The Snowflake Thread: Coaching

It is either impossible to succeed as an offensive coordinator with a line this young, or it is not impossible.  But we need to decide that fundamental question, because if we fire Borges, we are automatically extending Hoke for 2-3 more years.  And if Borges isn't the real problem, that could be an error -- and it could also fuck up Hoke if he isn't the real problem either.

As someone who never actually played football, I am kind of relying on the experts here.  Our line was not physically able to match up to UConn or Akron.  If you can't run or pass protect, it seems to me that your life as an O Coordinator devolves to massively out-RPSing the other team, which is a tough way to make a living.

On the other hand, Nebraska's O line was pretty dinged up today as well, and they seemed more than able to get push.  So I think you have to decide this threshold question and then act decisively.

not sure how the non x's and o's guy is going to contribute.

• What if Gary Moeller never had that drunk night at Excalibur in the Spring of 1995?  Yes, he had 2 straight 8-4 seasons, but the general problem was Lloyd Carr's "bend but don't break" defense that broke too often.  I recall sitting in the student section during those years with catcalls of "fire Lloyd Carr" and whenever Jason Carr got put in yells of "you suck as bad as your dad!"  I remember how a bad Illinois team drove down the field in the last minute to score a touch down to secure an upset over a vastly superior M football team.  Mo's offense's were quite good, and he was his own OC.  He was also a lights out recruiter, and the 1997 team were Moeller recruits.  He was on the path to modernizing M's offense.  It makes me wonder if he might have been the one to bring in the spread offense to M in a successful manner?  I remember reading on this blog years ago that a young Urban Meyer (he was either an asst. coach at ND or maybe even HC at Bowling Green at the time) sent a letter to HC Lloyd Carr interested in talking about a scenario where he'd come in as the M OC with the opportunity to advance to the HC position whenever Lloyd retired, but obviously they never took him up on it.  Might Mo have been more open-minded about adding a young Urban Meyer to his staff (especially since he didn't have a separate coach as an OC), with a natural succession plan?  Where would M football be if this actually happened?
• What if M actually wanted Les Miles in 2007 instead of this whole contrived scenario where they set things up so that they could not land him?  Yes, there is some smoke with Les, but we don't have "hostesses" here.  We'd be in Year 6 of a Les Miles coached program....probably a alot better off than we are now
• What if M did not fire RR after 3 years?  Maybe 2011 would still have been a good year (schedule was favorable, his teams won more games in each successive season, etc.)  I know he would have adjusted his offense in the off-season to account for some of the adjustments that opponents had on the QB iso play that was developed for the 2010 season.  I do think a RR coached team would have had no trouble putting up points against yesterday's mediocre Nebraska defnese.  And he's ahead of schedule at Arizona.  At some point, the fanbase needs to realize that when a headcoach has been successful literally everywhere except here, it's on us as a Program.
• What if Dave Brandon was not "turned off" by Harbaugh (e.g. pretty sure his "all that glitters is not gold" comment was aimed directly at JH) and actually recognized that this guy was going to be an elite coach and thus treated him as such?  In hindsight, should have pursued him more aggressively.  So when Harbaugh pretty much "wanted to know what UM could do for him" DB should have clearly articulated that the compensation would be competitive with what he'd get from the NFL, all he needs to do is come in, instill the same culture he did at Stanford, give him his private bathroom, give support to hiring the staff he wanted (the only condition that at least one of his coordinators needed to be someone who could replace him when he wanted to jump to the NFL, and that he could not take that coordinator with him), and that UM would happily help support his dream of coaching in the NFL...just give UM football 4-6 years like he gave Stanford.  Pretty much following exactly the same blueprint of what's happened at Stanford.  

Lots of missed opportunities in the past 20 years has led to where M football is at now (and actually has been for much of this century, 2006 notwithstanding.)  Coach Hoke is a nice guy with the right appreciation for the University and the Program, but he is limited.  He is a position coach and "admininistrator".  Unfortunately these missed opportunities cannot be "undone" so it's probably prudent to avoid anything "kneejerk"...which is what I thought happened to RichRod.  He should be given the time to get all of his recruits as upperclassmen and then evaluated on how the Program is doing.  He does, however, need to model what Beilein has done and seriously look at changing some of his staff (Funk, Jackson, Borges).  If he's not a brilliant coordinator level coach (i.e. Meyer, RR, Chip Kelley, etc.) then he needs to act like a top level CEO and get people in there who are.  This all makes me appreciate Coach Beilein even more since he is both a brilliant tactician AND has shown that he runs his program like a top CEO.