- “I’m sure there were times I was driving Brian nuts, because I was being driven nuts. Coaching quarterbacks is more my M.O.” - Michigan offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Al Borges, on watching Brian Sipe coach the QBs at San Diego State the past two years. Borges has coached quarterbacks 22 of his 25 years in college football.
- “The running backs, if this goes how we’d like it to go, they’ll be the biggest beneficiary of the transformation.” - Al Borges, on switching from the spread offense to a pro-style set.
Play calling, offense regression and zero running game, sealed his fate and a tip of the hat goes to Hoke and Brandon for moving quickly and doing this in early January before the 2014 class signs.
Time to move forward and Michigan did quickly.
Michigan fumbled its two head coaching searches after Carr retired and RR got fired. I believe you don't fire a guy without knowing who the next guy is. About 5 years ago, Ole Miss fired their head coach and during the same press conference introduced their next head coach. Now that is a little quick, but that is how you want to move forward.
Michigan basically did that last night. They announced the Big Al firing around 5:00 PM and had Alabama's OC hired before 10:00 PM. CBS sports reported that Doug Nussmeier decided to move on from Alabama with the great sales job by Brady Hoke and David Brandon. They are also going to pay Doug a top 5 assistant salary.
Thanks Bob, Tell me more about Doug!
- Played QB at Idaho under John L. Smith of all people (he throws left handed)
- 4th round Draft pick by the Saints in 1994
- As a pro: 3 years with Saints, 1 year with Indy and played in CFL in 2000.
-BC Lions QB coach 2001
-Ottawa QB coach 2002
-MSU QB coach 2003-2005
-St. Louis Rams QB coach 2006-2007
-Fresno State OC 2008
-UW OC 2009-2011
-Alabama OC 2012-2013
Doug has a nice track record of developing QB's with the likes of Smoker, Stanton, Bulger, Price, Locker and McCarron. He also did a very nice job as an OC at Fresno, Washington and Bama.
He ran more of a pro style offense at Alabama and was very successful the last two years. I'm a bit more excited that he worked under Steve Sarkisian at UW who is considers an offensive coach. I also like he has really developed QB's and was a former QB in college and in the NFL. Being left handed can't hurt the development of Shane Morris either!
Many analysts consider this a home run hire for the Wolverines, including guys like Kirk Herbstreit.
Any negatives to this hire?
Few, for some reason it seems that Sabin was trying to push Doug to find another job. Even though Bama's offense set offensive records this year (for the program) it seems Saban was looking for some other answers. He brought in his friend Lane Kiffin during bowl practice for his thoughts on the offense. Lane is interviewing today for the OC job and I expect he will be named later today. Is this a situation where Saban wanted to hire his friend or was there a reason he was trying to move Doug out?
Was some of the turn around at UW Steve Sarkisian or Doug?
Alabama's offense this year wasn't exactly dynamic or ground breaking even though they did find success.
Overall?
This is a great hire and there were thoughts Doug might get the head coaching job at UW when Sark jumped to USC. He runs a Pro Style type of offense but did get a bit "spread like" at UW. He is 43, a good recruiter and understands offense. There might not have been a better choice out there for the Wolverines.
8 comments:
Firings "can be" political at times and we hope that this was the case with Alabama's Nick Saban encouraging Doug Nussmeier to move on.
We all know how that works, and with Saban being known as the lovable guy that everyone wants to work for, we can see how he's lost his Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland last year after two years, and now his Offensive Coordinator after approximately the same time...this could either point to their great coaching prowess or how it is to work for him.
My concern would be exactly what issues did Saban have with Doug Nussmeier as a coach? We know they had decent results that many other teams would have died for. Anytime someone is "fired" it implies incompetence or incompatibility e.g., Big Al or something ominous. Bob, do you have any details?
If I had to work for Sabin….well I would't work for Sabin in the first place. I think Doug is the real McCoy. I just hope we don't start picking fly crap out of pepper all ready. Welcome aboard Coach Nussmeier…..GO BLUE
Scout.com had a great article about why Nussmeier was the perfect replacement for Borges....
Ironically, it was posted about two hours before the hiring leaked out last night, which was only 2 hours after the announcement that Borges was let go...
Look at D.N.'s body of work, he's a quality coach with a history of all the things we NEED right now.
One more bit of encouraging news... bucknuts has an article saying Michigan's HOMERUN hiring of D.N. puts urban lier in the position of having to make a big splash addition to his defensive coaching staff.... looks like mr. fickle is in for another demotion.
hey urban, greg robinson might be available....
GO BLUE.
It's Saban, with an "a."
mgoblogging.blogspot.com
i think it's satan, with a "t" and two "a"s.
I don't have any inside info on why Saban wanted Doug out. Their offense was a bit predictable this year and he is really good friends with Lane. I believe their offense was 8th in the SEC, in the country they were 25th in rushing & 49th in passing. The two games they lost was due to the defense giving up 34 and 45 points. Hard to blame the offense for that.
Whoops sorry about that Peter a slip of the fingers…
Did anybody know that DN's niece is on the Michigan's Water Polo team (his Sister's daughter)
Whoops sorry about that Peter a slip of the fingers…
Did anybody know that DN's niece is on the Michigan's Water Polo team (his Sister's daughter)
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