Michigan and Rich Rodriguez: Inside the Tragicomedy - WSJ.com Found this quote interesting: Didn't Bertman give permission for Miles to speak to Michigan?
I am willing to give coaches a pass on how they answer the "are you going to (insert job here)." They really have no right answer. "I am not going" is a play to keep your current team together while it is playing out its season. While it may turn out to be wrong, often it's a case where feelers have gone out through the agent, but the actual coach hasn't talked to anyone. Thus, if the offer never comes, the coach hasn't lost his locker room. In the AMAB case, note that immediatley following Nick's statement, AMAB turned to RichRod. Had RichRod accepted, Nick would have found himself stuck in Miami, facing a locker room that had to believe he wanted to be there. "No comment" doesn't end the questions. In Nick's case, he had answered the question that way for a couple of weeks already and it didn't stop the Miami press from pushing harder. "I am going to leave" brands you as a traitor and quitter. See Bobby Patrino leaving Atlanta. Most people crucify him for leaving with three games remaining, but if he had only said he was leaving, can you imagine Arthur Blank leaving him on the sideline for those three games? Coachspeak has developed because the public wants information it really has no right to. Nick Saban may be a really difficult person to work with, but I will not brand him as having no character just because he chose one of three impossible answers. I hope Les stays. But if he leaves, I will wish him well, as I did Nick. He has been good for LSU. GEAUX TIGERS (GIG THE AGGIES)
I agree. I honestly had no problem with Saban outright saying he wasn't taking the Alabama job and then taking. He couldn't win the way the press was hounding him. I don't understand people who call him a liar and crucified him.
