Rich Rodriguez has rushed to the defense of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh.
Rodriguez was infamously run out of Ann Arbor after only winning 15 games in his three seasons with the Wolverines. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
With Jim Harbaugh appearing to be nearing his end with the Wolverines after losing to Michigan State, Rich Rod wants people to know it’s not his fault.
According to Outkick, Rodriguez recently appeared on the “Hard Edge Football” podcast, and blamed Michigan’s academic standards for why the football team can’t meet expectations.
He said the following during the interview about Michigan’s admission standards (transcription via Outkick):
There were some guys we fought to get in. Our thought was, if they’re NCAA eligible, we should be able to get them in if we can vouch for their work ethic. Sometimes guys didn’t get the same kind of high school education because of where they lived, but they’re gonna have success in college with all the help they can have and the type of mentality – you know who they are. And we had to fight for a lot of guys. And there were some guys – I’m not gonna mention their names – there was no way that Michigan was gonna let them in. They met the NCAA standard, but they didn’t meet the so-called Michigan standard.
This is such a pathetic excuse for why Michigan hasn’t been any good for the past 15 years. Give me a break when it comes to admission standards.
Okay, does the University of Michigan have tougher standards than Ohio State, Alabama and Clemson? Sure, it’s a great school, but you can’t use that as a crutch.
You know another B1G team with difficult admission standards? The Wisconsin Badgers, and we’ve won at least 10 games in a season 11 times since 2005.
In the same time period, Michigan has won 10 games or more in a season only five times. Are we all of a sudden supposed to believe Wisconsin is able to simply recruit smarter players than Michigan?
If that’s the case, then it’s truly an indictment of the coaching staff.
I appreciate Rich Rod inserting himself into this situation in an attempt to defend Harbaugh (and make his record look better), but this excuse isn’t flying with me or anyone else.
It comes down to coaching and admission standards have literally nothing to do with Michigan’s disappointing seasons.
