ESPN article on Rich Rodriguez and the juxtaposition between Michigan and Arizona Football
Ladies and Gentlemen of MGoBlog, I present to you the following article by ESPN. Link:
This should be good….
October 8th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
got hurt in 2006 and when he didn't make it back in 2007 there was that thought in the back of everyones head that he was never going to come back...
you're both right, if bass would have been able to play in 2008 that seaon probably goes in a different direction...
what RichRod should have done was not put all of his time and effort into getting pryor to come to Michigan, with a horrible backup plan in justin feagin... if RichRod could have gotten a qb with some idea on how to run his offense Michigan would have been better off that year also... but instead we had nick and steven...
October 8th, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 5:43 PM ^
I remember you making this point at the time.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^
The average DC salary in 2007 was right around $200,000. $275,000, while obviously too low, should have been enough to field a defense better than 109th in the country. Rich Rod picked the wrong guy and has no one to blame but himself for the product on that side of the ball.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^
always says that we would have gotten Casteel if it wasnt for the money, though I have never seen anything besides blog posts confirm the voracity of this story. By all accounts Casteel loved WVU and he was next in line for the head coaching gig when RR left. There is just no evidence that says Casteel was coming if he got more money - none.
What DID happen was that Holgo forced out Casteel : up until a week before Casteel left for Arizona (took a paycut to goto Arizona, actually) he said that he "wanted to come back to WVU."
http://www.wvillustrated.com/story/16450199/jeff-casteel-i-hope-to-be
All this talk that if we just ponied up a few thousand extra dollars we would have Casteel and be winning championships is just bullshit, and it ignores the fact that RR still hired a really fuckin shitty coach in Greg Robinson. There is one reason why RR isnt here today and thats his stupid defense - nothing to do with money, Lloyd Carr, factions, his offense, anything. He hired Greg, he forced him to run a 3-3-5 with no experience, and Michigan tanked. End of story.
But by all means, lets keep re-writing history. Everyone wanted him gone - yes, even Brian.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
Defense and Josh Groban
October 8th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^
well apart from that aforementioned Purdue game (because lets just ignore data points that dont prove your point...) Brian does a UFR of every game. A simple google search can bring up some relevant games where we spent the majority of the game in a 3-3-5 stack: 2010 Wisconsin and 2010 Penn State. I only bring up those games because that seemed to be about when the wheels were coming off. I am sure if I spent more than 30 seconds looking I could bring up more examples as well.
http://mgoblog.com/content/upon-further-review-2010-defense-vs-penn-sta…
http://mgoblog.com/content/upon-further-review-2010-defense-vs-wisconsin
So...yeah, you're wrong.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
Rich Rod was just terrible at Michigan...we ALL agree he had no support, but when it comes down to playing football, you'd got to play football.
His defenses sucked, and a year later, Greg Mattison made the same defense look incredible. How is that?
His offense sucked against good team when B1G season rolled around. That's what drives me crazy...people act like we lost every game 65-56. We didn't. We were AWFUL against OSU and MSU. AWFUL.
I'm not sure what the Rich Rod supporters can even argue...it's not like Dave Brandon was out on the field tripping Denard up or something.
Rich Rod is a great coach that sucked a Michigan.
Hoke is a terrible coach.
Dave Brandon is a terrible Athletics Director.
Why can't all 3 be true?
October 8th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
Can't believe you believe that. How in the world can a person be a great coach every place he's been, except at Michigan? He didn't stop being a very good coach upon arrival in A2. It was all of the BS, undermining, and opposition he faced from "Michigan Men" that prevented him from succeeding.
October 8th, 2014 at 1:56 PM ^
it was fairly common knowledge he would have come for a larger number, look in '3 and out' i think.
oh...it is veracity
October 8th, 2014 at 2:01 PM ^
No, actually, it isn't common knowledge at all, and Three and Out never made that claim.
October 8th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
88-89 of Three and Out supply the story:
However, when Stewart offered Casteel $275,000 and, more importantly, a two-year contract, it looked pretty good compared to Michigan’s offer: $265,000 and no contract at all. Casteel decided to stay put.
“If they don’t hire Stewar
October 8th, 2014 at 2:37 PM ^
Where in that paragraph does it say Casteel would have come here for more money?
October 8th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
I am able to draw that inference from that text without too much stretching.
Rob
October 8th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^
when he ultimately left he took a paycut to goto Arizona?
Casteel was born in WVA and coached there since 2001, by all accounts his family loves it in Wva (I think they may still live there...), and he was next in line to be the headcoach...all this before Holgo came.
This is what Casteel said after leaving WVU:
On why he'd come to Arizona after turning down Michigan in 2008: "That's a good question. I just think that things had changed a little bit, and I think that this was the right time to move away from West Virginia and move on to this challenge."
There is no evidence to suggest that Casteel would have come to Michigan no matter the salary. None. Everyone saying anything to the contrary is basing their opinion on speculation.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:03 PM ^
Yeah, maybe you can draw the inference from Bacon's subtle editorializing, but I have never seen one concrete citation or piece of evidence from anyone indicating that Casteel would have come here for more money. Not one.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:55 PM ^
.....without too much stretching....
October 8th, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
"There is one reason why RR isnt here today ..."
Not much for complexity, are you? :)
October 8th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
What if Antonio Bass was still playing football in 2008? Sigh...
October 8th, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^
would have fixed the defense to the point of being acceptable, which would mean RR would still be here.
My only question is - Could RR have recruited well enough to win consistently here? But we're probably talking first world problems in a situation where we are no longer a first world football school.
Rob
October 8th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
Rich did a fine job recruiting, but he didn't recruit kids who (for whatever reason) actually stayed in A2. Maybe they weren't a good fit, maybe their academics were bad, maybe it was just bad luck, but the guy lost a massive amount of players such that anyone would have struggled to build back depth. Regrettably, Hoke has also seemed unable to do anything once he built back the depth.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
This horse has has disintegrated due to the beatings but I won't drop this point. The reason RR had to take chances on kids is that we were under the threat of NCAA sanctions and all the people against RR were more than happy to feed the press negative story lines.
How was he supposed to recruit well under those circumstances?
If Brandon gives him an extension in October when we became bowl eligible and the sanctions were no longer looming he takes off in recruiting. With the Michigan name and Denard exploding all over college football we would have been in prime shape to get the top recruits. Guys like Sammy Watkins may have been a reality.
October 8th, 2014 at 8:29 PM ^
No $hit. This (recruiting under duress, that is) basic idea escapes 90% of the anti-RichRod posters on this board.
October 9th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^
He had Dee Hart and Sammy Watkins in the folds until he got fired. I think Jake Fisher would've came to Michigan as well. Rich Rod was starting to make an inroads to some of the elite florida athletes that would've gone to FSU, UF, Miami or SEC schools.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
I'm jealous that Arizona(!!) was willing to pony up and get Casteel to come to the desert. Good for Rich, I wish him success and may his kick-ass offense provide some inspiration for a more modern look at Michigan when we get our next coach.
October 8th, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^
took a pay cut to goto Arizona. But, by all means, keep living in your fantasy world that it was the lack of money that kept him from Michigan.
http://tucson.com/sports/football/college/wildcats/arizona-football-cas…
October 8th, 2014 at 3:50 PM ^
When Bill Stewart was let go, it was clear that Hologorsen wasn't going to keep Casteel. That made it easier for him to follow RR to Arizona. It was indeed the guaranteed contract and money that kept him at WVU instead of no guaranteed contract at Michigan.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
I'm not saying it's going to happen in Tucson, but, to be completely fair, we started 2009 4-0 and ranked #20 before an OT loss to State. In 2010, we started 5-0 and ranked #17 before losing to State. In both of those years, people thought we had it all figured out before the wheels eventually came off.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
In his first year at Arizona, he won 5 of his last 7 games (including a bowl game win).
Last year was worse, 3-3 in final 6 (5-3 in final 8)... including a bowl win.
He's also got 4 conference roads wins in 2.333 years. Including at Oregon. (And he won at home against Oregon).
He's far surpassed what he did at Michigan and the wheels coming off this year or not don't prove otherwise.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
RichRod beat Oregon at home and held them to less points than they scored against MSU. This is his second year beating Oregon. The MSU of those 2 seasons does not even compare to Oregon now.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
He did a great job beating Oregon on the road (with the help of some truly stupid moves by Oregon), but hard to compare games. For example, Arizona only beat UTSA by 3. Does that mean UTSA is better than Oregon?
October 8th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^
...sounds a lot like last year, actually.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 12:11 PM ^
I am researching this very subject as I sent a note to the Pac 12 commissioner and specifically asked: "Do you guys play defense out there?" He can't miss it as I wrote it on one of those little yellow sticky notes. I expect a reply in the next week or so and will post it.
Another thing I asked: "is half of a Pac 12 Division technically a six-pack?"
Looking at grad school with this stuff- pretty excited actually
October 8th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
Rich Rod interview(starts at 21:30) from yesterday on JT the Brick Show. He talked about Michigan and how by year four and five he felt like we would have been competing for championships.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
RRod would still be here if he had any Defense. If he'd won even 1 more game that last year he'd still be here. Maybe UM would be Top 10?
October 8th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 1:10 PM ^
is a firing offense. As opposed to now, wheh we can't score agaisnt teams we are equal or superior in talent to.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
He made some serious mistakes here—hiring Greg Robinson foremost among them—but it's clear there was going to be a significant portion of the program, fans and insiders alike, who were always going to have a pickle up their asses about him, regardless of what he was going to do. He doesn't have to deal with that crap in Tucson.
And he wasn't going to be competing for a conference championship here unless he could rectify the defensive issues first. GERG was part of the problem, and it's not clear that RR ever recognized that fact.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
We sure didn't have problems scoring, but after 3 years of getting completely shredded on D - you'd think a lightbulb would've gone off.
October 8th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
GERG was a low budget option foisted upon him
October 8th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^
GERG was a turd - moreso that if you're the HC and you know something isn't working, demanding a change is what you're paid to do, IMO
October 8th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
I really can't argue with much in that article. It's sad, if RR just would've abandoned the 3-3-5 and ran a solid defensive scheme, I think he could've done great things here.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^
Or if he was allowed to hire his own defensive coordinator!!
October 8th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
We knew it wouldn't be long before an article like this popped up. I think Rich handled it nicely. He's earned the right to put a little smirk on considering the current state of affairs. As an AZ resident it sucks though, because I will always cheer for the guy but it'll just remind me of what we could have had.