Ramblin Gamblin Takes an Independent Study

Carty Drops Bomb, Explosion Still Pending: There has been a considerable amount of smoke rising from Michigan message boards regarding a piece by Jim Carty at the Ann Arbor News about the academic requirements of athletes at the University. That piece has dropped. The Upshot: Michigan athletes take independent studies with one professor at an alarming frequency. Said professor then doles out A's for work that...shall we say...is less demanding than other academic courses. Michigan responds to the accusations as such. Read the .pdf's to get a better idea of where they're coming from. I'm sure that Champ will have some thoughts on this, but to me it seems like a steaming pile of absolutely nothing. If Carty's goal was to tell me that athletes at big-time programs take easy classes, then mission accomplished. Then again, I was an athlete at a less than big-time program, and I took some easy classes too. This piece just doesn't do it for me - it's too long, all icing, and no cake. If I'm going to get worked up about a scandal, I at least need there to be substance to get worked up over. Perhaps parts 3-4 will have some sort of "LOST" like reveal that he's been building up to, but until he can prove that athletes were given A's for nothing (which doesn't seem to be the case) or that athletes were able to enroll in classes that non-athletes were forbade from (again - not the case) then this is hardly the smoking gun Michigan fans were bracing themselves for.

UPDATE: Part II is up, and it's more of the same.

RichRod Talks Spring: It wasn't pretty, but they got through it. Sounds like my first time (it never gets old, does it?). Michigan started spring workouts, and as expected, it was...ugly. Audio can be found here. Some of the more interesting bits:

On how the kids feel about the new strength program: "I really haven't asked their opinion … don't care. They will work hard. They don't have much choice. But I think they are getting more confident in themselves.

On whether the quarterbacks on staff have any experience with his type of offense: "I didn't know and didn't ask. I almost have a blank canvas for all the guys. We watched a little film from last year, but none of the quarterbacks played so it's wide open there. I know they are eager and they are learning pretty well. They made some mistakes, but they'll be able to quickly rectify those … at least I hope. Coach [Rod] Smith will watch the film with them Monday and start that process.

"It's a focal point and a concern simply because they've never played … that and running a different system, we'll see what they can do. But I like their attitude."

On who is working at quarterback besides Steve Threet and David Cone: "Nick Sheridan. He was the No. 3 guy last year, I believe, and he did a nice job. Nick and Steve are taking most of the reps with the first group, and David will get in there, too. They'll all have a shot. One thing about the quarterbacks is you can see pretty quickly if they are picking it up."

On whether Carlos Brown might take snaps: "We haven't got to that. If we did it would be a secret and I wouldn't tell you."

On whether he might play a spring game at the University of Toledo: "No. What state's that in?"

Rodriguez then stood up, handed the interviewer a cloth and stated "Here, you've got some knowledge on your chin."

In all seriousness, this is like manna from heaven for Michigan fans, who are used to Fort Schembechler being locked down in DefCon 5 permanently. To have a coach willing to discuss certain points is...refreshing. The more I hear from Rodriguez on a football level, the more I like him. I especially like the "What state's that in?" response. I think he gets it.

OMG Recruit to announce this week: According to this from the Altoona Mirror website. He's down to two schools, and according to The Wiz and Kevin at We Are Penn State, Penn State's out. That leaves...UM and OSU. I've long considered UM off his list. My guess is he commits to OSU this week.