Harbaugh drives Ford

Submitted by poseidon7902 on

Buddy of mine is a salesman at Varsity Ford.  Sent me this text last night.  

snarling wolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:09 PM ^

There is of course a middle ground between "car guy" and "cares about nothing other than job and family."  

Harbaugh actually seems to have more interests than your average football coach, just based on his tweets.   But he's a no-nonsense type.  He wants to get from Point A to Point B, and maybe haul some stufff around.  F150 does the job for him.

MoJo Rising

April 3rd, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^

Retail price is ~$51,350. Fully spec'd can hit ~$58,500. I would assume the University is leasing it for him but maybe he bought one himself. A 36 month lease with ~$5800 down would be ~$572.00 with 10,500 miles. IIRC, LC had himself a Lexus RX300. I don't know what RR or BH drove. 

ijohnb

April 3rd, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^

hilarious that he his in full coaching gear.  I wonder if before bed he changes from that outfit into his "pajamas" which consist of the exact same outfit, only shirt untucked.

LJ

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^

I bet it's a one-piece footed jumper, with printed-on cleats for the feet, printed-on khakis (with belt) on the bottom half, and a thin block-M stocking cap.

Hey, I would actually buy that.

snarling wolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^

It makes perfect sense.  The rest of the world dresses to impress, because they aren't Jim Harbaugh.  But he is Jim Harbaugh, so everyone is already impressed.  So he can dress however he wants.

 

 

mGrowOld

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

That's a really nice looking truck.  I just bought my first PU about a month ago - a Chevy Silverado Z71 and love it.  The Ford was a close second for me but I have a friend who's a GM exec so I was able to use his discount and that made the decision quite a bit easier.

Quick question - has Harbaugh or Hacket made ANY wrong decisons since they've gotten rolling?  It's almost like they are so dialed into the collective thinking of the Michigan fan base they just keeping making one right move after another.

Moe

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:09 PM ^

And it's complete personal preference, would be helmet stickers and the removal of legends jerseys.  Some would disagree on those, but my personal preference would be no to stickers and yes to the removal of legends jerseys.  So many right decisions made that this one seems so incredibly minor.

DarkWolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^

Well, Just A Couple Issues
Season ticket prices were not reduced. Hiring a relative is a poor management practice. Harbaugh hired guys he knew and did limited interviewing. Was hoping he would go after a mixture of guys he coached with and talent from other programs. He clearly prioritized connections and familiarity. Almost all of the coaches came from "failed" coaching staffs at their previous teams. Hackett was supposed to help hire a permanent AD, nothing happening yet it seems. Still getting alternate uniforms. Recruiting is, OK. The Hackett/Harbaugh honeymoon continues, hopefully with many victories in the Fall.




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jmblue

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:51 PM ^

The Jay Harbaugh hiring can be criticized, but aside from him I'm hard-pressed to see how anyone else on the staff could be considered underqualified.  

As for ticket prices, we just spent a lot of money firing one coach and hiring another - one who has caused fan interest to soar.  If anything, Hackett probably could have raised prices further, especially given the much better home schedule.  He chose to keep them as they were.  Hard to really criticize him for that.

mGrowOld

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^

Agree on the Jay Harbaugh hiring being the one thing that I've questioned but with a tabula raza  I really can't say it's a miss yet.  For all we know he might be awesome.

And totally co-signed on the ticket prices.  The fact that prices weren't increased and increased a bunch (given the schedule & higher demand) is a victory.  You don't think our old friend DB wouldnt have given those prices a nudge?

DarkWolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^

Ticket Demand is Still Not Known
You are speculating on demand since season tickets are just now being renewed and the interest list is still developing. A good data point for your claim on demand is whether the student season tickets bounced back from 14,000 to 21,000. That would be a big positive for the game day experience. If that does not happen, in spite of lower ticket prices and Harbaugh hiring, it says quite a bit about the student interest. The premium game price for single tickets was increased from $95 for Penn State to $110 for MSU/OSU. Hope you are right on demand, but we don't know yet. Whether Jay is a good coach or not is not my point. Hiring relatives as direct reports is a banned practice in most organizations, as you probably know. Bottom line, Harbaugh could have done better if had at least tried to open interview for some of the assistant coaching jobs. If some don't work out, I am very confident that Harbaugh will make any needed changes.




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snarling wolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^

You have to keep in mind that Jim was hired in the middle of the recruiting season, when he was under pressure to rapidly put a staff together.  He hired people he was familiar with, which is normal.  The same was true of our previous coaches.  The main difference here being, of course, that a lot of the guys Jim knew had NFL and major college experience.  And having said that, he did try to hire some guys who didn't come, like the TE coach from Kentucky.   He hired Jay after that fell through.

As for ticket demand not being known . . . well, call it a safe bet that the Big House will be more full in 2015 than it was in 2014.

 

DarkWolverine

April 3rd, 2015 at 1:04 PM ^

Students Got a Reduction, Why not everyone?
I am not saying the coaches hired are not qualified, except maybe
Jay Harbaugh and Zordich. My concern is not having an interview process to see a range of candidates. We can't say that Harbaugh hired the best assistant coaches. We can say he hired the best caches that he or his brother had worked with.




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WolvinLA2

April 3rd, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^

This is the case a whole lot of the time.  Many very good coaches hire assistants they have a previous relationship with and who they know they work with well.  If Harbaugh has won with them before, why not stick with what works?  

Keep in mind he was hired a little bit late so it made sense to get guys hired quickly and it's hard to take your time when you need to hire a full staff.  I'm sure that when he has one or two spots open at a time he'll be more diligent and willing to spend the time to interview and hire guys he is less familiar with.

mgoblue0970

April 3rd, 2015 at 2:38 PM ^

Well, to run a profitable AD *and* reimburse the University for aid-in-kind *and* to support 27 varsity programs takes money quite frankly.  I know of no other university that does all 3 combined.

Which I don't have a problem with as long as Hackett is transparent and a good steward of our money.

IB6UB9

April 3rd, 2015 at 12:04 PM ^

"Not everyone has a perfect driving record. People run red lights, unload in the loading zone, jaywalks me jaywalks you whatever just everyone deserves to dirve."