The state of scUM football

In honor of Michigan's spring game, I decided to wander into the muck and take a look at the state of scUM football.  This is the results we have seen from our rival over the last 4 years.

Michigan
2006 (11–2-0) (7–1-0) – 2nd (Rose)
2007 ( 9–4-0) (6–2-0) – 2nd (Capital One)

2008 (3–9-0) (2–6-0) – 9th
2009 (5–7-0) (1–7-0) – 10th

There seems to be a definitely change in results starting in 2008.  If only we could determine the difference....

Of course I am being sarcastic.  RichRod started coaching the team in 2008 after Lllllloyd Carr retired at the conclusion of the 2007 season.  He has complained since he arrived on campus that the cupboard was bare when he arrived and he needed to improve their recruiting to get back to where they were (the year before he got there???)

Here's the recruiting rankings for the Michigan classes since 2002.  This list shows rank - split by stars - offense vs defense recruits.

Recruiting Classes
-----------------------------
Year - Rank - (Tot-5*-4*-3*) (Off-Def-Ath-ST)
2002 - 16th - (21-1-11- 9) - (12-7-2-0)
2003 - 17th - (17-2-11- 3) - ( 8-7-1-1)
2004 -  5th - (21-1-12- 8) - (13-8-0-0)
2005 -  6th - (23-1-10-11) - (12-8-2-1)
2006 - 13th - (19-2- 9- 7) - (8-10-0-1)
2007 - 12th - (20-2- 5-12) - (10-9-1-0)

2008 - 10th - (25-0-17-6) - (15-8-2-0)
2009 -  8th - (22-1-13-6) - ( 9-9-3-1)
2010 - 20th - (27-0-6-20) - (8-14-3-1)

Notice the big improvement between the Carr years and the RichRod years?  Yeah me neither.  Here's the 3 year averages for the last 9 years.

2002-04 - 12.7 Avg Rank (11.0 Off - 7.3 Def 1.0 Athl)
2005-07 - 10.3 Avg Rank (10.0 Off - 9.0 Def - 1.0 Ath)
2008-10 - 12.7 Avg Rank (10.7 Off - 10.3 Def - 2.7 Ath)

I realize that the recruiting services aren't an exact science and that Michigan has had a few players leave the school.  However based on the above I feel pretty comfortable in saying that RichRod inherited as much talent as Lllllloyd had during his tenure.  Lllllloyd was able to take that talent to a 122-40 record at Michigan and in his last 11 years at Michigan he never finished lower than 3rd in the Big Ten standings.  RichRod?  8-16 record and finished 9th and 10th in his two years.  RichRod is correct to some degree as many players transferred during his first season but that is on his head not Lllllloyd's.  His coaching style pushed away the very people that could have helped him succeed and we have all seen the result (unless you only watch bowl games).  Why would anyone think the results in future years are going to be any different?

This is only looking at things on the field.  RichRod came to Michigan in a cloud of controversy as he left West Virginia.  He is now is currently under investigation by the NCAA for football violations at both Michigan and West Virginia and now being sued for a real estate deal gone bad.  Honestly, nothing would surprise me about him at this point.

Can you imagine if we had a coach like that at Ohio State?  John Cooper certainly isn't my favorite coach but after a rough first year he improved the team quickly and despite his lack of success against scUM and in bowls was a good representative for the school off the field (he was no Jim Tressel but then who is?).  If RichRod were the coach at Ohio State there would be rioting in the streets until he was fired.

Don't get me wrong, I am not hoping that scUM improves their fortunes.  Any time I even start to feel sorry for that team up north I just think back at 1996 (or 1993 or 1995 or that freaking Heisman pose.... grr!  I hates them!  I really really hates them!!!).  I would however like to face a team that I at least respected as the current state of scUM under RichRod brings dishonor to everyone including their opponents.  Michigan needs to fire Rodriguez now because the longer they wait the longer it is going to take to clean up the mess he leaves behind.  Any Michigan fan that believes otherwise is just deluding themselves.