Next Michigan Coach?

[uofmarmyguy]

See a lot of grumblings and a few on campus friends are hearing more than grumblings but a building uproar. Word is Brandon may even find himself out of a job if it gets real bad.

So, if it does go down, who do we bring in, realistically speaking?

No douchebaggery, honest to goodness thought and insight and realistic contractible, quality coaches and assistants they would/could bring.

 

[GoBlueNavyNuke]

This are my thoughts, I defiantly am more open to the idea of a "coach search" than I was at the beginning of the season, but if I were the AD this how I would play it:

Nothing solid, just yet. I would start very internally developing a list of names, but I would still give Hoke the benefit of the doubt, at least until the Penn St. game. There is still the off-chance he could turn the season around and win the Big Ten, lord knows Lloyd did that a time or two.
If things don't look good after the Penn St. game, at that point I would start putting out informal, low-key feelers to those on my list. And if I did not receive positive feedback from a clear "homerun" hire (like one of the Harbaugh brothers), honestly, I think would ride out Hoke through 2014 and very likely through 2015. Sometimes the devil you know is better than taking a chance, and for all his woes Brady Hoke does have a ~66% winning percentage and a BCS victory to his name at Michigan. Better than Mark Dantonio had in his first 3+ years at MSU, and do I need bring up Bill McCartney again? I know this isn't where Michigan belongs, but we could do a lot worst, i.e Rich Rod.

And let me get this out front, no, I do not want Les Miles! For starters, I do think Hoke is a "Michigan Man" and Mile is not. And I mean "Michigan Man" as Bo, a guy who had his origin as far from the University of Michigan as you can get, meant it. Which is not where you come from, but who you are. A man/coach of integrity, and a coach who understands that the most important thing about a college coach is not the record on the field, but off the field. That you develop those boys into men who will represent the university with pride.

This is something I firmly believe Hoke is, no matter what his record is, as a father I would want my son to have him as a coach. I do not feel the same about Miles, after the whole "let the team decide" attitude toward discipline and the reports that came out about his time at Ok. State.

Not to mention I think he is highly overrated as a coach. The only time he did something worth a damn was in his first 3 season, i.e. with Saban's recruits. Since then he has 1 division/conference title to his name, where he barely beat out Saban for the division, but lost decisively in the re-match in the game that mattered. And has a bowl record of 3-3 since that national title, and a number of flat out coaching errors (clock mis-management and the time he thought the 3-5-5 defense was a good idea). Frankly I think he rides on the talent, which is mostly from the state of Louisiana (which I could convince those kids to play for LSU).

 

[uofmarmyguy]

I am hearing the John Harbaugh name now. Apparently he is flat mad at the Ray Rice handling. Wanted him gone when it went down. Has openly stated he would be interested in the Michigan job.

I also do not want Miles, he used MI coach interviews to wrangle more money out of LSU and nothing else. There are a couple more names that interest me as well.

 

[GoBlueNavyNuke]

One the major upsides of getting John Harbaugh is that, at least in theory he could keep one of the best things Hoke was able to accomplish, getting Greg Mattison as the DC.

Given that Mattison was once Harbaugh's DC at Baltimore, it should makes sense that he would be favorable to keeping him around.

 

[Voltaire26]

Dave Brandon needs to go first. Brady Hoke looks lost on the sidelines, and the only reason for that is he is being micromanaged. To quote Colin Powell: "The commander in the field is always right and the
rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise." Brandon tries to be puppet master instead of knowing his role. If you have to fire Hoke (and maybe you do) have a new AD in place first.

 

[MI Nightmare]

Hoke will definitely be relieved of duty in December, and rightfully so. Brandon is a different story. He has more friends both on the U-M Board of Regents and more importantly (for both the school and athletic dept.) U-M donors than most people realize. Pair it with a new university president (Schlissel seems to be one that honors contracts who's more entrenched finding a cure for cancer than giving two shits about our football record) that really doesn't feel athletics are even a part of the school's mission statement nor does he want blood on his hands so early in his tenure, and we've got a problem that won't be addressed until 2017, when DB's contract expires (thank-you Mary Sue Coleman).

Baring an even larger scandal Brandon will survive and remain AD. The pompous weasal gets under my skin too but as long as he hits a home run on the next head coach and brings in a poop ton of money for the athletic department over the next couple years, I can live with it.

 

[GoBlueNavyNuke]

The problem with that though is that I don't think have of the big hires we have in mind would touch Michigan as long as Brandon is the AD.

So for better or worse, if Brandon is the AD, I wouldn't be surprised if he retains Hoke.