Michigan

TEAM-MICHIGAN
COACH-RICH RODRIQUEZ

Michigan is one of the two top teams in football in the Big 10 over the last few decades. Ohio State is the other. Michigan has been down the past couple of years and they went 1-7 in league play in 2009.The lost seven of their last eight games last year.

Rodriguez graduated from North Marion High School in Grant Town, West Virginia in 1981 where he played four sports and was an all-state football and basketball player. After high school, Rodriguez attended West Virginia University. Playing as a defensive back, Rodriguez recorded 54 career tackles over three seasons.

After Rodriguez's return to WVU as a volunteer coach with the outside linebackers for the 1989 football season, he left again to take over as head coach at Glenville State College.

Rodriguez left Glenville State at the end of the 1996 season to serve as assistant coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterback coach for Tulane University from 1997 to 1998, under head coach Tommy Bowden. Rodriguez was part of Tulane's success, including their 12–0 season in Rodriguez's last season at Tulane, mainly for his spread offense with quarterback Shaun King. When Bowden was hired as the head coach at Clemson University, he retained Rodriguez on his staff. Rodriguez served as the offensive coordinator and associate head coach until the end of the 2000 season, traveling to a Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl.

On November 26, 2000, WVU's athletic department announced that Rodriguez would again return to West Virginia, this time as head coach to replace the retiring legend Don Nehlen.

Rodriguez was one of the most successful coaches in West Virginia history.[citation needed] He was credited with the first back-to-back Top 10 finishes in school history, four consecutive New Year's bowl appearances (joining USC as the only program at the time to do so), the school's first BCS bowl win, three Big East championships, eight wins over Top 25 teams, twenty-six straight weeks in the Top 25, a 30-6 record from 2005–2007, and a home-attendance average of 98% of capacity. [citation needed] Rodriguez brought his unique offensive style to WVU and after a disappointing first year, led the Mountaineers to four straight winning years, in three of which (2003, 2004, & 2005) the Mountaineers won or shared the Big East Conference championship. Rodriguez led the team to five straight bowl appearances (the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl the 2004 and 2005 Gator Bowls, the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl, the 2007 Gator Bowl, posting a 2-3 record in those bowl games.

On December 16, 2007, Rodriguez informed players at West Virginia that he was leaving to succeed Lloyd Carr as the University of Michigan head football coach.[11] Rodriguez's decision came on the heels of a loss to the unranked Pittsburgh Panthers, which eliminated WVU from national championship contention.[

Rodriguez was introduced by Michigan as their new coach at a news conference held on December 17, 2007.

Rodriquez has a record at Michigan of 8-16, a Big Ten record of 3-13, and a career record of 113-78.

Michigan plays at Ann Arbor, Michigan with a capacity of 106,201. Rodriquez runs the spread offense and a 4-3 defense.

This is a huge year for this coach to be successful or they may be looking for a replacement. With the coaches history, the bet is they will show much improvement in 2010.