Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football - Review by Ty Pion

Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football

By John U. Bacon

Review by Ty Pion

I’ve never been to the Big House in Ann Arbor Michigan, but the author made me feel like I was there one on one as if he was speaking to me about Coach Bo. The book explains the way the college of Michigan and the coaches that coached for the maze and blue team got screwed over by Lloyd Carr’s mistakes while he was coaching at University of Michigan.

John U. Bacon was one of the reasons I loved this book he was the narrator but also made it clear about what the people’s opinions were. He made me see that Michigan was on the top of the totem pole for colleges and for their wonderful football program.

A man named Bo Schembechler was the greatest football coach that Michigan has ever seen. The book talks about how Bo wasn’t coaching for the money but to show he actually cared. He set the standard for tradition on U of M campus. In one of the chapters it talks about how a team from Florida came to play at the Big House and there were nails to hang their jersey’s on. The players were blatantly shocked by it and their coach told them it was tradition.

Throughout the book it goes from when Rich Rodriguez was coaching to when Coach Bo and Carr were coaching. I liked this because it showed their different coaching styles. Coach Yost who became head coach in 1901 led the wolverines to four National Titles in a row: 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1904.  

Three and Out is filled with interesting facts and the life story of the Maze and Blue. One thing that struck me as a surprise was that Rich Rodriguez was not the one who screwed up Michigan’s football program. It was surprisingly Lloyd Carr, He could have picked so many great players from the draft, but he left them to go to different colleges.

 The book talks about pay vs. tradition. As the years went on and Michigan received new coaches, things changed around the campus. The old rusty nail was now a chrome hook and the green grass that had to be cut was now turf, and The ripped jerseys were now always clean and perfectly stitched. The players and coaches started to care more about the look than the way they played. But one tradition that will always be on U of M football team is the helmet, since their uniforms were designed the yellow striped winged helmet has been on their heads to today.  

The theme of this book is that tradition can last forever but pay is just a stepping stone. That’s the thing I loved most about this book. I liked how John U. Bacon used Coach Bo as the trend setter for tradition. This is people realizing that after Coach Bo was gone everything was different. “‘It didn’t change until Bo left,’ Canham told me, ‘and then it changed almost overnight.”