By Rock Westfall
Few Michigan Men will admit it now, but the hiring of Rich Rodriguez was a popular idea in 2008.
A Broken Carr Triggered Calls for an Upgrade
Saturday, September 1, 2007, is one of the most historic days in college football history. The new Big Ten Network televised its first game as the Michigan Wolverines hosted the FCS Appalachian State Mountaineers. It was not expected to be a competitive matchup, and few sportsbooks offered action. The ones in action made Michigan a prohibitive 33-point favorite. In what is forever known as “The Horror” at Ann Arbor, Appalachian State took a 34-32 upset win for the ages.
Many Michigan Men were literally in tears afterward. Others were in a trance. All were humiliated. The rest of America was laughing hysterically, gleefully dancing in their dens, and intoxicated with schadenfreude. The Leaders and the Best got their comeuppance for decades of conceit arrogance.
The next week, Michigan hosted the imaginative, high-tech, and Nike-backed Oregon Ducks. The Wolverines were 8-point home favorites yet were blown off the field in a 39-7 loss.
This time, the Maize and Blue faithful turned nasty and aggressive after the game. Head coach Lloyd Carr and the administration received a hate-mail blitz in the aftermath. The loss to Oregon was not a lightning strike like “The Horror.” Instead, it was an indication that Carr and his Wolverines were rapidly falling behind the times.
Michigan fans were tired of Carr’s boring and predictable offenses. They wanted flash, pizazz, and points. They demanded to enter the 21st Century. They desired to trade an their old Carr for a shiny new one with all the modern features that their stale and stodgy program model lacked.
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Carr, by then feeling intense, white-hot heat, and athletic director Bill Martin quietly agreed that Carr would retire at season’s end.
TIME FLIES: Happy Appalachian State Day to everyone but Michigan fans
16 years ago, TODAY 🤯🤯pic.twitter.com/CVoJGqGNvX
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) September 1, 2023
A Stumbling, Humbling, Bumbling Search
Bill Martin did much good in his time as Michigan’s AD. His crowning achievement was the spectacular renovation of Michigan Stadium. He was able to update the Big House without too much of a price increase to the masses, leaving it to large donors and suite holders to pick up the tab.
But in his final assignment of hiring a head football coach, Martin was woefully unprepared. Martin inherited Carr, who finished with a .753 win percentage, five Big Ten titles, and a national championship. Martin was on a comfy cruise control ride with the current Carr.
Michigan’s haughty arrogance is legendary, and it was most apparent finding Carr’s replacement. Michigan expected a stampede of coaches to storm the gates begging for the job, only to find that nobody did.
Certainly, Michigan Man Les Miles wanted the gig but was in the process of leading LSU to the national championship. Thus, Miles had to operate covertly. Martin was open to hiring Miles, but Carr despised the former Michigan player and assistant. And after Kirk Herbstreit falsely reported that Miles would take the job, the LSU coach had to deny it. He ended up getting a raise as the highest-paid coach in the sport at that time.
Most humiliating for Martin and Michigan, they were openly rejected by Greg Schiano of Rutgers. When the Rutgers coach rejects Michigan, it’s a profound embarrassment. But that is what happened.
Michigan’s Mountaineer Man
Despite not yet landing a top coach, there was still one more shot at a credible, Grade-A leader. Rich Rodriguez was on the brink of the 2007 national championship at West Virginia, where he led a program renaissance. Rodriguez went 11-1, 11-2, and 9-2 in his final three seasons in Morgantown. Had the Mountaineers not been infamously upset 13-9 at home by putrid Pitt in the regular season finale, they would have played for all the marbles. Rodriguez was so well thought of that he accepted the Alabama job the year before, only to renege at the last moment. Of course, Alabama ended up ok, hiring Nick Saban and building a dynasty.
Surprisingly, Rodriguez was not getting the full support of politicians and the administration in West Virginia. The brass was insecure over Rich Rod’s success and wanted to put him in his place. Rodriguez had enough and was ready to leave his alma mater. When Michigan called, it was the perfect excuse for Rodriguez to bail and take over a Mount Rushmore program.
Spreading Itself Thin
Most Michigan fans were undeniably excited about Rodriguez’s arrival. They were all in for his spread offense and imaginative tactics. There would be a painful transition from Neanderball to the fast-break, high-tech Rodriguez playbook. However, adaptation would modernize the Michigan program and make it competitive with programs such as Oregon.
Unfortunately, there was a hardcore minority of Michigan Men who never accepted Rodriguez. To this imperious group, Rodriguez was a country bumpkin without Michigan connections, style, or elegance. They hated his use of the word “ain’t” and that he would sometimes chew gum when speaking. They were used to the scholarly style of the polished wordsmith Carr, who had a large dictionary in his office and was an elite representative of the university at press conferences. The down-home Rich Rod never fit the Michigan Man mantra or culture in the eyes of the Maize and Blue’s pretentious and tony class.
The biggest betrayal of all was from Carr. During the search, Carr called Rodriguez and encouraged him to consider taking the job. But after Rich Rod arrived, Carr was eager to help his players transfer elsewhere and was not supportive. Subsequently, there was a lot of innuendo and bad-mouthing against Rodriguez. A Michigan Man is not supposed to be a double agent, but Carr was.
@johncanzanobft when Oregon played at Michigan they got a ton of recruits who loved the Kelly Offense and led to Rich Rod getting hired by Big Blue
— CallMePaul🌲➡️🌵 (@UncleJpau) August 14, 2018
A Bad Fit from the Start
Indeed, the transition from being a Big Ten Bruiser to a finesse spread team that emphasized speed was a difficult one. Michigan went 3-9, 5-7, and 7-6 under Rodrigez. While his teams improved and his offense was increasingly potent, his defenses were an embarrassment rendered helpless. Long-time Michigan fans found the program unrecognizable. Its cultural fabric was quickly unraveling.
The Rodriguez years were never peaceful and a case of continuous landmines blowing up. Rich Rod’s time was wasted on items ranging from his buyout, perpetual plots by insiders attempting a coup, media, and message board negativity to NCAA investigations of excessive workouts. It was said Rodriguez never had a peaceful night’s sleep in Ann Arbor.
In his final game as Michigan coach, the Wolverines lost to Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl 52-14. For Michigan, that was utterly unacceptable. Rodriguez was fired. As Rich Rod said, “It was a bad fit from the start.” It certainly was.
Michigan football never looked or felt like itself during the Rodriguez era. A program built on toughness and fundamentals was transformed into basketball on turf.
As the years played out, there was a heated intra-institutional debate. The masses still backed Rodriguez, but the elites wanted him gone. Everyone did agree that Michigan not having any form of defense was an unbearable indignity. Finally, it was agreed that only a Michigan Man could unite the fractured Maize and Blue family.
Brady Hoke replaced Rodriguez and went 11-2 in his first year. Hoke was a popular assistant under Carr and was national coach of the year with Rich Rod’s players in 2012. And while Hoke was an ace recruiter, his coaching and development were increasingly suspect. Michigan got worse each year under Hoke, despite having better players, and he was fired after four years. But that led to Jim Harbaugh and an eventual national championship.
Michigan Had to Betray Itself to Find Itself
Ultimately, the Michigan Wolverines had to try and be something they were not in order to reaffirm who they were always meant to be. Jim Harbaugh restored the Bo Schembechler and Carr tradition of tough, hard-nosed, mistake-free football. In the same way, Michigan fans ruefully longed for a return to the old ways of strong interior line play and nasty defenses. They learned that the original Michigan Way was the right way. It took the Rich Rodriguez experiment to arrive at that final understanding and self-acceptance. Ultimately, the Rich Rodriguez era was essential to Michigan’s return to glory.
