coaching changes

I'm trying to decide which internet rumor is the flat-out most insane:

Miles is still in play. Yeah. Miles contract guarantees him a heap of money if he wins a national title. Now that he's got a shot at said national title, he's holding off on signing the extension he agreed to before the title game. And people say he'd be interested in the job if it was offered.

So maybe there's a chance? Well... we're dealing with three prideful men here and it will take Bill Martin getting his grovel on to do so. I think it's clear Michigan's AD just isn't that enthused about the idea of Miles, and that remains the largest hurdle.

The reason Miles couldn't get ahold of Martin on Saturday: Martin was on a sailboat. !!!

Obviously, if that's true Martin should be shot into the sun but I find that very, very doubtful.

Michigan might name Ron English an interim coach and try again in 2008. Rivals is apparently pushing this line of thought, and while they've obviously got some strong sources -- they were ahead of the pack on the Saturday disaster -- this would be the no-hyperbole worst decision in the history of coaching searches. Giving the job to English is crazy enough; giving it to him on a one-year basis is guaranteed to obliterate recruiting this year and next and will force Michigan into another awkward decision next year when Michigan goes like 8-4 and the NAACP is like "well? well?"

There would be a riot.

Alex Legion is transferring from Kentucky. Ha, just kidding, obviously this is beyond belief. Uh... this isn't a rumor.

Wildcats freshman shooting guard Alex Legion has decided to transfer, said sources close to the situation.

According to one source, the move primarily concerned Gillispie - and wasn't about playing time.

God's plan remains inscrutable for the young Legion. I actually feel bad for the kid even though his recruitment helped screw Michigan out of something like five different players (Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers didn't want to play with him and went to MSU, he decommitted right before Patrick Beverly chose Arkansas, recommitted right before Michigan was going to offer Laval Lucas-Perry, and finally re-decommitted when Beilein came in), since his mother is clearly bats and it's hard to be anything approaching normal when your mother thinks she's a prophet.

Greg Schiano has not been contacted...

Despite multiple reports in Detroit-area newspapers that list Greg Schiano as a candidate for the vacant Michigan job, Rutgers' head coach has not been contacted by the Big Ten school, according to two people who speak regularly with Schiano. The people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on Schiano's behalf.

...but someone just as awesome has!

At least two schools from BCS conferences -- including Michigan -- have shown preliminary interest in Ball State football coach Brady Hoke about their head coaching jobs. Hoke confirmed to The (Muncie, Ind.) Star Press during the weekend that his name has been advanced about coaching vacancies at the University of Michigan and Washington State University

This is obviously Hoke putting his name out there as a Serious Candidate for Serious Jobs and not reflective of an actual shot at the Michigan job (at least one would hope), but Jesus.

Detroit News:

Les Miles will not be Michigan's next head coach, according to sources close to the situation.

Miles has signed a lucrative, multi-year extension with LSU.

"It's done," said a source close to the situation. "He's staying at LSU."

Whatever happened to the dream job stuff? The crawl on glass stuff? Is another 500k or 1m a year that much of a big deal? Jesus.

Update: Carty says there's a 1:45 press conference at LSU.

Update II: ESPN has changed the story on the site.

!!!

Didn't see it, so can't tell you how strong it was: apparently it was reported as 'breaking news', FWIW. Nothing on the website yet save this announcement Pelini will be Nebraska's new coach.

For those unfamiliar with Tenuta, he was the good half of Georgia Tech the past six years, consistently putting out defenses bad-ass enough to send Reggie Ball to bowl games despite having only scanty talent at Georgia Tech. He coached at Ohio State from 1996 to 2000 as a DBs coach and, in his last year, defensive coordinator. Hiring him would be awesome.

A general summary of things that have been sent to me.

A source close to someone on the search committee asserts that Miles is not a done deal and that there will be a real search; Miles will interview shortly after the SEC championship game but there remains an A list of five or so coaches, including Miles, that Michigan is looking at closely.

On the other side of things, someone relays that email traffic between various big-balling donors says Miles is done and will be announced Monday or Tuesday; two other sources, one from the LSU side of things, are in agreement.

IMO, the preponderance of the evidence is on the side of "it's done," especially with the stuff about the players being told from this morning.

This from a student manager around both Miles and Carr when they were on staff:

I found both Lloyd and Les to be decent, down-to-earth people. Les did have a lot of charisma and intensity back then as he does today. He also could be pretty funny at times. Cameron may have thought he could walk on water a bit because he was credited with putting in some semblance of a consistently efficient passing attack at the end of Bo's tenure (with the QB/WR development of Jim Harbaugh, Greg McMurtry, Chris Calloway, Desmond Howard, and Elvis Grbac), but if he wasn't humbled by his tenure at Indiana, he certainly is now. Never got the impression Miles was more arrogant than the next football coach (there is a certain degree of an asshole/prick factor that comes with the job.)

Cameron left I thought in '92 or '93 to go the Redskins. Also, Miles went to work for a former Colorado colleague, Bob Simmons at Oklahoma State to become offensive coordinator. Moeller never named an offensive coordinator during his tenure, despite being the position he held from '87-'89 as the only OC of the Schembechler era. Maybe Miles and Cameron's departures were to beef up their resume with NFL and OC experience since it was clear Moeller was never going to have an offensive coordinator. If, however, Miles left after Moeller's resignation in May 1995 and Fred Jackson was promoted to OC over him, that may be a different story concerning the origins of this "Les-Lloyd rift."

It seems that Bo was always fond of Les, recalling Miles visiting him after his open heart surgery in his book. If Moeller had coached another 5-10 years, Miles would have been the successor (either directly promoted as a UofM assistant or from Oklahoma State/Dallas Cowboys) with Bo's public blessing. If we're talking anywhere between 2000-2005, Lloyd probably would have been too old at that point to start a head coaching tenure. Lloyd actually interviewed for the Wisconsin job after the '89 season, but the job went to Barry Alvarez.

The generally held opinion on the rift between Miles and Carr -- which I believe to be real -- was that it started three or four years ago when Miles started recruiting against Michigan regularly and apparently told some kids that Carr was retiring. The nastier version of the story goes that Carr's supposed health issues were also relayed. Depending on your POV and which side of the story you tend to believe, this is either a misunderstanding or PURE EVIL.

The upshot: given everything out there at the moment, I would be very surprised if it was anyone other than Miles; the aggressive timeline is a bit shakier given what looks like real resistance to the idea from some camps in the athletic department.

IMO: Miles expects an offer and will take it if he gets one; he told the team as much. Pro-Miles people in the AD expect to offer him Sunday after the SECCG and announce early in the week; Anti-Miles people in the AD are hoping to delay, interview some other guys, and possibly find someone else.

What may be one final blast of unconfirmed internet rumor: Tigerdroppings has multiple posters who say Miles has told the players he's leaving.

He told the team today after practice that he's stepping down and going to Michigan. (or at least so a little birdie told me...)

Another:

I can confirm this as well. Heard directly from a players mouth. Miles is gone. Expect it to break soon. Players can't keep this secret long.

And more:

this was just confirmed to me through a text message from a guy i know on the team...so its pretty true.

An email followup to one of the guys on the board:

I'm pretty good friends w/ RJ Jackson. I was hanging out w/ his girlfriend, Chelsea, tonight. I dropped her off at his apartment so they could hang for a while before they left for ATL. He told us Miles informed them at practice today that "he was leaving". Told whole team he took the UM job. I didn't get to go into details. Its true and a done deal.

Local news stations down in Baton Rouge also seem pretty sure he's out.

Is this 100%? No. There were a few reports of similar quality -- credible seeming, multiply-sourced -- on Kirk Ferentz accepting the job linked here that turned out to be wrong. These are concentrated on one message board, which is bad, but are much more specific, which is good.

Is this 90%? Yeah. Four different people above claim to have heard from players on the team that Miles is leaving. The Ferentz things had no details and no indication anyone at the program had been told; in contrast, this would be a point of no return announcement by Miles. And there's precious little room for misinterpretation here.