I sat down with Rich Rodriguez last week in the days before his matchup with Connecticut, my first time in a relaxed setting with the embattled coach to talk about everything he’s been through in his past two years in Ann Arbor.

And I quickly realized that it was impossible to understand everything the man has been through. He left his home, his alma mater and his blueprint in West Virginia, where he went from canonization to demonization in a matter of days. He knows that’s the nature and the passion of sports, but you can feel the regret in his voice.

I asked him whether it hurt him that, in the eyes of so many fans, he might not be a Michigan Man. And I saw in his response how much 8-16, NCAA violations and a whole host of other issues have worn on him.

Upset by some of mine and Daily Editor in Chief Jacob Smilovitz's questions, exhausted by so little sleep, Rodriguez shook my hand as I left. He didn’t look me in the eyes, likely grouping my questions with the “drama” that has been swirling around him like a dark, acid rain-filled cloud for so long.

And who would blame him? The 32 months Rodriguez has been here have left him beaten and bruised. Thirty-two straight rounds of an epic boxing match with media, alumni and angry fans. Each time, Rodriguez has returned to his corner — sometimes all alone in his spot in the ring — despite the virtual pummeling he has taken since moving shop from Morgantown.

Michigan’s very own Ali v. Frazier.

And Rodriguez is a fighter, in the truest sense of the word. With each haymaker, each uppercut, he has stuck to his guns, despite the beating he took because of it.

“We work everyday, everyday I get up, everyday I go to bed thinking about what I can do to make this the best program in America,” Rodriguez told me and Smilovitz, full of emotion.

“That’s all I think about, that’s all we think about. So the rest of it is drama. I don’t need to deal with it.”

Few people have a chance to see this Rodriguez, the emotionally drained football coach who clearly feels the weight of the program crashing in on him. He is a man who has made mistakes, plenty of them. But it’s hard, after speaking with him, to see him as more than a victim of circumstance in some regard, unaware of the gargantuan level of pressure upon his arrival that stared him straight in the eyes from across the ring.

What his doubters — those throwing the punches — don’t understand or often forget, is that the Michigan football program is in much too dire of straits to continue on its rope-a-dope, fight-to-the-death of Rodriguez.

Because both Rodriguez and the Michigan football program are locked in the Fight of the Century, and the results of this year’s season could determine the direction for the next 10 or so years.

When Bo Schembechler took over the Wolverines’ program in 1969, not only was he from Ohio, but he was mostly unknown to those at Michigan. An anonymous coach who worried many because of his brash coaching style.

But Schembechler was inheriting a dying program. After years of mediocre teams fielded by Bump Elliott, the Wolverines were slowly slipping into obscurity.

So when Schembechler’s team defeated Woody Hayes’s Buckeyes that first season in one of college football’s most heralded upsets of all time, Schembechler singlehandedly had set the Wolverines for the next 30-40 years. He never fought for support in Ann Arbor, and although his record left little room for criticism, not many questioned him about his lack of a title or his 5-12 record in postseason play. Hell, they made him athletic director.

But Schembechler’s almost four-decade coast has ended, and the program is in actual danger of slipping back into the relative obscurity they knew before Bo.

Now, I’m not foolish enough to think that the winningest program in NCAA history will be gone forever. No one is foolish enough to tell you that.

But if Rodriguez and the Wolverines aren’t able to muster enough to save Rodriguez’s job this season, there’s a good chance Michigan fans will remain in their front-row seats to a massive collapse.

Rodriguez’s hypothetical vacancy would leave a clear opening for fan favorite Jim Harbaugh or a similar big-name “Michigan Man” to take his place.