Michigan Tuesday: Thinks It Must Have Been An Awkward Bust

This look from Brady tells how happy he is to be there. 
 Jose Juarez / Special to Detroit News

Michigan's Football Bust was last night and Brady Hoke attended.  Which leads me to a question, in what profession are you fired from your job but asked to attend an office party/banquet the next week?   There must have been some awkward moments last night. 

• Devin Gardner and Jake Ryan were named the captains.  

• Freep got one quote from Hackett:  "The interest has blown me away" . Does he mean by coaches wanting the job or how us fans are trying to track his every move and blowing up servers on any information regarding Jimmy and the job.  Let's hope its all the high profile coaches wanting the gig.

• Reports are that Oregon State has contacted Hoke regarding their opening.    Hoke worked for OSU early in his career and their AD worked at Michigan (in the Athletic department) while Brady was on staff as an assistant.  This would be a great move for him if offered.   Michigan also plays Oregon State next year in the Big House.   Which is very ironic as SDSU came to the Big House his first year has head coach at Michigan.

• Brian at Mgoblog gave us some more information on the players meeting with Jimmy.   It seems a bunch of former players got together to watch the Ohio State game with Jimmy and they all told him he needs to come back and fix this.   His response was, you will have to wait (until after the year) and they will have to be willing to write a check.    Michigan is willing to do both Jimmy, Come home!

• The Raiders?  Is Jimmy going to work for this guy?  Really?  It should be illegal to work for a guy with that terrible of a haircut.  Just so I understand, the 49'ers are going to trade Jimmy to their rival across the bay and Jimmy is going to work well with Mark Davis when he couldn't get along with the 49'ers brass?    Someone help this guy with his lettuce! 

 

• A plan B name that has continues to come up is Jim Mora (the younger one, he is actually not a Jr. because he has a different middle name then his father).  I have been surprised how well UCLA has done under his watch.  He turned down Texas and UW last year. He is known as a good recruiter but USC is about to come off  "punishment" and things could change.   Is he looking for a raise or really interested.  Michigan could do worse, but the point is they could do better. 

• I don't know how the Sean Payton rumors could be true.  But if they are, I'm on board.  Another name that I like is Kyle Whittingham, he always seems to do more with less.   He is a Plan B guy but, Michigan could do worse.  Michigan opens at Utah next year.

Wildcard Wednesday: Things I don't Understand in Sports

• Why doesn't Division 1 College Football have a playoff system? I don't want to hear the arguments about kids missing class, please! Other college sports travel more and miss much more class. D1A and D2 has playoffs, are those students academics worth less then a D1 athlete? Money - Come on, a D1 playoff system would generate more. The importance of the regular reason - How would that change? If you had an 8 team playoff system or even a +1, the regular season games are still very important. I do like the traditions of the bowl games, but there are ways to keep them involved. I think the only real losers would be the Motor City Bowl and Poulan Weed Eater Bowls if still around would become the equivalent of the NIT in Basketball. If you think about it, aren't they the NIT already?
• Al Davis? I'm know when you own the team, you can make any damn decision you want. But if this guy was my Grandfather, I wouldn't let him hold the TV remote! I saw on ESPN last night that he was taking away play calling from Greg Knapp, the team's offensive coordinator. Are you kidding me? I believe the only thing this guy has done right over the past 10 years was hire Jon Gruden. Then of course he traded him. I'm sorry, but the NFL or someone has to step in and relieve Al of his duties, he is making a mockery out of himself and his once proud franchise. What quality coach would want to coach the Raiders? I'm sure his head coaching wish list looks like this right now: #1 John Cooper, #2 Wayne Fontes, #3 Jerry Faust, #4 Greg Robinson current headman at Syracuse.
• Signing Day: Basketball vs Football: Did you know today is one of the official signing days for high school seniors to officially sign their letter of intent for the 2009 class in Basketball. Yes, today! Why is college football so behind college basketball? Most major college football programs have their 2009 class filled or close to full and have moved on to the 2010 class. There should be an early signing period for Football as well. This seems like a no brainier. Of course people will argue, what if kids change their minds, etc. Well don't sign early or make it easier for schools to let kids out without a penalty. Last point, with all these kids enrolling early, does it make sense that kids could enroll in college, start class in January and not have to sign their letter of intent until late February? It doesn't, change the rule and add an earlier date.
• Every play in college football is reviewed? Varsity Blue another fine Michigan blog, made this same point this week. It seems the guys in the booth only look at replays if: a catch is trapped, if a runners knee was down before the end zone, or did the ball come out on a possible fumble. I see at least two or three plays each game that should be reviewed but isn't. Michigan clearly recovered a fumble in the Minnesota game and it wasn't reviewed. Come on guys! Push the button and watch the game!
• Why do we care so much about Notre Dame? There was a constant stream on the ESPN ticker last night that Charlie Wies is going to take over play calling for his Offensive Coordinator who is at a funeral this week and will miss some practice time. Who Cares? How is this news? Information like this should be reserved for Notre Dame Blogs not a national news story on ESPN. Let's also be honest here for a second, the reason he is taking over play calling is because Boston College beat them 17-0. Not because his OC is attending a funeral.

Is a Michigan Man Going to Coach the Raiders?

Many Michigan fans will debate you on whether Jim Harbaugh is a true Michigan man after "throwing the program under the bus" a couple of years ago. He stated "the [Michigan] athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they’re in, they steer them to courses in sports communications. They’re adulated when they’re playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won’t hire them". Harbaugh stated that he had wanted to major in history at Michigan, but was told early in his freshman year that he shouldn't major in history because it was too demanding academically. Those comments alone kept the former Michigan QB from being considered for the Michigan opening last winter.

Now the current Cardinal coach is reportedly being considerd as the next Oakland Raiders Head coach. Harbaugh is currently in his second year of a 5 year contract at Stanford and Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby isn't wasting anytime by trying to lock Jim up to a long term contract.

Jim and I have talked, and I have visited with his agent," Bowlsby wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. "We will be happy to extend Jim as long as he would like to be extended. No details have been determined, but we would like to keep Jim at Stanford as long as possible."

When asked Tuesday about the Raiders job, Harbaugh, a former assistant in Oakland, said: "I have given no thought to any other job than the one I have. I haven't talked to anybody or anything like that. I hope this doesn't get to be like the quarterback question — like who's your starting quarterback. That would get real repetitive."


Harbaugh changed the subject when asked if he and Raiders owner Al Davis had spoken recently.