Harbaugh Denies Interest in UT Job, Invokes Bo
As a (reluctant) 49'ers fan, Harbaugh to Texas is about the last thing I want to see happen. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10168117/jim-harbaugh-says-absolutely…
Rumors I have heard is that Harbaugh ultimately stayed in the Bay Area because his wife did not want to leave. Presumably that would cut against the Texas job as well.
I can't decide how these Bo quotes make me feel. Nostalgic for the 1980s? Proud of Michigan football? Bummed out on what could have been?
December 19th, 2013 at 6:12 PM ^
Nobody takes the time to ask if he's interested in these jobs, he just becomes the top choice by default. Harbaugh is the new Jon Gruden.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
Since you mentioned Gruden, he is open to hearing from the Texas athletic department about its football head coaching vacancy.
http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/408189-gruden-would-consider-texas
December 19th, 2013 at 8:30 PM ^
nope nope nope
1. Orangebloods is rapidly losing any credibility at all in my mind. They are rumor whores and are wrong at least half of the time
2. Jon Gruden is rumored for literally every big college opening. Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas, and on and on. I hear Tony Dungy and Bill Cowher are interested too. Also the ghost of Bear Bryant
December 20th, 2013 at 9:13 AM ^
would only rise from the dead if Saban accepted the Texas job and left a vacancy at Alabama.
"Mama called".
December 19th, 2013 at 10:22 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 6:19 PM ^
I mean, seriously Texas. Your job does not compare to a NFL gig. Sorry.
December 19th, 2013 at 6:30 PM ^
I believe it was Will Brinson over at CBS that put it right when he said that there might be some NFL jobs for which the Texas job might be a step up or at best a weird lateral move of sorts (emphasis on "weird"), but the 49ers would not be such a position. The same might be said for Mike Tomlin and the Steelers' position - it's a prime NFL position and one that people actually aspire to have. Tomlin has come up in Texas rumors, oddly enough.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:07 PM ^
You could have named the LIons. I don't think anyone would have negbanged you.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:49 PM ^
an NFL job is far superrior because you only have an owner to deal with (GM's are basically equals to a coach, unless they are one of the chosen few rockstars).
In college, you have to recruit, fundraise, can't trade players, live in a smaller city (I know Austin is awesome, but compared to SF?).
It seems like the media is just jonesing for a story.
December 19th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^
and are willing to put in the effort.
Nick Saban gets to have the best players on the field at 'Bama. It doesn't work that way in the NFL.
There are far fewer long-tenured coaches in the NFL than in college.
December 19th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^
power-hungry person would prefer the college ranks...more authority over players and their futures, recruit the types of players you want for your scheme, not have to deal with contracts.
December 19th, 2013 at 6:35 PM ^
NFL jobs aren't for everybody. They're supposed to involve hellishly long hours and coaches don't have the kind of control over personnel they do in college. Plus, the players are older and not necessarily as receptive to coaching.
December 19th, 2013 at 9:23 PM ^
So college coaches don't work ridiculously long hours?
December 19th, 2013 at 9:47 PM ^
NFL coaches' routines are apparently even worse - at least, according to some coaches who came back to college in an article I was reading awhile ago.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:00 PM ^
Why? I've heard the exact opposite from more than a couple of talking heads lately.
December 19th, 2013 at 9:41 PM ^
December 21st, 2013 at 9:09 AM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
I don't care for Harbaugh's wife
December 19th, 2013 at 6:32 PM ^
I wonder why he wasn't quoting or thinking of Bo when he was shooting his big mouth off and throwing his school under the bus in 2007?
December 19th, 2013 at 6:36 PM ^
And if goes back on his word and takes the Texas job, he will have taken Bo's name and words in vain, and God help him then.
December 20th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^
Come on. Was Carr supposed to have a crystal ball and know that Harbaugh would become a head coach down the road? The guy he did hire for that position, Loeffler, did well by all accounts.
December 20th, 2013 at 12:09 AM ^
Why would DB want to sabotage a Harbaugh hire? The only reason I can think of is that Harbaugh has too big a personality and there's a lot of reason to think Brandon wants to be at least a co-face of Michigan football.
December 20th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^
wouldn't be surprised if DB sabotaged the Harbaugh hiring by waiting to fire RR until after the bowl gameOn the contrary, he waited that long because that was Harbaugh's preferred timetable. People have a kind of egocentric view of Michigan. We can't just hire whomever we want, whenever we want. Those guys have their own schedules and needs.
December 20th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^
and his politics and social views were a stark contrast to A2 when he arrived from Ohio. You may want to do a little more research about Michigan football and Bo in particular.
December 19th, 2013 at 6:51 PM ^
...the prodigal son. If only you would've returned home when you had the chance. I would've forgiven all of the hurtful things you said about us. SMH
December 19th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
no one is happy. especially a 2nd wife. with a young child.
December 19th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
Will never be spoken.
December 19th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
Either Art Briles, Charlie Strong, or James Franklin.
Briles makes the most sense, being from Texas and having coached at his alma mater (Houston) and Baylor. He's never really left the state.
If harbaugh ever does leave the NFL, it'll be to come back to Ann Arbor, but Hoke is going to have to have a few more seasons as crappy as this one to get removed.
December 20th, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^
I think Michigan's going to be mediocre for awhile now. Best case scenario might be Harbaugh winning a Super Bowl & then getting tired of the NFL and deciding that resurecting Michigan would be his ultimate accomplishment.
I'm guessing maybe 2016?
December 19th, 2013 at 7:16 PM ^
The more important slice from that article is that he invokes Judge Judy.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^
Make me proud that the words live on. I personally think that's one of the greatest speeches put on video and its not like we don't know where they came from. Harbaugh can probably use some of that with a team of contract players...that the importance is playing for th Team and not for the ridiculous(ly good) paycheck that comes in every month,etc, etc. My personal addition to Bo is the idea that a great team needs contributions from every member, most especially in the void of adversity.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:57 PM ^
Nostalgia aside, we went way off the tracks. Imagine if Gary Moeller never went to eat at that restaurant in West Bloomfield that horrible evening...
December 19th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^
December 20th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
now biga
but that was one fine Italian place - and classy as well
no way they would have allowed him to cause a scene (he would have gotten a special table in the kitchen)
December 20th, 2013 at 12:44 PM ^
I own the old excalibur (and the banqet hall behind it) and used to own Il Posto Ristorante as well...I know the entire story about Coach Moeller (my favorite Michigan coach), but it happened before I took over
December 21st, 2013 at 9:03 AM ^
December 21st, 2013 at 9:05 AM ^
January 3rd, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^
OK, well our GM at our place (Pi Restaurant) was the bartender the night coach M got in trouble. Also, the waitress waiting on Coach M that night worked for me as well. So from them this is what happened....Coach M was not a good drinker at all, back in those days Excalibur was a place that alot of Michigan personnel went. That particular night, Coach M and his wife got in a fight...He started drinking more, she got more upset and to piss him off decided to dance with someone on the dance floor...obviously he even got more POed and more drunk, they had no choice but to call the cops, and the rest is history....sort of seems weird to lose your job over it....
December 20th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
I remember the restaurant was on Northwestern. Took a shot at WB. Fail.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
I dont' understand how this could even be a remote possibility. He has an NFL job - THE top of his profession - and was basically one call away from a Super Bowl ring. He had an opportunity to coach at Michigan but instead chose the NFL gig. Why the hell, just a few short years later, would he jump ship from his NFL job that he's been pretty damn successful at so far to go to Texas? It makes even less sense than the whole Saban to Texas crap, which actually did seem like a realistic lateral move that Saban might make.
Honestly it's starting to feel like Texas thinks they're more important than they really are. Surely it's a top job in the country...but cumong, man. Be realistic.
Hey, maybe Texas will hire Pete Carroll! Yeah, that makes sense too!
December 19th, 2013 at 8:36 PM ^
"Honestly it's starting to feel like Texas thinks they're more important than they really are. Surely it's a top job in the country...but cumong, man. Be realistic."
I've been living in TX since 2004 so witnessed both of Michigan's coach searches from that perspective. Know what? If you rewrite what you wrote but using Michigan, that's how people here in TX see Michigan.
December 19th, 2013 at 8:45 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 8:30 PM ^
Some of you may be too young, the rest of you may have forgotten, but what was disqualifying Harbaugh in 2002 was that he had a drinking problem. He had a DUI on his record and with the Moeller incident still fresh in many minds, that was one knowable risk Michigan wasn't going to take.
Five years, and with success with the San Diego Torreos later, his name popped up but...well there was still that DUI thing plus he'd just taken his job at Stanford and had the temerity to compare academics between Stanford and Michigan. James Harbaugh, a drunk, extremely acerbic, no real qualifications as HC, and he threw Michigan under the bus...stamped UNACCEPTABLE and no longer a Michigan man.
Just a few years later Stanford...yes Stanford, is no longer just a bad football joke, they had hit the big time. Meanwhile Michigan sank into the Abyss of Mediocrity and by gawd Jimbo Harbaugh is the Michigan Man we must have.
December 19th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
Let's get a few things straight:
1. Gary Moeller did not have a drinking problem. He had a bad night that just happened to be blown out of proportion because a cop leaked an audio tape. Anybody who knows Gary Moeller will tell you it wasn't indicative of any known pattern of behavior. He was a social drinker at best. The entire situation was grossly mismanaged by Michigan and Moeller's attorney, who let the media run with the story with next to no reasonable response from the University until it was too late.
Contrast that against Red Berenson's very public (and equally embarrassing) alcohol-related incident right around the same time, and it gives things a little perspective. Red handled it the right way, and so did the University. Moeller gets tarnished an alcoholic, yet people forget the Red thing even happened.
2. Harbaugh getting a DUI doesn't indicate a drinking problem.
3. The knock on Harbaugh was that his early success as a head coach wasn't seen as indicative that he could win at a place like Michigan, because he'd never coached, even as an assistant, at a place like Michigan. He had been an assistant for a long time a lower-level college program and the NFL, and winning head coach at a nothing school. Stanford took a run at him because a program like Stanford could take that risk on a guy with a name and an incomplete coaching resume. In 2007, a school like Michigan couldn't. If Bill Martin had a crystal ball, maybe. But it's not fair to characterize the situation like you have.
Though I would say that Bill Martin perhaps should have been paying closer attention to the speech Harbaugh gave at the pep rally the day before the 2007 Rose Bowl on the Santa Monica pier, because Harbaugh got onstage and gave the greatest Michigan pump-up speech this side of Bob Ufer I've ever seen in my life. It was Bo-esque in every sense of the word.
4. The problem with Harbaugh's comments about Michigan's academics weren't that they were incorrect, because initially, he was pretty much right on the money. Even if the Carty story for the Ann Arbor News was riddled with inaccuracies (and it was), every D1 program (Stanford included, btw) in one way or another is dealing with the kinds of issues Harbaugh was highlighting. The problem was he doubled down about two too many times trying to make those points. If he said it once and then backed off, that's one thing. He just went too far.
December 19th, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 11:33 PM ^
Moeller went into media silence for days while the Athletic Department figured out what to do and his lawyer piddled around, and all the while ESPN played the tape every hour on the hour. Michigan let the media make the narrative, instead of letting Gary Moeller and the University do it themselves. If Michigan is ahead of the story, or even reacting in real-time, Gary Moeller probably doesn't even need to be fired. Instead, Michigan drags its feet, and an incompetent AD makes a decision he's been forced to make by ESPN.
When Red had his problem (which happened in 1994, before Moeller), he went out in front of the entire CCHA press corps at the annual awards dinner the next day, owned up to his mistake directly without whitewashing it, and everyone went on their way. No delay, no time for the media to label him an alcoholic trainwreck, and that was that. Sure, the team was winning, but Red handling it the right way made a week-long story into a 48-hour story, and that was that.
For Moeller, the way that particular incident played out essentially tarnished him forever. It wasn't fair, 8-4 seasons or not. He was Bo's anointed one. He should have been teflon. Instead, the fanbase still treats him like an off-the-field trainwreck instead of a pretty decent guy and a damn good coach who had a couple iffy seasons followed by an off-the-field incident that didn't give him a chance to let his record play out for itself.
December 20th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
Bando C -
I agree with your recollection of events (I also recall that the Southfield PD officer who leaked the tape was an avowed MSU fan - it is pretty blatant misconduct to leak a tape like that before trial). I think your retelling of things Moeller jibes well with my memory of events and you've done a great job relating it to the board.
The distinction I'd draw, though, is that Red simply went to whatever that sports bar is on Packard (the name eludes me now) and got caught taking a leak on the side of a nearby library. The charge was public urination. Embarrassing? Sure. But Moeller's transgressions were much worse. He made a terrible scene at Excalibur (a terribly tacky place, btw - the home-away-from-home to the Detroit mafia and every bit as "classy" as that would imply), refused to leave when asked, resisted arrest, and then there was the tape. He was totally shitfaced, and made a big spectacle of himself. Moeller effed up on a level that was well beyond Red's transgressions.
At the time I recall thinking neither was so bad an offense as to require discharge. But getting caught taking a leak on a wall? That's something that many of us have done many times, and it was just Red's bad luck to get caught. Sure, you should not pee on walls in public, but I also have had many a soccer player I've coached run over to the woods to relieve themselves if there is no Porta Potty nearby. It's just not that big a deal.
Anyway, great write up on the Moeller situation. +1s all the way.
December 21st, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
December 20th, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^
Let's be honest too, there's a big difference in the media eye between college football and college hockey. Red handled his incident better than Moeller did, no dispute, but even if Gary had dealt with the incident more in the manner Red did, the story would've dragged on simply because the head coach at Michigan having a drunken meltdown is going to get lots of attention nationally.
December 20th, 2013 at 1:04 AM ^
I seem to be quite anorexic when it comes to writing so I do appreciate it when someone says I said much more than I did. As it stands, though, I never said Moeller had a drinking problem. Nor did I say Harbaugh did. What I did say is that Harbaugh was characterized as a drunk because of his DUI, and that DUI damn sure was a sticking point because of the previous Moeller incident.
Personnally I was championing Harbaugh before The Horror, I always thought he would be a great asset for Michigan football and should be the follow on when Carr decided to step down. But it wasn't to be because, as I outlined, the power elite in Ann Arbor couldn't get past his perceived sins, said sins being utterly ignored now that he's a highly sought commodity. Fuuking hypocrites.