Rodriguez: First of foremost I want to tell everybody I am very proud of the way our players have worked the last seven, eight months. They've gave a tremendous commitment to this university, to this program, and to building a championship program. They're working hard in athletics and they're working hard in academics. As a coach I am very, very proud of them.
I also want to tell you that I feel it's an honor and a privilege to have Mike Barwis and his staff as part of our staff at the University of Michigan. Mike has been with me for many years. I have complete trust in him, and I think he is absolutely the best strength and conditioning coach in the country.
He's made an impact on our young men, not only in football but in (all of) our sports here. We've had several of our current professional and former professional players come back and work out with Mike that didn't even know Mike. We have several NHL
players that played at the University of Michigan that Mike trains now on his own time. I believe they understand and appreciate all he and his staff does for them.
Mike truly, as everybody on our staff does, truly cares about every one of the young men and women that he has worked with, and to imply otherwise couldn't be farther from the truth. He has always complied with the rules, as has our entire staff.
We know the rules and we comply by the rules. We have a very transparent program. You guys that follow us know that; you've been out to practice several times.
We have a very open relationship with our compliance department. I think they're very proactive, they do a great job, and in fact even this spring and summer they met with Mike several times to discuss Mike's offseason program, summer program.
We have a great institution both athletically and academically. There's been many success stories here. But it is a challenge, and that's what the University of Michigan does, it challenges you athletically and academically, and many young men have reached that challenge. It's our job as coaches to help them achieve that. You could talk about (won-loss) records or whatever, but our young men academically are reaching that challenge, and they want to reach it athletically.
I had the seniors over at my house yesterday, and every one of them to a man, because we don't want to go through a season like last year, we're committed to getting it right and to uphold our great tradition, and they've shown that. That's why we try to challenge them.
That's why it's so important for our guys to have success on the field and do the things that prepare them for that, and they understand on their own to do that. That's why our young men understand the value of a Michigan degree, that's why they make the time to balance those two things. And I as a coach have never hindered that. Nobody on my staff would (ever) tell a young man to miss a class or miss a study session or miss a tutor appointment to do anything athletically --never have and never will.
I understand the importance of a degree; all coaches do. When I sit and recruit these guys or when our assistant coaches recruit these guys and sit in their parents' homes, they tell them we're going to challenge your son, we're going to make sure he puts in the work to get a Michigan degree, we're going to make sure we do all we can to help him achieve his goals.
I guess the thing that bothered me the most about the things that were recently written or said, or maybe some things in the last 18 months, is the perception that's out there that we did not care as much for our players' welfare, and that is disheartening. To say that is misleading, inaccurate and goes against everything that I have ever believed in coaching.
I love working with our staff. I love our players like I love my own family. My family loves our players. That's why they're at every practice. You guys that follow us know that. That's the way it is throughout our whole staff.
Coach Barwis will work with these guys any hours that they want to work with him. He'll go to church with them on Sunday. Our staff will do anything that our players want for us to do to help them achieve their goals.
When I left West Virginia I didn't leave my brains and my caring for my players when I came to Michigan. We're proud of the way our programs have been run. I've been a head coach for 16 years, and we've been fortunate to have eight league championships. But more than anything else, we've graduated a whole lot of guys, and a lot of them were first-generation college students. A lot of them were great success stories, and a lot of them still maintain contact with me and my staff to this day.
I know I'm at a great place, and my players and my staff are working every day as hard as we can to build the best program in America.
The former players that know how this program was built, on their hard work and dedication and commitment to team. They understand that, and so do the 120 young men on our football team. So I would ask that you focus on those guys, the 120 men that are making this commitment to have success.
When I have two young freshmen that come into my office yesterday upset, saying, "Coach, what did I do? What did we do? We just said we worked hard, and it was harder than it was in high school and we were committed to helping win a championship." I said, "You didn't do nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong."
Question: With everything you said there, there was no implicit denial of everything that went on.
Rodriguez: We completely complied by the rules, the hours and all that, always have and always will. Again, you must understand, again, it was misleading. Sometimes the players, when you ask them about hours, and understand the treatments, the medical treatments do not count, study hall does not count, other aspects of the hours do not count toward your hours allowance.
Question: The fact that you have certain players and their parents willing to basically call out your program, is there a potential disconnect there?
Rodriguez: The response from our parents, our current players' parents, has been overwhelmingly positive. I have not had a single parent or a single player ... we have an open door, and the parents always know that they can call. I've never had a single parent call me or player complain about anything.
Question: Can you explain your Sunday practices, what goes on on Sundays, what happened last year and what's the plan for this week?
Rodriguez: (I'll) just (say it) as politely as I can -- we want to talk about Western. As I said, we completely complied by the rules in all aspects.
Question: I'm not asking about the allegations, I'm just asking about Sunday practices in general.
Rodriguez: There's a day off that you have to (have). I've gone back and forth -- Sundays off and Mondays off -- and it really depends on the course schedule and what season schedule you have. Last year we had Mondays off because ... a lot of our guys had classes on Monday afternoon.
This year we've made a decision back early in the summer to have Sundays off because ... of the sense of urgency for the coaches to get ready for the next opponent with no open dates. I thought it would make our Monday, our first practice, more relevant.
(But) a Sunday practice, which will now be Monday's practice, has only ever been an hour, ever. It's only been an hour, and that's for as long as I've coached. Most teams will only practice for an hour because you don't have the whole game plan in. It's no more than an hour every Sunday and it'll be no more than an hour on Monday.
But at least an hour now with us -- the coaches having all day Sunday to watch more film -- I think we'll have a little bit better idea of the game plan. It won't be finalized, but it'll be a little better idea of the game plan.
Question: Why do you think there is so much drama?
Rodriguez: Probably because the attention the program has gotten over the years. If you have the winningest all time program and you've got the Michigan name, there's something there. As a coach I understand that.
But let's not get in the way of what's best practices. We've got tremendous tradition, but there needs to be something. Our former players understand that. The guys that played here understand that. What is the best practices as opposed to OK (practices).
I've read John Bacon's book on Bo Schembechler. I've studied it. Bo dealt with some things, too, as have all the coaches.
This is more public now, and I understand that. But ... what's that got to do with graduating with a degree and having success on the field? How does that relate to building a championship program? And if it doesn't relate, then you have to look and say, OK, is that helping us get here or is that hindering us?
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