RICH RODRIGUEZ is not only the coach of the worst Michigan team ever, where they have been playing football since Rutherford B. Hayes was president, he also burned his bridges and trashed his files before leaving the employ of West Virginia University.

His daddy was a coal miner, and Rodriguez was a graduate of West Virginia. But after he jilted the school 17 days before the Mountaineers' Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma on Jan. 2, he became a pariah. He is as welcome there as a Hatfield at a McCoy picnic.

Nothing he did at WVU so belittled him as his leaving it. He sent a graduate assistant to turn in his letter of resignation to the athletic director. He had six years left on his contract, but seemed to think his coaching cachet made him as immune to gratitude or obligation as free agents in the pros.

Like them, he had his hand out. Like them, he threw players who had helped him under the bus. He had his priorities in order: R-Rod came first, last and in-between.

He called the most highly recruited high school prospect in the land, Terrelle Pryor, and told him he was leaving before he told his West Virginia players. Pryor signed with Ohio State anyway and will start against Michigan on Saturday.

Then Rodriguez shredded his files on the way out the door. You know, like Oliver North in the Iran-Contra investigation in the 1980s.

All this hubbub, and R-Rod was, at best, the third name on Michigan's wish list, behind LSU's Les Miles and Rutgers' Greg Schiano. Michigan wound up paying $2.5 million of R-Rod's $4 million buyout clause, plus his legal fees. The coach was out the $1.5 million that remained on the buyout. He also was on the outside looking in at any comparisons to Lloyd Carr and Bo Schembechler, the honorable men who preceded him.

Gary Moeller, the man in between Bo and Carr, went on a public toot and had to resign. Even he looks better. Moeller had one indiscretion. R-Rod has had serial ethical oopsies.

Michigan used to stand for more. Schembechler fired basketball coach Bill Frieder, who took the job at Arizona State but wanted to coach Michigan in the NCAA Tournament. Bo said, "A Michigan man will coach Michigan." Now a rank opportunist coaches Michigan.

In response, Michigan's most experienced lineman, Justin Boren, transferred, almost unthinkably, to Ohio State, saying the "family values" of Michigan football had eroded.

R-Rod is supposed to be the Johnny Appleseed of the spread offense, although Purdue's Joe Tiller was the first coach to popularize it in the Big Ten. Ohio State's Jim Tressel speaks of R-Rod as if he were some Daniel Boone of the chalkboard, calling him an "early frontiersman" of the scheme.

The talent that Rodriguez inherited, however, was not suited to the spread, being short on speed and deception. It has been a case of square peg/round hole because the offense is all Rodriguez knows.

By contrast, Tressel tweaks his offenses to fit his personnel. It also helps his defense, which scrimmages against different looks.

Maybe the Wolverines will save their season against Ohio State. Maybe R-Rod will win it all in the future. Victory is the great cure-all. But even that might not make a reputation that is in shreds whole again.

Bill Livingston has been senior sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for 25 years. He can be reached at blivings...@plaind.com.