SEARCHBITS XXXIII: HONEYMOON OVER! GRAARGH! Comment Count

Brian

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IT'S OVER [Bryan Fuller]

OMG HIRE SOMEONE. Noted failure Jim Harbaugh has yet to assemble his staff and has even seen a few dudes stay where they are once their schools belly up with big-ass raises and titles like King Of East Besserabia, and people are starting to notice. The always on point Football Scoop:

Srs. Get this jackwagon out of here so we can go after Joe Moglia, that's what I say.

(Also Bacon immediately said WHOOPS after his Harbaugh Big Game Hunter tweet, because he then read twitter. Protip: always read twitter before twittering.

Roussel is frosty after Bacon twitter-broke the hire to the point where he'll ignore the fact that Durkin was heavily rumored for weeks before Lance Anderson's name ever came up and that speculation about Greg Roman was extremely weak. But whatever. Guy was outstandingly wrong for a solid month.)

HIRE THAT GUY IN FACT. After weeks and weeks of Wheatley-related rumors, there is finally a concrete indicator that it's happening from Angelique:

…word is former Michigan running back Tyrone Wheatley, most recently an assistant with the Bills, is expected in Ann Arbor this week to discuss the opening.

Sam Webb confirmed. Need some sort of Ty Wheatley in a hat taking a sled through Canada gif for this.

Wheatley is of course in limbo after Doug Marrone quit the Bills. Marrone's interviewing with the Jets, and I find it hard to believe that he's not locked in there. You do not walk away from an NFL head coach job without something in your pocket. (This is why you shouldn't get all hyped up about Jim Mora interviewing there and perhaps knocking some recruits to Ann Arbor by leaving.) Would he take Wheatley with him? Would it matter? I don't know, but there's not much uncertainty at Michigan and about as much money these days.

WITHER THAT OTHER GUY. Angelique also has details on what's going down with Fred Jackson: he filed benefit paperwork because his contract is up but hopes to continue coaching. I don't think that'll be at Michigan if he does continue.

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THE OTHER OBVIOUS S&C GUY. People have been talking about Kevin Tolbert, an assistant S&C coach with the 49ers who was with Harbaugh at Stanford and worked under Mike Gittleson at Michigan from 2001 to '07 before that, since Harbaugh started happening, and he's supposed to be in town today as well.

Tolbert's a Navy alum who started at fullback for three years and has evidently impressed Harbaugh enough for him to have him around wherever he goes. Missing on Shannon Turley is a disappointment but he'll probably be fine—Harbaugh don't play around with guys who aren't hypercompetitive. Hopefully he's no longer a High Intensity Training advocate, if only to save us from people on message boards muttering darkly about the stone-age training Michigan is using. I don't think it'll be much of an issue with Tolbert's last eight years in the cutting edge Stanford and 49ers programs.

I'm not entirely sure but the internet seems to think that Tolbert was also this guy back in the day:

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So… okay. There is also a painting by Sandra Gittleson of a Kevin Tolbert-looking guy lifting that anvil.

IF NOT MORTON, THEN THIS GUY? This gentleman is also an old-time Harbaugh associate:

Before taking the SJSU job two years ago, Dougherty had been the WR coach at Washington for four years and QB coach under Harbaugh at USD before that—Harbaugh in fact inherited him. He'd probably just be coming as a position coach if he did end up here, but these days that's a major pay bump. Dougherty made under 200k last year and would probably be looking at a 50% raise even if he was just a plain old WR coach. He's very accessible.

FWIW, San Jose State was miserable this year, but that is nearly always the case. In 2013 the Spartans were 30th in FEI as they nearly scraped a bowl; their QB graduated and that was it for acceptable offense in San Jose.  In his lone year with the passing game coordinator title at Washington the Huskies were 13th in FEI, 38th in S&P passing.

UPDATED GUESSOCHART. As it currently stands:

OFFENSE Coach confidence DEFENSE coach confidence
OC Tim Drevno lock DC DJ Durkin lock
QB Jim Harbaugh lock DL Durkin lock
RB Ty Wheatley probable LB Greg Mattison lock
WR John Morton maybe OLB/DE Roy Manning probable
OL Bill Bendenbaugh none DB Greg Jackson maybe
TE ??? none ST ??? none

OTHERS: Mike Hart (RB), Jimmie Dougherty (WR).

Bendenbaugh is Oklahoma's OL coach; Sam brought him up as a possibility a little bit ago. With Oklahoma in the midst of staff turmoil he may jump over. This configuration currently has four guys on each side of the ball with Harbaugh being Harbaugh and a wildcard for TE/ST or possibly a CB/S secondary split. With Marrow out of the picture there's a spot for some guy to come in and recruit his ass off.

Comments

Blau

January 6th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^

Brian, with Drevno and Durkin being locks for OC/DC, why hasn't anything come out official?

 

It seems the faster we move on announcing these things, the better chance we'll have for recruiting not to mention our current players knowing who their coordinators are. Do the coaches have to physcially be on campus to confirm this?

readyourguard

January 6th, 2015 at 12:24 PM ^

No mention of Erik Campbell for WR or DB coach. Huh. His demeanor isn't exactly Harbaugh-like but he has a tin of experience and was a teammate. I'm pulling for you Soup.

Michigan9

January 6th, 2015 at 12:28 PM ^

Not reading into all this crap saying we cannot get who we want to fill positions.  We got our HC when they said we couldn't, we'll get a group of great coaches to fill the voids.  There is a process, it takes time.  We wil be fine!

#GOBLUE

Muttley

January 6th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^

 

 

wants to buy back some machines that were liquidated from the Strategic Nautilus Machine Reserve (aka the Michigan Football weight room circa early 2008), just have him contact Muttley.  I'd be willing to sell them back, at a slight profit, of course.

 

http://www.functionalhandstrength.com/darden_visit.html

John and I (the website author & associate) ...had lunch with Mike Gittleson, who recently retired after 30 years as the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Michigan. Boy does Mike have some strength stories about his experiences with Michigan's football teams.



When he finished the 2007 season, Michigan's conditioning complex contained 175 strength-training machines.



You name it - Nautilus, MedX, Hammer, Body Masters, Strive, Pendulum - Gittleson and his athletes tried and tested them all. Interestingly, only the best survived. It was enlightening for me to hear Mike compare the best and worst features of the major brands, machine by machine, body part by body part.



What a shame, when the University of Michigan hired their new football coach, they decided to sell every one of those 175 machines at a low price.



Michigan's loss, however, was somebody else's gain. John bought a Nautilus Multi-Exercise machine for $200 and a Nautilus Rotary Neck machine for a mere $50.

The FannMan

January 6th, 2015 at 3:57 PM ^

Over 100 responses and still no "Ty Wheatley in a hat taking a sled through Canada gif" as was plainly requested by our merciful overlord.  What has become of us?

Besides, I have no idea how to make one of those and would love to see it. So, can I please have a "Wheatley's Happening.gif"?

 

KYBLUEBLOOD

January 6th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^

Harbaugh will fill your staff nicely there at Mich and the Wolverines will roll just fine. Kentucky has gone through much to get to where they are now, football-wise, and to finally possibly have that chance to close the dusty pages of woeful days gone by. Wolverines have great sphere-ball history and you all should be very proud. You've gotten a great coach to lead you now back unto the forefront as I'm sure that he shall do you all well.

armstrongcatina

January 6th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^

How We Can Quickly In Few Second See On Link ...      
 
W­­W­­W.WORK4HOUR.C­­O­­M
 

Kfojames

January 6th, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^

Jim did tell us at the intro presser that he couldn't say wether the process would move fast or slow. I'd rather have him take his time and get it all right! Measure twice, cut once. And I agree I think they'll announce and make all hires official at one time