Confirmed: Schiano accepted the Michigan job in 2007, then backed out six hours later

Submitted by FrankMurphy on September 25th, 2021 at 5:52 PM

Per Sean McDonough just now.

Of course, Schiano didn't address the second part of that rumor (i.e., that he changed his mind again and tried to get back in the running, but by then we were in talks with Rich Rod).

FrankMurphy

September 25th, 2021 at 8:32 PM ^

Bill Martin met with him in NYC in 2007 and offered him the job. It was widely publicized. Obviously Martin never confirmed it, but it was the worst kept secret in Ann Arbor. Those of us who are old enough to have known a life before Facebook remember it. Schiano might not be a prince among men, but he's not lying about this.

TheCube

September 25th, 2021 at 8:49 PM ^

Personally think Schiano would've been a good hire at the time. Lloyd wouldn't have encouraged players to transfer; Mallet would stay; defense would exist (since Schiano coaches it); alums would be okay with it. I think Schiano would still be coaching Michigan if he were hired. Idk if Michigan would have won a national title with him, but we would deff break our B1G drought and beaten OSU more than once. 

1VaBlue1

September 25th, 2021 at 6:01 PM ^

Whatever.  The good news is that he didn't take the job.  Of course, we got stuck with the guy that turned out to be less than we thought he'd be, so, again, whatever.

Move on.

Red is Blue

September 26th, 2021 at 8:11 AM ^

I have no idea what he is like as a person.  But, from a football performance stand point he had Rutgers playing well in his first stint and has quickly turned them from being abysmal to being not bad.  I was impressed how when something went wrong he calmly called his player(s) over and discussed things.

crg

September 25th, 2021 at 6:06 PM ^

Doubtful - if there was any truth to it, there would be documentation... at least some of which would have been made public by now (14 years later).  Sounds more like Schiano camp promoting him.

crg

September 25th, 2021 at 6:25 PM ^

It's not sudden - his supporters have been claiming that for years.

My point is that, if true, it wouldn't have been this long without some kind of confirmation coming out from inside the UM organization (leak, foia, etc.)

Perkis-Size Me

September 25th, 2021 at 6:21 PM ^

If today is any indication doesn’t look like it would’ve been a bad hire. 

Not an elite hire by any stretch, wouldn’t have beaten Tressel or Meyer, but Michigan would’ve had competitive, well-coached teams. 

Magnus

September 25th, 2021 at 9:47 PM ^

I think Schiano is a better coach now than he was in 2007. His time in the NFL and at Ohio State seem to have helped him progress as a motivator and schemer. And perhaps they helped him get better people around him, too. He has a little more cache now, in my opinion.

I guess what I'm saying is that if I were a big program, I would be more likely to hire Schiano in 2021 than I would have been in 2007.

MaizeBlueA2

September 26th, 2021 at 9:30 AM ^

Agree 100%.

That was just an awful year for Carr to retire. 

As I've said, we've been unlucky where are Rivals have been lucky when they've had openings. 

For the record, I hate the guy, but I wanted Michigan to hire Brian Kelly. I hate myself for admitting that, but back in 07-08...that was the #1 guy for me.

Like Schiano...Kelly, by his own admission, has grown a ton a coach. I used to love beating him and he'd get all purple and scream at his QBs even though it was the defense that just dropped an INT.

I'm still glad we didn't get him, because again, this version of Kelly is WAAAY different than '07 Kelly.  He was, and in many ways still is, embassing.  Rich Rod though, my God, what a terrible hire on so many levels.

93Grad

September 26th, 2021 at 8:59 PM ^

It was a bad time for Carr to retire, but we did nothing to help ourselves:

1) Martin knew for the entire season that he needed to hire a new coach and he did NOTHING.   2). Carr didn’t have anything close to a replacement on his own staff.  3). Even when he got going, Martin fucked up the whole search process.  4) Miles may be a scumbag but he was still our best shot at keeping the program competitive.  

tybert

September 25th, 2021 at 11:25 PM ^

I liked Greg but somehow he got it into his mind that the NJ government, which has been strapping since after Tom Kean in the 80s for money to pay for all the advancements at Rutgers, decide to trust politicians. Also word leaked out that Joe Pa was "about" to retire from PSU post 2007 and Greg was his proposed hire.

I like what he has done at Rutgers and love how the BS that kept him from being HC at Tenn burned UT and they hired Pruitt who got forced out after 3 years.

He would have beaten OSU maybe a few times (even Cooper was 2-10-1 vs. UM).