The Detroit News

Former Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez is riding high at Arizona after a 5-0 start, including an upset of then-No. 2 Oregon. Michigan, in contrast, is 2-4 overall and 0-2 in Big Ten play this season under Brady Hoke, the man who replaced Rodriguez.

Michigan fired Rodriguez after the 2010 season, three years into his tenure. The move was welcomed by much of Michigan's old guard, which didn't view him as a "Michigan Man."

"There was a lot of stuff (at Michigan) that people don't know went on, that we didn't even know was going on — some B.S., some non-football related stuff," Rodriguez said in a story on ESPN.com. "It became more about the drama than it did about football, which is the opposite of what you'd think you'd get at Michigan. Had Bo Schembechler been there, I probably wouldn't have had to deal with some of it."

"We still thought, with all the B.S. that was going on, all the things that were happening — it looked like some people were trying to sabotage their own program that were working for the university — all that stuff we went through, we still thought we'd be OK by the time we went to Year 4 or 5, that we were going to have a chance to compete for championships. But guess what? We didn't get to Year 4, we didn't get to Year 5. That was the most frustrating part about it."

Rodriguez also questioned the perception he failed at Michigan.

"People say, 'Why didn't it work?' Maybe it was going to," he told ESPN. "Maybe we didn't just get a chance to see it through. But I'm happy now."