After all the rumors have subsided, all the dust has settled
and all the gnashing of teeth is over with, Michigan got their man. Not a “Michigan
Man,” but their man none the less.
Monday morning, West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez
changed hats and was introduced as the next Wolverine head coach. He’s
the man selected by that institution up North to lead an aging program into the
twenty-first century, albeit seven years late to the party. Though Rodriguez is
without Michigan roots, he will be fully embraced as true blue.
“It’s a great crowd,” the new Michigan
head coach said Monday morning at his introductory press conference. “Are
they giving away free hats or something?”
And just like that, the Fort, and Lloyd Carr’s combated,
secretive nature gives way to a more accessible, light-hearted kindred spirit.
But the role of Rodriguez goes far beyond that of warm jokes, accessibility and
the media stepping on egg shells.
This is about being elite. It’s about getting Michigan
to where it’s accustomed to being – on top. It’s also about
running neck-and-neck with Ohio State, who will be making its third BCS
National Championship game appearance in seven years under Jim Tressel. Even if Michigan toes the company line that this
was a hire to accommodate Carr’s retirement and continue along the same
path he paved for the Wolverines, we all know this one carries greater
implications.
In terms of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, Michigan fans
hope this hire will restore balance to the force. To quote colorful WWE
play-by-play man Jim Ross, “business has just picked up.” It’s
the job of Rodriguez, a said offensive genius, to engineer competition into a
series that had been completely lopsided since the arrival of Ohio State’s
Jim Tressel.
Forget that this man was arguably the second, third or
(possibly) even fourth choice of Michigan administration. Forget that this job
was supposed to be for the prodigal son – Michigan alum and LSU head
coach Les Miles. Unless Miles or alleged top choices Greg Schiano
and Kirk Ferentz go on to Hall-of-Fame type careers
and win many National Championships while Rodriguez fully flounders, he should
pass the litmus test of time as an elite head coach, restoring Michigan to the
proud tradition of excellence it felt it was lacking in recent years.
And if he does fail, he’ll be hung in effigy.
But if nothing else, Michigan already scored big. The sound
out of Columbus you hear is the collective moan of Ohio State fans loathing the
dismissal of Michigan’s recent mediocrity. Today, Michigan fans will
sport their jerseys. They’ll hum The Victors. They’ll boldly and
with a touch of confidence return to chiding Buckeye fans. Oh certainly this is
no different from any other day in the greatest rivalry in sports, but perhaps
now they’ll do so with their heads held high – there will be a pep
in their steps.
Even if Rodriguez is unable to live up to title of
self-proclaimed savior, dubbed to him by many Wolverine fans, he is destined to
do no worse than status quo. For Michigan, perhaps that isn’t much of a
consolation prize considering the program has lost six of the past seven games
against Ohio State and dropped four bowl games in a row. But for Buckeye fans
that know the percentages are stacked in their favor, unless Rodriguez is
totally inept, by sheer coincidence alone he should win more often against Ohio
State and in big games.
The truth is that a jury is still hung with regard to
Rodriguez. The former West Virginia skipper has gone 60-26 in his seven seasons
as head coach. He owns four conference titles in that span, though some would
argue that feat is diminished by being in the conference so nicknamed, The Big Least.
By bringing world class athletes to Morgantown, running the
spread option, West Virginia has been feasting on the competition for the past
three seasons. However, the type of talent he’s attracted to Morgantown
is unlikely to carry over into his Michigan tenure.
While the overall team speed enjoyed by Rodriguez for the
past few years has been enough to compete near or at the top of the Big Ten, it
also came with a caveat. Rodriguez has excelled in recruiting by taking several
players that have had questionable histories, troubled pasts and in some cases,
renegade histories.
Some may say Rodriguez has thrived by taking the who’s
who of academic and social trouble-making.
One has to look no further than this past season’s
freshman class to see an example. Star rookie running back Noel Devine is a
big-timer in a small package but struggled with grades and keeping girls from
getting impregnated while in high school. Though flunking a few tests and
having a few kids by the age of 17 is hardly heinous, Pat Lazear
has a little bit different rap sheet.
Lazear, a talented but troubled
freshman linebacker from Wheaton, Md. already owns convictions of credit card
theft and conspiracy to commit robbery on his record. Lazear
might not have even received the opportunity to play for Rodriguez had he not
pleaded down from the original charge of “felony robbery.”
But the list goes beyond this season. Chris Henry has been
charged with drug possession, DUI, providing alcohol to minors and illegal gun
possession since getting to the Cincinnati Bengals by way of West Virginia.
Adam “Pacman” Jones, meanwhile, has been
arrested no fewer than 10 times since being drafted by the Tennessee Titans for
charges ranging anywhere from public intoxication to assault and vandalism. The
most notable of his issues, the one that has him suspended this season by the
NFL, was his role in a Las Vegas nightclub altercation, where allegedly he
slammed a dancer’s head into a table and made a death threat to a guard.
However, to the credit of Rodriguez, he did decline a chance
to land Miami linebacker Willie Williams, who bolted after a probation
violation stemming from over 10 high school arrests for numerous charges
including burglary. Whether Rodriguez passed up the chance due to a personal
transfer policy or because Williams was a loaded gun is anyone’s guess,
but he did draw the line somewhere.
All that said: life should be about second chances. Perhaps
not third, fourth and fifth chances, but people should be afforded an
opportunity to bounce back from a terrible choice. What Rodriguez did in taking
these players was not even necessarily wrong. Football is a way for some kids
to stay off the streets and out of trouble. As long as Rodriguez provided them
structure, discipline and an alternative lifestyle to the one they were
submersing themselves in, then applaud Rodriguez for being a modern day Father
Flanagan.
But that won’t fly at Michigan.
No matter how noble the recruiting strategy worked at West
Virginia, Rodriguez won’t be afforded the chance to screw up with even
one outcast. The first behavioral reach that goes terribly awry in Ann Arbor
could be one of his last – at least one would assume given the high
standards Michigan claims to hold its institution.
Certainly Carr did walk the walk. While Michigan, like any
major football powerhouse had its share of in-house problems with crime and
misbehavior, Carr rarely if ever took players with questionable backgrounds and
a penchant for trouble. That was why Carr’s career continued to flourish
in the eyes of his administration – he was one of the good guys that did
things the right way, in spite of his suffering on-field success.
But a coach needs to be a dual threat. He needs to win and he needs to do it the right way.
Rodriguez appears equipped to get the ball rolling with more Big Ten
Championships, more victories over Ohio State and more wins at the end of the
season. Perhaps he’ll be far more immune to the silly September losses
that have often plagued Michigan as well. But he could learn a thing or two
about Carr’s way of conducting his program.
No coach is without skeletons in their closet. Not Carr, not
Tressel and not Ferentz,
Bob Stoops or any other guy with a good reputation. But all these guys are
proof that even good guys can have bad things happen around them. Stoops and Tressel have been subject to criticism for booster activity
during their tenures. Carr has taken heat for his bitter, grumpy attitude at
times and perhaps not dropping the hammer on the few players that may have
deserved it. Ferentz, meanwhile, has had a
surprisingly large percentage of players have run-ins with the law.
This is where Rodriguez will sink or swim at Michigan.
By every account imaginable, Rodriguez is a good guy. He
learned from Don Nehlen who learned from Bo Schembechler. Consider it “Blue” by
association. The natives won’t tolerate too many black eyes, especially
if Rodriguez is only able to slightly raise the bar from the past few years.
Will he recruit speed? Check.
Will he recruit talent? Check.
Will he win games? You bet.
Will he win enough? That one is a little tougher to say –
yet. Clearly, West Virginia had their shot this year, as good as a shot as it
gets, and they still lost two games. You can give them a pass for losing to
South Florida because it was without starting quarterback Pat White, on the
road, against a tough defense. But losing at home partially without him,
against a mediocre Pittsburgh team and scoring nine points in the process
simply didn’t cut it.
I doubt any Michigan fan will equate that with heartbreaking
losses to a rival, as if it were indicative of things to come for Rodriguez
against his enemy in Scarlet & Gray. However, it was a clinic on how not to
finish your National Championship-contending season.
I suspect we won’t know for some time just how this
hire will be gauged among the masses. Perhaps it will be deemed a success if in
six weeks from now, Rodriguez steals super high school quarterback Terrelle Pryor right out from his rivals’ noses.
Pryor, whom he recruited while at West Virginia, is thought to be bound for
Ohio State and ranks as the No. 1-rated quarterback nationally by Scout.com.
Or if Rodriguez fails on that quest, perhaps he’ll
still be regarded as a second-coming if he marches into Columbus next November
and returns home with a victory against (what’s presumed to be) a top-5
team and potentially the defending National Champions. Even if doesn’t
win, with a young team and being in his first season, he wasn’t expected
to be a miracle worker, so few would deem it failure.
We know the questions, but it may take years to get the
answers.
For now, we know one answer: Michigan finally got their man.
But will it be the man?