Rich Rodriguez: Great coach, not the right coach

Dan Hawkins is a great football coach.  He got his head coaching start at tiny Willamette University and, from 1993-1997, he never had a losing season, going 40-11-1 during his tenure.  His final team went 13-1 and made it to the NAIA championship game.

From there Hawkins moved to Division 1-A at Boise State where he was promoted from assistant head coach to head coach when Dirk Koetter left for ASU.  In five seasons at the helm in Boise, he went 53-11, won four WAC titles, never finished worse than second in the conference and was named WAC Coach of the Year three times.

Then he went to Colorado.  Yet in five years in Boulder, Hawkins went 19-39 and never had a single winning season before being canned last fall.

 Dan Hawkins is still a great coach.  But he wasn't the right coach for CU.

Judging by his resume, Rich Rodriguez is also a great head football coach.  He went 43-28 at tiny Glenville State before going 60-26 in seven seasons at West Virginia.  In his last three seasons in Morgantown, he went 32-5 and led the Mountaineers to two BCS bowl games.

Then he came to Michigan.  But judging by his results, Rich Rodriguez isn't the right coach for Michigan.  And after the latest belly flop in the Gator Bowl, it's time to for both parties to realize it's not going to work out.

No more excuses, no more promise, no more "will be."  When you're making in the neighborhood of $2.5M a year, it's about execution, performance and "We won!"  Roriguez's stellar resume got him the job at Michigan, his poor results leave Dave Brandon no choice but to make a change.

Some will say that Rich Rod was doomed to fail at Michigan because he wasn't a "Michigan Man" in the eyes of some fans.  That he never would have their support.

Well I call bullshit on that one. 

U of M fans don't give a rat's corn hole if Rodriguez is from Mars if he was winning.  But turn the winningest program in the history of the game into an embarrassment and Rich Rod could be from Bo's attic and people would be clamoring for change.

So while I agree with the vast majority of Michigan fans that Jim Harbaugh would be a great choice and great fit, I don't think it has to be Harbaugh or bust.  I don't believe it has to be an obvious "home run" name.  In fact, I'm not opposed to taking a chance on an "unknown" from a smaller school as Ohio State did with Tressel...and Michigan did with "Bo who?" back in '69.

But I do know it can't be Rich Rodriguez anymore.  He's a great coach, but just not the right coach for Michigan.

Sometimes things are just a bad fit

ED. NOTE:  You'd think I wouldn't have to write a post like this.  It seems obvious.  But even in the wake of the Gator Bowl fiasco, if you've glanced around various Michigan message boards you'll notice there are still hold outs who don't think it should be over for Rich Rod at Michigan.  Folks who genuinely believe he deserves a 4th year in A2.

Then again, there were allegedly Japanese hiding in the jungles of the south Pacific to continue the fight 10 years after WWII ended as well.  So I'm sure the Rich Rod Kool-Aid crowd will be out there in the far reaches of cyberspace continuing to fire away for quite some time.