Coaching Candidates Part 1: The Power 5 Comment Count

Brian

WELP. When you're a four point dog to Rutgers it's time to start keeping an eye on potential new head coaches.

Pipedreams

Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, Kevin Sumlin, and various others are not discussed because you know who those people are and it's unlikely Michigan secures them. They're passed over primarily because they're obviously desirable. You don't need to be told Jim Harbaugh seems like a good idea.

Too old

It's not worth the risk to hire anyone approaching retirement except in very specific circumstances like "this is the only head coach we've ever been any good under"—looking at you, Kansas State. So out go David Cutcliffe (60), Mike Riley (61), Gary Pinkel (62), and, uh, Kirk Ferentz (59), because it would be ULTIMATE MICHIGAN to go after Kirk Ferentz. I'd take Art Briles in a hot second even though he's 58, but he's also lumped in here or pipedreams since he seems impossible to pry out of Waco. 61-year-old Les Miles is also in this group. If he had a time, it was 2007. I'm not saying there's no chance… but there isn't much of one. And you already know all about him anyway.

Gentlemen of note, then.

Power 5 Head Coaches

Look before we name a name you're going to be all like "oh what if Michigan is a poor cultural fit with the spread shouldn't we go get a pro-style guy or something"… there just aren't many to consider. I included the obvious guy.

10987976-large[1]DAN MULLEN, MISSISSIPPI STATE

BASICS: 40-28 in his sixth season in Starkville. SEC record 17-24, which is actually rather good for a Bulldogs head coach. Was Urban Meyer's OC before that, and his QB coach at BGSU and Utah. 42.

PROS: Turned previously inept MSU into decent program. Young. High level experience in recruiting wars and as national-championship-level OC.

CONS: Has acquired a great deal of his wins against tomato-can laden nonconference schedule and still struggles to win half his SEC games. Reaction to recent suspension of starting OL for multiple in-game stomping incidents was from the Dave Brandon school of PR.

OVERALL: Desirability on a knife edge right now. If he follows up LSU win with season that sees Mississippi State end up a solid top 25 program he will be a hot name. Slip down to the 7/8 win level he's been at and it's questionable.

 

 

Mike-Gundy[1]MIKE GUNDY, OKLAHOMA STATE

BASICS: Is a man. Is 47. In his tenth season at Okie State, 80-39 record with one Big Twelve championship and Fiesta Bowl win; two other ten-win seasons. Before that was Les Miles's OC.

PROS: Good coach who can insert any sentient being at quarterback and see that guy/spaceplant pass for 300 yards. Young for a guy with a decade as a head coach. Knows what he wants his program to be.

CONS: Availability questionable. Is currently at alma mater and has T. Boone backing him. Last time Michigan pried a dude away from his alma mater things went poorly, partially because of the reputation a man acquires when he leaves his home base. May not have left Oklahoma except for road games in 30 years.

OVERALL: If you can get him, hell yes. Probably can't get him.

[After THE JUMP: the last manball unicorn]

TODD GRAHAM, ARIZONA STATE

810436197[1]

BASICS: Been a head coach since 2006 at four different stops including one-year stints at Rice and Pitt. Had three ten-win seasons with Tulsa, guided ASU to a 10-4 season with an 8-1 Pac 12 record last year. 21-10 so far in his career. Before that was the DC at Tulsa. 49.

PROS: Successful everywhere he's been that he was at for more than a year. Despite defensive orientation, runs effective, high tempo offenses.

CONS: Wears Britney Spears mic on sidelines. Inveterate job-hopper. Bad haircut.

OVERALL: Bo would die again if Michigan had a guy with that mic.

628x471[1]DAVID SHAW, STANFORD

BASICS: 37-8 in three years as Stanford's head coach with three BCS appearances. was Harbaugh's OC for four years prior to that and his WR/QB coach at San Diego. Before that was an NFL assistant with the Raiders and Ravens. 42. Seems poachable what with Stanford's attendance struggles and his relatively modest salary.

PROS: The last manball unicorn. Literally the only successful pro-style college head coach who might be available. Great record, has plenty of experience coping with spread offenses, and in year four concerns that he's just riding Harbaugh's coattails are minimal. Operates in high academic environment; already proficient at selling the kind of guys who want to go to Michigan.

CONS: Punted from his own 29 in the midst of dominating USC and still losing to them, a Lloyd Carr callback I would prefer not to relive. Stanford alum experiencing great success at his alma mater, remember last time we poached guy from alma mater, etc.

OVERALL: Despite the punting thing and the boggling USC loss would be a hire that checks every last box. I'd live with the offense, assuming he could in fact implement it.

 

20ee92f8b9b904d9835584952a5e411e[1]BUTCH JONES, TENNESSEE

BASICS: Took over for Brian Kelly when he left CMU for Cincinnati, then took over for Brian Kelly when he left Cincinnati for Notre Dame. Improved both of those programs, with CMU having an undefeated MAC season en route to a 11-2 record and taking Cincinnati to two Big East Championships. 5-7 in his first year at Tennessee, currently 2-2. 46.

PROS: Age. Michigan native. Good amount of experience at places that are not naturally successful. Seems to have made Tennessee a lot better this year—they just about beat Georgia.

CONS: RR/Kelly associations may poison well both ways. Leaving Tennessee after two years would be a hard sell. Vols could match any offer.

OVERALL: If he is amenable to courting, I would court. Relying on M's historical place in the firmament over Tennessee's somewhat more dubious place in the cutthroat SEC to do so.

Kevin-Wilson[1]KEVIN WILSON, INDIANA

BASICS: Longtime OC at Miami (Not That Miami), Northwestern, and Oklahoma got the Indiana job in 2011. After 1-11 opener has turned IU into a chaos team that can win or lose any game with their lightning speed offense and horrendous defense. 52.

PROS: Indiana's offense.

CONS: Indiana's defense.

OVERALL: I'm not seeing it. Offense is pretty gimmicky, hasn't actually gotten to a bowl game. While I'm usually skeptical of arguments that the things that happen when your defense is off the field have a major impact on it, the extreme tempo that Indiana uses to be competitive is an exception.

OTHERS

NW's Pat Fitzgerald seemed more attractive four years ago. So did TCU's Gary Patterson. If Paul Chryst could actually put together a nice season for Pitt he'd be a guy to look at, but he hasn't so far. Randy Edsall might not be the worst idea in the world and how depressing is that? Al Golden might get sick of Miami, but his tenure so far isn't amazing. If Gary Andersen's amenable I'm interested; don't think that's likely. Oregon's Mark Helfrich is only paid 1.8 million dollars so Michigan could sniff around to secure him a nice raise. Bret Bielema… nevermind.

*shudders*

Comments

Joseph_P_Freshwater

October 1st, 2014 at 11:21 AM ^

But have you thought about Craig Bohl from ND State?  I mean, he's not a sexy name, but he's won 3 straight National Titles, outscoring opponents 91-26...

 

EDIT: I'm stupid and didn't realize this was Power 5 Conferences.

schreibee

October 1st, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^

Aside from Power 5 caveat, he also already left NDSU for Wyoming. He might jump after just 1 season (see Todd Graham) but we wouldn't have much time to assess his FBS success rate. Still, if he's willing, I'm certainly looking into it.

MGoStrength

October 1st, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^

While it looks grim now, as long as Hoke is coaching he still has a chance to turn things around.  Granted, there isn't much evidence beyone recruiting stars that this team is any good, but the coaches did seem high on this group in the off-season, and they technically still have a shot at winning the B1G.  And, if by some grace of God that happens, Hoke ain't going anywhere.  So, I think this is still a little premature.  I don't see Hoke getting let go mid-season.  If it was going to happen it would have already happened.  So, if he's here all season, he still has 7 more opportunities.  If wins 5 of them my hunch is he stays around, if he drops more than 2 and/or looks really bad against the rivals he's probably gone.

mgolund

October 1st, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^

I don't know why someone downvoted you, as you make some fair points.

Hoke has a theoretical chance of turning things around. I think the big problem is that no one (at least here) has any faith that this will happen. The evidence to date strongly suggests that things will not improve.

I don't think he'll get canned mid-season unless something major comes out (major as in JoePa major). During RR's last season, everyone knew he was a dead man walking as early as the Penn State game. Yet, Brandon didn't take action until after the bowl game. Even if Hoke is a goner, I think Brandon will wait until the season ends to take action (if he does it all, which goes back to my original post).

CalifExile

October 6th, 2014 at 6:29 PM ^

Brandon waited on firing RR to screw him out of part of his severance. Also, I have been wondering if Brandon waited until he could be sure that RR wouldn't have a coaching job in 2011 in order to prevent players like Denard from transferring to RR's new school. The bottom line is, by waiting so long to fire RR Brandon wrote off the 2011 recruiting class. He won't wait that long again, but I don't think he'll fire Hoke mid-season since, as you say, there is a tiny possibility that Hoke still has a winning season and can theoretically beat a rival.

westwardwolverine

October 1st, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^

The only problem I have at that point is the reaction to Shane's injury. I can sort of buy the "as it was happening, there was a lot of confusion" though that again, makes Hoke look bad. But how he handled the following press conferences + Dave Brandon's midnight medical release...I feel like its just better to move on at this point. 

But we'll see. 

westwardwolverine

October 1st, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^

For Brady Hoke to have not participated takes a gigantic leap of faith, one that requires Dave Brandon and Hoke to have not discussed in any detail what the medical staff divulged about Shane Morris' concussion. Considering Hoke stated during his press conference that he had spoken to Brandon, I find that completely unbelievable. 

 

Blue in Yarmouth

October 1st, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^

at this point it is pretty clear to most that DB is pulling the strings. There is no chance (in my opinion) given what we've seen from DB that he didn't spoon feed Hoke exactly what to say (or perhaps better, not say) during his press conference. If Brady did anything it was under the direct commands of DB, his boss. I want BH gone for what has transpired on the field, but DB gets my anger for what has been going on with the whole concussion debacle. 

Ed Shuttlesworth

October 1st, 2014 at 2:53 PM ^

And that's really the bottom line for me.  If Hoke really had what it took to succeed big, he'd have told Brandon to go fuck himself a long time ago and made it clear to everyone from players to press to fans that he was in charge of the football team.  If you're willing to be a puppet/lapdog, you aren't going to be a big time winner at an elite program.

westwardwolverine

October 1st, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^

So again: If Brady Hoke went along with Dave Brandon's cover up, he's a part of it. If he didn't realize what was going to happen, he's...he's just not very smart. I'm sorry, that's really what it boils down to for Brady. 

There's really no upside to this for him. Either he's a buffoon or he's complicit. 

wolverine1987

October 1st, 2014 at 4:49 PM ^

If he was oblivious to details that he surely should have known, and has not given Michigan a good football team despite having the opportunity, then he is a bad Head football coach for Michigan. If he knew about the injury and covered it up/lied, then he is a bad person. It is WAY worse to be a bad person, no comparision at all. And again, in my defense of Hoke the person I don't defend the coach. But there is far, far more evidence on the side that says Brady Hoke is a good and decent person than for your accusation. 

wlubd

October 1st, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^

Well, if the university wants to replace the AD first then it's entirely possible Hoke sticks around the rest of the season. Which means 2 months of coaching speculation threads before anything starts happening.

If people are going to be talking/whining/moaning/etc. then they might as well have some idea of the situation...

 

umumum

October 1st, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^

as to your last query, I am almost certain the answer is "yes"--there was discussion of possible coaching candidates prior to RichRod being fired. 

I respect your input on this site as much as literally anyone who posts--and since others say this as well, that must be nice--but I truly don't believe this conversation is inappropriate--or at least uncommon.  I can't think of a professional team or major college program where this type of speculation doesnt go on when (as you concede) the existing  coach is a dead man walking.  I appreciate that you are likely differentiating between posters on this Board and people like Brian, but it strikes me that calling for Hoke to get fired is harsher than speculating on coaching replacements.

westwardwolverine

October 1st, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^

I think the difference between 2007/2014 and 2010 is that in the former, everyone knew that Carr/Hoke were gone (though as has been stated Hoke has a miniscule chance of saving his job). Rodriguez was only in his third year and it wasn't apparent he'd be fired until the bowl game happened and even then it seemed like there was a chance he might have been around the following year. 

 

Don

October 1st, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^

We certainly did during Lloyd's last season, but he was retiring, so it wasn't the same thing. At this point in 2010, RR was hated by a good percentage of the fanbase and there was plenty of speculation about possible successors, but whether Brian ran a feature, I can't remember.

dnak438

October 1st, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^

that this is a topic of conversation anyway among Michigan fans, so it makes sense for that conversation to be reflected on the front page of the site, which is, after all, a site for fans of all kinds.

This is not to disagree with your sentiment, which is totally understandable. I'm not sure how I feel about it myself.

Painter Smurf

October 1st, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^

Since the team has thrown in the towel, is on a trajectory for a weak bowl game at best, and Hoke is not likely to return, the only thing of interest to most UM fans will be speculation about the next coach.  The topics of replacing the coach and AD are taking up 90% of UM fan-site content right now.  To expect a blog that seeks to attract fan traffic to avoid the topic until the axe falls (which may not be until December) is not reasonable.

UMVAFAN

October 1st, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^

What's the aversion to Beilema? He's won 3 B1G titles (although one was practically gifted to them because of OSU's sanctions, but they still won the B1G Championship game against MSU). He's never said or done anything to disrespect Michigan. He's pretty much an arrogant jerk, but I'd take it over what we have now. Nice guys don't win football games.