And So Ends the Richard Rodriguez Era

Photo Credit: latimesblogs.com

Yesterday we all thought it was official, but today it was finally official, Rich Rodriguez was fired as the head coach of the University of Michigan after three years at the helm.

And what a three years it's been. It started with a messy divorce from West Virginia, a nasty divide amongst people at the university and players on the team, and a shift from Lloyd's pro-style offense to the spread. He brought NCAA infractions to Michigan Football for the first time ever, and he had the worst three year span in Michigan history. Clearly, he needed to go.

But why did he fail? He succeeded everywhere else? Why couldn't he succeed at Michigan? Well, I'm going to tell you why Richard Rodriguez failed as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines

Well first of all, he was walking into a bad situation. Not everyone within the university supported him, and Lloyd had gotten a tad lazy with his recruiting, especially on defense. The cupboard was a tad bare, not as bare as everyone claims, but there were thirteen unused scholarships when he took over, meaning Michigan could have gotten 13 more recruits or guys to give scholarships to, that's on Carr.

But Rich didn't make the transition easy himself. Instead of tailoring the team to what he had, he refused and insisted on running the full-fledged spread. He isolated quarterback Ryan Mallett and pretty much forced him out. He refused to tailor his coaching to the talent he had, a sign of a stubborn man and a bad coach.

Another reason why he failed is because he didn't adapt his 3-3-5 or abandon it, because it failed against the power run game of the big ten. The 3-3-5 is a fast, athletic defense good at forcing pressure on the QB and good against the pass... with good talent in it. But when you play against Big Ten opponents, what are they going to do? Run the ball. OSU, Wisconsin, MSU, they all ran heavily against Michigan in Rich Rod's three years here... Having said that, Rich Rod's defense was even worse against the pass. Michigan put up school-record-setting numbers on defense in every category you don't want to set records in.

But the even bigger failure of him regarding defense was he didn't delegate full defensive responsibilities to a competent defensive guy. he should have hired his D coordinator and siad "You run this, do what you seem fit." Instead, he hired Schafer and Robinson and made them try to work with the 3-3-5 and lack of talent he brought in with his recruiting classes. He should have focused on the one thing he's good at: Offense.

But the biggest thing Rich Rod failed to do was to work on becoming a Michigan Man. He didn't fully realize how big of a deal the tradition surrounding this program was to the people of the University of Michigan, staff, students, alum, and fans alike. He should have tried harder to please the people that were against him and tried harder to be a Michigan Man.

But he didn't, he came in here with the attitude of "this is my team now, and I don't care how it used to be done, I'm here to do it my way, and if you don't like it, too bad." He had such a bad attitude during his tenure here that he isolated himself from a lot of Michigan supporters. He didn't help his own cause with the attitude he came with, and he needed to learn what it meant to be the coach of Michigan football. He needed to learn what this program was all about.

In his defense, I do feel bad for poor Rich now that he's gone. I despised him as a coach, did not agree with the spread, did not like the way he talked in his press conferences, sounded like a jackass, but I feel bad for him because he never stood a chance. The divide was so great when he as hired here, and many weren't willing to even give him a chance.

David Brandon said this in his press conference, and I bet it's true, "I don't think Rich had an easy night's sleep since coming to Ann Arbor." He had so much pressure and people were constantly criticizing him. It's hard for a head coach to legitimately succeed when not everyone within his program is supporting him.

But whether or not he got the support of the university, he did a bad job and got what he deserved. He did not deserve another chance, there was no justification for keeping him, even with that offense. Rich will succeed where he goes next, because there will be less pressure on him, and he probably will be in a conference with less recruiting restrictions. I wish him well, but I will be honest, I did not like the hire, and did not like him from day one. I saw the thought process, just wasn't a fan.

So long Richard, it's been... a living hell quite frankly.