Goodbye Coach Rodriguez

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Editors note:  This has been sitting in my draft box for a couple days now.  It's not in my nature to give up on a season, or this team, but at some point reality sets in, however difficult.  This weekend was a deep dose of reality.  I hope and pray that we find a way to recover, that what I saw Saturday was the exception for the 2010 Wolverines and not the rule.  I hope that I can look back on this post and laugh at how wrong I was.

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There were times when I thought I'd be writing this post earlier in the season, other times I thought maybe it wouldn't need to be written, and even other times I thought I wouldn't get around to it before he was gone. But this is going to have to be the time. Because we are a people without much patience. And that makes me sad. Sad because I would have liked to have known what could have happened had this been allowed to reach its potential. Throughout my Michigan Football fan career, this team was predicated on slow, powerful, methodical, boring play that resulted in wins 80% of the time, and that's not bad.  But so wasted was the talent, and so predictable was the playcalling and the system, that an end around or double reverse resulted in a fan reaction tantamount to that at a donkey show (don't look that up). The losing 20%? Losses on the west coast to faster teams, losses in bowl games to faster teams, losses to any team with a somewhat mobile quarterback.

And maybe that should have been enough for me. It was for many other Michigan Fans. Expectations of greatness, and results somewhere below those expectations, year in and year out, forvever. Of course, I wanted more. I wanted more 1997's. A string of them perhaps. Florida-like domination... USC-like (sanctions aside) dynasties. The greatest college football team of all time morphing into the greatest college football team of the modern era. That's all...just the world on a platter, served to me by a envious, teary-eyed, groveling group of OSU and MSU fans.

There was only one way to get there: SPEED.

So enter Rich Rodriguez, whose life work is speed. Offensive firepower based on lighting quick decisions and a team full of track stars. It's a hell of a plan. The problem is, when the system in place is so slow, you really need to start over. Michigan Football became a spread offense equivalent of an expansion team. You want speed? This is the sacrafice. You want to compete out of this conference? Then the players you have that hail from the state of Michigan simply aren't good enough. So he knew what he had to do, and he did an amazing job being nice about it. You just can't come out and say that a player just isn't athletic enough to play in your system. You can't hold a press conference and talk about a kid being slow. You don't belittle Nick Sheridan, you instead tell the world that he's competing for the staring job with Forcier and Robinson. And that's what Rodriguez did. He showed an amazing amount of patience and compassion with the hand he had been dealt. This was a team that lost the previous year to Appalachain State, and then graduated every player of any consequence, and performed a coaching search and coaching hire 60 days before signing day. What is he supposed to say? No, no, no....we don't want any of those guys that committed. That wouldn't have gone over so well.

So there's a lost class. So now your spread offense expansion team also has to take on another class of unqualified players.  It could already be considered a perfect storm...new coach attrition, new system attrition, poor coach hiring process, poor coach hiring timing, and drastic contrast between new offensive system and old offensive system.

But there was more.

There was also a defense. A defense so lacking in properly recruited talent that it could not have competed in any league, let alone the Big Ten. Lacking enough to result in the demise of one defensive coordinator...and two years later it's on the precipice of forcing the unceremonious exit of another. If you haven't taken the time to read Misogopan's opus "The Decimated Defense," you should probably do that right now. Eye opening to say the least.

The results of that perfect storm?  3-9.  A shock to the system of Michigan fans everywhere. And while there has been a drastic improvement from the offensive side of the ball since that campaign, it hasn't been fast enough. Certainly not fast enough to compensate for a defense that could not and did not improve, and also not fast enough to overcome decent Big Ten defenses in only its second real year of recruiting and implementation.

In a perfect world, the defense could have carried us through the transition, maybe just snagging a couple of extra wins here and there to keep the wolves at bay. Unfortunately, it did the opposite, sabotaging games and leaving us with a sour taste even after victories. Every amazing play by Denard Robinson has been met by an equally alarming and disappointing play on the other side of the ball. What we've been watching, when we are seemingly being successful, has not been football. It's been like a hockey shootout. Everybody scores most of the time, and the rare win at the end is somewhat unsatisfying.

And that brings us to the final leg of this journey, last weekend's contest against MSU. Again, the offense isn't quite ready for primetime, and the defense isn't even ready for storytime. The result is a 2nd consecutive loss to Sparty AT HOME, and a 3rd consecutive overall. They dominated us, turnovers or not. And Michigan State is no world beater. They've got an unexpected loss coming up in the next couple weeks. We will face better offenses later this season. We will face better defenses later this season. The problem is, we will also face worse offenses this year, and we will lose to them too.

It all builds up...and now it's over. To recover and avoid a near repeat of last year would be a colossal surprise to me.  With each loss, the pressure will build around the program. The aura of instability will ultimately be our demise if we don't react swiftly. "Lame duck" are the two most dangerous words in recruiting. That's right, Harbaugh will be here soon enough, wasting talent and flirting with chicks 30 years his junior at Rick's, marching the Wolverines back to high expectations and results that fall below those expectations.

Thanks for...well...just thanks Coach. You had a no-win situation, and you gave me a glimpse of the offense I always wanted. And despite your portrayal in the media, I always thought of you as a man of class and character. I'm sure you will have success somewhere where there isn't a perfect storm. I will think of you in a couple years when the alumni are yelling out the type and direction of the offensive plays before the snap...and they'll be right 80% of the time.

Saturday is EVERYTHING

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When it's "backyard brawl" week in Michigan, inevitably the question most heard on sports talk radio is "who needs it more?"  The answer to that is simple this season...Michigan.  Rodriguez's opening act in 2008 was a disaster at 3-9, last year's collapse after a 4-0 start was a dagger to the heart, and this year's 5-0 start needs it's validation in the defeat of a secondary rival, our little brother.  A win on Saturday and Michigan really is back.  Back in a bowl, 6-0 for the first time since 2006, and in a position to contend for a Big Ten title.  A loss and it's Harbaugh time unless we beat the Sweatervest.

Michigan State, win or lose, will still be Michigan State.  People are pointing to their soft schedule following the Michigan game, and the fact that they don't play Ohio State this season, saying that Michigan State will be in the driver's seat to challenge OSU for the title.  Right.  I'm sure this is the year that they don't shit the bed.  Win or lose on Saturday, I promise you that they will lose one of their next two games after Michigan (vs. Illinois, at Northwestern), and possibly both.  Sparty is Sparty, and neither Greg Jones nor Dantonio's chest stint are going to will them into being something they are not.

They are stupid.