Rich Rodriguez: What He Could Learn from Brady Hoke

Beginning a new job is one of the most precarious situations that a person can find himself in. It becomes even worse when that new job places you directly at the center of the national sports focus. With all eyes on you, there are two ways to handle your first day of work: feel out your situation and see where you fit in or come in guns blazing. The story of Rich Rodriguez has become a cautionary tale of what happens when you choose the latter.

When Rodriguez was hired at the end of the 2007 season, he was one of the hottest names on the coaching carousel. He had just transformed West Virginia into a Big East powerhouse, compiling a 60-26 record in seven years, including three straight years with 10 or more wins.

Contrarily, Michigan was coming out of one of the lower periods in the program's history. They hadn't won a Big Ten Championship in three years, the 2005 season saw them fail to finish in the top 25 for the first time in over a decade and they hadn't played in a national championship game since 1997. They needed a shot in the arm and despite many alumni's objections, Rodriguez became the chosen remedy.

It all was downhill from there.

What Rodriguez failed to understand is that when you take over the winningest program in NCAA Division One history, you need to find a way to fit your personality and your style into the breed of football that has achieved such great levels of success. Instead of finding that happy marriage, Rodriguez decided to blow up the old formula and start over with his own model.

Rodriguez showed no inclination to mold his offense around the talents of Michigan's prize sophomore QB Ryan Mallett, now a projected first-round pick out of Arkansas; clashed with likely starting guard Justin Boren, who transferred and started for rival Ohio State; and had two 4-star recruits (Taylor Hill and Dann O'Neill) transfer, citing differences with the schemes and program.

Instead of choosing to work with what he had and slowly install his own system, Rodriguez ostracized players that didn't fit into his style and chose to start from scratch, trusting his own talents over the school's years of success.  

Showing a completely different approach, newly minted Michigan coach Brady Hoke—a traditional pro style man—sat down with the team's star, spread option QB Denard Robinson and assured him that he would tailor his offense to Robinson's special gifts.

"We understand that when you have playmakers, you've got to be able to utilize them to their fullest so that they're going to help your football team," Hoke told the media later that day. "With Denard, his capabilities, obviously he's a tremendous athlete that can do a lot of things for you on offense. He'll be the lead part of that offense."

When Rodriguez was hired and changed the face of the offense, he also neglected what made Michigan such a traditional powerhouse: a stingy defense that made opponents earn every yard. He fired highly regarded defensive coordinator Ron English before the season started. Michigan's defense, which ranked 24th in total defense in 2007, fell to 69th in 2008, 82nd in 2009 and plummeted to 110th this past season. 

Hoke, a former Michigan defensive line coach, is hell bent on bringing the defensive prowess and ferocious energy back to Michigan football. He knows that's what has been the bread and butter of the Wolverine's success for so many years.

"I know we're going to be a defense that plays with great toughness and great effort," Hoke said. "It's going to be a defense that's going to play fanatical. That's an expectation. The guys who play that way and play with that mentality are the guys that are going to represent Michigan on the field."

Rodriguez also failed to establish a strong relationship with the state of Michigan and its notoriously loyal alumni. Instead of welcoming the tradition of intense support, like managers do when they take the Yankees job or coaches do when they sign on to lead the Cowboys, Rodriguez told some Michigan supporters to "get a life" before his first game against Ohio State.

In contrast, Hoke immediately expressed his desire to turn this football team back into a traditional Michigan team.

"This is the University of Michigan, the winningest program in college football," he said. "Obviously an important piece of it is this state and the talent that's in this state, and then regionally. We're going to focus our attention on that, we're going to compete, we're going to work and we're going to extend ourselves to those high school coaches and those programs. We want their student-athletes to be part of Michigan."

So, while Rich Rodriguez can complain all he wants about not getting the support he feels he deserved from Michigan, he has only his bravado and confidence to blame for his failure.

He's the only coach who tried to change the face and culture of the winningest school in collegiate football history and, not coincidentally, is the only coach to leave Michigan with a losing record since 1891 (and that includes three coaches that only lasted one season).

Instead of finding a way to have the principles of the university co-exist with his style, he threw his cards all in, betting on himself. And lost.

It's a lesson he'll need to take into account when he finds himself in a similar situation at his next job.