DFP
Rich Rodriguez: Eager to take a cheap shot at Michigan? Wait in line
BY MARK SNYDER ? FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER ? May 19, 2008
Rich Rodriguez hears what's being said about him and
Michigan football.
So when
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said "to hell with Michigan," before the Fighting Irish's spring game -- Rodriguez wasn't fazed.
"We've taken a lot of shots in the last few months," he said Sunday at the Michigan Golf Course before he teed off in the Champions for Children's Hearts celebrity
golf tournament, hosted by former Wolverines Brian Griese and Steve Hutchinson. "If you want to take another one, you're going to have to stand in line. But I don't get caught up in that stuff too much."
Instead, Rodriguez has enjoyed traveling the country as Michigan's newest high-profile ambassador.
He has gone from New York to San Diego to Los Angeles to South Carolina and Arizona, introducing himself to alums and discussing the future of the university's football program.
"It's more national here (at Michigan)," he said. "At West Virginia we were a little more regional, we would go to a few surrounding states, but we wouldn't go as far as L.A. and San Diego, but a lot of the similar type of functions, going out to meet people. That's the part of the job I actually enjoy, particularly the first year, they don't know me. I don't know what they see on TV or read in the papers but at least let them get the real story when they talk to me."
Cont...