For the past several weeks - as University of Michigan head football coach Rich Rodriguez's losses mounted en route to what has become his second consecutive losing season and second consecutive missed bowl opportunity - we have made queries to a variety of people with insight into Rodriguez and/or the Michigan football program in search of more knowledge about his seemingly unraveling situation in Ann Arbor.

Here is a list of things we have been told. Those with whom we conferred and who provided information did so with the promise of anonymity.

As they did with us, several of the items on the list likely will come as no surprise or as little revelation to many of you. Several of them may. At the very least, we found them interesting.

With the exception of an opinion from someone about the declining performance of the Michigan defense, the items listed here have been confirmed by at least two people, most often more than two:

*AS THE LOSSES piled up this season, members of Rodriguez's staff reportedly got increasingly abusive with players, repeatedly calling them "losers," among other things. This apparently only served to alienate an increasing number of players.

It's a popular theory that the Michigan players (and their parents)  - who in the days before the 2009 season began went public with allegations that Rodriguez's staff was breaking NCAA rules that restrict practice time to four hours a day and 20 hours a week - did so because the players were disgruntled with the staff's hyper-aggressive methods.

*ACCORDING TO SEVERAL people who said they are familiar with the situation, the question among many a Michigan program-watcher is not whether or not Rodriguez and his staff repeatedly exceeded the four-hour-a-day, 20-hour-a-week limit, but by how much they exceeded it.

They claim that the football staff surpassed the limits by a large margin on a regular basis (one source described the limits as being "annihilated"), thereby watering down the argument that Rodriguez and his staff were only doing what most other schools do regarding practice time.

*THIS REPORTEDLY has Michigan officials worried that if the alleged extreme practice overruns can be documented, it will not sit well with NCAA investigators, especially with the revelation that the Michigan football program apparently did not keep required logs documenting practice time.

It potentially could cause the NCAA to suspect a lack of institutional control, something that the NCAA often cites when sanctioning an athletic program.

*SEVERAL PEOPLE INTERVIEWED told us that many of those involved in running the university as a whole - officials, administrators, teaching staff, general employees, etc. - are unhappy with the allegations that the usually pristine football program has not followed rules.

An image that the football program (one of the university's most visible, if not the most visible, public entities) operates under a different set of rules than others is causing some divisiveness among other athletic programs and among the school's academia, observers say.

*WE MADE A POINT to ask every person we contacted if they think Rodriguez will be brought back for a third season. A majority said they think he will, but it was nowhere near unanimous. A majority also said that if the NCAA levies a penalty on Michigan as a result of the practice-time controversy, all bets are off.

"Even if he does come back next season, and that's not guaranteed right now, he will have to win the Big 10 title or come damn close to it to keep his job," a person with inside knowledge of the Michigan program said. "I don't think there's a lot of confidence right now that that is going to happen."

*RODRIGUEZ IS SAID to have told confidantes that he believes that he can turn the corner as early as next season if he can persuade players who are considering transferring to stay.  However, with the number of transfers occurring in the two years since Rodriguez took over at Michigan and a virtual player mutiny happening the week before the season began with the practice-time allegations, Rodriguez is aware that holding transfers to a minimum may prove difficult.

Highly recruited freshman quarterbacks Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, for example, both are rumored to be thinking of bolting to another campus.

"I expect at least one of those guys to transfer," the above-mentioned source said. "It wouldn't surprise me a whole lot if both of them transfer. The Michigan program is a mess right now. Rodriguez has a lot of convincing to do with a lot of people, players included."

*RODRIGUEZ ALSO IS SAID to have made to confidantes the rather obvious, yet reportedly difficult for him, admission that up to now his Michigan teams have not been good enough to compete among the Big 10 elite.

One insider who had access to Michigan practices and who has a keen knowledge of football said that this year's Michigan defense fell to the point that the team "would have a hard time winning the Mid-American Conference, much less the Big 10."

*THIS SOURCE IS NOT alone. Almost to a person, those we interviewed displayed varying levels of astonishment at the precipitous drop in Michigan's performance on the football field, most notably on the defensive side of the ball.

"Lloyd Carr (the retired Michigan coach who Rodriguez replaced) didn't leave the cupboard bare," an interviewee said. "He (Rodriguez) inherited a team that had just beat Florida in a bowl game. It's not like he was taking over a team with no talent.

"(Rodriguez) drove away some of that talent by getting into players' faces who were used to Lloyd Carr, who was more like a grandfather to them. Rodriguez didn't adjust to the people he had and he lost some people. Most of the ones that stayed or he has brought in haven't played up to their potential under him for whatever reason.

"In my opinion, a lot of players aren't with him all the way. He tried a culture change that wasn't necessary and it hasn't worked. What worked for him at West Virginia hasn't worked at Michigan."

*THE STRAIN OF LOSING has caused some rifts and some finger-pointing among the Rodriguez staff, according to some with a close view of the program.

Additionally, they say, some staff members are getting singled out by fans, boosters, media members and elsewhere as not being up to par. Names mentioned most frequently for criticism are defensive assistant coaches Tony Gibson (defensive backs) and Bruce Tall (defensive line).

"The team didn't improve as the season went along two years in a row," said a well-placed Michigan observer who claims to have had "reservations from the start" about Rodriguez being the right fit for Michigan. 

*ACCORDING TO SEVERAL of those with whom we talked, Rodriguez has become increasingly downcast in the wake of his 8-16 record the past two seasons, a sullen contrast to the confident, self-assured, somewhat defiant persona he displayed when he went to Michigan two years ago.

Some members of the Michigan, Big 10 and national media contacted said that Rodriguez seems to be chafing under the examination of expanded broadcast and print coverage.

"He got a lot of attention at West Virginia, but it was mostly positive because he was winning and he had softer coverage that he was able to control more," a Midwest media member who covers Michigan said. "At Michigan, he is losing and the Michigan media can be a tough group, the Detroit media in particular. Rodriguez is a guy who's used to judging other people. Now that he's being judged harshly, it seems to have affected him. He doesn't have a very thick skin and you need that at Michigan even when you're winning. You've got to be able to handle the pressure."

*THOUGH HE APPARENTLY tries not to show it publicly, sources say that Rodriguez has been stung by the vitriolic reaction of a large segment of West Virginia fans to his departure and the depth of the ridicule he has received during the past two seasons and during the successful lawsuit to force him to pay his buyout to WVU.

*WE ALSO MADE A POINT to ask people we interviewed if they think Rodriguez regrets leaving WVU. Then we asked if they think he regrets going to Michigan.

As expected, considering what has happened there, the majority of people we asked said they think Rodriguez regrets going to Michigan. The rest said they didn't know. No one said they think he is glad he went to Michigan.

As to the WVU question, a majority said that they didn't know or didn't have an opinion, but a significant minority of those questioned said that they think Rodriguez regrets leaving WVU, especially in the manner that it was carried out.

Among this group are people who know Rodriguez from his time in West Virginia.

"He has regrets, but he knows he can't look back and he knows that he probably couldn't ever go back to WVU even if he wanted to," said an interviewee who has known Rodrigeuz for years and has remained in touch with him. "He understands there are a lot of people back in West Virginia who wouldn't want him back, like he's an outcast, and I know he regrets that.

"Right now, I don't think he's dwelling on that too much, because he has his hands full at Michigan," the source said with a chuckle. "The rest of his career depends on what happens there."

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