New Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez didn’t spend too much time in Michigan last week.

A Monday news conference, followed by meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Schembechler Hall and throughout campus, and then he was back to West Virginia to clean up his life there.

But in the short period he was in town, he kept moving, and Michigan tried to ease the transition.

“One of the things we can do is the guys who are literally doing all the logistics with football are in place; they’re all staying,” Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said at Saturday’s Michigan basketball game. “That’s very important. Rich recognized that immediately, met with those guys, saw that they were very competent and they’re very loyal to Michigan and the program. That’s going a long way to help.

“The first thing he got was his cell phone. They helped a lot, and he had a lot of interest in the weight training facilities and he has a very specific program and a strength and conditioning guy, so they wanted to look at those.”

Overhauling the strength and conditioning program was one of Rodriguez’s goals and something he asked Martin about during their interview. He received an assurance that changes could be made if necessary and they will, as the previous strength staff will be replaced.

Rodriguez has significant faith in his strength coach from West Virginia, Mike Barwis, who has trained athletes in every conceivable sport and has been nationally recognized.

Though Rodriguez has not filled the rest of his assistant coaching positions – only Calvin Magee and Tony Gibson from West Virginia and Fred Jackson from Michigan are known – there is a chance at least a few more current U-M assistants could be rehired.

“Ann Arbor is all new to him,” Martin said. “He doesn’t know which direction is north or south or what the names of the streets are. …

“He wanted to focus first and foremost on the players, get to tour the facilities, get to go to practice and he accomplished all of those things in the couple of days he was here. He worked from morning to night the couple of days he was here and I expect he will be back again before the bowl.”