The Rich Rodriguez chronicles

(Original photo: Clif Reeder/ The Michigan Daily)

Every Michigan story needs a villain.

• “The Victors” needed Chicago to lose its final game in 1898.
• “Those Who Stay Will Be Champions” needed players to quit the 1969 team.
• “A Michigan Man will coach Michigan” needed Bill Frieder to leave for Arizona State.

Rich Rodriguez, because too many people are only capable of or willing to view him in black and white, will become the next villain.

But the “Michigan didn’t win enough, so Rich Rod must go” refrain tires me. It overly simplifies the situation and fails to allow for the appropriate shades of gray.

He’s a fine man and a fine coach who has performed his job poorly overall the last three years. That doesn’t mean he deserves all of the blame for the losing, and that doesn’t mean his past mistakes necessarily indicate future inadequacy.

In a series of posts during coming days, I hope to explore the gray areas and deconstruct the man who is widely viewed as Michigan’s first failed football coach in more than 40 years.