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Rich Rodriguez recalls tenure with Michigan football: ' had one more year, we would’ve '

Originally posted on Michigan Wolverines on SI
By Trent Knoop | Last updated May 16, 2025 11:05 AM ET

The dark ages of Michigan football came from 2008-2010 during Rich Rodriguez's time in Ann Arbor. Rodriguez was the hot name who the Wolverines chased to succeed Lloyd Carr in Ann Arbor. After leading West Virginia to three consecutive 10 or 11-win seasons, Rodriguez came to Michigan to implement his 'spread offense', but not being a 'Michigan man' hindered his time in Ann Arbor.

Rodriguez would go 3-9, 5-7, and 7-6 before being fired from the University of Michigan. The 2008 season, which resulted in three wins and a stunning loss at home to Toledo, was the worst season in Michigan football history. But even after his three years in Ann Arbor, Rodriguez believes that if he had one more season with the Wolverines, things would have kept improving.

Now back with West Virginia, where Rodriguez really succeeded as a coach, he quickly reflected on his time as the head coach of Michigan during a recent interview with Josh Pate.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Well geez, because it didn’t work out at Michigan,’ — I still think had we had one more year, we would’ve [worked out],” Rodriguez told Pate. “The third year we went to the bowl game, and the fourth year [Hoke's first year] they went to the Sugar Bowl, and all the kids that were making all the plays when they had that great year were kids that we recruited, we developed.”

Things could have been different for Rodriguez during his short tenure with Michigan for a variety of reasons -- including a couple of different recruitments. Rodriguez's 2009 class was a top-10 class in the country, and he landed QBs Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson -- who would go down as one of the flashiest players Michigan ever had. But in his first offseason as the Wolverines' head coach, Rich Rod went all in on a five-star QB, Terrelle Pryor. On national television, the dual-threat QB committed to Ohio State over Michigan and Penn State.

But that wasn't the only miss. Flint (MI) RB Mark Ingram was also a part of that 2008 recruiting class. Carr's staff didn't recruit Ingram to come to Ann Arbor, but once Rodriguez took over the job, he sent Fred Jackson to Flint to see Ingram -- a week before Signing Day. The rest is history, and Ingram would go on to become a Heisman winner at Alabama.

In a recent interview on The Triple Option podcast, Ingram and Rodriguez recalled the recruitment.

"Michigan never offered me a scholarship," Ingram told Rodriguez. "They didn't even recruit me. And when you took that job, Michigan started coming to the school. You sent [RB coach] Fred Jackson to the school and kind of had an offer for me."

"And you still turned us down, didn't you." Rodriguez said with a laugh.

"Well, you started recruiting me a week before signing day!," Ingram said.

"I might still be the coach there if you would have said yes," said Rich Rod.

Years down the road, things worked out for Michigan following some dark years in Ann Arbor. Prodigal Son, Jim Harbaugh, returned to Ann Arbor in 2015. He would lead Michigan to three-straight Big Ten titles, to three consecutive College Football Playoffs, and would win the national title in 2023. As for Rodriguez, he led Jacksonville State to three nine-win seasons, and back in his old stomping grounds of Morgantown.

This article first appeared on Michigan Wolverines on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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