Michigan Football: Will 7-5 Be Good Enough for Rich Rodriguez?

Entering the 2010 college football season, there was no coach who had a hotter seat than that of Rich Rodriguez at Michigan.

His first two years at Michigan featured two losing seasons, no bowl games, and accusations of possible NCAA violations in regards to the hours the team practices.

This was the year that Rodriguez's recruiting had to start showing dividends. It started in very controversial fashion.

Rodriguez decided to start Denard Robinson over last year's freshman phenom Tate Forcier. It looked like a great decision after Robinson was very impressive in the early season, which featured a big win over Notre Dame.

Michigan football appeared to be back, heading into the Big Ten season with a 4-0 record. Then Michigan fans were reminded a lot of last year when the Wolverines started with an unimpressive win over Indiana, followed by back-to-back losses to Michigan State and Iowa heading into a bye week.

That is the exact same scenario that happened last year, when Michigan failed to make a bowl game after a hot start.

Then after the bye, another heartbreaking loss to Penn State made Rodriguez's days in Ann Arbor look numbered. Then came an triple-overtime thriller with Illinois in which the Wolverines prevailed.

That followed with a bit of an ugly win against Purdue. In that game, Robinson was actually pulled for being ineffective in favor of Forcier.

With two games left, Michigan faces two of the best teams in the Big Ten in Wisconsin and Ohio State. Being realistic, a victory in either of those games is a very tall order.

I am not saying it won't happen, just that the Wolverines will be heavy underdogs in both contests. Therefore, the end result is likely to be 7-5.

That will bring the burning question of whether that is good enough for Rodriguez to be given another year. To me, that's a tough one.

Offensively, Michigan has clearly gotten better each year. Despite his recent struggles, Robinson is still one of the best players in the country. That would be an argument to keep him.

However, there is also a strong argument that he should be fired. If Michigan loses their last two games, their Big Ten record under Rodriguez would be 6-18. That is bad for any program, especially one that has the storied history Michigan has.

Also, Rodriguez reminds me a lot of Charlie Weis in how he recruits. He has loaded the team with offensive talent. However, the players on defense just aren't very good.

I said before the Big Ten campaign began that there is not a defense in the Big Ten that can stop Robinson. However, there is not an offense in the Big Ten that this defense can stop.

Based on these factors, Michigan will have a very tough decision on whether to bring back Rodriguez after a 7-5 season. I am not advocating for him to be fired or for Michigan to keep him.

I am just pointing out that Michigan has a very tough decision on it's hands. Having said all of this, this will all be a moot point if Michigan pulls off a major upset in either of the last two games.