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.
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“John U. Bacon found himself with the kind of access unheard of in modern athletics. The result is a remarkable book . . . [If] you are simply a fan of college football, or interested in big-time college athletics more generally, it is a fascinating read.” —The National Review
“A fascinating look inside the workings of a major-college football program. Rodriguez’s failure was everyone’s fault and no one’s. Unreasonable expectations combined with bad decisions and bad luck led to three bad seasons. Not acceptable at Michigan. Fine reading for college-football fans.” —ALA Booklist
“John U. Bacon’s Three and Out [is] an epic piece of reporting behind the scenes of a college football program going to hell.” —New York Magazine
“Rich Rodriguez never had a chance as coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He showed up with a glowing resume and got himself eaten alive. John Bacon’s account of Rodriguez’s epic failure is a cautionary tale for anyone who doesn’t realize that being a major college football coach requires one to be part CEO, part psychologist, part carny barker, and all crazy.” —Charles P. Pierce, author of Moving The Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit Of Everything
“College basketball has Season on the Brink. High school football has Friday Night Lights. Now college football has Three and Out, which takes you inside the locker room to show you what it’s really like to be a college football coach and player. If it surprised me—and it did—I’m sure it will surprise even hardcore fans. If you care about college football, you’ll want this book.” —Adam Schefter, ESPN
“John U. Bacon is one of the best reporters/writers of my generation. Three and Out proves it. It’s one of the most riveting non-fiction works I've read in years, in any genre. The eyewitness details from the locker room, the sidelines, and the most powerful offices on a college campus are breathtaking. Get this book. You will thank me.” —David Shuster, Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist
“When, several millennia from now, archeologists excavate American ruins as archeologists have done those of Carthage, they may be mystified by the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. How did this 109,901 seat football emporium come to be connected to an institution of higher education? Or was the connection the other way? Without waiting 2,000 years, readers can join John U. Bacon on his eye-opening, and occasionally jaw-dropping, report on the weird world of college football.” —George F. Will
John U. Bacon has worked the better part of two decades as a writer, a public speaker, and a college instructor, winning awards for all three.
He is the author or coauthor of six books on sports and business, including "Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership" (2007), which became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller, and "Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football" (2011), which debuted at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
He co-hosts two weekly radio shows on WTKA.com (1050 AM, Ann Arbor-Detroit), and provides weekly sports commentary for Michigan Radio (Ann Arbor, Flint and Grand Rapids), and frequently contributes to documentaries on HBO, ESPN and the Big Ten Network.
Bacon has been sought out to give speeches for financial companies such as Merrill Lynch and Ameriprise, auto manufacturers like Chrysler and Subaru, and international corporations like Microsoft Brazil and Copersucar, from Taipei to Toledo, and Seattle to Sao Palo. In 2011 the Michigan chapter of Meeting Planners International (MPI) named him Speaker of the Year. He also teaches at Northwesterns' Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where he won the Golden Apple Award in 2009. in 2006, he was inducted into the Ann Arbor Huron High School Hall of Fame for helping to lead the hockey team from the worst in school history to the best in three seasons.
Bacon is a decent hockey player, a mediocre Spanish speaker and a poor piano player, but that has not prevented him from enjoying all three.
As an alumnus of the University of Michigan, I approached this book with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. I follow sites like MGoBlog with a religious fervor, but I had a deep-seated need to understand for myself what had gone so horribly wrong during the Rich Rodriguez era.
What I found from reading this book confirmed my worst fear: that the death of Bo Schembechler, the naivete (if not outright incompetence) of Bill Martin, Rodriguez's record and own missteps, and petulance within the University's Athletic Department and at the Detroit Free Press, had combined to create a perfect storm which took nearly everyone associated with the football program down. At times, I was heart sick, in the way that people are when they learn of the crimes and misdemeanors of a beloved pastor, to read what had been done in the name of the University and its Football Program.
The book itself has a "you-are-there" urgency, and reads more like a personal memoir than a reporter's story. In many ways, that's what it is, as Bacon attempts to learn for himself what it is to be a college football player and coach. He shares a humorous story about working out with Michigan's (in)famous, former strength and conditioning coach, Mike Barwis, and freely admits to several occurrences in which he found himself curled up in a fetal position after reaching the limits of his endurance.
In the end, Bacon makes his point that a person would have to be mad to endure what Rich Rodriguez endured for three years. He deserved better at the hands of Michigan Men, and through his efforts, showed himself more worthy of the mantle than those who professed to wear it.
They say that journalism is a "first draft of history." In the well-publicized case of Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, in which he was the subject of a virtual declaration of war by writers from the Detroit Free Press, we now know that that "first draft of history" can be torn up and flushed down the toilet.
If you are a fan of Michigan football, you must read this. If you ara a fan of West Virginia football, you must read this. If you are a fan of the school where Rich Rodriguez will be named the next Head Football Coach (wherever that might be) you must read this. If you are a worldly, curious fan of any big college football program in America, you should read this.
No writer in recent history has been given this kind of access to a major college football program, and the result is remarkable. A great book that will be discussed at pregame tailgates for years. Don't be left out.
John Bacon's Three and Out is one of the most remarkable books I've ever read because of the unprecedented access to players and coaches that he was granted by a college football powerhouse for three entire seasons.
The ability to play invisible observer to one of the most lucrative and tradition-rich programs in CFB history is priceless. Reading an account of it is well worth your time and $17.
Bacon present a great narrative of the sharp contrast between the part of the college football game that is played on the field, and perhaps the no-less-important part of the game played at press podiums, inside the political jungle of the university, and in the training facilities.
Access: At various points Bacon describes: - Being inside the tiny coach's changing room at Notre Dame minutes before kick-off - Riding shotgun with Denard Robinson for an entire day and seeing everything starting with low-level laser therapy on his knee in the morning to Denard's aw-shucks embarrassment at being on ESPN to his leaving the training facilities at 10PM at night with middle-aged men begging him for autographs - Huddling with the coaches on Recruiting Day next to the fax machine watching commitments come in and the reactions of the staff - Sitting with the players at every halftime listening to Rodriguez's speeches and reporting on the reactions - Relaying the light-hearted recollection of players about their recruitment to various schools including SEC schools which offered to buy them cars and had co-eds waiting in their hotel rooms for them among other enticements
It's truly remarkable.
The Politics: The inner machinations of an athletic department - How RR left WVU in part because the Governor (you read that right), AD and President were all afraid of how high his star was climbing - How U-M President Coleman and Athletic Director Martin promised to pay Rodriguez's buyout from West Virginia without consulting the regents of the University and then forced him to stay silent about the promise when WVU demanded the money, fearing that the regents would fire them - How other coaching candidates who were passed over took shots at Rodriguez and tried to undermine him as much as possible - How Rodriguez failed time and time again to translate his charisma around the team to the press podium, where he produced gaffe after gaffe
But most importantly...
The Field: The young men of this football team are the definition of inspiration. They deal with all pressures of being 20-year-old kids in college away from home for the first time, have a multi-million dollar football program, the hope of hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, and the fate of their coaches tied to their ability to throw or kick a ball on Saturday mornings. I never realized how much confidence or a bad week could help or hinder a team.
It was also cool to read about anecdotes like one about Brandon Graham, a so-so-player early in his collegiate career, being sharply reminded of the stakes of his football career when his mother was mugged several years ago in their neighborhood and having her arm broken by her assailants. He decided that was unacceptable and started working harder. He thereafter became Team MVP, was an all-Big Ten defensive lineman, and was a first round draft pick in the NFL. First thing he did: Got his mom to a new neighborhood.
It's also remarkable to hear how the players stood together through 3 brutal years of losses and media frenzy and yet at the end, when RR was fired, decided almost as a man to stay with the program. Not for fear of change or adjusting to a program elsewhere-- but to protect their freshmen and teammates from having to go through the hellish transition they did when they first came to play for Michigan. These are the true Michigan Men in this book.
Bacon is a great storyteller. If you are a Michigan fan this is a must-read. If you are a fan of any other college football program or have any interest in politics, this is a book you will sorely regret missing.
He also mentioned in a recent interview that he wiped out his life savings writing this book by putting off other commitments for three entire years while documenting his experiences in Ann Arbor. If you want to reward that kind of dedication, show the man some love. That was what pushed me over the edge into buying the book, and I'm glad I did.
The way I see CFB has been changed forever, but my love for the game has remained the same. Go Blue!
