Ryan Van Bergen and Kelvin Grady stood behind a sea of television cameras and reporters, waiting to hear what Michigan Athletic Director David Brandon had to say about the fate of their coach, Rich Rodriguez.

Brandon announced soon after that Rodriguez would not be back to coach their senior seasons. The players were losing their leader.

The Michigan athletic director. did have the players in mind based on the timing of his evaluation — he waited until after the bowl game to give the players their best chance at winning on a national stage on New Year’s Day.

But Rodriguez didn’t survive his third season. And Van Bergen and Grady face unique situations for Michigan football players. Grady, a redshirt junior wide receiver, was unique in the sense that he has had four different coaches as a member of both the men’s basketball and football teams.

Van Bergen, a redshirt junior defensive end, is also of a rare breed — a Michigan football player who will have had three head coaches during his time as a Wolverine. The school hasn’t had three different head coaches in a four to five-year period since the 1920’s.

With the program’s future in limbo without a coach, Brandon told the players of his decision during a team meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Rodriguez also addressed the team.

Players started exiting Schembechler Hall about 45 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start, and most declined to comment on the fate of their coach. Previously, some of the players, like Van Bergen and junior nose tackle Mike Martin, publicly said that they would like to have Rodriguez back as their coach next season.

As junior wide receiver Darryl Stonum sees it, the players lost their father.

“It was pretty emotional, but he was like our dad. We were his kids,” Stonum said of Rodriguez on Wednesday. “He told us to all stay in contact … We’re like all family, and we’re going to miss him.”

The whole family atmosphere that Rodriguez preached couldn’t have been more exemplified than his relationship with Brock Mealer, the brother of Michigan offensive lineman Elliott Mealer. Rodriguez was close to Brock as he rehabilitated himself after fracturing his spine in a car accident.

“I think he’s always been just shown as a villain, and he’s nothing like that,” Brock said. “He’s one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met in my life. And I wish people would acknowledge that, and whether or not he works out as Michigan’s coach is maybe a totally different story. And as little as I know about football, I know his character is much different from what people played him out to be.”

For as much as the players may have liked Rodriguez, they learned first-hand that big-time college football is a business.

“They do whatever they can (that’s) best for the program,” senior cornerback James Rogers said. “I mean, of course, everyone’s down on themselves and stuff like that. They’re a little mad, I mean, as we found out as players it’s a business.”

Added Stonum: “(Brandon) told us why he did it. He told us his reasoning. What he’s going to look forward to — what we’re moving forward to. And for us to continue what we’ve been doing — working hard, going to class and being ‘Michigan Men.’ So that’s all we’re going to do.”

With Rodriguez gone, questions started about whether the players he recruited will stick around.

Stonum said there had been no talk of transferring and added that all of the players were Michigan Men who would stick together, even as the program potentially faces upheaval. And as they did after the Wolverines’ 38-point loss in the Gator Bowl, the players took responsibility for their poor performance this season.

“We just didn’t get it done,” Stonum said. “So we just got to keep working hard. It’s on us, we talked about it being on us. Everybody wants to blame the coach, it’s on us. We didn’t perform so we have to make it better.”