Michigan can preserve the progress of 2010, but Rich Rodriguez's job is another story.

This afternoon's Gator Bowl would be more interesting if Michigan – or at least some anonymous source vaguely connected to Michigan – just came out and said the Wolverines have to beat Mississippi State to save coach Rich Rodriguez's job. Certainly ESPN would be down with it: "Rodriguez Under the Guillotine" would be a guaranteed, edge-of-your-seat ratings bonanza.

Given that there's no such certainty, though, win or lose, the game itself feels almost superfluous as far as Rodriguez's future is concerned. If former Wolverine turned energetic Stanford maestro Jim Harbaugh is going to be the coach, odds are that first-year athletic director David Brandon already has him in the fold, or close enough to the fold to be confident in setting Rodriguez adrift with no other viable candidates on the horizon in the twilight of coach hunting season. If Brandon was so determined to make a change at the top no matter what, he would have done it after the grisly 37-7 loss to Ohio State on Nov. 27, in the prime of coach-swapping season. If Harbaugh's not going to be the coach, then, Rodriguez will soldier on.

Barring an unwatchable blowout, in either direction, the final score of the Gator Bowl – just one more game in a three-year tenure that split the fan base down the middle almost from the beginning – likely has no bearing at all.

That isn't to say a win or loss doesn't affect the sense of this season as progress. In almost all the big ways, Michigan was a better team in 2010 than it was a year ago, and miles ahead of the catastrophe of 2008. The Wolverines staved off another second half collapse with wins over Illinois and Purdue, must-win games they lost in '08-09, securing a winning record in the process. The offense found a cornerstone in prolific quarterback Denard Robinson, the spark for the No. 1 total offense in the Big Ten and the highest-scoring attack at Michigan in more than a decade. Today is the Wolverines' bowl game in three years, with a lineup set to return 18 starters in the fall. This is a better team that should be better still eight months from now.

If Rodriguez is coaching for anything today beyond the game itself, it's to preserve those forward steps, as small and slow in coming as they've been. He can't overcome the fact that he's has overseen the worst three-year stretch at Michigan in more than 40 years. With a minor upset over a ranked team, though, he can say "It's still getting better." If that's not enough to buy him more time, it can make the decision that much harder, and the potential transition that much uglier.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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