Rich Rodriguez turned the program around at Tulane(the Green Wave has since returned to the depths of college football). After a 3-8 first year in West Virginia, he developed the Mountaineers into one of the most dangerous programs in the NCAA.
He then took over the Michigan Wolverines. The first year they were pretty bad, but, I was not terribly surprised. He only had three starters back on offense, and he was introducing a new offense. Heck, he had a bad first year at W.Va., so he could be excused for a bad first year at Mich.
Last year, though, was scary. Rodriguez's teams gave up 166, "377", 127, 229,and 251 on the ground vs. their last 5 opponents! Did you ever think you'd see that with a Wolverine defense?
I don't think Rodriguez has lost his ability to coach, but, is it possible his players at Michigan just will not buy into his system? The fact that some players turned him in last year concerning his practice schedules was pretty scary for Rodriguez and the program.
Looking at this year's squad, I still believe this program can be turned around, and quickly. The high recruits are still there, the new offense is now in its third year, Rodriguez made a great hire at defensive coordinator in Greg Robinson, and the team has 14 starters back.
The problem with those returning starters is the fact I don't see a clear-cut leader on either the offense or defense, which forces me to repeat an earlier question: when was the last time you saw a Wolverine team without clear-cut leaders?
Rodriguez has always been a good coach for my wallet. For that reason, I will hold out hope that, like Tulane and West Virginia, he will eventually be a good fit in Michigan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment