Friday, November 7, 2014

Michigan Friday: Is The Michigan Job Jim's Destiny?

Most of us know what it's like being a Michigan fan since the day you figured out what football was.  There was those Franklin helmets and jerseys under the tree.   I don't know about you but for me those were always Michigan.   It's to imagine a time, when you weren't a Michigan fan and lived and died with each win and loss.  

Jim Harbaugh is one of us, except his dad was an assistant coach at Michigan and he grew up to be the QB of the Wolverines.  I ran across this article by Mitch Albom in late 1986 about Jim's relationship with Michigan and Bo Schembechler.  It's long but worth the read.   It also cemented in my mind that now is the time for Jimmy to come home.  

The article was like a walk down history lane and the relationship between Bo and Jim.    Since Bo knew Jim since he was a little kid, he made sure he personally coached him. 

Bo was asked why he didn't recruit Jim, until the last weekend of the recruiting cycle:

According to Schembechler, this was all part of the strategy. "I knew Jim wanted to come here," the coach says now, leaning back in the big chair in his mahogany-toned office. "Of course some of these kids figure just because I know mom and dad they're gonna get a scholarship. That's just not true. I don't do that for anybody. But in his case, we had planned to offer him a scholarship before I ever went out there."

"Why did you wait so long then?" he is asked.

His voice deepens. "If Jim Harbaugh was going to come to Michigan, then Jim Harbaugh was going to wait for me."

Bo waited and is now bringing Jimmy back to Ann Arbor.   It's time to come home and to write the next chapter.  

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Northwestern Preview:

Let me start and finish the preview like this:

2014 FBS Rankings

Passing Yards:  NW= 90th,  UM= 111th
Rushing Yards:  NW = 107th,  UM =73rd
Defense Points Against:  NW = 47th, UM = 30th
Record: NW = 3-5, UM = 4-5

Both of these teams struggle on offense and play a pretty good defense.   Both teams are below the .500 mark and have a struggle to get bowl eligible.  Northwestern has Notre Dame on their schedule still and Michigan of course has OSU.    Both need this win, if they are going to head to Dallas, NYC, Memphis or SF for the holidays. 

Northwestern seems to always out play the Wolverines but lose in the end.   We know how Michigan plays on the road.  To shake things up on this trip, Coach Hoke has decided his team won't turn the ball over as much.  Which is the genius of Brady Hoke. 

Expect a pillow fight where, Gardner throws a 50 yard pass to Funchess for the win with no time left on the clock.

Michigan 10 NW 9
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  • If you missed it Darrin Kirkland Jr. de-commited yesterday.  He is no longer considering Michigan.  Yes, this was expected.  

3 comments:

Voice of Reason said...

You know, what makes this all very difficult for "me" personally is the fact that I really like Brady Hoke. He is a good man and he loves the school that I love... Michigan. Therefore, I "want" him to be successful. However, he's not and in spite of the fact he denies this, his recruits aren't being developed. That's what got Weiss fired from ND and Kansas, he was bringing in good high school kids but they were staying high school kids.

Hoke is described as a father figure for most of them, he shows that he cares about them. That makes a big difference. His staff are quality character people as well. That is what makes this thing so difficult.

Jim Harbaugh won at Stanford...it's considered a football power now because of JH. Other coaches have tried to make it work there before he arrived and couldn't. He did it. It took him four years before he finally finished over the 500% mark with 8 wins. But what was impressive was that he was recruiting outstanding kids, and developing them at Stanford. And now the program is still doing the same thing.

Hoke, has all but about maybe five (?) of the kids on this Michigan team that belong to him. He's in his fourth year and his third and fourth years players aren't coming through for him. Is that because they're not talented enough or maybe they're not being developed. A coaches fourth year should see "his" team show what they're all about, and if they're the four and five star players which they are, then Michigan should be competing for the B1G Ten Championship and ranked within the top 10 schools nationally. But they're not, and they aren't, and they won't.

Like I said, I really like Brady Hoke, he appears to be a good if not a Great man and quite possibly an outstanding D-line position coach, but he may be out of his element as a head coach. I would hate to see someone like that with all of the love and respect that he has for Michigan get fired. I would rather see him step down voluntarily like Brandon (although I strongly believe that Brandon negotiated his resignation).

I'd like to see him put his pride aside and resign and take a year off, and maybe coach at "a" San Diego State again. He is someone that I wish nothing but good things for. IMHO!!!

M go Clean said...

I agree completely with VoR and have written several times about what would need to be done for Hoke to stay, but those recommendations would basically make him a mascot.....And, he certainly didn't step up and get the top assistants that he should have, and delegate game decisions.....Wow.....it's sad!

Big35Hurt said...

Great Bo/Harbaugh article. Thanks for the link.