Rodriguez felt Michigan had turned corner
NEW YORK — Rich Rodriguez says the most frustrating part of being fired after three seasons as Michigan coach was that he thought the worst days were behind the program and the Wolverines were going to be "exponentially" better next season.
"We saw the light at the end of the tunnel," he said Tuesday in a 30-minute interview with The Associated Press.
"Heck, we had 24 starters coming back, and the player of the year in the league — he's a sophomore and still learning. Recruiting, we thought it was going really well even with all the drama.
"That's the frustrating part about it is we didn't get a chance to finish the job."
Rodriguez was in New York, preparing to work as a guest analyst for CBS Sports' national signing day coverage Wednesday.
He was fired last month after a 7-6 season that ended with blowout losses to Ohio State and, in the Gator Bowl, to Mississippi State.
Michigan athletic director David Brandon took the unusual step of waiting until after the bowl game to decide whether to keep Rodriguez.
Asked if it was fair for Brandon to wait on the decision until January, Rodriguez said the timing of his dismissal was far from ideal for him, his players and staff. The Wolverines lost 37-7 to Ohio State on Nov. 27, more than a month before the bowl game.
"Whatever I say in that regard is probably going to sound self-serving," Rodriguez said. "Would it have been better for the staff to know a month a head? No question about it. When jobs come open in the college level they come open in December.
"And had I been able to get on somewhere, that could have happened, too. I may have been able to get another head coaching job then. But I still had the belief we had things going to the point where we were going to be pretty good. Like I said, the worst was behind us."
In three tumultuous seasons with the Wolverines, he was 16-22 — including a 3-9 first season that stands as the worst in the history of the storied program — and 6-18 in the Big Ten. The program was also hit with NCAA sanctions for the first time because of rules violations.
From Day 1 at Michigan, Rodriguez seemed almost doomed to fail. He came to Ann Arbor from West Virginia, where he nearly coached his alma mater to the national title game, to replace the retiring Lloyd Carr.
But his divorce from West Virginia was messy and his reputation took a serious hit in the court of public opinion. When he got to Michigan, there were plenty of Wolverine supporters who were skeptical of their new coach.