Rodriguez leaving West Virginia to coach Michigan

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071216/SPORTS06/71216029/1048/SPORTS

Enjoy.
This oughtta be good the next few days.

 

Saw him dominate the state championship game yesterday. He'll be great anywhere he goes, but you're right -- he'll be downright devastating if he stays in a spread-option.

 

Ditto.

I saw Pryor early in the state playoffs ... the kid is simply amazing, and has a plenty of room for growth (muscle mass, passing touch, etc.).

Also, from what I've read, he's going to give basketball a try in college. Some hoops recruiting services have him in the Top 25.

I think UM, particularly from a football standpoint, makes too much sense not to happen.

 

I thought for sure Michigan would go for Brian Kelly. He won't be around Cincy too long.

 

Kelly has pissed off too many people on his way up the ladder.

No one at Michigan, especially Carr, liked him at all.

 

Is it really easier to win a title at Michigan than WVU? They were right there on the doorstep of the national championship game this year. This is a money grab, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Agreed, Hank.
Kelly even reamed the Cincy press for how the covered the Bearcats.
He'd never get away with that at Michigan. He'd be DOA as soon as he moved there.

 

I'm sure Greg Schiano will be certain to get his name out there for the WVa job so he can once again proudly proclaim that he turned it down because he is "a Jersey guy" who just loves being at Rutgers.

 

Rich was making pretty good money at WVU, where the $$ goes a pretty long way.

Let's remember that Michigan was No. 2 before it lost to Ohio State last year at the end of the season, so it's not like he'll have to rebuild completely.

WVU is great, but is it really in the pantheon of college football programs? It's not. Sorry, it's just not. Rodriguez was too young to be a lifer there, even though he was an alum.

I'll put it another way. How many times has a WVU player on the Heisman? How many times as Gameday visited Morgantown? How many HBO specials have there been made about WVU and Pitt? How many WVU games fit 110,000 people in the stands.

Michigan, like it or not, is a national program. WVU isn't. Not yet. It's been a great run and I hope it continues, but Michigan is a better job.

More pressure? Sure. But I think that's what he wants. Some coaches thrive on pressure. He could stay at WVU and to 10-2, 11-1, 9-3, 10-2 every four years forever and get fat and happy, or he can challenge himself and go to Michigan.

You take the job.

 

.... until JoePa leaves....

 

Carr, and before him, Moeller and Schembechler, has treated the media like crap for decades. U-M has the entire Michigan media under its thumb, the school doesn't care if the coach dogs the media (in fact, they kind of like it).

They didn't like Kelly because he was most definitely NOT part of the Michigan Mafia, and hiring him would have been a direct slap at DeBord, the heir apparent of the Carr dynasty.

Rodriguez is not part of the MM either, but he does have somewhat of a coattail endorsement from Nehlen, who was an assistant under Schembechler, so even if by posthumous proxy, Rodriguez is seen to have the blessing of Bo.

But the days of dive plays on 3rd-and-9 and punts from the 35 are probably over.

 

Seems to me Michigan is getting a young Lloyd Carr

Carr's record: 121-40
RichRod's record: 104-62-2

And they both have had choke jobs in the "big games."