[NU Sports] FW: Millen/Michigan/Rodriguez - ouch

[Beamsley, Jeff]

I'm not a big Matt Millen fan either and it is hard to argue against the
facts that the author presented, but clearly Millen was talking about
athletic ability and not citizenship.

As Rodriguez has already discovered, he's not going to be able to get
the same sort of kids into Michigan that he was able to get into WV.
That says way more about WV than it says about him.  

Rodriguez has also already been burned by the NCAA and Michigan for the
sort of administrative sloppiness that probably was SOP at WV.  So if it
wasn't clear to Rodriguez when he came, it certainly should be crystal
clear to him now where the boundaries are.

Finally, the local papers have been covering the whole Tate Forcier soap
opera since late last season.  Rodriguez appears to be handling it well.
He cut Forcier's playing time last year because he wasn't going to
class.  He disciplined him during the offseason including forcing him to
earn back the "wings" on his helmet because he didn't participate in
offseason workouts with the team and had a bad attitude.  Most telling,
Rodriguez burned the red-shirt of his freshman QB Gardner rather than
put Forcier into the game for a couple of plays when Robinson was dinged
up.  He did that not because Forcier couldn't play - he likely would
have done a better job than Gardner.  But Forcier hadn't yet earned the
right to play as Robinson's backup.  So burned this kid's red-shirt to
send a powerful message to both Forcier and the rest of the team.  The
guys who put team ahead of self and commit to the program are going to
play.  Those who don't, regardless of how talented they are, won't and
that is how this team will win or lose.

At the end of the game, Forcier said something that suggests he may be
leaving.  Rodriguez handled that well too by saying "Anytime somebody
doesn't play, whether it's Tate or somebody else, they're probably going
to be disappointed, I don't see a problem with guys being disappointed
if they don't play. Now if it crosses the line as far as not being a
team player, then we'll have a conversation. If we need to do that,
we'll do that."

Rodriguez may be screwed up in a whole lot of other ways, but as a
football coach building a team, he knows what he is doing.

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Weinbaum, Willie
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 11:23 AM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] FW: Millen/Michigan/Rodriguez - ouch

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/what_con_job_rzaYtj3o5DxumI8M
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