Introducing Michigan's New Coach

The Right Fit?

Michigan finally secured a new head coach Sunday by stealing West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez from Morgantown after several days of speculation. The Wolverines called a press conference for early Monday morning and likely must pay West Virginia a $4 million buyout for Rodriguez.

From the day Lloyd Carr stepped down on Dec. 7, the Michigan coaching search has been long-winded and frustrating for Wolverine fans. They had high hopes of landing Louisiana State's Les Miles, and may have had a deal in place the day of the Southeastern Conference Championship game, before Miles ultimately decided on staying in Baton Rouge.

Then Michigan targeted Rutger's Greg Schiano, who somewhat surprisingly chose to stay with the Scarlet Knights rather than head to Ann Arbor. Michigan athletic director Bill Martin also interviewed offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and defensive coordinator Ron English, but neither were serious contenders for the position.

On Dec. 14 it was reported Michigan and Rodriguez had met in Toledo and two days later the coach told his team in a brief 10-minute meeting that he would be leaving for Michigan and not coaching the Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.

So now that the Wolverines have found a coach, the question remains: How successful will Rodriguez be at Michigan?

Rodriguez certainly did a great job at West Virginia, compiling a 60-26 record during seven seasons. He was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2005 and led the Mountaineers to four conference titles. West Virginia finished 2005 ranked no. 5, its highest final ranking under Rodriguez, after beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl 38-35.

However, Rodriguez also piled up many of those wins against Big East Conference opponents who have not been considered as competitive as teams from the SEC, PAC-10, and even ACC or Big Ten. While teams like Rutgers, Louisville and South Florida have drastically improved during the past few seasons, those teams are not top-tier programs. Even Louisville, which was ranked in the top 5 in Nov. of last season, is not in the same class as USC, Florida, LSU or Georgia. So while Big East championships are certainly something of which to be proud, those titles are not quite on plane with other, most established conference championships.

Meanwhile Michigan plays in the Big Ten, which while being bad this season, should present overall tougher competition than the Big East. Ohio State is always contending for a national title, Wisconsin is usually in a New Year's Day bowl and Penn State is good for eight wins a season. Those three are better than Louisville, South Florida and Rutgers. Instead of needing to beat just one very good team each year to win the conference title (Louisville), Rodriguez must knock off perennial power Ohio State and perhaps Wisconsin, Penn State and even a surprise team like Illinois.

Additionally, West Virginia rarely schedules quality out of conference games. After playing and losing to Wisconsin in 2002 and 2003, the Mountaineers have played the likes of East Carolina, Maryland, Wofford, Mississippi State and Central Florida for many of their non-conference games since 2004. At Michigan, Rodriguez will face Notre Dame every season before beginning conference play. While the Irish were awful in 2007, they should definitely be more competition than the East Carolina's of the college football world.

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding Rodriguez is how his spread option offense will fit in at Michigan. Rodriguez is credited by many to be the coach who perfected the spread option formation. He has implemented this offensive scheme at every place he's coached. Players like Pat White and Steve Slaton are a perfect fit for this scheme because they are quick and fast. With those two at the helm, Rodriguez created an offensive juggernaut at West Virginia for the past few seasons.

But Michigan doesn't have a player like White or Slaton. They do have one of the top quarterback recruits from the 2006 class in Ryan Mallet. However Mallett is about as far as you can get from White, in terms of agility and quickness. Mallet is a 6-foot-5, strong-armed quarterback that has little mobility. He's much better suited to stand in the pocket and zip a pass downfield, then run misdirections and shotgun draws.

With the Wolverines losing their starting quarterback, starting running back and best offensive lineman, Rodriguez will immediately have the difficult task of implementing a radically new offense with a number of inexperienced players at key positions.

What may end up happening is Michigan land's the nation's No. 1 recruit, quarterback Terrelle Pryor, and gives him the starting job as a freshman. Pryor has much more experience running the spread offense than Mallett and the high school senior said Sunday Michigan was back on his list of potential schools. According to the Detroit Free Press, Rodriguez called Pryor to tell him that he'll be taking the Michigan position and sticking with the spread option offense.

It will certainly be interesting to see how well Rodriguez fits into Michigan. He's had plenty of success at every coaching job he's held and his career record speaks for itself. But he also inherits a young team that has little experience with his coaching schemes. He must replace key players at several positions. And he'll face a more stringent schedule than when he coached West Virginia.

Michigan's coaching search will end Monday morning and plenty of Michigan fans will rejoice that they landed a great coach for their program. They may be right. But there are enough question marks surrounding Rodriguez that it's far from certain that he's the best fit for the Wolverines.

K-State and 25 Straight

Notre Dame got the resume building victory it needed over Kansas State Dec. 4 and followed that with a 25th straight win at the Joyce Center, breaking a school record by beating Northern Illinois 108-62.

The Kansas State win looks even better after the Wildcats downed previously unbeaten California on Sunday.

The Irish are off for the next two weeks before resuming play against San Francisco on Dec. 22. Notre Dame has a very easy slate until opening conference play with West Virginia on Jan. 3.