Happy Veterans Day! To all the great Americans that have served this country including my father and late grandfather!!
My lifelong friend Augusta J and I had a text chat back and forth on who should replace Jimmy. Yes, he lives in Augusta and has been to many Masters.
If Michigan continues to embarrass itself on the football field this season, Jimmy will most likely step down or be asked to. Which leaves the question, who's next? I will list a few candidates and why I would love or hate the hire.
Matt Campbell: I know Matt's name comes up a lot but I have a ton of concerns leaving Iowa State for Michigan. We have seen 2 coaches from WVU and San Diego State flame out when the Michigan lights got too bright.
Brent Venables: Clemson DC has turned down a bunch of head coaching offers. Michigan might be too good of an opportunity to pass this time. I would support this hire but he would need Gattis to stay or another top flight OC with him. Always a risk to hire a guy that hasn't been a HC. We know he can run a defense and recruit.
PJ Fleck: Is a bit too weird for Ann Arbor, he hasn't won in Minnesota yet. Last year was a good season, but he just lost to Michigan. I don't see this as a possibility at all.
Luke Fickell: Hates Michigan, even though Michigan could triple his salary. Not happening, nor should it.
Josh McDaniels: Is the candidate I like the most. He was a head coach (failed) in the NFL, would have Brady's support, and brother is currently on the staff. The NFL playoffs won't be an issue this year and he should be able to step right in. He would need a strong DC and guys around him that could recruit.
There aren't any Michigan Men candidates in the coaching ranks, so that won't be an option this time. Unless you hire someone with out any coaching experience like Charles Woodson. Ty Wheatley is struggling in his role as a HC. Nobody currently on Bowling Green's staff would be under consideration.
Josh Gattis could be a candidate and should get an interview. If Jimmy continues to get embarrassed and steps away I wouldn't mind him finishing off the regular season. Would need a very strong DC.
I want to state this for the record, I have ZERO confidence that Warde can hire this position. I know he has done well in Basketball and Hockey, but there were 2 clear candidates for those roles. He almost screwed up the basketball hire with his buddy from George Mason or George Washington or wherever he was from. I 'm sure he has another friend at Delaware or something.
Bottom line: There isn't a clear next candidate and I'm a firm believer you don't get rid of you current head coach without a clear direction forward. Not to mention the athletics department can't afford two head coaches salaries next year with the huge losses in revenue they're taking this year.
- Breaking News: Today is the start of the early signing period for Basketball: Michigan's two 5 star recruits Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate have both signed their LOI's and sent them to Michigan. Tschetter is also in and Barnes is expected to do his on Friday. All players are expected to sign and send in their LOI's today, no official announcement is expected until all players have signed.
- The SEC had to cancel 3 games this weekend, I still don't know how the math works for Wisconsin to be able to play this weekend. Yes, I do! the dollars on a primetime game. People love to watch Michigan crash and even more when Harbaugh is crashing with them. Even the Big Ten offices seem to enjoy it.
5 comments:
Bob personally I think coach H issue is his loyalty to his coaches. He doesn’t know when to let someone go or when to keep the right person. Looking back Don Brown should have been let go after the 2018 season. Chris partridge should have been promoted and give Coach Mattison a pay bump to stay and help Chris develop Chris and the defense. Coach Brown is DONE. He haven’t recruited well on defense since Chris left and Mattison left. We have no defensive tackle to stuff the middle of the line anymore. Coach H needs to wake the fuck up and start making tough choices and that starts with getting Don Brown out. I would offer Coach Chris a position to get him to come back. This gives you a young motivated guy that can coach defense and he can recruit his butt off. I want coach H to stay but he needs a better coaching staff around him.
So frustrating!!!!!
One of my favorite coaching minds is Bill Parcells and I love his quotes. One of his quotes that would be appropriate for Coach Harbaugh is, "No matter how much you've won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you're not winning now, so you stink." which is so true.
Then another quote (or paraphrase) of his is "For every rookie that you start in your lineup you can count it as a loss." We can see the truth of that statement in our current team. The problem is that this year we have so many "rookies" in our lineup but what else can you do about it now. They have to play this year and get the much needed experience so that they can challenge for next year. Michigan isn't going anywhere this year without help from heaven, so Michigan might as well use this year to prepare the team for next season with experienced players.
This problem with my suggestion is that Michigan fans have a sense of entitlement, we feel that we deserve to be the best simply because of who we are..."we're MICHIGAN!" This is not instant coffee where you simply add water and stir, the best tasting coffee is not instant, the best meals are not store bought out of a can; like it or not this is a rebuild year. My point is that you can't reasonably fire Harbaugh off of this year because of this (talented but) young roster. Moreover, this is a crazy Covid-19 schedule changing season. We don't even know if we'll get in all eight games or if we or our opponents will have the same roster a week from now. It's a throw away season so we might as well use it to our advantage if we can and give these guys a meaningful experience.
News flash, Harbaugh will not be fired and he will not resign, in fact (like it or not) odds are he will be extended. Just think like an AD about how losing Harbaugh "now" would affect your program. This apparently has been a slow build because we don't use "bag men" to bring in top recruits, but we finally have the young talent now anyway which puts us to where we want to be as a program but they need meaningful experience. We "can" be patient this year because we "have" to be. IMHO!!!
Voice I completely understand what you are saying about this season. What about last season or the season before that? We should have been reloading and building up the talent that we have. Recruit recruit recruit, we let 2 of our best recruits on the defensive side go (Mattison and partridge) why? Because coach H wanted to sit with Don brown. Coach Mattison is doing great at OSU and so is partridge. Like I said above I don’t want coach H to leave but he has to make some adjustments and change up the defense, start by brining in someone to replace coach Brown.
Doc (Unknown), we are not really in disagreement in the areas that matter the most. One of my previous rants included a point where the coaches should have prepared current players for future seasons. We know that there is a huge difference in the playing time between starters and non-starters because coaches want to win and win now, but...(for example) when you know that your current QB starter (Shea Patterson) will be moving on after that year, therefore, because it's a very important position you "should" strategically start preparing your potential future starter for the next year. [The coaches could argue that they were doing just that.]
In fact, I would argue that some coaches think outside of the box to prepare their QB's e.g., Jalen Hurts a rookie QB behind Carsen Wentz is being put into every game with special packages including as a WR and a Wildcat QB because they are "speeding up his preparation." Even Devin Gardner switched to WR for a time (many coaches would cringe at the thought of their QB getting hurt) but I would argue that his time as WR helped him get used to game speed and possibly reading defenses when he returned to QB which goes to my point.
As a fan I wanted Coach H to win as soon as he came, but let's be real, he was left with some "nice" players and they were experienced which was the reason why they were winning under his leadership, but those players were not the overall quality of talent and depth that the Alabama's, Clemson's and osu had. Now Michigan has very good talent (e.g., look at Joe Milton) but they are playing like rookies making rookie mistakes. They need to develop and development comes through coaching and playing time and with that process comes losses especially this year.
Michigan is trying to catch up with the rest of the elite programs, and I believe they can make a case for being in the same ballpark (close) talent wise as those programs but now they have to develop the talent that they have and win some games against top ten teams. IMHO!!!
It's not the losing or "rookie" mistakes that bothers me. It's the lack of consistent fire. Harbaugh's teams have never played a full 60 with the pedal to the metal. That bothers me. I can understand having a game here or there where they're sluggish for part of the game, but it's every game.
When you have the superior athletes, but they are getting beat to a spot and or overpowered more often than not, it's a problem. When there is a lack of focus and stupid penalties, it's a problem. It just seems like there is a country club mentality. There is no accountability.
Just for laughs...
-Bryan Harsin, Boise State HC
-Luke Fickell, Cincinnati HC
-Matt Campbell, Iowa State HC
-Rod Carey, Temple HC
-Dave Doeren, NC State HC
-Tony Elliott, Clemson OC & Assistance HC
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