First M & RR

I have never been to North Dakota, and of the forty or so other states I have visited or lived in the two that stick out in their own way are Mississippi and West Virginia.  And of the coldest, drizzliest, and most pavement-cracked cities in my experience, the one that rises above (or below) them all is Ann Arbor, Michigan.  From Morgantown to U-M comes Rich Rodriquez.

He didn’t create or even build the football success at West Virginia University:  that was done by his predecessors, most recently Don Nehlen, who put the public university of one of the poorest and least educated states in the country on the top-twenty map.  Rodriquez took the program to a higher level yet and in the process he became, still in his early forties, a legend in his home state.  West Virginia was now a perennial top-five, BCS contender.  Rodriquez, in the company of only the likes of Urban Meyer, Les Miles, and Bob Stoops, was annually and reliably successful at the highest levels.  Unlike such current stalwarts as Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and Mack Brown, Rodriquez and his few cohorts are younger, enough so, seemingly, to provide the illusion that they know something and can do things that most others can’t. 

They are more than just managers of huge, multi-million dollar departments.  They provide the excitement and optimism that I, for one, want in college athletics.  Do we need more proof than the circumstances surrounding Rich Rod’s arrival?  Just about everyone has egg on their face.  It is a rare day when people go around suggesting that, oh well, it is just $4 million, and there is no other choice.  The former West Virginia coach learned publicly and the very hard way that written contracts are binding.

The notion of student athlete today is an obscure one; nonetheless, college and student athletics is unmistakably about the future, about young men and women growing, learning, and improving.  The Lloyd Carr period of Michigan football was effete, and for Mr. Carr personally, when you think about retiring, and especially when you are in a position where so many others depend on you, that is indeed a tell-tale sign.  How rare it is to do it with continuity and without acrimony.  I will always remember the wound-too-tight, screaming at players and walking away from reporters Carr, but I also give him a world of credit for reinventing himself and relaxing, albeit only after resigning from the pressure of being clobbered annually by Jim Tressel and Ohio State.

The Michigan logo says 1817 and in this country that is pretty close to as old as you can get.  Combine that with the winningest, and then add bright, new, optimistic future, and you really, I mean really, have something special.

Now, four games into the 2008 season and starting anew with a .500 record, there’s a feeling that the long changeover is finally ending.  Perhaps part of the uplifting story is the realization that one person really can make a difference; still, there are many others, including assistants, players, and fans for whom a new, exciting period is just beginning.

And so it begins.  Sorry, I meant and so it begins!

(My apologies for the incomplete and likely inaccurate inclusion of current college coaches.  Jim Tressel belongs in the mix; perhaps Mark Richt too.  And I love Pete Carroll’s enthusiasm and youthfulness).

Author's Note:  This is the first in an occasional series on the 2008 Michigan football season.