Today’s question is inevitable. Lots and lots of people are already thinking about it, so why ignore it anymore….
If Rich Rodriquez were to be fired Sunday morning, who would you MOST like to see replace him? Who would you LEAST like to see replace him?
Jeff at The BBC
Last year I gave Rodriquez a pass (well, not on The BBC, I ripped him a new one as often as possible) because he was a first-year coach implementing a new system.
Also, I was curious to see what Year Two would bring…if you recall, the TTUN fans were allllll about over-using the mantra that Rich Rodriquez was 8-3 in his second year at West Virginia. They repeated it like it was their last name. Funny how they don’t talk much about that anymore.
UM fans have been eating their words a lot lately, and if they were smart, they’d start apologizing to Jim Harbaugh right now. Brian at MGoBlog dedicated a lengthy diatribe to destroying Harbaugh simply because he suggested that players were being brought into UM simply because they were good football players, and that character no longer counted (Justin Feagin, anybody…..maybe Harbaugh was right?).
Harbaugh has proven himself to be an excellent coach, and his history at UM, coupled with his passion for crushing the enemy could be devastating to Ohio State. Let’s face it, Bo Schembechler taught him TOO well. Provided his run at Stanford isn’t a fluke, this guy is very dangerous to Ohio State, but he would be GREAT for The Rivalry.
I was a senior in high school when he guearanteed a win over us in The Shoe, and he delivered it. I would least like to see him as their new head coach. Here’s hoping Stanford locks him up for a long time and he loves that California sun too much to leave.
Who do I WANT to see replace Rodriquez?
Charlie Weis. Best coach ever. They should totally go sign him to a 19-year deal as soon as Notre Dame makes the horrible mistake of releasing him. Yeah, do that, Wolverines.
MaliBuckeye
I’d love to see Jim Harbaugh come back to Ann Arbor- he “gets” the significance of the rivalry, and is as focused on class and academic excellence as that institution deserves. Plus, it would prove that all the stuff he said about the previous administrations was right. I would NOT like to see Brian Kelly head north- he’s a coach that could win immediately with the current players… a couple of tweaks, and his offense would fit pretty easily. Plus, he has Ohio recruiting connections… not a good thing.
Jim
I really haven’t given much though to who I want to see replace Rodriguez even though I have always thought that he wouldn’t last longer than three years. At this point though, I hope that he doesn’t get fired and all of their delusional fans get their wish to give him time to revolutionize the Big Ten with an offense that Northwestern and Purdue have been running for at least a decade. With the way the dumb ass recruits, they will have about the same talent level as Northwestern and Purdue before too long as well, particularly on defense. Rodriguez is the gift that keeps on giving for Ohio State fans, and I really hope that he sticks around as long as tsun fans are stupid enough to let him.
If I had to pick though, I would pick a class act guy who isn’t an embarrassment to the Big Ten and the greatest rivalry in sports both on the field and off. Who that would be? I have no idea, so good luck with that search.
Who would I least like to see? I don’t know, someone competent and not an embarrassment would be disappointing just because the entertainment value would go so much. Brian Kelly is a hot name right now, and it seems like it might be a race between Notre Dame and tsun to see who can land him first, it looks like Notre Dame is in the lead. Les Miles is another name that might come up, last time tsun came a courting he had just won a national championship at LSU and was basking in the afterglow, in a year or two he might be a little more willing to uproot and head back north.
Honestly though, I really don’t care who they hire next. Whoever is hired will be lucky to get enough leash to fix everything that Rodriguez has fucked up, particularly on the recruiting front, because it is extremely unlikely that the next coach will be running an offense that requires 17 West Virginia caliber slot receivers on scholarship.
There is a lot of cleaning up to do up north if they do decide to make the switch, so they might as well give Rodriguez five or so more years to see if he works out (pretty please?). Even if he does work out, that probably means that they are winning 7-10 games a year again, just like Carr used to do and just like Rodriguez did at WVU. So they will be exactly back to where they were with Carr with two of the worst years of football in the history of the school thrown in. What a bunch of fucking morons. It truly is enjoyable watching that mess.
Eric
I would most like to see their current Defensive Coordinator, and former Syracuse coach Greg Robinson as head coach. Hey, going 10-37 at Syracuse means something, right? I’m actually kidding, I’d really rather have a competent coach that we can hate with respect and will bring some respectability back to that program so that The Game is back to being the battle’s of yore. Brian Kelly (Cincinnati) would be a good choice here, if he actually wanted the job.
The coach I would least like to see is Les Miles. As much as I would love for the Bucks to get a yearly shot at slapping him around on the gridiron, I really don’t want to have to think about him on an annual basis. Plus, he’s been tainted by the SEC. That’s the type of filth you never totally wash off.
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What do you say, loyal readers???
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