Coach Rod comments at Victors' Rally on coming sanctions
Ann Arbor businessman Pete Nichols put together Sunday's Victors' Rally in an effort to provide a morale boost to the fans of the recently moribund Michigan Football program. During the rally at the Michigan Theatre, attended by 450 fans who paid for admission, Coach Rod made remarks lasting about 15 minutes. Coach Rod was overcome with emotion (imagine that!) as he spoke about the program and his place in it. Most interestingly, he hinted at what is coming down the pipe in terms of the NCAA investigation into allegations that he committed violations during his first season as Head Coach. Coach Rod said at the rally, "We have an issue with the NCAA. That’s going to be resolved and I feel confident at the end of the summer, we’ll be through that. Can you imagine if Bo was told (by) the NCAA, you worked too hard? Maybe we worked too hard, I don’t know. But our players are totally committed.” (emphasis added)
The reason, quite simply, that Coach Rod does not know if they "worked too hard" is because he did not maintain the requisite practice time logs for the Compliance Department during the period of time in question. In the proud 130-year history of the Michigan Football Program, the Wolverines have never been hit with a major sanction by the NCAA for a rules violation. This is another of the Wolverines' streaks that is likely to come to an ignominious end under the reign of Coach Rod. In a ploy to garner support for his rule-breaking practice policies, Coach Rod invoked the memory of legendary Coach Schembechler. In his remarks, Coach Rod asked rhetorically, "Can you imagine if Bo was told (by) the NCAA, you worked too hard?" Fans would be hard pressed to envision a scenario where Bo had to be reprimanded by the NCAA as Coach Schembechler ran a program that always played within the rules and was beyond reproach. Coach Schembechler never had to be told by the NCAA about how hard he was working his players because Bo ALWAYS played within the rules.
In his book, Bo's Lasting Lessons, Coach Schembechler titled the Sixth Chapter: Do the Right Thing-Always. The beginning of the chapter seems particularly pertinent:
Every coach, every executive, every leader: They all know right from wrong. Even those Enron guys. When someone uncovers a scandal in their company, I don't think they can say, "I didn't know that was going on." They're really just saying they're too dumb to do their
job! And if they really are too dumb, they why are they getting paid
millions of dollars to do it? They know what's going on.Bo went on to write that he could not recall a single moral dilemna in all his
years of coaching. (page 59) He wrote the reason was, "We always
knew what the right thing to do was, so we just did it. And we slept
well at night! Really, it was that simple."When Coach Rod plaintively asks what it will take for him to be considered a
Michigan Man he does not understand it takes character that is beyond him.
Go Blue!
posted by mzgoblue @ 10:10 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
It is hardly beyond his character. Look at his support for the Mealer brothers. Look at the discipline he has shown so far, dropping starters at a position on need when they do not take care of their business off the field. The increase in the team's grade point average. Funny you should invoke a quote from Bo in trying to skewer Rodriguez, when that is the coach he is most like. I met bo and he would absolutely support everything Rodriguez has done so far.
Bo - swore at practice
Bo - worked his players to the point that he experienced player attrition at a level way beyond what you have seen in the last 3 years
Bo - was a strict disciplinarian
Bo - came to Michigan without any inside ties to the program and shook things up
So where are the difference?
You should get your facts straight before continuing to bash Coach Rodriguez. It was NOT his job to maintain the log, nor did he commit any violations. It was unethical AD employees who were loyal to other factions and former coaches that intentionally created these problems for Coach Rodriguez and put themselves above the program and the university. I hope you decide to write a retraction with the CORRECT facts and start to support the TEAM, the TEAM, the TEAM instead of whoever "your guy" is that is not named Rich Rodriguez.
@Papa Steve: By that logic, there's not much difference between Vincent Smith and my sister, because they're both the same height.
Bo did those things, but he didn't,
- Break NCAA rules
- Do business with banned boosters
- Embarrass the University with public, costly lawsuits (such as RR v. WVU)
- Lose 16 games -- OK, I lied; Bo lost his 16th game in 1979, his 11 season.
- Claim he didn't know the rules or didn't know what was going on in the program. Can you imagine that from Bo?
@Anonymous: How do we know that you are not an employee of the UM athletic department, planting this information in blogs all over the Internet? Or maybe you are in the anti-RR faction, trying to flush out your enemies? Or perhaps you work for the FBICIAInterpol, and are trying to flush out all the conspiracy theorists?
RR winter 2008, om UM not going to a bowl, this will never happen again whike I am coach. Wrong
RR spring 2009, we will never sign or even recruit anyone with possible character issues or a problem background. Lied
RR summer 2009, we know the NCAA rules and we did not do anything wrong. Lied
RR winter 2010, I am a Michigan Man. Wrong, really, really wrong. Save Michigan football, FIRE RR!
@ anonymous 9:08
oh no, the geriatrics are using the internets again!
Get off my lawn! Potato salad! Fire RR he is the dev-eeeel!
Conveniently you have alzheimers with regard to:
-Higher team grade point average than the last what, 20 years?
-RR's rather strict discipline where if you mess up off the field, you are gone with very little leeway. Stricter, much stricter, than Carr was. Cissoko was a player at a position of need and although not great, still likely our best option for the rest of the season and he is gone. Feagin - just gone, the second he was caught committing fraud. Bye Bye.
-Unflinching support for Mealor and his family in their time of need, rallying behind and around them and guaranteeing he will be taken care of, whther or not he recovers fully and contributes
-Continued mandatory player involvement in community activities
-Putting together a recruiting class with VERY high-character individuals that display a work ethic that has been missing from the program, even if one of those has some minor charges from 2 years ago. big deal?
-while we are at it, re-instilling the same work ethic that made Bo famous along with the concept of competition
just plain silly:
-Every program sooner or later takes on a recruit with some prior past, RR has an excellent track record with the player he chooses, the last one he took at WVU ended up an honor student and not even a hint of trouble. Do you really think this is the first time UM ever took someone with a bit of a legal issue in their past? Do you actually follow the team? Should I list them for you?
-One of the 'rules' he 'broke' was over-enforcing class attendance in the summertime. Terrible!! Lynch him!!
-The 'rules' in question are arcane and complex and I would guess not followed to the letter by any D1 program if you look into them with the same depth. See Brian's link on MGoBlog to the NCAA's own site where they admit exactly this and indicate that many major D1 schools run afoul of them as a result. So RR is a demon?They investigated b/c the Free PRess lied and came up with very, very little. but you go ahead and back the Free PRess on this, great fan you are.
Who did you want to coach again?
*Les Miles? Who poked Moeller's wife and lied to a recruit telling him that Carr had Alzheimers so he committed to LSU? Yes, a great Michigan man he is.
*Harbaugh who is in trouble for adding a $75,000 bathroom to hid office at Stanford when they are laying off employees? Or because he badmouthed Bo and his purportedly lax attitude toward academics? Really, a Michigan man?
lol.
Go ahead, cowtow to the Free Press and their lies and bring down the program you profess to support. Gutless, chinless, spineless, fair-weather fan that you are. You have enjoyed a winning program for a looong time and now that the chips are down and the program needs you to give a little back, you instead screech like a monnkay in a zoo and hurl your own feces indiscriminantly in all directions because you lack the capacity and cognitive ability to get all the facts and think critically about the headlines that are fed to you from a media outlet that is clearly biased and acting on a clearly outlined agenda. Good for you, you should be very proud.
Go away and never come back.
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