Fresh off a successful tenure as head coach at West Virginia, Rich Rodriguez was hired to replace the retired Lloyd Carr. Rodriguez came very close to leading the Mountaineers to an appearance in the BCS championship game before a regular-season finale loss at home to arch-rival Pitt ended the dream. Rich Rod never seemed like a fit in Ann Arbor despite his impressive record before his arrival. Here’s why it failed.
Five Reasons Why The Rich Rod Era At Michigan Was A Failure
Defense Was Optional
In Rich Rod’s three seasons at the helm of Michigan football, his teams surrendered 347, 330, and an abysmal 458 points in his final season. Those are the ONLY times in Michigan football’s illustrious history that they have ever given up more than 300 points in a season.
His last season was the worst as they had the 94th-ranked rushing defense and were ranked 108th out of 120 FBS teams on defense. By any measure, this was simply not Michigan football.
The Spread The Spread The Spread
Former Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler used to refer to “The Team, The Team, The Team. If you buy a Michigan football t-shirt anywhere near campus it’s likely that the current team number is on the shirt.
When Rodriguez arrived in Ann Arbor he scrapped the traditional power run game that had been a staple of Michigan football for decades and installed the spread offense. While the offense was prolific at times which helped Denard Robinson put up huge numbers, the spread offense didn’t help a defense that was already being deemphasized under the new headman.
The administration knew what Rodriguez was all about so there was no one to blame except themselves.
Mass Exodus
Unfortunately for Michigan, this was not the NIL/Transfer Portal Era. The point was that when you lost a lot of players during this time you couldn’t recover. Not only did they lose a lot of players but many criticized the program under Rodriguez as lacking “family values and integrity “. Ouch. Everyone knows that college football coaches have been known to utter a curse word here and there. But the former players said what they were subjected to was far beyond the pale.
His first team at Michigan finished with a 3-9 record, marking the first time in 33 years the Wolverines had failed to qualify for a bowl game.
The NCAA Comes A Calling
If you’re going to be accused of numerous and serious NCAA violations the least you could do is win. That obviously didn’t happen at Michigan under Rich Rod.
In 2009, numerous current Michigan players reported to The Detroit Free Press that Rodriguez was violating multiple NCAA regulations. We all know what former headman Jim Harbaugh has been accused of doing while at Michigan. However, can anyone explain imagine his former players ratting him out in the media? Not in a million years. Harbaugh’s former players loved him and still do.
The NCAA then sent a letter of inquiry to the school. The administration then conducted its own investigation that determined the staff under Rodriguez failed to keep logs of practice and workout times. That’s what is called a “no-no”. Then the NCAA accused the school under Rodriguez of committing five “major “ rules violations.
The Final Nail
Coming into the 2009 season which would be the second to last for Rich Rod, he brought in the eighth-ranked recruiting class in the country. The team finished with a 5-7 record that included consecutive blowout losses to Penn State and Illinois.
After starting the 2010 season which would be Rodriguez’s last in Ann Arbor, at 5-0, the team limped through the second half of the season to finish at 7-5. The fact that they were bowl-eligible for the first time in his tenure was not nearly enough to save him.
On January 4th or 5th of 2011, Rich Rod was dismissed as the head coach of Michigan. Finally, the nightmare was over. Michigan would then replace him with a man who said he would walk to Ann Arbor for the job.
Main Image: ERIC SEALS / USA TODAY NETWORK
