Rich Rodriguez Replacement Plan: Michigan Fans Question Reasons For Dismissal

Pity Michigan fans. Their last athletics director reportedly missed out on a chance to continue talks with Les Miles because he was on a yacht-related trip. No, really. Their current athletics director has instead decided that it’s best to wait until Jan. 5 to begin a national coaching search. Again — no, really. Michigan fans are not pleased with this tack, which our Michigan blog, Maize n Brew, sums up thusly: “The Plane has Crashed into the Mountain.”

If Rodriguez was going to be fired today, Brandon needed to have a coach lined up in the next 24 hours. Not have a nationwide coaching search that he hopes to wrap up by Wednesday of next week. If the plan was always to have a nationwide coaching search, Rodriguez needed to be let go on Dec. 1 and the search needed to have started then.

Anyone doubting the idea that a coaching search beginning in January is a bad idea need only ask Florida fans. Steve Spurrier resigned from his legendary run in Gainesville on Jan. 4, 2002, and the man Florida found to replace him was Ron Zook.

Meanwhile, Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire is chewing over the reasons that Rich Rodriguez’s tenure in Ann Arbor didn’t work. Their take: It’s not that Rodriguez’s spread offense didn’t work, it’s that Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense was the only thing that did work.

After 3 years at the helm, only 1/3 of this team worked. The other 2/3rds (some may call that a “majority”) of this team withered into nothingness. Michigan’s field goal percentage was… wait for it… 28.6% (4 of 14). … Attempts look a little low? That’s because Michigan had to either punt or go for it on 4th down if they were outside the, oh I dunno, 15 yard line.

For whatever reason it happened, Rodriguez is gone. And the search to replace him is already off to a bumpy start.