The 40th anniversary of first-year Michigan coach Bo Schembechler’s upset of Woody Hayes’ top-ranked Ohio State, 24–12, in 1969 brought up plenty of coaching talk.

A crowd of 110,922 rabid Wolverine fans were at The Big House to witness second-year UM coach Rich Rodriguez fall to 0–2 against the Buckeyes — suffering a 21–10 loss, after last season’s embarrassing 42–7 debut against the chief rival of the Maize-and-Blue.

“We made a lot of plays today that had Michigan beating Michigan,” said Rodriguez, who becomes the first coach in Michigan history to open his tenure in Ann Arbor with back-to-back losses to Ohio State.

“Just when we were rolling, we’d have a (bad) play. It cost us.”

Rodriguez has an 8–16 record over two seasons since leaving West Virginia for Michigan. The Wolverines have lost seven of their last eight games — with the only win coming against Delaware State — to cap a 5–7 season, after suffering through a 3–9 campaign last year — which included a home loss to Toledo.

Prior to the two seasons of the Rich-Rod era, Michigan had not suffered back-to-back losing seasons since Bump Elliott’s teams went a combined 5–11–2 in 1962 and ’63. And after going 32 years (1975-2007) without missing a bowl, the Wolverines have failed to become bowl eligible for the second straight season.

With historic failure on the field and mounting scandals off the field — coming in the form of an ongoing NCAA investigation concerning practice time-limit violations and a failure to keep proper records of CARA (countable athletically related activities) — many have debated whether or not Rodriguez’s job is in jeopardy after only two seasons.

If so, Michigan men Jim Harbaugh (Stanford) and Les Miles (LSU) are the obvious choices to replace Rodriguez. But neither coach wanted the job as recently as two years ago, when Harbaugh was fresh off of his accusations that UM players take “easy” classes and Miles was in the midst of a BCS national championship hunt.

Odds are, however, that Rodriguez will have at least one more season on the sideline for the Maize-and-Blue. Michigan athletic director Bill Martin is stepping down from the post effective Sept. 4, 2010. And it would only be fair that his replacement make the ultimate decision regarding the school’s head football coach.

So, even after both losing to Ohio State and failing to become bowl eligible for a second straight season, Rodriguez feels comfortable he will be back next year. At this point, all he can do is look toward the recruiting trail and the kickoff of the 2010 season.
 
“We got quite a few guys back on both sides of the ball, but that’s not going to be good enough. The guys coming back have got to get better,” said Rodriguez, who had a 32–5 record over his final three seasons at WVU.

“We’ve got to have a great recruiting class. We’re probably going to have some young guys play again next year and the year after that. Eventually, we will have more seniors and juniors than we do freshmen and sophomores.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Ohio State has now won six consecutive over Michigan, earned its fifth straight Big Ten title and is Rose Bowl-bound for the first time since 1996. OSU coach Jim Tressel has an 8–1 edge over UM, while Buckeyes men’s basketball coach Thad Matta is 9–1 against the Wolverines.

“I’m glad I’m on this side,” said Ohio State sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who chose the Buckeyes over the Wolverines following a heated recruiting battle between OSU's Tressel and UM's Rodriguez.