History and Controversy in The Big House

This past Saturday Purdue did something it hasn't done since LBJ was in the White House; win at Michigan.
The game itself was a fast paced thrill ride that had its fair share of drama, but that was nothing compared to the post game drama between Purdue coach Danny Hope and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. For sanity's sake, we'll start with the game.
Purdue started quickly, moving the ball down field at will. Ralph Bolden looked like himself from the beginning of the season as he bounced a handoff outside for 22 yards, then caught a 35 yard touchdown pass from Joey Elliott two plays later. The lead would be short lived, however, as Michigan established star running back, or, as he is listed in their program, superback, Brandon Minor. Say what you want about the title, Minor lived up to it, punishing the Purdue defense to the tune of 154 yards and three rushing touchdowns. The first half was also the coming out party for Michigan receiver Roy Roundtree, a redshirt freshman who you may recall was at the center of some bad blood between these two programs two years ago on national signing day.
The night before that signing day Roundtree, a long time Purdue verbal commit, reassured then Purdue coach Joe Tiller that rumors of him considering changing his mind and commiting to Michigan were totally false. The next day Roundtree was wearing a Michigan cap, Purdue has no one to offer that scholarship to as all their backup players had commited elsewhere, and Joe Tiller was claiming Rodriguez broke a Big Ten coaches gentelmen's rule about recruiting other conference school's commitments. Tiller then let out the quote of his career calling Rodriguez a "person in a wizard's hat selling snake oil."
That was bad blood between Tiller and Rodriguez, certainly new coach Danny Hope has no ill will towards Michigan's second year coach, right? Wrong. Hope apparently was a bit peaved about Rodriguez mentioning in one of his press conference's that Purdue tackle Zach Reckman's hit just after the last play of Purdue's loss to Northern Illinois was not a football play. Rodriguez brought the event up because one of his players had been suspended for throwing a punch in their game against Notre Dame. When asked about it, Hope basically said Rodriguez should mind his own business.
Ok, enough history, back to Saturday.
Purdue trailed 24-10 at the half but answered the bell when Brandon King tipped an option pitch from Tate Forcier and then recovered it himself, Bolden would score on a 19 yard touchdown run the next play. Michigan would then answer with a long drive capped off by a Forcier touchdown run. But, the Wolverine would miss the extra point, and then you just got the feeling the football Gods were giving Purdue a little redemption for the way they lost the Oregon game.
Shortly there after, the Boilers would blow the game wide open with what can only be called the most amazing 15 seconds in Purdue football history. A long drive ended with a Bolden 10 yard touchdown run pulling Purdue within six. Then, on the ensuing kickoff, Hope opted to go with a surprise onside kick which was executed perfectly. Kicker Carson Wiggs bounced it off the turf perfectly and corner David Pender ran under it exactly 10 yards down field. Purdue's first play after the kick, Elliott would roll left away from pressure and finding a streaking Cortez Smith for the 54 yard touchdown, giving Purdue a 31-30 lead. Making his first start in place of the injured Keith Carlos, Smith would go on to lead Purdue with four catches for 85 yards.
Purdue would later add to their lead with an Elliott touchdown run, and were clinging to a 38-30 advantage. Michigan scored great field position thanks to an excellent punt return and soon Minor punched in his third touchdown run of the day, pulling Michigan within two with just over two minutes to play. Unfortunately for Michigan, Ryan Kerrigan, or Superman as he is now known in the Purdue locker room, flew in off the left tackle and nailed Forcier for a sack and ended Michigan's hopes of evening the score.
Now, for the real drama. According to Rodriguez, Hope brought Reckman, his lineman who was suspended earlier this season, to meet with Rodriguez, telling the Michigan coach thankyou for what he did to Reckman. In his post game press conference, Rodriguez brought the incident up unprovoked, and said he did not think that was necessary. Hope, wisely, decided to keep the conversation private, and would not elaborate on what had happened. But this only took Michigan fans' minds off of the real issue, their big money coach is not getting the job done. An abysmal 3-9 record last year seemed all but forgiven when his team started 4-0 this season, including a home win against Notre Dame. Since that point the Wolverine have lost five consecutive Big Ten games, with their only win coming against Deleware State. While I do think Rodriguez is a bit of a skeez, he is a good coach. Unfortunately for Purdue, if the UM faithful give him enough time, he will have this team winning again. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the fact that Purdue is now under Michigan's skin, and that we have their coach fighting for bolw eligibility and, possibly, his job over the next few weeks.