It seems that Justin Boren is unfamiliar with the term “tough love”. As most of you already know he left the football team earlier this week and is now looking for transfer destinations. His hometown is Pickering, Ohio, and there seems to be a distinct chance that he will wind up playing for the Buckeyes. His younger brother Zach, who is a highly rated fullback/linebacker, will likely follow his brother to OSU or whatever school he transfers to. In Boren’s press release, he stated that the “family values have eroded” at Michigan since the coaching change.

Rodriguez responded yesterday in an interview with the Ann Arbor News. He made several notable statements such as, “I’m going to coach every player like I was coaching my own son” and “my players and my coaches are my family”. The values may be there, yet it’s evident that Carr and Rodriguez grew up in very different families.

Despite the “issues” that have been going on with the team lately, it’s really exactly what they need. If you look at Michigan football in the past 5-6 seasons, what have they accomplished? They’ve lost the BCS bowl games they qualified for, lost more games than they won against Ohio State and haven’t generated a great draft stock for the NFL. Anthony Thomas, Chris Perry, David Terrell, Jason Avant, John Navarre, Drew Henson and other staples of the Michigan team have not succeeded at the professional level (minus a few exceptions, mostly defensive players).

Instead of coddling our talent, it seems as though Rich Rodriguez is pushing them to be more. He said it himself, “we’re not going to apologize for being demanding”. Rodriguez is a stubborn guy but provides the attitude shift that Michigan needs. He’s not going to suck-off Mallet or Pryor or Boren and not even the alumni or directors. He’s going to do things his way and you've got to respect that.  Until he completes a season or two, his actions shouldn’t be questioned by anyone.