A tie game at that point might have turned those U-M jersey collars dangerously tight a week after Michigan had opened Rodriguez's tenure with anything but a confidence-gainer in its loss to Utah.
Rodriguez and the Wolverines are 1-1 heading into Notre Dame next weekend. The true status of Michigan football, and where it is as a new system and new regime attempt to establish moorings in Ann Arbor, is a long way from convincing.
"Right now, it is what it is, whatever kind of quote that is," Rodriguez said afterward, conceding things are a bit in flux as the team prepares for its sleepover at South Bend. "You can probably tell by my answers that I'm very frustrated and exasperated."

It all starts with the QB, whoever he is

The angst might only have begun for Rodriguez.
He has a problem at quarterback, which is not exactly news. Plugging in an offensive system that requires superior skill and deftness demands a quarterback who can do quite a few more things than Steven Threet or Nick Sheridan.
The truth is that Michigan's entire offense still is playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey when it comes to figuring out the spread's machinations.
That the Wolverines scored 16 on Miami confirms that this is not where Rodriguez needed, or probably expected, to be two weeks into the most drastic alteration of Michigan football in the school's modern history.
He has athletes on offense but not enough at the right places, mainly quarterback. In the third quarter, just as Junior Hemingway or Darryl Stonum broke free and waited for a crisp pass from Threet that they might take down the sidelines for a touchdown, there went the ball, over their heads, as the crowd groaned and as Rodriguez probably said something naughty.
The question, of course, is whether Rodriguez's brand of football ever will be revealed in any kind of scope until he gets the triggerman he needs.
It means that the Wolverines could be relying this season on their defense to keep things afloat.
There are more athletes at the right spots on defense, although controlling the game from that side of the ball is anything but a given. The Wolverines had their problems shutting down Miami, which gained 29 fewer yards than U-M and had 16 first downs to Michigan's 15.

Beware: Construction zone

What mattered, as Rodriguez acknowledged afterward, was how solid Michigan's defense played in the fourth quarter. Miami ran out of room and out of gas. Michigan pinched down up front and in the secondary. Finally throttled by a significantly more skilled team, the RedHawks weren't going to become the first MAC school to beat Michigan, after all.
"It's like a Clint Eastwood movie -- 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,'" Rodriguez quipped, talking about the mixed bag of tricks his team put together. "We've got to be patient because they're young guys and we have to make progress each week."
Those who have stopped by Michigan Stadium the past two weekends have wended their way through the new construction that marks Michigan's $226 million stadium upgrade.
What anyone can see, even at this early juncture, is how spectacular it all will be in a couple of years when everything is finished. The brickwork, the suites, the furnishings, the utter magnificence of a project so comprehensive, should dazzle the fans when it all wraps up in 2010.
At that very point, Rodriguez will have a more-experienced quarterback running his spread offense. It could be quite a sight, the Rodriguez scoring scheme. It should be both dynamic in its execution and imposing in what it accomplishes against opposing defenses.
Of course, the difference today at Michigan Stadium, as one compares one physical process with another, is that you can see the steel and the framework of the building expansion.
The quarterback to run Rodriguez's offense, an offense that today is hitting on all of one cylinder, hasn't yet made it to campus. 






http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080906/OPINION03/809060443/1131