COLUMN: Don't fault Rich Rod just yet
It’s hard to argue a coach in college football who is under more pressure this season to produce wins than Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez.
Even though the program is under a tremendous amount of pressure this season, he shouldn’t be fired at the end of the season.
For what kind of change he trying to make with the program is going to take some time.
Going from a pro-style offense that Michigan fans are used to for many years to the spread requires certain athletes to execute it. It’s hard to argue in Rich Rod’s first season he had those athletes. In fact, he didn’t have any.
He had to rely on Steven Threet, who is now starting at Arizona State and Nick Sheridan, neither of which could run the spread at all due to a lack of athleticism.
Then in 2009, Rodriguez was able to recruit the players he wanted, specifically quarterbacks Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson. Let’s face it, Tate was asked to do a lot for a freshman quarterback who enrolled early. Same thing could be said for all the other freshman that played a significant amount of time. Michigan had more underclassman then upperclassman making them one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten.
Tate was expected to win big games in front of 110,000 fans every week and go on the road to Iowa, Michigan State and Wisconsin and win too. I see three games last year that the Wolverines lost that could have turned into wins, giving them an 8-4 record and a trip to a bowl game.
By the end of the year the team was relying on Vincent Smith to run the ball, a fourth string running back and wide receiver Roy Roundtree, another freshman, to catch the ball due to all the injuries at the wideout position.
Then I look at this year’s team. Tate and Denard have another year under their belt, along with the freshmen who played last year.
But the team is still young with 17 freshmen on the depth chart.
Yes, the defense will be a weak spot, especially in the secondary because of lack of experience and players lost. The offensive line is probably the most experienced part of the team, lead by captain Stephen Schilling with 26 career starts. The team is still young and inexperienced by some standards, but to let Rich Rod go after this year would be a mistake.
Does this mean the program has to start from scratch again? They are already in a rebuilding stage. What kind of coach out there would want to come rebuild the program again? Most coaches want their own players. Plus, I don’t see Les Miles or Jim Harbaugh coming to UM anytime soon.
It wouldn’t be fair to let Rodriguez go. He has proven himself in the past.
By his third at Glenville State and West Virginia, he led both schools to winning records. The years following, his teams continued to win games and reach the top of their conferences.
He needs to develop his first recruiting class before people become so quick to judge.
Notre Dame did it with Charlie Wies, so why can’t another highly-viewed program like Michigan do the same?
