Michigan Football, 2021 Season

[Mike]

However, if the situation is such that M has offered HARBAUGH!!!! a conisderably shittier contract (in terms of stability), HARBAUGH!!!! no likey and is looking at NFL and if HARBAUGH!!|!!! doesn't find something he likes he'll sign on for, essentially, one more year, then....that's a total fucking shitshow.

This is exactly what is happening. Michigan is his plan B and Warde is his fat ugly safety date to the prom. Remember: No man is bigger than the team. No coach is bigger than the team. Unless that coach is Jim Harbaugh.

It is a disgraceful display. Jeff hit the nail on the head up thread. You offer a contract and say you have 24 or 48 hours to decide because I have a program to run. If he quibbles, kindly point out that he hasn't won shit and can his ass. Pretty much every other big boy program operates that way. It's a goddamn business and Michigan too concerned about hurting someone's feelings while the program continues to burn.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...liney lives in a van down by the river?

[Mike]

If Warde Manual wants him gone, then allowing him to potentially come back for 2021 is a funny way to go about things.

It's because he's a big gigantic fucking pussy.

[iam416]

That's definitely what I think is happening. It's a total shitshow that has somehow managed to make HARBAUGH!!! coaching in 2021 even worse than it was before.

Better hope the NFL white knights your ass.

[lineygoblue]

...liney lives in a van down by the river?

Not yet. Mrs. Liney still lets me live in the tool shed out near the tree line.

[lineygoblue]

There's still a lot of pro-Harbaugh people in the decision-making chain of command. I think that's why Manuel is giving Harbaugh this silly "extension" offer, so that he can stay, but only on the dumbest of terms. I still think its designed to get Harbaugh to fire himself, so that Manuel doesn't have to soil his hands with a termination. This way, Manuel has the insulation against the pro-Harbaugh folks where he can say "I tried to keep him", but also pleases the anti-Harbaugh folks in greasing the rails to get him to leave. Its both cowardly and cunning at the same time.

[iam416]

It's quite the game of chicken.

[froot loops]

I think the buyout is influencing a lot of these moves.

[iam416]

That's a shockingly fair point.

[Mike]

Liney brings up a good point about Warde wanting Jim to fire himself.

I used this analogy in a conversation recently: Since $8M/year is essentially CEO money can you imagine this Michigan situation at a Fortune 500 company? Hey Mr. CEO, our stock is in the shitter, your performance is abysmal, we can't retain or attract top talent, and we have you on video sexually harassing half the staff. So you have two options: A) You can choose to fire yourself, or B) sign this new 3 -5 year contract for a little less money. And then the CEO pulls his best Lou Brown and says "Oh, I don't know... I got a guy on the other line about some white walls. I'll talk to you later, OK!"

This whole episode encapsulates the ineptitude of Michigan football. They simply don't know what the fuck they are doing.

[froot loops]

They are trapped in a cage of their own making.

[Tom W]

Maybe they do know exactly what they're doing- or at least they think they know. They just don't think that we are worthy of being told about it.

This is by no means any assurance that what they are doing is the right thing. In fact, if recent history is any indication, they'll probably screw this up

What we see as a “Shitshow” is really just the musings of a bunch of self-important outsiders who claim to know a lot more than they really do. They’re all experts, however, and they use each other as sources to speculate and conjecture about what they “know” is going on. This is by no means a unique way of doing things, but it’s something that seems particularly well suited to the way in which things work in, and around, Michigan..

But, hey, "We're Michigan The Leaders and the Best" Keep repeating that and everyone will believe you.

[lineygoblue]

But, hey, "We're Michigan The Leaders and the Best" Keep repeating that and everyone will believe you.

They appear to still believe that. The chain of command seems to think all we need is 'the big house' and 'running out under the banner' and 'the band/fight song', and coaching candidates will come running and begging to be placed in the HC position.

It hasn't happened at all. In fact, after Rich Rod was fired, the Michigan HC position was rejected by several of the so-called 'top' candidates at the time. Even though Dave Brandon wanted Hoke all along, nobody else wanted the job, with the exception of Les Miles, if he is to be believed.

Nobody is going to be itching to jump into this job. If Harbaugh leaves, its going to get worse, before it gets better.

[froot loops]

It sort of reminds me of the nonsense that went at MSU at the end of Perles all the way through to the time where they hired Dantonio. I'm sure this shit is ripe at any college that had success in the past. With MSU Saban was always at odds with the Duffy faction and that was the main reason he left. All of the other factors of why he left were generally symptoms of that. They needed the failures of Smith and Williams to finally beat down all the factions so everyone was on the same page.

Conversely, it goes to show you how well OSU has kept that shit under wraps. Every coach they have employed has ended badly, that makes it ripe for factions but I guess Gene Smith runs a tight ship.

[iam416]

It was more Andy Geiger's hiring of Jim Tressel. There were factions in that one. Glen Mason was a beloved ex-Buckeye w/ credible success at Minnesota. Tressel was a D-1AA coach. Geiger chose wisely.

UFM was such an easy hire that if there were factions they had zero power to stop that. And CRD was hand-picked by UFM (and Gene). And the vast majority of the boosters and AD still loved UFM (and still do). So, that was easy.