Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[Dr. Strangelove]

The only downside of Harbaugh might have been that he wouldn't have stayed very long. Otherwise, the objections to him are silly. I have to think a lot of the dislike goes back to his comments a couple years ago about how Michigan puts its athletes in easy classes or whatever it was he said.

[Mackenzie]

Changing coaches and staffs every two or three years sucks.

Changing coaches that run different systems every three years sucks even more.

[lineygoblue]

Harbaugh's gripe against Michigan was that when he was a student, he wanted to major in History, but the academic advisor pushed him toward "easier" classes because he was an athlete. He claims that Michigan is still doing that.

They probably are ... duh ... as are most other schools in the NCAA. Shoot, I'd wager that even the Ivy League schools "take care" of their athletes academically.

[hack]

What prompted it again? Wasn't there some sort of something that the combative side of him didn't like, and this was a reply?

[Optimus Prime]

Well it's not TRUE true, but it's a lot more true than any of us would like to believe.

Jeff: none of those reasons are valid. Harbaugh can win clean and he can win big and every dime spent on him and his program will return the program more than 10 cents in return. Football is the school's brand and its front door.

STANFORD was happy to have him, no reason for Michigan not to do the same. 7-1 with the 49 ers, looks pretty damn good to me. Or the Mad hater heading to Tuscaloosa, HillyBillyville to keep Saban squarely in the nuts on his way to ANOTHER national title, hell yes.

[lineygoblue]

What prompted it again? Wasn't there some sort of something that the combative side of him didn't like, and this was a reply?

Not sure it was ever explained, but I think it had to do with the way that RRod was recruiting at Michigan. Harbaugh is no fan of RRod.

[entropy]

back to Nebraska..

Stan..

the volleyball team beat Michigan on friday and MSU on Saturday.

[UMStan White]

Impressive ladies!

[hack]

Bacon nailed it -- the two hottest coaches in college football, both with ties and loyalty, and UM thinks neither one is good enough. Pathetic. Harbaugh should have been told from the start that nobody would outbid Michigan.

[WM Wolverine]

The mistake was:

1. Allowing a lame duck coach to sit around after the OSU game when it should've already been decided if he'd keep RR around.

2. Not going after their primary target immediately after the OSU game, which was Harbaugh.

Waiting till after the bowl games cut off a lot of potential targets (as most colleges fire coaches after the regular season to get a head start on recruiting) and put M at a disadvantage at finding its coach. I think they got pretty lucky with Hoke landing in their lap, he might not be the best football mind but he's a great leader whose surrounded himself with really good football people.

[lineygoblue]

It would have cost Michigan 2.5 million dollars to fire RRod before Jan 1.

[whodean]

There was no way M could give Jimmy NFL money.

[Jeff Buchanan]

2. Not going after their primary target immediately after the OSU game, which was Harbaugh.

There's a reason to that according to Bacon.

If Bacon is correct, I'm just dumbfounded that neither Carr nor Martin had a plan that included Carr staying or retiring. Martin should have been pressing Carr if Carr was hesitant about making up his mind to retire. If he was certain he was going to retire (and my beleif is that he was), Carr should have told Martin early on (like in January, 2007) and made his desires known .... these are my candidates that I want considered.

Good CEOs plan for unexpected losses of key executives. Martin is not a good CEO he is a bumbling idiot that saddled Michigan football with a terrible situation in replacing LC that MSC had to jump in and bail his dumb ass out of. Astonishing.

[hack]

Intellectual honesty requires the acknowledgement that, for all its academic accomplishments, football is not only what this university is known most for but also a boat that has lifted tides in every single thing the university does. Far fewer people put up with all the bullshit ongoing at this very large and rather disorganized organisation (I can tell you all about the rather interesting turf war over pest control on campus, ie) without football creating the positive memories that overshadow the negatives and make fundraising so much easier. Taking care of your main asset = paying properly for coaches and facilities, not subscribing to some expired exceptionalist doctrine that envisions top coaches committing to retire at UM but never demanding market rate for their services. I know it's never gonna happen though, and Bacon explains it well.

If there's one area in which the SEC-style programs are morally superior to Michigan's, in that way that morality is discussed in the context of CFB, it's that they don't pretend that football doesn't matter.

[Ghengis Jon]

So what's your take Entropy? You gonna love or loathe facing PSU this of all weekends?

Added: The Joe PA story has hit the home page of the BBC news site. Amazing the legs this story has!