Rich Rodriguez Era Is Over: Rich Rod Reportedly Fired By Michigan

Rich Rodriguez has been shown the door in Ann Arbor according to Fox 2 TV in Detroit.

The station is reporting that Rodriguez was fired earlier today after meeting with athletic director Dave Brandon.  

Three straight blowout losses to hated rival Ohio State, a paper thin defense and NCAA compliance issues ultimately doomed Rodriguez’s short tenure at the school.

Rich Rodriguez went 15-22 in his three seasons with Maize and had his Wolverines coaching tenure culminate last Friday in 52-14 Gator Bowl loss to Mississippi State. Michigan will have to pay Rich Rodriguez $2.5 million to buy out his contract.

Rich Rodriguez was hired at Michigan after leading West Virginia to four Big East conference championships through 2003-2007.

Rodriguez’s implementation of the spread offense at Michigan was supposed to revolutionize an offense that had been criticized as being stuck in the past. Despite the emergence of star dual threat quarterback Denard Robinson the wins never came in strong enough bunches to appease Michigan fans and alumni.

It’s unclear at this time whether Rich Rodriguez’s assistants and specifically defensive defensive coordinator Greg Robinson will be retained or let go.

Rich Rodriguez’s future with Michigan has been uncertain to say the least and coaching replacements for RichRod have been speculated on for sometime now. One name that was being discussed as a strong candidate to possibly replace Rodriguez at Michigan was Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh’s Stanford Cardinal ended their season last night with a 40-12 victory over Virgina Tech in the Discover Orange Bowl.

However the Detroit Free Press reported today that a source with knowledge of Jim Harbaugh’s thinking said that it’s “highly unlikely” Harbaugh would accept the Michigan job if he was offered it. So now it becomes unclear who Michigan will hire to revive the winningest program in college football history.