UPDATE: Uh-oh! CMU, EMU and now WMU in big trouble thanks to Rich Rod!

Re: Uh-oh! Cental Michigan, or some other smaller football program, in trouble

God Dammit. End well, this will not.

 

Re: Uh-oh! Cental Michigan, or some other smaller football program, in trouble

In talking with another guy in the office (one who frequently attends U-M home games), he said it does make sense that the NCAA would look into DickRod's days in Morgantown. After all, he probably didn't just start pulling this "too much time" crap, and he brought a bunch of people with him from WVU. It's something that probably was going on there, too, under his so-called leadership.

Being the conspiracy theorist that I am, if the heat around DickRod gets turned up too much more, David Brandon could fire him and make Fred Jackson the interim coach, especially since this is a lousy time to be looking for coaches. Fred was the only assistant coach holdover from the Lloyd days, is respected, has a son on the team (a recruited freshman-to-be, already enrolled in school) and has been a head-coaching candidate before.

Just sayin'.

 

However, if DickRod coaches the whole year and is found guilty of violations or Michigan cops a plea, they can shitcan him without severance because of a clause in his contract. Therefore, they only have to ride him out one more year where he'll sink or swim on his own merit. And they won't have to change coaches in midstream, then hire another one the next year.

 

Of course, if dickrod goes 9-3 and gets to a nice bowl game - and there are no sanctions - he'll get an extension......

 

Good points (as always, my friend).

One thing, though, that Dave Brandon has to look at is if U-M has another crappy year, attendance will fall. Fans are getting impatient, and the economy's arguably worse here in Michigan than anywhere else in the country.

U-M dropped a boatload of money into the luxury boxes, which will be open this fall. For the good of U-M's entire athletic department, DickRod MUST win this year. If he doesn't, or if he is fired for rules violations and the football program takes several steps backwards in transition, don't be surprised if Dave Brandon, businessman extraordinaire, is forced to make cuts in the department, which is unheard of. DickRod has the financial weight of virtually the entire athletic department on his shoulders.

I do not envy Dave Brandon right now.

 

Still, after publicly saying that DickRod will be his coach this year, no way Brandon backpedals. NCAA won't have solid findings until its far too late to do anything for the year. Then again, that's what everyone said when Tom Goss shitcanned Steve Fisher and hired Brian Ellerbe.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they lost to UCONN this year, and they have to win that game if he has any hope of winning the fan base over. I would be even less surprised if Devin Gardner were the starter by the third quarter of the opener.

 

Looks like RichRod could face sanctions from the NCAA aside from the investigations at U-M and WVU.

No surprise here.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100520/SPORTS0201/5200361/U-M-coach-Rich-Rodriguez-faces-own-sanctions

 

U-M announces its self-sanctions. Interesting that it doesn't propose losing any scholarships. And, interesting that RichRod spread the blame. Seems to me he should have said the buck stops here. But noooo. He's pulling everyone else under the bus with him.

Methinks the NCAA will be much tougher on U-M, especially in light of the Ed Martin scandal.

I also find it interesting that the compliance staff was negligent, too. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something was wrong. When you've got a list of "quality control" coaches as long as your arm, that should be a warning sign. Did they really need that many people to fetch the coaches' coffee and dry cleaning? Uh, OK. Of course that's what they were doing. When I saw the media guide for RichRod's first season (yeah, they were still printing media guides), that caught my eye right away.

Was the compliance staff negligent or was it stonewalled by the football staff? That absolutely should be addressed by the NCAA.

Here are the Free Press' links:

http://www.freep.com/article/20100525/SPORTS06/100525008/1319/U-M-admits-major-NCAA-violations-cuts-practice-time-probation-looms

http://www.freep.com/article/20100525/SPORTS06/100525010/1319/Rich-Rod-Im-at-fault-so-are-others

 

You surprised by DickRod's response? The same guy who admitted know wrongdoing in the first place?
Best part of this is when he goes 6-6 this year, U-M can cut this f-tard loose without owing him a dime in severance..

 

If Michigan goes 6-6 this season send me some mustard. I'll eat my hat.

 

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