A2's Angel of Death

Quite a few wacky things have happened to the local school's athletic program since Mrs. VFR and I arrived in town.

So many so, that I'm beginning to suspect that I am unknowingly the Angel of Death in town.

To recap:

• The day after I was invited to interview in person, Bo Schembechler died. The day of my interview was the day of his funeral.

• Within my first months here, the men's and women's basketball coaches, Tommy Amaker and Cheryl Burnett, were both fired.

• No. 5 Michigan lost at home to I-AA Appalachian State, perhaps the greatest upset in college football history. The following week, the team loses 38-0 to Oregon, its most lopsided defeat ever.
  

• Lloyd Carr retired after one of the most disappointing seasons in program history.

• The local paper ran a four-day series that showed how the school guided student-athletes into gut classes for which they did little to no work.

• Rich Rodriguez arrives after an ugly divorce from West Virginia that's litigated in the courts for months, an inauspicious start for the new coach who loses the $4 million buyout case badly.

• In 2008, Rodriguez is off to a 2-4 start in his first season, the program's worst start in 41 years and one that threatens the team's 33-year consecutive bowl streak, the longest such stretch in college football. It's fair to say that it's almost certainly going to end this year.

I'm not Lucifer, but if I was, it'd be about time to say, "Hmmm ... I think my work here is done."