Three And Out: Rich Rodriguez And The Michigan Wolverines And The Crucible Of College Football

Chronicling the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons of the University of Michigan’s football team, Bacon (Bo’s Lasting Lessons) captures the short and tumultuous tenure of head coach Rich Rodriguez. After outlining Rodriguez’s successful pre-Michigan coaching career and detailing the over a century’s worth of success of the Wolverine teams on the gridiron, Bacon explores how a program known for “unequaled stability, achievement and integrity” devolved into a mess of backstabbing, lying and selfishness, that would inevitably cost Rodriguez his job and give a black-eye to Michigan Men through out the country. In crisp and thoughtful prose, Bacon turns his attention to the people who truly control big time college athletics—school administrators, the athletic department personnel, the sports reporters, conference leaders and prominent boosters—and how they undermined Rodriguez from his first day in Ann Arbor. Bacon’s observations come off more like the remembrances of a player or a coach (he was “granted unfettered access” to the team, and allowed Rodriguez the chance to “read the manuscript for factual accuracy”). But the author doesn’t shirk from acknowledging Rodriguez’s shortcomings as a coach or discussing the players’ disappointing performances. His insider’s perspective allows him to see how the team was adversely affected by the poisoned atmosphere created by Rodriguez’s detractors, and he uncovers the truth that while coaches and players may play on the field, they are really just pawns in a bigger game that often has nothing to do with football. (Nov.)