Rodriguez Linkfest

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​GatorSports.com : Rodriguez's Story is More Than Just West Virginia 

Rodriguez is widely considered one of the godfathers of the spread that has become the rage in college football.

Star-Telegram : These Goodbyes Were Anything But Sweet

  • Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson on the same page as Rich Rod and West Virginia


Toledo Blade : Freshman Could Be Heavily Counted On
Rodriguez singled out receivers Martavious Odoms, Terrance Robinson, Michael Shaw and Darryl Stonum and running backs Sam McGuffie and Michael Cox, along with quarterback Justin Feagin, as possible first-year contributors.

Also showing "some athletic ability," according to Rodriguez, were freshmen tight ends Brandon Moore and Kevin Koger, a Whitmer graduate.


USAToday : West Virginia Billed Over $330K
WVU spokeswoman Becky Loftstead said school officials and the Board of Governors both believe the fee "is reasonable given the volume of work and the positive outcome."

ESPN.com Big Ten Blog : RichRod must buck trend to beat Michigan State
At Michigan, the last coach to win in his first try against MSU was Bennie Oosterbaan in 1948.

PS...what about that other trend, where MSU hasn't won legally since 1999.

Wall Street Journal : Questions for Rich Rodriguez

We hope it's exciting. But it's only going to be exciting if we're executing properly and scoring points, getting first downs and moving the ball up and down the field. We have challenges because of the inexperience. But it's a system we've run for many years and we're comfortable with and the players, I think, have really bought into it. They've learned it very quickly. We'll keep getting better because there's so much more that we can do than we're doing now.

SI Predicts the Apocalypse

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​The following teams are better than your team:

1. Georgia

2. Ohio State

3. USC

4. Missouri

5. Florida

6. Oklahoma

7. Auburn

8. Texas Tech

9. LSU

10. Wisconsin

11. Clemson

12. Tennessee

13. Texas

14. West Virginia

15. Kansas

16. Arizona State

17. BYU

18. Oregon State

19. Pittsburgh

20. Oregon

21. South Florida

22. Penn State

23. Illinois

24. Virginia Tech

25. Utah

26. Wake Forest

27. Cincinnati

28. Fresno State

29. Alabama

30. Mississippi State

31. Iowa

32. Maryland

33. Rutgers

34. North Carolina

35. Tulsa

36. Colorado

37. Boise State

38. Michigan State

39. Cal

40. South Carolina

41. Florida State

42. Connecticut

43. Oklahoma State

44. East Carolina

45. Nebraska

46. Miami

47. TCU

48. Boston College

49. Southern Miss

50. Northwestern

51. Texas A&M

52. Notre Dame

53. Arizona

Searching for the Two-headed Monster

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Justin Feagin showed a few things as well. It is going to be a competition that may continue to go throughout the season. I hope that we have at least two that we feel that we can win with that is the goal. Not so much as finding a starter as finding two that we feel that we can win with. - Rich Rodriguez, yesterday (from Scout)

Day One of Practice Across the Internet

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​Certainly a cop out posting roundups on back to back days, but hey, I'm not allowed into practice, so I'm relegated to repurposing the blog world for your benefit...

First up, ESPN is not surrendering their sports coverage to the Big Ten blogosphere just yet, and has put together some great coverage on a blog of their own.  They covered Michigan's first day on the field with vigor.  Highlights include...

Walking through Michigan's weight room on the way out, I stopped to check out the team-high totals for several categories. Johnson tops the bench-press chart at 500 pounds, Taylor squatted a team-best 625 pounds and cornerback Morgan Trent ran a 4.13 in the 40-yard dash.

Morgan Trent...4.13?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?  OK, OK, let's put this in perspective...

Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson ran a 9.79 sec 100 meter in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. His gold medal and world record was stripped after failing a post-race drug test. He went through 40 yards that day in 4.38 seconds.

So, considering the method to time the athletes gives a plus or minus .5 sec..let's assume that the 4.13 was downhill, wind-aided, and that the stopwatch was in the hands of someone with muscle spasms.  Otherwise, Morgan should leave the team immediately and head to Beijing.

Kevin Grady was at practice, and while the rest of the team is fast asleep, it is safe to assume that Kev is still practicing.

His next court date is set for Aug. 14, and he faces up to 93 days in jail if convicted.

MGoBlue has a recap and post practice audio, including a note about #4 of 20 to touch the ball:
Junior running back Carlos Brown returned to the field for the first practice of fall camp and took snaps at quarterback and running back. Brown missed spring and summer workouts with a finger injury.

Finally, MLive gives us a taste of McGuffie:

Sam McGuffie's got the moves. Again, insert the no-pads caveat, but YouTube video star McGuffie, a running back from Texas, sure looks like he's going be a slippery ball-carrier.

The Weekend Roundup: August 4, 2008

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Here's what happened while you watched the Tigers die.