Michigan Thursday: Two Spots With A Ton of Possibilities

Michigan this week have found themselves looking for two very important roles in the Michigan Football program. 

#1 is the Boss - Michigan Athletic Director - Jim Hackett might have been the best Michigan AD since Don Canham.  U of M has hired a search committee but it's hard to believe they haven't had a short list of candidates during the past year.   If there is a reason for a person to have a statue created for one year on the job, Jim Hackett might be the right person.

#2:  Michigan's DC:  DJ Durkin's unit got embarrassed on Saturday afternoon and then less then a week has a Big Ten head coaching job.  DJ's body of work made him a hot candidate for head coaching jobs, he is young, has coached under Urban Meyer, Jimmy (twice) and created the very good Florida defense under Will Muschamp.    It was only a matter of time but I was hoping for a job not in the Big Ten and in the same division as Michigan.

Losing top young coaches is something we are going to need to get used to.   One of the things we haven't had at Michigan is a head coach with large coaching tree.   Jimmy's is one of the best coaches in football and other schools will be looking to "poach" our top assistants for years to come. 

Jimmy has a ton of options to replace DJ.   He has a few options on staff including former DC Greg Mattison.   Greg Jackson and Mike Zordich has done a very good job with the DB's this year.   Like I mentioned yesterday, Scott Shafer another former Michigan DC and Stanford DC has to be a candidate.   He was recently fired as the head coach of Syracuse and Jimmy could off load some of the HC stuff he doesn't like to him (like some press updates, interviews, etc).     Either way, Michigan needs to find a better way to stop spread teams with mobile QB's.  We have struggled against OSU, IU and others for too many years. 

I also don't think this has to be a quick decision, Michigan is in a good spot with Mattison leading the defense during bowl prep.   My only concern is with recruiting, Michigan really needs some Linebackers in recruiting and has a really big fish on the line with Rashan Gary.   I hope DJ moving on doesn't hurt the recruitment of Michigan's big needs in the 2016 class.

• Instate WR Donnie Corley is expected to announce his college decision next week.  MSU is the presumed leader in the clubhouse if he still plans on keeping that announcement date. 

• Devin Bush Jr. told ESPN TomVH that the loss of DJ doesn't effect him much, I don't know if that means he is planning to go to another school or DJ wasn't a big pull to Ann Arbor for him.

• Michigan QB commit Brandon Peters is a finalist for the Army All American Player of the Year Award.