Morning Drinking: Approved
Both Adam Rittenberg of ESPN via Chris Mortensen and perpetual bearer of hate news Michael Rosenberg are reporting that if Harbaugh does not take an NFL job he will not leave Stanford:
Brandon's seemingly obvious move with Michigan football -- to fire coach Rich Rodriguez and hire Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh -- appears to be off the board. Colleague Chris Mortensen reports that Harbaugh is more likely to remain at Stanford or take an NFL job than return to his alma mater.
Because of course he is. Rosenberg is even more direct:
Jim Harbaugh is highly unlikely to accept the Michigan football coaching job if it becomes available, a person with direct knowledge of Harbaugh's thinking told the Free Press.
Harbaugh plans to decide this week whether he wants to take a job in the NFL. If he stays in college coaching, he has decided he will stay at Stanford, where he has built a potential powerhouse. It would take an extreme change of heart for Harbaugh to end up in Ann Arbor, according to the person, who did not want to be identified because Rich Rodriguez is still U-M's coach.
Hopefully that's as accurate as the rest of his reporting about the Michigan program but with a second confirming source it looks grim. Somehow Michigan has managed to screw this up, too. If the athletic department had a two-inch putt lined up they would whack it into a communications satellite. Seriously, what the hell, Harbaugh?
January 4th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^
down emo! down! bad emo!
January 4th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^
Why, God, why? What have I done to thee?!
January 4th, 2011 at 10:52 AM ^
I dont see this as having been screwed up. Harbaugh has connections at Stanford and clearly has a team headed in the right direction, it's been ignorant of us all along to just assume that he would no doubt bolt Palo Alto for Michigan.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
Not getting JH is only half the problem. If Harbaugh was simply unattainable, fine. The problem is, that DB waited 5 weeks to figure this out, and seemingly has no "Plan B" in case this entirely forseeable scenario happened.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
I understand your point there, but it's possible that Plan B is retaining Rich Rodriguez. Personally, and I realize I'm in the minority, but I haven't heard a backup plan that I'd rather have than RichRod.
My main point is, it's possible there is a Plan B and we just don't know it. And given the way this fanbase has reacted over these past few years, I don't blame Brandon one bit for playing things close to the vest.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
I do think that Plan B probably was keeping RR... until the Gator Bowl happened. I do not think that Brandon planned on seeing Michigan beat down so badly, and he probably thought that Michigan keeping it close or winning would give him something to stand on to gain acceptance for another year of RR. After that result though, I do not see how Brandon could sell the fanbase on another year. In all likelihood, Brandon would be following RR out the door at the end of next season.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
OK - we don't know that. I cannot believe a CEO type, in a situation as critical as this would have no plan B or C. I do think that if plan B were retain Rich / revamp the defensive staff, that plan is a whole lot lees attractive now, and may have slipped to C or D ...
January 4th, 2011 at 10:52 AM ^
Why would we be surprised by another decommit?
January 4th, 2011 at 10:53 AM ^
The lesson here for us as Michigan fans is that if you complain when bad shit happens sometimes, then bad shit will start happening all the time.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:54 AM ^
Brandon pressed Jimmy about the NFL dreams and wanted him to stay at Michigan forever.
Harbaugh is a proud and strong-willed guy. If he was feeling pushed around about being all-in-for-Michigan till he dies, maybe he decided that he could stay put and sift through NFL offers. Honestly, the Stanford AD has given Harbaugh more freedom and support than the LSU AD did for Miles, when he gave him a sign-an-extension-or-else offer.
Harbaugh has worked his way up from QB coach to USD to Stanford (which had been destroyed by one-time hot shot Walt Harris) and deserves to go wherever he wants.
I'm just hoping I don't (c)Hoke on my dinner tonight when I hear the bad news. Looks like I'll be addicted to Pepto for the rest of the year.
disclaimer: I was in the "keep Richrod for one more year" camp until the bowl game. But bringing him back will not work. Try and sell out home games vs. EMU, WMU, and Hoke's SDSU next year with the acid rain cloud hanging over the program right now.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
Even if Harbaugh does end up in Ann Arbor, who's to say he isn't the next Nick Saban, with his eyes on the next prize. After all, his brother is doing well (for now) at the next level, you know he's seriously interested in an NFL job, etc.
Not trying to dampen any enthusiasm here, just thinking out loud.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:54 AM ^
RichRod bolts for Pitt. Who could blame the guy at this point?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:03 AM ^
Honestly. This fanbase (which I am a part of) would get what it has rightfully deserved after the treatment over the last three years of its head coach if that happened.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:10 AM ^
It has to be hard on a coach to know that the fan base is giddy over the possibility that another coach might come in. If RR bolts for Pitt or UConn or any school not named michigan, how nervous will DB be?
Does that mean Ron English might be the fallback guy and we get a defensive minded coach who struggled in the MAC?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^
we get a defensive minded coach who struggled in the MAC?
Wait, are we talking about English or Hoke?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:20 AM ^
It must suck for the "Michigan Men" when a "Michigan Man" may tell you "No". Maybe all that "Pride Cometh Before the Fall" stuff was right, but not in a way people thought.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:54 AM ^
a person with direct knowledge of Harbaugh's thinking told the Free Press.
Who would that be, Sookie from True Blood?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
My best guess is that it was Andrew Luck. He was one of the few people actually awake at that hour who has any insight into JH's thinking.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:07 AM ^
from Jersey Shore.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:55 AM ^
People need to understand that Harbaugh is not coming because DB/MSC never offered him the job and do not want him at U of M. This has nothing to do with Stanford or the NFL, if he was offered the job I'm sure he would have been our coach after the OSU game.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:00 AM ^
what's wrong with you?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
People need to understand that Harbaugh is not coming because DB/MSC never offered him the job and do not want him at U of M.
This, I can assure you, is not the case.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:55 AM ^
I heard it's down to LSU and Alabama because of family values.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:55 AM ^
So many Schedule I drugs to chose from just one floor down. Maybe I need to go do some patches on the terminals in the pharmacy.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:00 AM ^
even mean?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
...and going straight to the good drugs.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
Schedule I drugs? Either you work for the DEA, or Pablo Escobar... Either way, Bravo.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:57 AM ^
I would bet dollars to doughnuts that Harbaugh's agent is Rosenberg's source. This could easily be posturing for a better UM contract. If JH doesn't want an NFL buyout I really do not think Michigan is in a position to demand it. Bring him home DB.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:57 AM ^
"Why would he want to leave that awesome team for a crappy team like Michigan?"
I looked at him - stunned.
Even though we live in Oregon, he still wants to go to Michigan like his mom and dad.
Maybe he's right?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
The truth hurts sometimes! The reality sunk in for me last night and it comes down to toughness. That Stanford team was tough with a big "T". (I refuse, however, to say that we are crappy)
January 4th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
I was thinking along the same lines as your son, although never thinking our team was "crappy". More or less:
The only reason JH would want to go to Michigan over Stanford is because the spotlight is twice as large (literally - I believe Stanford can only fit ~50K into their stadium).
He's going to finish the year in the top 5 at Stanford. What other reasons would he leave to come to a top-50 finisher like Michigan? Ann Arbor is great, but Palo Alto is probably one of the rare cities that could beat it out. He has a family now, too. So even if he's in a profession that people move around in, he's got that to think about.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
But I thought pretty much the same thing as your son. Looking at Stanford's personnel and schemes, I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take to remake the roster into that mold at Michigan - at least three years, minimum. And Harbaugh might well coach another 25 years and never again have a QB as good as Luck.
Truth is, you can remake an NFL team faster than a college program. And as a head coach, you can make more money, and deal with a more understanding fan base and press than you're likely to find in a traditional college power. I kept wondering, if I were Harbaugh, why would I want this job? Other than pure sentimentality, of course.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
I'll agree with the first part of this,
Truth is, you can remake an NFL team faster than a college program. And as a head coach, you can make more money, and deal with a more understanding fan base and press than you're likely to find in a traditional college power.
But that second part is just completely wrong. Then again you said you were from Oregon, so it probably is true that your fanbase is very understanding of your non-existent professional football team.
There is plenty of research you could do in the Detroit papers on how understanding those fans are of the Lions. It will probably explain why Matt Millen is such a highly regarded individual.
January 4th, 2011 at 1:24 PM ^
I'm a native Michigander, and my NFL team is the Lions, who I follow closely in the Detroit press (the Internet, you know). But using the Lions as a yardstick is unreasonable - the Matt Millen situation was, in any measurable and unmeasurable way you want to name, unprecedented. He deserved all of the criticism, because he was not only astoundingly incompetent, but refused to do what his owner wouldn't, and fire himself.
A more telling comparison is Rod Marinelli. Nice guy, good track record as a position coach, utterly unqualified as a head coach. Yet even when he was racking up a record of historical awfulness, the criticism never reached the intensely personal level experienced by RichRod. A Michigan coach not only has to put his team consistently in competition for a national title, but he has live up to a standard of virtue and Michigan-man aura that are simply not expected of a professional coach. The microscopic examination of Rodriguez' language, business dealings, "excessive" practice time, player transfers, even taste in music, and the rabid reactions of alumni, former players, fan base, press, etc to these things just aren't the same in a pro environment. Hell, he'd just accepted the job and was already being raked over the coals for being an opportunistic gold digger, just because he left his home state university.
For all of Lloyd's irritating flaws as a coach - conservatism, cronyism - he mastered the art of living in the Michigan microscope. The next coach will somehow have to do the same.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
ESPN / Rivals / Freep are the same crowd that had Harbaugh as a lock to UM a month ago (in some cases, a few days ago). Now, in the afterglow of an impressive Orange Bowl victory, Harbaugh and Luck are having second thoughts about whether or not they should leave Stanford "early"? And everyone is surprised?
We have been waiting for most of the past three months for word from the Great Brandon about the future direction of the Michigan football program. We might as well try to hang onto our sanity for a few more days before we declare that UM has become Notre Dame circa 1997. If Brandon has misplayed this and it all ends very, very badly for the Maize and Blue, we will have tons of time to burn furniture and wallow in self-pity after we get the official word. No need to start early.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^
If this is true and DB doesn't have another quality candidate lined up, DB is going to have some splainin to do. How do you create the media circus that has more or less ended any possibility of RRod coming back without having a your replacement candidate more or less locked up? It would be a staggering display of incompetence if RRod is forced out and we end up with a tier-2 type coach in here (which given what has happened with this program over the last three years is the most likely outcome).
Since we are following the ND blueprint to coaching decisions and program stability, could we get O'Leary's phone number as well?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^
This really is the worst case scenario. Even if Brandon decides to keep Rich Rod, how badly has the relationship been damaged by Brandon letting him twist in the wind for over a month that he wouldn't seriously consider a pitch from UConn or Pitt?
It looks like the wander in the wilderness has begun.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
now Brian does like Harbaugh?
January 4th, 2011 at 1:49 PM ^
Sometimes definitive performances in bowl games can change minds, even if only slightly. And it might be a case of still liking RR, but not seeing him as a viable option moving forward. Do you expect Michigan to go 12-1 with a dominant BCS bowl win next year? That has become the standard for RR's 4th year, fair or not.
January 4th, 2011 at 2:27 PM ^
In midseason he wrote about him: "Plan B is looking pretty good."
January 4th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
If we do not secure JH as our next head coach, then to me, Brandon has royally screwed this up. He dragged our program through a 1 month long media circus and the only rational reason for him doing so would have been to lock up JH as our coach. If that does not happen, what was the justification for creating a situation where our coach's job status completely overshadowed our players and the team playing in a NYD bowl?
So, apparently, despite being dragged through this ridiculous time period for an evaluation, we are down to three choices:
1. Brady Hoke
2. Some other coaching name that is not JH or RR, or
3. RR
As to the first 2 choices, DB could have accomplished that weeks ago like most ADs do. If DB dragged our program through all of this with nothing more than a hope of getting JH, he does not deserve the praise that some on this board give him.
As to option #3, ff RR comes back, then our program is seriously screwed. We cannot sustain another season of coaching hot seat, divided fan bases, recruiting failures and drama. Our program is spiraling out of control and the RR situation (not necessarily RR himself) is largely to blame.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
the pimp hand got B*tch slapped.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
Had we fired Rich Rod after tOSU game, we would NOT have secured Harbaugh before his bowl game anyway, (any ideas to the contrary are purely wishful thinking). No other coach would have wanted to be waiting in the wings, playing second banana. We would have also been playing in our own bowl game, sans a HC. Would we have done any better? Probably not.
January 4th, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^
Unless the rumors referencing Brandon/MSC preferring Hoke (on this and other CC threads) to JH are true. Hoke would have come anytime Michigan offered, and would now have 15 practices with his new team (not that I support hiring Hoke).
If the Administration really did want Hoke as their first choice, I think they misplayed this badly. If they hire him now, it will look like they only did it because they missed on JH. I understand the idea that they had to look like they were after JH "for the fanbase" before getting BH, but don't think it makes them look any better. Far better (and more honest) would have been to "sell" BH affirmitively, if that's who they really wanted.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
Why the hell is DB getting panned for this? If ultimately Harbaugh prefers the NFL to Michigan, there's not much that can change that.
Besides, if Harbaugh isn't interested, then what it proves is that Brandon is 100% correct to have handled it this way so far. Because there's only one thing that would be worse than keeping Gerg right now, and that's a long coaching search that doesn't result in Harbaugh. Brandon has been perfectly in the right to not fire RR if he's not 110% sure that Harbaugh would come here.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^
The problem was the way it was handled if Harbaugh doesn't come. The only reason to handle it like we have is if we had a backdoor agreement with him. If it was some other coach, we hire them earlier in the year as they don't have to worry about playing a BCS game. This lets our recruits know exactly where they are and who they will be playing next year and removes a lot of the drama surrounding the program. If were keeping Rich Rod, then say that months ago. If Brandon was truly waiting until after the bowl game for one more data point, then thats a problem of a different type.
If anyone but Harbaugh is our coach next year then the way the situation was handled for the past two months was seriously bungled and has brought our program loads and loads of bad press and recruiting for no real benefit.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
You could tell last night from the post-game ceremony when he said to Ravich, "I hope you can respect what these kids did." Then he added someting like, Cardinal Charge to the Championship. i love you guys...
It was definitely a farewell speech. And then sitting next to Andrew, he had the demeanor of, "this is the last time you'll see me in Cardinal red."
So, he won't be back at Stanford. Everyone could tell...so it looks like NFL or bust, and why shouldn't he follow his brother's path?
January 4th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
He sounded like a guy that knew it was his last game for that school. I still think all of these rumors are BS and I won't believe a thing until the press conference. I have 98% confidence that the next coach will be Harbaugh or Les Miles though.
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