Indiana Fires OC Walt Bell
October 1st, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Wondering if Allen is next and Mike Hart is the HC there in 24.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:30 PM ^
While I'd be happy for Hart, I seriously don't want him leaving Michigan.
October 1st, 2023 at 6:54 PM ^
Or having to be the head coach at Indiana.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
Thinking from Mike Hart's perspective would you rather not be Michigan's offensive coordinator and potential head coach in waiting under Harbaugh than risk going to Indiana and having your stock ruined. Sherrone Moore is likely to get a lot of looks at HC this offseason.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
Is it a given that Hart would be OC if/when Sherrone leaves? Kirk Campbell is on staff and has OC experience as well. He was acting OC in game 1 when Moore was suspended, not Hart.
Also, you present the scenario where it would possibly be better for Hart to be OC and possibly coach in waiting than going to Indiana, but isn’t that the same decision Moore has to make? OC/possibly coach in waiting vs Indiana (or similar school, I doubt Moore is going to get prime offers)
October 1st, 2023 at 1:49 PM ^
My prediction is that this off-season (after we win the National Championship this season of course) Jim goes to the NFL and with him he will take: Minter, Jay, and one of Hart or Campbell. I think the one who stays will become Sherrone’s OC and Partridge is promoted to DC.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:07 PM ^
Yeah...hate to say it but the lack of contract news for JH plus his clear frustration will all things NCAA sure make it look like he's had enough.
Warde needs to make him an offer he can't refuse...I can't imagine ANYONE else accomplishing what Harbaugh has at UM in this era.
October 1st, 2023 at 5:28 PM ^
How do you know that it is not Jim who is not pushing for a new contract? Everyone seems to think that Jim is dying to sign an extension. I don’t think he is.
October 1st, 2023 at 4:26 PM ^
Not sure about that. Ben Johnson and Bienemy get jobs before Harbaugh who was already passed over by the Vikes.
Not sure NFL teams want to deal with Harbaugh’s quirkiness.
October 1st, 2023 at 5:20 PM ^
I sure hope you are right. Our beloved Michigan Football will go downhill without JH. Offer him a zillion to stay for Life!
October 1st, 2023 at 5:48 PM ^
Where is the reporting that the Vikings passed on Harbaugh? I got the sense he was the one who made the call there
October 1st, 2023 at 8:47 PM ^
use google
October 1st, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^
I would hate this with the intensity of ten thousand suns! I also think it is a very plausible scenario, so take your down vote and F off! (Nothing personal, it is just because you brought up something I find extremely unpleasant.)
October 1st, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
Allen is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
October 2nd, 2023 at 8:02 AM ^
Very Dantoni-esque.
October 1st, 2023 at 6:33 PM ^
Mike Hart has never even been a coordinator. I love the guy, but the idea that he's ready to be a Big Ten head coach seems premature.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:29 PM ^
I remember when some here wanted Harbaugh replaced with Allen. :-/
October 1st, 2023 at 1:31 PM ^
Im quite certain at the end of the covid season you could find many comments here pining for Matt Campbell and Tom Allen. Aged like milk certainly
October 1st, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
Honestly that probably happens to a lot of coaches who never turn their success into better jobs right away. Not only is it extremely difficult to take a school like Iowa State or Indiana and have a good season, but it’s even more difficult to maintain that success.
Look at Luke Fickell. He took Cincy to a couple really, really great seasons. He parlayed that success into the Wisconsin job. Cincinnati is now 2-3 on the season with a loss to Miami (OH). They are unequivocally NOT a good team, but they are a team he built in its entirety. Now maybe he’s a good enough coach for an extra win or two, but they’re looking at fighting for bowl eligibility. A 6 or 7 win season wasn’t going to keep him among the top coaching candidates.
I think guys like Matt Campbell and Tom Allen are probably pretty good coaches that are stuck in impossible situations, and stuck around a little too long and don’t have that big job appeal anymore.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:45 PM ^
Cincinnati is now 2-3 on the season with a loss to Miami (OH).
Louisville fans should be sending "Thank You" cards to Scott Satterfield for jumping ship to Cincinnati and saving them the misery of having to watch another year of meh football.
On the flip side, Bearcat fans went from a very good coach to a guy who was super mediocre at UL yet convinced UC leadership that he was still a hot commodity.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
Campbell may yet have a shot to move on. He was very good at Toledo and had a good thing going at ISU for some time, although they've recently declined. He's also still pretty young (43). He probably couldn't land an elite job, but I could see a school like say, Baylor giving him a look.
Allen's tenure, otoh, has been bad outside of two seasons (one of them the Covid year) when he had Penix at QB. It seems clear that those years were flukes and he's circling the drain at this point.
October 1st, 2023 at 4:44 PM ^
Allen’s tenure has been bad largely because he’s at Indiana, and he’s in the Big Ten East. He’s in a no-win situation.
October 1st, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
Being in the East division certainly does him no favors, but it doesn't explain why his team was lucky to beat Akron.
His program's been headed in the wrong direction. He won at least five games in each of his first four seasons but has gone 2-10 and 4-8 since, and they're currently 2-3 without a lot of winnable games left.
They'll be freed from the East next year, but I have my doubts that they'll do any better.
October 1st, 2023 at 6:31 PM ^
Right, because it’s Indiana. Arguably the worst football program historically in the conference. With even more quality programs joining the fray next year. Like I said, it’s an impossible situation. Having success there is damn near impossible, sustaining it even more so. Especially in the portal era where arguably the best QB in the country this year transferred from your school a couple years ago.
It’s Indiana. You’re going to have some rough years like they’ve had the past couple years. It’s a job where good coaches can torpedo their careers if they don’t get out when the gettin’s good. I’m not arguing that Allen is going to turn it back around, I’m arguing the opposite. Winning at Indiana is one of the hardest things to do in the sport, no matter how good of a coach you are. Allen may have had a window to move on to a better situation (obviously I have no idea if he was ever pursued or offered) and it’s likely gone now.
Campbell is younger but faces a similar scenario where he took a horrendous program that is difficult to win at and had them playing among the nation’s top programs. Didn’t take his window to leave and they’re reverting back to the mean. Hard to find success, harder to maintain it. The shine wears off when the wins aren’t there.
October 1st, 2023 at 6:55 PM ^
Tom Allen is a POS and a very mediocre coach. He was lucky Penix made him look good the one year he did. Tom Allen is an even more sleazy version of Dabo or Freeze.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:44 PM ^
I think Allen is a good coach. While I admire what JH has accomplished at Michigan and am glad he stayed, I think Allen could have done well at Michigan or a place like Michigan.
I don't know what the ceiling is for a program like that at IU, given their history and resources.
I hope JH remains at Michigan for the duration. A2 is home, he's got young kids, and, as you get older, perspectives and priorities change.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:31 PM ^
Tom Allen definitely opening the 2nd envelope (although one suspects he's on envelope 2.9 by this point).
Honestly, though, their defense seems worse. And Ohio State (?!?!) arguably had the worst offensive performance --- among the 4 FBS teams IU has faced --- against the Hoosiers.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:42 PM ^
I was just wondering about this myself. Their offense is #94 and the defense is #87 in the nation to SP+ after this weekend. Not worse, but just as bad.
Like the old saying goes, "The fish stinks from the head." I doubt that replacing the OC is going to have much of an effect.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:33 PM ^
Not sur that's gonna be a quick fix for what ails Indiana.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:56 PM ^
Decades of being a 3rd tier Big Ten school in football?
October 1st, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
Pretty sure what ails Indiana is being Indiana.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:44 PM ^
Their problem is that a big chunk of their fanbase only supports them in basketball. There are a lot of ND football/IU basketball fans in that state.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:51 PM ^
I really do wonder if ever in the near future we don’t see some teams even from major conferences fold. Indiana and Purdue are perpetual basement dwellers. Indiana has the most losses of all time and one of the worst winning percentages. At some point, why are you even fielding a program? I guess with the TV money it doesn’t matter
October 1st, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
Students like football, even if the team is bad. Dropping the sport would probably hurt their application numbers.
October 1st, 2023 at 5:23 PM ^
Do they? I have quite a few friends whose kids go to Indiana and none of them go to the football games.
October 1st, 2023 at 3:06 PM ^
You think any Big Ten schools, from the contenders to the bottom feeders, are EVER going to turn away that TV revenue they’re all set to get?
The Indiana AD is more than happy to send his football team into the wood chipper on a weekly basis so he can keep cashing $50 million checks for his school every year. Besides, he’s just waiting for basketball season anyway.
October 1st, 2023 at 1:37 PM ^
those deck chairs are getting super-organized.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:01 PM ^
....and somewhere in Iowa Brian Ferentz is deciding whether to have lobster or filet mignon for dinner, and Daddy Kirk asks him why not both!
October 1st, 2023 at 2:11 PM ^
So accurate
October 1st, 2023 at 2:20 PM ^
You're next, Tom.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
The most shocking part of this news is that Indiana had a quality control coach in the first place.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:33 PM ^
This is the 2nd guy to get canned as OC in last three years. Former UM QB Sheridan got canned after 2 years in the job. This guy didn't even make it to 1.5 years. The real brainchild behind IU's offense is now Wash HC DeBoer. Pretty bad that their QB from last year ended up at BGSU. He was decent without much talent around him.
FYI: IU last won a bowl game (Copper Bowl -WTF????) after the 1991 season when they had future NFL QB Trent Green.
October 1st, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Postponing the inevitable. Allen is a dead man walking and he knows it.
Not a matter of if, just a matter of when.
October 1st, 2023 at 3:03 PM ^
And yet Brian Ferentz still has a job.
That football last night happened and we all let it happen.
October 1st, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
Michigan State is hiring
October 1st, 2023 at 6:39 PM ^
That is a demotion
October 1st, 2023 at 3:46 PM ^
Good luck to Tom Allen.
Usually, for most coaches, “blaming your team’s woes on a fired coordinator” is a get-out-of-jail-free card you get to play ONCE. Allen already played that card by firing Nick Sheridan.
This might get ugly