The Rest of College Football

[Tony G]

Why go after Harbaugh's coaching tree? Why not Saban's?

[Dr. Strangelove]

GET BOBBY WILLIAMS!

[JRB]

Why go after Harbaugh's coaching tree? Why not Saban's?

Saban's coaching tree has provided some very mixed results. Jimbo Fisher seems to be doing OK for himself, but Derek Dooley didn't exactly set the world on fire at Tennessee, Will Muschamp may be about to get fired in Gainesville, and Mike Haywood was an unmitigated disaster. I suppose you could throw Dantonio in there, but I think of him more as part of Tressel's coaching tree.

[whodean]

Kirby Smart will wind up the head guy somewhere soon.

[hack]

Bobby Williams is on Saban's staff.

I've said it before, but Harbaugh for all intents and purposes is the man who should be here. He is Bo 2.0 and he can handle A2. Maybe not with as much folksy charm as Hoke does, but he knows how from experience how to speak their language at least. And if he were here he'd erase the ghosts. Carr would be nowhere to be seen.

But if you can't have a direct line to God, get his assistant on the phone.

[entropy]

AP Top 25

1 Alabama (56) 9-0 1472
2 Florida State (3) 9-0 1418
3 Ohio State 9-0 1310
4 Baylor 8-0 1303
5 Stanford 8-1 1272
6 Oregon 8-1 1139
7 Auburn 9-1 1109
8 Clemson 8-1 1049
9 Missouri 9-1 1012
10 Texas A&M 8-2 909
11 South Carolina 7-2 857
12 Oklahoma State 8-1 780
13 UCLA 7-2 669
14 Michigan State 8-1 633
15 UCF 7-1 596
16 Fresno State 9-0 588
17 Wisconsin 7-2 503
18 LSU 7-3 470
19 Louisville 8-1 467
20 Northern Illinois 9-0 396
21 Arizona State 7-2 362
22 Oklahoma 7-2 285
23 Texas 7-2 185
24 Miami (FL) 7-2 121
25 Georgia 6-3 78

Dropped from rankings: Notre Dame 24, Texas Tech 25

Others receiving votes: Ole Miss 68, Minnesota 60, Nebraska 16, Duke 11, USC 10, Washington 9, Ball State 7, Virginia Tech 5, Brigham Young 3, Notre Dame 2, Houston 1




I guess losing in the SEC is like winning in other conferences.

[Mike]

Heh. The highest ranked 1-loss team, highest ranked 2-loss team, highest ranked 3-loss team, highest ranked 7-win team, highest ranked 6-win team. What do you mean!?

[hack]

Noted in those rankings -- into their third season without Harbaugh Stanford shows signs of staying strong. Harbaugh left that program in good shape. Michigan would do well to get all the little bits and scraps of Harbaugh they can. I'd be doing due diligence on members of that staff right now for Borges' spot.

[whodean]

The Rest of CF

You are obsessed with Harbaugh.

Ageed that changes will be needed on the offensive side, Funk needs to go, he will be the sacrifice for how shitty the Oline is.

[hack]

Can you think of a reason why I shouldn't be?

Frankly, YOU should be obsessed with Harbaugh, as should anyone else who cares what offensive style we run. I'm slightly more comfortable with manball than with the spread, but I've seen that you can win with either style and that there are some fairly manballish spreads out there too. I don't care what offense we run. I think it's more important to run whatever you run well than to focus on what choice of offensie is made. But there's a contingent of fans that would rather win with manball than a spread, and for that contingent, of which you are a member, Harbaugh ought to be your wet dream. And, of course, if Harbaugh isn't available you go for his assistants. It's the same with little girls that live on hills. If they don't love you, see if their sisters will.

[Mike]

Harbaugh is not in play and most likely never will be. For me, that's what was so crushing when he took the 49ers job. That was our Saban/Meyer hire. We would have been a perennial top 5 team with 11-1/10-2 regular seasons being the norm with at least 1 magical undefeated season in the mix. To go from that prospect to Fred Flintstone and 8-4/7-5 seasons (and looking bad in the process) is the biggest kick in the nuts Michigan football fans have ever received. Just brutal.

Having said that, I don't think hiring one of JH's assistant is some sort of magic bullet that will cure our ills. As has been mentioned, Bobby Williams is on staff at Alabama right now. There are plenty of other examples as well. If Brandon and the UM decision makers are smart they'll lay in the weeds until a can't-miss type guy becomes available, then make him an offer he can't refuse. Problem is, I have no idea who that guy is. From my view there's Saban, Meyer, and everybody else when it comes to elite coaches.

[whodean]

The Rest of CF

Harbaugh isn't walking through that door

[Mike]

Ever.

[hack]

Agreed, Mike, that Harbaugh was Michigan's chance and it came up small instead. Disagree with the idea that it's all or nothing with him, though. The Ghost of Bo lives on at Stanford, as in Year 3 of its post-Harbaugh era they are still going strong there with Harbaugh's assistants in charge. I don't know if there are any HC candidates there, but some of them might make the perfect addition to Hoke's staff as OC or position coaches. It makes a ton of sense on paper. Were Michigan smart about it, it should have been in contact with Harbaugh all along, just to keep that relationship sweet.

Meantime, odds are increasingly likely that there will be some coaching changeups. We've got 3 games to go and we're on track for the worst season in four and an OSU game as humiliating as RR's last one. The drumbeat is pretty loud at this point, and it's going to get a lot louder.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Harbaugh went on LLLLLloyd's shit list when he made his comments about Michigan players going to easy classes. Mike Hart himself declared Harbaugh "not a Michigan Man". So let the record reflect.