Who's to Blame?

Lloyd Carr retired on 11/19. Since then this so called search has been a huge mismanaged cluster (insert your own F Bomb here).

Michigan was the first program to have a opening and after Arkansas wild ride last night with Bobby Petrino, it looks like it will be the last to fill their spot. Will the music stop and Michigan be left without a chair? The timing doesn't bother me as much as how this search has been fumbled from the beginning. So who is too blame for this? The following is my top 10 reasons this process has failed so far:

1) Billy "Sailboat" Martin: Not sure what you were thinking since last September when you knew this would happen. Your process or plan is failing at every check point. Your not speaking with the media, you decided to go to Florida and not answer your phone during important negotiations, you offered the job to a guy at Rutgers who didn't take it, you make another failed attempt at the one guy who really wanted this job, your boss is now involved, and you seem lost at sea with out any true candidates. I now don't have any confidence in you making the right decision for this program.

2) The Media: We all know that "Herbie" didn't help the Les Miles situation any. We also know the media attention on Les Miles talking on the phone or not talking on the phone is way too over blown. But the way the Media has been during this search has been out right neglectful. They have either been to early (aka "Herbie") or way too late, for example; the media was 3 days behind the Schiano story and 4 days behind the last contact with Miles. When they don't have any news to report all they all give the same "tired" opinion.

3) West Virgina: You lost to Pitt at home with the National Championship on the line? WVU beat the co-Big East Champions UConn the week before by something like 40 points and they can't beat Pitt who had a losing record at home on National TV with the National Championship game on the line. Nice work guys. For those of you that wonder how this relates to the Michigan Coaching search. WVU win equals an LSU trip to the Sugar Bowl.

4) The Les or Bust fan base: I think Les is probably the best fit for the Michigan head coaching job and Martin should have locked him up a month ago. But there has to be other candidates out there just as good or better then Les. Time to put him behind us and move on.

5) Mary Sue Coleman: Should have been more closely involved from the beginning. She has experience with Kirk Ferentz at Iowa and understands how these things play out. Her University is now getting killed nationally and the buck stops with her.

6) The Search Committee: What are you guys doing? Anything? Do you have any power at all? Are you contacting candidates? Desmond come on!

7) Lloyd Carr: He says he doesn't have a say, but we all believe he does. We also believe he has been throwing Miles and Kelly under the bus and promoting Brady Hoke and Ferentz. LC get out of the way and get your team ready for the ass whipping that Florida is going to give us.

8) Les Miles: We all know Les wants to coach LSU and Michigan at the same time. He loves the media attention and loves his damn good football team . He has not made this easy on Michigan as Michigan has not made it easy on him. Either way, he gets paid after the NC game and with a win will make $3.45m a year.

9) Blogs: Yes, I will throw myself under the bus as well. The blogs that have been following this story usually has had information days before the mainstream media. Our obsession has made this search bigger then life itself. We are also the vehicle for the rumor mill.

10) Michigan Tradition: I don't want to hear about this job isn't what it used to be. In fact, it's exactly what it used to be! A top program that wins 8-10 games every year and goes to some type of bowl game. I don't think coaches are scared to come here, I think they are happy making the same money and having less pressure at smaller schools.