Is Michigan Football the Next Nebraska?

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Is Michigan Football the Next Nebraska?

Filed on January 3rd, 2008 in NCAA Football ⋅ ⋅

When you talk about two football programs like Michigan and Nebraska, usually you are talking about the storied history of both programs. Both of them seemingly have played in New Year’s Day bowl games for my entire life, with the exception of the current Nebraska football program. Is Michigan’s program headed down the same road that Nebraska’s did in recent years?

The Nebraska football program was one of the most dominant programs of the 1990’s claiming three national championships. After the 1997 season, Tom Osborne retired, handing the team over to Frank Solich. Solich went on to put up records of 9-4, 12-1, 10-2, 11-2, 7-7, and 9-3. For this he was fired by AD Steve Pederson, who proceeded to go out and hire Bill Callahan as the new coach. Up until this point, Nebraska was the prototypical smashmouth football team. They ran. They ran up the middle, they ran the option, and they played great defense. So what did they do? They hired a coach that runs a West Coast offense. Without the personnel to run such an offense, Callahan went 27-22, including just 15-18 in the Big XII, and a pathetic 0-10 against top twenty teams. This is what happens when you bring in a coach who doesn’t have the personnel to run his system. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Michigan (finally) ~~fired~~ allowed Lloyd Carr to retire this year, and hired Rich Rodriguez, mastermind of West Virginia’s outstanding teams of the last few years. If you’ve ever seen West Virginia play, you know it looks nothing like when Michigan plays. Michigan quarterbacks have a well-earned reputation as concrete-footed rocket-armed quarterbacks. Can you imagine Tom Brady, Elvis Grbac, John Navarre, Chad Henne, or Ryan Mallett running the plays that Pat White does? Neither can I. And now it looks like Mallett may never even be in that situation.

The Toledo Blaze has run a story saying that Mallett plans to transfer to UCLA next year, though Michigan denies this being true. I certainly can’t blame him, as he really has no future whatsoever as a Rich Rodriguez quarterback. He does however, have a future as a Rick Neuheisel quarterback, at a program in dire need of a QB. Plus, he’ll be long gone before UCLA goes on probation.

There is also speculation that Rodriguez’s arrival puts Michigan right in the mix to land the top quarterback recruit in the nation, Terrelle Pryor. Now, this cat is 6′6″, 235 lbs. and runs a 4.4 40. That is a Rodriguez quarterback.

Unfortunately for Michigan, A) he’s still not there, and B) he will still be a true freshman next year. You can’t build a new spread offense overnight. It requires different kinds of players. They’ll be fine at running back and receiver, but it requires a much faster offensive line, and at least one mobile quarterback. I don’t think Rodriguez can win with a drop-back passer and the current line that Michigan has. I may be wrong, but hiring Rodriguez may set this program back several years.

I have no doubt that Rodriguez could turn Michigan into a great spread offense team. The recruiting base is already huge, and he’s a great coach for it. But in today’s world of college football, he’s really only got about three years to do it. If he pulls a Callahan and coaches .500 ball for three years, and misses a bowl game, the pressure will be on to fire him. Then they’ll be right back where they are now, with players built for a different system and a new coach.

Let me be clear — I’m not predicting a Michigan failure, but I’m warning of it’s possibility. The lifespan of the average college football coach these days is often shorter than the time it takes for his recruits to graduate, making it very difficult to build a program. It’s one thing for a coach to take a job that has the kind of personnel he wants in place, it’s another to try to build it. Quite often, the coach is forced out before his program can be built. I don’t know that the folks in Michigan have that kind of patience.

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