Wolverine revival? It's up to Rodriguez

Saturday morning, as the University of Michigan students wake up to chirping birds and drunken howls in Ann Arbor, as the fans roll in from far and wide to post up in the Pioneer High School parking lot and begin tailgating in their maize and blue, as the optimism hangs heavy in the air – like it should every September, before the first kickoff of the fall – I imagine Rich Rodriguez will be in his office at Schembechler Hall fidgeting.

He should be. If the Michigan football team Rodriguez coaches doesn’t play markedly better this season than it did during his first two autumns as the Wolverines’ leader, then he will be out of a job come late November.

When he was named Lloyd Carr’s successor in 2007, some hopeful fans gave Rodriguez an overzealously reverent nickname: The Rodfather. Unfortunately, the man has been far from a Don.

Forget that he departed West Virginia in the slimiest of ways. Forget the embarrassing NCAA violations that threw the first-ever dark mark on the Michigan program. Forget how he’s perceived off the field, period.

Rodriguez’s two Wolverine teams have not won football games, and they will not win – unless some significant changes take place.

Now, every new coach in a new program deserves time to get acclimated. Wins aren’t earned overnight. But at the elite programs, one year should be enough time, and there is not much wiggle room. Two years is a stretch. Three? Forget about it. If Rodriguez doesn’t lead the Wolverines to at least seven wins this year, he should be fired the moment the clock strikes 0:00 in Columbus.

Can the Wolverines win seven or more games this year? I’d like to think so. Although they’ve only won eight games in the last two seasons combined, there are reasons to believe they can be more competitive this fall.

The offensive personnel looks lethal: Speed everywhere, a veteran receiving corps, experience and athleticism on the line, three quarterbacks that could be “the man” at a lot of schools. Consider all of the positives, and you’re looking at a team that could score 35 points per game. Really.

But “could” doesn’t mean “should” with this bunch, and it certainly doesn’t mean “will.” That’s because Rodriguez has some bad coaching habits – most of them in-game strategic shortcomings – that must be fixed.

He foolishly misused freshmen Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson last season. Forcier quickly established himself as a savvy signal caller with a whole lot of swagger. Call it cockiness, call it false bravado, whatever. He had some great moments, and early on, he looked like a guy who could cement himself as the team’s leader for four years. Forcier is small, though, and his lack of size and strength led to injuries and many costly turnovers as the weather got colder. And as he struggled, Robinson was given a chance.

He deserved one. You may recall vividly the first touch of his career – a bobbled snap against Western Michigan that the dreadlocked wonder turned into a winding 43-yard touchdown run. As he stood smiling in the end zone after that scamper, I couldn’t help but giggle. He had just completed this amazing play – with his shoelaces untied, it bears adding – and he was a mere 18-year-old with four years as a Wolverine in front of him. He embodied promise and potential, and he still does. But Rodriguez wasted a year of Robinson’s career – and harmed Forcier’s development, as well – by refusing to name an outright starter last season.

Even in the days leading up to that season opener against Western, neither Forcier nor Robinson had been tabbed by Rodriguez as the starting quarterback. That was a mistake. (One that, egregiously, is being repeated again this year. We’ll get to that.) Show me a team that lacks a man it can turn to and call its guy, its quarterback, its clear leader, and I’ll show you a team without confidence. That was Michigan last year.

Rodriguez played Forcier, and he played Robinson. He played Robinson, then he played Forcier. To the casual fan, the substitution pattern may have seemed arbitrary. To me, who pays pretty close attention to every snap when I’m lucid during the games, it seemed like Rodriguez would take one of the freshmen out of the game after a mistake and then insert the other. Oftentimes, this pattern would repeat itself over the course of 60 minutes.

That’s just not healthy at all. It’s not good for the quarterbacks’ respective psyches, and it’s surely not good for the team’s collective confidence.

Competition in practice, however, is good. And I think that’s why Rodriguez refuses to name his starting quarterback in advance: He wants them to play as hard and as smart as they can, every day in practice, to maximize their potential once Saturday rolls around. That’s a good plan, seemingly, but the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

Do this, instead: Name your starter. Rally around him. Have a No. 2 and a No. 3 guy ready, and if they want to be a part of a winning team, you figure they – the backups – will continue to practice hard. The No. 1 guy, then, becomes the face of the team. He must be. It’s imperative, especially with a high-powered offensive bunch. But I doubt that will happen early on.

“It’s probably likely that we’ll play more than one,” Rodriguez said earlier this week.

Too bad. There are so many other question marks – the ability of the defense to stop people, namely – that make this season an unpredictable one for Michigan. But there is also so much more that the head coach can control. If Rodriguez hesitates to name his quarterback and hand him the reins – rather than keeping him on a tight, short leash – then we’re looking at more dark skies over Ann Arbor.

Let’s hope he names an outright starter today. And let’s hope that starter takes charge of the team.

I would love for it to be Robinson. His ceiling is higher than Forcier’s, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be against Gardner running the show, either. If he took the snaps, Rodriguez could conceivably move Robinson to running back, and wouldn’t that be intriguing? Gardner already has a Vince Young body. He looks the part of a big-time QB. But if he doesn’t get many snaps this season, Rodriguez ought to redshirt him. Why waste one of what could be four magical seasons?

So many questions. But that’s what the preseason is all about. After Saturday, I intend on occupying this space with substance, not speculation.

In the meantime, I’ll deliberate over what to call Rodriguez this season. The Rodfather? No, he hasn’t earned it yet. Rich Rod? Ehh, too ho hum. If he wins seven games, then maybe. But if he continues to oversee a football team that plays wretchedly on Saturdays for the majority of the fall, I will acknowledge him as his detractors and rivals do:

Dick Rod.

Use what you’ve got wisely, guy.

You can contact Roger Garfield on Facebook or at rlouisgar@gmail.com.