Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has enough to deal with on the field. The Wolverines were an embarrassing 3-9 last season, including a home loss to Toledo. In advance of the 2009 season opener this weekend, the last thing Rodriguez needed was a huge distraction.That's what he got, anyway. Rodriguez spent close to 15 minutes of his press conference Monday -- one designed initially to talk about the game Saturday against Western Michigan -- defending himself and his staff against allegations of wrongdoing brought up by current and former players.
"I want to tell everybody that I'm proud of the way our players have worked," Rodriguez said. "The last seven, eight months, they've given a tremendous commitment to this university."
Rodriguez said multiple times that his program was clean, that they "know the rules and comply by the rules."
Several current and former players disagree, accusing Rodriguez of requiring more work of them than is allowed by the NCAA. It's a case that could be difficult to prove, especially if other players come out and say that the requirements in terms of time spent at the football complex don't go beyond the limits.
Rodriguez was emphatic numerous times in defending strength and conditioning director Mike Barwis, saying he is "a great asset to the university." Speaking of his staff, Rodriguez says they would "do anything our players want them to do to help them achieve their goals."
The coach spoke highly of his team's academic achievement, saying they've struck a great balance between that side of university life and the work that they've done to prepare for football season.
Rodriguez got quite emotional a few times during his remarks.
"I guess the thing that bothered me the most about things that were recently written or said," Rodriguez said, hanging his head at the podium for a moment to collect himself, "was the perception that was out there that we did not care as much for players welfare.
"That is disheartening. To say that is misleading and inaccurate and goes against everything I have ever believed in coaching."
Rodriguez said his staff would never "tell a young man to miss a class or a study session to do anything athletically."
In the end, Rodriguez says he and his staff have done things the right way, have always done things the right way, and will continue to do so.
"This coaching staff cares very deeply about the players ... always have always will. We know the rules. We go by the rules. All we're trying to do is make our great fans ... make them proud. We will continue to do that. The former players who know how this program was built, they understand that. And so do the 120 men on our football team."
The university says they are launching a full investigation into the reports.
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Other than their helmets and fight song there is nothing I like about Michigan football. With that being said, whoever these players are that are coming out and whining and moaning to the press about having to practice too much need to be run out of town. I'm going out on a limb and guess the issues these players have were never addressed with the coaching staff. Involving the NCAA in anything is not the way to go. Where's their pride in their team and university? What a bunch of whiney ass bitches.
What pride? They all left the school for some other program or couldn't hack the demanding workouts. One of them is a cousin of the starting quarterback at tOSU and another transferred there. Only one or two sources are current players, and from what I've read the reporter misrepresented his reasons for the story and took their quotes of context.
Clay is exactly right. You would never hear these complaint out of Southern Cal, and I hate SC football. How many other Universities has this happened at? I can't ever remember it happening at a major school before. I'm sure it has but I just can't recall. They have been on this new coaches but since he got there I believe the alumni boosters don't like him so they are in the mist of getting rid of him. To bad he's a good coach and I think he could return Michigan to it's glory but I bet they run him out first. Also I am not a Michigan fan either but facts are facts.
Obviously, Clay was not living in or around Chicago when Northwestern player Rashidi Wheeler died on the practice field.
The young man was no more of a "whiney ass bitch" (as Clay refers to the players involved in the Michigan story) than the kids making these allegations are.
He had asthma, and it took the frantic pleas of his fellow players to alert the coaching staff that Wheeler was in distress. Of course, this took place during one of those infamous "voluntary" off-season workouts. NW screwed up on many levels, and I'm not saying Rodriguez or his staff made the same mistakes.
But, to simply blow off the allegations and attribute them to "whiners and moaners" tells me Clay has never stepped foot on a football field.
Unless we're talking about running on the field following a game so he sould try and climb the goalposts that is.
I have played a great deal of football and other team sports in my life. You obviously know nothing about any team sport let alone football if you think it's ok to go whining to the media about a team issue. If you disagree with what is going on you talk to a coach. If you're not prepared to put in the work it takes to play big time college football find another sport or go to a D 2 school.
The point is not that the players are "whining" about having to practice too much; it's about whether Rodriguez, a known rule-breaker, is breaking more rules.
The rules, though, are feckless because they're just meant to put the lipstick of "student-athlete" on the pig of de facto professional college football. The honest thing to do would be to change the teams to above-board AAA minor-league teams for the NFL, call them the Ann Arbor Wolverines, the Austin Longhorns, the Talahassee Gators and the L.A. Trojans, and pay the players (and let 'em take free classes if they want).
The trouble is, that'd deprive all the beer-gutted, living-in-mom's basement, diploma-less yahoos of the chance to think "we" in regard to something having to do with college. How 'bout dem Golden Cyclones, Nittany Lions, Seminoles, Crimson Tide, etc., etc., etc.?
It's the Gainesville Gators
dont know what rules you think he broke was mad when he left wv but he ran a clean program get your facts straight he is a good coach and will do well in ann arbor
Mr. Thrasher is right. The Tallahassee Seminoles play in the AA East Coast Association, and the Gainesville Gators play in the AAA Bubba Belt League.*
* From today's The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Gordon Marino, a professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College, left his job there a few years ago to take a position at the University of Florida...'I must have been extremely naïve to think that unparalleled sports success would translate into economically healthy academics,' he wrote in the St. Petersburg Times after quitting and returning to St. Olaf. 'The Gator Nation is like a third world country with the sports in clover and their academic programs in the weeds.'"
In all the BCS conferences, by the way, the Bubba Belt League is first in the discrepancy of increase in athletics spending vs. instructional spending, and LAST in the percentage of athletes maintaining eligibility. The exception is Vanderbilt, which was crazy enough to try, a while back, to actually put its athletic department under the control of--gasp!--the university. How 'bout dem War Eagles or Tigers or Whatevers!
or the Tallahassee Seminoles
I gave Tallahassee a triple "S" to compensate for its being in only a Double-A league.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Should U.S. Marines take a break in combat because the heat is over 110 degees ? lol. Pussies that join the football team that can't take it--or- have some other problems.
When Marines invated Iraq the temp was over 90 to 100 degrees and inside the trucks -tanks was over 100. Should Marines stop fighting when the temps go over 87 ?? lol.PUSSIES that can't take it.
Right on brother! I guess their free education was not enough.
you know the players crying its too hard for me to practice are a bunch of whiny ass pussies ,its football and michigan football bo would be rolling in his grave right now.u cant handle the heat get out the kitchenif u cant run with the big dawgs get off the porch rodriguez will turn them around give the guy a chance ohio state goin down this yr
The way that RichRod is being defended is beyond belief.
I'm sick of the "everybody does it" & "the reporters don't like him" nonsense or the "players are babies" garbage.
The way RichRod and his cronies are responding is like some idiot getting pulled over after being caught doing 90 mph in traffic. Try those excuses you are making for this idiot if you find yourself being caught. Face it, RichRod got caught. He's not trying to talk his way out, why should he, you're trying to do it for him.
My goodness you wolverine fans are screwed up.
you punkass ohio state whining bitch leave rich rod and his staff alone. if you ask me he needs to get rid of these whining pussies and rebuild Michigan to a powerhouse again.
o.... Come on, no pain then no gain then no Rose bowl. Or rather drink beer and party no place to go.
Is this the same coach that had an affair with a cheerleader at West Virginia University? Nah, he couldn't do anything wrong.
Thank God for Mr. Joe Paterno and Penn State
Hey Jellydonut, the point here is that Rich DID NOT, IN FACT, GET CAUGHT doing anything wrong, largely because he DID NOT, IN FACT, DO ANYTHING WRONG! This is just a typical case of LOUSY reporting being blown out of proportion by IDIOTS like you!