Hypothetical 2015 Coaching Candidates

Submitted by Yeezus on

I must admit I watched that game on Saturday night and wasn't even really that mad.  The state of the football program the last 7 years has made me numb to the pain.  Hoke seems like a wonderful guy and is an excellent recruiter - but it should be clear to everyone by now he's in over his head as our coach.  

If this season stays in the dumpster (or as a mound of eternal flaming tires) - what coaches would hypothetically be out there to give us hope heading into 2015?  

Harbaugh 1 and Harbaugh 2 will always be thrown around - but beyond them, is there anyone with ties to Michigan that would represent a "solid" choice the fanbase could unite behind?  I'm struggling to come up with other names - and that's a damn shame since Bo should have left a tree of many disciples that could take this program well into the mid-21st century.  But it seems as if most of those flames have died out post-Moeller and Carr.  

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jbibiza

September 8th, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^

Under "There ain't nobody better" he lays it all out in convincing fashion.  

Let Hoke get us to that 9 - 10 win Carr plateau and THEN find the person to take us back to prominance.

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JClay

September 8th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^

If Brady Hoke gets us to 9-10 wins annually, we'll never fire him. That is literally the most un-Michigan thing ever. We're just not a school that'd do that.

I totally believe given 2 more seasons, Hoke can have us winning 9-10 4 years out of 5. I have virtually no belief he would ever win a National Title, however.

Joined: 09/14/2010

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Ali G Bomaye

September 8th, 2014 at 10:59 AM ^

Hoke is no worse than Gene Chizik, Les Miles, Mack Brown, or Larry Coker, all of whom have won national titles in the past 15 years.  Being a head coach of a major program is like being a CEO - the coach just needs to surround himself with the right people and keep the pieces together.  Considering that Hoke was left with a depleted roster and wasted a couple years with Borges, I think it's tough to pass final judgment on his ability to be a HC.

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willywill9

September 8th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^

(Caveat, I'm not saying Brady Hoke should be gone.)

Depleted roster is a little bit of a stretch though, considering he won a sugar bowl in his first season as coach at Michigan.  Also, how many seasons in will he have to be before this team is "his"?  I'm not really sure i agree with you.

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Ali G Bomaye

September 8th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^

I feel like this has been discussed ad nauseam on this blog, but the general idea is that Rich Rodriguez failed in recruiting in two ways: he recruited a lot of guys who didn't stay at Michigan, and he barely recruited any offensive linemen.  Since Rodriguez was only at Michigan for three years, the upperclass leadership for Hoke's first year in 2011 were Carr recruits.  Once guys like Martin, Van Bergen, Molk, and Schilling left, there wasn't much depth left to replace them.  Hoke has been recruiting well, but offensive linemen generally take a few years before they're plus players.

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MI Expat NY

September 8th, 2014 at 11:26 AM ^

How can we possibly say Hoke's no worse than Miles or Brown?  I'll give you Chizik who walked into a situation where his boosters bought him the perfect talent to go with the OC he was smart enough to bring in.  But Les Miles has won three SEC titles during the best period in the SEC's history.  He has been to two national championship games.  I think it's fair to say he can coach.  Similarly, Mack Brown took UNC to back-to-back top 10 finishes and Texas to two national title games before a Lloyd Carr like fade.  He also could coach.  What has Hoke done?  No conference championships.  One top 10 finish.  There's a world of difference between Miles/Brown and Brady Hoke.

Part of the problem with a CEO type head coach is that when you don't have a particular specialty that you bring to the table like a Malzahn/Meyer offense or a Saban defense, you have to come up with the right coordinator and position coaches on both sides of the ball.  Easier said than done.

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stephenrjking

September 8th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^

Actually, I think Hoke's ceiling is a Mack Brown-type of situation. Brown was a great recruiter who was not known as a great development coach; he delegated responsibility for specific areas, he was willing to change philosophies when necessary, and he peaked riding a great player to a fantastic, deserved national championship.

Hoke is a recruiter and a delegator. In this sense they are quite similar. Whether Hoke can coax true winning quality out of his staff and players remains very much open to question.

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itauditbill

September 8th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^

They showed the stats on that last week and he's 22-21 when trailing in the 4th quarter. There wasn't anyone else even close. Like him, or hate him.. he knows how to do something right.

Now don't take this as a let's hire Les vote... for I don't see him coming.. .why would he?

 

 

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Sideline

September 8th, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^

I've been dissappointed since 2007 when I was led to believe he was our next coach. This guys is the closest thing to a modern Bo we can get. I've stated it on previous threads... this guy has turned around a mediocre team and made them relevant long after he was gone (Oklahoma State) and also taken a team that has a National Brand [like Michigan] and kept them relevant regardless of the prior regime being better or not (LSU, Saban). 

On Oklahoma State: he started with that team being fairly weak... I want to say 3-5 wins per year for the late 90's before he took over.... his first year wasn't spectacular, I think he went 4-7 or 5-7 but then was around 8-9 wins the next few years before leaving and letting his disciple take over ( Gundy, who has kept them nationally relevant since.

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Gameboy

September 8th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^

Are you kidding??? Carr WON THE NATIONAL FRIGGIN CHAMPIONSHIP and still got pushed out due to THE HORROR because people believed, it could not get any worse with a new coach. We now know that things can ALWAYS get much much worse. Do you all of you have ADD??? Do you not Rene er how the last coaching search went? Do you really want to go through again??? Are fucking crazy? Hoke has recruited exceedingly well. Give him a team full of seniors and see how they play before jumping into the deep end again. People here just have no sense in reality whatsoever, and it is disturbing.

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bleed_trueblue17

September 8th, 2014 at 8:31 PM ^

Many people seem to like to forget that the Fan base was "sick of Carr going 8-4 on average" I know this is true because my dad was one of those he was sick of the 9-3 seasons and loses to OSU and no national titles and wanted Carr gone. now people act as if he retired of his own accord and that doomed us and that "if only he would have stayed" well many of us WANTED him gone, then we got what we wanted and look what happened. Do we really think the same WONT happen if we look for ANOTHER new coach? Like the OP said, WHO's even out there? Its not realistic folks... Go ahead and live off the pipe dream of a harbaugh returning to U of M or believe that hiring any other coach would make us a big 10 champ tomorrow. A new coach would set us back 1 year minimum if not more from SERIOUS national contention... I dont know this fanbase has Gone nuts since 2006. do we deserve better? WE dont really deserve anything if you dont like this team find a new one yes youve put a lot of time in on them but in the end all good things come to a close right? maybe its time for us "DIEHARD" fans to take a step back and just be a football fan. Thats what ive found this year. Let this Program Figure their stuff out. Until then dont act like you have the forsight or knowledge to do any better than hoke. 

In reality if you truly hate the direction of this team QUIT PAYING MONEY. Thatll make some changes real quick if the attendance drops bellow 100,000 for the first time in memory. But screaming bloody murder at these kids and coaches is just high blood pressure waiting to happen. I was old enough to remember a single game of the 97 champs... I want more than anything to see my boys win a Natty champ. But I also dont want to be a program that fires its coaches like they are just one more moldy piece of bread in the loaf so lets pull the next slice out... Michigan is better than that

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James Burrill Angell

September 8th, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^

I hate to go down this road with Hoke at this point but I'd be naive to say it hasn't crossed my mind too. So let's hypothetically say Hoke is let go.

Jim Harbaugh (and for that matter John Harbaugh as well) will never coach at Michigan or any other college as long as he has pro options so forget him. That's daydreaming. We weren't going to get him before and we won't now. I could be wrong but it appears he WANTS to be a pro coach. Who can blame him. If you could make the same money or better doing the job in the pros AND not have to deal with recruiting, alums, Regents, donors and a University bureaucracy, wouldn't you prefer to stay pro? Les Miles should have gotten the job instead of Hoke but that's spilled milk. At this point I think Les is too old to start over somewhere. So then what??? Its another crapshoot on an outsider unless we get desperate to tie ourselves to the Michigan Man thing and go for someone like Cam Cameron.
 
To me the big problem (on a lot of levels) with getting a new coach is the issue of Dave Brandon. If you go on the presumption that Hoke is a goner then at what point do you deal with Brandon? If you get rid of Brandon shortly before Hoke, then you're looking for an AD and coach at the same time. What coach worth a damn will want that job if he doesn't know who his boss is? If you don't get rid of Brandon then you run into the same impediments in the hiring process that we ran into with the Hoke search. To make it work right, I think Brandon is going to need to be given the opportunity to resign mid-season. Problem is (1) we have no idea if this new President of the University is going to want to deal with that so soon (2) hopefully we're done with the whole businessman-as-AD thing after Goss/Martin/Brandon. If you go back to hiring an actual AD we have three "Michigan Men" available in Jeff Long at Arkansas, Warde Manuel at UConn and Brad Bates at Boston College. The question is how quickly can those guys get on campus and get into the swing of hiring a new coach. This whole thing is very unstable.
 
I know its easy for everyone to scream "Fire Hoke" but think about he big picture before you dust off the pitchfork and torch. It COULD absolutely be worse.

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James Burrill Angell

September 8th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^

Well.......that and obnoxious losers like us! What I mean by that is all the many hands you HAVE to shake as a college coach.

What I mean is that pro coaching is just that, COACHING. You have guys being paid to be there acting as close to pros as athletes can and the only people a coach really HAS to answer to are the GM and owner.  Really think about the demands on a college coach as opposed to a pro coach with the number of people you have to answer to. Start with not only having the A.D. but also the President of the school, the Board of Regents, the Intercollegiate Athletics Board. Then add to all that crap all the donors you have to deal with (athletic and otherwise). Then throw in a healthy smattering of the Alumni Association and other general alums you have to glad-hand and all the national tours of the alumni groups you have to do during the down time in the summer. Then you throw in the fact that at least half your job is jerking off about 200 or more 16 and 17 year old kids EACH YEAR who think they're the second coming of the greatest player ever and their parents who are generally worse, then do it again every year. Personally, not for me. I'd take the pro job any day of the week.  Coaches want to coach and the NFL is the purer form of coaching. Coaching college is half coaching and half making people happy.

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True Blue Grit

September 8th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^

about all the constituent groups the HC has to schmooze and be nice too.  Does anyone here honestly think Jim Harbaugh (not sure about his brother in this area though) would do well in that arena (diplomatically dealing with the press, donors, Regents, boosters, etc.)?  He's arrogant and has a big mouth that he can't control.  Granted he's a great coach.  But, he has the wrong demeanor off the field for a Michigan head coach.  In the pros he's pretty much insulated from all that.  And in the end, no one really cares what the heck a pro coach says (within reason) as long as his team wins. 

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UMinSF

September 8th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^

I don't agree that Harbaugh is insulated from outside pressure with the 49ers.

First, he's got an equally arrogant, egotistical GM in Trent Baalke. Second, NFL coaches are required to deal with reporters much more regularly than college coaches.

With the niners, he's got reporters from the entire Bay Area, plus national media outlets to deal with. An NFL team has much more media exposure than any one college team.

As far as workload, there's not an NFL coach that works fewer hours than a college coach. It's the ultimate meatgrinder. 

Pressure? He's made it to 3 NFC championships and a Super Bowl in 3 years, yet there's still lots of talk about his job being in jeopardy.

Willingness/ability to recruit is a legitimate factor, as is wanting to coach at the highest level. However, I think for an emotional, rah-rah type like Jim Harbaugh, his personality would work better in a college environment. There's a limit to how long pro athletes will tune in to that kind of stuff.

I don't know if it's possible to get him, but I also don't agree with those who say it's impossible.

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Sideline

September 8th, 2014 at 1:13 PM ^

Why is Miles too old to 'come here'?

He really wouldn't be starting over... he has a rich pool of talent already on the team... he's only 60 to Hoke's 55.... and I'm sure he can recruit just as well as Hoke... I get he's in a more talent-loaded area... but he did pull Fournette in as well as many other high profile named kids over the years (2011: Johnson, Collins, Landry; 2013: White & Herron; 2014: Fournette, Dupre) 

If he came here he would get to decide if he kept the coordinators, I would think. which would open up the possibility of LSU either promoting Cameron to HC or if he ended up coming here, a Job opening would come up at LSU where they might take a shot on... another MSU head coach or coordinator?? I see this as nothing but good for Michigan. Miles can compete with Meyer, I'm sure he's shown that in the SEC. 

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Sideline

September 8th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^

You want a real 10-year war... look at this...:

LSU vs Florida from 2005-2010

2005: LSU 21, Florida 17
2006: Florida 23, LSU 10   (Florida National Champs)
2007: LSU 28, Florida 24   (LSU National Champs)
2008: Florida 51, LSU 21   (Florida National Champs)
2009: Florida 13, LSU 3
2010: LSU 33, FLorida 29

That's a 3-3 record for both of them against eachother. So if you want to see a 10-year war where the Big Ten's best are Michigan and Ohio State, I think you consider at least giving Miles a legit shot. 

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brewandbluesaturdays

September 8th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^

I proposed your same question in a previous thread, and I don't see there being any home-run candidates. Guys like Shaw or Sumlin. I don't believe M offeres anything right now today that A&M and Stanford don't offer. Maybe Art Briles? But, he's been building something special down at Baylor, I don't see him coming up here. 

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