A Call to Researchers and Historians

Harry Kipke, who won national championships in 1932 and 1933, improved M's record from 1-7 in 1936 to 4-4 in 1937 -- a three-win improvement.

Was axed, as that was his fourth consecutive non-winning season following the national championships.

Fritz Crisler was hired to replace him, and with a lot of talented players that Kipke left behind, Crisler immediately turned Michigan into a winner -- one player of which was eventual Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon.

Michigan's three Heisman winners won their trophies with head coaches who did not recruit them. Kipke recruited Harmon, Bo recruited Desmond, and Mo recruited Woodson.

Both the Frank Solich and John Cooper findings show that it isn't just results - it is results with expectations. Solich was expected to be more dominant in the conference. Cooper was expected to beat Michigan more often. Give him some credit; he wasn't shut out in the series and did have competitive teams in most of the UM/OSU games. Before him, Bruce Earle had the same issue but in a broader way - he had too many 8-3 seasons and not enough 9-2 and 10-1.

What is interesting is that both OSU and Nebraska have the same type of devoted (some would say rabid) fan base as the UM, so anyone taking/holding this job can't pretend that these types of expectations are a surprise.

For the Heisman trophy question, usually the award has gone to players on winning teams, so looking back through the list back to WWII, no one stands out. There have been teams where after the Heisman trophy winner left, the coach retired or took on other roles. Pete Dawkins won for Army in 1958, his coach Earl Blaik retired and entered business in 1959. Alan Ameche won for Wisconsin in 1954, his coach Ivy WIlliamson experienced a losing season in 1955, and left coaching to be athletic director. Usually poor results got another year. Do you remember George Rogers? He won in 1980 for South Carolina, including a win up here in the Big House. His coach Jim Carlen had a bad bowl game losing in the Gator Bowl 9-37 to Pittsburgh and the following year was 6-6 and was gone.

Which led to the Callahan hire...

Solich was good then dropped to 7,9 for that to be true he would have had to go 7-9-11

RR went 3-5-7

I believe he means in the year he got fired, and I don't remember a Heisman hopeful for ND last year.