2B - September 7, 2010

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0

2B - September 7, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom *

. IW

THE FIGHT OF
THE CENTURY
It's no surprise that Rich Rodriguez is
on the hot seat, but after two
seasons of irrelevance, so is the '
Michigan football program. j

The following is a special SportsTuesday
Column, following the Daily's exclusive sit-
down with Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez.
I sat down with Rich Rodriguez last
week in the days before his matchup
with Connecticut, my first time in a
relaxed setting with
the embattled coach to
talk about everything
he's been through in
his past two years in
Ann Arbor.
And I quickly real-
ized that it was impos-
sible to understand-
everything the man RYAN
has been through. KARTJE
He left his home, his
alma mater and his
blueprint in West Virginia, where he
went from canonization to demonization
in a matter of days. He knows that's the
nature and the passion of sports, but you
can feel the regret in his voice.

I asked him whether it hurt him that,
in the eyes of so many fans, he might
not be a Michigan Man. And I saw in his
response how much 8-16, NCAA viola-
tions and a whole host of other issues
have worn on him.
Upset by some of my questions,
exhausted by so little sleep, Rodriguez
shook my hand as I left. He didn't look
me in the eyes, likely grouping my ques-
tions with the "drama" that has been
swirling around him like a dark, acid
rain-filled cloud for so long.
And who would blame him? The 32
months Rodriguez has been here have
left him beaten and bruised. Thirty-two
straight rounds of an epic boxing match
with media, alumni and angry fans. Each
time, Rodriguez has returned to his cor-
ner - sometimes all alone in his spot in
the ring - despite the virtual pummel-
ing he has taken since moving shop from
Morgantown.
Michigan's very own Ali v. Frazier.
And Rodriguez is a fighter, in the tru-

01

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez was 8-16 in his first two seasons in Ann Arbor.

est sense of the word. With each hay-
maker, each uppercut, he has stuck to his
guns, despite the beating he took because
of it.
"We work everyday, everyday I get up,
everyday I go to bed thinking about what
I can do to make this the best program in
America," Rodriguez told me and Daily
Editor in Chief Jacob Smilovitz, full of
emotion.
"That's all I think about, that's all we
think about. So the rest of it is drama. I
don't need to deal with it."
Few people have a chance to see this
Rodriguez, the emotionally drained foot-
ball coach who clearly feels the weight
of the program crashing in on him. He is
a man who has made mistakes, plenty of
them. But it's hard, after speaking with
him, to see him as more than a victim of
circunmstance in some regard, unaware
of the gargantuan level of pressure upon
his arrival that stared him straight in the
eyes from across the ring.
What his
doubters - those
throwing the
punches - don't
understand or
often forget, is
that the Michi-
gan football pro-
gram is in much
too dire of straits
to continue on
its rope-a-dope,
fight-to-the-
death of Rodri-
guez.
Because both
Rodriguez and
m '' the Michigan
' football program
are locked in
the Fight of the
Century, and the
results of this
year's season
could determine
t the direction for
the next 10 or so
years.
When Bo
Schembechler
took over the
Wolverines' pro-
gram in 1969, not
only was he from
Ohio, but he was
mostly unknown

to those at Michigan. An anonymous
coach who worried mhany because of his
brash coaching style.
But Schembechler was inheriting a
dying program. After years of mediocre
teams fielded by Bump Elliott, the Wol-
verines were slowly slipping into obscu-
rity.
So when Schembechler's team defeat-
ed Woody Hayes's Buckeyes that first
season in one of college football's most
heralded upsets of all time, Schem-
bechler singlehandedly had set the
Wolverines for the next 30-40 years. He
never fought for support in Ann Arbor,
and although his record left little room
for criticism, not many questioned him
about his lack of a title or his 5-12 record
in postseason play. Hell, they made him
athletic director.
But Schembechler's almost four-
decade coast has ended, and the program
is in actual danger of slipping back into
the relative obscurity they knew before
Bo.
Now, I'm not foolish enough to think
that the winningest program in NCAA
history will be gone forever. No one is
foolish enough to tell you that.
But if Rodriguez and the Wolverines
aren't able to muster enough to save
Rodriguez's job this season, there's a
good chance Michigan fans will remain
in their front-row seats to a massive col-
lapse.
Rodriguez's hypothetical vacancy
would leave a clear opening for fan favor-
ite Jim Harbaugh or a similar big-name
"Michigan Man" to take his place. But
Harbaugh and many other coaches like
him mean at least two more seasons of
transition, more time to install a new
offense and possibly more underachieve-
ment.
Five years is a long time to be irrel-
evant (just ask Nebraska post-Tom
Osborne), and if the Wolverines hope to
avoid that five-year total, that Husker-
esque fall, they'll need to let Rodriguez
fight another round. Or at least give him
an ample shot to deliver a few punches of
his own.
Because if Rodriguez loses this fight,
Michigan loses too.
It's easy to forget for some, what with
his acquired-taste charisma and West
Virginia accent, that Rodriguez was
brought to Ann Arbor because he was
known as a football genius, the pioneer of
the spread offense.

"We work everyday,
everyday I get up,
everyday I go to bed *
thinking about what
I can do to make this
the best progam in*
America."
- Rich Rodriguez
And he knows that the first two years
of his tenure didn't go as planned. He
made it clear to us that the process is
going much slower than he had even
planned for.
"I knew after the first spring it was
going to take a little longer to do what we
wanted to do," Rodriguez said.
"You just try to focus on doing what
you've got to do to build the best program
in America and I still believe we've made
strides to that end. It's just been a lot
slower than anyone wants - especially
me and my staff."
Those strides, those first few haymak-
ers to the doubters who had bludgeoned
him for so long came Saturday, when his
spread offense led by Denard Robinson
made a good team look absolutely silly.
Connecticut coach Randy Edsall made
sure to announce to the world that Rodri-
guez, after two years, is ready to fight,
with his spread offense to boot.
"It's ddja vu all over again, West Vir-
ginia, Pat White, 3rd down and 15 and
they run the quarterback draw. Here we
go again," Edsall said.
And that's what he was hired for.
That's why he's been fighting for 32
straight months.
Maybe you don't think Rich Rodriguez
is a Michigan Man. Or the right man for
the job.
But he's the only man for right now.
And if Saturday was any indication, he
may make a lot more people look silly
before he taps out.
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