December 5th, 2020 at 5:13 PM ^
Not another damn thread.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:13 PM ^
Black Pit Of Wrong Decisions.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:14 PM ^
People would have been against Mullen because he was an 8-4 coach at Mississippi State. "What's he ever won?" He was consistently above 500 at an historically bad program and yet, because he didn't win anything he is unworthy.
A large portion of this board trots out the same argument about Matt Campbell.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:44 PM ^
Dan Mullen was frequently touted as a great offensive coach whose teams played in maybe the toughest division in football (SEC West), and so it's totally reasonable he would be successful at a top program with elite players. Matt Campbell has been a pretty good coach but he's never been spoken in those tones until this year.
December 5th, 2020 at 7:44 PM ^
Dan Mullen's track record at Miss State was good, not spectacular. He wasn't a home run hire for Florida, just a logical one.
Obviously, he is working out well.
But that "elite players" issue seems significant. It's not clear to me that Mullen could get the same level of players at Michigan as he can at Florida. Because, well, it's Michigan. Same reservation I had for Les Miles.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:06 PM ^
I know it's more trivia than anything else but he got Miss St. to be the first-ever #1 team in the CFB playoff rankings beat 3 top-10 teams in consecutive weeks to pull that off. That's incredibly impressive, and he followed it up with some other really solid seasons at, again, an incredibly hard place to win. I guess that's my big reservation with Campbell - he's been an above-average coach in a conference that has basically been OU's playground for years now. Texas is sort of a mess, Baylor and TCU have fallen off significantly, and it's just not that deep of a conference overall.
Case in point - during Campbell's tenure at Iowa St., the conference has finished the year with a total of 12 teams ranked in the final rankings, for an average of 3 per year. Mullen's time at Miss St. featured 50 teams over his 9 seasons, which is 5.5 per season. Hell, Harbaugh over his 5 has seen 26 teams finish the season ranked, averaging out to a shade over 5 per season. Again, it's not to dismiss Campbell as a HC but I think people are overlooking how good Mullen was as a coach in a much tougher situation in terms of week-to-week competition.
I do agree that Mullen's success, though, is likely due somewhat to player acquisition options Michigan wouldn't be able to provide. And he also seems like a bit of a dolt; he was the guy demanding fans to fill up the stadium despite the pandemic and then he wound up catching COVID anyway.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:14 PM ^
He's the hot name out there right now - along with M. Campbell and Fickell - for openings at the end of the season. Maybe Texas if Urban turns them down ? Not sure if he wants to leave Florida though but it sounds like he'll have some offers.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:46 PM ^
Why would he leave Florida?
December 5th, 2020 at 8:35 PM ^
Not saying he will but he will get offers. His name has surfaced in the potential Texas HC opening. Plus, he wouldn't have Saban and Alabama to deal with every year trying to get to the playoffs.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
Mullen is building the Gators into something special and UF is easily a top-ten job. He may be a "hot name," but there aren't many better gigs than what he has in Gainesville. BTW- Kyle Trask is awesome.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:52 PM ^
With Florida’s tradition with Spurrier and Meyer, and all of the talent in Florida Mullen would be an idiot to leave Florida.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:15 PM ^
In other news, Iowa State is up 21-0 at the half, in a game they were favored to win by 5.5 against West Virginia.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:15 PM ^
You're not wrong, but this isn't a thread
Zero information and zero prompt for discussion
December 5th, 2020 at 5:16 PM ^
Let's see how well this sentiment holds after a few seasons. Coaches at UF don't tend to last long these days.
Mullen did okay at Miss St, but a lot of that was Dak also.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:18 PM ^
Mullen took McElwains group of misfits and absolutely destroyed Harbaugh with them. The same team M ran off the field a year earlier. Dude can coach.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:28 PM ^
Ok, Harbaugh did the same thing with Hoke's recruits the first two years. Let's see what Mullen's program looks like after all of "his" guys are in place and we get to see how well he can recruit, develop, and manage.
I'm not saying he is bad or good... I'm saying it is too early to make any pronouncement.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:37 PM ^
Dude actually has a QB now... he didn’t have one for the past 2 years at UF. They’re better than ever and got over the Georgia hump this year.
He’s doing what Harbaugh should have done at UM.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:12 PM ^
What? Get a Heisman winner at QB?
December 5th, 2020 at 6:20 PM ^
Kindof, yeah... That definitely was the bill of goods that was sold.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:29 PM ^
No actually Harbaugh didn't do "the same thing". Harbaugh never beat OSU like Florida did with Georgia this year and he didn't develop a QB like Trask.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^
Not exactly the same thing - if Mullen beats Bama, that would be closer to Harbaugh beating OSU.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:07 PM ^
Georgia isn't on OSU's level.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
How? They've finished #2, #8, and #4 the last three years.
December 6th, 2020 at 6:57 PM ^
How much are those rankings inflated by "SEC!" reflex?
December 6th, 2020 at 12:53 AM ^
Not sure there was any "developing" lol... if Franks doesn't get hurt last year Trask probably transfers or continues to sit and no one knows who the fuck he is..
It was total luck that he became the starter when he literally has never been a starter his entire life at any level.
He magically clicked in Mullen's offense.. it isn't like Mullen groomed him to be the starter, he was thrown to the wolves and just magically worked out. So of course people think mullen is a genius.. behind the scenes there is literally no way mullen was coaching him up whatsoever when Franks was the starter.. get over it
December 5th, 2020 at 5:31 PM ^
Mullen did beat Harbaugh, but Florida's players were far from misfits. There was a lot of talent, especially speed, on Florida's roster.
Almost everyone from Florida played, while Michigan was without a number of top players. If both teams were at full strength, who would have won? We may never know.
Overall, Mullen has done a fine job at Miss St. and Florida.
December 6th, 2020 at 12:50 AM ^
good analysis.. michigan literally trotted out their 2nd string team against Florida that year.. Literally every good draftable prospect we had sat out the game..
Meanwhile florida had everyone of their draftable players actually play in the game..
That game reminds me of this year.. with the opt outs and injuries.. this team is a shell of what we actually could of looked like in a normal year.
December 6th, 2020 at 1:24 AM ^
41-15 without gary, bush and higdon...that's literally not the second team...unless a team is made of 3 guys.
are they good enough to flip the game by 26 points?
December 5th, 2020 at 8:09 PM ^
They talked about him on the audible podcast a couple weeks. Said no one wanted to hire him from Mississippi State, even the old AD at Florida when he was there under Urban. Got hired when the AD went to Florida. They talked about how he he rubs people the wrong way like Harbaugh. He can coach but we'll see if it lasts.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:38 PM ^
Good coach. Does seem like a bit of a horse's ass. His claims about fans and covid were at a Holtzian level of stupidity. Then again, he's a CFB coach.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:21 PM ^
Mullen should have been the hire instead of Hoke. I could be wrong but it didn’t seem like there was a lot of interest from him then. He’s a bit of a wild card but always been a good coach.
Its still Campbell or bust for me though. If we don’t have an OSU game it’s all a moot point as Harbaugh will be back next year for sure. Manuel is impotent.
December 5th, 2020 at 7:45 PM ^
But .... but .... “[Hoke would] crawl on hot, broken glass to work inside Schembechler Hall as the head coach.”
December 5th, 2020 at 9:55 PM ^
I remember quite a few people on the board bringing up Mullen's name. He was a lot like Campbell, but there was evidently no desire by the AD to pursue Mullen. Kind of like Warde M. having no desire for Campbell.
December 5th, 2020 at 5:43 PM ^
Not going to start a thread cause I dont want the bullshit that will come with it but Chris Ballas is allegedly reporting that Harbaugh has signed a 3 year extension that will be announced next week.
So the CC threads can take a breather for a while.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:10 PM ^
Ah yes, this site is known for its restraint when it comes to threads about the coaching staff.
If this extension happens, it should help with recruiting and might lead to necessary staff shakeups.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^
Unfortunately it guarantees the one necessary staff shakeup won’t happen.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:31 PM ^
I will vomit if this occurs
December 5th, 2020 at 7:14 PM ^
LOL, I'm sure this announcement will motivate Harbaugh and the team to beat OSU next week. NOT! OSU is going drub us into the ground and hang over 50 on us again.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:08 PM ^
Good. Shows Manuel has some backbone. If we were to fire Harbaugh, now, no coach worth a fuck would want to come coach here. There have been some real extenuating circumstances that lead us to this point. Harbaugh hasn't forgotten how to coach football. Brown should go though, and IMO JBaugh should find an assistant role elsewhere, NFL, something. Get a great Dline coach, a great LB coach, and keep building.
December 5th, 2020 at 11:48 PM ^
Well guess what? No assistant coaches worth a fuck are going to want to come here to work for Harbaugh.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^
Look at their schedule. He’s 1-1 this season against teams above .500. I’d relax. And I don’t think he is great against ranked opponents
December 5th, 2020 at 6:53 PM ^
You sure about that? His team beat down a top-10 Michigan team in Atlanta two years ago.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:21 PM ^
Yeah look who sat out that game for M. Bush also got hurt. I’m not going to claim him a great coach. They also wanted redemption for the pounding we gave them the year prior
December 5th, 2020 at 6:04 PM ^
not sad
December 5th, 2020 at 6:05 PM ^
Just a criticism - From a discussion standpoint, I think our time is better served with names, availability and arguments for and against, not random expressions of regret.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
And we're gonna be saying the same thing about Matt Campbell if we don't shit or get off the pot.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
He would’ve failed here, and we would’ve run him out within 4-5 years. Of that I have no doubt.
That’s not an indictment of his coaching acumen or that the job here is too big for him. I’m just convinced that Michigan’s failures within its football program are not just that of the coach, but there are severe institutional issues that hold the program back. I truly believe Harbaugh could go back to Stanford next year and win the PAC-12 within two years, and make the playoffs within three.
Michigan is its own worst enemy. And it doesn’t help having to fight against a clearly superior JV NFL team within its own division every year.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
Can you speak more specifically to those institutional issues? As in the various missteps of Martin and Brandon? Disconnects between various groups of boosters?
December 5th, 2020 at 8:38 PM ^
This fan base is a fucking embarrassment.
Brag about the school’s excellence, then demonstrate it like this.
Fucking morons.