What is the Status of Rich Rod’s Job Security?

A Guest Blog By Fanspeak Contributing Writer Tyler Fenwick:

It’s been a pretty hot topic around the country for quite a while now. Will Rich Rodriugez be back for a fourth year in Ann Arbor? With the way things are looking, I would say yes. And here’s why:

On Rich’s resume, it would be almost unfair to put his first year into the mix with such a poor team left behind for him. He had absolutely nothing to do with the players coming in that year, so it would have been remarkable to do anything past five wins. The Wolverines went 3-9 with only two conference wins. Fans were dissapointed of course, but that’s where they decided the mourning should end. After that, he was expected to turn that teams around to at least a bowl bid.

So what did he do? Well Rodriguez went out and got two very talented quarterbacks in Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson. Even early, they were looking like they could be the face of that offense from the start. The only question was who would be getting the starts. Rich went with Forcier, and for the right reasons. He had proved himself as a sufficient passer, as well as the ability to get things done with his legs.

He didn’t pick anything really special with his offensive line, but they were good enough to be a notable impact for the team.

In the recieving category, Roy Roundtree was probably the biggest pick up for the team. He was young with talent and showed a lot of early potential.

Defensively, he wasn’t able to pick up anything. It was the number one concern going into last season and still continues to be at the top of the concerns list. That was by far the one thing that was expected to hold Michigan back.

The ’09 season: In 2009, Michigan opened up with win over Western Michigan, and Tate Forcier was absolutely lights out. It was all impressive, but they had to play host to 18th ranked Notre Dame the next week. With a true-freshman quarterback leading the team, nobody had Michigan winning it… but they did. It went down to the final seconds, but Forcier played hero throwing a touchdown down by the student section that would win the game. That’s when people started asking themselves if Michigan was going to be for real or not? It certainly looked like they were going to be at the time. Eastern Michigan was just a step-stool leading into conference play when the Wolverines opened up against Indiana. Michigan was a heavy favorite to win, but it didn’t all exactly play out as planned. Indiana stuck with the Maize and Blue the whole time, and it toold a huge third down coversion plus an arguable interception to seel their first game in the conference play. Things were looking even brighter. But look out. It got really ugly, really fast.