In a recent interview with 247Sports’ Josh Pate, Rich Rodriguez believes things may have been different at Michigan if he were brought back for the 2011 season:
Former Michigan head coach and current head coach (again) of West Virginia, Rich Rodriguez, believes things would have worked out at Michigan had the Wolverines not fired him after the 2010 season.
Rich Rod and the Michigan Wolverines got off to a historically bad start when he took over the program in 2008. His first year in Ann Arbor, Rodriguez led Michigan to a 3-9 record and three rivalry losses to Ohio State, Michigan State and Notre Dame. Even the win against Miami (Ohio) that year — who could forget? — was a tight 16-6 game.
The 2009 season was a slight improvement, as the Wolverines went 5-7 — and actually started the year 4-0 — but lost to OSU and MSU once again. Michigan made a bowl game with a 6-6 record in 2010, but was blown out by Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl and still lost both rivalry games.
But the foundation was in place to take off in 2011, at least according to Rodriguez. In a recent interview with Josh Pate of 247Sports , Rich Rod explained that had he been retained for another year, things would have started to turn around in Ann Arbor.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Well geez, because it didn’t work out at Michigan,’ — I still think had we had one more year, we would’ve (worked out),” he said. “The third year we went to the bowl game, and (the year after I got fired) they went to the Sugar Bowl , and all the kids that were making all the plays when they had that great year were kids that we recruited, we developed.”
Of course, he is entitled to feel and believe whatever he wants. Part of what he said is true, but there are also some fallacies mixed in there.
Rich Rod did recruit Denard Robinson, who was the starting quarterback during the Sugar Bowl year and had a good year under Brady Hoke. Rich Rod also recruited the starting running back in 2011 in Fitzgerald Toussaint, but he didn’t take off (get developed) until Hoke took over.
Disclaimer before we continue — I don’t want to make it sound like I am defending Hoke’s time in Ann Arbor. He also wasn’t great. I am simply proving a point based on what Rich Rod is claiming.
This is where things turn for the worse for Rich Rod. The leading wide receiver in 2011 was Junior Hemingway (699 yards), who actually played under Lloyd Carr for one year. Jeremy Gallon — Michigan’s second-leading receiver in 2011 with 453 yards — was recruited by Rich Rod, but he was mainly a return specialist under Rodriguez and broke out on offense the first year under Hoke. Again, a player developed by Hoke’s coaching staff.
And let’s just be totally honest — Rich Rod can take credit for recruiting some of Michigan’s studs on defense, but he can’t take credit for developing them. Michigan’s defense under Rodriguez was horrid from start to finish — the Wolverines gave up 28.9 points per game in 2008, 27.5 in 2009 and 35.2 in 2010. The defense, which was led by defensive coordinator Scott Shafer (‘08) and then Greg Robinson (2009-10) never improved enough to be competitive against the top teams any given season.
Michigan’s defense did a complete 180 in 2011, giving up just 17.4 points per game and only giving up 30+ points twice (ND, OSU, both were wins).
We could play the “what if” game all day, but Michigan probably wouldn’t have improved enough in 2011 to warrant bringing Rich Rod back for another year.
What do you think? Is there merit to what Rich Rod said? Let us know down in the comments section.