U of M thread (in the Lions Forum) :)

[L-kxng]

I just read Barwis has Michigan doing Pilates too. This guy is working for every angle, I never associated this with football much, but I think it would help any athlete. I started this discipline about 3 months ago b/c of muscle stiffness, and do I feel better! It really helps with your flexibility also.

[gjdodger]

all's well that ends. period.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Former West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez agreed to pay a $4 million buyout clause and settle a lawsuit that the university filed after he broke his contract in December.


The tentative agreement, which university attorney Tom Flaherty expects will be approved by the WVU Board of Governors later Wednesday, would end a case that had been set for trial this fall. It also may end a bitter public feud.


"It's a case that should have settled a long time ago and could have settled a long time ago. It's in the best interest of everyone to resolve it," Flaherty said.


A call to Ohio attorney Marv Robon, representing Rodriguez, was not immediately returned.


Rodriguez quit the Mountaineers in December for the head coaching job at Michigan, only a year after extending his contract with WVU. He had argued that WVU broke the contract first by failing to honor certain promises -- a charge WVU denied.


Flaherty said he would reveal additional details about the settlement, including the period for repayment, after the deal is approved by the board. However, he said the payment would not be made in a lump sum.


The settlement was reached on what had been a key deadline in the case. As part of the discovery process, a judge had given Rodriguez until the end of Tuesday to reveal whether the University of Michigan or anyone else had agreed to pay WVU on his behalf.


Flaherty said a document was produced, but he could not immediately divulge its contents.


Adding pressure to Rodriguez was a lawsuit WVU filed in a Michigan court last week, asking a judge to order Michigan athletic director Bill Martin and President Mary Sue Coleman to testify in depositions. A hearing on that request had been set for Wednesday afternoon.


WVU also recently got an Ohio court to issue a subpoena for testimony and records from Mike Wilcox, Rodriguez's financial adviser.


The Rodriguez camp approached the university with a "significant and serious offer" within the past few days, and WVU responded with a counterproposal Tuesday, Flaherty said. That set off a series of meetings with a court-appointed mediator, Frank Fragale.


"Mike Garrison and the people at Stewart Hall worked tirelessly -- under the very, very difficult circumstances that he's in -- to get this done," Flaherty said. "They also, in my opinion, did everything they could to keep Mr. Rodriguez here."


Garrison is stepping down as WVU's president Sept. 1 over an unrelated scandal involving a master's degree the university wrongly awarded to the governor's daughter last fall.


The $4 million liquidated damages clause was suggested by an attorney on the WVU Board of Governors in December 2006, after Rodriguez turned down an offer from Alabama.


It was double the amount of the previous contract, but a number attorney Steve Farmer said he believed would protect WVU from lost marketing, merchandising and other opportunities if Rodriguez left early.


Though Rodriguez initially balked, he ultimately signed a contract with that figure in August 2007. He then resigned Dec. 16, taking recruits and assistant coaches with him, and leaving the Mountaineers just before the Fiesta Bowl game against Oklahoma. Bill Stewart replaced Rodriguez after a 48-28 victory over the Sooners.


Stewart has a five-year contract worth $800,000 a year, plus incentives. The base salary totals $4 million, the same amount WVU aimed to recover with its lawsuit.


Rodriguez testified recently in a deposition that he signed his contract under pressure from board members and Gov. Joe Manchin. He argues that WVU failed to honor some of his demands and Garrison assured him the buyout clause would be reduced or eliminated if he were to resign -- a promise Garrison denies making.


Rodriguez also testified that while he considered the amount "excessive" and "unfair," he acquiesced when he was told a major WVU donor had insisted on it.

He has agreed to a similar $4 million damages clause at Michigan.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

[Rocky Bleier]

Rodriguez is expected to pay $1.5 million spread over three years, beginning in 2010. U-M is expected to pay the balance of the sum, $2.5 million, immediately and cover Rodriguez?s legal fees later, two people with knowledge of the agreement told the Free Press this morning.

[Rocky Bleier]

REPORTING FROM ... CAMP BARWIS

by Bruce Feldman


It's five minutes before 11 a.m. on a snowy Monday in late March when Victor Hobson walks into the Michigan weight room grinning. He glances into the small cramped coaches office and just nods. Hobson, a former Wolverine linebacker with a neck as thick as a tractor tire, is the first player to arrive. Hobson plunks down on a stationary bike and starts pedaling. Soon he will be joined cycling away by running backs Mike Hart and Avon Cobourne. Braylon Edwards, another former UM star, shows up totting an open laptop computer in the crook of his arm. Before Edwards gets on one of the bikes, the Cleveland Brown receiver hooks up the computer to the gym's speaker system so he can play DJ. Welcome to Camp Barwis.

Over the next three hours, every muscle in their bodies will be challenged as a gravel-voiced man alternately shouts encouragement and jokes with them. Following the bike warm-up will come a series of sprint starts where the players burst out of their stances while a belt harness rigged to a wall attempts to hold them back. After that, Barwis implores the players to snake their way in procession over, around and through a group of high hurdles. This is the warm-up portion of Camp Barwis before the heavy lifting begins.
Camp Barwis is like nothing Hobson or Edwards had ever experienced before. Hobson came back to Ann Arbor because he had heard stories about Mike Barwis, Michigan's new strength coach. Hobson, who had spent previous off-seasons working out with a boxing coach, was always in search of cutting edge training methods that might help him get better, so he asked Barwis if he would work with him. Barwis said he'd love to. He already was training some former Mountaineer players who had relocated to Ann Arbor. Cobourne, a compactly built CFL running back who starred at West Virginia in Rich Rodriguez's first season as the Mountaineers head coach, had even rented a one-bedroom in Ann Arbor for the winter just so he could train with the new Wolverine coach. Owen Schmitt, Steve Slaton and Ryan Mundy, a trio of former Mountaineer players, also had moved up to Michigan to have Barwis get them ready for the NFL Draft.
Hobson says after the first week he felt quicker and more explosive. He was so impressed with his gains, he told other former Michigan players. Edwards opted to join in, as did Steelers linebacker Larry Foote.

The buzz about the coach has grown from his days in Morgantown. Barwis had become a folk hero among West Virginia football players who say he is as responsible as anyone for victories over heavily favored Georgia and Oklahoma in BCS bowls in recent years. Kay-Jay Harris, a former WVU RB now playing with the NY Giants, says it's not just type of workout Barwis coaches, which is a combination of plyometrics, Olympic lifts, core training and generous amounts of sprint work, but it's the intensity he demands.

Barwis is a 190-pound Philly area native with the kind of presence that scares grown men. Football players, many outweighing Barwis by 100 pounds, speak in awe of the guy like he's some sort of Chuck Norris figure. His reputation, which quickly turned him into an internet star among Wolverine fans, is indeed larger than life. "I think he had a freakin' pet wolf at home," says Harris. "Now, c'mon, who has a pet wolf?"

It doesn't hurt that there is just enough info about Barwis' MMA background to spook his prot?g?s, especially those who have seen Barwis roll with any of their teammates who have tried to submit him, regardless of how much of an advantage he gives them to start out. Barwis prefers to sidestep the MMA thing or detail his martial arts background. "I really try not to talk too much about it," he says, adding that he'd rather talk about the athletes than himself.

Says Hobson, "It's like he's in the CIA or something. Those are the kinds of guys you really don't want to mess with."

The training regimen the players are put through is something many wouldn't want to mess with either. A half-hour into the session, the players assemble in pairs in front of a row of squat racks as they begin to load bumper plates onto their barbells. Barwis' instructs the group through hang cleans, an exercise you probably won't see at your local gym.

Most of the guys in here had never done hang cleans. Many had never done squats either or taken nutritional supplements. (The old Michigan program didn't include any of that in the Wolverines regimen.) Proper technique is a major concern so Barwis harps on strict form and uses Cobourne as his model. Soon, a rhythm develops. Heels snap on the floor. The clink of the barbell getting hoisted up is followed by a "THUD-thud" as the bumper plates crash to the ground.

"With the clean, you gotta be explosive and aggressive, you can't fake it," Barwis barks. "Just like football."

Over the next two hours, the intensity level rarely dips as the players go from the squats racks to the bench press over to some grueling core work (the athletes try to balance themselves while kneeling on two stability balls) before heading back onto the field for some plyometric work and additional sprinting.
"You're either gettin' or you're gettin' worse," Barwis says, his voice cutting through the bass throb of Edwards' music.
Cobourne, the veteran of the workout group, says he's noticed a dramatic difference in the athletes, using Foote, an established NFL guy, as his prime example.

"I saw Foote come in at the beginning, and he'd try and lollygag a little," says Cobourne. "And Mike's like 'Look, that ain't how we do it here.' Foote wasn't used to it. But now he's going right through it. These guys see what they're getting from it, 'Man, I was never explosive like this before. Wow this is really working for me.'"

Hobson says the impact the program will have is more than just physical. "If there are some soft people, these guys are gonna get them out of there," Hobson says of the new Wolverine staff, adding that Ann Arbor could have a Miami-like appeal amongst NFL players hoping to get in better shape during the off-season. "Word is going to get around, and that can only help the program when young recruits see a Braylon Edwards coming back here to train.

[jaadam4]

WOW!! Great article Rock..

[jaadam4]

I still cant believe I read this right...


Most of the guys in here had never done hang cleans. Many had never done squats either or taken nutritional supplements. (The old Michigan program didn't include any of that in the Wolverines regimen.)

[L-kxng]

USA Today/Coaches poll is out.

Michigan #24

Wisconsin #12

Michigan State -

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/SPORTS06/80801006

[jaadam4]

uhhh.. thats pretty generous for the wolves. now had we signed Les Miles we'd be top 15.

[L-kxng]

Yes it is. I didn't even think they were going to make it. U-M always has a better year when ranked on the low end.

[jaadam4]

i'm really nervous this year. i dont know but a handfull of names even on the team.

[L-kxng]

It's definitely a big transition year, just mute the tv when Kirk Herbstreit comes on!

[jaadam4]

f%*k Herbstreit!!!! he really put Miles and U of M in a bad situation last year. I hate him and Oiho Suckme Univ

[MXT]

Wonder why EMU didn't get any votes?

[gjdodger]

Because the voters have their heads in the sand. Oh, no, that's ostriches, not emus...

[King Cole]

I think we made the top 25 just out of history and tradition. That being said I can't fathom us going 6-6 as I see 5 gimmes (miami oh, purdue, northwestern, toledo, minn.) They should be able to still handle at least 2-4 of the others. Mich like OSU USC always seems to just reload with guys you never heard, but are just sitting on the depth chart waiting for their turn. My only worry is if there is a QB capable of running Rich's system (running and throwing on the run). If one of Sheridan, Cone, Feagin, Threet can step up then...... O-line and D I suspect will be fairly strong as per usual.