Hockey head coaching speculation
Red himself said a couple years ago that he'll walk away when he feels he is getting in the way of the program succeeding. This team has been an utter mess since Mel Pearson left. 3 years without a tournament should give Red a hint that maybe it's time to hang it up, no?
Coaching candidates anyone? I know I keep seeing Mel Pearson's name brought up in threads.
Because he's done a metric fuck ton for the program? And you and I are probably not nearly as meaningful over the long term to our employers. What catastrophe do you envision happening within the next year? We have a talent laden roster (in terms of forwards at least), and the incoming class is pretty good. And if Red is let go and it's done in a way that he deems disrespectiful, it could severely affect the transition to the next coach. It's not like we are finishing in the bottom 20 under Red. We're not American International or Alabama Huntsville. We are still finishing within shouting distance of the tournament. And Michigan definitely has the money and appeal to attract a top tier coach to take over once he's done. Michigan is just going through what Jack Parker and Boston U went through in his later years, inconsistency and underachievement. That program did not fall off the map despite that and David Quinn, after a rough first year, has Boston U as a top 10 team.
Another thing to consider is that we need Red's departure to be on good terms. Mel and him go way back. If Red feels hard done by, we can wave goodbye to the obvious #1 candidate that could come in and win without any major transition issues.
I learned the game of hockey attending Michigan games back in 2007 so I guess 8ish years now.
I'm not complaining about any intricacies of the game. I'm suggesting a team which annually is top 5-10 in talent across college hockey should not be wholly mediocre for 3 straight seasons. Down years happen to the best of programs without a doubt, but who's fault is it that there are a serious lack of decent defensemen? We're maybe only missing one guy who you might expect to be here: Connor Carrick. Aside from that, these are all Red's guys. It's either a failure on the recruiting trail, a failure to coach, or some mix of the two. I'm fully aware hockey coaching can be finnicky, but three straight years of mediocrity isn't a bump in the road, it's a pattern
But Bobby Bowden is also generally considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. As was Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, Mack Brown and many others who "lost their fastball" but didnt want to hang it up.
The rarity (and granted it was health driven) was Bo who left the game with people wanting more, not asking when will he leave.
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Harbaugh?
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we were hiring Babcock
That was a serious rumor 3-4 years ago. Wouldn't surprise me if that's all but dead now.
Why not? Babcock still doesn't have a contract.
Brian heard it from several people within the hockey administration. It was real.
What is said in press conferences is not the same as what's said in private
If Red tells you he wants another year Red will get another year...and another..and as many as Red wants.
so we should just let Red continue to run the program into the ground because of the great things he did? He's lost his touch and is damaging the program at this point
Red is not running this program into the ground. Yes we've missed the postseason for 3 years. Facts are facts but he hasn't lost his touch I can promise you that.
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So if he hasn't lost his touch, what's going on then?
That's definitely an exaggerration. We are still recruiting some top talent. It's just not bieng put into a position to succeed or motivated enough. That does not mean the program is in a terrible place. Just means it won't go any further with Red at the helm. Pearson or some other talented coach could come in and we could make the Frozen Four next year because there is quite a bit of talent on the squad and some more coming in.
Had this been the first bad year of missing the tournament, I can side with the Red defenders but no, this is year 3 of mediocrity. Love the man and what he's done but it's time for Michigan Hockey to progress forward. Time to evolve.
We do have Jim Hackett, after all.
They were Michigan's top in-state rival for a long time.
But that was a very long time ago. The last time Tech made the tournament, Michigan was still in the WCHA.
Michigan is THE greatest program in this sport. There haven't been many coaches here. The prestige of being the head coach at Michigan, a place Pearson was at for over two deacdes, is unmatched.
Let's not forget that Pearson left Tech for Michigan once before. He was an assistant at Tech and came to Michigan for that same position in 1988-89.
Michigan Tech was certainly a college hockey power in the '60s and '70s under Coach John MacInness, a UM grad who was the goalie for Michigan's 1950 NCAA champions and a director of Ann Arbor Amateur Hockey. However, Tech won one NCAA title in the '70s (in 1975), while both Minnesota (Herb Brooks) and Boston University (Jack Kelley and Jack Parker) won three. A case could also be made for Cornell (Ned Harkness), which had the only undefeated and untied team in NCAA history in 1970, and had other great teams in the late '60s with Ken Dryden in goal. And Murray Armstrong, who was demoted from the Red Wings by Jack Adams in favor of an 18 year-old named Gordie Howe, coached Denver University to four NCAA championships in the '60s.
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when it wasn't his doing but the refs' that lost us the game? Or just--out of respect--to couch your words a little more diplomatically?
Oh, hell--it's the internet. Who cares.
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If coach does decide to step down after the season we could be in need of the same type of house-cleaning that we saw with Football.
While I am frustrated as anybody else, as you can see by my posts in game threads, I think at this point, calling for Red to retire is pretty much moot. The decision is in his hands. He has one more year on his contract, I don't see him signing another one. He doesn't either. So he either retires at the end of this year or next year. They aren't going to can a legend with a year left on his contract unless there was some scandal or we were way worse off than we are.
This team the previous two years did not have normal talent level like so many ppl think. They think simply because they have an NHL team next to their name they are suppose to be good to great. So not the case. last year and the year before the talent was way down. The level was careers in the Farm teams not on the big club. ESPECIALLY true when looking at our D. The last three years we've had only 1 talented D man on the back end(Merrill, Trouba, and now Werenski) that's just not cutting it when your goalies are serviceable only on their "good" days. These are backup backup plans. Racine had one good ten game stretch but he was always a bad goalie. Nags actually has talent but his inconsistency is horrendous. He actually was thinking he wouldn't be drafted. That's the talent we had at goalie. Mix that with an avg at best d core you're gonna give up lots of goals.
The system this team runs works and works well when the D men play within the system but any system will fail with the lapses in judgement these D men are making. The forwards actually have real talent and real depth. Larkin, hyman, Compher, copp, and Motte all being top prospects for their owners. Then guys with experience like lynch mixed in and your 3rd line actually have scorers on it. That's talent that wasn't there 1 and 2 years ago. Do I think red is done? Absolutely. But don't give me this crap that he's an old washed up man and we should have seen the frozen four the last three years that's bull. This is actually the first year I got mad and thought reds team had a meltdown. But even this team doesn't have the talent of reds winning teams so don't give me the story that the talents been there. For 4 years it hasn't as we've missed out on guys for juniors more lately too. Red is fine if he wants to finish his contract he's earned that. These boys just need to learn to finish games and win. Experience is the only thing that can help that in hockey.