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

John U. Bacon

Oct 2011 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

"Like the Moneyball of college football, Three and Out blows the lid off one of the sports world's most perplexing mysteries."—Entertainment Weekly

Three and Out tells the story of how college football's most influential coach took over the nation's most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the histories of both Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan. Shortly after his controversial move from West Virginia, where he had just taken his alma mater to the #1 ranking for the first time in school history, Coach Rich Rodriguez granted author and journalist John U. Bacon unrestricted access to Michigan's program. Bacon saw it all, from the meals and the meetings, to the practices and the games, to the sidelines and the locker rooms. Nothing and no one was off limits.

John U. Bacon's Three and Out is the definitive account of a football marriage seemingly made in heaven that broke up after just three years, and lifts the lid on the best and the worst of college football.

Ratings and reviews

Gives more insight than the typical, "Remember the Rich Rod experiment that was a failure?" Great read and extremely insightful as to what was going on during Rich's tenure as a Wolverine.

I was the biggest Richrod hater around. Blasted him every chance I had. I felt I had to read this book. It is a shame but he never had a chance. He was setup for failure. While he made his share of.mistakes, I feel bad about this, am a little upset about UM and wish RichRod success at Arizona.

If you expect to walk away from reading this book happy, enthusiastic, & feeling healed, forget it. I have loved everything about the University of Michigan and was ecstatic about the potential that Rich Rodriguez being hired could bring to the future of the program. Bacon brings many apparent truths to the forefront about what really happened, and the result for me was disgust, embarrassment, sadness about a university & program that I felt became full of itself and sabotaged a good man from the beginning.

About the author

John U. Bacon has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among other publications, earning national honors. He is the author of several books on sports and business, including Bo's Lasting Lessons (with Bo Schembechler), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan and is a popular public speaker.