Comprehensive Coaching Change/Coaching Search Thread

[Mike]

This would be, what? The 4the OC and 3rd DC during Harbaugh’s time here? The problem is him. If Manuel thinks Harbaugh can right the ship with new coordinators, then he needs to be fired also, as Hannibal said. The problem is the university president and the Regents don’t give a flying fuck about fielding a championship-level football team. Michigan is just another program. They are Tennessee, South Carolina, UCLA, Texas Tech, Virginia, etc. A major university that fields Division 1 athletic teams in various sports. The end.

[lineygoblue]

Exactly. They are the Detroit Lions of CFB. They field a mediocre product, that a lot of people spend big bucks to buy, they rake in their profits, and pat themselves on the back for running a profitable organization. They recruit just enough talent to keep the fans coming in, buying tickets, concessions, paying for parking, and buying merchandise. EXACTLY what the Lions have done for decades.

Championships? Why? People will come to see the sub-standard product that you're marketing now.

Why waste the effort building a "champion", when people will buy what you're selling now?

Warde Manuel knows Jim Harbaugh is the guy to make his business model happen. That's what he'll be saying if he signs him to an extension.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've been disengaged with M football so, I may be behind the current coaching news but, I just spent a few minutes reading mgoblog - yes I know a waste of time - I do know who to read and pay attention to and who to entirely dismiss on that blog. There was a post offering an optimistic alternative to what appears to be a horribly manged football program with a finger pointing to Ward Manuel. It involves a scenario where Harbaugh has already told Ward he's not returning but as the AD, he's giving him cover. He's also, by his public statements ("no contract discussions with Harbaugh until after the last game.") keeping the press from continually pestering him. I think that makes sense. What didn't make sense was the notion that this approach allows Manuel to conduct a coaching search back channel. That is nearly impossible to do under any circumstances these days.

I don't think it is certain, like I thought it was a few days ago, that Harbuagh is going to get a 3 year extension. I think there is enough smoke out there to give weight to the idea that he's done as HC of Michigan. Something has not been right with him or the players for a while. You can go down a long list of appearances that are red flags with regard to program health. There are 6 assistants whose contracts expire within the next two months. There's no talk of renewal of those at all and those who have been contacted by prying sports journalists reportedly have declined comment.

Anywho, I think he's done with CFB and sees his continued employment as HC of the Wolverines as harmful to the program for whatever reasons. Beyond that, I have no idea what will transpire.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Stay the course

[lineygoblue]

This whole extension talk thing is making more sense all the time. Manuel doesn't want to fire Harbaugh, but he knows he needs to get a new HC. With the extension's terms, Harbaugh will be in the position of either taking a pay cut with incentives to make more, or bolt to the NFL for more guaranteed money. If Harbaugh bolts, he saves Manuel the distastefulness of firing him, and moves on of his own choosing. If he stays, he's going to make less money, and Manuel will have a less expensive way to fire him any time during the extension.

I have long thought that Harbaugh would never return to the NFL, but now, I'm not so sure. I'd guess the chances are about 50/50 right now.

[Mike]

I think as long as he has a suitor, he’ll jump in a heartbeat. That seems to be what he and Warde are both waiting for. What I’m a little irritated by is who gives a fuck about saving face or not hurting Jim’s feelings? No man... no coach is bigger than the team! Unless that man is Jim Harbaugh.

You either want him to be the coach going forward or you don’t. This idea that Warde is waiting for an NFL team to essentially bail him out so he doesn’t have to fire Harbaugh is proof that he isn’t fit to be the AD of a major program in 2020.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Don't disagree with that, Mike. But, cover your ass is M's motto. It's been that way for as long as you and I have been around M culture. One of the things I've observed is that there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen that want to have or actually do have a say in anything to do with M athletics. For example, it wasn't as much Bill Martin responsible for RichRod's demise as it was all the strap hangers that undercut him. Martin, IMO, made a good hire. RR was in his prime as a HC. He would have been fine save for the circumstances he ended up emerged in and his own simpering reaction to them.

Then along came Dave Brandon - now there was a POS, Michigan AD if there ever was one. The Hoke hire was terrible and it ended up exactly like most of us predicted it would - nice guy, not up to the task of running a P5 program. But Brandon, IMO, was heavily influenced in that hire by people with fingers in the pie.

Jim Hackett of the last three, probably did the best job of being in tune with influential outsiders, dealing with them and landing Harbaugh. At face it was a terrific hire. But Jim has baggage and it got off-loaded in the last two years. You probably read the SI article on the likelihood of Harbaugh jumping to the NFL. In it, it was made clear that Jim can be a wunderkind in managing turnarounds but his personality is abrasive, he's quirky and he rubs players and management the wrong way. The article then went on to say, most NFL owners would green light a Harbaugh hire given his proven potential to deliver a couple of 10 or 11 win seasons and despite the fact he's a dick. For that they'd overlook his dickishness for a couple of shots at a title, then, after he's pissed off everybody in the process of gaining that title shot, just let him go somewhere else.

I don't think Hackett expected the current outcome but I'm pretty sure he knew the risks of a Harbaugh personality flame-out when he offered him. Turns out they were realized. Manuel's going to be in the same boat with whatever goes down with the football program in the coming months. The many cooks in the Michigan football kitchen are going to be stirring the pot advocating for this guy or that guy. Then there will be the cover-your-ass crowd within the U administration putting their two cents in on the whole process. Is what it is and to the detriment of the alleged Champions of the West returning to fulfill that meme. Remains to be seen how Warde will handle it.

[Tom W]

I don't think it is certain, like I thought it was a few days ago, that Harbuagh is going to get a 3 year extension. I think there is enough smoke out there to give weight to the idea that he's done as HC of Michigan. Something has not been right with him or the players for a while. You can go down a long list of appearances that are red flags with regard to program health. There are 6 assistants whose contracts expire within the next two months. There's no talk of renewal of those at all and those who have been contacted by prying sports journalists reportedly have declined comment.

Anywho, I think he's done with CFB and sees his continued employment as HC of the Wolverines as harmful to the program for whatever reasons. Beyond that, I have no idea what will transpire.

We'll likely never know what happened, but a HUGE red flag seems to have come out in the week between the Minnesota and MSU games. The team that played against the Gophers was the team that we have been expecting to see. it got completely lost after that game.

I agree that there's something not right with Harbaugh. His inability to keep his teams composed- we've seen this disengagement several times in the last few years- tells me that he's just not "into it" anymore. That stuff happens and while it may be obvious to others, it's not particularly easy to admit. That's why I think the NFL "rumors" are garbage. There's no shortage of competent, enthusiastic assistants and P5 coaches and no NFL team, even the Detroit Lions, is foolish enough to hire a coach who's lost his passion for the job.

[hack]

To me it is screamingly obvious that he has lost the team and lacks buy-in from his staff as well. But even some of the closest watchers in our overall fan base don't see that. So I doubt the mostly poorly-run NFL teams in need of coaches are watching closely enough that we can be certain they see that too.

I don't know for sure if Harbaugh can get an NFL job but in lieu of having my own information to act on I'm minded to believe John Bacon and the other smoke out there. Pro franchises love retreads, and don't often believe that college and pro coaching is the same thing. Many of the GMs are retreads themselves only marginally capable of investigating red flags.

Entirely possible this is just hopeful on my part but IMO the easy-way-out thinking for NFL people is to just assume that Harbaugh is better suited to the pro game than to dealing with college kids. All it takes is one foolish team to engage in the kind of shallow analysis and rash decisionmaking we ought to be hoping for here.

(please make it the Lions so I can laugh at them more)

[Hannibal]

To me it is screamingly obvious that he has lost the team and lacks buy-in from his staff as well. But even some of the closest watchers in our overall fan base don't see that

I think that is finally not the case. mgoblog is pretty much 100% on board with firing Harbaugh, and they are historically the biggest coach apologists.

[hack]

I'm thinking about others as well. You see it on twitter.

I think that there's also the argument that ``even if he never beat OSU he was performing pretty darn well until this year and he gets a pass for COVID''. That will also have traction with at least some NFL people. I don't agree myself. But if you're an NFL team and not the kind that can atttract a Bienemy, those arguments could be compelling to at least one GM. They'll look at the overall overall and see that he turned around a 5-7 team and was a snap away from the CCG in 16, suffered some injuries and some bad luck, etc. You and me and others know something's been off since '17 -- at least IIRC I think you'd probably agree with me on that -- but we watch a lot more closely and consume a lot more information about Michigan than any GM could ever absorb even in a coaching-search crash course.

[THE_WIZARD_]

#staythecourseharbaugh

[hack]

I see you learned three new words this year.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Four.

[hack]

But apparently not how to count that high.