the outside... 

bronxblue

January 30th, 2013 at 9:12 PM ^

Well, that's a bit reductive.  He also inherited a pretty rough situation, and he obviously won at every other stop he made.  Hell, had he made a bowl game his second year I think he's still the coach, and probably fielding some good teams.  It didn't work out, but pointing to winning percentage based on 3 years as some proof that his well-founded opinion that some kids on the team acted entitled is invalid seems pretty stupid to me.

Eye of the Tiger

January 31st, 2013 at 11:18 AM ^

RR was the first Michigan coach since the 19th century to record a career winning percentage under .500. 

Sure there were problems he faced, but let's not kid ourselves here: laying an egg of such Titanic-sized proportions doesn't happen unless the coach screws up...a lot. I'm not sure how Mary Sue Coleman, the Freep and a bunch of entitled seniors in 2008 translates directly into the, what was it, 110th ranked defense in 2010, but I am pretty sure I know how bad defensive recruiting and an incompetent defensive staff does. 

 

Jmyers1528

January 30th, 2013 at 7:23 PM ^

None of the players even liked rich rod. He was terrible. Thanks for setting the michigan program back and have fun at Arizona getting 40 ppg scored against you. I could have won more games than him the first year. It was embarrassing to say the least

bronxblue

January 30th, 2013 at 9:08 PM ^

He's probably right.  But it didn't work out, and that sucks.  The fact this keeps coming up, though, probably tells you all you need to know about how every party involved handles these types of irrelevant controversies.

HighSociety

January 30th, 2013 at 9:14 PM ^

 

The Daily Wildcat reports that Carey was removed from last Thursday’s Arizona basketball game against UCLA after a “verbal confrontation” with both event staff and police. According to a police report on the incident, Carey and his cousin, Hakeem Adams-Johnson, were asked to move from their seats multiple times because they didn’t have tickets.

That’s when Carey allegedly pulled the “Do you know who I am?” card.

When the officer asked both of them for their tickets, Carey responded, “Get the f— out of my face.” He then asked, ‘Do you know who I am? I’m an All-American.”

 

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/29/arizonas-all-american-rb-removed-from-basketball-game/

 

Get your own house in order Rich.

energyblue1

January 30th, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^

I would agree with that and part of what Rich was doing was coming to bust up "The Country Club" mentality...and yes, there were players who had that entitlement feeling...it was posted on the interweb message boards all over including mgoblog....scout, rivals all of the boards. 

But not hiring quality coaches, hiring 4 db coaches instead of hiring the coordinator and letting him build a staff along with his goal for a defense, and not being willing to work with the talent he had and recruit that talent to him cost him year one and ultimately  led to year two debacle as well and by then it was pure survival mode. 

No athletic department, Lloyd Car support, former player support was going to save him from then on out and anyone arguing otherwise has their head burried in the sand. 

uminks

January 30th, 2013 at 10:58 PM ^

I wish him all the best at AZ, but I really don't care what he says or does. I was was excited when we hired him. I understood that he did not have a quality OL or QB (the spread version) and this made his first season a disaster. I thought he deserved four or five years to turn our program around when we first hired him. However, the way the defense digressed by year 3, I knew it was time for him to go, no matter how well our offense may have been playing. He was the HC, he was responsible for hiring the DC that would mesh well with his friends on the coaching staff. IMO...this never happened and with a poor to average defense, 7 to 8 wins and middling bowl games was the ceiling for him here at Michigan. The road to B1G championships and NC is a stellar defense. I think Brady Hoke gets this!

bluebloodedfan

January 30th, 2013 at 11:43 PM ^

Am glad we are where we are now. I don't want to go back. I don't want to rehash, revisit, or talk about the RR era. I wish him well. I hope he succeeds at Arizona and that  he proves every doubter of his said talents wrong. But not for one second do I regret him not being here any longer.

mm92.

January 31st, 2013 at 12:24 AM ^

I supported Rich Rod the entire time he was here and I wish him well at Arizona. But I'm getting kind of sick of hearing it was all Michigan's fault for his failure. I get that he's bitter but you would think he should take done sort of personal responsibility on the matter. I've never seen him do it though.

NoMoPincherBug

January 31st, 2013 at 4:25 AM ^

Here we go again: The King of Narcissists Rich Rodriguez blaming others for his failures.  Yeah, it was all a conspiracy "used against him"

did they forfuckingget about the 6 conference wins in 3 seasons?

At this point, enough is enough: Fuck You Rich Rod.  I now hope you lose every game at Az or whatever podunk school your 1-Trick Pony show takes you to.

Go Blue.

Section 1

January 31st, 2013 at 4:10 PM ^

Rodriguez has never said, "it was all a conspiracy used against me."

And he's never said that same thing, in any slightly different phrasing.

And there's the part where the owner and proprietor of MGoBlog -- and not Rodriguez -- tore the Free Press allegations against Rodriguez to shreds, and where John U. Bacon did that same thing a couple of years later in a book.  I don't recall any use of the word "conspiracy," but there were a lot of other words that found som good use.

So, yeah, there's all of that.

You're welcome.

Der Alte

January 31st, 2013 at 8:14 AM ^

All I know is that in November of 2010 I sat in the stands and watched the Wisconsin Badgers relentlessly grind out yardage en route to a 48-28 pounding of a Wolverine team totally unable to withstand Wisconsin's incessant on-the-ground onslaught. Wisconsin was a good team that year, but not that good.

2010 was RR's third season as M head coach. For such a woeful defensive effort he had no one to blame but himself. If that was what the program was to expect after 3 years, RR had to go. Brandon knew that but for good reason waited until after the bowl disaster to make his move.

It's nice that RR has found a modicum of success at Arizona. He's apparently happy he's there. We're ecstatic that he's there.

MGoJen

January 31st, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^

 

Alright you guys, against my better judgment I read most of the comments on this thread and had to reallllly channel my inner zen to not respond to them individually.  I’ll say a few things though, mostly because I’m bored at this conference in Philly.

Y’all know how I feel about Coach Rod (still) and I make no apologies for how much I love him. I don’t feel like I need to prove my Michigan fandom or allegiance and I don’t feel like I need to make apologies for being an Arizona Wildcats fan.  They aren't mutually exclusive.

My problem with this whole thing as I tweeted yesterday is that this happens over and over—Coach Rod gets asked a question and answers it. Michigan media picks up on it, spins it, generates 93409583490 page clicks which generate 90348594 angry comments and then our fan base fights and bickers and it becomes RR vs. Hoke on every level—coaching, recruiting, execution, assistant coach salary money availability, relationships with former players, relationships to Lloyd Carr etc etc etc. It’s legit exhausting, you guys.  But I have to say if the fan base were truly over it, this would all be inconsequential. RR will be RR—he very well may always answer every last question he’s asked. He’s not a “no comment” guy and I very much doubt he ever will be; it’s part of his charm in my opinion because he’s a real person and not a stoic coach.  That said, at some point we need to stop acting like the ex-gf who doesn’t want him back but doesn’t want him with anyone else either. If you were over it, you’d be indifferent. I got an e-mail from a close friend (and huge Hoke supporter) yesterday that said, “I hope RR FAILS.”  Really? It’s come to that?  Oh, and the point about calling out players who didn’t work hard and felt entitled—off the top of my head I’m thinking about BWC and Tate.  I don’t know Tate but Will has admitted this over and over and over again. Coach didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.

I will add one more point that I made on Detroit sports talk after the Outback Bowl loss. Coach Rod and Brady Hoke finished with the same record this year. When I pointed that out on Twitter, M fans FREAKED OUT. “What are you trying to say? What’s your point? We won the SUGAR BOWL last year…”  My point was this—at the end of this past season the biggest number widely reported was the win percentage of the teams who beat Michigan. “YES we lost to these teams but OMG THEY WERE AMONG THE WINNINGEST TEAMS IN AMERICA!”  This is quite different from the RR years when the narrative was, “ONLY WINS MATTER. NOTHING ELSE. YOU HAVE TO WIN.”  So when Coach Rod was HC only wins matter but now that Hoke is here and exceeded expectations last season we’re able to be okay with 8 wins because our losses were against really good teams?  Either ONLY WINS matter or there’s more to the story (and I’m obviously on Team There’s More To The Story). I’m tired of this fan base changing the narrative to serve their personal opinions on who’s good and who’s not, who’s a “Michigan Man” (a term I HATE) and who is not. 

Ultimately what upset me most is that people were unkind to each other on this thread. I know, how girly of me to be upset that someone was mean to someone else on the internet. But honestly, I think we should really try to be kind to each other on here, in real life and everywhere.  The universe keeps teaching me about the fragility of life and while there are trolls, many of us love Michigan so very much for no logical reason except that we don’t know how not to.  We can disagree and be offended and all of that but we should be kinder to each other because we’re all ultimately all in the same boat. Have a good day you guys! Be well and be great!