Monday, December 17, 2007

West Virginia North?


I don't know if it's official yet, but you've all probably heard that Rich Rodriguez is going to be the new head football coach at Michigan. This comes on the heels of hiring John Beilein from WVU to head the basketball program. After much hullabaloo about Michigan having "botched" their coaching search, this is a tremendous hire. He has taken a previously mediocre West Virginia football program and put them back on the map. After his initial season at WVU, he proceeded to take the Mountaineers to six straight bowl games, and never finished lower than second in the Big East. For all of you people that hated Lloyd for his inability to adapt to the spread offenses and football in the 21st century, this should make you very happy. Coach Rod is a proponent of the spread offense, and contrary to what it might seem, Ryan Mallett will be a very good fit for the offense. Although he is quite different from current Mountaineers QB Pat White (6-6, 240 and slow vs. 6-1, 185 and fast), Mallett ran a version of the spread in high school, and we saw first hand this year how much trouble he has lining up under center. Back in the shotgun, he will again be comfortable running an offense he is familiar with. With Mallett at the helm, we will run the "spread" rather than the "spread option" that WVU runs with Pat White. Rodriguez has coached it both ways, so he will adapt to the personnel. However, what this means in the long term is that the era of the gigantic stationary QB at Michigan is probably over. No more Navarre/Henne/Mallett/Collins/Grbac types. Future recruits will have to be mobile. I, for one, welcome this change.

Anyway, I am glad this is over and we can focus on more important things. Like what else can we steal from WVU? Is there anything else worth taking?

Go Blue!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice assman. I couldn't be more excited about the hire. I think the spread offense is the most effective way to win in college football. If you have less talent, you can compete with more talented teams - see Bowling Green & Utah with Urban Meyer, Northwestern, Purdue, Texas Tech, Boise St. When you have top tier talent, the results can incredible. OSU with Troy Smith, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas & WVU have dominated offensively. Ironically, I see that WVU has averaged 18-22 passes a game over the past few seasons - it is NOT a pass happy offense necessarily but I think that is the case when you have a mobile QB such as Pat White or Tebow. In our case, I still see Mallett as a natural fit - shotgun for his whole HS career. He is deceptively mobile. I am all for getting rid of the QB U moniker in favor of getting a mobile QB that can dominate at the college level.

Great hire - my first choice actually when the whole thing started. Hopefully it works and thankfully the search is over.

Brandman said...

Actually, after a visit to Morgantown you can count yourself as lucky if you DON'T leave with anything (DUI, STD, awful hangover, etc. etc.).

Great hire!

Can't wait to begin the RR era!

Go Blue!!!