Rich Rodriguez Won’t Succeed at Michigan - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

Rich Rodriguez Won’t Succeed at Michigan

Posted on November 21, 2008 at 02:01 PM.

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Rich Rodriguez has been a very good college football coach. He’s still a good coach and will be in the future. I just don’t see that future being at Michigan.

Some marriages just seem destined for failure. The two people may be very nice but something just isn’t right with them together. That’s my feeling about Rich Rodriguez and Michigan. This whole thing has been an uncomfortable union. It started off rocky with the botched coaching search that was supposed to land Les Miles. It ended up with Rich Rodriguez who wasn’t a Michigan man who didn’t run a Michigan offense. Then Rich Rod was trashed by West Virginia and sued. Most of the offense left for the NFL. Players transferred out criticizing Rich Rod for swearing too much and not providing a family atmosphere. He failed to land Terrelle Pryor. It was one negative thing after another even if some things were overblown or flat out untrue.

All of that stuff takes a distant back seat to winning. Even a down year of 7-5 or 6-6 would be acceptable in his first year. Instead, the worst season in the history of Michigan football unfolded. They are going to lose nine games with five at home and one of those against Toledo! There is still no quarterback on the current roster that can run his offense. Without one, the offense will struggle badly again. Two highly touted freshmen are coming in but can you rely on a true freshman quarterback to bring back the winning tradition? How long will it take? Instead of one step back and two steps forward, we are seeing two steps back and Rich Rod praying he gets the time to take three steps forward.

The pastor at my old church moved away after over 15 years of service. One of the things they did to help transition a new pastor was to hire an interim pastor before they hired his successor. They have often found that after a long relationship it is just too hard for a congregation to accept the new guy without constantly comparing him to the old guy. Bridging that gap can help ease the congregation into accepting change and a new face. While Rich Rod was hired to be the long-term answer I think he will end up the interim one.

Watching Michigan trying to run the spread option offense without a capable quarterback is like watching my kid trying to stuff a square block into a round hole. Unfortunately, that’s what Michigan tried to do by hiring Rich Rodriguez to be the head football coach. It still may work out but the early prognosis is not good.

Comments

# 1 jkra0512 @ Nov 22

Your point was even more apparent after the Ohio St. game. Rudy, I feel your pain. I was a gung-ho Charlie Weis fan when he got here but he should just be a offensive coordinator. I think much of his success came from the coaches he worked under (Parcells and Belicheat) and having extraordinary QBs (Quinn and Brady). It's tough to be patient with a guy who is arrogant, I have the most utmost respect for his off-the-field character. But anything football related to him bothers me. I know your pain Rudy, hang in there kid, Michigan/ND rivalry will mean something again someday.

# 2 rudyjuly2 @ Nov 23

Next season can't possibly be worse than this year.

# 3 sportznut02 @ Nov 24

Well man i respect your opinion but hope you are wrong. Now Rich Rod wasn`t my first choice, but i do think that he can succeed here.

# 4 rudyjuly2 @ Nov 24

I'm not rooting for Rich Rod to fail. I just think it's setting up to happen that way. I think it's going to take him longer than the Michigan fanbase will accept to get his system in place. I do think he did a lousy job this year though and should have adapted more to the talent (or lack of it) that he had. There is no excuse for 3-9.

# 5 superjames1992 @ Dec 1

I still think that he will probably get things turned around eventually. The problem is that I don't know if he'll get enough time.

Also, Rodriguez had WVU pretty mediocre before Pat White came along. The two years before White came, WVU was 8-5 (6-1 Big East) and 8-4 (4-2 Big East), but WVU was never really any good either year. OOC they were terrible.

That was with Rasheed Marshall at quarterback.

I just wonder if Pat White is a once-in-a-generation talent at what Rodriguez wants. I just wonder if he can find another Pat White. If not, I'd say Michigan will be more of the 7-5 or 8-4 with a few ten wins seasons variety and fans will be calling for his head.

We'll see, though.

# 6 rudyjuly2 @ Dec 2

I agree. I think Rich Rod needs a special running QB like Pat White to truly make that offense go. I didn't like what I saw this year.