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I'm not sure what's in the water in West Lafayette, Ind. but it seems to make grown men grow mustaches and lose their mind every once in a while (mostly when it comes to Michigan).

I understand being competitive, I understand the heat of the moment, but the Purdue current and former head coaches have always seemed to have a problem with the former and current Michigan coaches.

Joe Tiller, the former Purdue head coach, never had a nice word for Lloyd Carr. There really isn't any evidence of the rift between the two but Joe always made it known he was not a fan of the Wolverines and the coaching staff.

Two years ago after Carr retired, Tiller got upset that Roy Roundtree, a wide receiver, changed his mind from Purdue to Michigan on signing day. Joe, during his press conference, laid the famous "snake oil salesman" on coach Rich Rodriguez for convincing Roy to change his mind.

Roy had his best game of the year against Purdue on Saturday going for 10 catches for 176 yards. He also said today at Rodgriguez's press conference that the Purdue defensive backs were in his ear the entire game talking smack saying they were going to hit him hard, he was going to drop the next ball, etc.

Then after Purdue beat Michigan this weekend, Purdue coach Danny Hope went to shake Rodriguez's hand and introduced him to Purdue offensive lineman Zach Reckman who was suspended by the Big Ten for a late hit earlier in the year.

Danny's "thinking" was that Rich Rod played a role in Zach's suspension by this comment RR made earlier in the year :

"We will watch every Big Ten game very closely, and any non-football act—whether it's a six-inch jab or anything that's not called for the game of football—we're going to ask that person get the same type of punishment Jonas Mouton got."

So my understanding of Danny's way of thinking is that coach Rodriguez had mystic powers to make Zach make the penalty, and then convinced the Big Ten to punish him. Makes sense to me. If Rodriguez really has that type of power, look for the entire Wisconsin offense and defense to be suspended this week.

Danny, I understand this is your first year as a head coach and you had some nice wins this year. A couple of pointers moving forward:

1) Act like you have been there before
2) Show class after you get a win or a loss
3) Don't alienate fellow head coaches (you never know who you might be working for in a few years)
4) Don't give teams any more reasons to beat you next year

Good luck with the rest of your season and stay "classy" my friend.

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