The rumblings of Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh taking a job with the San Francisco 49ers seem to get louder each day, meaning Michigan could lose out on the one coach they'd like to replace Rich Rodriguez.
But if Rodriguez still ends up being dismissed by Michigan, he may find a safety net rather quickly. On Wednesday, Yahoo! Sports' Tom Dienhart mentioned a possible landing spot that other coaches have apparently discussed.
Maryland is looking to make headlines with its next coaching hire, after forcing Ralph Friedgen out. Most of the speculation has centered around former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. But there's been some noise that Leach isn't a sure thing, either. Which has led to other candidates being mentioned.
However, the idea of Rodriguez taking over at Maryland isn't entirely popular with Terps fans, judging from comments at SB Nation's Maryland blog, Testudo Times. Here's a sampling of some of the negative response to those rumors:
This makes no sense!How is Rich Rod an upgrade over Ralph? Please tell me how KA can validate firing The Fridge for Rich Rod. Leach "appears" to be an upgrade but certainly NOT Rich Rod!
"KA" refers to new Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson. One more quote for you:
what a jokeif we hire this piece of trash its gonna be one of the biggest AD gaffes ive ever seen.
Maybe the most amusing comment linked to this video.
Those commenters could be a very vocal minority, however, and not indicative of the general sentiment toward such a move. Maryland could obviously do far worse than Rodriguez. Regardless of what some Michigan fans might think of the job he's done, he's done much to change a deeply established culture and constructed an explosive offense. He might be very successful in the ACC.
But reacting to such comments about Rodriguez might provoke similar feelings to when an outsider criticizes your family. Hey, I know my brother's a screw-up, and I rip on him all the time, but lay off. He's still my brother.
That's still Michigan's head coach those Terrapins fans are talking about. Watch it.
All this might be a moot point, however. Leach is set to interview at Maryland on Thursday.