How others view the Michigan HC position

Submitted by michgoblue on

Over the past week, I have spoken with a bunch of friends - most avid college football nuts like myself.  One thing that has surprised me is that as a group, most view the Michigan job as far less desirable than I would have imagined.

Friend 1: Nebraska fan - "Why would PEline ever leave Neb. for M?  Equal prestige, Nebraska a farther along in the rebuild and we don't have an insane fan base that will throw him out after 2-3 years." 

Friend 2:  PSU Fan - "I don't see you guys getting any top coach, other than Miles.  Your program is a mess, and in recent years, you have no more prestige than any of the programs you would poach from.  The Michigan job is not such a hot job these days."

Friend 3:  Wisconsin Fan - still thinks that our job is a big deal and that we can attach, but "your disloyal fanbase is a problem - you have pretty much run two straight coaches out of town."  (not correct about Lloyd, but many outsiders do view his retirement as avoiding firing)

Friend 4: No team, CFB nut - "You guys are no different than ND - aside from 1 or 2 good seasons, you have been irrelevant since your split NC.  Why would a top coach come to M?  Gruden is not coming - he loves being on ESPN.  Miles is going to play you guys for even more SEC $$.  Harbaugh is going to bold for the NFL (a few days before it happened).  YOu will probably end up with that Hoke guy from San Diago."

The quotes are not exact, but are pretty damn close.  Depressing.

Also, the general opinion was that our AD is a job and has screwed this up as badly as possible. 

On a positive note, my ND friend is scared of us getting Miles because he thinks tat Miles can out-recruit anybody. 

gobluednicks

January 9th, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^

wisconsin and psu have gotten,  and nebraska is about to start getting,  what did you really think they'd say?  they better kick us while we're down cause when we get back up there's gonna be hell to pay!

NY wolve Old Guy

January 9th, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^

All top programs go through down cycles.  Texas (the 80s and 90s).  Alabama (Mike deBord?).  ND?  Florida (Ron Zook?). LSU pre Saban.

 

The key is not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.

psychomatt

January 9th, 2011 at 11:35 PM ^

... but with more money (though less likely to spend it on coaches), a bigger stadium and about 15 years (and two failed coaches) behind them on our way to becoming Army (unless we get our heads out of our assess and hire and elite coaching staff immediately).

PurpleStuff

January 9th, 2011 at 11:42 PM ^

I think we are ND post 2004 right now.  Things look pretty ugly from the outside but the job is set up for perhaps unexpected (by those who don't follow the program closely) but immediate success.  The question is whether or not we hire Charlie Weis and give him a huge extension out of stupidity and desperation or do we hire the elite level candidate they whiffed on (Urban Meyer, in their case) who can parlay immediate improvement into sustained success.

psychomatt

January 9th, 2011 at 11:55 PM ^

I am a RR supporter, but we even started to come up with new excuses for every bad on the field performance just like ND did under Touchdown Charlie. The last three years have been hell and clearly have hurt the UM brand.

Still, I have to believe DB sees this and sees what three awful HC hires in a row has done to ND. If we want to remain a top 10 program, we need top 10 coaches. Period. Pay market and screw it whether or not they have a lineage to Bo.

Tater

January 9th, 2011 at 11:35 PM ^

The treatment of RR has devalued the HC job at Michigan in the eyes of not only fans and media from other markets, but in the eyes of coaches, too.  Why would a coach from outside the Michigan "family" who has other options want to work for David Brandon?  He would give up a good job to risk being sodomized by a certain faction of the fanbase and his employment status would be at the whim of an egotistical loose cannon. 

The answer to this rhetorical question isn't all that painful, though; it will have to be a coach with supreme confidence in himself.  Since that is what makes an effective leader anyway, it isn't bad that the devaluation of the job has eliminated those who are the least bit afraid to step into a situation like the one in Ann Arbor. 

It's just that the pool is now a lot smaller. 

raleighwood

January 10th, 2011 at 12:01 AM ^

At least mostly wrong.  RR got fired because he had to be.  He earned it.  I don't think that many coaches would expect to be retained with results that he had (six losses, all by double digits).  I don't think that many coaches will shy away from the Michigan HC job because of what happened to RR.

Reasons To Take The Michigan HC Job:

1.  Michigan is now ready to spend money.  The $5.2MM reportedly offered to Harbaugh would have put him near (if not at) the top.

2.  Michigan's facilities are as good or better than most in D1 football.  They just completed a $260MM renovation to the Big House.

3.  110,000 fans on football Saturdays.  The seats have been filled even though the team has been bad (three home BT wins in three years).  Only a handful of schools can approach that.  Fans in the seats equates to money in the budget.

4.  National recruiting.  Even though the team is down, the allure hasn't really diminished based on high profile recruits from Ohio, Texas, Florida, California and North Carolina taking a close look at the school this year.

5.  Regional recruiting.  Michigan isn't exactly a "hot bed" of high school football talent but it's not bad either.  I'd say it falls somewhere in the low to mid teens range.  Ohio is still full of top notch high school talent and Michigan has good access to that pipeline.

6.  Visibility.  Every Michigan game is on TV.  On top of that, Michigan gets at least one national network game every year (OSU).  Two games when they play away at ND.  This year they'll be featured at night in the Big House.  Next year they'll be featured in Jerry Jones Stadium.  Only a handful of teams can pull that off.

7.  Big Ten.  The Big Ten is a good, not great conference.  All Michigan has to do is follow OSU's blueprint for success and the rest will fall in place.  OSU has won six consecutive BT titles (rarely loses more than one conference game per year) and plays in BCS games every year.  Michigan absolutely has the infrastructure in place to do that.  It just needs a good coach (administrator) to steer the ship.

Michigan no longer fields a Top 10 team but it's still a Top 10 coaching position.  It just offers way too many things that other schools (outside of Florida, Texas, OSU, Alabama, LSU, USC) cannot.

 

BigBlue02

January 10th, 2011 at 12:16 AM ^

I'm pretty sure most coaches wouldn't guess they would be fired following year 3 returning 20 starters after losing 6 times, all to teams playing bowl games after January 1st and 5 of the 6 being ranked in the top 25.

PurpleStuff

January 10th, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^

And beat two teams that blew out AQ competition in their bowl games (ND and Illinois) along with beating the Big East Champions.  And nearly sent their true sophomore QB to the Heisman ceremony.  And inherited a terrible team that went 3-9 in year one after a messy transition.

Mega317

January 10th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^

I agree with most of that, with the exception of recruiting appeal.  Our games are on TV no more than almost every other BCS school.  And our national profile is middle of the road.  To the average 17-18 year old high school senior, we have played 2 memorable games since they started playing football: OSU 06, and App St.  Maybe you can count the Rose Bowls as well.  That's not exactly going to make a kid hear The Victors in his sleep, unless he grew up in the state.

justingoblue

January 10th, 2011 at 1:49 AM ^

National profile is middle of the road?

Exhibit A) Pitt and UConn are looking for coaches, this might get mentioned once on Sports Center, the NYT, the LA Times, whatever.

Exhibit B) Michigan is looking for a coach, it's plastered all over every front page someone can find to relate to sports.

Michigan is one of about ten schools that have that high of a profile.

snowcrash

January 10th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^

All of those also apply to Notre Dame, except for #3 and #7 which are the least important. Also, I don't agree that we should easily be able to replicate OSU's success. They will likely have first pick of most Ohio recruits at least as long as Tressel is there, whereas we will lose a good number of Michigan recruits to MSU. 

RoxyMtnHiM

January 9th, 2011 at 11:37 PM ^

Did you ask your Nebr friend what Solich's record was when he and his non-insane Husker fan base friends ran him out of town? (Hint: 58-19.)

bacon

January 9th, 2011 at 11:42 PM ^

Sure, everything is cyclical.
<br>
<br>IIRC, the shine had come off USC before carrol, osu before tressel, 'bama before saban, Florida before Meyer, nebraska before pelini, paterno before recent paterno, etc. Every program has down times. We're in one. The difference between the elite programs and the rest is that they're not defined by their current coach, they have tradition and a fanbase that expects to win. Michigan still sells 100000+ tickets a game, is a top 25 academic school, has a ton of history, and has the potential to surge back to the top really fast.
<br>
<br>Find the right guy and it comes back quick. Needs to probably be someone who energizes the fanbase. Brady hoke, probably not. But unless they get the right guy it's going to be the same 3 years from now.

Distik

January 9th, 2011 at 11:48 PM ^

the job isn't desirable, but what is the likelyhood of success? The term "Michigan Man" has been spewed all over the media. Why would ANY non-Michigan Man want to coach Michigan? Because its a challenge? lol...thats a joke. All they see is a great school that can recruit nationally, but you better have success in 3 years or your done. The word progress is also different in AA from 3 to 5 to 7 wins isnt progress. You also will have local media against you every step you take, so don't talk with an accent or anything. On top of that you have this fanbase that will never be happy no matter what you do...National Championship or bust. I guess appy state and 3-9 havent made you all realize all the negatives to being the coach at UM. 

caup

January 9th, 2011 at 11:50 PM ^

#1 reason: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

#2 reason: on TV every single week

If Brandon says "Hey, we're going to pay you $5 mil a year and an everyone will be able to see and admire you..."

Guess what? The Michigan job instantly becomes a BETTER job than 98% of the programs in the country.

Tradition doesn't get it done anymore. Give a coach a bigger paycheck and a bigger national stage than anyone else and it becomes a de facto better job.

Michael

January 10th, 2011 at 2:12 AM ^

No, but the amount of money and the amount of national TV exposure does set Michigan apart from the overwhelming majority of schools. UM is and will always be a huge draw in terms of national exposure.

Frankly, the OP is irellevant because it in no way addresses the reality, which is that: a) rating suggest that UM is a huge draw on TV and b) that COACHES (not fans) view the UM job as an elite and unique opportunity. I apologize, but I could not care less about the opinion of fan x of program y about Michigan.

My ESS-EEE-SEE friends are jealous that I get to watch every UM game on TV in HD.

snowcrash

January 10th, 2011 at 12:13 AM ^

I agree with your friends that the M job isn't nearly as desirable as most M fans think it is. We've gotten decent results for most of the last 10 years, but our recruiting base is not that great (we'll always be in a weaker position than OSU and even PSU) and our fan base is generally unreasonable. I wonder whether Brandon's M background has led him to overestimate the attractiveness of the job.

I Blue Myself

January 10th, 2011 at 12:15 AM ^

No program, whether elite or not, can just snap its fingers and get whatever coach it wants to come running.  A top program has two options to get a coach quickly:

1. Hire a top coordinator.  As Brian pointed out recently, this is what a lot of top level programs have done, including Florida, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.  No shame in doing it, and it often works out well.  Michigan would have no trouble getting a coach in this category, but Dave Brandon says he wants someone who's already been a head coach.

2. Hire a head coach at a lower level program who wants to move up.  See Florida with Urban Meyer, ND with Brian Kelly, anyone who has ever hired Bobby Petrino (at least until he flamed out in the NFL).  These are coaches who take one job after another, moving up as far as they can until they get into what they view as a terminal position.

If you go outside those two categories, it's very difficult for any program to hire a coach.  You can't just show up to Pat Fitzgerald's house with a dumptruck full of cash and expect him to take the job.  He's happy at Northwestern and will probably die there.  Same with Gary Patterson.  Even more with Jon Gruden and Bo Pelini.  It's a huge risk to go to just about any new program, no matter how elite or prestigious.

If you're happy where you are, you'll stay put.  Just like Rich Rod did when Alabama came calling.  The only way to get a coach like this is by luck, like when Michigan went after Rodriguez at the exact moment he was pissed off at the WVU AD.

Michigan had bad luck in losing its top candidate to the NFL.  Since then, the search has been hamstrung by Brandon's insistence on hiring someone who's currently a current head coach and who would merit an extremely high starting salary.  The inability to hire such a coach in four days doesn't mean that Michigan is turning into Purdue.  We may be turning into Notre Dame, but let's try to suppress that thought, shall we?

SysMark

January 10th, 2011 at 8:34 AM ^

Your friends are all rooting for our direct rivals so of course they have those kinds of opinions.  What else would you expect them to say?  "We know Michigan is the best job in the country and as soon as you hire your new coach you will qickly surpass us?  Relax and take it for what it is.

Daytona Blue

January 10th, 2011 at 10:00 AM ^

Funny, because I think Neb, PSU and Wisconsin are fairly irrelevant except for a good year here and there.  Also, what good coach would bolt for those places???  So its all in the eye of the beholder.

MGoShoe

January 10th, 2011 at 10:25 AM ^

...is widely held among fans of other schools and even by many disinterested observers. Reasons include the typical desire to denigrate historically elite institutions when they fall on hard times and the inability to look beyond the short term when evaluating value/eliteness.

Suffice to say that CFB HCs continue to recognize the Michigan HC job as extremely desirable. Raleighwood's list of attributes is pretty spot on, but I'd add the tremendous opportunity that comes with being selected for/accepting the job. The HC that returns Michigan's program to the point where it competes every year for a Big Ten championship (the rest follows) has the opportunity to go down in the annals of Michigan and CFB lore as one of the greats. That's a pretty good incentive that some may embrace and others may shy away from. 

In the end, denying the eliteness of Michigan's football program is myopic and usually self-serving.