interesting take on this in the UM scout forums....figured I'd put some info on here to see some opinions......
1) up here (yes miller, i'm close enough to say that LOL), while it's pretty widely known that the Free Press is garbage, usually where there's smoke, there's fire....seems that some think that this is an attempt to run Rodriguez out of UM permanently, he's not exactly endeared himself to the alumni and boosters over the past year
2)The NCAA rulebook, which anyone who's followed this at all now knows, is 20 hours a week during the season in team related activities, including games, and just 8 hours a week in the offseason. Now, "voluntary" workouts by the players such as filmwork, lifting, etc, don't count toward this.......in any event, there is a huge gray area where this is concerned....i'm fairly confident that ANY student-athlete is putting FAR more hours a week over and above the "guidelines," and I'm also certain that just about every S&C coach in the country has an office in the facility LOL.....the staff isn't allowed to hold the workout, but I'm certain (and this goes for any program in the country) that a player putting the extra time and work in will be seeing much more significant PT than one who is following the guidelines, nothing more, and I'm also pretty certain that the S&C coach is overseeing the work......
To me, simply put, I personally tend to think he's losing some of his players, what the percentage is, who knows, but when something like this comes out, it reflects on the coach and his program, and I think we clearly see that......realistically though, what cures this? As stated above, I don't think just axing him is going to be beneficial at the moment, they've got too much invested in the system. Had this happened 3 months ago, maybe a different story, but not a week before kickoff. Really, what move is possible that doesn't set the program back even further right now? We've gone from a traditional Big Ten team, to recruiting for speed and athleticism in a completely different scheme, losing several players to transfer and decommitments over two recruiting periods now. New coach = new philosophy = different recruiting standards.......chances are we see the same upheaval from RRod's recruit classes under a new coach, right?