The Michigan Wolverines are finally bowl eligible for the first time in the Rich Rodriguez era. It has been a long couple of years after seemingly always being in a bowl game. The Wolverines most likely won’t be going to a major bowl game in January, but any bowl game is finally a start in the right direction that the Wolverines needed to take. I don’t think a lot of people understand how big of a deal it is for the program to be bowl eligible. This is a huge step forward for the future of this program. Now that the team has won there 6th game and hopefully will end up with more by the end of the season, the team can really get better. This is such a young team with only one senior that plays on offense and two that start on defense. This will mean that all these youngsters get the much added extra practices they need to improve. Can you imagine seeing these playmakers with another 6 weeks of practice? The growth should be amazing.
These 6 extra weeks of practices are huge for the players to be able to improve and get better. With them playing so many true freshmen and sophomores these practices and workouts will make a big difference for them getting better, faster, and stronger. Many players are being forced to play and haven’t had the practice time they needed, whether it is because they graduated last year late and only practiced a few weeks in the spring or some guys were behind people on the depth chart and now are playing due to departures and injuries. Now that they know they will have these extra practices the coaches have started to make some small changes with some of the youngsters who don’t start by switching them to another position and having a few of them play two defensive positions such as safety and the spur linebacker position. This will mean by next year they should be ready to hit the ground running when spring practice starts and will limit the early season mistakes. All the key offensive players will be returning and now each week they can add something to the playbook. Coach Rodriguez has mentioned this offense that already has been moving the ball very well this season has just started to scratch the surface of the playbook.
This also means a huge relief off the back of Coach Rodriguez, now he can breathe a little easier. He should be assured of his job the next season and with a couple more victories could even get an extension. He will still hear it from some of the fans that will never like him, but the rest will have to buy in and be supportive. With the NCAA finding him being in compliance of the major rules, he will lose some of that negativity that follows him. This job at Michigan
Other then the added practices the biggest help will be with recruiting. The top recruits want to play in bowl games and be on national television at the end of the season playing for winning teams. This bowl game will be played in a southern location and the recruits will be able to watch Michigan play in their home state, and can see that in the future friends and family can have the chance to be watching them in person in a bowl game. This will really help an already great recruiter. It is very hard to bring many of the athletes in the winter after the season and before signing day and just have them tour the school and not let them enjoy watching the bowl practices. This is the time many of these big time recruits who are still on the edge and making trips to make up for not traveling in the fall during there own season and are now deciding were they are going. When they go to other colleges and they get to see the teams practicing for the bowl games compared to going to Ann Arbor
So being bowl eligible used to be a common occurrence for Michigan
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