The Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan was a forgettable one for the Wolverines. From a fall from grace in the Big Ten,to losses to Ohio State and a brief detour from a winning tradition, there was much to forget about Rodriguez’s time in charge of Big Blue. Michigan was also slapped with NCAA sanctions during Rodriguez’s stay which today still bother the current Arizona head coach.
Michigan was charged by the NCAA for a failure to monitor the duties of the quality control staff members and time limits on football activities. During an interview with Seth Davis of CampusInisders.com, Rodriguez called those NCAA sanctions “a bunch of B.S.”
“I get mad when I think about that,” Rodriguez said. “To me, and I don’t mind saying it, I thought it was a bunch of B.S. We got in trouble for having, in the offseason, a strength coach putting a rubber ball on a stick to use as a get-off thing, as a thing when (the players) do the running. They said that’s using football equipment. A rubber ball on a stick. Now think about that, I could’ve put a hat on a stick. And that was something I got in trouble for.”
The infractions were a bit tedious compared to other violations that have been witnessed around the NCAA over the years. Rodriguez voiced more displeasure over some of the extremes of the violations that did occur at Michigan.
“Another thing we got in trouble for is letting some of the interns, or quality control guys, sit in the room with the coaches while we watched film,” Rodriguez explained. “Not giving any input, just sit there and learn ... and that’s a violation. There are schools now that are hiring ex-NFL coaches and scouts to do that full-time for them. And I got a violation because of that.”
Rodriguez is coaching his second season at Arizona, where the Wildcats have not been tied to any potential violations under his watch. This comes after a year away from the game and working in television. Rodriguez and Arizona take on USC late Thursday night.