OT: Rich Rodriguez lands mobile QB from TX plus 3 good LBs (PLEASE DELETE WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT THANKS)
After nailing down his new staff last week, former UM coach Rodriguez appears to have secured 3 decent LB commits to Arizona, plus a backup QB for returning Matt Scott.
The new quarterback recruit for Arizona is unranked mobile QB Javelle Allen from TX. Offers from Indiana, Ark State, NM State and Utah State not that exciting, but he does looks like another everybody-says-he-should-be-playing-DB someplace-gamebreaker that Rodriguez has been famous for these past several years.
Arizona's days at 11th in PAC-12 league rushing are probably over.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:54 AM ^
January 17th, 2012 at 4:03 AM ^
That Dakota Conwell kid looks like a bigger version of Austin White when he runs. For Arizona's sake, I hope he has a better attitude.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:23 AM ^
I have to give his offense some credit because I've never seen receivers get so wide as open as they did when he was here.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:32 AM ^
More wide open then Gallon vs Notre Dame? He may have done it on a more regular basis, but I think Gallon would disagree with your statement :-D
January 17th, 2012 at 4:58 AM ^
Eh, Gallon was open by a defender screwing up a pretty standard coverage (like how Ohio State scored their first TD against us) as opposed to RR's plays that would specifically exploit the defender's decision making.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
People are going overboard romanticizing the RR offense. Even Brian keeps advancing this meme that we threw 50-yard TDs to Roundtree on a weekly basis, which was far from the case.
Denard threw for more TDs in Borges's offense than he did in RR's - in fewer attempts.
In 2010 he had 18 TD passes in 291 attempts - one per 16.2 attempts.
In 2011 he had 20 TD passes in 258 attempts - one per 12.9 attempts.
And yet, I don't think anyone would argue that he had a great year passing the ball. He can still get a lot better.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
If I remember correctly, Roundtree had three 70+ yard catches last season. Not every week, but he was a big-play guy...not to mention Hemingway.
Offense doesn't matter if you can't stop people, so I'm not about to romanticize Rodriguez's offense because that would be taking it out of context. But big plays seemed to be a rarity in the passing game this year unless it was Hemingway (or sometimes Roundtree) catching a 50-50 ball.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:42 PM ^
so you would expect his numbers to be better. I remember his very first year on the team he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn...
January 17th, 2012 at 5:34 AM ^
This is the first time I've made this type of comment on any thread:
Why is this being posted? I really don't care what recruits RR is pulling in.
And fair enough, then I don't have to read this thread, right? That is always what I think when I read people bitch like I'm bitching right now.... but golly, I do have to read this thread title in the MGoBoard, and that alone makes me think of RR, and that alone makes me wonder why someone is posting his recruitng news, and that alone makes me (an even more) bitter (old man).
Markusr - sorry to be so negative, but I can't keep it in this time.
RR, best of luck, I expect you will do pretty well. I hope to never read about you again.
Hello: Brady Hoke, our new Michigan football coach (for more than a year)
January 17th, 2012 at 7:56 AM ^
Seriously, I'm all for skipping posts you don't want to read, but at what point should people who want to follow Rich Rod just join an Arizona blog?
January 17th, 2012 at 8:16 AM ^
Agreed.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:30 AM ^
He is our former coach and if something really big happened or maybe a retrospective after his season or next few seasons are over, I could see a post. But signing a few commits. He'll probably sign 20-25. And then are we going to get an AZ update every game? Maybe we should get Steve Fisher updates as well.
And to clarify, I was a RR supporter last year. Let it move on.
January 17th, 2012 at 9:21 AM ^
Agreed. Nice to hear how he's doing but this level of detail is too much.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:33 PM ^
When was the last RR post?
I agree that we don't need daily updates, but we don't get daily updates. There are quite a few members of this blog who wish him well and are interested in seeing him succeed at Arizona. I admit that I was interested in what he was going to do for a QB this year, as I'm sure were others (not that this commitment answers that question).
Why are people so agitated? No one is trying to bring RR back to Michigan. What's more relevant to this blog? The Penn State scandal, Ali's Birthday, or news about a former coach?
The thread title was clear. If you don't care to read about RR, no one was forcing you to.
Edit: RR was a U of M coach two seasons ago. Steve Fisher was a U of M coach 15 seasons ago. Not exactly apples to apples, but if you want to discuss Steve Fisher, feel free. I was at U of M in the early 90's. I have mostly fond memories of our basketball seasons. I won't mind a few updates as to how things are going for him at San Diego State.
- National 'match day' for medical school.
- Bad calls in the Syracuse tournament game.
On the Board last night:
- Ron Zook interview comments concerning Florida and Urban Meyer.
Previously:
- NFL free agency period/cutoff.
- Knicks coach resigns.
So let's be clear; it is not a matter of Board cleanliness and hygiene. It is not a matter of solid enforcement of OT posting rules.
What it is, is a PTSD-like syndrome among the Rodriguez haters alone. The reactive freakouts on the board are not caused by people who are merely interested in news about Rodriguez (much less "defending" Rodriguez, or arguing his merits).
So, yeah; let's be clear about that. "Rodriguez" ought not to be a banned topic like religion or politics, other than the fact that for certain Michigan fanboyz, any expression of mere academic interest in matters pertaining to Rodriguez set off spasms of anguish. This recent thread (200+ posts) was a perfect example:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/rr-um
If "Rodriguez" is to be as forbidden as "religion or politics" it is only because some portion of the Board membership here is incapable of handling the topic. And that would be unfortunate proof of "mere fanboy" status for this forum -- a status that I always resisted even when other sportswriters were making the grievous mistake of running us down for our valid defense of Rodriguez when it mattered.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:50 AM ^
A few of them have and their already starting to annoy the Wildcat fans.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:42 AM ^
January 17th, 2012 at 7:54 AM ^
Who cares who he gets. We MIGHT play Arizona some time in the next decade or two, maybe. This fascination with a former coach has zero to do with Michigan sports.
Talk to Brian about a special secton of the board, Diaries, Mgoboard and the daily musings of a former coach with the worst season in school history.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^
3-9 is worse than 1-7? With 0 conference wins instead of 2, including Wisconsin? Since when?
January 17th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^
In fact 2008 was a great season. Its too bad that they couldn't keep up the momentum in 2009 and 2010. Everything he said is completely invalid.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:21 PM ^
January 17th, 2012 at 7:57 PM ^
The good news was momentum did build, with 5 victories in 2009 and 7 in 2010. That led to the 11 victories in 2011.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:17 AM ^
someone can start a "Hello Wildcats" diary... preferably on another blog.
January 17th, 2012 at 10:01 AM ^
Considering he has turned several lightly recruited quarterbacks into stars (Dantzler, King, Pat White, Denard), I think it's pretty interesting when Rodriguez gets "his" quarterback. For all we know, that kid could be the next Pat White or Denard Robinson.
(I realize Denard Robinson had a lot of scholarship offers, but not necessarily for quarterback.)
January 17th, 2012 at 10:34 AM ^
If one article was correct, than he'll be more Dantzler than Denard. It listed his 40 time as 4.89. Maybe it's a typo, else he's not much of a dual threat QB....I guess he'd just be a "threat QB."
January 17th, 2012 at 11:20 AM ^
Yes, another RR thread!!!! Ive been waiting for one for a while now.
<br>Im so excited he just got a mediocre athletic QB. Thanks for posting this. I hope you make a thread every time a player commits to Zona.
<br>Do I even have to make the sarcasm symbol?
January 17th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^
I didn't make the thread, that's the person with the first post, ok?
You don't deserve a dog that cool looking. /s
January 17th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
was seen at TGIFriday's in Ann Arbor last week. I was there, and he ordered a miller lite, then a burger, then another miller lite. Just wanted people to know. (No, not really, but - just wanted people to know... ya know?) Maybe the board should make a new designation for "OT" - how about "TOT"? Totally Off Topic?
January 17th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
On the other hand, this is more newsworthy that the updates every time Darius Morris hits a free-throw in practice.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
3 lbs. like RR?
March 16th, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^
drinking Miller Lites on his infamous arrest.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:56 AM ^
I appreciate the posts about Rich Rodriguez and I hope they continue.
January 17th, 2012 at 6:09 AM ^
It looks like Rodriguez is losing no time getting recruits at Arizona, which is definitely a good thing for that program. Hopefully, in a couple years, we're talking about a Pac-12 South that is not just USC and air.
January 17th, 2012 at 7:09 AM ^
January 17th, 2012 at 7:10 AM ^
January 17th, 2012 at 3:32 PM ^
Anybody got pictures or video on the other two linebackers he signed?
March 16th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
reminded me of a golf partner I had. Depending on where we were in the match, he would say we should lose this hole so we could press the bet. RR would let the other team score so he could get the ball back or so it seemed.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:00 AM ^
When RR hired Gibson and some other assistants, I said, "This is a Michigan site. What's next? We get updates whenever he lands recruits?" Everyone said, "No...this just impacts Michigan, as it shows he likely would not have canned these assistants had he stayed." I kind of get that, but this is just getting ridiculous.
I don't want to fathom what's going to happen once his first season starts. All of a sudden, many of the Pac 12 haters are going to be arguing how "quality" most of those programs are when trying to justify how RR lost by 25 to UCLA.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:07 AM ^
And why is he on this board?
January 17th, 2012 at 8:10 AM ^
I am probably in the minority when I say I feel sympathetic towards RR , especially after reading, in Bacon's book, how poorly he was treated here.
Having said that, let's not have Arizona recruiting updates. They aren't a rival. They aren't in the B10. Geez. He's not coaching here anymore, let's all move on together, m'kay?
January 17th, 2012 at 8:17 AM ^
I doubt you are in the minority on feeling some sympathy for Rich Rod. It's hard to deny he was treated very poorly by Michigan and the media. (Unless you are my dad who can only think 3-9 and not see past that.) But my reading of Three and Out also convinced me that there was very little that could have been done differently that would have changed our record during the Rich Rod years. (With the exception of Carr encouraging players to leave, though I'm not sure how many of those who left would have stuck around even without that encouragement.)
But, yeah, that sympathy does not translate into an interest in how Rich Rod recruits. If I want to see how Arizona does next season, I'll search it out on my own, and not expect play-by-plays of the games posted here.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:51 PM ^
Casteel would have helped. But that's water over the dam. I'm glad to have Hoke and his staff.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:09 AM ^
The QB recruit he landed is very similar to him landing Justin Feagin in our first year....except Feagin had more offers. The arizona depth chart at QB is kind of scary as to how similar it is to his first year here.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:10 AM ^
To those not wanting to see anything more on RR, I understand and to some degree feel the same way. The problem is he is like the train wreck that makes you look away, but you just can't stop turning back for a look. Please make that go away!
January 17th, 2012 at 8:20 AM ^
I agree, but how many times can that train keep on wrecking? After a point we just need to look away! We are only noticing the wreckage because people keep pointing it out to us. Stop the madness!
January 17th, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^
Even though I'm not the biggest RR fan, I think a little RR news every once in a while is interesting. I'd just suggest limiting the threats to major headlines about him: if he lands a five-star or does something remarkable (or remarkably bad). RR landing a bunch of Arizona-caliber lbs isn't really news because any Arizona coach would have landed them.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:18 AM ^
Like it or not RR will always be linked with Michigan. Additionally, there are a lot of Michigan fans that did not want to see him go. If someone doesn't want to hear about him then don't read those posts. There are way more off topic posts having nothing to do with Michigan than those about RR. If people want to follow RR and share with other intrested Michigan fans, so be it. I don't see complaining about posts about Tom Brady, Dhani Jones, Tate Forcier, Demar Dorsey (who was only a Michigan recruit that never made it to campus) etc. Like it or not RR will always be a part of Michigan's history, all be it the the not so rich part.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^
How do you go from Tom Brady to Demar Dorsey? Anyone complaining about a Tom Brady post should be bitch-slapped.