Rich Rodriguez Cries & It’s a good day to be a Buck Eye

College Football starts this week at 8:15 this Thursday with Oregon facing off against Boise State and no one could be happier than I am. It’s the top dog in everyone’s hearts. The college game comes with blackened brats from barbeques and the soon-to-be-remembered feel of an ice-cold brewski on your lips. Even for the smallest of sports fans College Football brings nostalgia for your alma mater and even holds a faint scent of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the air. What’s not to like? Every little piece of this minced-meat pie quenches the starving soul for a taste of the dramatic love of the game. The nation gorges itself on every victory and scandal and confidently whimpers like little Oliver Twist, “please sir, may I have some more?” A relatively early casualty of this season is the poor, poor, Michigan Wolverines.

The last few years have been a trifle difficult for the Big Blue with the true culmination being their embarrassing loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers at home. I don’t believe the Big House has ever seen a darker day than that. The coaching transition between Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez has been rough. The change in coaching styles and strategies has pretty much made the transition a clean sweep, cold turkey, 180 degree (insert your own clichéd idiom) situation. It’s worked before and will probably work for the Wolverines, it just takes time; time that the Wolverines don’t really have to stay relevant in a slowly deflating Big 10 conference.

So here’s the bad news, Rich Rodriguez and his staff are now under investigation for breaking NCAA rules pertaining to training restrictions. A few of Michigan’s players innocently spoke to the press about the rigors of their schedules, unknowingly admitting to things that could possibly indict their own coaching staff. Rodriguez recollecting their apology to their coach is what prompted the 13 second “get a hold of yourself” pause that he took during his press conference today. Even though these boys seem relatively innocent, there have been other cases relating to this same issue with Rodriguez, including the loss of one of their top recruits last year. Players are speaking out intentionally and unintentionally. Either is alarming. Because somewhere in this relatively minor scandal there is a disconnect between coach and player. A bad sign for Wolverine fans. Whether respect has been won and lost or whether it was never given at all is irrelevant. It’s not there now, and it’s not where they want to be.

With all of this badness hanging around, I can’t really be mad a Rodriguez for trying to work too hard. I’m not trying to be inconsiderate, but if you’re going to break a rule, this is the best one to break. Getting in trouble because you worked to hard or too much is relatively ok in my book. It’s still against the rules, so you shouldn’t do it, but I can forgive you for that. On a lighter note, you’re probably pretty happy if you’re Ohio State Fan. All this malarkey with Michigan and USC’s number 2 receiver, Ronald Johnson, went down with a broken collar bone after their starting Quarterback, Aaron Corp, went down with a broken fibula leaving a true freshman to start in his wake. So I guess it’s at least a good day to be a Buck Eye. You’ll get to be over-rated again, have a shot at the National Championship again, and get embarrassed by somebody who truly deserved to be there when you really should have been at the Emerald Bowl in the first place, again. So congratulations.