So over the weekend a gent named Neal Rubin for popped up and wrote this piece on Rodriguez in the Detroit News, basically talking about how much of an a-hole Rich Rod is. Normally I wouldn’t bother to say anything – it reads like a bad sports radio call – but after basically calling Rich Rod a slippery, money-grabbing phony, he went here: Fielding Yost didn’t sign contract extensions and then flirt with other schools to extort raises. Actually, despite this being a completely different era in college sports, Yost maneuvered quite a bit with his contracts and with U-M. I know FHY on some level—he was a very savvy negotiator and businessman, go read The Big House–so when I saw this I got a laugh. I asked author/historian John Kryk [Natural Enemies], who’s in the process of writing the definitive history of Yost and his Point-A-Minute teams, and he shared this on the topic: “No matter how long Yost’s contract was (one-year, two-year, five-year) in his first decade, it was always a source of relief in Ann Arbor every late-Nov/early-Dec when he announced he was for sure coming back. Occasionally, there were reports he was considering an offer from, say, Wisconsin — or from the East. One year he even boldly and publicly disputed the wording of his contract…
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Rich Rod Presser 12-18 (audio)
Coach Rodriguez let the media into Schembechler Hall this morning for a 20 minute Q&A and to watch practice. Check out some photos here and here’s the audio of the press conference: [display_podcast] No surprises with injury report. Je’Ron Stokes is practicing. Denard is fine. “They kick like champions in here,” as in inside the Hall. Still a competition. Not sure if anyone will be ineligible due to grades until exams are done. Talked about Miss State a bit. “Probably did the best job of anybody all years against Cam Newton and Auburn.” As soon as practice is over, many of the coaches are hitting the road recruiting. Running back situation is open – sounds like everyone (Smith, Shaw, Fitz, Hopkins) is healthy. Flying out the 26th on a charter or the guys will fly in from their homes. The wanted to fly down Christmas day but the Redskins have the hotel booked up. On early enrollees: expecting between 2 and 4. Devin Gardner won’t play in the bowl game. He is practicing, his back is “better”. RR said they will (“probably”) start the paperwork process after the bowl game for the medical redshirt. He is eligible, playing time wise, for Michigan to apply.
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Groban Jokes Still Hot
More proof that Josh Groban jokes are still on fire, caller ‘Mark from Novi’ dialed up Sam Webb during the recruiting round-up on WTKA 1050AM this morning and killed it: [display_podcast] . The full segment is here, and as Sam recaps the visits on the Big Chill weekend. The theme? It was an outstanding event for all involved but recruiting and more importantly, commitments, are in limbo with the coaching situation.
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We Had a Bust Thursday
You heard? On an recent email thread in my inbox someone mentioned they heard Jim Rome talking about how Rodriguez played Bette Midler at the banquet. I was there and even live blogged for the second year in a row if you missed it. (It was going well until the Dee Hart to Bama rumors emerged and unfolded during the middle of the bust and the live chat went sideways for a spell. Recruitniks! <shakes fist>) So regarding Rodriguez’s speech and the Josh Groban moment. I was seated in the back of the room. Rich Rod starting his final words around 9pm and lost in all the Grobanathon is that Rodriguez delivered an excellent speech. It was passionate, heartfelt and he seemed truly humbled in the moment. About ten minutes in he dropped two of his big lines, “Our time is coming, and it’s coming in a big way”, and “We’ll let people jump on the bandwagon. They may not get a front seat.” You forget that Rodriguez is a skilled public speaker in these type of forums. Then came the Groban stuff, about 10 minutes in. When RR first mentioned the pop-opera crooner I winced. When he recited the lyrics I chuckled & when they started blasting the tune I cringed. And it was LOUD. I think it would…
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Michigan Men can Make a Funny Video
Via Mark at the Freep and Craig at HSR: What is A Michigan Man? from Charles Woodson
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Jamie Morris on Columbus Radio on Rodriguez, Harbaugh (audio)
So I went over to the Columbus’ 97.1 The Fan website to find the audio of Rich Rodriguez’s call today, and stumbled on this. Jamie Morris, Michigan football legend, WTKA Sunday radio host and most importantly an official within the U-M athletic department spoke to the Columbus host (Bruce Hooley…Chris Spielman was away) about the upcoming Ohio State game, but also answered a few questions about Rodriguez and Jim Harbaugh. My frustration with Morris on WTKA is that he’s been such a company man towing the company line on WTKA, that it’s prevented him from offering actual opinions. But give this is listen as Morris gets candid. I don’t know if this is just Jamie measuring his words, but he didn’t exactly serve up a wild endorsement of Rodriguez and admitted that Harbaugh would be welcomed back to U-M if he were the Michigan football coach at some point beyond RR’s tenure. It’s not so much what he said, but that Morris never says anything remotely beyond the company line. Give this a listen, it gets interesting about 3 minutes in: [display_podcast] . Notes/Quotes: For starters, he referred to Harbaugh as “Jimmy” instead of “traitor”. Hooley asked for a general sense of the radio caller support for Rodriguez. Morris: “I think we’re at a 50/50 split now…” When asked about…