The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/402034
ality changes, you also have the phil- osophical football changes that come with the RichRod offense and what he brought in from a defense," Skene said. "He tried the 3-3-5, which is basically a nickel defense, on first- and-10 in the Big Ten. "At that time, you're asking [de- fensive tackle] Mike Martin to go from an interior defensive tackle, where he's playing a variable shade of alignments from the guard and center, to a straight-up zero nose, where he was getting blocked from three different sides. "So you had this massive philo- sophical football change, certainly on offense, but you also had it on defense. He flipped the page on ev- erything. The zone read, a whole new defensive front, everything was new." The 3-9 first season didn't help. But far more than frustration over losing began roiling around Schem- bechler Hall. Skene to this day isn't impressed with some of the addi- tional opposition Rodriguez faced. A MINI MUTINY "He comes in with his brand of coaching, and a lot of guys on that team didn't like it," Skene recalled. "They didn't like the way he was talking to them. They didn't like the language, they didn't like the up-in- your-face foul mouth, yelling and screaming. "And I remember former play- ers, from before my time, during my time and after my time, looking at each other and saying, 'How is that any different than the way we were treated in practice?' Practice is sup- posed to be this intensely pressure- packed situation, to see if you're go- ing to crack. "These coaches need to know that the players aren't going to crack on game day. I remember, practice was very physically and mentally stress- ful, probably more mentally than anything else." The late John Vitale, an All-Amer- ican center for the Wolverines in the late 1980s, represented the typical Michigan offensive lineman of the era — tough as nails. His words came back to Skene, regarding the purport- edly kinder and gentler expectations In three season as head coach at Michigan, Rich Rodriguez went 15-22 overall and just 6-18 in the Big Ten, leading the Wolverines to one bowl appearance, a loss. PHOTO BY ERIC BRONSON