Assistant Coaches

Submitted by TrppWlbrnID on

there was much talk this past season of M's assistant coaches perhaps being let go and with all the changes at ND i am hoping that RR can snakeoil corwin brown. any ideas on current position coach's status, what the schedule is for their dismissal/hiring and what role they have in recruiting?

also, is corwin a good fit or am i just too sentimental about the 1990s?

steve sharik

December 10th, 2009 at 9:50 AM ^

Richt fired a bunch of his D staff immediately after the season.

Looking for a new DC and other D coaches has not impacted recruiting very much...word is that their commitments are waiting to see who the new staff is. Georgia is currently #10 in the rivals rankings.

Furthermore, doing it after signing day could be much more dangerous. If a coach leaving causes a recruit to leave, doing it after signing day leaves you no chance to replace a decommit/transfer. More importantly, how fair is it to either the coach or the player to basically use them for recruiting? To the coach, we would essentially be saying "We didn't want you here but we needed you so we wouldn't lose any of the players you won't be coaching." To the player, we would essentially be saying "This guy will be your coach, but once you sign, we're firing him."

jam706

December 10th, 2009 at 8:30 AM ^

And it seems unlikely that Brown would take a demotion from his current position as Associate Head Coach, Co-DC, and DB coach, so if he leaves it probably won't be for M

PhillipFulmersPants

December 10th, 2009 at 9:00 AM ^

won't be his decision, though. I suppose it wouldn't be shocking if he's at least offered some kind of position based on his rumored recruiting skills. Still, I can't see any new coach retaining him in the current role he seems to have there, which from the outside is ambiguous. He's got those titles but doesn't seem to have all the responsibility of them. E.g., I think Tunuta was calling the shots for the D.

As far as taking a "demotion," I don't know if a significant program would offer him a similar title(s). Maybe a middle of the road team looking to land a recruiting star?

Maybe Irish can shed some light.

EDIT: I forgot to add I wouldn't mind M taking a shot if there was an open position. A star recruiter focused on the defensive side of the ball would be all right with me.

Tater

December 10th, 2009 at 8:44 AM ^

At least with a non-Bo regieme at UM, hiring Mattison then Brown won't give ND any advantage against UM anymore. They won't really be able to predict everything UM does now, even if they go out and find an ex-RR coach for their defense.

maizenbluenc

December 10th, 2009 at 9:06 AM ^

If there was no rule change, and Penn State could sign 27, then we can sign 28.

it would appear that his actual coaching ability is suspect, as the Irish defense has been pretty bad. So they "promoted" him out of the DC job to keep his recruiting ability at ND, but brought in Tah-noo-tah to do the actual coaching part.

i.e., not sure we want him, even if he would consider an assistants position under Gerg.

Magnus

December 10th, 2009 at 9:48 AM ^

Assistant coaches can be fired at any time. Recruiting really doesn't have a ton to do with it, especially when (I'm assuming) Hopson is the one we're discussing. He's not a great recruiter and other coaches/the new coach could pick up the slack with no problem, I'm guessing. Shafer was fired last December, I believe, and we didn't snag Greg Robinson for a while.

So if Hopson's going to go, it could be at any moment, but the bowls are probably the biggest thing standing in the way. There's no need for a current LB coach somewhere to abandon his team THIS VERY MINUTE...in order to get ready for spring practice.

MGoJoe

December 10th, 2009 at 10:09 AM ^

I don't understand why we would want to hire any coaches from ND. I blame the assistant coaches just as much as I do Weis for their consistent mediocrity.

ndhillon

December 10th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^

I'm with you on this one. Coaching wise I haven't seen evidence that CB would be our savior.

Recruiting wise: Doesn't our LB coach only have responsibility for 2 positions: Mike and Will? I would imagine the block M, ALONE, would get us good enough recruits for those 2 positions.

AC1997

December 10th, 2009 at 10:43 AM ^

Obviously ND has not had a very good defense for the Weis regime so you should be careful considering any of them at Michigan. That being said, Tenuta has a great reputation and Brown has been a very good recruiter so you take a look. Tenuta will probably either get retained by the new coach or have plenty of high profile opportunities, so he's out of the picture.

The question is - would we make room for Brown if he's available?

On the one hand, he's a Michigan legacy and it would be good to have someone like that on the staff for a variety of non-on-field reasons. I also think he's a good recruiter and could be an even better one when he's doing it for the university he played for.

But as a coach is he an upgrade? Hard to say. Hopson has very little going for him right now in that our experienced LB are actually getting worse in two years under his guideance and he has yet to bring in any good recruits. So dumping him seems to have little downside other than having yet another person trying to teach Ezeh and Mouton what to do. I guess I can't see how Brown, despite his shaky reputation, could be a down-grade.

I guess I'd like to see Michigan bring him in and create a role for him, even if they don't let anyone go. Give him a creative title, let him help coaching the LB or S or something, and leverage his recruiting talents. If you have to dump Hopson to do that, fine - I don't see a problem with that. But I think adding Brown would be a benefit so I hopet hey do it.

And for the commenter who said Brown would be looking for a lateral move or a promotion, i think you're mistaken. He's coming off of a series of bad defensive seasons, he was demoted at ND, and the head coach he worked for was fired for performance reasons. Usually when that happens you have to take a demotion, not a lateral move.