Friday, December 1, 2017

Michigan Friday: Mark Dantonio is having a Tough Week

The Big Ten has been announcing the Big Ten coach of the year, player, and so on this week.  Big Mo Hurst got robbed as Joey Bosa was named the defensive lineman of the year.  Mo will have to dry his tears with a large first round contract he is going to get in about 6 months. 


The other bad call was that Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was named Big Ten coach of the year over Mark Dantonio.   MSU was expected to be a dumpster fire after the off season they had.   They surprised a ton of people by upsetting Michigan and Penn State.   This might have been Dantonio's best coaching job of his career.   Paul could earn that trophy with a win this weekend, but Wisconsin's schedule (outside of Michigan) was a cake walk. 


The other issue for Dantonio, is his name has not been part of the rumored candidates to coach Tennessee or any of the other high profile jobs out there.   Sure, he might not really entertain leaving East Lansing for the SEC, but like everyone else he could use that interest into a raise.  Is Mark no longer considered a top coach out there?  Is the off season that MSU had keeping other programs away?  Tennessee is now interviewing Mike Leach after every other candidate has turned down their offers.


  • Let me give Wisconsin a bit of a tip on defending OSU on Saturday night.   Ohio State's best play is JT Barrett running and running to the right side.   If you can stop that play and keep him in the game, you have a good shot of winning. 


  • Joe Moorhead has pulled Penn State RB coach Charles Huff  to Mississippi State.  Charles was known as a very good recruiter.


  • We should hear on Michigan's Bowl Game this weekend, probably Sunday afternoon around 12:30 - 1:00.  The Outback still seems to be the leader in the clubhouse.  Tickets are either $80 or $170 right now.

9 comments:

Tim said...

As a Michigan fan I am not a fan of Dantonio, but I do respect the job he has done at EL. It has perplexed me why there were never rumors of job offerings for him. He may be considered too old now, what about 6 years ago? Did teams feel he would never leave? Did teams feel his coordinators were the brains? Maybe he got offering that I never heard about?

I understand now teams are in a hunt to get the greatest young coaches. Excuse me if I am out of line, but how can we be convinced Joe Moorhead will be a great hire? He was the OC for Penn State for one year and he had the best RB in college football.

I will admit I have not followed Mr. Moorhead's career and maybe he will be fantastic. But I would have my concerns if I was an Miss State fan.

And now with Florida State job open it will be interesting to see other coaches find a new landing spot.

Go Blue!

Voice of Reason said...

Great question Tim regarding Dantonio. My guess is that currently he is about 61 years of age which now makes him too old to take over and rebuild a program for the long haul. Most schools want younger and cheaper hoping to get a hot young coach that they believe will be there for a career.

However, unless your school is in the elite class (Michigan, OSU, Alabama, USC, Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, etc.) which I call a destination school (schools that most coaches want to end up their careers at) they use their success at the lower tier schools to move up the ladder. Case in point, Tom Herman from Houston to Texas; Brian Kelly from GVS to CMU to Cincinnati to ND; Butch Jones and so many other coaches are similar.

Dantonio has bounced around a while in his career, Butler, OSU, Akron, Youngstown State, Kansas, MSU, Cincinnati, and back to MSU (and these don't take into account the three GA positions that he's had at different places. My point is that sometimes people get tired of picking up and moving, sometimes wives say "no more." Sometimes it may have been keeping the family stable in one place until after college etc. I also would imagine with his winning record at MSU that he doesn't have pay for his groceries, or get his cars fixed, or pay for his own drinks in East Lansing. A perk that Greg Shiano had when he was at Rutgers. So if Dantonio goes to another school that he has to build, whose to say that the administration will have the patience to wait for their efforts to pay off.

I don't know why some AD's hire the coaches that they hire. Case in point, when Bill Martin hired Rich Rod and when Dave Brandon hired Brady Hoke and as a result it set our program back about fifteen years. However, I am happy with Harbaugh. IMHO!!!

EzmoB said...

Bob any recruiting updates?

Mike Nice said...

Any more info on shea Patterson? The guy is a great qb who gives us best chance to beat osu? His injury would probably have him miss dpring practice and not suit up till fall 2018 though?

EzmoB said...

Mike from what Bob wrote earlier in the week, Michigan has moved away from Shea.

EzmoB said...

Just read on 24/7 Shea received his transfer paper and likely landing spot is Michigan. I wonder what will this do for the rest of the qb's in our stable?

Cormac said...

The key thing about Shea Patterson is if he gets a waiver so that he can play next year. If not, he can't play until 2019. f he can't play until 2019, I am not sure about taking him. By then, with the current stable of QBs, they will have another year in the "system." I would pass on him.

Goose said...

Bama makes the playoffs, 3rd best team in a really down sec. Obviously there because of reputation more than on field results. There's always next year big 10.

Scott K said...

Patterson is visiting A2 this weekend.