Pat Haden on firing Kiffin, and Michigan's decision on moving forward.

When Michigan hired Fritz Crisler he had no ties to Michigan.  He played at Chicago, and had coached successfully at Minnesota and Princeton.  He was an innovator and great football mind.  In making the next hire, Michigan should recall what it did in hiring Fritz Crisler.

Forget about coaching trees.  Michigan needs to find a guy who, like Crisler, has a great football mind, is not afraid to innovate, is something of a tough perfectionist, and despises losing more than death itself. 

Bo had the latter two qualities (among others).  And today's football still requires a coach who both demands and knows how to teach perfection in execution.   

But college football is much more of a chess game than it was in Bo's time, so a great football mind that will innovate (from year-to-year as the game evolves, with half-time adjustments, and in accord to the players on the roster), is also required.

From Bo to Carr, Michigan teams were always known to be well coached in the sense of executing well.  They rarely beat themselves with mistakes (as RichRod and Hoke teams too often have).  The had sound technique, tackled well, etc. 

On the other hand, by the latter half of the Carr era the game was already shfting more in the chess match direction.  Carr did not excel at that increasingly important facet.  As a result many of Carr's teams failed to live up to the raw talent level on the roster.

And so Michigan went out and hired the a brilliant offensive football mind in Rich Rod.  The theory was sound--match a top ten roster with a brilliant offenseive mind and MIchigan would go from 9-3 to competing for the MNC.  But Rich Rod's teams were mistake prone, tackled poorly, were often out of position on defense, etc., etc.  To get the thing that Carr lacked (offensive chess master), Michigan ended up losing the thing that Carr was actually pretty good at (sound execution and not beating yourself with constant mistakes). 

And so Michigan went back to the Bo-Carr coaching tree for a guy who supposedly would re-instill toughness and strong execution.  Whatever the intention, it has been a miserable failure.  Hoke's teams constantly beat themselves with errors, poor tackling, being out of position on defense, and poor execution down to the blocking and route running technique level. 

So what is the answer?  Try again, but find the modern day equivalent of Fritz Crisler. 

Ties to Michigan?  Who cares? 

Brilliant football mind? Necessary, but not sufficient. 

Able to instill a tough perfectionist culture?  Necessary, but not sufficient. 

The decision to keep Gardner tells me a couple of things, which is worrisome about the whole program.  

It says that loyalty is more important than winning or developing players that win.

It says that Hoke knows this is it for him and he wanted to allow Gardner the opportunity to finish out his senior season, because he values loyalty.

The program values loyalty over wins as well with the "Michigan Man" thing.

I can appreciate loyalty as a virtue, but winning needs to up there as well.  When a coach continues to go with a certain player out of loyalty he is doing a disservice to the rest of the team that is playing to win.  It starts to feel like the coach quit on his team and decided he is going to go out his way.

I understand doing what is right in your mind, but this decision is based on emotion and not sound judgement.  There would not have been anything wrong with sitting Gardner the rest of the game and letting him start the next game based on the types of mistakes being made with the football.

Hire a winner who knows how to evaluate and develop talent.  I don't need a feel good coach.

for interim in every possible way. That's not sarcasm.

When was the last time Michigan hasn't kept the interim on a full time basis? Fisher, Ellerbe, Moeller, Carr. If the team plays better under Nussmeier there will be a real chance he keeps the job. In fact, I think he would become the odds on favorite if the Harbaughs don't jump at it right away. Frankly, I think the team will play better for any interim coach, so it won't show much.

While this scenario is better than we have right now, what isn't? Michigan needs a change in direction, not an easy way out of doing so. Name Jackson and it's not an audition for the job. He's a true interim, not someone where people are saying they want to see what he can do. He should have an easier time handling the extra responsibility than any first year coach. Jackson knows the people, he knows his way around the AD and he's comfortable with the media.

Nussmeier is a better HC candidate down the road. That has nothing to do with whether he would be better taking over tomorrow. He's still the OC and QB coach. I can't think of a single person in a worse position to take on extra duties right now.