Recruiting Wizard

Coach Rodriguez is a Recruiting Wizard. No less an authority than Purdue Head Coach Joe Tiller said so. However, when I say it, I mean it as a compliment. Now I know that Coach Rod and I have not gotten off on the right foot but I take exception to Coach Tiller's comments regarding the circumstances of 4-star recruit Roy Roundtree's de-commit at Purdue and his subsequent commitment to Michigan. Tiller was quoted as saying, "If we had an early signing date, you wouldn't have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that's what happened." The article went on to state that Coach Tiller was concerned about a loss of integrity among Big Ten coaches.

I took great exception to Coach Tiller's comments as it is just a case of sour grapes and Tiller's baseless swipe adds more fuel to the fire in the "Coach Rodriguez lacks ethics" debate that is ongoing in the media. As Tiller well knows, de-commits are an unfortunate part of the recruiting process. It happened last year to Michigan when Jerimy Finch de-committed from Michigan and ended up at Florida and it almost happened this year when Sam McGuffie wavered in his commitment as he almost chose to de-commit from the Wolverines and head to California instead. Tiller's comments were out of line and he just better hope that Coach Rodriguez decides not to make Tiller pay by having the Wolverines run up the score on the Boilermakers on November 1st. For another take on Tiller's comments, click here to read the hilarious post by Frank of UMTailgate.com. It is worth it.

As for those readers who may be wondering why I'm defending Coach Rod when I've been so hard on him myself, I give the following reasons. First, I always call them as I see them and he is absolutely in the right in this recruiting "dispute". Secondly, and I am paraphrasing, Frank indirectly told me to "cowboy up" regarding the hiring of Coach Rodriguez. Considering that Coach Rod just reached out to the '69 squad, I'm willing to move forward. Giddyup! and Go Blue!!!

*NOTE: Picture of Coach Rodriguez from his signing day press conference of 2/6/08 from MGoBlue.com