Opinion: Rich Rodriguez is one loss from what he hoped to avoid: Being 'ticked'

“If we’re not in a bowl game, we’re all gonna be ticked,” Rodriguez said in the corner outside the Hyatt ballroom that day. “If we’re not competing better in every game, we’re all gonna be upset. Not talking about the fans, but us.”

Rodriguez has looked positively seething lately. He’s figuratively backed into a corner entering Saturday against archrival Ohio State (noon, ABC-TV).

There are the real estate dealings. There is an NCAA investigation - the latest piece this week coming in the form of practice logs not turned in to Michigan compliance officers, something Rodriguez said was done immediately when he was notified they were missing.

And there is the losing, six straight in the Big Ten dating back to September. Michigan hasn’t beaten a FBS opponent since Sept. 26. It’s opened up critics and allowed embattled to almost become his first name.

One of the knocks on Rodriguez is that he’s an outsider at Michigan. It was something that has followed the West Virginia native from when he had a “Beat Ohio State” button given to him before he was introduced as the head coach.

It clearly irks him when people ask him about whether or not his offense fits, whether or not he can understand the rivalry. What the questions really mean are, ‘Rich, do you think you fit at Michigan?’

Rodriguez called those questions - especially about the offense and about himself - “misinformed.” He said he never thinks about it. The rivalry, though …

“Just because I did not coach here before, I did not play here, I’m not from the state of Michigan, doesn’t mean I don’t understand the rivalry,” Rodriguez said. “I understand it as well as any coach can understand it. I’ve only played in it in one game. Trust me, I understand the importance of the rivalry.

“Y’all get that I understand that. I understand it from before I took the job. I understand it after I took the job.”

Then Rodriguez certainly grasps how much beating Ohio State would help lessen what has gone on under his two-year reign at Michigan. He knows Michigan hasn’t beaten the Buckeyes since 2003.

Rodriguez would also know that no Michigan coach has gone 0-2 against Ohio State and that going to a bowl, in some ways, is less important than beating the Buckeyes. That it has come down to playing for a bowl berth is something Rodriguez likely couldn’t have fathomed back in July.

“Are we good enough to win a Big Ten championship,” Rodriguez said back then. “There’s a whole lot of things that got to happen for that. That’s our first goal every year is to compete for that, and there’s a lot of things got to happen for us and a lot of bad things to happen to someone else, but if we’re at least not competing for it and being more competitive in certain situations, then I don’t think we’ve made the progress we wanted to.”

On Wednesday, when asked again what no bowl would mean to Michigan and to him and how it would characterize the season, he used the word “disappointed.”

The losing, he said Monday, "eats at your soul." It’s been rough on his players, his family, himself. He’s not accustomed to that.

“You’ll be disappointed,” Rodriguez said if Michigan doesn’t win Saturday. “But not discouraged, if that’s the right word. There have been some positive things. I’m sitting here telling you that we’re not happy with our record, but there are other things that I see that I know the groundwork has been laid.

“This is not going to be a situation, I believe, that we’ll have to go through in the future. I’m talking about battling in the last game of the year for a bowl bid.”

If Michigan is in this situation again a year or two from now, Rodriguez likely knows what that means. Because whether it’s Ohio State or not, with what he has been through as a coach, Rodriguez has to win.

Soon. Very, very soon.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.