Matt Dudek resigns
Title says it all, per Sam Webb "Major shake up to recruiting department".
*And Harbaugh's, for keeping him around for as long as he did.
Exactly. He hired this guy in the first place.
Everything points to this program being a dysfunctional mess because it lacks leadership at the top.
Harbaugh probably didn’t hire him if he’s been at Michigan 10 years.
Dudek was hired in 2017. Not sure where you're getting this 'been at Michigan for 10 years' thing from.
What does it say then that he's basically burnt the thing to the ground then this off season and hired what seems to be a young energetic staff and appears to be revamping that same recruiting program? Granted I wish he'd have done this about 2 years ago when it becam obvious to the rest of us it wasn't working but I'm glad to see it now rather than never.
Did he make these changes by choice or to save his job? Is hiring an NFL position coach who worked with brother a great hire? Hiring an OL coach--toughest position to coach in football--who has never done it before? These might turn out to be great hires, but everything feels like its the path of least resistance--the Gattis hire by phone, a GA coaching WRs one year, hell the lack of urgency by the offense when down by 10 in the 4th quarter, etc. This isn't the mark of great overall leadership.
I've always thought Dudek is an interesting guy. On one hand, almost all players and recruits love him. Some Michigan fans and most other schools' fans hate him because of his tweets. Some M fans blame him when we don't land top recruits.
He has not tweeted as much as before. In the past he also tweeted about his family, looked like they are a nice/fun family.
I'm interested to see if Harbaugh/Manuel are able to beef up the recruiting department.
I'm obviously not happy where the program is right now, but truthfully I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. Could someone elaborate?
Has there been any good news from Michigan football the past 5 years?
How do you know if this is good or bad news?
The Revenge Tour prior to the OSU game, but yeah, the football team playing better than expected has been a very rare sighting.
I wish they’d fire,”YOU” already!
That would be some good news I could get behind.
Recruiting insiders are saying Courtney Morgan is a home run hire and will bring a ton of recruiting contracts from the West Coast.
With Matt leaving, this seems to be very positive news from people close to recruiting.
Don’t hold your breath on that. Given the current state of the program, it would be a gigantic upset if we snagged him away from all the top programs who’ve also offered him.
I just hope he doesn’t sign with OSU.
Can we just get someone to recruit Ohio and Michigan well?
I wish I could resign from Michigan football.
You can. Please.
I declare bankruptcy!
We’ll miss that chubby, smiley, little guy in the maize n blue Air Jordans. He was the butt of many jokes, but he seemed to take it all in stride knowing he was on the inside and fans were on the outside looking in. Good family guy. Best of luck to him in the Deep South.
Amazing how fast things change around here now that he's actually being replaced. We've had to hear people defend him all the time on here even after the Wiltfong article came out. "But recruits and players love him!!!!"
Good, he seemed like a real goober. Hopefully the next guy stays away from Twitter beef.
Actually kinda shocked by this.. IMO It’s the Peter Principle at play here.
Dudek was great at visits and connecting with families. Maybe not so great in other areas. But overall nowhere near as bad as people made him out to be. He just had a lot on his plate that he should’ve had a lot more staff to help. A lot of areas he probably shouldn’t have been the lead on.
Please say more. What areas was he the lead on that he shouldn’t? How much more help should the dept get now?
Him and Sean ran the department. I've always heard good things about both, but I've been pounding this drum for two years. Michigan isn't in the MAC. They can't and shouldn't have essentially two guys running everything there. I got the sense that they each have their strengths, but were stretched too thin, and that's where things fell through the cracks.
Look at Bama's football directory:
https://rolltide.com/staff-directory
And Clemson's:
https://clemsontigers.com/staff-directory/
Compare that to Michigan's and I think you'll be shocked
Don't you think this had more to do with a bunch of old coaches that didn't like to recruit. Warner did okay but it's not like he was busting his butt on the recruiting trail. I actually don't picture harbaugh having a big recruiting impact. Don brown wasn't impacting recruiting either. Pretty amazing we had any top 10 classes
He was clearly replaced by Morgan's hiring last week, so this isn't a surprise.
Also, I'm amazed so many people have strong opinions about Matt Dudek. It's actually pretty amazing, especially since most of the people who have complained about him around these parts clearly don't understand what the job is.
I'm one of those that doesn't understand his job (but not one who has complained about him).
It would be nice if someone could summarize the job of the recruiting coordinator. Do they actually watch film to identify recruits and point them out to coaches? Or do they primarily schedule visits, etc.? Or both?
umgoblue11 had an excellent diary months ago highlighting some of the recruiting problems within the program, but I don't remember it being much about Dudek.
Yeah, I would be interested to know if it's more than what I've gathered, which is mostly coordinating visits and generally keeping soft contact with kids who the school is recruiting. Like, the one thing I heard people complain about was that the UM-branded recruiting "swag" online (e.g. the commitment "cards" that were posted to twitter) was lacking compared to other schools and that might have been under the purview of Dudek. Might be totally wrong, but that was my sense.
I think in general people didn't like that Dudek sometimes acted like a human being online and got into twitter fights with people. I'm sure Morgan will be a good recruiter and I can see why a shake-up makes sense, but yeah the hatred toward Dudek seemed based on stuff people thought he did but (AFAIK) didn't.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:36 AM ^
Exactly. I've heard his main job was to organize the visits, which seem to go extremely well. It's also been implied by some people that he is supposed to be evaluating talent, watching film, and retaining players. Like you said, I can't tell if he's good or bad at his job because I have no idea what his job is.
And there it is! Finally upgrading recruiting. Another should be on the clock!
“Should be” as in, just your opinion? Or “should be” as in another one is underway?
I'm beginning to wonder how much of an influence big brother John played in this staff shake up.
It seems to go farther than just adding a couple of Ravens coaches. The whole defensive concept has changed and I don't think that Jim came up with everything on his own, based on his past tendencies.
You guys are more connected than me, so I would be interested in getting your opinions.
Go Blue
Thank god. Recruiting took a noticeable step back since he got hired. Too many holes on the roster.
I am no large insider but I am very close with a HS coach that travels all around the US with ties to colleges everywhere and deals with recruiting extensively. He said U of M was one of the most disorganized and poor recruiting departments. I believe this will ultimately be a good thing.
Mike Hart knew that coming in and though it will never be confirmed, he made it known to Jim that Dudek had to go.
How can that be as we cleaned up all the 3 stars in Mass.???
All these changes by Harbaugh seem to be more than a better win now or you are fired scenario. He must have some sort of assurance from Warde that he will get more than just one season to turn things around.
This seems like a full-on program reset.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:17 PM ^
Long overdue.
Who even has the same role as last year? Gattis as OC and Nua as DL? I think that's it. I don't expect them to be great next year, but I agreed with you overall in that returning talent post. Michigan should not be a .500 team next year. They should be at or at least very near where they have been pre-covid, right near the top of the conference but also a big step below OSU. I'm just hoping for a good, not great, dangerous and coherent offense, and a defense that is fine and doesn't really fall apart except against 1 or 2 great offenses. A team that should be favorites even on the road against everyone except teams like OSU and PSU and probably Wisconsin and Washington. That's what SHOULD happen next year. We'll see.
It certainly seems Harbaugh is thinking 3-4 years as much or more than 2021. I hope this works. I hope there isn’t nearly as much losing as it appears in the meantime.
Jesus. What happened? Edit- somehow misread this as Linguist, I am illiterate. Bye Dudek
I'm sure Matt was a decent chap, but I think this can only improve our recruiting results. A major shakeup was called for; let's hope it bears fruit.
...and the church said Amen!
Cool.
Harbaugh's got 3-5 more years. Hope the turn around starts before November.
He may have 3-5 more years with Warde, but he does not have 3-5 more years with recruits.
He has to show tangible progress that makes the program look viable in the Big Ten East, this season.
There needs to be a sense of urgency or the program will go down a recruiting death spiral and those 3-5 years will be miserable for everyone involved.
I don’t know how much of a loss this is. But he was funny as hell, at the Monday Weber’s lunches.