The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

January 5, 2011 -- 3B

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom January 5, 2011 - 3B

STAPLETON
From Page 1B
our trust, our confidence in his
system. He had to earn that by
winning, of course. But even
before he got to Ann Arbor, before
he even had a chance to win, it
seemed to us like he'd already lost.
From there, starting without
the support of a sizeable portion
of the fan base, winning consis-
tently was difficult at best.
And he didn't win. Three wins
in the first year? Are you kidding?
Michigan became the laughing-
stock of the Big Ten and the coun-
try. Mighty Michigan, reduced to
a shell of what it once was. And
he just kept losing. Even when he
won, we remained skeptical. Sure,
he beat rival Notre Dame twice,
but they were struggling, too; in
shootouts, we worried about the
defense and whether the spread
could work consistently in the Big
Ten.
"He just isn't a Michigan man."
Rodriguez would have to earn
that title - but could he, really?
Because doesn't that title imply
more than just success on the
football field? We like to think it
does, because if it doesn't we're
exactly how we believe almost
every other fan base is - winning
is everything.
For us, it's supposed to be about
more. If he had won eight games
his first year and Michigan had
played in the Rose Bowl instead
of the Gator Bowl on Saturday,
would Rich Rodriguez be a
Michigan man? If so, doesn't the
term "Michigan Man" mean "A
Man Who Wins?" And if not, was
Rodriguez ever going to be able to
become a Michigan Man?
During this past season, in the
midst of our excitement about the
high-scoring offense and Denard
Robinson, we knew. We knew
the defense was still suspect. We
knew Robinson wouldn't stay
healthy. We watched the wins,
but did we ever really believe
them? It's hard to say. Some of us
AUERBACH
From Page 1B
Will Hagerup handled kickoffs.
Michigan stopped attempting field
goals after Brendan Gibbons missed
amissed a 35-yarder early in the sec-
ond half. That meant the Wolverines
had to keep going for it on fourth
down, which didn't work, because
as Rodriguez put it, "When you can't
kick field goals, it hampers you a
little bit."
Then, throw in the media circus
surrounding the man. Pick a topic:
Rodriguez's job security, whether
he's a "Michigan Man" (whatever
that means), his rumored potential
replacement, Jim Harbaugh, the
NCAA violations or his buyout from
West Virginia.
It's a cloud of scrutiny that con-
stantly hangs over the guy. Even
in Jacksonville, where it was 72
degrees and sunny, that dark cloud
loomed over Saturday's game.
At the postgame press confer-
ence, when Rodriguez addressed
questions about his job performance
and the past three years, he slipped
into past tense. It wasn't necessarily
defeatist, but it was interesting.
"(My coaching staff and I are)
paid to do a job, and we did it as hard

DEFEND RODRIGUEZ
From Page 1B
outside the team's locker room
answering questions about what
might have been his last game as
coach of the Wolverines. He talked
about the lack of offensive execu-
tion after the first quarter and the
defense's inability to stop the Bull-
dogs on third down. But there was
one proud moment for the coach -
he said his players' approach didn't
change even with the cloud hang-
ing over the program.
"They knew the speculation and
all that," Rodriguez said. "But we
wouldn't let our guys talk about it,
think about it. So I don't think that
was an issue."
It wasn't until the night before
the game that Rodriguez finally
addressed the elephant in the
room in a team meeting.
"Everyone's thinking about it,"
junior nose tackle Mike Martin
said. "He just addressed it say-
ing, 'I know you guys are think-
ing about it, but nothing was ever
said because our attitude never
changed or anything. We just kept
on playing and practicing well.' He
just basically said we don't know
and it's not in his control."
Rodriguez may not be in control

probably did. Most of us did not.
Watching Michigan's 52-14 loss in
the Gator Bowl, Rodriguez's only
bowl as coach of the Wolverines,
our suspicions appeared to be
confirmed.
If it is over for Rodriguez, per-
haps we have to question whether
he ever had a chance. He wasn't
from the Midwest. He didn't run
an offense we were comfortable
with. He wasn't a Schembechler
protege. All reasons for skepti-
cism and doubt. ButI wonder if
he'd come in with the trust and
confidence of nearly all the fans
like his potential successor might,
would he have had that fighting
chance?
In the end, if Rodriguez is
fired, it will be for not winning
enough football games, plain
and simple. It won't be because
he's not a "Michigan Man," or
anything else. Let's take a look at
how Rodriguez's likely successor
is received. He, of course, will be
immediately named a "Michigan
Man" and enjoy all the support
and love from a united fan base in
a way Rodriguez never did.
Junior nose tackle Mike Martin
- a more ideal Michigan football
player would be hard to find; he's a
smart guy who plays through inju-
ries and eats up running backs and
goes hard every single play. He had
this to say after the game when he
was asked about what he thought
of people saying Rich Rodriguez
wasn't a "Michigan Man?"
"I think that's bull. Whatever
a Michigan Man is. Since I've
been here, I've been called a good
Michigan Man. He's been here as
long as I have and he's been there
for me and the rest of my team-
mates," Martin said. "The whole
staff and him, they're Michigan
Men. They're great men. (He is)
someone I'll look to in ten years.
I'll call him up and say, 'Hey
coach. Thanks for being there for
me.'"
Stapleton can be reached
at jstaple@umich.edu
and as well as we could with some
obstacles, butceverybody is going
to have obstacles," Rodriguez said.
"That's the one thing that, even
though the season certainly didn't
shape out the way we wanted it to
and there's a lot of things thatchap-
pened, we fought through it, and the
team got closer. This team is closer
today than it was a week ago and
three weeks ago, and sometimes
there's some hard lessons to learn
for all of us."
Rodriguez left the podium and
walked his brisk walkback to the
locker room. He exitedbthe stadium
after all his players. As I watched
Rodriguez walk away in maize and
blue apparel for potentially the final
time, I stood in thatchallway for a
moment, thinking.
What will those lessonsbe? And
what will we ultimatelycthink of the
Rich Rodriguez era?
Saturday's game could be the
start ofbthat discussion. I don'tknow
if "fitting" is the right word, but
it's strange that reaching this bowl
game was the pinnacle of Rodri-
guez's time at Michigan. The
outcome was the perfect repre-
sentation of it, too.
Auerbach can be reached
at naauer@umich.edu

of his situation anymore, but soph-
omore quarterback Denard Rob-
inson was during the first quarter
against the Bulldogs - racing
around the right and left edges for
24-and-22-yard runs and throwing
for two touchdowns. But the Mis-
sissippi State defense adjusted and
after 150 first-quarter yards, Rob-
inson and the Michigan offense
was held scoreless.
After the game, Robinson's
quarterback coach Rod Smith
understood the situation that he
and the rest of the coaching staff
faced.
"Yeah, we're all worried about
that," Smith said of his job secu-
rity. "That'll be someone else's
decision. We're just going to keep
doing our jobs."
The sentiment among the play-
ers was that the coaches had done
their job in preparing the Wolver-
ines to play Mississippi State, that
this was a case of a lack of execu-
tion. And the family atmosphere
that Rodriguez tried to encourage
has his players coming to their
coaches' aid when nothing seems
certain about their future together.
Martin said he needed to talk
to his teammates first, but that he
could go with a group to meet with
Brandon to defend Rodriguez, if

Two looks at the same
Wolverine squad

23-point loss to then-No.
12 Purdue and a come-
from-behind victory over a
talented Penn State squad.
Two very
different Big
Ten games.
That's what
the Michi-
gan men's
basketball
team has on
its resume
so far this CHANTEL
season. JENNINGS
There
were just
five days between the two
games. No one gained weight,
grew a few inches or altered
their shot.
But the Wolverines that
played in those matches were
completely different.
The team that took the floor
against the Boilermakers looked
outmatched. Twenty of Purdue's
80 points came off Michigan's
14 turnovers. The Wolverines
looked frazzled facing Purdue's
suffocating man-to-man defense
and were unable to attack the
gaps that are created when a
team stretches its defense that
far.
Yes, Purdue beat Michigan
soundly. But the Wolverines had
a hand in it.
Against Penn State, the Wol-
verines came out and found
themselves down at halftime
once again. But this time, they
rallied, held it together and
closed out a game against an
experienced Nittany Lion crew
led by senior and preseason
all-everything nominee Talor
Battle.
So where was this squad less
than a week earlier? Maybe
Michigan wasn't better than
Purdue, but they definitely
weren't 23 points worse.
But that's what Michigan
coach John Beilein has been
struggling with all season - the
upswing of talent on his young
squad. He recruited kids that
can play the game, but that
doesn't mean sometimes their
hands or brains don't retreat
back to the speed they played at
in high school.
In the second half of Michi-
gan's game against Penn State,
with the Wolverines down four,
sophomore Darius Morris drove
the right side of the lane, draw-
ing three defenders and forcing
Tim Hardaway's player to sag
off him. Morris threw a beauti-
ful scoop pass while flying out
of bounds, and the crisp throw
went right through Hardaway
Jr.'s hands. He looked up in dis-
belief, down in frustration, then
turned and walked down the
court. All the while, his hands
were perched in front of his body
in the proper form for catching

CHRIS DZOMBAK/Daily

Freshman forward Tim Hardaway Jr. has displayed inconsistency this season for the Wolverines.

a pass, as if he was reminding
himself, "Tim, this is how your
hands should be. This is how you
catch a ball."
He knows how to catch that
pass - the freshman is the
Hardaway Jr.
actually looked
like an
18-year old.
team's second-leading scorer. He
has probably caught that exact
pass in practice before. But it
was a lapse. A single moment
where Hardaway Jr. actually
looked like an 18-year old.
Time and time again this
season, Beilein has said he told
his players to play within them-
selves and stick to the plan.

But the reality is, that three of
Michigan's starters only have 14
games worth of experience in
sticking to his plan.
It takes time to adjust to
the college game and speed, to
become poised under the pres-
sure. And even though the Wol-
verines had an extra 10 practices
before the European trip to start
the season and an incredibly
short holiday break - just two
days off - it doesn't mean that
they've completely adjusted to
the pace of Big Ten.
There will be glimpses of the
team's youth in every Big Ten
win. In every loss, it will probably
be a driving force. It's when those
errors pile on and the Wolverines
lose their calm and poise that
they begin to beat themselves,
like they did against Purdue.
In the late John Wooden's
autobiography, "They Call Me
Coach," Wooden wrote about
his 10 national championships
and some advice he gave to his
players.

"I constantly cautioned our
teams: 'Play your game, just play
your game. Eventually, if you
play your game, stick to your
style, class will tell in the end,'
" he wrote. "This does not mean
that we will always outscore our
opponent, but it does insure that
we will not beat ourselves.
"It always seemed to me that
more games are lost than are
won."
The Wolverines cannot allow
Michigan to beat Michigan.
There are 10 other teams in the
Big Ten that will do everything
they can to put Michigan away
- the Wolverines can't allow
another name to be added to the
list.
So, for the rest of the season,
the eight or nine names on the
statistics sheet will remain pret-
ty familiar. But the team's fate
will depend on which players
decide to show up.
Jennings can be reached
at chanjen@umich.edu

it came to that point. And Martin
wasn't shy to speak for the rest of
the team, saying they all support
Rodriguez.
The Michigan community, in
Martin's opinion, hasn't given him
a chance since he left West Virgin-
ia for Ann Arbor in 2008.
"Since he walked in the door,
there was criticism just because
of he's switching to the spread,
and the defense is playing a three-
front, a 3-3-5," Martin said. "I
don't think since he got here there
was agreement with what he was
doing. Some of the losses didn't
help, didn't help his case. I totally
give it to those coaches. They're
great men. They're great coaches."
Redshirt junior defensive end
Ryan Van Bergen said earlier this
month that he had spoken to Bran-
don previously about the football
program but not about the coach-
ing staff. On Saturday, he said he
hasn't talked to the athletic direc-
tor in the past month.
"Obviously, there has to be some
adjustments made to improve our
team," Van Bergen said.
After all, the unit allowed 485
yards and 42 unanswered points
against Mississippi State.
But if were up to him, what
would one of the leaders of next

MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily
Junior nose tackle Mike Martin was one of the players who defended Rich Rodriguez after the team's 52-14 Gator Bowl loss.
year's team decide? son. And I know there's a sense Many players in Michigan's
"My opinion would be to keep of urgency to get someone else in locker room want Rodriguez to be
Coach Rod around," Van Bergen here and start a new scheme, but their coach next season. But the
said. "I think we're at a turning going into my fifth-year senior Wolverines may have missed their
point. I think that there's some year, starting over isn't something last chance to let their actions do
good things that we did this sea- I'm looking into." the talking.

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