Following Saturday's loss to Michigan State, people from nearly every corner of the football world have come out to plot Jim Harbaugh's exit from Ann Arbor.
"I think it's time for -- not to fire Jim Harbaugh, they're not going to do that... they just need an amicable divorce," Paul Finebaum said on ESPN this week. "It's not going to get any better. Let's sit down, work it out, and let Jim Harbaugh look for a job in the NFL." Pete Thamel hypothesized this week that Harbaugh could indeed ponder a return to the NFL after this season, with just one season remaining on his deal at Michigan.
So it's safe to say Harbaugh doesn't have a lot of public allies at the moment, not that he really cares.
In a time where not many people are willing to step forward and vouch for his coaching ability, one such voice stepped forward.
"He’s 48-18 going into that game, he’s won a lot of games,” Rodriguez said. “Certainly he’s had struggles against Ohio State. Who hasn’t, right? Michigan State’s beat them a few times. But Jim Harbaugh is not your problem, Michigan. He’s got an outstanding coaching staff. I think he’s an outstanding football coach," Rich Rodriguez said on his podcast, Hard Edge (via Wolverines Wire).
"But, despite maybe what many fans may be saying or people that follow college football, I do not think Michigan has a coach problem. It’s not a coach problem," he said at a different point. "It’s different than that."
If there's anyone that can understand the dynamics of coaching at Michigan, it's Rodriguez. Taking over for College Football Hall of Famer Lloyd Carr, Rodriguez went 15-22 as Michigan's head coach from 2008-10. His tenure was largely doomed from the start, as he attempted to graduate Michigan from a pro-style offense to his trademark spread option attack while also navigating a massive culture shift from West Virginia to Michigan.
He was replaced by Brady Hoke, who was then replaced by Harbaugh.
Rodriguez did not dive into an explanation for why Michigan is struggling if not for its coaching, but he did offer this reason for his lack of success in Ann Arbor.
"We’re going back 15, 13 years, or whatever – but I do remember, we had left West Virginia where we had some success,” Rodriguez said. “And we had some good players at West Virginia, but they also had a little bit of an edge about them -- they had a need to prove themselves every day. Both in the weight room, the offseason program during practices -- every practice and certainly every game. So they played with that hard edge and they had a -- they wanted to earn success," he said.
"When we went to Michigan, I thought we’d instill that same attitude. There was some resistance, a little bit. And it’s funny: the guys that played for Bo Schembechler, when they came to practice there, said that. They said, ‘Coach, this is what we had. We had some tough, good, athletic players that played with an edge. A toughness and a need to prove themselves.’ And I think that’s what Michigan, when they’re very good – and any program that’s very, very good, they practice with that type of mentality."
Again, Harbaugh is probably the last person to care about who is or is not sticking up for him in public.
But this stuff matters in the aggregate, and Rich Rodriguez is probably the very last person the Michigan fan base wants to diagnose the program's problems.