By DAVE HACKENBERG, Toledo Blade

Rich Rodriguez will get a third season at the helm of the Michigan football program in part because he is joined at the hip with athletic director Bill Martin. One's failure tarnishes the other's legacy and with Martin soon to retire he will, as a going-away present, give Rodriguez the rope he needs to turn things around and salvage their combined reputations.

All college football, all the time, for a Monday morning quarterback:

-- The college game has become a beauty contest in the eyes of human pollsters and computers alike. But why should that be the case? Shouldn't grinding out a tough win be just as meaningful as piling up numbers?

A weekend in sick bay was no fun ... but it gave me a chance to catch up on Ohio State and Michigan:

Maybe handing Matthew Stafford the keys to the Edsel is a good idea.

The Detroit Lions' rookie, who has been designated as the starting quarterback by coach Jim Schwartz, could be the next Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco.

Everywhere Rich Rodriguez goes he hears the same question.

"All I get is, 'You're going to be better, right, coach?' And I tell 'em, 'Geez, I hope so.'?"

It would be hard not to be better for the University of Michigan's football team.

Rodriguez was an embattled coach last year. Actually, from the day he got the job.

Idle thoughts from an idle mind, while wondering if Notre Dame will prove to be a Top-25 team ...

One thing to remember next year while you're filling out your NCAA tournament bracket, trying to trade your first-born child for a Final Four ticket, hearing Dickie V nominate another coach for sainthood, and waiting for CBS to cue up "One Shining Moment." College basketball at the highest level is a cesspool.

Eric Wedge is by all accounts a good guy. He has always had his general manager's support. And history would show there's little chance of him losing his locker room.
But you have to begin wondering how much rope has been given the Cleveland Indians' manager and how much it might take for him to hang himself.

Not to begin a serious column with a smart-alecky comment, but forget about point-shaving charges. Shouldn't two men who allegedly bet more than $400,000 on University of Toledo basketball games over roughly one year's time be indicted simply for being morons?

Why is it an 82-year-old man, the oldest college football coach in captivity, a guy who wears Coke-bottle lenses and a tie and still folds up his pants cuffs, is a more progressive thinker than so many men half his age?