Dane--not Dan--Fife U-M coaching candidate?
For those puzzled by the rumored candidacy of Dan Fife for the vacant U-M basketball assistant coaching job, perhaps an "e" got lost in translation.
An item in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel claims that Dane Fife--son of Dan Fife and younger brother of Dugan Fife--is the candidate:
Several Web sites related to athletics at the University of Michigan are reporting that [Dane] Fife is a candidate for one of two assistant coaching positions for the Wolverine program. “I have no comment regarding any coaching job other than the one that I have,” Fife said Sunday.Dane Fife is the head coach at IPFW:
In his five seasons guiding IPFW, he has led the Mastodons to 10, 12, 13, 13 and 16 victories, which is the most in school history at the Division I level.Some more background on him can be found in this New York Times article. (It's an "old" article--from 2006--but still interesting.)
If he takes the job, we have a good idea of who the next Michigan Head Coach will be after Beilein retires.
There are two openings, you know.
No there aren't. There's 1 coaching position and 1 administrative position.
Maybe you're being sarcastic, but I meant to include in the post that the author of that article was mistaken about the number of assistant coach openings--there's only one. Jeff Meyer was already given one of the two slots on a permanent basis.
My daughter's fiance grew up in the Fort Wayne area and graduated from IPFW. He got an excellent education there, but he says the satirical joke about the acronym is that it stands for "I Paid For What?"
Unless there are circumstances we doon't know about it would seem odd to leave a head coaching job in Div 1 to become an assistant.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
I live in Fort Wayne area. IPFW is a nice school, but I don't think anyone is going to think this is the pinnacle of a career. If you have a chance to step-up to a major college you would have to consider it. I think being head coach at a place like this is fine but it isn't necessarily worse to become an assistant coach at a major university.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:12 AM ^
Well, the "circumstances" could be his familial ties to U-M and perhaps, as others have said, being heir apparent to Beilein.
But aren't there two paths to becoming a head coach at a high-major college (if that's his aim): (1) working your way up as a head coach at smaller schools, or (2) becoming an assistant at a high-major?
April 19th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^
Unless there are circumstances we doon't know about it would seem odd to leave a head coaching job in Div 1 to become an assistant.I won't go so far as to say it happens all the time, but it isn't rare. Assistant coaching at Michigan is a faster track to a big-time job than head-coaching at Ip-foo. UVA has an assistant coach who quit the head job at Liberty to take this one.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^
Jeff Meyer was the head coach at Liberty for a long time. I agree with Wahoo, it's not odd at all.
This makes much more sense. I like it and hope it happens. Could put Dugan in a tough position as analyst, although I doubt he would be hard on any M coach
April 19th, 2010 at 10:04 AM ^
"Several Web sites related to athletics at the University of Michigan are reporting that [Dane] Fife is a candidate"
Um... link? I look at several Michigan websites and the only name I've seen has been Dan, not Dane.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Yes he is gonna have to change his name to work at a big time school, cause a recent poll of Danish nationals thought it inappropriate that he (Dane Fife) be representing all Danish people to the world.
Isn't Fife a Scottish name?
April 19th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
called this yesterday in another thread. Wouldn't shock me at all if we heard about the hiring of Dane sometime soon.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^
Sam Webb had a list of candidates that had Dane Fife as a candidate along with all the others that UMhoops mentioned, so I was a little confused by the Umhoops mention of Dan as well when I first saw it.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:40 AM ^
Since I started that other thread, let me clarify that the information didn't come from UMHoops. There was a commenter at UMHoops who posted a link to an item at Best of the Best Prep Basketball Scouting, and it waa that item that mentioned Dan Fife being a candidate.
So this possibly erroneous info did not come from Dylan at UMHoops.
Dane Fife would be an awesome candidate. He's young and energetic. He's played in the Big Ten and was coached by one of the best basketball minds ever. I'll be crossing my fingers on this one. This makes much more sense than the Dan Fife candidacy. Go grab him Coach B.
Just from an age standpoint, the son makes more sense than the father. Would be adding a young coach--Dane Fife is 30--to go along with Mike Jackson (36) and Jeff Meyer (56).
(Beilein, for the record, is 57; Dan Fife is 60.)
Are you guys sure this is the brother and not the father? Last time I checked (which is a few years) Dan the father of the bunch (not little Dan) was the Clarkston basketball coach and is the one they are talking about.
Dylan has now posted a detailed Thoughts on the Coaching Shakeup at umhoops.com.
Hey! Did he steal my line in the OP?
Reports that Dan Fife is a leading candidate strike me as extremely unlikely. Dan is Dane’s father and head coach at Clarkston but I assume that the ‘e’ in Dane was lost in translation somewhere. Dan just seems too old to consider a career move like this.(italics added) If so, no sweat, I'll take it as a compliment.