RichRod hates family values

So before Rich Rodriguez arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan's football players and the coaching staff held hands and sang Kumbaya before practice and games. Or is that RichRod is a card-carrying liberal, who drives teenage girls to abortion clinics on the weekend and has never read the Bible.

Something isn't right up north.

It seems outcast Justin Boren, a former Michigan offensive lineman, may not have been so off base when he accused RichRod of stripping the Wolverines of their close-knit, family values that the team enjoyed under former coach Lloyd Carr.

Now OL Kurt Wermers, who redshirted last season, is transferring to Ball State. Wermers commented about RichRod on the news site nwi.com and said: "I really didn't get along with the new coaches. They were bringing in a lot of different kids that were not my kind of crowd. Coach Carr's staff was a whole different ballgame. It was like a family. But when Rodriguez came in it was a whole different feeling. It was more of a business. I figured I'd get out while I could."

Wermers' comments are almost identical to those Boren made when he bolted Michigan to join bitter rival Ohio State. Boren said then: "Michigan football was a family, built on mutual respect and support for each other from (former) Coach (Lloyd) Carr on down. We knew it took the entire family, a team effort, and we all worked together.

"I have great trouble accepting that those family values have eroded in just a few months. " ... That I am unable to perform under these circumstances at the level I expect of myself, and my teammates and Michigan fans deserve, is why I have made the decision to leave."

Wermers is no Boren. But this is starting to become a trend at Michigan. There were rumors about RichRod's "values" when he was at WVU. But the players and fans seemed to tolerate him because the man won games. His games could wear thin in Ann Arbor if he doesn't win this season.

If it doesn't work out, at least he'll have more time for his family.