Around the Big Ten

[SeanB]

I totally agree. The Dark Times have indeed colored our memories. I remember a few posters here who had their reservations about Rodriguez, but at the time Rodriguez seemed like a gift given what had happened with the Great Sailing Debacle.

There just weren't a lot of great coaches out there and Michigan didn't seem to have the cache' to just go out and say "We're Michigan" and have the cream of the crop line up for interviews. It was a smack in the face for a lot of fans to not see every hot name clamoring to be the next coach at our favorite program.

[WM Wolverine]

re: 9 conference games...

I understand the argument that some teams having 5 conference home games is a slight leg up in deciding a division champ over someone in the same division that only plays 4 home conference games... IMO that is lessened completely by the addition of the 9th game in which teams will have more common opponents (in the other division) than they will have now. With 8 conference games, some 'east' team could miss Nebraska, Michigan & Iowa while another 'east' team only plays Minnesota, Northwestern & MSU in the 'west.'

Positives outweigh the negatives, not a perfect solution but playing your conference mates (who profit on the home date) is better than paying $1-2mil to play a MAC or Div I-AA team.

[WM Wolverine]

re: divisions...

M, Ohio & PSU had to be split; not because of 'competitive balance' but because the TV people wanted as good chance as possible Nebraska, M, Ohio & PSU being in the B10 CCG and were willing to pay [potentially significantly] more for that setup.

[entropy]

Agree... The big 4 had to be split

[Tom W]

If Rodriguez would have made better decisions with his coaching hires, he'd probably still be here, and likely be quite popular.

That's part of it, as is his lack of attention to in-state recruiting. D'antonio feasted in his absence and it's going to take a couple of seasons before that error runs its course.

But Martin didn't have much choice-there was just too much of a foul stench lingering from AppState (which amplified all of opportunites squanderd through the years) that most people were demanding a radical change. RRod was the best candidate of the sort at the time.

Would this program be worse off if he had hired Brady Hoke instead?

[lineygoblue]

Would this program be worse off if he had hired Brady Hoke instead?

Hard to say. Brady is popular right now because of his recruiting. His recruiting has been wildly successful, mostly due to the guys he's surrounded himself with. Would these same guys have been available?

And as I said, I believe the primary reason Rodriguez failed was because of the guys he surrounded himself with. Rodriguez was fine on the offensive side of the ball, which he pretty much ran himself.

[whodean]

Rodriguez's gimmick offense was never going to win the big conference games.

[lineygoblue]

But his lack of a Big Ten defense was his biggest downfall. The numbers don't lie.

[Tom W]

But his lack of a Big Ten defense was his biggest downfall. The numbers don't lie.

Heck, even a MAC-caliber defense might have made the last three years palatable. May they quickly be forgotten..

[WM Wolverine]

RR's offense worked well in the B10, I would've liked to have seen what it could've done with a non first year starter at QB. Give last years offense a junior/senior Denard (who should cut down on his turnovers significantly) and a kicker and the offense is right there with Oregon/Auburn as the best in the country.

[SeanB]

Rodriguez's gimmick offense was never going to win the big conference games.

Disagree, here. It was always about the defense. Or lack thereof, IMO. In 3 years, Rich had 3 first year starting QBs. And each year the offensive results were there. He KNEW what he was doing on that side of the ball. On the other side....Disaster of epic proportions.

How would he have done with a quality DC? We'll never know. He had a good one and threw him under the bus. He had a really bad one and it killed him. Somewhere in between is respectability, which you can build on.

[WM Wolverine]

RR's defenses couldn't ever even give the offense good field position. M's scoring/TD drives were the longest (in yards) of any school in the nation. M's offense had to work harder than other team to get points on the board.

[whodean]

Obviously his Defenses were much worse than his Offense, but the concept was never proven to work in this conference.

[Jamie H]

The problem was his offense destroyed mediocre defenses, yet couldn't do anything against good defenses. And when you play no defense yourself, you have to dominate on offense at all times to succeed.

Could his offense have worked if he had picked up a stud RB and Denard had continued to get better? We will never know. My biggest complaint with his offense was that it seemed to be horribly turnover prone, another disaster when you have no defense.

[whodean]

Folks don't enjoy watching it as much as the razzle dazzle flash but sometimes it pays to be Coach Carr Conservative (if'ns ya wanna win, that is).