"It's no secret that Ryan Mallett wasn't going to fit in Rich Rodriguez's spread-option offense at Michigan, but the circumstances surrounding the quarterback's decision to transfer in the winter after the 2007 season are interesting. Mallett was a five-star QB recruit who was a freshman at U-M in '07 -- which turned out to be Lloyd Carr's final season. The Wolverines hired Rodriguez in December 2007, a couple of weeks before Carr's final bowl game. "At the Capital One Bowl, we were trying to smooth things out, and we talked to coach Carr," Jim Mallett, Ryan's dad, told the Boston Herald. "I asked him, 'Coach, next to my dad, you're the classiest person I've ever been around. What would you do if Ryan was your son?' He said, 'If I was in that situation, with a different offense, he needs to leave.'" Jim Mallett went on to say that his son was the one who reached out to Rodriguez to set up an initial meeting, as opposed to the other way around. "He told me, 'Daddy, (Rodriguez) never looked me in the eye,'" Mallett said. "He never visited with the family, he didn't talk to us. ... Hey, it wasn't a fit. Let's move on.""