Lightning Rod hits Ann Arbor

Seriously, this whole Rich Rodriguez thing came out of nowhere...atleast for me it did. The first I heard of Rodriguez was at a basketball press conference with John Beilein and one of the reporters asked him about it. That was last Friday afternoon. With how much Bill Martin and co. seemed to just bungle the heck out of this coaching search, it appears to me that they basically got hit by lightning. The bolt was Rich Rod. It was lucky, but it happened, so I'm satisfied.

But before we start bashing Martin for what he did wrong (going on a sailboat on the most important weekend of the year, allowing too much information to leak to the media, etc..) let's look at the end result. The Wolverines got one of the best coaches in the country, and lured him away when it didn't even seem like he was looking to switch jobs. Everyone who started piling on the whole "being Michigan football coach isn't that great" bandwagon has some serious re-thinking to do.


So much better than Lloyd.

The bottom line is without media interference (cough cough Kirk Herbstreit and ESPN) Michigan could have stolen two coaches who are viewed at the top of the coaching ladder right now. Anyone who has one ear to the ground in Ann Arbor knew Les Miles wanted to come back to Michigan, no matter what he says to the national media. If that report isn't leaked on the morning of the SEC Title Game, I have very few doubts Les Miles would be the next coach at Michigan. But after the report came out, coupled with West Virginia losing to Pitt and therefore putting LSU in the National Title Game, Miles was out of the equation. No one in the BCS Title Game can really even talk about switching jobs.

Basically, from my standpoint, I feel like whichever team (LSU or WVU) didn't make the National Championship, that's the coach we were going after. And that's exactly what happened. Now, did they plan it like that? Hell no! This was a flawed search from the get go, but again, things couldn't have turned out better.

What does this mean for next season? Well, if the No. 1 recruit in the nation, Terrelle Pryor, comes to Ann Arbor, you're looking at a bright immediate future. If he doesn't, it may take a couple seasons to get the correct personnel in place. That being said, it's not like this is the same situation John Beilein inherited when he moved from Morgantown to Ann Arbor. Lloyd has been snagging top-15 recruting classes for years, and there's definitely a foundation of quality athletes ready to start learning the spread.


Meet Terrelle Pryor

Pryor is the difference maker, though. Standing 6'6, weighing in at 236 and running a 4.4 40, this kid sounds like the real deal. He single handedly won the Pennsylvania State Title game a few weeks ago, and is also a 5-star basketball recruit. He would likely come in and start at QB right away, and after a transition year that every freshman goes through, the Wolverines could be poised for big things in '09. But I'm getting ahead of myself here because there's a good chance he doesn't even end up here.

I really do feel sorry for the West Virginia fans of the world. The Michigan athletic department was that douchebag friend who saw one of his other slightly less cool friends making out with a really hot chick and then decided she was too good for him and should be making out with him, the "better" kid. Well, West Virginia, we saw two hotties and decided they shouldn't be making out with you anymore. And now, with news that Michigan may be pursuing WVU's women's soccer coach, we may be trying to steal an ugly chick just to rub it in their faces.

Now that it's all done, I have a huge sense of relief. This dragged out for too long and I'm glad it's over. The final piece of business is coming up with an original nickname for Richie. Everyone in the media has been using Rich Rod or a variation of that, so I'm going to go along those lines.


Look at that shit eating grin...He really is a Dick Rod...haha

I'm thinking DickRod because it's funny and it will help keep alive the greatest nickname ever created. The Richard-Dick connection is unclear, but anyone with the name Richard who goes by Dick is historically awesome. Think about it: Dick Vitale, Dick Van Dyke, Dick Clark, the guy who started Dick's Sporting Goods...And the problem with today's society is that the name Dick has fallen out of style. Seriously, when's the last time you met a guy named Richard who went by the name Dick and was under the age of 40? So not only is Dick Rod going to save Michigan football, he's also now the head man for my Save Dick campaign.