I've always been pretty neutral on Rich Rodriguez, feeling he deserves at least three years to show what he can do, but I think it's clear that, if there aren't drastic improvements in his third season, he's gots to go.  I don't think he helped his cause with me, or his haters with his choice of analogy at the team's banquet tonight.  To me, it sounds awfully Matt Millenish (aka stupid -- will someone put that on Urbandictionary?):

“It’s really kind of ironic that the New Orleans Saints overcame the hurricane a few years back,” Rodriguez said, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which damaged large sections of the Gulf Coast in 2005. “I used to live and coach in New Orleans for a couple years, and I know how devastated that city is and how they overcome and rebuild the stadium and rebuild the program.

“And we’ve had a few hurricanes of our own. We had a big hurricane in August, and it kind of hit us like a ton of bricks. But you had 120 young men and a bunch of people on the staff that said this is not going to tear our program apart.

“In fact, it will do just the opposite: Bring us together. This senior class and the underclassmen that are leaders took charge of this football team and said nothing is going to tear this team apart, and nothing did.

“We didn’t end the season the way we wanted, and we didn’t win as many games as everybody would have liked. But don’t tell me this team is a failure. It’s a disappointment because we thought we could have won more and should have won more. But these guys are champions. I am proud of everyone.”

People losing their lives in a huge natural disaster was not like the heat you caught in August for allegedly taking your players away from their studies and keeping them overtime at practice.  Yes, it might of hit the program like a ton of bricks, but it wasn't even close to what New Orleans had to battle through.

I was encouraged by the 4-0 start, I really was, but 1-7 the last eight games isn't coming together.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  It's falling apart.

And the difference between the Saints and your football team, Rich, is that the Saints actually made it to the playoffs in 2006.  Michigan is Bowl'less for the 2nd straight season, the first time that's happened since the 70's. Any time you don't go to a Bowl game, the season is a failure. Period.

Oh, you started your speech with a joke?

Rodriguez opened his speech with a joke: He was not a candidate for the Notre Dame job.

Hilarious.  We already knew that, though, because there's a pretty good chance you'll be jockeying him for couch space this time next year.

[Freep]

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