Les Wasn't More or The Road to Rich's

Despite the near foot of snow and the fridged temperatures in Ann Arbor there is certainly a sense of relief circling the town about it's newest employee, Rich Rodriguez. After Michigan's head football coach Lloyd Carr announced his retirement in November the area has been a buzz with speculation which first climaxed the morning of the SEC football championship game between Louisiana State and Tennessee. Kirk Herbstriet reported that LSU's Les Miles had agreed to become the next coach at Michigan. This was confirmation of rumors that had run rampant for weeks. It seemed the logical fit, he was a "Michigan Man" with great ties to Ann Arbor and this was his dream job. Everyone KNEW he was going to Michigan. The problem was, Herbstriet's source was wrong and Les Miles signed a new lucrative contract to stay at LSU.

I was no exception to the Miles love fest. The guy seemed like the perfect fit. Miles and Ann Arbor were like two giant bodies with gravity accelerating them at each other faster than the media could keep up with (or slower than they could create it-hmmm).

After the love affair with Miles died down some (it never completely did) Michigan was in talks with Greg Schiano, the coach of Rutgers, the Scarlett Knights, College football's Cinderella team of 2006. Schiano said "I've decided to remove my name from consideration". And Wolverine nation let out a collective sigh of "Would've been nice", and then silently thought: were still getting Miles!

And just as Ann Arbor's nerves were tensing up, fearing nobody wanted to come to Michigan Rich Rodriguez was announced as the next coach of Michigan Football.

The improbable, up and coming coach from West Virginia breathes a breath of fresh air to wolverine.

It became apparent that changes were needed for the Michigan football program. Those changes were needed once Lloyd Carr decided to retire, up until that point he was doing just fine in my book.

So now instead of pure speculation I am excited about the ACTUAL new coach. He's almost everything I'd hoped for in a new coach. My two biggest concerns were that the next coach was young and that he planned on staying at Michigan for a long time. We'll see about the latter but he did mention in his press conference that he'd be at Michigan until about the time his son would be the top QB prospect in 2017, thats good to hear.

I'm nervous about the growing pains but excited about a "new" Michigan football program.