Harbaugh Praises Well-Deserving Assistants in Postgame Presser - Coaching Staff Appreciation Thread
If you haven't had a chance to check out Coach Jim's presser yesterday he runs through all of his assistants detailing the great job each one is doing. Afterward, I couldn't help thinking how special of a year this is so far and it's showing on the field. I added a link to the mgoblue site below but I think you'll have to scroll down to Jim's interview on the football page.
Two things that stand out to me that make me so proud of this program (not that I had anything to do with it obviously, but just as a fan) are the pursuit of perfection / catching excellence and just how rock solid the program is, top to bottom.
As Coach Jim was talking about his coaches I was thinking there isn't one that is marginal. They are all as he describes them, "Master Class". When he was talking about his son Jay, I couldn't help but think of Brian Ferentz...enough said.
And then how solid our roster is. We had one area of concern at one of the CB spots but that's been shored up reasonably well through the portal and we still have 4 more weeks to coach the position up before we really get tested at Penn State.
And speaking of the portal and NIL, it appears as if UM's approach, spreading the wealth around and rewarding the upperclassmen, appears to be a winning strategy. I question if we would have the same team unity and unselfishness if it was otherwise.
tl:dr Three cheers for the best college football coaching staff in the country!
October 15th, 2023 at 9:54 AM ^
Jay would make a fantastic head coach. Maybe if Jim bolts he’d leave him behind to keep the machine revving along. I mean the guys held every position their is outside of coordinator but he trumped that by being head coach for a game.
October 15th, 2023 at 9:58 AM ^
Hiring anybody with no head coaching experience to be our head coach is a very risky move.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:02 AM ^
Correct. Hockey and basketball for example.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:03 AM ^
Would generally agree, but Sherrone Moore looks really solid.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:14 AM ^
Yes, solid and excellent as an OL coach and as an OC.
In his HC debut against Bowling Green the team and JJ in particular were a little shaky. Could have been just an off week as it's a small sample size. Which is probably why you'd prefer to have head coaching experience.
Edit: I just wanted to add that the team definitely leveled up in performance after Coach Jim came back, as you would expect. But that's what you're looking for obviously, someone who can get the whole team to play at the highest level.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:38 AM ^
You aren't wrong. Experience as a head coach is important. But this is a unique situation. One of the important reasons for this club's success is the culture Harbaugh has created, The other elite teams still have a big edge in recruitment success with elite recruits. Preserving the culture ir a paramount goal. It will be hard when promoting from within but it is probably impossible if an experienced head coach is brought in. He will have his own style/culture.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:36 AM ^
No one has any real idea how someone would do as a Head Coach unless they’ve actually done the job before. Every year, there are more examples of guys who were seen as great assistants or coordinators who fail when given the top job. If Harbaugh were to leave, Michigan would be wise to pick a replacement who’s already been a winning Head Coach elsewhere.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
If Harbaugh were to leave we would be lucky to have Sherrone Moore as Head Coach. He might decide to go with Jim and be an OC in the NFL.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
There’s no way you can know that. It would be a roll of the dice. Michigan wasn’t a college football powerhouse when Harbaugh arrived and won’t automatically remain one if he leaves. I’m not saying the two schools are on equal footing, but where is Stanford now? It’s all going depend on who succeeds him, and I say the odds would be much better if they went with someone who’s already proven they can do the job.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
Research into success as a function of HCing experience indicates a lack of correlation.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
My favorite research is the one that the quoter fails to provide. Because, it can say whatever it wants to say. And it can be the gold standard of peer-reviewed research, or it can be a case-study of N=1 in a "journal" published by a food supplement company in Manitoba.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
But he has HC experience…
October 15th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
Jay needs to move to a coordinator gig, or HC of a small school and cut his teeth.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Jaybaugh has head coaching experience.....one/half a game, but he's undefeated as HC.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
We should all be thankful for the position Michigan is in—things are so bad down in College Station that some Aggie fans are asking for Art Briles.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
I mean, teams thought NIL would be the golden goose, literally. Culture beats Jimmies&Joes beats Xs&Os
October 15th, 2023 at 10:12 AM ^
They thought a goose would turn into gold? A very specific goose? They deserve to be disappointed.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Or perhaps they thought being goosed would be golden?
October 15th, 2023 at 10:23 AM ^
To an extent. Georgia looked pretty good against our culture when we faced them.
October 15th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
You get what you pay for!
October 15th, 2023 at 10:46 AM ^
UGA's player talent level looked pretty good against our player talent level when we faced them.
FIFY...
Do not make the correlation that culture trumps players in all cases. UGA's 'culture' seems pretty close to our own, but in 2021 they had far more athletic capability across the field than we did. From all accounts, Rutger and Nebraska programs are pretty close-knit and are playing hard. But they're talent couldn't compare when they played us. Iowa has a pretty good 'culture', too. Anyone think they can compete against Michigan in the B1G CG?
'Culture' is needed, and it can put a team over the top. But you still need players that can physically and mentally compete at that level.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Depends what is meant by “team culture.”
Miami of Florida was a dominant program for over a decade and it was not a team of choir boys. Tom Osborne won national championships with Lawrence Phillips and steroids. Urban Meyer won a NC at Florida with players who were on a first name basis with the Gainesville PD, and the same is the case with Georgia and the local LEOs in Athens. Same case in Tallahasee and the FSU program during its heyday under Bowden.
October 15th, 2023 at 2:18 PM ^
It is still a player's game. You want those players to be happy and cohesive as possible, but it's still about the players.
Nobody has better team chemistry that Army or Navy but that's still not enough.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^
They all deserve a pay raise.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^
Wouldnt surprise me to later find this team has like 4-6 future head coaches on it. This is easily Jims best overall staff here
October 15th, 2023 at 12:21 PM ^
JH is one of the 5 best football coaches on the planet at any level. When he leaves, we'll almost certainly have a significant downgrade no matter who takes over.
The staff he's assembled is fantastic - super strong top to bottom. Inevitably some of them will move on.
To me, that's the best case scenario - JH sticks around long enough for his coaching tree to gain HC experience so when it is time we'll have fruit from the tree from which to pick.
Most of all, I'm going to enjoy this golden era. What a fantastic team, staff and head coach!
October 15th, 2023 at 12:21 PM ^
This staff is absolutely loaded. Which is good, because you have to think there are going to be upward mobility opportunities as Moore/Minter move on to HC opportunities in the near future.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
Michigan football program is in an excellent place at the moment. Credit to the Coaches, and for being Coaches the players wanted to stay and play for, and the whole roster. Seems like this team has great chemistry, camaraderie and poise.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
Warde apparently chimed in with some very complimentary things about coach.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
Best coaching staff in the country. Great team culture. Talent up and down the roster.
A top, top era of Michigan football, to be sure.
October 15th, 2023 at 2:13 PM ^
The true test of how good your assistants are is this: How many people at the highest level are trying to take them away from you?
For years, nobody seemed all that interested in Michigan assistants, certainly no high-level programs. That always felt like a red flag to me.
Now, there are multiple assistants on the Michigan staff that appear to be destined to be head coaches. Everybody wants them. I just hope we can keep as many of them together as possible for as long as we can.
October 15th, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^
I like your post. Some of it was Harbaugh getting people he didn't necessarily know. Don Brown and Nuss for example.
They did some good but Harbaugh has had more time to network with his brother and within the college ranks.
Harbaugh knows and lives that a solid, structured culture can create good coaches. If he does that, he can confidently promote his coaches as future head coaches. It then raises demand by replacements to apply to receive the same treatment (meritocracy, do well and be lauded, be lead by someone who believes in your career ambitions).
Harbaugh understands the "system", not just a facet. He sees positive outcomes by keeping trust and investing in others.
The grass isn't greener on the other side. It's greener where you water it.
October 15th, 2023 at 4:59 PM ^
Nussmeier was a Hoke assistant. I wouldn't say he did much good in the one year (2014) he was here.
October 15th, 2023 at 3:43 PM ^
There are different models of HC, I think. One is a kind of elder statesman role, where the coach is accomplished enough--like Saban or Bobby Bowden--to have great, well-paid assistants who perform a lot of the duties, day-to-day, that younger coaches, with more energy to burn, might see to (and of course learn from doing). They might have started out as screamers or hands-on types, now know what they want, and can oversee the smooth running of the ship. Because running a football program at a place like Michigan is a complex operation. Watching Jim on the sidelines lately makes me think we've moved to that place. And I think that this accords with what I've seen noted, that Sherrone really is calling the plays.
I also see someone asserting that you don't necessarily have to have HC experience to succeed. As a big Sherrone fan, I would like to hope that that is true. It's certainly the case that some people are good at it--and have had the kind of exposure that would make them good at it--and some people don't, wouldn't even want to, ever. (Anybody who's done project management knows what I'm talking about.) About this, in relation to Moore, I have no idea, other than see that he commands respect and has held a bunch of different jobs.
As for Jaybaugh, I would not be for it. I get that he has succeeded, I like him, and I still don't think that the coach's son should be slotted into such a job, especially not straightaway. I don't think that a lot of people would be comfortable with it anyway, but imagine the complaints every time anything went even a little bit sideways.