Why do you feel he got the shaft. Are you forgetting what he brought onto himself and the program?
Players were bailing on the program because of Rich Rod.
Reports of him treating players like **** and overly degrading them.
PLAYERS turning him in for violations
He brought NCAA violations to the program
If you ignore all that and only look at performance: 3-9; 5-7; 7-6 and some of the biggest losses at home seen in a while for Michigan.
Rodriguez has the lowest winning percentage of any coach in Michigan football's history and never beat Michigan's chief rival, Ohio State University, and in-state rival Michigan State University.
Don't get me wrong, Hoke SUCKs and absolutely needs to go, but I think it's disingenuous to imply that Rich Rod somehow got the shaft. Maybe the only argument that could be made is that maybe they should have given him more time, but his body of work didn't exactly warrant it.
Because 3 years, in my opinion, is only just at the starting point of a coach being able to implement a completely new system as Rich Rod was doing, a system absolutely diametrically opposed to what had been in place at Michigan for DECADES. As his record shows, things were moving in the right direction, and as the first season with Hoke showed he had things working eventually. Here's the thing, a lot of Michigan people I know (boosters and alums), and I mean by about a 6 to 1 ratio, were against him before the ink was even dried on his contract because he wasn't one of their own. He was transitioning systems that were completely incompatible the same way he did at WVU, and his success there wasn't THAT much better in a much ****tier conference in his first few years. It wasn't until the 5th season things really turned around at WVU, his system was fully implemented, and he railed off 3 straight 10+ win seasons.
Players were bailing on the WVU program and claiming the same things because of Rich Rod his first year here as well. Absolutely nothing came of it. NOTHING. ****, Scotty McPlaybook and Maryland beat the ever living **** out of us while he was with the Terps because of it. Thing is it's a process, and it especially takes time to move from a pro-set style offense to the kind of spread-option that Rich runs. 3 years is not nearly enough time in the world of college football for a new head coach to completely change cultures.
Problem is, for Rich at least, that the donors didn't want a culture change, they just wanted a coach change that had ties to the previous culture. Here's the thing though, unless they get Miles or Harbaugh (no ****ing chance on either) it's going to happen all over again with whoever their next coach is. They got their "Michigan Man" in Hoke and it was a complete **** show. And until the donors are ready to get over it things aren't going to get better any time soon shy of the Niners owner going on a total bender and canning Harbaugh.