By: Dave Birkett
AnnArbor.com Staff
Posted: Dec 7, 2009 at 11:45 AM [Dec 7, 2009]
There were no real surprises on Rich Rodriguez's final ballot in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Rodriguez, like most of the 59 coaches who vote, ranked Alabama No. 1 and Texas No. 2 to help set up an undefeated BCS title game.
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez revealed his final top 25 ballot of the college football season.
Melanie R. Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Former Big East rival Cincinnati came in third on Rodriguez's ballot, ahead of fellow unbeaten TCU, while one-loss Florida ranked fifth and Boise State, the nation's last undefeated team, was sixth.
Rodriguez slotted 3 Big Ten teams in his top 10 - Ohio State was seventh, Penn State ninth and Iowa 10th - and his top 12 were the same as the overall top 12, albeit it in slightly different order.
Michigan finished 5-7 this year and 1-7 in Big Ten play, losing to Ohio State, 21-10, in its season finale. The Wolverines also lost at home to Penn State, 35-10, and at Iowa, 30-28.
Wisconsin was the only other Big Ten team on Rodriguez's final ballot, at No. 20.
Rodriguez also ranked his old West Virginia team 18th and gave Central Michigan and good friend Butch Jones the final spot in his poll at No. 25. The Chippewas finished 26th in the overall ballot.
Nebraska was the only team to rank more than 3 spots high or lower on Rodriguez's final ballot than it did in the actual poll. Rodriguez put the Cornhuskers 13th after their Big 12 championship game loss to Texas; Nebraska finished 19th overall.
Here's Rodriguez's final poll:
1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Cincinnati
4. TCU
5. Florida
6. Boise State
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Penn State
10. Iowa
11. Virginia Tech
12. Georgia Tech
13. Nebraska
14. LSU
15. BYU
16. Miami (Fla.)
17. Oklahoma State
18. West Virginia
19. Pitt
20. Wisconsin
21. Arizona
22. Oregon State
23. Utah
24. Stanford
25. Central Michigan
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.
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Theo212
Posted Dec 7 2009
Long coach The King!!
dading
Posted Dec 7 2009
surprised he didn't sneak michigan in there...oh, he knows better.
bo knows.
tomhagan
Posted Dec 7 2009
Theo212 for Heisman.
Fresh121
Posted Dec 7 2009
Tom hagan for biggest anti RR and biggest msu fan
tater
Posted Dec 7 2009
Nice of RR to give CMU a little push. I wouldn't seriously rank a MAC team higher than about 40 if it was my choice, but it is good to see loyalty and "family values."
Macabre Sunset
Posted Dec 7 2009
I am amazed his ballot didn't look like this:
1. Boise State
2. Houston
3. Texas
4. Texas Christian
5. Nevada
6. Cincinnati
7. Oregon
8. Arkansas
9. Texas Tech
10. Stanford
(teams ranked in order of points scored per game)
XTR
Posted Dec 7 2009
Is this the last time RR will vote for the AP as UM coach?
Or 2nd to the last? Hahaha
OKBlue
Posted Dec 7 2009
Well he certainly has time to vote
chosen1
Posted Dec 7 2009
aside from ranking penn state over Iowa, he did a really good job ranking the teams.
Anyone here know if michigan has a shot with Jefferson? i saw on espn he was down to usc and oklahoma, but wtka keeps reporting michigan is right there with those 2 schools. anyone know anything.
busyguygr
Posted Dec 7 2009
It's time to in a Michigan man to coach Michigan football. Jim Harbaugh would be a great candidate, considering what he has done with Stanford. It's clear to everyone by RichRod that he is out of his league at Michigan.
Macabre Sunset
Posted Dec 7 2009
Not completely sold on Harbaugh, but he is getting results and he does have local ties. Best of all, he's 100 times better than RichRod.
If we want him, need to act immediately. He's apparently interviewing for the Notre Dame job. Kelly's hardly a lock there.
Lemansblue
Posted Dec 7 2009
It looks like Mi is going to drop the ball again.
Coach Harbaugh is getting interviewed at ND.
It's seems that Harbaugh would be interested in Mi but they want to give RR another failed season.
Harbaugh is available now we need to get him.
1bit
Posted Dec 7 2009
1. It would absolutely be terrible to only give a coach two years. Why would anyone else take the job if fair weather fans dictated the length of your stay. Harbaugh and Kelly have no better credentials at turning around UM than Rodriguez did and if you're using a BCS game as a marker then why aren't you screaming to get Weis as coach?
2. Boise State does not get the respect it deserves. They beat Oregon when Oregon was at its full complement of talent. They've beaten Oklahoma in a bowl game. Some say "they don't play anybody" - that's because nobody wants to play them for fear of losing. Look, I'm not from Idaho and I can't stand that ridiculous blue field they play on but they are doing well year after year.
3. Ohio State over Oregon? Seriously? OSU loses at home to USC and Oregon annihilates USC.
4. Iowa beat Penn State, remember? Yeah, Penn State beat us worse than Iowa but how does that trump the face-to-face matchup of the teams?
st.julian
Posted Dec 7 2009
RR should be number 1 for departure. Coach class is most fitting.
Lemansblue
Posted Dec 8 2009
RR is the wrong fit for Mi it does not matter how many years you give him it was a mistake to hire him.
That excuse is so lame you cannot just give him 2 years where is that written down?
It is called the real world most people have a limited time to produce on the job.
The opportunity to get Harbaugh is now and RR has done nothing to prove that he deserves another year.
Sean T.
Posted Dec 8 2009
If any of us would perform our job the way RR has, then we'd be fired immediately. It is clear to some of us that he doesn't fit here and has been more of an distraction than anything but our school President and the Board are too bull-headed to admit they made a mistake. Since we have him here for year 3, I'll wait for this big jump in wins or at least 4 Big Ten victories. But if we don't go bowling in 2010, I'm done with RR! But likely the blind supporters will call for more time because LC left the cupboard bare and he didn't know what to do with it, though he won a NT and consistantly went to bowl games.