Poor Rodriguez...
When Lloyd Carr retired, we wanted change in Ann Arbor. We wanted a system that would win us championships again. We hired the pioneer of the spread offense. We hired Rich Rodriguez.
His first year didn't go too well. People already wanted his head. Others argued to give him time. Say whatever you want about the "bare cupboard" that Carr left, it would be tough for ANY coach with the sudden absence of Chad Henne, Mario Manningham, Mike Hart, Jake Long, Adrian Arrington, Ryan Mallet, Shawn Crable, Mike Massey, Tim Jamison, Chris Graham, Jamar Adams, Brandon Engleman, Justin Boren, and K.C. Lapota. Still, there was hope for a bright future.
His second year, Tate was initially seen as the savior of Michigan football, even a Heisman hopeful at one point. At the end of the Western Michigan game, the student section was heard chanting "Rich Rodriguez!" over and over again. It turned into a losing season and another loss to the buckeyes.
Then the arrival of Denard Robinson came to free us from Oblivion. They were making room in the trophey cabinets for his Heisman. Then MSU happened, Iowa happened, *shudder* Penn State happened, Wisconsin happened, osu happened again, and the MSUntmsu debacle happened. As a result, Rodriguez will probably be gone.
Now, if we had brought in a pro-style coach, Mallet probably wouldn't have left, but regardless, that doesn't necessarily solve the defensive woes. Maybe Warren comes back, probably not. In my opinion, any coach that came in at the time Rodriguez did would have had a terrible tenure.
Now this is the part where I feel bad for the guy. There's, what, 20 starters returning? With a [finally] relatively easy schedule involving Minny and Northy. Let's say Rodriguez is gone and Harbaugh comes in. Chances are, Harbaugh will have success. Maybe a shaky start, as is natural with coaching changes. But if Harbaugh even has a 6-6 starting season with all the young talent Rodriguez recruited, he will be seen as a hero compared to Rodriguez. Again, this would have been done with all the talent that Rodriguez had recruited. Look at how much young talent there is right now on defense (and offense for that matter). Any coach coming in now will have some decent level of success. Right now, the cupboard is not so bare.
The short Rodriguez era will be seen as a failed experiment. People will look back and say that Rodriguez put a black stain on the Michigan football program. But I see most of his misfortunes as bad luck, not as his fault. The "empty cupboad," angry-michigan-secondary-hating-god, the NCAA violations and the misunderstanding of 20 minutes of stretching, etc. I really don't blame Rodriguez in whole for these events. But the general fan who looks back will see him as a terrible coach, simply because he came in at quite possibly the worst possible time to com in as a new coach. Truth is, he put his heart and soul into this program, and people see him as a bad man. Harbaugh might come in, take all the young talent he has, and be viewed as the savior. That's not really fair, but that's how it is. I feel bad for the guy, because he's really a nice guy. I'll still have a slight gut feeling to root for him wherever he goes.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:05 PM ^
Yup, and the media (ESPN) will say they thought he (JH) should of done more with the talent RR brought in. Then say, Michigan maybe made a mistake by not giving RR a fair shot. LOL, they (media) will flip flop and flow downsteam wherever it goes.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:22 PM ^
Harbaugh will enjoy a honeymoon period. In his first year, he won't get much more flack than the standard post-game playcalling criticism.
January 3rd, 2011 at 9:14 PM ^
I agree, especially if Denard does not transfer.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:35 PM ^
He didn't get a fair shot, but also didnt do himself any favors by losing to Dumtonio three years in a row and failing to get a top 100 defense together.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:06 PM ^
we were ranked in the 50's in 2008. At worst the 60's.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:35 PM ^
I thought you were being sarcastic, the man was given at least three years here to Coach For MICHIGAN! That's a crazy cool opportunity and I'm dissapointed it didn't work out. Coach Rod wouldn't want your pity, he's a competitor and he understands the game. If he's not going to have success here, it wasn't meant to be. But he's a winner and he'll win somewhere else. Poor Rodriguez??? That's just going way too far man IMO.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:44 PM ^
Yeah, $2.5M too far.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:40 PM ^
He actually had Massey and Jamison in '08.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:57 PM ^
He also had LoPata in 2008. And some of the others (Manningham, Arrington, Mallett, Boren and Mitchell) were on the team when RR was hired. We don't know for certain that all five would have left under any coach.
January 3rd, 2011 at 9:58 PM ^
He also had Brandon Graham, Donovan Warren and Jonas Mouton. All of them were five star recruits on the defensive side of the ball. He also had Will Johnson (3*). Terrance Taylor (4*), Brandon Harrison (4*), Morgan Trent (4*), Stevie Brown (4*) and Troy Woolfolk (3*).
I just named nine guys (mostly 4 and 5 star recruits) on the defensive side of the ball who already had at least one year in the program and were left on the roster for RR (plus Massey and Jamison that you already mentioned). The "bare cupboard" theory is the most over-played issue on MGoBlog.
The defensive roster that RR leaves for his successor will be much more bare than what was handed to him. It's also important to note that Mike Martin, the only true current impact player on the defensive side of the ball, was a Lloyd Carr recruit who committed in the summer of 2007.
January 3rd, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
You realize nine defensive guys in 4 classes isn't really that good, right? Now how about you name off all of the offensive talent he inherited and where they were drafted.
January 4th, 2011 at 8:31 AM ^
You realize that 11 guys play on the defensive side of the ball at any given time, right? I named nine guys who were given to RR (plus the two that were already named). That's 11 guys. We didn't even talk about John Thompson or some of the guys.
The fact is that he had a full defensive squad in 2008 and he turned them into the worst defense in the history of Michigan football (until his 2009 or 2010 squads). It maybe wasn't incredibly deep, but it was certainly better than anything that Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota or MSU could put on the field at that time.
As far as the offense goes, maybe you've heard the names Ryan Mallett, Justin Boren, Steve Schilling, David Moosman, Alex Mitchell, Brandon Minor, Carlos Brown, Greg Mathews....all of them returned with experience from the 2007 team.
That might not be a "Who's Who" of Michigan football....but it's certainly worthy of better than 3-9.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:54 PM ^
Maryland would have been perfect for Rich. Anyone else puzzled by Edsall leaving UConn for Maryland?
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:13 PM ^
Yeah I was, leaving one basketball school for another seems like a weird lateral move.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^
Get out while you are on top!
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:57 PM ^
Heaven forbid if we do not get Harbaugh and the Detroit Media thinks our new coach is a redneck non-Michigan Man. Our program will be set back another decade by slander and BS directed at him.
Spartans brag up Dantonio and overexaggerate him making it easier to recruit and do his job. Us Wolverines tear down our own with BS.
January 3rd, 2011 at 10:16 PM ^
You're blaming the media and fans? What in the world do they have to do with the 3-3-5 getting run over by bigger teams, missed field goals, failed 3rd and 4th down conversions, leading the league in fumbles, kickoffs that go out of bounds, poorly timed fake punts......
This is RR's team and it's cut in his image. He needs to live with that....for good or bad.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:08 PM ^
I wonder if RR appreciates WVU a little bit more, and WVU appreciates RR a little bit more?
Maybe they'll "get back together" if we give them a little nudge at a party.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:42 PM ^
Maybe in a private WV mountain cabin for a long weekend. They'll have a great time but never allow themselves to be seen in public together.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^
IMHO, this has been one of the more enjoyable threads I've read on here. Well thought out responses with good rationales. I am all giddy about it and I just wanted to write "Well Done!" to all of the contributors, sans myself.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^
It was the worst situation to hire a football coach.
Martin felt pressure to name someone quick and pulled the trigger on RichRod, before he was fully vetted, because he was a hot offensive name. Conversely, I'm not sure RichRod was sure he wanted to leave his alma mater, but may have been using UM to get WVU to fulfill promises to the football program. When WVU balked, he jumped at the chance to coach the Maize and Blue.
I don't think either side thought it out completely and it turned out badly for both sides.
RichRod is a good man and a good coach, but not every coach fits into every situation.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:36 PM ^
my dream of our team evolving into the Oregon, Florida, Auburn and now TCU of college football is sadly fading away.
While I feel for for RR and still wish he had the opportunity to coach his players to upper classman status, I am also excited at the thought of the possibility of JH coming home as he was one of my favorite players and would hope his hiring would offer the program a smoother transition.
January 3rd, 2011 at 8:25 PM ^
Richrod had it in his mind that he needed to basically scrap everything and start over. He had the AD's permission to do that. But still. RR signed on. That's what RR wanted to do. Not tweak. Not augment. The players had to fit his system, not vice-versa.
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<br>Therefore, what happened next was his responsibility.
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January 3rd, 2011 at 8:47 PM ^
okay, but one thing RR is not after all this is poor
January 3rd, 2011 at 10:03 PM ^
Who are these great young players on our defense? I see a lot of young players out there, but none of them seem much better than the freshman or sophomores on other teams.
January 3rd, 2011 at 9:32 PM ^
What a difference five years makes. Rich Rodriguez was the hot coach after West Virginia's 38-35 win over Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl. After Michigan's 52-14 loss to Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl last Saturday, Rich Rodriguez occupied the hottest of the coaching hot seats in FBS football..
While I'm not convinced that Rich Rodriguez is the elite Head Coach who once turned down the Alabama job and was Michigan's third choice after Les Miles and Greg Schiano in 2008, or the mediocre Head Coach who appears to be on his way out of Ann Arbor, he seems to be a good Offensive Coordinator when blessed with very good players who fit his system (Pat White, Steve Slaton, Darius Reynaud at West Virginia; Denard Robinson, Roy Roundtree and Martavious Odoms at Michigan). Nevertheless, his reputation has been damaged by his three years at Michigan.
If Jim Harbaugh decides to move to the NFL, and by a pure stroke of luck, Rich Rod gets to stay at Michigan for another year, it will come with extraordinary pressure on Rodriguez.
First, he (probably with help from Dave Brandon and some influential former UM defensive players) quickly will need to hire an excellent Defensive Coordinator and assistants to help coach the defense and special teams -- and give them full authority to implement schemes that best suit the available talent (and maybe find some off-season kicking and punting instructors to help the players who occupied those positions for Michigan this past season). Next, he will need to convince his top-rated recruits not to bolt for programs with more coaching security. Finally, he and his new Defensive Coordinator will have to thoroughly evaluate Michigan's current roster and determine where each and every player on the anticipated 2011 roster can best help the team -- and justify position designations and depth-chart placements to both the players and Dave Brandon.
Would that process be worth it for him? Maybe he will find that it would be best to take a year off, or make a move back to the Big East. Provided he doesn't bring along The Program Killer, Greg Robinson, either Pitt or UConn might be a good landing place for him. And if Jim Harbaugh goes pro and Rich Rod goes bye-bye, then Michigan might have to gamble that Delaware's K. C. Keeler would be for Michigan what Jim Tressel has been for Ohio State.
January 3rd, 2011 at 11:12 PM ^
What coach is successful without "very good players who fit his system?" That describes every good offense or defense ever fielded in the history of football.
January 4th, 2011 at 6:09 AM ^
I believe coach should get credit for the "very good players that fit his system." Afterall he and his staff recruit and develop those players.
January 4th, 2011 at 8:09 AM ^
all I know is that if the rumors of RR going to Pitt would be true that would be along the lines of Tom Brady leaving the Pats and going to replace Jim Bob at 0Su.... A WVU guy going to their biggest rival.... pure desperation and an I.O.U. to satan.