If not Harbaugh who is Plan B?

Submitted by mGrowOld on

Not five seconds after the game ended my 63 year old brother was on the phone demanding that Rich be fired and Harbaugh be made the Head Coach.  He said he was "embarrassed" yet again and as a Michigan alumni he didn't much like being embarrassed.  He proceeded to list every play that went wrong and decided that they were all a function of poor coaching.  When I tried to reason with him on the age of the team we were fielding he gave me the "but we're Michigan" rationale that age was no excuse.  I listen to him for a while and then asked him "who do you want as coach if Harbaugh says no thanks".  He had no answer.

 I want to be VERY clear that I am still firmly in the keep RichRod camp.  If I was Brandon I would tell Rich that Gerg and all the D assistants have to go and that we're going to throw as much money as we can at the best DC we can find and let him pick his team. 

Now that I established where I fall on the coaching issue I have an open question to the anti-Rich faction of the board (and my brother).  If Harbaugh says no - who's your plan B?  Les Miles?  Cam Cameron? Chris Peterson?  Gary Patterson?  Who?  I think we need to look no further than South Bend to see what happens when you start making coaching changes without a solid replacement lined up. 

 There seems to be this presumption that Harbaugh would leap at the chance to come back home but what if he says no.  Then what?

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bjk

November 27th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^

Keeping Hagerup at home on the biggest day of the year takes some balls. RR is under-rated in the integrity department. After watching the 18-yard punt, I was thinking about the interview in '03 when Tressel was asked whether the indispensability of two players would over-ride his suspension of them for team violations prior to The Game, and he said, "I would hope not." I think RR shows that same kind of class, and I hope he starts winning with it soon.

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aaamichfan

November 27th, 2010 at 7:22 PM ^

Plan A: Harbaugh.

Plan B: Harbaugh.

Plan C: Harbaugh.

Plan D: Harbaugh.

Plan E: Harbaugh.

HIRE HARBAUGH!!!!!!1!!!!!!

Joined: 10/23/2009

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big10football

November 27th, 2010 at 7:28 PM ^

Can't argue with that. I think Rich Rod is turning the program around and I think the team will be better each of the next two years with him. I'd hate for the coaching job to become a revolving door of Fail like ND's has.

However, if we were guaranteed to get Harbaugh, a Michigan Man (sans Mike Hart's proclamation)  that we could plug in and potentially keep for 20 years,who knows first hand about the tradition and the rivalries, I would do it.

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bklein09

November 27th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^

Here's a question about that though.

Do we really think it is possible to get a for sure yes or no from Harbaugh without someone in the media getting wind of it?

In this day and age, it seems nearly impossible for something like this to happen without it leaking.

A lot of people assume that we could just inquire away about Harbaugh and then if he says no keep RR. I don't think it really works like that.

But what do I know?

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BlueFish

November 28th, 2010 at 3:10 AM ^

IIRC, Fowler was throwing out some conjecture about alumni/fanbase displeasure, rumors about RR being fired on Monday and Harbaugh coming in, etc.  Then Des basically said that he didn't want to get into speculation about RR's future and a potential Harbaugh hire, especially after what happened last time when "people" were reporting that Miles was coming, etc.

Talk about an awkward couple of seconds there...

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M-Dog

November 27th, 2010 at 10:37 PM ^

RichRod is plan B.

The only reason to make a change at this point is if you can get Harbaugh, who is tailor made for the Michigan program.  If you can get Harbaugh, then you have to think about it (quietly). 

If it does not work then you stay on course and give RichRod 2 more years.  At that point, "his guys" are seniors and they will have shown clearly for all to see how the RichRod experiment turned out.

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Fuzzy Dunlop

November 27th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^

Rich Rod and Harbaugh are Plans A and B, in an order to be determined.  There is no Plan C, at least until 2012.  Brandon would not fire Rich Rod unless he had assurances that Harbaugh is willing to take the job.  (Of course, he might not fire Rich Rod in any event).

This inside information brought to you from the voices inside my head.

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jmblue

November 27th, 2010 at 7:51 PM ^

Martin botched the coaching search, but he didn't blow up the program.  RR did by firing all of Carr's assistants, save Jackson.  I've thought all along that this was his biggest mistake.  He approached the job as though Carr had been fired.  When a coach is fired, you can go the "shock therapy" approach and change everything.  You don't do that when he steps down on his own. 

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antonio_sass

November 27th, 2010 at 9:36 PM ^

To add to everything else that people have said about this flawed logic...

How do you know that all these assistants even wanted to stay? There was clearly a severe backlash against RR from people in the Carr camp, and I think it's safe to say this was the case before he even stepped foot on campus. These guys wanted a HC hired from within the "family." So I think its more likely that A) Many wouldn't have stayed and B) Rich Rodriguez didn't want assistants who would sew discontent from within the actual team

In general though, I just find the argument that RR "blowed everything up" completely asinine. Essentially, that is what he was hired to do: scrap the current system and install a new one. 

This is probably not how the conversation went...

BM: Hi, Rich Rodriguez. You've got a renowned, high-paced spread offense and you've proven yourself to be a pretty great coach. We'd like to hire you at the University of Michigan. We won't be discussing how that will be implemented, or which assts from WV you'd like to bring over.

RR: Gee, that's awesome. I think I'll change my offensive philosophy to power football and retain all of Coach Carr's assistants.

....One month later...

RR: SUPRISE, BITCHES. I'M BLOWING IT ALL UP!!! YEEEHAAA.

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M-Wolverine

November 28th, 2010 at 1:37 AM ^

You ever think the backlash came BECAUSE he summarily swept everyone out? And in your "conversation"...he wasn't bringing a genius defensive staff, already making 2 outside hires...it's not like they could have done any worse with some of the old staff on that side of the ball.

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