Schefter: Harbaugh to NCAA Unlikely
December 1st, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
Has been eerily quiet for about 3-4 weeks now. Not saying this as a criticism of Brian at all - he runs the best blog in the world, and Ace, Seth and Co. do a great job with the content - but as the voice of much of our fanbase, and the most "plugged in" of anyone who posts here, I would have expected more posts from him over these troubling times.
Everything ok, big guy?
December 1st, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
I discovered MGOBLOB the week before the Game when Carr resigned after it. Brian said, about Tuesday that week before the game, that Carr was going to resign the Monday following the game, that it was a done deal. And of course that's exactly how it played out. Brian's source was completely trustworthy and Brian proved himself to me.
So Brian's sources are obviously different people now, and he might not have the confidence of anyone so highty connected. AND its possible that there just isn't any news to know. But the tea leaves (leaf) are (is?) -- that the news is so secretive, it cant be muttered or else it'll blow up. Les Miles in 2007 is the example. That's certainly one way to read it.
Cool story follow-up. I was in a cab in Kansas City in early 2005. The cabbie, an older guy, said he had a friend in the UM program. You know, I humored him -- sure, right, etc. He told me that Carr was planning to retire in 2007, after Henne and Long graduated. That it was something Carr had decided by 2005. And he said it so matter-of-fact, not like, "watch you'll see," but just like, there it is. And that was 2 1/2 years before it happened, and it completely came true. So maybe the Carr thing was pretty well-known by the inner circle.
I dunno. Me just confused.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:07 AM ^
one team wants to trade you and Pros don't like to be told what to do.
You literally walk on water in these parts. You can yell and scream all you want.
Easy choice. How can you not want to come here???
December 1st, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
He has the chance to become a Yost, Crisler, Bo type legend here. In the NFL, he'll be just another coach. Look what he's done with SF and they still want him fired.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^
I think it's just a lot of bluster to make it look like he's staying in the NFL. Let's face it the Raiders are a dumpster fire and a strange organization. The Jets are a real mess.
If Harbaugh really doesn't want the job, why not just come out and say that any future opening of the Michigan coach job is not something I am not interested in.
Then you have Les Miles tweeting "Go Blue" before the M-OSU game.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^
With the trade options available to SF, they are going to try and trade him unless Harbaugh, directly comes out and says, that he has no more interest in the NFL and he then demands his release. Anything short of Harbaugh himself saying he's going to coach Michigan, I believe he'll be on the NFL sidelines next year.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
I'm not saying Schefter is wrong, but put yourselves in 49er management's shoes. They have a guy that they know needs to leave after this year, he has one year on his contract, and they'd like to get decent compensation for him. They'd also hate for him to go elsewhere in the NFC and haunt them on a regular basis. So wouldn't you try to pump up the trade market to the AFC as much as possible? I know it's not ideal for him to go to the Raiders and resurrect them right across the Bay, but that will take several years and they might move anyway. So you'd want to create as much noise as possible about a lot of AFC suitors to drive the market, and reporters like Schefter are the perfect way to do it. Like someone else said, these guys only relay what their sources say. If he wants to go back to college, who cares, you weren't getting anything anyway.
Again, he may end up being right. But it's all complete guesswork at this point unless it comes from Jim.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^
Harbaugh is in an odd situation in which he wants to do two things at the same time. He's also a little flighty. He knows the Michigan job is his if he wants it. We should all know that unless he's come out and said he's not going to come to Michigan that he's still weighing the decision.
If he decides to come home, he's not going to say yes until the end of the football season.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^
It's not so much that Harbaugh is now rumored to not be interested in UM, it's that OSU doesn't seem to have this problem. They take a chance on an FCS coach with no FBS head coaching experience and he turns into a juggernaut. Then, Tressel leaves and they get possibly the most respected coach in college football not named Saban. Meanwhile UM hires what appears to be a highly successful head coach from another FBS program only to fail and then another coach only to fail again. Where is our Urban Meyer/Jim Tressel? Why does UM seem to suffer through so many crappy seasons and OSU doesn't? This is what really drives me nuts that with all the resources UM has that these crappy seasons can't be avoided.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:32 AM ^
I know I feel the same way. It almost feels like people were clamoring for the OSU job when it was open and they had their choice of anyone, while we got passed up for Harbaugh and Miles for Brady Hoke. I really do think the AD played a massive part in the 2011 hire. I highly doubt that Les Miles wouldn't have taken the job if he was offered then.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^
The one coach who everyone agrees did not receive an offer from Michigan, again, was Les Miles. He had been handled shabbily during the 2007 search, and it appears he wasn't treated much better in 2010, either. All overtures to him were strictly a show designed to appease his supporters. When Rodriguez asked Brandon in December of 2010 if he already had someone lined up, Brandon denied it but said he would hire Les Miles "over my dead body." The rest was theater.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
No one was really clamoring for the job when we got Tress, which is why we got a D1-AA coach. We just got super lucky. We also got lucky with Urban that he was 1. available and 2. an alum of the school. Harbaugh is your Meyer, but have you two ever both been available at the same time? I don't think the issue is Michigan's program or any of that stuff, it's a top job, but timing seem to be everything sometimes.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
Very few were impressed by the Tressel hire at the time, except for a few people who knew football in Ohio really well. Only later did it become clear that Tressel was a home run hire for OSU.
December 1st, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
Skeptical was an understatement.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^
He's not a Michigan alum. But he is a "Michigan Man."
Urban also had success at Florida, Utah and Bowling Green.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^
I know I feel the same way. It almost feels like people were clamoring for the OSU job when it was open and they had their choice of anyone, while we got passed up for Harbaugh and Miles for Brady Hoke. I really do think the AD played a massive part in the 2011 hire. I highly doubt that Les Miles wouldn't have taken the job if he was offered then.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^
I seems fairly obvious that Rich Rod would have everything rolling had he gotten his guys and full support of the program. With Denard as a junior and the schedule, we would have been looking at a Sugar Bowl or better, most likely. He wasn't part of the in club, though.
OSU doesn't do that. There are very few people using Woody Hayes to undermine their coaches, etc. Michigan wants to be special, OSU wants to win games.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
After going 0-6 against MSU and OSU and losing his final two games by the combined score of 89-21 with his 2011 recruiting class trending towards unranked, I think that it's fairly obvious that RichRod would have never gotten things going at Michigan.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
After going 0-6 against MSU and OSU and losing his final two games by the combined score of 89-21 with his 2011 recruiting class trending towards unranked, I think that it's fairly obvious that RichRod would have never gotten things going at Michigan.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
...I guess I'll dip my toe into the Rich Rod debate.
My take: While Rich Rod did not get 100% support from day 1 at Michigan, he also made a ton of his own mistakes.
I believe that his experience at Michigan, plus the year off from coaching, improved him a lot as a coach.
He learned from his mistakes at Michigan, and benefitted from having a year away from the daily grind of coaching and recruiting to study his own mistakes, study the game, and improve as a coach.
The Rich Rod at Arizona in 2014 is not the same Rich Rod that arrived in Ann Arbor in December, 2007. He is a better coach now than he was then.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
Completely agree with this point. I truly believe he and his staff have changed their attitude towards their players which seems to be the most important.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
The Tressel hire was a big risk at the time. If the risk had not payed off, and if Tressel had failed, the entire State of Ohio would have said "He's no Woody!" and "only OSU hires some no name from an FCS school!"
Also, as of 2014, it is clear to me the OSU is more arrogant than Michigan. They (wrongly) think they are immune from the stumbles that have hit every other blue blood program at one time or anoter.
OSU has not yet stumbled on a coaching hire, or had 7 out of 8 bad years. Eventually it will happen to OSU too. It happens to all the blue blood programs at some point.
Once it happens to OSU and we see how they react, then we can talk about which fan base and/or athletic department is more dysfunctional.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
...coaching changes are almost alway a crap shoot.
When OSU hired Tressel, they were taking a big risk. For a blue blood program to hire from FCS was a real uncertain prospect. It would be sort of like Michigan hring Brian Kelley straight from GVSU.
As it turns out OSU made a good hire with Tressel. The knowable upsides (winning track record, albeit in FCS, knew Ohio recruiting, etc.) worked out well. But at the time it was not considered a home run hire, at least not outside of Ohio.
Meyer was much less of a risky hire. Be even there, no one new how Meyer would deal with being a HC again after claiming that it game him panic attacks and trips to the emergency room at Florida.
The gamble payed off for OSU with Tressel. Eventually all of the blue blood programs end up on the short end of the coaching hire stick, so OSU's bad period will come, just as it has for Texas, USC, Alabama, Michigan, Penn State, etc., etc.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
And they both went out and won as HCs. We had them too, but unfortunately Les Miles may be the youngest of the bunch. I don't think any of us want Bill McCartney or Don Nehlen walking through that door.
The Lloyd Carr coaching tree has been discussed a lot. It's hard to promote from within if there are not viable candidates.
And all I can say about OSU is that they are screwed if Meyer has to retire again because of health issues. Mark Dantonio is their Harbaugh. Great candidate, but seemingly not interested in returning. I don't think they have many other options within the OSU family outside of him.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^
Ohio State IS a better program. It has been since I have been around, and likely long before that.
Ohio state is willing (SEC willing) to do pretty much whatever it takes to maintain an elite status, at least amongst the BIG....which isn't a strong conference, and hasn't been since the early 2000's(?)...
Also, don't forget that they are in a much richer recruiting area, do a much better job at developing those better recruits, thus continuing the cycle of elite recruiting.....
Sucks, but that's just the way it is.....
December 1st, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
The notion the OSU is perpetually a better program is false.
For blue blood programs recruiting bases do not matter. Even with such terrible results since 2006, Michigan is almost on par with OSU in recruiting (until this year because we are about to hire a new coach).
The ONLY thing that has given OSU better results than Michigan since about 2000 is OSU has had better coaching staffs. Tressel and Meyer turned out to be great hires.
If Michigan can just find the right coach, we will be right back at parity with OSU.
Great coaching hires (Bellotti then Kelly) turned Oregon (a perpetual doormat) into a national power. Eugene, Oregon, is a terrible recruiting base. But great coaches made winners out of middling recruits, Oregon established itself as a winner, and now they can pull top kids out of California (and elsewhere) with ease.
The ONLY thing that is holding Michigan (or any blue blood) down is the wrong coaching staff.
Now, it is admittedly very hard to predict who the next great coach will be. OSU guessed right with Tressel. But guessing right for OSU (and wrong for Michigan) is the ONLY meaningful thing keeping Michigan from being on the exact same level as OSU.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
All it takes is the right hire? While that is undoubtedly true, don't you think there is a reason why we haven't gotten our "guy" since Carr retired? This is not an elite HC job anymore, and elite HC's know it...and as long as Hackett remains the permanent "interim" AD, I believe it will continue to be so...
December 1st, 2014 at 12:12 PM ^
There is nothing inherently better about OSU's program. They just stumbled on a great hire in Jim Tressel. Simple as that.
From 1988-2000, OSU beat Michigan just three times. Why? Because OSU's Cooper was a good but not a truely great coach. When OSU hired Cooper it seemed like a very astute hire. But it turns out that Cooper was merely good, not great.
Then OSU hired Tressel, and OSU has domianted ever since.
Back in 2000 the Tressel hire was very questionable. It was a huge gamble. Until Tressel, no blue blood school had hired an FCS coach, probably ever. But it payed off for OSU. More recently, OSU hired Meyer, another home run hire.
The reason Michigan has not made similar home run hires is due mostly to chance. Outside of OSU hiring Meyer, almost all coaching hires are a real crap shoot. Even if all the available data suggests success, there are usually too many unknowns and too many variables to make good predictions.
In other words, the reason Michigan has not gotten "our guy" to get Michigan back in the top ten is the exact same reason that no one really can predict whether Dan Mullen is a truely outstanding coach, of just a good coach that has gotten lucky with some outperforming recruits. The same was true ot Tressel in 2000. The same was true when Wisonsin hired Andersen, and when MSU hired Dantonio. All grambles. All crap shoots.
The reason that OSU has dominated since 2000 is that OSU guessed right with Tressel (and then got very lucky that Meyer was sitting in the TV booth at the exact right moment). But at the time Tressel was hired, very few thought it was a great hire, and most thoughtful observers would have predicted that Michigan would continue to dominate OSU.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^
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December 1st, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^
Look, maybe it doesn't make any sense for him to come here. But given his situation, I'm not beleiving ANYTHING until I hear it from Harbaugh directly, or he signs a contract extension with an NFL team.
It is wildly in his best interest to mask any intention to cut bait and come to Michigan. If that were to happen, he loses his buyout. AKA something like $5 million. He needs the Niners to fire him. They aren't going to fire him if they know he's coming to Michigan and will just walk away on his own. So Jimmy would be really stupid to telegraph that move.
Not saying at all that it means he's coming or that even there is any likelihood of him coming, but if he WERE to be coming, we're not going to be hearing ANYTHING about it until he's no longer the coach in SF. It would be a large game of chicken between him and the SF front office to see who blinks first.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 10:39 AM ^
Hoke will be back. The recruiting class will still be a disaster because everyone knows it will be for one year.
I bet Les Miles tells us to fuck off because we passed over him the last 2 times.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
I think Les would take the job if it was offered to him. He would have also taken it in 08 (even right after winning a NC), and would have taken it in 11.
He's an outstanding coach, and we could do a lot worse. Indeed, we have.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:40 AM ^
Don't get me wrong - I want Harbaugh as much as anyone here.
When it comes down to it, any NFL team can fatten Harbaugh's wallet much more than any Michigan offer. I just don't see Harbaugh to Michigan unless no NFL team is interested.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:55 AM ^
I would alter your statement to say that any NFL team can fatten Harbaugh's wallet more than Michigan is probably wililng to do. But we can easily match an NFL team. Easily. It's just a matter of whether we want to take that plunge.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^
This board really needs to start telling me what I want to hear today. Way too much depressing news for a Monday.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^
Indeed. But at least we get to start our workweek fresh, and without illusions! Oh, who are we kidding. I'm going to go huff jenkem until I'm dead.
December 1st, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
But you have to remember that he has NFL sources, not college sources. Right now the scuttlebutt tends to say that he will sign a new contract and then be traded to another team. He has to sign that contract though, and who knows if he will do that. I VERY much doubt he'd go to Oakland. It's not very Harbaugh like to leave it up to an NFL organization on where he goes in a trade.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
then get Miles or Mullen. If none of them, I will be in a corner rocking back and forth crying..naked.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
then get Miles or Mullen. If none of them, I will be in a corner rocking back and forth crying..naked.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
then get Miles or Mullen. If none of them, I will be in a corner rocking back and forth crying..naked.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
then get Miles or Mullen. If none of them, I will be in a corner rocking back and forth crying..naked.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^
oopsie daisy
December 1st, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
He hasn't proven he can build a consistent winner yet.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
If we want someone who can develop players, Mullen is the guy.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
There are more good guys than Miles and Mullen.
But I'll be with you in that corner if we end up hiring a coordinator with no prior coaching experience.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
you offered to do it in Schlissels office (make sure to call it performance art so they don't call Campus Security) that might get us some traction....