Rich Rod Called Taking The Michigan Job 'A Mistake', Ponders What NIL Could've Done

Rich Rodriguez never had the right coaches or players to work at Michigan, but if today's era were back in 2008 — it might've worked.

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Rich Rodriguez was one of the hottest names in the coaching sphere in the early 2000s. He led West Virginia to two 11-win seasons and a 10-win season from 2005-07. Lloyd Carr was set to retire from Michigan after the 07 season, and the Wolverines went outside to hire their next football coach, and everything was about to flip upside down.

Rich Rodriguez was hired to become Michigan's 18th head coach back on Dec. 17 of 2007. And he was set to bring his spread offense to Michigan, something that wasn't seen much in the Big Ten at that time, but the problem was — the Wolverines didn't have the players to run the system.

Rodriguez's first season in 2008 was filled with dread. He would go a program worst, 3-9, while losing to MAC's Toledo. 2009 would be another losing season, going 5-7, before finishing his final season as the head coach at Michigan in 2010, going 7-6 with a loss in the Gator Bowl.

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Now back in West Virginia as the Mountaineers head man, Rich Rod sat down with Adam Breneman on 'Next Up With Adam Breneman' and he recalled his experience at Michigan. To this day, Rodriguez feels like he could've righted the ship if he had a fourth season.

“Yeah, there was, I mean, I don't want to say it was a perfect storm of things that could go wrong and went wrong in a hurry," Rodriguez said. "I still felt — as tough as it was that had we had a chance to maybe finish it out, because the third year we got better, got in the bowl game, and then the fourth year when we weren't there, they got to the Sugar Bowl, and all the guys that were making plays and stuff were recruited, so that was hard to watch, right?”

Bill Martin, who was the athletic director who hired Rodriguez, retired and Rich Rod believes if he were still there, he would've been given another chance. But Michigan moved on following three seasons and looking back, Rodriguez called it a mistake.

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He wasn't known as a 'Michigan Man', something the University wanted at the time. Plus, Rich Rod said he never realized West Virginia had some better things going for it than Michigan did at the time — like the weight room.

“Was it a mistake going there? Yeah, it's easy to say that now, but I also learned a lot from coaching at Michigan," Rich Rod said. "I made some great friends that I still have to this day, and they've got obviously a name brand that is pretty special to coach at. I probably — I would never take another job without visiting it, probably, because if I would have visited there, I would have realized, gosh, we have some better stuff here, like in the weight room, whatever, than they had.”

Would today's era changed things?

Michigan has made a few mistakes with its head coach hiring. Sherrone Moore was the latest after the Wolverines handed him the keys to the kingdom with zero head coaching experience — although the move appeared like a good enough move following Jim Harbaugh leaving late in the process.

But Rodriguez was another one. He didn't have the players or coaches — along with support — to succeed in Ann Arbor back in those days. He told Breneman he learned he had to make the right hires, and he didn't do that at Michigan.

But that era was before the transfer portal was a major thing, or NIL money. When he left WVU, in today's era, imagine the players he would've brought with him to Michigan.

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“But it was kind of a — imagine if that would have happened today," Rodriguez wondered. "I thought about — somebody asked me, he said, what if that transactional transition would happen today? And I'm thinking, well, there have been maybe a few players that I bought to come to Michigan because I would have had the money to buy them and have them come there.”

The first name that comes to mind is QB Pat White, who had one year left. White was electric under Rich Rod, and Michigan would've certainly landed him, who would've run the system smoothly — compared to Steve Threet and Nick Sheridan in 2008. While it's a 'what if' scenario, it certainly could've changed the trajectory for both Rodriguez and his future in Ann Arbor.