Rich Rodriguez Karaoke: Another Embarrassing Moment for Michigan

If Richard Rodriguez had any intention of being the head football coach at the University of Michigan in 2011, he might have thrown it out of the window on Thursday night at the annual Michigan Football Bust.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Rodriguez’s tenure at the University has been rocky, and quite different from what Michigan fans have been accustomed to.

Michigan has always been known as a school with extremely high expectations on and off the football field.

Not only was there the expectation of winning football, but players and coaches held themselves to a high standard off the field as well, or at least kept their images clean.

One could easily look at the last three years of Michigan football and find adequate if not overwhelming reasons to fire Rodriguez just based on statistics alone.

The Wolverines are a combined 0-6 against Michigan State and Ohio State. That stat in itself is an indictment against the head coach, considering the depth of the rivalries that Michigan has with both schools.

It goes much deeper than just those rivalry games, though. Rodriguez’s overall record at the University of Michigan is 15-21, and for a school with 11 national championships, and 42 Big Ten titles, you would think that heads would be flying left and right to try to fix the problem.

As if that were not enough, the Wolverines have an abysmal 6-18 record against Big Ten opponents, and don’t misconstrue those six wins; they are 0-11 against conference teams with winning records.

My point here is that Richard Rodriguez fully deserves to be let go from his duties as Michigan’s head football coach, if only because of statistics. 

I firmly believe, though, that if and when Rodriguez is fired, it will have nothing to do with his record, and nothing to do with statistics, but everything to do with his off-the-field persona.

Coach Rodriguez has taken a once highly esteemed University of Michigan program and turned it into a three-ring circus, and he has a laundry list of black marks against him that back my claim up.

Just to name a few: highly ranked players leaving, stupid if not oblivious comments at the podium, his lack of attention to the defensive side of the ball, and, of course, the NCAA violations regarding his practice time.

The rap sheet on Rodriguez’s off-the-field antics is long, and filled with many embarrassing blemishes that a once-proud program now has to bear.

Even with all that, though, the University is still taking their sweet time in determining the future of their head coaching position.

Up until this point, Rodriguez has apparently not done enough to lose his job, but I think the other shoe finally dropped Thursday night.

In the night's final remarks, Rodriguez apparently took the podium rather emotionally, and delivered what seemed to be a plea for mercy to the Wolverines.

He went on to talk about the tolls of taking the Michigan job, about how it had not gone as well as he had expected.

He then proceeded to almost beg former the Michigan players and alumni to not compare eras of their football program. 

One could only imagine why he would ask such a thing.

One bible verse and an emotional explanation later, Rodriguez finally had reached his grand finale.

The University of Michigan’s head football coach than proceeded to read lyrics from the Josh Groban song “You Raise Me Up,” as the song played throughout the ballroom.

He explained how he had been listening to the song for the past couple weeks, and even though it may be cheesy, it fit the mood. 

He than thanked the people who had “raised him up” through these tough times, and grabbed the hands of his wife, and broadcaster Frank Beckmann, raised them up, and swayed side to side. 

Now, to be clear, I wasn’t in attendance at this event, so everything that I know right now has been through my own research.

That being said, I can almost guarantee you that this moment was anything but uplifting. 

The fact that a coach would have to make such an emotional plea for mercy, and that he would use a kumbaya session to do it is rather embarrassing.

The fact that once again the University of Michigan is being ridiculed for another baffling moment from their head coach is embarrassing, and I truly wonder how much longer this can go on.

Make no mistake about it; this will not be looked on as a positive moment.

People all over the country are pointing and laughing at the Wolverines, and now it has nothing to do with their record. Rich-Rod has put his in his mouth one too many times, and now the University of Michigan is starting to look stupid along with him.

They better hope that Jim Harbaugh is already looking for houses in the Ann Arbor area, because they need to get rid of this guy now.

I believe Rich Rodriguez signed his own pink slip Thursday night. After all that he has done off the field, and all he hasn’t done on the field, it seems almost fitting that in the end he will be fired because of his apparent love for Josh Groban.

Rich Rodriguez will be fired because of karaoke. Let that soak in for a minute, and then laugh.