Hello: Defensive Coordinator Greg Robinson
Two reliable sources are reporting that Greg Robinson is indeed the guy at defensive coordinator; unless there's an unexpected derailment an official confirmation should come sometime soon. (Bonus, ethically dubious confirmation can be found at Maize 'n' Brew, which relays some goings-on at the premium sites.)
I've said my piece on Robinson already—in a word: yikes—and am pretty skeptical of the hire. However, I am not a football coach or even that familiar with Robinson's work except in a macro "holy God what happened to Syracuse?" sense. Rich Rodriguez is, and he's basically gambled his career on his future performance. All hail Gamblor!
Also: Michigan might not be done searching for coaches. LBs coach Jay Hopson is apparently searching for a job closer to home, further proving that nothing escapes Mississippi's inexplicable gravitational pull.
Yes, this would make it a seriously uphill battle to retain the services of either non-enrolled DT commit.
Commence panic?
Update: official.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^
He did win two Super Bowls and four Rose Bowls when I was -5 years old, so we have that going for us...
January 20th, 2009 at 4:06 PM ^
Also: WOOOO PIPELINE TO UPSTATE NEW YORK!!!! I.E....MICHAEL HART
January 20th, 2009 at 4:17 PM ^
The AP is now reporting this.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:24 PM ^
Well, Rodriguez just announced it at a press conference, so it's hardly investigative journalism.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:23 PM ^
This guy has the vote of his former players, not to mention RR - both sets of people much closer to him than anyone here...
Also he has had more success doing this job than our recent previous DCs before taking a job at M...
Probably more likely he sees it as a chance to get back to something he loved doing and was good at, than it is he taking it as he is "in decline"
Lots of premature condemnation. I think better to give the guy a chance to see what he can make happen...
Although I think patience is in order as the crop of young talent we have by and large probably won't be ready to set the earth on fire for a couple years, and still lacks players at key positions such as LB.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:27 PM ^
the real pain comes in losing Hopson. He was a very good recruitor.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:03 PM ^
He's not gone yet, is he?
January 20th, 2009 at 4:44 PM ^
and then go on to be great elsewhere. I am not saying this IS the case here but it is not outside of the realm.
Pete Carrol, Bilichek, Spurrier and that coach guy from the movie Hoosiers. Gene Hackman. In fact, Hackman went on to coach a football team in the movie The Replacements.
Whatever. We got history, logic and stats and opinions, but no crystal balls.
So, I'm taking the high road. Torches and clubs back in the closet. Besides, it isn't that big of a focking deal anyway. DC's don't make tackles. I like what Gsimmons said--get the best recruiter you can. How that bodes in this situation is still a toss up.
Go blue! I don't bet so I can afford to be optimistic.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:50 PM ^
Syracuse had a grand total of four (4) four-star recruits on defense between 2002 and 2008. Two (2) of them were true freshmen in 2008. Robinson does not have to be a good recruiter now, because Michigan does not rely on its coordinators to recruit.
Some have said his success only happened when he had great players. Well, what coordinator does that NOT apply to? Besides, he will have great players at Michigan. He may not be the best Michigan D-coordinator ever, but as long as he is at least mediocre I think Michigan can get by with him.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:05 PM ^
FWIW, Rittenberg of ESPN thinks this is an "excellent move" essentially restating the mostly consensus view here that he is a better DC vs HC:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-2-1137/Robinson-an-excellent-choice…
January 20th, 2009 at 5:14 PM ^
You can't get a cup of coffee for 1.95million these days
January 20th, 2009 at 5:15 PM ^
i just got the official txt message from michigan.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:31 PM ^
Correct me if I'm wrong, Shafer also coached the secondary. Robinson seems to have more of a background coaching the defensive line, but we've already got Bruce Tall for that.
Robinson doesn't seem to have much experience exclusively coaching DBs, so you've gotta think RR will also hire a secondary coach.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:39 PM ^
When you're basing an opinion on something like this best to trust the instincts of the man who will ultimately have to live with the decision. For all we know this guy will be the next Peleni or Kines. Put a good coach in a position where he has a constant influx of superior players, and a soon to be monster offense to back it up, you got the makings of us calling him an ingrate 3-4 years from now when he takes the head coaching job at where ever.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:33 PM ^
Actually, that is one of the great things about this hire. The guy was an abject failure as a head coach - people will not forget that. He's not going to get another head coaching job. The only danger will be someone else who pays a lot more hiring him away as a DC.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:02 PM ^
I LOVE this hire.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:37 PM ^
I'm optimistic about this hire. Why? I don't have a good reason other than I'm a generally optimistic person and I've always believed Michigan offers the resources and prestige for any competent coach to be successful. I do have to disagree with Brian when he says that Rodriguez has 'gambled his career' on this hire. My sense is that getting the spread ninja offense to come around and work the way it did for him at West Virginia is the bigger concern and bigger key to Rodriguez's future success or failure at Michigan.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:11 PM ^
"Michigan offers the resources and prestige for any competent coach to be successful."
True that, true that.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^
Anyone ever think that maybe hiring a coach with a chip on his shoulder is a good thing. He wasn't succesful as a HC and thus will be constantly proving his worth as our DC. Also, he may have tried his hand as a HC and is now just looking to be the best DC he can be. This also isn't a bad thing considering he won't be looking to bounce in a few years for a HC job. The failure at Syracuse probably humbled him and I think this will work to our advantage. He will be less likely to clash with RR and will do what's in the team's best interest and not his own. RR has said that GR defenses were tough to play against...with more and more teams going to the spread probably a good idea to get a DC who has had success stopping it.
Let's give him at least a year before we jump all over him!
January 20th, 2009 at 7:10 PM ^
This is 100% correct
January 20th, 2009 at 7:01 PM ^
GR was DC there right? Is that the same D that we hung 37 points on in a shootout at the Rose Bowl? I hope he's all that Rich Rod hoped for, GR can't do much worse than this year.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:55 PM ^
One game does not make a career.
Or else Charlie Strong sucks, Bud Foster Sucks, Tom Bradley sucks, etc
January 20th, 2009 at 8:03 PM ^
Rich Rod can only blame himself for not consulting the vast field of Defensive-Coordinator-Hiring Experts here at MgoBlog. You'd think he would have learned his lesson over the whole Shav'd Beaver fiasco.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:15 PM ^
Let's assume UM has the talent to field a talented defense, which we do. What's been missing the last few years is the fundamentals i.e. missed tackles, missed assignments, players out of position, poor angles of pursuit etc. Robinson doesn't have to be genius to correct those problems. The guy has a ton of experience and should have a chip on his shoulder to succeed. He knows the game inside and out. I don't see him failing.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:46 AM ^
You people are delusional. Hey, I hope this works out, this may even work out. But this goes waaaay beyond making lemonade out of lemons. This is making lemonade out of virus-infected post-Katrina debris.
You cannot be as bad as GR was in his last position at everything related to football and be a genius at one portion of football. Maybe you can scratch out competence in a small niche with a whole lotta help (like other peoples' talent, support, schemes), maybe you cannot suck too hard at one focused job, but there is no way your are very good at your work when you suck that bad at something integrally related. Any HC who has encountered the Peter Principle still shows a pulse in their area of expertise. At some point during his execrable tenure at Syracuse he would have looked at his execrable defense and his execrable defensive coordinator and imparted some of his genius and not sucked. They still might have lost, but genius is too hard to hide under a bushel and we'd see something.
This is a demoralizing hire. I now question the RR hire for the first time.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:42 PM ^
Your assertions reek of ignorance regarding not only coaching, football, and the like, but also organizational structure in general. Reductionism has its uses, but you have taken it so far to be laughable. Please refer to examples discussed here and elsewhere to discover the amazing fact that being a bad HC =/= being bad at everything related to football................
January 21st, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
In 1986, Bo made Mo the offensive coordinator and promoted Lloyd to D coordinator and LBs coach. Lloyd never played LB nor had any coaching experience at that position.
Yeah, we had Harbaugh at QB, (Jr.) Jamie Morris running the ball and a damn good offensive line. And on D we had Hammerstein and Messner.......but, we still had two "new" coordinators and a LB coach with no experience and we won the Big 10 and went to the Rose Bowl.
I guess I'm saying, nobody knows how this is going to shake out. Hopefully, we've cleaned out the bad attitude guys that "didn't buy in" (according to Minor) and the new coaching hires work out, and the offense finds it's groove.
I'm praying it does, anyway.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:20 AM ^
due, we are all hoping and praying. Even though I am aghast at this hire, I expect it will work out and be adequate because I think RR doesn't want a lot at DC except someone to babysit the coordinators, implement HIS defensive philisophy and organize stuff. Like a DC emeritus. GR can probably do that.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:04 AM ^
i know this has nothing to do with the new DC but does anyone know how close we are to landing denard robinson?? if we even are?
January 21st, 2009 at 7:29 PM ^
We have no idea how this will turn out. This guy apparently did a good job at DC in other places. The Texas coach is really high on him so he must have something going for him. Don't think Mack Brown would back someone that can't hack it. The fact that he didn't do a good job as head coach at Syracuse has absolutely no bearing on if he will be a good DC. History is filled with situations where a guy was a superb #2 or #3 guy but didn't hack it as the head man.
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