Reddit reviews Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football

I'm reading "Three and Out: RichRod" right now, and I'm starting to take pity on the man. He was sabotaged from day one.

I thought I should just point out that this is an excerpt from a new book, called Three and Out, by John Bacon. When Rich Rod started, he basically was given all access to follow him around, because he was planning on writing a piece about him being an offensive guru, but then shit hit the fan and he changed the premise of the book. Its basically an inside look into all of the drama around Rich Rod's hiring and firing, and a lot of the infighting of the AD. It sounds like a good read for anyone interested in what happened to Michigan the last 3 years. You can pre-order here, if interested.

I think the consensus is that he wasn't a good fit for the Michigan culture, and that as much as anything led to his ouster.

Evidently, the new book Three & Out details pretty well how certain elements of the UM cabal didn't want him there to begin with, and how others gradually walked away from him during his tenure.

honestly, I think he'd be at or near the top of the list for those 4 schools. None are traditional football powers, so there isn't much they'd really be risking.

Three and Out, by John Bacon. Rich gave him full access to his Michigan program, and it seems that everyone f'ed up there, not just Rich.
edit: fixed link

Haha, most fans would be satisfied with that, yes. But you would still hear all sorts of some dumb stuff like "well, we really shouldn't have gone for it on 4th down that one time, that was a bit much" or "I don't think the players are conducting themselves with enough integrity after scoring" or something like that. So I guess we can be satisfied as a fan base, we just never want to feel good about it.

There's a part of Three and Out dedicated to talking about stuff like this. I don't remember the exact story, but a local radio station challenged people to call in with complaints about the team the day after a blowout win and they got swamped with calls.

While not an all-encompassing historical piece on the landscape of college football per se, John Bacon's "Three and Out" offers a fascinating insight into Rich Rodriguez's tenure with Michigan Wolverine.

Here's the book description:

> Three and Out tells the story of how college football’s most influential coach took over the nation’s most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the histories of both Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan. Shortly after his controversial move from West Virginia, where he had just taken his alma mater to the #1 ranking for the first time in school history, Coach Rich Rodriguez granted author and journalist John U. Bacon unrestricted access to Michigan’s program. Bacon saw it all, from the meals and the meetings, to the practices and the games, to the sidelines and the locker rooms. Nothing and no one was off limits. John U. Bacon’s Three and Out is the definitive account of a football marriage seemingly made in heaven that broke up after just three years, and lifts the lid on the best and the worst of college football.


Although I've yet to read the book, I have read the first chapter that's free (look to the right side of the amazon page for the Kindle edition and you'll have the ability to have a first chapter sneak-peak) and it's compelling, to say the least. And one of the reasons for this is that the book deals with so much more than Rich Rodriguez's tenure, but also the history of Michigan Wolverine football.

Like I said previously, I haven't read it all but it's definitely on my wish list. Make sure to read the first chapter to see whether or not you'll like it.

They wouldn't "officially" offer him the job without meeting with him in person. But Bill Martin did speak to Miles directly on the phone. Michigan officials asked to set up a meeting with him in Miami, where Miles had already scheduled a recruiting trip later on in December, but Miles refused to meet with them to discuss the deal until after he had coached LSU through their bowl game, which ended up being the national championship, though no one expected that at the time. After Miles refused to set up a meeting, that's when they moved on to Rich Rod.

It's all covered in the book "Three and Out". I think that's the most thoroughly researched a reliable source that I've seen on the matter.