Per ESPN and the News, Rich Rodriguez has agreed to pay the full $4 Million buyout, but without having to pay any interest or legal fees to West Virginia.

This should resolve the issue, and I wonder if West Virginia fans will ease the vitriol towards their former headman, now that he isn’t engaged in legal wrangling with his alma mater. I kinda doubt it (I think their anger was over being dumped by Rodriguez, and the suit gave a good excuse), but we shall see.

At any rate, this should be the end of the entire ordeal, and everyone associated with Michigan football can stop worrying about this, and focus on football.

Posted under Coaching

According to Vegas, Michigan is among the favorites to take home the BCS title in 2008. This is most curious, as the prominent preseason magazines fail to even include Michigan in their top 25 lists.

The Freep inconveniently doesn’t give the favorites in numerical order, so I have painstakingly arranged the Vegas odds for you. Included are teams with better than 100/1 odds and other relevant teams:

1. USC 3/1
2. Ohio State 6/1
2. Florida 6/1
2. Georgia 6/1
2. Oklahoma 6/1
6. LSU 12/1
7. Missouri 14/1
8. Clemson 22/1
9. WVU 25/1
10. Michigan 30/1
11. Texas 30/1
12. UMiami 35/1
12. UCLA 35/1
14. Alabama 40/1
14. Auburn 40/1
14. VT 40/1
17. Florida State 50/1
17. Illinois 50/1
17. Penn State 50/1
17. Rutgers 50/1
21. Notre Dame 55/1
22. Kansas 65/1
23. Tennessee 75/1
24. Arizona 80/1
25. Cal 80/1
25. Nebraska 80/1
25. Texas Tech 80/1
25. Wiconsin 80/1
Michigan State 100/1
Iowa 100/1
Field 25/1

In an interview that appeared today on WOWK-TV in West Virginia (and will appear again tomorrow), Rich Rod had some interesting things to sya about his departure from West Virginia.

Rodriguez said the thinly veiled criticism by Stewart was just the new head coach following the crowd.

“I don’t think you should say one thing at one point, then two weeks later, just because it’s popular to be anti-Rich Rodriguez, to say another,” Rodriguez said.

The annual Michigan Football Takeover on WTKA was Friday. MVictors has a bit of audio.

Posted under Coaching

…but our coaches aren’t. On top of Rich Rodriguez’s ongoing lawsuit deliberations with West Virginia University, Coach John Beilein is also paying the Mountaineers for his departure to Crisler Arena.

Don’t believe me? The Wizard of Odds has some proof (which they got from West By God Virginia, who, presumably got it from the source).

Perhaps interesting to note: The Bank of Ann Arbor, the institution that allows Beilein to write checks for more than a quarter-million dollars, is owned by Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin.

Posted under Basketball

A friend of the blog (you may know him as formelyannonymous), was driving through West Virginia today and sent me this text message:

Update from the road:
A WV home facing I-81 is just now painting over a full side of the home currently a mural saying Rich Rodriguez sucks. Yes it is a trailer.

Then he sent a follow up:

Couch appears intact. No confirmed burn marks.

So it appears as though West Virginia is finally getting over Rich Rodriguez taking the Michigan job and every record of every player ever (he did that right?). Now the Mountaineers can go back to being a mediocre team in a mediocre football conference.

Posted under Coaching, Misc.

My roommate brought this story to my attention:

Leave it to a minor league hockey team to come up with “Shred Rich Rodriguez Night.”

The Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League are hosting just such a night on Saturday for their game against the Charlotte Checkers, the Intelligencer of Wheeling, W.Va., reported.

Fans are invited to bring newspaper articles or pictures of the ex-West Virginia / new Michigan coach and feed them into an industrial sized shredder that will be stationed in the concourse at WesBanco Arena.

Though I intend to stop worrying about West Virginia’s obsession with the Michigan coach, this one was too funny to pass up.

Posted under Coaching, Misc.

Calvin Magee left WVU, in part, because he felt that he could not be taken seriously there due to his race.

This sort of story is probably partially true (notice how immaturely WVU fans and administration have acted through the entire ordeal), and partially “if you’re going to come up with stupid bullshit, I’ll fire back with something that is at least plausible, if no more true.”

At this point, Michigan coaches could just stop dignifying a lot of what West Virginia fans and administration, etc., are doing and saying with this sort of response. However, it’s been over a month of dealing with this shit, so they can be forgiven, at least this once.

Posted under Coaching