OT Saban's house of rehabbing coach careers hits another peak.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:21 PM ^
Is he bringing on Art Briles?
January 14th, 2021 at 5:46 PM ^
I'm still in the fetal position over Stewart Mandel's mailbag article in the Athletic this week on What If Alabama had gone ahead and hired Rich Rod leaving Saban potentially available for Michigan.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:11 PM ^
We should!!
January 15th, 2021 at 2:30 PM ^
Stealing for new Murderwolf avatar.
Props to you!
January 14th, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
He was also head coach at Penn State right after the Sandusky revelations.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
I heard this from Mark Packer the other day: All of the assistant coaches from the 2017 team were no longer at Bama for this past 2020 season. That is pretty amazing how he keeps the machine rolling year to year even though there are lots of changes in players and coaches.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
This is one reason why I get tired of the "Jim Harbaugh can't keep coaches around" crowd. He had two coaches for six years, one coach for five years, etc. Coaches simply don't stay in programs forever.
Fred Jackson was an anomaly. I think the average coaching tenure for assistants is about two years.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:55 PM ^
This was basically the narrative when he arrived. That we should "get used to coaching turnover" because Harbaugh attracts so many ambitious coaches who will go on to bigger positions and promotions elsewhere. And that's just the nature of an elite program. ?
January 14th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
I don't have an issue with the assistants he's burned through. In fact, I believe he kept a couple of them a year too long (Drevno and Pep). What bothers me is the constant changing of scheme on the offensive side. Went from manball in 2015-2016, to pro-something West Coast with Pep in 2017-18, and now Gattis' (lack of) speed in space in 2019-20. It wouldn't be so bad if such drastic scheme changes didn't have to be followed up with changes in the type of players recruited. The WR group is case #1 for this. Every time you change scheme so quickly, you also have to change 'crootin to get the players you need.
I'm no expert here, but I can see the differences! I used to defend them, saying he's trying hard to make it work. I do still believe that - there is no part of me that thinks Harbaugh doesn't want it to work here. But he's handicapping himself...
Did anyone notice that Saban has changed seamlessly from defense first, to run happy, to now being pass happy? When, and how, did those changes occur?
...crickets...
Exactly.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
Well yeah, it's easy when you get pick of the litter from all the best players. Anything short of the triple option could probably get him to a national title game next year.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:54 PM ^
*Texas and Georgia enter the chat
What was step 2 again?
January 14th, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
Fred Jackson had a great Michigan coaching career, but longer and faster with better pad level!
January 14th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
Not only that, but you want assistants to be good enough to get promoted and leave. There aren't enough Brent Venables to hope someone elite will stick around long. It's a good sign if your assistants are highly sought after. You'd rather have a year with Joe Brady and win a national title than some guy that isn't very good and no one else wants.
Michigan for the last decade has literally hired almost exclusively guys that other teams / schools didn't/don't want (both before and after they were at M): Al Borges, Doug Nussmeier, Tim Drevno, Pep Hamilton, the list is long, especially on offense.
Even Josh Gattis wasn't wanted by Bama as an OC. Saban clearly has a pretty good idea of what makes a good OC and what doesn't (and yet, we're on his second reject in a decade).
January 14th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
To fairly compare Saban to Harbaugh I think you have to look at the roles the coaches are moving on to because my gut tells me the majority of Saban's guys are moving on because they are moving up and the majority of Harbaugh's guys are moving on because they haven't performed.
Off the top of my head:
Saban: Smart, Pruitt, Locksley, Kiffin, Sarkesian, Gattis all moved on to better roles at good programs.
Harbaugh: Fisch, Drevno, Hamilton, Brown, Mattison, Montgomery, Washington, Partridge, Wheatley. Of those, I would consider Partridge a definite left for a better job. Montgomery & Washington left for similar roles at similar schools, Mattison maybe left for a better role, Fisch, maybe. Drevno, Brown, Hamilton definitely not. Wheatley supposedly wanted to get out.
January 14th, 2021 at 6:51 PM ^
Wouldn't be an issue if JH had the master CEO credentials to match his top 5 salary/ hiring hype.
Harbaugh isn't running a plug and play staff program. Program identity has not been established to this point. That's on him and maybe we he isn't capable of adapting and maintaining one.*
Unless I'm missing it, when has he established a team culture as a Xs & Os guru?
There are about a half dozen HCs that can replicate success with constant staff turnover, he isn't in that club.
He's entering year 7 still trying to establish consistency.
At some point, hopefully next season, improving to a higher standard begins.
This program/brand should not be regressing. To be at a point where the narrative is that we're still an OC/DC away from improvement is getting stale.
Forget the can't keep a staff around thinking, that's for successful outcome programs.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:32 PM ^
It doesn't matter much when you have the most talent.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:38 PM ^
Saban is the goat.
January 14th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
Anything in Harbaugh's contract about taking a sabbatical year?
January 14th, 2021 at 2:52 PM ^
I heard that O'Brian was Saban's 2nd choice. His first was Harbaugh because Saban was sure that Harbaugh wasn't going to be back at Michigan via chatter in the recruiting circles.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:00 PM ^
As a drummer (yes I know my avatar is a guitar, but I'm a drummer primarily), I just... like, I don't even know where to begin with how jacked up this kit setup and positioning by the dude is. It's uh... it's something.
January 14th, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
RIP Neil.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
I don't see this working, i live in Houston and BOB's ego won't be able to take being yelled at by Saban. I give it one year
January 14th, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
He worked for Belichek, he probably knows how to STFU
January 14th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
That's what everyone said about Kiffin and (to a lesser extent) Sarkisian. He knows what he's getting into and Saban clearly knows how to manage egos. To canzior's point, he coached under Belichick so he'll be able to handle it.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:06 PM ^
I know people dumbed on him but Billy Onhas been a really good coach for a while.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:07 PM ^
nm
Someone beat me to the punch above.
January 14th, 2021 at 3:44 PM ^
Good for O'Brien ... but he's always struck me as a better fit at the Pro level versus the College level.
Insert joke here about how Alabama IS a professional-type program in a college-level outfit.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:08 PM ^
That's what a great football coach and a great football program does. I'd love to see it brought to Ann Arbor Mi.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:58 PM ^
I hear Matt Patricia need propped back up...and a special teams position may be opening.
January 14th, 2021 at 4:58 PM ^
I think we need to call it something along the lines of "Saban Recycles" if we're going to turn it into a business.
January 14th, 2021 at 5:09 PM ^
I was surprised BOB didn't get some sort of NFL job. He was a poor GM but a decent coach, it seemed.
January 14th, 2021 at 8:31 PM ^
Is he blackballed from the league? 4 division titles, 5 winning seasons and he can't get a call from the Jets?
January 14th, 2021 at 9:03 PM ^
The Jets would be a step down from OC at Bama...