The Detroit Free Press broke a story on Sunday that current and former University of Michigan players are alleging that head coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff violated NCAA offseason practice requirements. RichRod of course is denying the allegations but its hard to believe him with everything that has gone on over the last 18 months or so.(This probably went on while he was at West Virginia but who is going to say anything when he turned that school into a perennial top-10 team with All-American talent?)
When he made the move to leave West Virginia for Michigan the people back there were very infuriated and a long legal battle ensued that was eventually resolved but it instantly tarnished his legacy at WVU and he got off to a rocky start at UM. As soon as he got to Ann Arbor a huge chunk of his players transferred with the majority of them saying that "family values had eroded at Michigan." Then of course the Wolverines went on to have their worst season in team history including their first lost to a MAC team at home losing to Toledo 13-10. And just when things were quiet in Michigan and everybody was looking to put last year in the past and start a new era of Michigan football, this happens.
Now I'm not saying if he is guilty or not of having the players practice longer than the maximum 4 hours per day/ 20 hours per week under NCAA regulations, but something has been going on their since so many players have spoken out and/or transferred elsewhere. RichRod is under a lot of pressure to win now and he was implementing a new offense so he probably felt like they needed extra practice and that ticked off a lot of players so they left. But that doesn't excuse Rodriguez because this is really bad for Michigan and it reflects poorly on them for a number of reasons, the first was that they were so quick to get rid of Llyod Carr, who ran a spotless and competitive program his entire time there, for having a down season and not being able to beat Ohio State that they didn't realize what they were doing. Then they did not hire someone who had a history with the University who would have understood the values and traditions at UM.
Now Michigan football, which has never faced sanctions from the NCAA, has become just another team in the fabric of college football breaking the rules to try to get a slight advantage over their opponents. It is a sad day for Wolverine fans and it looks things will probably get worse before they get better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment