Practice Doesn't Make Perfect: The Beginning of the End for Rich Rodriguez

Even before the 2009 season gets underway, controversy and scandal has found its way back onto the Michigan campus.

On Saturday, Michael Rosenberg and Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press reported that the Wolverines have "consistently violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez."

According to six current or former Michigan football players, practice sessions typically exceeded limits set by the NCAA and that members of the team's quality control staff were present for off-season scrimmages, another violation.

The players, speaking on the condition on anonymity because they feared repercussions from coaches and fans, revealed that the time demands negatively affected academic performance and that players were forced to sign NCAA forms stating that all rules had been followed.

Of course Rodriguez promptly denied any wrongdoing.

"We know the practice and off-season rules, and we stay within the guidelines," Rodriguez said in a statement issued Friday to the Free Press. "We follow the rules and have always been completely committed to being compliant with all NCAA rules."

And you have the forced signatures of your players to back that up, right Rich?

Since arriving in Ann Arbor in December 2007, Rodriguez has had a firestorm of controversy hovering above his head.

There was the way in which Coach Rod left his former team, the subsequent court battle concerning his contract's buyout clause and the bad press that spilled into Michigan's lap with his hiring.

Then, with only two months under his belt at UM, Rodriguez was called a "guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil" by a fellow Big Ten coach because he was able to convince six recruits to change verbal commitments to other programs and sign with Michigan.

Then came a succession of transfers—20 to date—including the very public transfer of offensive lineman Justin Boren, who transferred to archrival Ohio State citing an erosion of family values.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?