RichRod Being RichRod

RR Tosses EVERY-DAMN-ONE under the bus

In a formal response to the allegations against him and his football program, the always-classy Coach RichRod managed to gloss over his own responsibility, and pretty much toss everyone else under the bus. But the funniest/most ridiculous part is how, in his own statement, he talks about how much he missed/screwed up himself. But then goes on to talk about how it's someone else's fault. What a tool. Bold is mine.

“Coach Rodriguez is surprised and disappointed that violations occurred in his program. He has strived throughout his career to follow the rules. Rodriguez recognizes that as a head coach, he has a heightened responsibility to monitor his program and promote an atmosphere of compliance. Rodriguez embraces that responsibility. He regrets that he did not adequately monitor certain aspects of his program in this case. Rodriguez has learned from his mistakes and will be a better coach and compliance leader going forward.

However, ensuring compliance with complex NCAA bylaws is not a one-man job. It requires a diligent commitment from everyone with responsibility for compliance oversight. It also requires clear and open lines of communication. In this case, there was not adequate compliance oversight nor open communication concerning important compliance matters."

Hold up there Dickie. Okay - so there wasn't adequate compliance oversight nor open communication. WHO IS AT FAULT FOR THAT? The freaking head coach. (How is this a defense? RR is even more of an idiot for hiring this dude. This is the worst statement ever) This is an admission more than anything - if there isn't oversight or communication and you're the HC I think you need to freaking fix it. Of course the AD or the compliance team is at fault as well - but when it's your program it's YOUR responsibility. Especially with a new AD in the house.

And let's go back quickly to the word surprised - this, in and of itself, is the biggest admission of guilt there can be. "Hey everybody, I had NO IDEA we were having all these issues. I literally have no clue what's going on in my program, so HUGE BLATANT OBVIOUS violations slipped by! OOOOOOPS!" Dude, you've been busted for not creating an atmosphere of compliance, and you come out and say you have no idea what's going on? Classic RR.

"Every activity that resulted in a violation in this case was done openly, transparently and under the watch of not only Rodriguez, but also other Michigan coaches and administrators. Violations went undetected because several Michigan staff members, including Rodriguez, were not paying close enough attention. In short, there was a collective failure that resulted in the violations in this case. That is not to deflect blame away from Rodriguez, it is simply stating a fact and putting Rodriguez’s culpability in the proper context.”

WOW. So in the first sentence the guy says that he basically watched over EVERY VIOLATION and didn't do a thing about it. So he either 1) knew the rules and knowingly broke them or 2) Has no idea what the rules are. Neither is good Richie! And why does NO ONE on your staff - all these people that so dutifully watched over EVERY violation - know the rules either? WTF are you doing coaching anything ever? Especially when your next 'defense' is that YOU WEREN'T REALLY PAYING ATTENTION?!?!?!?!?

Ouch, my brain hurts. And I am pissed that THIS GUY gets paid millions. I am clearly worth 100X this dude on the open market - CAPITALISM = FAIL!

RR's statement then goes on to talk about a bunch of individual violations and his role (or professed lack thereof) in each. His excuses range from not knowing the rules to not being aware of activities to blaming someone that he hired and/or who works for him for it. Then, after he does all that self-incrimination around the charge of creating an atmosphere of non-compliance he sums up with:

“Rodriguez acknowledges that violations occurred and that with respect to some of the violations – but not all – he could have done a better job of monitoring the activities of some members of his staff. However, Rodriguez did not fail to promote an atmosphere of compliance.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

HAHA.

Ha.

This guy is a complete ClusterF. I don't like Michigan (as they suck) and I am happy they have him, but man - if you're a UM fan how can you stand this at this point? This is just horrible.

Dude lists all the reasons why/evidence of his inability to create an atmosphere of compliance, and then says 'no no, I'm definitely creating that atmosphere of compliance'. Ridiculous.

Listen up, RR: when all the people you're responsible for are screwing up, and when you don't know the rules and do not enforce them through your people, and when you don't monitor your people, and when your people don't submit paperwork, yes, it's partially on them. Each of those individual things fall on the shoulders of some other folks too.

But it ALL falls on you, my man. You're the big cheese, the head guy. You're too much of a little girl to act like it, but you are. So the buck is supposed to stop with you. You need to know the rules, you need to ensure they're enforced, you need to have control.

You didn't, you're busted.

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Note 1: This is a critique of RR, not of UM's handling of the situation. I actually think they've done it the right way (once it came to light) in investigating and self-sanctioning and working with the NCAA. Exactly the opposite of USC. So I commend UM for admitting to their cheating ways and working with the NCAA to punish themselves. That's just dandy.

Note 2: How about that FreePress article? I expect a certain level of vitriol/slant from a blog like ours towards UM and their shady coach, but that article is more of an attack than a piece of journalism. Pretty funny. And horrible from a professional standpoint.