Captain Rich Rod Is Going Down With The Titanic

I love watching brilliant offensive minds like Norm Chow, who brings out the best of every player, and maximizes the potential with a comprehensive playbook that features the players' talents and strengths.

Right now, Chow is the OC at UCLA working with a very green former-JUCO transfer QB named Kevin Craft. Craft first stepped on campus two days before the Bruins' spring game. Both Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan, the two veteran quarterbacks, were injured during spring practice and Craft was forced into action.

Did Chow overwhelm Craft with complicated schemes? Ask him to make quick reads?

No.

He adjusted his game plan to keep it simple and allow Craft to gain some confidence as the season progressed.

Chow is a great coach. He makes timely adjustments and takes the tools that the quarterback has and uses them to the team's best advantage.

In contrast is Rich Rodriguez, head coach at Michigan.

He had the luxury of coaching Pat White - a fleet-footed quarterback who is a threat on options, delayed hand-offs and draws every down, while he was head coach at West Virginia. In short, White was the prototype spread quarterback - and made Rodriguez look like a genius.

But Rodriguez ended up leaving Morgantown and heading to Michigan where he decided that his spread offense would work immediately. Sure there might be some kinks at first, but overall, it should be implemented at once, rather than gradually or in a hybrid version.

Quarterback Ryan Mallett was no fool; a classic pocket passer, he immediately transferred to Arkansas, where they run a more traditional passing offense.

Eleven Michigan players that had eligibility at Michigan left the school. The writing on the wall was clear—those players were not going to succeed in this new spread system.

Lineman who had been recruited to run a pro set or power running game were huffing and puffing in spring practice trying to adjust to the no-huddle spread. At least one player left, citing a lack of family values at Michigan.

These huge oak trees were being asked to become palm trees. To sway in the wind and instead of being assigned one gap, were now being asked to cover two gaps. It's the nature of the spread. You must be agile, fast and able to run in a no-huddle offense.

The result of this giant SNAFU? A Michigan team that is 2-4. A Michigan team that lost to a below-average MAC team.

You can blame the kicker for missing the field goal in the Toledo game, but when a team's morale is so low, it infects an entire team. Everybody fails to do their job, and the pride of the team goes out the window. And their focus.

Michigan has the highest winning percentage and most wins in division 1 football. This is a storied football program that expects a competitive squad and a winning season.

Thirty-three consecutive bowls. The streak will end. You can count on it.

Before playing Toledo, Michigan has not lost to a MAC team in twenty-four games. Until Rich Rodriguez came blowing into Ann Arbor.

Michigan fans are outraged at the fashion in which they are losing. Sure some losses were to be expected, but it's the way they are losing that is so alarming.

The offense is ranked 109th in the country and the D, which was supposed to be the bright light, is ranked 54th. That's right, Arkansas State has a better D than the Wolverines.

Do the Michigan fans have a right to be outraged? You're damn straight they do. So let me be the first one to throw the proverbial fuel into the fire.

Rich, you blew it. Your ego got in the way of that pretty contract you signed.

All great coaches adjust their offensive schemes to their roster's strengths. They don't force new schemes on players who weren't built for that type of play.

Texas Tech doesn't run smash-mouth football and Ohio State doesn't run the fun n' gun. Do the math, Rich. You don't have the right players and you are insisting on doing it your way.

The result? Possibly diminishing some NFL draft possibilities for the seniors who decided to stay. Ruining a senior's chance of having some pride and playing in a bowl. Messing up recruiting beyond anyone's imagination- do you really expect any player to sign with Michigan when you may not be there in a year?

Just what five star recruit is going to sign with you when it's clear you are years away of getting the spread to work effectively?

Who is going to sign with a coach who has shown no loyalty to his previous school, and put his current school in a potentially embarrassing position by almost forcing some serious brass to have to testify in the civil suit that he insisted was worth fighting?

A man who claims his payout clause was ridiculous at West Virginia, that he was coerced into agreeing to that amount, but then agreed to that same amount with Michigan?

Your words mean nothing, coach.

Michigan fans should be calling for his head. This is a travesty.

While most coaches should be given time to turn around a program, Rodriguez should be not be given that same courtesy. He hasn't shown any semblance of great coaching. Nor has he shown patience. He wants his offense to be run his way, not the way his team was recruited for.

This hiring was a mistake. Huge mistake.

There are better coaches out there, smarter coaches out there.

Coaches who can examine the strengths of a team, adjust an offense around it, and have his players over-achieve.

Lane Kiffen rings a bell. I hear he's available.