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A major announcement by Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne today signaled the future of the school’s football program.
(Arizona AD used clever Twitter post, photo to announce next football coach)
Byrne’s attention-grabbing Twitter and photography skills left the media and college football fans agog as they pondered the possibilities of social media.
He also happened to hire the school’s next football coach in the process. Read more…
At a golf outing in Glenville, W.V., on Saturday to commemorate his Glenville State coaching days, Rich Rodriguez talked to reporters about his abbreviated stay at Michigan.
“There wasn’t anything in the job that surprised me. When I first got the job, after about two months on the job I figured out there was going to be more work to do than I thought. But there wasn’t anything that we didn’t think we could handle. We thought we went through it slowly and surely until it got to the point where it could take off.
“But it didn’t happen.”
“.. I knew after my first spring it was going to take more than three years, and I told them that.
“Maybe they forgot.”
When asked about his future in coaching, Rodriguez clearly indicated why his demise was assured at Michigan - by what he didn’t say.
“I’m not going to say that I’m sure I’ll get back into coaching, but I know I want to. I just hope to get the right opportunity. Somewhere where everyone is pulling in the same direction.
“I told a good friend of mine who is an A.D. at another school, some people think ‘this job is better than that job’ and they really don’t know that what’s really important is you have everybody pulling in the same direction. The boosters, the athletic department, the administration, the coaches and the players.
“If you have that, you have a chance to have success.
“We had that at Glenville (State) and we had that at West Virginia.
“That’s, to me, what I’m looking for.”
So who said Stop to Richrod’s Go (Blue)?
The general consensus is that one of the keys to Rodriguez’s departure was the non-support of Lloyd Carr from the very start.
Carr didn’t dissuade that way of thinking when asked last week, “do you think the integrity of Michigan football was at all hurt by Rich Rodriguez?”
Carr’s response: “I can’t answer that. I think it was a disappointment for everybody.”
Carr’s remark was in the context of minor NCAA sanctions placed on the Michigan program while under Rodriguez.
Sanctions that are a shadow of what UM interstate rival Ohio State will soon be facing.
Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.
Wednesday night I posted video of new Michigan football coach Brady Hoke referring to UM’s Buckeye rivals as “Ohio” over and over and over again.
At the time I posted the footage, I wasn’t completely sure that Hoke had deliberately enacted an abbreviation-based embargo on Michigan’s interstate neighbors.
Now I am.
Today I was sent a photo of a rather unique clock currently on prominent display in the Michigan football team’s weight room that rules out Hoke’s halfway characterization of the Buckeyes as anything other than gamesmanship. The Wolverines coach has installed a reverse countdown clock in the UM conditioning facility that tracks the exact time ’til Michigan takes the field against Ohio State on Nov. 26, 2011. Under the clock’s display is a Buckeye football helmet and the words, “BEAT OHIO.”
But “Ohio” isn’t the only UM rival assigned such in-house hokum by the Wolverines coach.
Hoke also has a backwards-running clock for Michigan’s Oct. 15, 2011, East Lansing engagement with Michigan State.
A supposed quote by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio - apparently uttered at a recent gathering of Ohio high school football coaches in Columbus - is also noted by a sign erected in the same UM training area: Read more…
Following LSU’s Cotton Bowl victory over Texas A&M in Dallas on Friday, Les Miles couldn’t have made more clear, at least under the circumstances, that he was seriously considering a move to the Univ. of Michigan.
(Michigan AD Brandon has access to Dominos Jet)
Though as Miles left Dallas for Baton Rouge with his team following the game, Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon’s private jet, of which he has access based on an agreement with former employer Dominos Pizza, was spotted arriving at Love Field in Dallas just hours after Miles had departed the city.
According to flight records, Brandon’s jet arrived from Scottsdale around 7pm local time on Saturday. (Brandon has a vacation home in Scottsdale.)
Earlier today a Lear Jet featuring a University of Michigan-themed paint job was spotted at the Baton Rouge metro airport - just a few miles from LSU’s campus.
The jet is personally owned by Richard H. Rogel, a wealthy “independent investor” and high-ranking official at the University of Michigan who in 2004 personally donated $22 millon to the school. Rogel is also the former president of the University of Michigan’s Alumni Association and served as Chair of a University of Michigan fundraising initiative that raised over $3 billion.
Along with Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross and Mets Owner Fred Wilpon, Rogel is also a member of the school’s “Director’s Cabinet in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.”
The plane, with the tail number N929SR, was also spotted in West Virginia last March as former Univ. of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez utilized the jet to visit family.
So why is it significant that Rogel’s private jet made a stopoff in Baton Rouge today?
Tim Reynolds of the ASSOCIATED PRESS broke the news late Saturday that Miami Hurricanes football coach Randy Shannon had been fired and that Miami Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt, who made the call to jettison Shannon, would meet the media about his decision Sunday at 1pm ET.
(Canes AD, OU Coach were K-State teammates)
After firing Shannon, Hocutt said in a statement, “Our expectations are to compete for championships and return to the top of the college football world. We will immediately begin a national search”
The PALM BEACH POST reports, “offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland has been told he will be named interim coach,” while UM Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple has also been fired.
The Post reports candidates for the job may include former Univ. of Miami quarterback and current Georgia coach Mark Richt and perhaps current Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville, who served as a UM assistant under Dennis Erickson.
Former Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach actively pursued the Miami job in 2006 when Shannon was hired by University of Miami President Donna Shalala and then-athletic director Paul Dee. Read more…
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a somber memorial service for the 29 West Virginia miners who died on April 5, drew thunderous applause from the Beckley, West Viriginia, crowd when he invoked Rich Rodriguez while describing the miners:
“They were fathers, grandfathers, sons, nephews, husbands and fee..onces (sic). They loved hunting, fishing, riding horses and four-wheelers. They hated the way Coach Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan (applause).”
Knowing what we now know about Rodriguez’s departure from Morgantown, if that remark provided some relief for the surviving family members of the fallen miners, I’m all for it.
Read more…
Rich Rodriguez gave a speech in suburban Detroit last night that included him comparing the woes of Michigan football to Hurricane Katrina:
It’s really kind of ironic that the New Orleans Saints overcame the hurricane a few years back. And we’ve had a few hurricanes of our own. We had a big hurricane in August, and it kind of hit us like a ton of bricks. But you had 120 young men and a bunch of people on the staff that said this is not going to tear our program apart.
Rodriguez also noted that he once lived in Louisiana, which means that if he receives any subsequent criticism for such an asinine statement in the coming days, I’m sure he’ll use that as cover. Read more…
Earlier this season, Michigan had to deal with the suspension of Jonas Mouton after he was caught sneaking in a quick sucker punch on a Notre Dame player. All of this was much to the chagrin of Rich Rodriguez, who had maintained that Mouton had not done anything wrong and would not be punished by the team. After that, RichRod became the conference’s most vigilant film studier, pointing out a questionable forearm shiver by Purdue’s Zach Reckman on a defenseless Northern Illinois player as that game ended. Out came the Big Ten Banhammer once again, and Reckman caught a one-game suspension from the conference. Video of both offending plays is after the break.
(Bussed-under Boiler to Rich Rod: MAD MUCH?)
Surprisingly, Reckman and Boilermaker head coach Danny Hope weren’t terribly impressed with Rodriguez’s involvement in Purdue’s disciplinary procedures and took it a little personally. So even as revenge is a dish best served on a scoreboard–Purdue 38, Michigan 36, in this instance–Hope and Reckman decided to make the most of the opportunity of meeting RichRod at midfield after the game. Commence catty slapfight ownage. Read more…
It would pretty well suck to be Rich Rodriguez these days. After all, the Detroit press seems to be on a witch hunt, except it’s not really a hunt, since RichRod’s already right there and they’re not looking for anyone else. At the same time, though they tut and moan about everything about the program, wins are the only thing that’ll shut them up, and they’ll come when they come.
(Not a man having a good time.)
So when some good news from off-the-field business comes along and can help Rodriguez manage the media horde, well, that’s just plain great. Nothing can possibly go wrong with a piece of news like “Michigan’s GPA is the highest it’s been in 25 years,” which Rodriguez says the Academic Success Program told him. Why, just a few months ago, he told reporters, his Wolverines “have recorded the highest GPA ever recorded.” Great news! Let’s just let the newspaper double-check on this and oh dear no, we’ve got a bit of a discrepancy. Juuuust a bit.
