Wow, I guess Philly fans aren’t the only ones who are historically down on Rich Kotite.  In this week’s TMQ column on ESPN.com, Gregg Easterbrook uses Kotite as his archetypical “worst possible future coach for a big-time college football program” in a bit designed to bust the chops of job-hopping (and cash-chasing) college coaches:

Checking my time machine (patent pending), I found this news story from 2010:

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 16, 2010. (ESPN-CBS-Google-Bank-of-America-SmithGlaxoKline News Service.) University of Michigan supporters were crushed today after the Wolverines lost at home to Middlebury College, the first-ever defeat for Michigan by a Division III program. Middlebury’s F. Worthington Cartwright III rushed for six touchdowns as the visitors bested the home team 45-3.

Michigan coach Rich Kotite called the loss “a major disappointment.” He added, “We will look at film and figure out how Middlebury was able to shut down our exciting new A11 offense.”

Last year, Michigan lost at home to East Stroudsburg, the Wolverines’ first-ever defeat by a Division II team. Lane Kiffin, who was coach of the Wolverines in 2009, said at the time, “We will look at film and figure out how East Stroudsburg was able to shut down our exciting new single wing offense.”

For the avoidance of doubt, if TMQ — surely a studious and careful observer of all things football — needed to come up with a name to plug into his imaginary future scenario that would immediately resonate with football fans as a singularly terrible and incompetent coach, he would pick Lane Kiffin.  BUT, if he needed to conjure up a name that was even worse than Kiffin, he would pick Rich Kotite.

That’s right.  Rich Kotite lost to Middlebury.