Many college football insiders believe that Nick Saban wins a lot of football games are for two reasons: strong recruiting and a big staff that compliments his on the field coaching. I think Alabama has roughly double the number of staff members then other programs.
Jimmy understands this and continues to hire strong coaches to his staff. For those of you that are new to this process, staff roles are limited in what they can and can't do. For example, they are not on the field coaches, but can review film, game plan, and work with players off the field.
Under Jimmy these positions turnover pretty much every year, as his staff gets on the field roles and even head coaching jobs after working under Harbaugh for a year or two. Jimmy went on a hiring spree yesterday for his staff for next season.
Pat Perles is going to help with the offensive line. Yes, this is the son of George Perles and Pat has a long history of coaching in college and the NFL. A bit of a strange hire with his last name, but he is more then qualified for the role.
Ferris State OC Steve Casula is also now on staff as well. Steve knows new Michigan OC Josh Gattis as they worked together at WMU and run the same offense. If you didn't know, the Bulldogs made the D2 Championship game running Gattis/Casula offense. Another good hire, as Steve will be key in implementing the new offense.
Bethune Cookman special teams coordinator/recruiting coordinator Aashon Larkins is also expected to be hired. Aashon is known as a special teams guru and also lead one of the top rated special teams at The Citadel.
Those seem to be strong hires with a focus on the new offense, offensive line, and special teams.
-Michigan Basketball plays tonight at Penn State, the team arrived last night as it was snowing.
-Nik Stauskas has been signed by the Cavs for the rest of the season. Last week, Nik was traded 3 times and released. Hopefully, this is a better week.
-Former Michigan WR/TE Ricardo Miller is in a developmental area of the WWE.
-Wisconsin lost one of its best offensive lineman as Jon Dietzen retired yesterday due to a number of injuries during his career. He would have been a 5th year senior.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Michigan Tuesday: Jimmy Goes On a Hiring Spree
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1 comment:
Nice article Bob, I have just a few random thoughts if that's okay?
Last year at the end of the season, we heard Coach Harbaugh say that they were going to do an internal season ending evaluation from top to bottom of their program. He indicated that he was not happy about some things and there needed to be some changes. 1) He said the players needed to get stronger and so out went strength coach Kevin Tolbert, and in comes Ben Herbert. 2) The O-Line was not doing well and so out goes Tim Drevino and Greg Frey and in comes Ed Warinner. The OC duties of Drevino arguably was a part of Pep Hamilton's responsibilities as we've seen on game day when Pep would send the recommended plays down to Harbaugh. 3) Brian Smith (DB) leaves for a promotion somewhere else. His coaching slot is replaced by AL Washington. Harbaugh also brings in Sherrone Moore as TE coach, plus he hired Jim McElwain. He brought in Roy Roundtree as a GA which I believe is still significant. This was the result of the 2017 internal self evaluation of the program, some much needed movement. Harbaugh asked the players for their feedback and then makes some personal changes.
I can't help but believe that because of the process that led to the changes of the 2017 coaching staff, that there was a similar evaluation process after the 2018 season. So we saw, Greg Mattison (DL) coach leave and even though he was offered a contract, I think there is a possibility that his evaluation wasn't as great and maybe caused him (at this late stage of his life) to move on, not for the DC position but because of his pride. When you're making the money he was making with the opportunity for more here, and you are about a year from retirement, saying you want to be a DC when you've been one for approximately 20 years doesn't make sense to me. Maybe his pride was bruised as a result of the evaluation. When you're older than the head coach and you think that you know more about football then maybe, just maybe he didn't take his evaluation too well. However, we see Shaun Nua as the new DL coach. He's younger and has actually played the position in modern times and very well could be an upgrade.
2) Pep Hamilton's handling of the QB's had me wondering if they were actually developing. Some of his play calling (and you can say this about any coach) was often questionable. Maybe they kept him another year because of his contract I don't know but I wasn't impressed with Hamilton. He wasn't picked up by another team (Pro or college) so to me that speaks loudly. His "OC-ish" responsibilities being given to the new dedicated OC Josh Gattis tells me that Hamilton failed his internal evaluation and now Ben McDaniels taking over as the QB coach. 3) Jim McElwain moved on from the WR position and as I understood it he had a one year contract that wasn't renewed. I don't believe Harbaugh fully bought in to McElwain either and would not have brought him back regardless. Maybe he was simply doing the guy a career favor. His position is being taken over by Josh Gattis (?) Defensive coach Anthony Campanile seems to contribute to a strong coaching staff. I think these are the result of the latest evaluation.
I will also say that Don Brown was a big upgrade from DJ Dirkin (I was never a Dirkin fan anyway) but nevertheless, Don Brown is going to have to re-invent his defense for this year and to continue to update it annually. As you all know, for example in the NFL a coach will come out with something new and have great success. Then by the second year, if not before, they've figured it out and the coach has to make some changes if they're going to continue to be successful in that league. It's the same thing with Don Brown's defense. Obviously, osu and Florida figured it out and now the book is out on it. IMHO!!!
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