Rich Rod Observation From 10 Years Ago This Month

Submitted by Robbie Moore on

Saw this on the Diary post "This Month in MgoBlog History" January 2008. Included in a mailbag was a letter from a guy named Randy regarding Rich Rodriguez. Observed him when he was OC at Tulane. Suggested he might not be our guy. Amazingly prescient. Frankly...he nailed it. Check it out:

 

First let me say you have a really good and informative blog about UM. I started reading it when I thought you guys were going to take our coach. My email is to give you maybe a little different perspective on your new coach. I work in New Orleans for someone (big booster and on the athletic committee) for Tulane.

I always liked Tulane and was shocked the Rich wasn't hired when Tommy Bowden left. He was on the search committee for a new coach, so I asked him why they didn't hire Rich? His response was that Rich was an excellent football coach, but every once in a while, just did someone stupid and illogical. There were some others small things, but basically they just didn't feel comfortable about the guy. My boss still follows Rich (they are friends) and when this happened, his first response was, "he's not a Michigan man".

Michigan football, as you know, is what most programs strive to be. You run a good clean program with an exc
ellent reputation and win lots of football games. Lloyd Carr was a very good coach and probably knew it was time for him to leave. I may be wrong, but unless winning is everything, you guys may have happened on the wrong coach. I truly hope not.

Also, I bet you guys wanted the football program going in a different direction, you didn't expect all this hullabaloo. [It's the "multivariate spellings of hullabaloo" mailbag -ed]

Good luck and I hope it all gets down to football soon.
Randy

FWIW. The "occasionally does something stupid and illogical" thing would be a character flaw that fits in with a couple of the minor faux pas Rodriguez has committed.

MGlobules

January 9th, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^

he had terrible taste. But this has certainly closed the door on any sympathy that remained. I hope that Rita and the kids are ripping him several new ones as we speak. And I don't say that as someone who would condemn extra-curricular amours out of hand, by any stretch. It was the way that he chose to harrass the woman in question that just. . . smacked of the worst asshattery. 

Lakeyale13

January 9th, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^

My Observation about RR....He wasn't good.  You know what though, without RR we would never have gotten Shoelace.  It might have put our program 5 years back, but Denard was worth it in my book.  I think of that dude and just smile.  Was SO MUCH fun to root for and watch.

Don

January 9th, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^

but he cooked his own goose at Michigan and AZ and he's lucky to be wealthy enough that he won't be feeling any real pain unless Miss Rita takes him to the cleaners. Which he might deserve...

ldevon1

January 9th, 2018 at 4:34 PM ^

But the guy had no internal support, and the AD was an idiot, so it was doomed from the start. We have our coach after a Michigan Man failed, so let's stop scratching this scab off.

gbdub

January 9th, 2018 at 7:49 PM ^

Is there any evidence that's actually true, or are you just trying to use the current situation to retroactively justify hating on a guy for having a funny accent, giving the #1 jersey to a freshman, and otherwise not being a "Michigan Man"? Because I don't remember "sexual misbehavior" ever being given as a justification for disliking or not supporting RR while he was here. It was always the other stuff, and then the fact that he rather sucked at the whole "winning football games" part of his job.

snarling wolverine

January 9th, 2018 at 8:03 PM ^

I'm amazed that people are still pulling this bullshit about the #1 jersey and the rest.  

Dude, I rooted for the guy when he was here.  I thought that he was a good man.  Now I'm embarrassed we were ever associated with him.  There's a clear pattern with this man of making enemies at every stop and it looks like we're beginning to see why.

If you want to prop up the "Where's the evidence?" argument, that's your call, but don't expect too many to sympathize with you.

 

 

gbdub

January 10th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^

You implied that he was involved in the kind of behavior he is now accused of, while at Michigan. And that therefore, he didn't deserve our support in 2008-2010. But that only makes sense if a) he really did behave like that at Michigan, which as far as I'm aware there is no evidence of and b) that behavior was why the people who didn't support him at the time didn't support him (which again, as far as I'm aware, was never a reason given at the time). RR's behavior in 2017 can't retroactively justify Braylon Edwards' comments in 2008. Being "right" for the wrong reason makes you lucky, not smart.

If you were on board while he was here, that's fine. But there were plenty of "Michigan Men" giving RR crap about stupid stuff (Edwards' #1 griping and "Lloyd Carr's UofM" merely one of the most salient examples) that created unnecessary negativity around the program totally apart from the actual on the field results. I'm not going to argue that RR should have kept his job - the results made his firing inevitable. But I was and remain disappointed in the petty infighting among the fan and alumni base that seemed to be inspired largely just because an outsider was hired.

uncleFred

January 9th, 2018 at 8:19 PM ^

Well every reference I can find whether in the news or on a compensation contract has his last name spelled Rodriguez (with the 'd'). I'm perfectly willing to be corrected, but at this point you need a reference.

TK

January 9th, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^

This blog held an undeniable (and inexplainable to me) soft spot for RR for far too long. Hopefully it dies off for good now.

Esterhaus

January 9th, 2018 at 5:42 PM ^

There's the whole "let's play ball and see what happens" thing. Candidly, it's my stongly-held personal belief that most of us here would prefer to play ball and if we cannot in a given context at least let's just enjoy watching "play ball" together and have fun.

So reason to go there from here. Mostly.