What could RichRod do to lose support?

I have already posted this in a previous thread but it has not received any traffic so I thought I would post it here so it could receive more views. I have been reading and following this site for over a year and figured that this would be the best time to chime in with an opinion that I haven't read. I know of the treacherous negbang and don't mind it as long as my point is made. In his last few years as coach Lloyd Carr received a tremendous amount of criticism from the fan base for running a program that was, for the most part, underachieving. There were people who defended him but it seemed like most were hoping for a new man to run the show and bring the program into the 21st century. Cue the hire of Rich Rodriguez and the hope that the spread and shred would take the Big Ten by storm and lead to vast amounts of success and wins. Then came all the baggage with the WVU buyout and paper shredding but he was our guy and we wanted to give the new kid in school a chance to prove himself. Once he came in there was a ton of attrition and we lost most of our Offensive Line and a extremely talented quarterback. People still thought that we would take the World by storm but it was not to be. We did not make a bowl in either of his first two years but it was cited that with the high levels of attrition that that task was nearly impossible to complete, so he received another free pass. The Feagan controversy reared its ugly head but lets face it, most schools have things like this happen and Michigan has had plenty of that happen in the past. That was blown out of proportion. We move along to practice gate. It is still theory that there is a contingent working against our coach but as more time goes on it seems that that theory may turn to fact. The papers obviously took advantage of his willingness to open up the program and have it gain more exposure than previous regimes had done. I thought this was great and provided more coverage which was excellent, especially when the season had passed. He learned his lesson. Now with the NCAA seeming like they are going to sentence us with some major violations the time has come to ask, when is enough enough? I have never met coach nor do I think I will be able to in the future. If our paths do cross I will treat him with great respect because he is the coach of my favorite football team, he has endured so much since he has come here and with all the things he had to deal with when leaving, and when I do get to see him speak he seems like a guy I could sit down, have a cold one with and be captivated by. With all that in mind I have come to the realization that he is not the man for the job at this school. He has come in and lost to teams that there was no business in losing to (please don't bring up Appy State, it is irrelevant to this), he's brought an exorbitant amount of controversy with him, he's created a bad image for the University in the media, and now it looks as though the team may have to face penalties which will work against our recruiting efforts which are one of the most important things in college football now. I will continue to rout for Michigan because I have done so since I was in grade school but I will not rout for this man because he took a great program and brought it to it's knees. To still be in his corner 100% seems completely irrational to me but when you're feed the same praise pieces over and over again it's clear to see why. In closing, I would like to say that I don't believe coach is a Michigan Man. The people who coined this phrase have led everyone to believe that if you are one that you have great integrity and a moral compass that will not stray. With everything that has happened since it was announced that Rich Rodriguez would be our coach I haven't seen him do much to validate his thought that he is a Michigan Man. Go Blue

As much as I like him and his body of work, I think that if he fails to get us bowl, then maybe it's for the best that we part ways with him. He's coming into year three, and the reasons for not producing aren't there anymore. I could give a flying fuck about what Lynch is doing over there at Indiana; they're still Indiana and we should not be jockeying for position with the likes of them this year. Besides that, I don't see anyone (Suckeyes included) as a lock to win the conference outright, having a winning record is not unattainable. I do have an issue with some people saying that now he has to win 8 or 9 games to stick around when most of us saw this day coming.

1) Eat small puppies and submit the video evidence to the freep 2) Finish less than 7-5 next year (and I'm really tempted to say 8-4, but 7-5 if he beats 2 of MSU, OSU, ND) 3) Get busted for a legitimate major violation. e.g. USC type Reggie Bush shenanigans

Michigan has to win at least seven games next year IMO. I would like to see them have a winning record in the conference too. This will be year three of his system and I don't see how 7 wins isn't attainable.

I'd say RR has already done a lot to lose support, through sins of commission and omission. Nonetheless, I get the feeling the dust will be settling and Michigan football under RR will be a well-oiled machine come Fall time.

I think a question that pairs with this nicely is, what will you say to the patron sitting next to you at the Big House when they boo Rich Rodriguez? Not the players mind you. That would be distasteful to say the least. What can you say to them, in a civilized manner, to help them better understand things from your point of view? This will undoubtedly happen and for those who are civilized and believe in words, not throwing objects and being all around assholes (yes I am speaking of Brian), what will you say?

I think my support lies more with UM football than Rich Rod. Since I do support the football program it is only logical that I also support it's coach. As far as wins and losses go over the past few seasons I would attribute that more to implementing a new system in which not many of the current players fit. We just reached 85 scholarship players after this recruiting class. I desperately would like to see him succeed because the alternative is blowing it up and starting over again. The team is on the cusp of being great again and would hate to see impatience be the down fall of being able to witness it.

What could Rich do to lose support? Apparently trying to stay positive while changing the culture of the football team is enough for factions to organize against him. He could probably win 10 games next year and the Freep would still call for his head.

He would actually have to do something bad. So much of his bad press has been due to an agenda in my opinion. If we have another losing season the heat will be on, but he is still the coach of MICHIGAN, so he is my coach. Honestly, all this press is making me support him more, because I just want him to succeed after putting up with this public assassination the media is giving him.

My 2 cents: I'm in the middle. I think Rodriguez is a good coach. I'm not sure how much of this lays at his feet as opposed to an apparently shitty compliance department not doing it's job. That said, the man is 8-16, and runs a fairly high risk, as of now, of landing Michigan with it's first major violations in football ever. I understand the "but the FREEP are assholes" argument, but it doesn't really matter to me - if everything was on the up and up, we wouldn't be looking at major violations. If we had filled our the CARA forms, turned in practice logs, etc., this would have never gotten this far. We didn't, and it did. So am I going to call for his firing? No, because I think he's a good guy, and a good coach. But am I going to tell someone who thinks that "8-16 with major NCAA violations" is worth getting rid of him over that they're an idiot? No, because it's a perfectly reasonable opinion given the current place of the program.

For me to lose support for RR, I would probably have to witness him commit a murder....and even then, it would depend.

1. If I at any point got the impression that he didn't care for the athletes as young men and were running the team purely as a business where Wins matter more than all else and the option for an education was compromised in any way. Just to be clear, I don't see that in anything he has done so far, quite the opposite. 2. If he had the chance to fully implement his system with players he selected that hjave some experience and the losses kept coming. I am no expert, but I know enough to see that there is a starting roster full of freshamn and walk-ons for 2 years in a row, that doesn't tell me he is working with a full deck as far as the talent and skills he needs to win with his philosophy. I wouldn't put a specific time limit on it, like it has to happen in 2010 or else. It is quite possible we have a pretty bad season in 2010 as well, looking at the defensive side of the ball and the people that will be in the secondary. It is likelt that it will have some exploitable holes. Things need to start to look up pretty seriously by the end of 2011. After that it would start to seem like a bad match we would need to look at who might be on the market and when to make a move and we shake hands on the Grand Spread Experiment and part ways. This would be VERy unfortunate, becuase at that point we will have a roster full of 'spread' type athletes and hiring a coach to go back to pro style would entail a few more lean years before they had what they needed. 3. If he committed an actual infraction that brought real shame to the university, i.e. academic fraud, paying players, deliberate flouting of rules, etc. Something that provided direct evidence of a flawed character that I have yet to see, again I see quite the opposite.