If not Harbaugh who is Plan B?
Not five seconds after the game ended my 63 year old brother was on the phone demanding that Rich be fired and Harbaugh be made the Head Coach. He said he was "embarrassed" yet again and as a Michigan alumni he didn't much like being embarrassed. He proceeded to list every play that went wrong and decided that they were all a function of poor coaching. When I tried to reason with him on the age of the team we were fielding he gave me the "but we're Michigan" rationale that age was no excuse. I listen to him for a while and then asked him "who do you want as coach if Harbaugh says no thanks". He had no answer.
I want to be VERY clear that I am still firmly in the keep RichRod camp. If I was Brandon I would tell Rich that Gerg and all the D assistants have to go and that we're going to throw as much money as we can at the best DC we can find and let him pick his team.
Now that I established where I fall on the coaching issue I have an open question to the anti-Rich faction of the board (and my brother). If Harbaugh says no - who's your plan B? Les Miles? Cam Cameron? Chris Peterson? Gary Patterson? Who? I think we need to look no further than South Bend to see what happens when you start making coaching changes without a solid replacement lined up.
There seems to be this presumption that Harbaugh would leap at the chance to come back home but what if he says no. Then what?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:46 PM ^
Losing with integrity is better than winning with none.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 8:27 PM ^
RR would be eager to stick around if he knew he was our 3rd option...how about we just fix our D and steamroll bitches?
November 27th, 2010 at 9:47 PM ^
We might have something with an evcen decent defense.
Fcuk it, I'm willing to give devalued NC State position coach John Tenuta a shot at redemption.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:22 PM ^
Plan A: Harbaugh.
Plan B: Harbaugh.
Plan C: Harbaugh.
Plan D: Harbaugh.
Plan E: Harbaugh.
HIRE HARBAUGH!!!!!!1!!!!!!
November 27th, 2010 at 7:30 PM ^
I see you and my brother have the same plan B.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^
then Rich Rod.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:28 PM ^
Can't argue with that. I think Rich Rod is turning the program around and I think the team will be better each of the next two years with him. I'd hate for the coaching job to become a revolving door of Fail like ND's has.
However, if we were guaranteed to get Harbaugh, a Michigan Man (sans Mike Hart's proclamation) that we could plug in and potentially keep for 20 years,who knows first hand about the tradition and the rivalries, I would do it.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
is exactly how I feel. Make no move (for the head coach - DC and staff have to change regardless) unless Harbaugh is a certainty.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:29 PM ^
skip the middle man and hire Hart now? Then our 2 best players would be Hart and Hart...if only Michael Shaw would change his number and make my 20 jersey relevant again...
November 27th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^
Here's a question about that though.
Do we really think it is possible to get a for sure yes or no from Harbaugh without someone in the media getting wind of it?
In this day and age, it seems nearly impossible for something like this to happen without it leaking.
A lot of people assume that we could just inquire away about Harbaugh and then if he says no keep RR. I don't think it really works like that.
But what do I know?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:43 PM ^
but I trust Brandon to orchestrate it much more than I would have trusted Martin.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:48 PM ^
I have that same concern. When a coach is under contract with another team, AD's usually ask permission before contacting him about interest in another job. I don't know how the logistics would work.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:28 PM ^
that even if Brandon doesn't personally know Harbaugh, that they have friends in common. A "back-channel" contact could make sure Harbaugh was interested, then Brandon asks permission from the Stanford AD to talk.
I suspect that even Stanford would prefer that it be done that way.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:26 PM ^
has the same concern. Did you see him rebuke Herbie today?
November 27th, 2010 at 8:31 PM ^
Yup, it was nice for Desmond to speak up. At times, I think he doesn't want to rock the boat too badly. When he spoke up, Herbie sat there quietly like an idiot.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^
what happened?
November 28th, 2010 at 3:10 AM ^
IIRC, Fowler was throwing out some conjecture about alumni/fanbase displeasure, rumors about RR being fired on Monday and Harbaugh coming in, etc. Then Des basically said that he didn't want to get into speculation about RR's future and a potential Harbaugh hire, especially after what happened last time when "people" were reporting that Miles was coming, etc.
Talk about an awkward couple of seconds there...
November 28th, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^
Thanks, Bluefish, I didn't see the question until this morning and this thread was pushed down on recent posts.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^
If he's under contract, I believe we have to request to talk to him from Stanford.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:51 PM ^
DB has a corporate background and I am reasonably certain he is prepared for all outcomes. I believe he compiled a short list of replacements earlier this year and I wouldn't be surprised if there have already been back channel communications between M reps and other coaches.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:37 PM ^
RichRod is plan B.
The only reason to make a change at this point is if you can get Harbaugh, who is tailor made for the Michigan program. If you can get Harbaugh, then you have to think about it (quietly).
If it does not work then you stay on course and give RichRod 2 more years. At that point, "his guys" are seniors and they will have shown clearly for all to see how the RichRod experiment turned out.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^
Go Blue
November 27th, 2010 at 7:24 PM ^
Plan A:Rich Rod
Plan B:Rich Rod
Plan C:Rich Rod
...... you get the point
November 27th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^
Chip Kelly's visor.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^
Rich Rod and Harbaugh are Plans A and B, in an order to be determined. There is no Plan C, at least until 2012. Brandon would not fire Rich Rod unless he had assurances that Harbaugh is willing to take the job. (Of course, he might not fire Rich Rod in any event).
This inside information brought to you from the voices inside my head.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:26 PM ^
My good friends "aura" and "mystique" tell me that he's a high energy guy.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:26 PM ^
or is he too qualified?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^
Do not hire the fat man.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:36 PM ^
One can only assume this is what RR does in his free time
November 27th, 2010 at 7:27 PM ^
It's questionable enough whether or not Harbaugh can win us national championships. Even more questionable is what we do if we blow up the program and Harbaugh says no.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:31 PM ^
Dave Brandon is not such an idiot to blow up the program without assurances that Harbaugh would take the job. Who do you think he is, Bill Martin?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:51 PM ^
Martin botched the coaching search, but he didn't blow up the program. RR did by firing all of Carr's assistants, save Jackson. I've thought all along that this was his biggest mistake. He approached the job as though Carr had been fired. When a coach is fired, you can go the "shock therapy" approach and change everything. You don't do that when he steps down on his own.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:52 PM ^
That's the dumbest argument I've ever seen on this board.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:55 PM ^
That is the most hyperbolic statement I've EVER seen on this board.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:59 PM ^
Bullshit. If Martin didn't know RichRod would fire the entire staff when he hired him, he's dumber than rocks and quite possibly one of the worst interviewers known to man.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:05 PM ^
when it was entirely fashionable to rip Michigan and Rodriguez, Mallett said RR did everything he could to keep him and it was just not possible. considering how immature Mallett has been/still is, that said a lot to me
November 27th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^
It's hard for me to believe that post is written in clear-headed seriousness so I'm going to reserve judgement and/or maybe splash some water on my face to try and come back to reality.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:36 PM ^
To add to everything else that people have said about this flawed logic...
How do you know that all these assistants even wanted to stay? There was clearly a severe backlash against RR from people in the Carr camp, and I think it's safe to say this was the case before he even stepped foot on campus. These guys wanted a HC hired from within the "family." So I think its more likely that A) Many wouldn't have stayed and B) Rich Rodriguez didn't want assistants who would sew discontent from within the actual team
In general though, I just find the argument that RR "blowed everything up" completely asinine. Essentially, that is what he was hired to do: scrap the current system and install a new one.
This is probably not how the conversation went...
BM: Hi, Rich Rodriguez. You've got a renowned, high-paced spread offense and you've proven yourself to be a pretty great coach. We'd like to hire you at the University of Michigan. We won't be discussing how that will be implemented, or which assts from WV you'd like to bring over.
RR: Gee, that's awesome. I think I'll change my offensive philosophy to power football and retain all of Coach Carr's assistants.
....One month later...
RR: SUPRISE, BITCHES. I'M BLOWING IT ALL UP!!! YEEEHAAA.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:37 AM ^
You ever think the backlash came BECAUSE he summarily swept everyone out? And in your "conversation"...he wasn't bringing a genius defensive staff, already making 2 outside hires...it's not like they could have done any worse with some of the old staff on that side of the ball.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
Yeah, that Greg Frey sure is doing a lousy job. We'd be *so* much better off with Andy Moeller coaching the O-line.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:30 AM ^
You didn't pick a defensive coach. How about secondary ones?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^
If we canned RR and got no Harbaugh, we would be Notre Dame Pt2.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:49 PM ^
If we canned RR and got no Harbaugh, we would be Notre Dame Pt2.
Notre Dame's record is better than ours over the last 3 years. Depending on tonight, they may have been bowl eligible all 3 of those years.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:38 PM ^
Yeah, but can he win us conference championships?
November 27th, 2010 at 7:28 PM ^
Plan B is to go the Illinois/Zook route with RR: make him clean house defensively.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:30 PM ^
I think your brother is the answer. Would he take it? I'm really impressed with ability to break everything down so quickly.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^
He's a retired Dentist who did both his undergrad and grad work at Michigan so he's got time on his hands and fits the profile of those who want a "Michigan Man" to lead us.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:36 PM ^
He can drill some discipline into these boys.