Univ. Of Michigan Fires Head Coach Rich Rodriguez

Per this report from Fox 2 in Detroit, Michigan has parted ways with Rich Rodriguez today as their head football coach. This should not come as much of a surprise as Rodriguez led the Wolverines to a disappointing 15-22 record during his seasons at the helm. Michigan is also coming off of a 52-14 bowl game loss to Miss. St., which is the worst in school history. Here some of Fox's story:

Rodriguez was 15-22 during three seasons in Ann Arbor. He lost a school-record nine games in his debut with the Wolverines two years ago, was 5-7 after starting 4-0 last season and turned a 5-0 start into a 7-5 finish this fall.

The Wolverines were also 1-10 against ranked teams and were 0-3 against rivals Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin during Rodriguez's tenure.

Clearly with a record like that Rodriguez didn't the school much of a choice. He was also abrasive with the media and never seemed quite comfortable at such a high profile position after coming off a successful stint with West Virginia. There has been buzz on the rumor front that Michigan is interested in current Stanford HC Jim Harbaugh who's name has been the hottest in relation to open coaching positions in both college and the pros.

Rodriguez might be best served to find another HC position at a smaller school where he won't be as scrutinized and will have the opportunity to build his program, as he did at WV. I'm sure he will walk away from the Wolverines with a nice settlement as he only in his third year of a 6-yr, $15mil contract that was signed back in '07.

Best of luck to both coach Rodriguez & Michigan in their search for a new leader.

-ALR

Weekend Quick Hitters

The dubbed "Monster Saturday" for college football should have been the theme for the whole weekend in the sports world. I honestly think every sport had something going this past weekend, and I tells ya, it was great!!! Here are a few things that struck me from the eventful sports weekend...

- OSU's QB Terrelle Pryor is a superb athlete and coming into his own as a quarterback. He needs to work on the short game and some of the decision making to really set himself apart and get OSU to where they need to be, and that's national champs.

- Michigan QB Denard Robinson is what Rich Rodriquez has been waiting for. This kid knows what to do as far as reading blocks, hitting the right space to dart out TD runs and his passing isn't too shabby.

- Boise St was potentially robbed of a BCS National Championship berth due to the laugher Va Tech put up losing to James Madison. I am on record saying Boise St has a cupcake schedule and shouldn't get to go anyway, but I will say they do exactly what they are supposed to do, which is rip apart that cupcake schedule.

- I hope Carson Palmer doesn't keep a mental tab on how much he targets TO and Ocho. They both had 13, but Ocho put up monster numbers. Keeping them both happy and not winning will be an issue down in Cincy.

- Michael Vick should be Philly's starter. Kevin Kolb is not a bad QB by any stretch, I just think Vick will get the most out of that offense.

- Congrats to Kevin Durant and Team USA for winning the FIBA's. That was a very strong statement preparing for the 2012 Olympics.

- Oklahoma City Thunder will benefit the most from the Team USA experience. Kevin Durant took a huge step into becoming more than just a scoring champ and Russel Westbrook learned HOW to play gambling defense, rather than just doing it based on his athleticism.

- In local news your 3 contributors to this blog, @lostherod, @A_Ramsey, and @marcusjnorris, began the hoop season this past week. Best believe I, and hope they do to, will provide our own stats, successes and failures throughout the season. I know it's shameless, but dammit I wanna shine too!!!

- @lostherod