Rich Rod Fired

Rich Rodriguez did not live up to expectations while he was at Michigan

Yesterday, Rich Rodriguez was formally fired by the University of Michigan, just a day after sources started reporting that Rodriguez had lost his job.

This firing does not come surprising to people whether they are fans or they aren't. Rich Rodriguez was a great coach at West Virginia, but not at Michigan.

During his time at West Virginia he had a 60-26 record and was invited to play in 6 bowl games in 7 years. He also won the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, both BCS bowls during his tenure.

Rich Rod is known for his fast paced offense known as the spread, where wide receivers are spread out across the field and the quarterback, who is usually fast, like Pat White or Denard Robinson, can run the ball or pass. They take the ball from the shotgun, read the defense and decide to run or pass deciding on the defense. In addition Rich Rod likes giving the running backs like Steve Slaton at West Virginia draws which is efficient while running the spread offense. During his head coaching tenure at West Virginia, Rodriguez ran the ball about 69% of the plays.

In late 2007, Rodriguez took the job at the University of Michigan, after past coach Lloyd Carr stepped down.

In three years Rodriguez's record is 15-22 and only 6-18 in the Big Ten. The worst loss of his career and for Michigan in many years came in his last game this year in the Progressive Gator Bowl vs Mississippi State. State gave them a whooping and won by a score of 52-14. Michigan jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st but then gave up 52 straight.

That leads me to the next thing about Rich Rod, defense.

Yes, he produces great offenses that can score a lot of points but as super bowl winner Ray Lewis says, "Defense wins championships". I guess that is really true because Michigan can score all they want but if they can't get a stop they will not win games.

He also broke many terrible records at his time at college football's most winning school.

In 2008 he set a Michigan record for most losses in a season with 9. Also it was the 1st time in almost 50 years that Michigan had back to back losing records. The 42-7 loss to Ohio State was the worst ever verse their rivals and in total Michigan went 0-6 vs Michigan State and Ohio State.

On the defensive side, Rich Rod coached the worst Michigan Defense ever giving up the most yards and points per game, and also a record 52 points in a bowl game.

Rich Rod also led Michigan to a series of controversy regard NCAA allegations and breaking rules during his time at Michigan. He broke the time a team can practice and exceeded recruiting violations as well.

I think Michigan's Athletic Director, Dave Brandon said it the best.

"Michigan is not used to this"

That is very true Michigan is the most winning school in college football history and has won many bowl games.

Looking into the future, Brandon has a few people on his mind. College coaches Les Miles of LSU and Jim Harbaugh, of Stanford are both on the top of his list. Also many recent NFL coaches are on Michigan's list.

Harbaugh is also on pretty much every single team with an empty head coach spot's list. He is currently involved with the Miami Dolphins on becoming their next head coach. Also other NFL teams like the 49'ers and Raiders both want to have talks with Harbaugh.