Thursday, February 04, 2010

Magnitude Of Michigan's Tradition Overwhelming Rodriguez

The issue isn't necessarily Michigan's recruiting Demar Dorsey, a four-star defensive back out of Florida, as much as Wolverines' coach Rich Rodriguez's refusal to discuss the issue in a forthright manner.
Dorsey has been charged with felony crimes such burglery and robbery in the past, but was not convicted. The charges, however, are red flags.
And Rodriguez did, after all, have Adam "Pac Man" Jones and the late and troubled Chris Henry at West Virginia. Rodriguez did bring a player to Michigan's program, since dismissed, quarterback/receiver Justin Feagin, who ran afoul with the law in this state - after he had legal incidents in the past in Florida.
A couple things here...
During my radio show Wednesday night, a caller asked me if I thought Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller or Lloyd Carr would have recruited Dorsey, who is a good enough player to start in the Wolverines' much-maligned secondary immediately.
I said I couldn't answer that for sure, but doubt they would have. Another caller said it was a reminder of the type of player Michigan State has taken chances with for years. I agree. And the Spartans, in my opinion, have often done so out of desperation.
Seems like Michigan is pretty desperate after posting a 3-13 Big Ten record the last two years.
Secondly, Rodriguez is on thin-ice in this state. The "woe is me" line is inappropriate. There has been nothing about his program so far to indicate he is doing anything but running Michigan's storied football tradition into the ground.
People wonder why Michigan is taking a kid like this it might not have in the past. Rodriguez was going to be grilled about it by the media. It shouldn't have been much of a surprise.
That he acted like it was, and was unprepared to deal with it, is yet another indication a job of Michigan's magnitude is just overwhelming Rich Rodriguez.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous William said...

I think Rodriguez in is a bad place right now. The Michigan football program has always , in my opinion, been overrated. I don't think that Michigan has done anything wrong to lose recruits or tarnish their reputation, I just think that there is a much bigger pool of big, fast, strong HS recruits now, so the other programs are raising themselves up.

15 years ago a borderline blue chip recruit would have gone to an established program, now he can afford to go to a "project" program because he now has pretty good odds of being on TV and he will be surrounded by a higher level of talent, and he'll get playing time under those conditions.

I don't think Rodriguez can take any blame for the current state of Michigan football, I think Carr has to take the blame because he's the one who was in charge when a transition in the image needed to be made and he failed to do it.

9:30 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is trash! Anyone ever hear of Larry Foote? Who himself, claims to have been a bad actor and near gang-banger in H.S.
Dorsey would have been welcomed with open arms by FSU,USC,Florida or anyone else and the media would have played up the redemption angle (like at Ill and Zook's latest recruit). This pure and simple is Rob Parkerlike!

12:41 PM 

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