Rich Rodriguez: Spread offense will work at Michigan

"I understand why people would say" otherwise, Rodriguez said. "I think that's probably misinformed as far as comparing leagues to leagues.

"The weather's not an issue. The style of teams in the league are varied in this league, in the Big East, SEC, the ACC. There's not much difference. Some teams are power teams. Some teams are spread teams. There's not much difference there. I don't think it's a systematic issue at all."

Michigan leads the Big Ten in scoring offense at 31.3 points per game, its highest total since 2003 and its sixth-best output in the past 32 years.

The Wolverines have scored 30 or more points six times this year, but have struggled against some of the Big Ten's better defenses. They scored 10 points against Penn State and needed late rallies and/or defensive touchdowns to reach the 20-point mark against Michigan State, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Rodriguez said he never considered gradually installing his offense as he got more players to fit his system. With just two recruiting classes under his belt, most of Michigan's upperclassmen are more compatible with the old offense.

"That argument came up last year about having a system or adjusting your system to fit what you have," Rodriguez said. "I said that last year, our guys on offense, there's 10 of them that never started. They didn't play in any system. They didn't play in the old system or the new system. So no matter what system you ran, they hadn't played in it."

With true freshman Tate Forcier starting at quarterback, Rodriguez said the offense should be even better next year.

"Every season you have, fall to spring, fall to spring, it's invaluable," Rodriguez said. "It's like having that math or English class over and over and over again. Eventually you get it."

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.