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

The Amazon product description has RichRod as "college football’s most influential coach." Uh, no.

 

The poster boy for how NOT to conduct yourself in the role, maybe.

 

I got my book in the mail yesterday and have only had time to read about 100 pages. I think some of the things I've read are worth sharing because they were discussed at length on this thread.

- Rodriguez does not come out looking like a poster boy of "how not to act in the head coach role," as the poster above me liked to put it. The book details how Rich Rod lobbied for better assistant coaching salaries and facilities in 2006. He even raised money $300,000 to help - but the athletic department used it on other things. So in 2007 when Michigan offered, he went back to WVU, asked for higher assistant salaries and better locker rooms - even a season pass for his wife Rita (stupid shit like that). WVU power players said no. So he left.

- The book also describes the paper shredding. Rodriguez said he never shredded anything. It was his assistants. They stayed back while he negotiated his contract. The shredding, Rodriguez said, occurred in plain view because they had nothing to hide. In fact, Coach Stewart was there - no red flags were raised until later when WVU wanted to get their full buyout money.

- As for that buyout money, Rich Rod was under the impression he wouldn't have to pay it. That's on him for being stupid and gullible. He took the department at their word that his buyout would only be only $2.5 million or something. Of course that wasn't the case. Or maybe it was a lie. Who knows. The important thing is, when he got to Michigan, Mary Sue Coleman told him Michigan would cover it. But she never told the regents. So only Rich Rod, Bill Martin and Mary Sue Coleman knew. Rich Rod was advised to keep quiet because of the pending lawsuit - meanwhile, WVU dragged his name through the mud.

Of course, all of that could be complete bullshit - but I wan't to believe that John Bacon did his investigative reporting and found much of what Rodriguez was saying to be credible (by verifying with other sources).

Continued on next post...

 

I know there are people here that will question the reporting of Bacon. I don't know the guy from Adam, so I'm giving the guy the benefit of the doubt and pretending he did solid reporting to find these things.

Anyway here are some more snippets:

-Lloyd Carr placed the first call to Rich Rod. He told Martin about him.

-Bill Martin wasn't in charge of the coaching search: Mary Sue Coleman was. And she extended an offer to Rich Rod before one was extended to Miles. Miles would not have turned the job down. He told her that, but he also said he wouldn't accept until after bowl season. Well, he didn't have a chance to because she offered RR first.

- Of course when RR got hired things got funny. Bacon said he had a dozen people go on record saying Lloyd Carr didn't like RR. Then why call him?

-Before RR stepped on campus Lloyd Carr told all of his players that he would sign their transfer papers. Carr ended up signing transfer papers for Justin Boren and Toney Clemons. Clemons was the transfer that the Freep quoted in their jihad agains the Michigan program.

-Bacon's book suggests Rosenberg used that jihad against Michigan to get back at Bill Martin who had lied to him about something a year earlier.

So who's to blame for the whole mess?

 

The author says everyone.

First it didn't help matters that Schembechler wasn't around to be authoratative.

Bill Martin - For bumbling the coaching search and not silencing the critics who didn't want a WVU coach at Mich. RR did reach out to players en masse in the beginning - but they were not open minded, according to the author.

Lloyd Carr also didn't help. He didn't support the coach, didn't encourage his players or former players to and didn't reach out to folks through the media. He just sort of sat there and watched it spiral out of control like a jackass.

RR too was at fault. Of course for not winning games, but he also had some press conference gaffes too. At some point it is the athletic department's responsibility to tell him things like "hey don't give out that no.1 jersey to a db". Of course that stuff is peanuts.

The only one who really looks good coming out of this book is Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman.

But don't take my word for it, I would read the book. As I said, I am only 100 pages in and it is one of the best books I have ever read. You should definitely read it (unless your name is Lloyd Carr).

 

I'm about 70 pages in. Mustang, you're right in that the blame for this mess can be spread around to many, many people.

Also, I've known John Bacon for a long, long time. We used to work together. If anyone who isn't on the athletic department payroll can get the insider's view, it's him. He's very well connected and well respected in AA.

Something that struck me as odd a few months after the Carr-Rich Rod transition: I was the first reporter to do a sit-down interview with Lloyd after he retired. It was in his office in Weidenbach Hall. I asked him about his thoughts on U-M hiring RichRod, and he wouldn't comment. One would think he would say a couple perfunctory nice words about his replacement, but he did not.