Most programs have had a decade or a few seasons of dominance, and then the team seems to fall apart and needs to rebuild before coming back to glory. This has happened all across the country to schools like Miami (FL), Nebraska, Washington State and Notre Dame in the past 20 years; but not Michigan, until now. Before last seasons 3-9 record, Michigan had made it to 33 consecutive bowl games and had 40 straight winning seasons. The last time the Wolverines missed consecutive bowl games was the 1972-74 and that was due to a rule in the Big Ten allowing only the conference champion to go to the Rose Bowl and no other team receiving a bowl bid.

Flash forward to this season and Michigan continues to struggle. They need to win one of their remaining games at Wisconsin or at home against Ohio State to become bowl eligible for this season. If the Wolverines were to lose both of these games and miss a bowl coach Rich Rodriguez may not return for a third season. With the Athletic Director Bill Martin, who may be in some trouble himself after pushing and grabbing two students, retiring as soon as a replacement is found the new director may want to make a change at the head coach position. Removing Rodriguez may cause more problems for the program than the positives of a new coach.

Rodriguez finally has his dual-threat quarterbacks in Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, and a commitment from the top quarterback out of high school in Devin Gardner. But the problem with these three is they are all young and inexperienced as Forcier and Robinson are true freshmen and Gardner is a senior in high school. Some scouts say that Gardner has the potential to play in the NFL after his college career is over so he should come in next season and challenge Forcier and Robinson for the starting QB position.

Under Rodriguez, the potential of seeing pocket quarterbacks such as Chad Henne and Tom Brady coming from Michigan are no more. So is the chance of having a big, strong offensive lineman such as the number one pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, Jake Long. Rodriguez prefers dual-threat quarterbacks and linemen who are smaller, but quick and athletic. His system is complex, but when the quarterbacks have a feel for it, it can be explosive. Rodriguez better hope his quarterbacks get a hold of his system soon or it will be years before Michigan makes it to another bowl game, not months.