SI Lead Story: Rich Rodriguez thriving at Arizona (writer talks some about Michigan)
Nothing new but thought others might find it of interest on a Thursday afternoon.
"Seemed like what was a Rodriguez problem in 2010 was actually a Michigan problem"
Quote by Rodriguez on Michigan "It's not like I dwell on it, but when people ask me about it, I say, yeah, it sitll bothres me. It still frustrates me because we'd like to hav eseen what we could do with another year or two."
Talks about how Arizona AD Greg Bryne who hired Dan Mullen at Mississippi State thought hiring Rich Rodriguez to Arizona was a no brainer.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^
30,000 points exactly. Save the keyboard that you used to type this comment in case the MGoBlog Hall of Fame requests it one day.
Also, this my memory is consistent with yours. I just checked on Football Outsiders, and their FEI ratings had Michigan at #59 in 2009 and #55 in 2010. So not much improvement there, at least according to that measure.
October 30th, 2014 at 8:05 PM ^
The "he got better" argument is predicated on the fact that he started at 3 wins in year 1, and fails to take into account the points you just raised. Plus the fact that "he got better" completely ignores how the defense completely TANKED each year. Remember? First year, it was underwhelming, second year it was bad and we all thought "well, it can't get any worse". Then it got worse.
The offense looked flashy, but couldn't do anything against real competition and wasn't good enough to carry the team by itself.
October 30th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 9:03 PM ^
It's pathetic that 17 people would upvote this irrational argument:
"Since I can't go back in time to see how RR would have done. I'll just look at Hoke's fourth year for guidance on how much better it would have been."
If you wanted to use extrapolation to reach a conclusion you would look at RR's record, which showed improvement every year (3-9, 5-7, 7-6) and expect that he would go 9-4. If you also took into account how the Big Ten collapsed in 2011, you might guess that RR would finish at least 11-2.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
happy for him.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
It was definitely a RR problem...specifically a defense problem.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:13 PM ^
Perhaps if the University had ponied up the money to bring Jeff Casteel like Coach Rodriguez wanted to he would've had more success. But instead, in the infinite wisdom of those adminstrators with multi-million dollar contracts, they cheaped out on the biggest revenue producing entity in the AD, leading in great part, to where the program is today.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
RR's annual budget for a defensive coordinator: $250k
Hoke's annual budget for a defensive coordinator: $750k
So yes, the Athletic Department caused him to hire poor DCs.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:22 PM ^
RR's current annual budget at Arizona is smaller than the one he had at Michigan. Money was not the problem.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
Check your facts. Jeff Casteel is making $425k at Arizona.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:40 PM ^
I'm talking about the total budget for all assistants. RR has just over 2 million right now, and had well over 2 million here.
Even if we're just focusing on the DC position, 265,000 was above the national median in 2008. That shouldn't have resulted in the 109th defense in the country.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:51 PM ^
This isn't meant to be snarky. Does that national median include non-power 5 conference teams? And what would that number look like if it was only to include Power-5 schools that are truly trying to compete at the national level? (Thus exclude the Indiana's and Purdue's of the Power 5 conferences.)
As I recall, while Michigan was paying GERG $250k, Illinois (notoriously cheap) was paying their DC $350k.
October 30th, 2014 at 4:46 PM ^
Yes, the national median does include non-power 5 conference teams. I can't find any data on power 5 conferences alone, but Michigan was not that far off other top programs. Florida State's DC made 315,000 in 2009, and Kirby Smart made about 360,000. Jim Heacock was making 260,510 at Ohio State. Hell, we were paying Gerg more than MSU was paying Pat Narduzzi.
The other problem I have with this argument is that it simply assumes Michigan set a cap at 265,000, which we don't know, and it assumes Casteel would have come here for more money, which we don't know.
Do you people really think Bill Martin said "Okay fine, we'll give you $1 million for your new weight room, but you're not getting a penny above 265,000 for your defensive coordinator!"? Why is it so hard to fathom the possibility that Casteel just didn't want to come here?
October 30th, 2014 at 6:26 PM ^
and the fact that that was not even the two year contract...just one season.
given the level of doubt about RR's future there and all the vitriol, he made a decision to stay where he had a contract, family roots and and outside shot at a headcoaching gig at some point in the future.
Quite simply, it was obvious RR wanted to bring him along and the deal was not made sweet enough.
October 30th, 2014 at 6:59 PM ^
The story that I had heard around here was the RR was offered the funds for Barwis/Weightroom or Casteel. He chose Barwis.
I can't verify that chatter or quantify the numbers on either side of that equation.
October 30th, 2014 at 11:35 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 3:24 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
You are correct.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:40 PM ^
we spent several million on his WV contract buyout. He had the resources he needed. I'm not bashing RR. Some of the problems were his some were directed at him internally, but money wasn't the issue.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:59 PM ^
He still filled his defensive recruiting classes with hybrid players and DE/LB tweeners who never found positions, put Cam Gordon at safety, Craig Roh at linebacker and went through a dozen defensive backs never getting production out of anyone besides Jordan Kovacs.
I say he deserves some of the blame.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
"Nope..." It was definitely a Michigan problem. They gave Rich Rod around $350,000 to hire a DC. Greg Mattison is getting around $1 million. Rich Rod has demonstrated that his defenses are fine if he gets his preferred DC.
Here is what I think is the best quote from the piece:
Rodriguez simply walked into a situation in which he -- like the guy who succeeded him -- was set up to fail.
This statement is an example of why I place the blame on the current situation solely on David Brandon and why I can't muster any emotion more intense than sympathy for Brady Hoke.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
Here is a list of a few teams that paid their defensive coordinator less than Michigan in 2010 and fielded better defenses:
Akron, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico, Utah State, Ball State, Ohio, Houston, Bowling Green, Fresno State, North Texas, Duke, Wake Forest, Tulane, Army, UAB, Central Michigan, Louisiana Lafayette, Miami (OH), Western Kentucky, Temple, Hawaii, Florida Atlantic, Tulsa, Toledo, Idaho, Buffalo, Southern Mississippi, Troy, Nevada, Arkansas State, Marshall, Northern Illinois, Louisiana Monroe, Middle Tennessee, Air Force, Kent State, Florida International.
Now how did all those head coaches manage to hire such defensive genuises with so little money?
October 30th, 2014 at 4:06 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 4:11 PM ^
Because it supports the argument that money wasn't the real issue. So many other teams were able to field much, much better defenses with smaller hiring budgets.
October 30th, 2014 at 4:40 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 4:47 PM ^
FEI incorporates strength of schedule.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:02 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^
In 2008, nobody was offering that kind of money for DCs, and John U. Bacon may be a solid writer, but he's just guessing too.
October 30th, 2014 at 6:22 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 11:46 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 4:36 PM ^
So what.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:32 PM ^
so no one from a Big Ten program or other power 5 conference team? And this supports your argument, how, exactly?
October 30th, 2014 at 11:43 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
"Nope..." It was definitely a Michigan problem. They gave Rich Rod around $350,000 to hire a DC. Greg Mattison is getting around $1 million. Rich Rod has demonstrated that his defenses are fine if he gets his preferred DC.
Here is what I think is the best quote from the piece:
Rodriguez simply walked into a situation in which he -- like the guy who succeeded him -- was set up to fail.
This statement is an example of why I place the blame on the current situation solely on David Brandon and why I can't muster any emotion more intense than sympathy for Brady Hoke.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:54 PM ^
Couldn't disagree with you more. No one fathomed RichRod's head would be so far up his ass about defense. Even RichRod didn't. Had he, he would have demanded that he and Casteel be a package deal. Instead, his ego and the Michigan brand swept him into Ann Arbor and epicly bad defenses followed. The problem with RichRod at Michigan wasn't a Michigan problem, it was a RichRod don't know D and got no Casteel problem.
The one thing we have learned over the last 7 years is that isolating coaching conversations to the head coach only tells half the story. Coordinators play a massive role in the success of the program.
Add that RichRod recruited like crap, and there you go. I wouldn't want him back, except as offensive coordinator.
October 30th, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 4:45 PM ^
Oh, chill. Arizona has played two good teams all year, and one (Oregon) was really beat up. Yes, they beat them and that's a great win. They then lost to a solid but not great USC team and they haven't played anyone else. Remember how awesome we thought our RR teams were halfway through the year? Let him play a few more good teams before we get all jealous.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:06 PM ^
You are such a fucking toad.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:08 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 5:25 PM ^
Because he doesn't care about that side of the ball. That stat shows the earlier arguments about recruiting D that much more obvious.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:07 PM ^
Where imprisoned Enron execs are starting to emapthize with our malaise from 2008 forward.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
Forgotten about that 2007 football team that kicked this whole shit show off.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^
that there is something fundamentally wrong with Michigan. I think they look at RR -- success (WVU), failure (UM), success so far (Zona) -- and the flailing around of the Hoke regime and don't understand what is happening and the suggestion is that something is wrong with UM.
Matt Hinton had a tweet about this when it was announced that we interviewed Sumlin for Hoke's job:
@smartfootball @jcshurburtt This implies Sumlin would have obviously succeeded at Michigan.
— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) September 30, 2014
@smartfootball @jcshurburtt Oh, the latter.
— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) September 30, 2014
I should probably add that I totally disagree because I don't believe in magic or curses. I do believe in bad decisions and bad luck.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
The bad decisions that Michigan makes is being so ingrained with so many old traditions.. like running pro/power style offense. If you are one of the elite/greatest programs that means you know that you must be creative, adapt, and evolve to keep being elite. We don't do that, bc all the fans and alumni want the tradition tradition tradition!
Yes, there are some programs who are winning doing the old way, but it's not very many. Which obviously we should see we need to make changes. ohhhh wait.. we did. We hired Rich Rod to bring us that change and then everyone bashed him, bc he wasn't a "Michigan Man" (dumbest shit ever) and his team wasn't winning enough yet.. dispite the yearly progress in wins. So, we fired Rich then hired a "Michigan Man" to take us back to our good ol' tradition of pro/power style football AND that got us a Football program that is accelerating right into the abyss!!!
Side story to my rant.. My high school would never hire a football coach that didn't belong to the school. I mean someone who had to be affiliated in the school, such as, teacher, athletic director, etc. We never won many games.. just against weak opponets that everyone could beat. We always got our asses beat by the top teams in the conference. 2 years after I graduate my high school finally went out and hired them an actual football coach. Took him a year or two, but he now has them winning. For the first time in over 12 years we had a winning record. We finally figured out that the coach didn't need to be someone who had ties to the program, just someone who knew how to win. This story is errily similar to Michigan Football. Which makes me even more sick, bc I'm reliving this shit twice.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^
it has anything to do with magic or curses, but the the freaking pressure cooker that the program is especially with the lack of success. It's the ace pitcher on the mound with the yips during the world series.
October 30th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
Boy reading those tweets you'd almost think there were people with influence inside the athletic department with selfish agendas that have nothing to do with the team. You might assume those same individuals are more committed to seeing their personal requirements met (manball) rather than seeing the team do what it takes to win.
Look the more Rich wins and the more we suck it becomes harder and harder for the hard core haters (looking at you Lord Baloo) to claim the problem was Rich and not us.
But they'll still try.
October 30th, 2014 at 5:12 PM ^
October 30th, 2014 at 5:34 PM ^
If you flip a coin and its heads does that mean there is a problem with the coin if it turns up heads the second time? I mean you had a 50/50 chance so If it turns up heads did you make a bad choice in the coin? Does the United states suck because there coins are broken? I think the most likely explination is that each coin toss has its own odds. Two hires by two ADs do not mean that the whole school is crap at picking football coaches. It means we have done a bad job at picking two coaches not anything more.