Rodriguez backs coaching staff after fifth straight loss
Nate Sandals
Daily Sports EditorNovember 3rd, 2008
Two days after his team’s 48-42 loss to Purdue, which guaranteed Michigan's first losing season since 1967, coach Rich Rodriguez refused to point fingers.
Asked directly about the performance of defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, Rodriguez responded sharply.
“It’s a football team,” Rodriguez said. “To try to single out a player or a coach, to me that’s not right.”
The coach wouldn’t blame the defense’s 3-3-5 look, a formation unveiled by Shafer against Purdue, for its struggles in the game. The formation has a fifth defensive back in place of a fourth defensive lineman, and is designed to defend a spread offense.
“Schemes don’t cause you to miss 21 tackles,” Rodriguez said. “Schemes don’t cause you to not get off a block 25 different times or stuff like that. It’s not like the players aren’t trying hard, but there’s a lot of fundamentals we’ve got to work on as well as schemes.”
Shafer has come under fire from fans recently as the defense has regressed statistically. Michigan allowed Purdue, the ninth-ranked offense in the Big Ten going into Saturday’s game, to gain 522 yards. The Wolverine defense is ranked last in the conference in every major statistical category.
Coming to Ann Arbor from Stanford, Shafer is one of two Michigan assistant coaches who didn’t follow Rodriguez from West Virginia or coach at Michigan under Lloyd Carr. The other is linebackers coach Jay Hopson.
Rodriguez shut the door on any coaching changes before next season, at least for now.
“Just because we’ve struggled at times in different units doesn’t mean they’re a bad coach,” Rodriguez said. “I’m sure a lot of people are saying that I’m a bad coach. Everyone can have their opinion.”
The coach pointed out that he and his staff have only been with the program for 10 months and said he remains confident that Michigan will return to its winning ways. But Rodriguez admitted that the process might take longer than he initially thought.
Eyeing the fake: At least one Michigan player knew Purdue was running a fake punt late in the fourth quarter Saturday.
According to punter Zoltan Mesko, Wolverine long snapper Sean Griffin noticed that the Boilermakers’ long snapper was looking down to aim the ball at upman Anthony Heygood on that play. The snapper had his head up on the rest of Purdue's punt plays on Saturday.
Heygood rushed down the left sideline for 61 yards on the fourth-and-eight play, giving Purdue a first down at Michigan’s seven-yard line.
The Boilermakers scored a touchdown three plays later to take a 42-35 lead.
Vote or practice: Rodriguez has clear priorities this election day. If the coach arrives at the polls and sees long lines, he won’t think twice.
“If I have to wait, I’ll be at practice and the vote will be missed,” Rodriguez said. He wouldn’t divulge which presidential candidate he plans to vote for — that is, if he makes it into the voting booth tomorrow.
But while the coach won’t adjust his schedule to vote, he has allowed players to move around their workout schedules and encouraged them all to vote.
"They’re going to change when they lift because they need some time to vote and I said, ‘by all means,’ ” Rodriguez said. “You gotta go vote. That’s being an American.”
Fifth-year senior defensive end Tim Jamison has already submitted an absentee ballot to vote in his native Illinois. For Jamison, this election feels more personal than it does for many other voters.
Jamison met Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama when the senator was running for office in Illinois in 2004.
“He came to my church when he was running for office four years ago, so I met him,” Jamison said. “He knew my pastor and I got to shake his hand. Seeing him run for president, it's like, ‘Hey, I shook his hand. I got to meet that dude.’ "
Injury report: Redshirt freshman quarterback Steven Threet had his bell rung by a helmet-to-helmet hit in the fourth quarter of the loss to Purdue. Threet was limited in practice yesterday, but Rodriguez said he expects him to be ready to go against Minnesota on Saturday.
Sophomore cornerback Troy Woolfolk sprained his ankle in the first quarter against Purdue but should also be ready this week.
Rodriguez expects freshman running back Sam McGuffie and sophomore safety Mike Williams to play at Minnesota after missing the Purdue game with lingering concussion symptoms.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:04:50 -0500