Pushing Past the Limit

Rich Rodriguez has had anything but a seamless transition to head football coach at the University of Michigan over the last eighteen months. First, there was the lawsuit from West Virginia, who felt that he owed them the total value (four million dollars) of his contractual buyout. Then, there were the transfers. Rodriguez has overseen the exodus of some thirty-one players from the Wolverine roster since taking over the program in the winter of 2007. Now, Rodriguez finds himself under immense scrutiny due to allegations of practice and workout limit violations.

The question as far as possible violations are concerned is, was the extra preparation voluntary? Two players, one currently on the roster, and one former player, went on the record to say that although the workouts were under the guise of involuntary in nature, they were voluntary and conducted by the Michigan coaching staff.

It’s probably the right thing to give Rodriguez a pass here. After all, anyone who says the weekly twenty hours of in-season preparation and eight hours of off-season preparation is enough to build a national powerhouse has never been around big-time college football. That said, it’s not as if Rodriguez and his staff were just a bit over the limit, they were almost tripling it.

In an emotional press conference on Monday, Rodriguez proclaimed that the team and its staff “know and follow the rules.” The assertion by many outside the program that such practice standards illustrate just how little regard Rodriguez has for the student portion of the term “student-athlete” seemed to be what hurt the coach most. The fact that the head coach had no qualms about the emotional nature of the press conference speaks to the fact that Rodriguez and his staff do in fact care about the well-being of their football players.

Breaking the rules, no matter what the context, is wrong. Michigan will be punished if they have maliciously violated NCAA rules. The most important thing that can come out of the latest Rodriguez firestorm has nothing to do with rules and everything to do with team unity. If the Wolverines use the media spotlight to bond and do the work necessary to be successful, they’ll be well on their way to forgetting last year’s 3-9 record. If they do the opposite, however, and continue to let infighting bubble to the surface, the Michigan football program may get worse again before it gets better.

To buy into Rich Rodriguez’s system, the team needs to believe in the man. He showed Monday that he believes in the young men on the team, now it’s their turn to return the favor.