DEVELOPING: Okay, Now Rich Rod Really Is Fired...

Not that this is a shock or anything...

Looks like current San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke may be the leader in the clubhouse...

Here's coverage from WXYZ-TV in Detroit...


“I made this decision last night and I’m a disciplined guy. I’ve said all along I appreciate the opportunity when the season is over to sit down and do a thorough review. I spent an awful lot of time putting together a lot of information. Rich and I sat down together for 3 ½ hours and you don’t do that if you go into the meeting with some preconceived notion as to how the meeting is going to end. I wanted to hear from the coach. I wanted to discuss some things that were important for me to know and I wanted to have an evening to reflect on that, and that’s exactly what I did. Anyone who suggests differently, doesn’t know what they are talking about,” said Michigan AD Dave Brandon.

And now HIS job rests on the next hire...

Joe Schad is saying that Rich-Rod is not part of the Pitt search to replace Mike Haywood. It looks like the early contenders there are: Alabama associate head coach Sal Sunseri, Tulsa coach Todd Graham, Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst and former Florida defensive coordinator Teryl Austin

BREAKING: Rich Rodriguez Fired At Michigan, Team Meeting Postponed

For Michigan fans, the end of the Rich Rodriguez era is here. Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon decided to fire Rodriguez in a meeting between the two Tuesday afternoon.

It his contract with the University of Michigan, Rodriguez is due a $2.5 million buyout should the University fire him. They have and the check is in the mail.

A team meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm tonight.

Here's Rich Rodriguez's legacy at Michigan.

* A record of 15-22 overall and 6-18 in the Big Ten. He lost all three of his games to Michigan State and Ohio State.

* An end to Michigan’s streak of playing in a bowl every season since 1975. He missed a bowl each of his first two seasons and this season lost to Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl, 52-14, the worst bowl loss in school history.

* The first losing season at Michigan in more than 40 years. His first team went 3-9; Michigan's last losing season, at 4-6, had come under Bump Elliott in 1967.

* Three years of NCAA probation for five major violations. The storied program had never been on probation. (Source: Detroit Free Press)

http://www.freep.com/article/20110104/SPORTS06/110104047/Michigan-decides-to-fire-football-coach-Rich-Rodriguez#ixzz1A6KalTF0

You think Jim Harbaugh is a candidate? Well the Detroit Free Press is reporting that Harbaugh would not accept an offer if it became available.

Michigan could turn to Brady Hoke at San Diego State or Les Miles at LSU, both are Michigan alums.

The college coaching carousal has just spun out of control with one of college football's brand names searching for a coach.

Photo Courtesy:KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press

1815 UPDATE: Michigan has postponed the players meeting after coach Rich Rodriguez met with AD Brandon.

Rodriguez normally holds the meeting the night before classes resume each semester. Defensive back James Rogers told the local press that the meeting was rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

2011, The Year To Beat The Hell Out Of The Big Ten Conference

Ohio State, the pressure is on you in the Sugar Bowl. The Big Ten is counting on you.

The Buckeyes play Arkansas from the SEC Tuesday night in New Orleans. The Big Ten went head to head against the SEC three time on New Years Day and were pummelled. Alabama overwhelmed Michigan State 49-7 in the Capital One Bowl, Florida took care of Penn State 37-24 in the Outback Bowl and Mississippi State gave Michigan their worst bowl loss in school history 52-14 in the Gator Bowl. More on that later.

If you are keeping score the Big Ten is 0-3 against the SEC this bowl season. Once again the Big Ten appears to soil their britches against the SEC.

Those were just three games on what was a brutal day for the 10.

It all started in the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas. (They play that game in the old Cotton Bowl stadium.) Northwestern faced Texas Tech and give the Wildcats credit they almost pulled it off losing to the Red Raiders 45-38. By the way Northwestern hasn't won a bowl game since the 1949 Rose Bowl. Speaking of the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin ended up fearing the Frog losing to TCU 21-19.

New comer Nebraska didn't help your cause losing to Washington in the Holiday Bowl. The Huskers are feeling a year early the alleged bowl curse of the Big Ten.

Only the conference "I" schools have been successful this bowl season with Iowa and Illinois winning their bowl games.

For the rest of the Big Ten, what gives? You bathe in cash. You have a highly successful cable network yet when the big bowls are played the league takes a dump.

You can say recruit speed and "modernize" your programs from the "three yards and a cloud of dust" mentality but Ron Zook and Rich Rodriquez have tried that and you see how that has worked out. Zooker might survive at Illinois but Rich Rod is about to get the boot in Ann Arbor.

Note the following exchange from the Gator Bowl post game press conference:

Q. Do you get any sense because of the way this game unfolded that any sense at all that this will affect Brandon's decision about you? Did you think it was about this game and that this could impact it negatively?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You're asking the wrong person.

Q. Do you think you'll be back next year?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You're asking the wrong person. I do.

Q. Do you think your team was distracted by all the hoopla surrounding your job status?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Really we didn't talk about it much, really. I know that guys it was the elephant in the room every time our guys were meeting.

Michigan athletic director David Brandon will have the final say on that one and the odds are Rodriquez will be looking for work soon.

The Big Ten has some sole searching to do in football.

Photo Courtesy: John T. Greilick / The Detroit News

Monday Carousel: Tressel Upstairs...? Gundy Hiring A Pirate...? Willis Heading To UF, Assault Investigated At Willis Home

((HT: WOOF Radio, Dothan))

Chicagonow.com is reporting that The Sweater will be moving upstairs to an AD-like position after his bowl game. Current AD Gene Smith, through his Twitter account, responded thusly:

"Merry Xmas everyone!! Go back to drinking your eggnog!! Rumors not true.."

The Chicago Sports Tab is quoting "two sources that are very close to recruiting at prominent universities."

The HQ understands how "locked in" those folks are...

Our friends at 10TV in Columbus claim that Tressel has met with the team and is "staying." What exactly "staying" means is to be determined...

The Tulsa World has their hands full with the idea that Oke State head coach Mike Gundy is looking into the idea of hiring Mike Leach as his new OC- replacing Dana Holgorsen.

DATELINE MAIZE AND BLUE: The main reason Rich-Rod isn't lobbying publicly for his job is that he already knows he's toast. That lends itself to the idea of Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles heading to Ann Arbor- especially, if Harbaugh jumps to the NFL. The only reason the Michigan Athletic Department hasn't pulled the trigger is that the buyout is cut in half after New Year's Day.

Texas Tech DC James Willis has reportedly left Lubbock and Coach Tub's staff and is in talks with Coach Boom to get a gig on the Gator staff- not necessarily a coordinator gig. He was only around for a year.

Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal says that Tuberville will not discuss the vacancy until after today's practice in Dallas as the Red Raiders prepare for their game with Northwestern.

"I wish James the best of luck, but it is important for (the) football team to keep pressing forward,” Tuberville said in the statement. “We have a great defensive staff here that will carry the load along with my assistance as we prepare for Northwestern.”

Lubbock PM UPDATE: According to Fox TV in Lubbock, suburban Lubbock police were called to a home in the town of Wolfforth to answer a domestic violence call early on December 22nd.

The home is currently owned by ECU DC Brian Mitchell and, allegedly, the residence of Willis. Wolfforth police are investigating and have not made an arrest.

Take all of these stories with the appropriate grains of salt you enjoy...
More when we know more...

TWTW: Robinson Sets Records, Michigan Loses To Badgers

((HT: WISC-TV Madison))

Michigan's Denard Robinson has set two NCAA records against Wisconsin. He broke Beau Morgan's major-college record for yards rushing by quarterbacks and became the first player in NCAA history with 1,500 yards rushing and 1,500 yards passing in one year.

Morgan had 1,494 yards rushing for Air Force in 1996. Robinson beat that with a 12-yard run in the third quarter against the Badgers.

Jason Foster ran for 1,844 yards for Georgia Southern in 2007, setting the Football Championship Subdivision record.

Pat White, who starred in Rich Rodriguez's system when the coach was at West Virginia threw for 1,724 and ran for 1,335 in 2007.

Emily Kumlien has the look back at everything but the Robinson record in the Wisconson win...

TWTW: Michigan Holds Off Illini In 3OT

((HT: WUPW-TV Toledo))

Go ahead, make your jokes...

Well, because, we have already... and what you've thought of, we've probably heard...

67-65, three overtimes, Illinois missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, the game was played at Crisler Arena, wasn't it...???

Yup... heard them all... and from folks more experienced than you at this...

It was the highest scoring game in the history of Michigan football- 132 points. The previous highest scoring Big Ten game also involved Michigan. They shut out Michigan Agricultural College - now known as Michigan State - 119-0 in 1902.

The last FBS game to produce more points was when Navy beat North Texas 74-62 on November 10, 2007, according to STATS, LLC. The previous Michigan record for total points wasn't nearly as dramatic, beating West Virginia 130-0 in 1904.

Roy Roundtree had a field day on the Illinois defense- he had a school-record 246 yards receiving and two TD's.

Here's the short version of the highlights...


The longer version can be found through our friends at the Big 10 Network...

TWTW: Denard Robinson Saves Michigan Again, 42-35 At Indiana

((HT: WXIN-TV/Fox 59 Indianapolis))

Michigan drove down the field in the final 75 seconds, breaking a tie when Denard Robinson scored from four yards out to beat Indiana 42-35 in front of a sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium.

"I'm really disappointed for our kids," said Indiana head coach Bill Lynch. "I thought they had great effort and kept battling the whole time. We played a very, very good football team with some great players."

The freshman quarterback ((that would be Robinson)), considered an early front runner for the Heisman Trophy, finished with 217 yards rushing on 17 carries with two scores. He also went 10-of-16 for 277 yards and three TD's through the air.

That's almost another 500 yard all-purpose outing, kids...

Brittany Diehl delivers the bad news from a dark Bloomington
 

TWTW: Michigan Survives Robinson Scare, Takes Out Bowling Green

((HT: WXYZ-TV Detroit))

Both Michigan QB's Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier were injured in Michigan's 65-21 win over Bowling Green.

Robinson twisted his left knee after a 46-yard run in the first quarter and didn't return. Forcier left the game in the fourth quarter after also hurting his left knee.

The Wolverines have won their first four games for the second straight season, but everyone remembers they finished 5-7 last year.

Bowling Green (1-3) gave up the first 21 points of the game in the first quarter, then got to within a touchdown with 5:07 left in the first half.

Then, it wasn't even close as the Big 10/11/12-MAC Showcase continued in other 10/11/12 locales...

Here's your postgame with RichRod...
The first question, obviously, is why Denard Robinson wasn't kept in the game...

Lucky Or Good...? Michigan Holds Off UMass

((HT: WXYZ-TV Detroit))

That's the question for Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez after yet another Appalachian State flashback that almost came true Saturday.

Denard Robinson had 345 yards of total offense and three touchdowns as he continued his early Heisman push. Robinson was 10 of 14 for 241 yards passing and hooked up with Darryl Stonum for TDs 45 seconds apart late in the first half. He also ran 17 times for 104 yards and a score that put the Wolverines ahead 35-17 midway through the third quarter.

UMass scored to get within five points with 2:05 left, but their onside kick went out of bounds and Michigan ran out the clock. They even led by 10 early and had a chance to do the same thing AppState did three years ago.

Here's your postgame...


We still think RichRod is gone after this year...

Michigan Self-Reports And Self-Punishes Football

Is this like that old trick bigger kids used to play on us when we were little...???
Grabbing your arm and popping yourself with it...

Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself...

At least, that's what the University of Michigan did with their football team Tuesday.

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman says the sanction show that "we have said all along, we take full responsibility for knowing and following NCAA rules, and we will address concerns, quickly and head on. We believe the sanctions we have imposed fit the nature of the violations."

Sure...

Here's what they found out about themselves... and how they punished themselves in bold... the release is from their own selves...

The U-M exceeded the limit on the number of coaches allowed. Michigan has reduced the number of quality-control staff members by 40 percent and prohibited them from attending practices, games and coaches meetings for the remainder of 2010.

The U-M violated the restrictions on practice and training time. Michigan self-imposed reductions in practice and training times on a 2:1 basis, for a total of 130 hours during the next two years.

Michigan will issue letters of reprimand to seven individuals who shared in the responsibility for these violations occurring over an extended period, and one dismissal has occurred as a result of an issue of integrity.

The school found no evidence of student-athlete abuse, nor any evidence that its employees disregarded student-athlete welfare.

While Michigan could be considered a repeat violator from 2003 in men’s basketball, the institution does not believe it is warranted in this instance...

The school is recommending two years probation as punishment, but won't know it's sentencing until football season is well underway.

Here's some of what all this led to in 2009, a loss to Ohio State...
((HT: ABC))
mary

And here's coverage from our friends at Fox2 in Detroit...
((HT: MyFoxDetroit.com))

BREAKING NEWS: Michigan Football Out Of Compliance

The NCAA says Tuesday afternoon that University of Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez's program was out of compliance with practice time rules.

Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman was accompanied by incoming athletic director David Brandon and head football coach Rich Rodriguez, at a 1PM press conference.
Brandon said there were no surprises in the NCAA findings. He also says Rodriguez remains the coach.

((Rich Rodriguez today//Courtesy: Andre J. Jackson/Detroit Free-Press))

Michigan has 90 days to respond and will appear at an NCAA hearing on infractions in August. The school is also checking in to how its investigation matches up with the NCAA findings and will consider self-imposed sanctions.

The NCAA began investigating the program following a Detroit Free Press report back in August where current and former players said they were forced to exceed NCAA limits on training and practice hours.

Read the Freep report here...

The report, now released, wasn't pretty. The outlined 5 different major violations in the football program. In fact they correlated the Free Press report from August.

Today's story from the Freep is RIGHT HERE

The laundry list includes:

(1) Exceeding the allowed number of coaches by 5.

(2) Permitting staff to monitor and conduct voluntary summer

workouts outside the season and requiring players to participate in summer conditioning for disciplinary purposes etc.

(3) Graduate Assistant Coach Alex Herron provided "False and

misleading information to the school and enforcement staff: he

lied to them.

(4) Coach Rich Rodriguez didn't monitor any of this.

(5) The Athletic Department also didn't monitor any of this

The school has 90 days to respond to the NCAA and will appear in front of the committee in August to find out their punishment. The scary part of all this is the emphasis by Brandon that Rodriguez will still be the coach at Michigan next year. His regime to this point has been somewhat of a failure with barely a winning record.

Here's RichRod from the presser, thanks to our friends at WXYZ-TV in Detroit

Rodriguez has a bad week...

Talk about having a bad week. Just a few days after Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez gets called out for allegedly exceeding the NCAA limits on practice time, there is more. News today surfaced that Rodriguez is now been served a lawsuit. The suit, which was filed in August in Spartanburg, South Carolina Federal court covers Rodriguez and his business partners and an attempt to build condominiums near Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Check out the story from the Detroit News here.

((Rich Rodriguez and bad luck//Courtesy: John T. Greilick/Detroit News))

Rodriguez' "Advisor"(?) Mike Wilcox says that "Rodriguez is the victim of a 'Ponzi' scheme" along with several others. Okay, that would explain some things, our question is; Who is Mike Wilcox and if he isn't an "Attorney", what is he?

Anyway, the practice issue has already been dogging Rodriguez and his staff, this can't possibly help things. Again, we aren't saying one way or the other about innocence or guilt, but the guy hasn't exactly had the best run of luck over the past year or so...has he?

Rich-Rod: We Know The Rules, We Go By The Rules

((HT: Freep.com))

Coach Rodriguez ((pictured, thanks Andre J Jackson/Detroit Free Press)) opened his weekly news conference — scheduled for each Monday during the season — by saying he would talk about the Free Press report in which numerous current and former players said U-M consistently far exceeded NCAA limits on practice time and other football-related activities. Rodriguez talked for 15 minutes on topic, stopping several times when he appeared to choke up.

When he finished, he said, “That was longer than I wanted to take.” Then he asked for questions about Saturday’s opener against Western Michigan.

Michigan announced Sunday that it had launched an investigation into the allegations. The Big Ten and the NCAA have been alerted.

“We know the rules,” Rodriguez said. “We go by the rules.”

He appeared to choke up for the first time while making this statement: "The thing that bothered me the most about the things that were recently written or said or maybe some things in the last 18 months was the perception sometimes that was out there that we did not care as much for our players’, students’ welfare. That is disheartening.” Then he paused and appeared to tear up. “To say that is misleading, inaccurate and goes against everything I have ever believed in coaching."

Here's Part 1 of the Presser, thanks to our friends at WXYZ-TV/ABC7 Detroit

Michigan To Launch "Full Investigation" Of Player Allegations

Things are getting interesting in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Late Sunday night University of Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said the institution would launch a "full investigation" responding to the Detroit Free Press report that Brother Phil posted earlier.

Here's Bill Martin's statement released by the University of Michigan:

"We are committed to following both the letter and the intent of the NCAA rules and we take any allegations of violations seriously."

"We believe we have been compliant with NCAA rules but nonetheless we have launched a full investigation of the allegations in today's newspaper."

"We have already reached out to both the Big Ten and the NCAA and we will have more to say on this as soon as we have completed our assessment."

Photo Courtesy: Julian H. Gonzalez/Detriot Free Press

Michigan May Be In Trouble

University of Michigan Football Coach Rich Rodriguez may have some 'splainin to do to the NCAA. According to a story that appeared yesterday in the Detroit Free-Press, he is alleged to have violated some NCAA rules in regards to practice time and voluntary workouts. As we all know, that is a no-no.

Here is the original story from the Detroit Free-Press.

((Rich Rodriguez photo//Courtesy: Julian H. Gonzalez/Detroit Free Press))

We don't know if the allegations are true or not, but if they are it would not be a shock. Without casting aspersions towards Rodriguez, we think he would not be the first coach to put an undertone towards these issues. We will imply that there are probably numerous football coaches who do what they need to do to get there guys there and get "100%" participation. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.