November 27th, 2020 at 9:23 PM ^
Maybe because Cincinnati sucked, and now they don’t. Seems easy to figure out.
They were 4-8 the year before he took over. They went 4-8 his first year, and they’re 30-5 since. I’m not sure what your standards are but it seems pretty good to me.
To your argument about Cincinnati playing in a weak conference, maybe you’re not aware that Nick Saban’s first head coaching job was at Toledo, and Urban Meyer’s first head coaching job was at Bowling Green. How about that, huh?
November 27th, 2020 at 9:30 PM ^
F&ck him
November 27th, 2020 at 9:33 PM ^
BlueUPer, that is a great argument, filled with sound logic, and one I happen to agree with.
Then there’s also this argument: Fuck the results we’ve been getting
November 27th, 2020 at 9:35 PM ^
You can make the argument to Fire Coach Harbaugh, but at least he is one of us. I just do not like Fickel. I don't know him, but I hate Ohio State.
I hope Coach Jim can right the ship. You can F whomever you'd like.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:37 PM ^
Turns out Michigan Men suck at football. No thanks.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:50 PM ^
Honestly I don't understand how people can make this argument with a straight face. Bo, of all people, coached at Ohio State. For Woody. He respected Woody to the end.
There may well be good reasons to be down on Fickell. I'm not sure he would be a good candidate. But the fact that he has an OSU background is not a good reason not to hire him.
November 27th, 2020 at 11:19 PM ^
Yeah, the Michigan Man he's one of us thing is such bullshit. Michigan's most successful coach at the moment--and one of the most successful all-time--is Carol Hutchins. Hutchins is an MSU grad. You going to tell me she's not a Michigan Woman? I dare you to tell her that.
November 27th, 2020 at 11:40 PM ^
Don’t forget Moeller who actually played at Ohio State. At least Fickell comes from a culture of winning and high expectations. He coached under the two Ohio State coaches who completely changed the tide of the rivalry and the culture of the school. I’m more of a Matt Cambell guy myself, but I see no reason to be down on Fickell unless you want to hold his record during his one season as an interim head coach 9 years ago during a season in which several players including their star QB opted out of the season because of a scandal against him.
November 28th, 2020 at 7:24 AM ^
Moeller was an Ohio State CAPTAIN
November 27th, 2020 at 10:23 PM ^
One of us? Were you an All-American at Michigan too?
I was certain that Harbaugh was the right hire, but it hasn't worked out. The AD needs to swallow their pride and go get the best possible candidate, regardless of their previous coaching stops.
November 28th, 2020 at 7:53 AM ^
The AD, and Warde in particular, doesn't have any pride to swallow in this case. Harbaugh was hired by Jim Hackett, not AD Manuel. Warde is facing a defining moment in his tenure, though. Thus far, his public face has been quite passive, but firing Jim and hiring his successor is going to put him front and center. I'll bet he's had some sleepless nights this season.
November 28th, 2020 at 8:25 AM ^
I'll bet he hasn't... Warde is a good personal friend of Harbaugh and is largely a caretaker of the AD. Which is great - you don't want your AD taking center stage. But I doubt that he has enough fire power of political clout with the Regents, big donors, and President to give his friend the ax. I don't think he's ready to spend that capital in a Covid year with virtually no income.
My prediction: Michigan has a slight rebound under McNamara where the offense starts scoring enough points to make the defense look plausible (like 2nd half against Rutger). They'll win out, except for OSU - which might not be played - and look promising for next year. Harbaugh will keep his job. Next year will be more of the same - early loses against nobodies, some decent looking stuff later in the season, and another loss against a ranked bowl opponent.
Unless Warde sacks up and makes an extremely difficult decision, Michigan football will be stuck in this loop it's been in for the last four years. (I hate saying this, I love Harbaugh, but his time to go is now...)
November 28th, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
This is ridiculous. Players are going to jump ship. Recruits are going to sign elsewhere. Michigan will lose every game going forward, the team will deteriorate in the off-season, and next year will be worse because there's nobody to play and no coherent defense. Michigan will go winless next year will a lack of players. Or they can fire Harbaugh and get a coaching staff that can figure out when there aren't massive holes in the roster that completely ruin a team.
November 27th, 2020 at 10:03 PM ^
The results we have had over Harbaugh's tenure are, for the division we are in and the level of competition we face, much better than going 34-13 at Cinci
November 28th, 2020 at 8:30 AM ^
The results we have had are also easier to achieve at a school like Michigan than taking over a 4-8 team, going 4-8 in your first year, and going 30-5 since then. But I doubt you really want to get down to those details since it destroys your point
November 28th, 2020 at 9:37 AM ^
Holy shit!
You think it was harder to turn around a 4-8 Cincinnati, with the "first year pass" and go 30-5, than is was to turn around a 5-7 UofM, *and go 24-6 in his first three years, in one of the toughest divisions of football?
Ten years before coach showed:
UofC:
Double digit win seasons: 4
Losing seasons: 2
UofM:
Double Digit:1
Losing seasons: 3
Delusional
Besides Campbell is the better choice.
*added for comparison
November 27th, 2020 at 9:30 PM ^
I just don’t understand the hype for Fickell getting the UM job when the base is clamoring for an innovative offensive mind and someone who can move the needle forward. I’m not buying this narrative he can steal Ohio guys just because he shows up at Michigan.
Are his offenses even any good?
November 27th, 2020 at 9:57 PM ^
Look at where Harbaugh has us at year 6 and look at what Fickell has done. Then tell me which train you want to hitch your car to for the next 5 years.
November 27th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
RIght. But if we go back to just before Michigan hired Harbaugh, the 'look at what he has done' argument suggested Michigan had made a grand slam hire.
Yet it has not worked out. Results were o.k. prior to this year, but below expectations.
Fickell's record at UC is not as impressive as what JH did at Stanford and the 49ers. So why do we think Fickell is the answer for Michigan?
November 28th, 2020 at 6:55 AM ^
Hell, at least he'd try to get players from Ohio. It's obvious from what we've seen from Harbaugh in 6 years, he doesn't seem to even want players from Ohio and puts little emphasis on the state. To me, that's frustrating and maddening.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:56 PM ^
By that logic, their three previous coaches went:
- Tommy Tuberville - 29-22 (with a 4-8 season at the end)
- Butch Jones - 23-14
- Brian Kelly - 34-6
Cincy has been an historically above-average G5 program; Fickell is doing well there but I'd be careful assuming he can replicate this level of success at a major program where the recruiting/talent advantages he enjoys now are diminished/non-existent.
November 27th, 2020 at 10:21 PM ^
This.
He's also a mere 1 and 2 plus one No Contest against my beloved Temple Owls. That this coaching savant could manage to lose to former temple coaching legend /s Geoff Collins (twice!) is amazing.
Fickell isn't doing anything more than his predecessors. Some members of the board shilling for this guy is unfortunate.
November 27th, 2020 at 10:17 PM ^
Cincinnati is having a good year in a half ass college football year so let’s fire Harbaigh and hire Fickell! ? Fickell is Ohio State’s version of Hoke...any sane Michigan fan would never even consider him. Even Michigan beat him when he was head coach at Ohio State for one year.
November 28th, 2020 at 11:11 AM ^
Agreed, but I don't know very many sane Michigan fans.
November 27th, 2020 at 11:41 PM ^
This is the most shallow analysis in the history of MGoBlog
November 28th, 2020 at 7:24 AM ^
One thing you’re not accounting for is It’s really easy to win at Cincinnati. Butch Jones could win there after they went 4-8 his first year. He won the conference twice after that.
Fickell could be great. He could be average. He could suck. We won’t know just by looking at what he’s done at UC. Especially this season bc their conference is a dumpster fire.
November 28th, 2020 at 8:06 AM ^
Brady hoke also turned around a shit mac school and made SDSU look really good..
It literally means nothing any longer when a coach turns around a mid major
November 28th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
This is the type of thinking that would have precluded UM from hiring Jim Tressel. He wasn’t even at a mid-major school before being hired by OSU and turning the tide in the rivalry.
November 28th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
And on top of that Fickell has experience at a true blue blood ace recruiting program, so its not just a Rich Rod II situation, he knows what the expectation and culture needs to be at an elite program.
November 28th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
And on top of that Fickell has experience at a true blue blood ace recruiting program, so its not just a Rich Rod II situation, he knows what the expectation and culture needs to be at an elite program.
November 28th, 2020 at 9:21 AM ^
If that's your criteria, I've got a better option:
This coach took over a 5-7 team in arguably the hardest division in college football and went 24-6 in his first three years, he never even had a losing season!
I hear his team's idiotic fanbase is trying to force him out.
November 28th, 2020 at 10:17 AM ^
Agree.
During a year in the midst of a meaningless pandemic season with good players out, stadiums devoid of supportive fans, young team, and this fanbase screaming about hiring a guy Brady Hoke beat when Fickell was in our league with proven players, and a huge opportunity?
Instead of keeping a guy with a damn good overall record? Beyond inexplicable...oh wait, I forgot. Michigan fans.
November 28th, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
There’s only one recruited DB on the roster going into the season who could win a foot race with 2020 Charles Woodson, none of them are capable fo executing the basic techniques required to run their defense and the offense changes every week with only one constant: the best players will never touch the ball. And on top of that, every year there’s a key position group that completely sucks ass and you look up and the coach in charge of that group is a GA because Harbaugh has no idea how to put a staff together.
This team is a pathetic shit show and the only way there should be any consideration of Harbaugh staying would be a total coaching staff reset with new coordinators on down. I’m not convinced it’s worth extending Harbaugh on the hope he won’t butcher those hires.
November 28th, 2020 at 12:01 PM ^
He will be out. If not this year, it will be after next. He is done. Deal with it.
BYE JIM
November 28th, 2020 at 9:57 AM ^
Closer to home, Bo’s first head coaching job was at Miami (O).
November 27th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
Our fanbase is obsessed with Ohio State is the main reason for the hype
November 27th, 2020 at 9:50 PM ^
That's right. We just need to RECRUIT OHIO. Because, you see, back in the '90s we got lots of good OHIO players and then beat OSU. There's no other way, you see?
Never mind that OSU is getting most of what they want in Ohio. They're doing well everywhere.
I still haven't heard a good explanation of how we'll beat a team recruiting at Alabama's level if we concentrate on their State of Ohio rejects.
- - -
I think Fickell is a good coach and that he'd do a good job at Michigan. It's highly unlikely that he'd beat OSU in the next 3-4 years, though. At this point OSU is going to need to screw something up.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:56 PM ^
This isn’t the 90s. Recruiting Ohio isn’t the answer. The top teams recruit nationally, not regionally.
November 27th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Of course.
Michigan can and should recruit nationally.
But getting so few out of Ohio is not a good idea either.
JH has alienated at least some HS coaches in Michigan. And he has not put in even a half-hearted effort to get guys out of Ohio. There is talent in OH, and it is right next to Michigan. Ignoring that state is a bad idea.
November 28th, 2020 at 8:40 AM ^
I agree, but I have a 'BUT'... But, recruiting some Ohio players would help get a little more anti-OSU bent in the locker room. I think this is missing - there are no OSU pass-overs in the room, maybe a few bit players, but nobody that commands the team listen to his anti-OSU rage. In rivalry games, this has meaning. Look no further than the effort MSU puts into beating Michigan every year... Harbaugh, to this point, has not found a way to harbor any of that 'rage' and use it against his opponents.
Harbaugh is 3-8-1 against natural Michigan rivals OSU, MSU, ND. He's doing something wrong. A lot of things, actually. And I see the lack of emotion in rivalry games as a factor. Maybe not (probably not) the most important thing, but it's a thing nonetheless.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
People have the weirdest reasons for liking or disliking coaches
November 27th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Call me weird but I like coaches who win. I don’t dislike JH, but I certainly dislike the results we’ve been seeing and want better.
November 27th, 2020 at 10:03 PM ^
November 27th, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^
I don't know, for me it boils down to how hot the wife is. Fickell's wife is ugly. Ugly wife means he has no confidence. That and he can't hit the curveball.
November 28th, 2020 at 9:16 AM ^
Seriously? How is this misogynistic garbage getting upvoted? This place is a cesspool.
November 28th, 2020 at 10:55 AM ^
Lighten up man... he's referring James Franklin's infamous quote about recruiting... basically if you can't pull an attractive woman to marry you, you probably can't recruit a kid to your school either.
He later apologized for it... FYI.
November 28th, 2020 at 6:29 PM ^
You are right, it is misogynistic, but it's a [modified] quote from the film Moneyball. In the film, it was used to juxtapose how MLB scouts at the time, who formed opinions of players based on gut feelings, intuition and irrelevant data, and Billy Beane, who instead used statistics and sabermetrics to form his, differed in their approach to scouting. I thought it was a relevant response to comment that "people have the weirdest reasons for liking or not liking coaches".
November 28th, 2020 at 10:02 AM ^
Jimmy Soul? Is that you?
November 28th, 2020 at 10:47 AM ^
Truthfully the whole Dickell thing makes it a non starter for me.
November 27th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
he's the one OSU coach we've beat in the last 15 years, right?