Texas, Saban, coaching changes and recruiting

Submitted by James Burrill Angell on
If we're going to do wild speculation and ridiculous possibilities (or borderline impossibilities) like the thread below about football ever becoming an Olympic sport. Let's go further down the yellow brick road straying from reality. It certainly seems like Mack Brown is stepping down at Texas. Now, let's suspend probability and say that somehow Texas were to lure Saban to Texas. Does that open up the recruitment of Alabama recruits like say....DeShawn Hand? Has anyone in the recruiting universe like Coach Brown posed the question. Further would a new coach like Saban be required to honor the already large set of commitments Texas already has or could a new coach try to bring his recruits from his previous school and dump current recruits. Finally, in the heap of coaching changes that has been touched off, is there anyone who committed to a school facing a coaching that we were in on and might get back on?

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^

They all take summer classes when they're at UMich (worked with a walk on who did MECHENG). The biggest problem is really that they don't offer enough of the courses in the summer. You're left taking 3 courses in the spring and nothing in the summer as far as engineering clases go. And, on top of that, the fall is usually a 12 credit semester for them. 

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 3:42 PM ^

Here's the offering for this Spring "ME235, ME240, ME320, ME335, and ME481." Last "summer" semester there were no ME courses availible. There's no gurantee as to which will be offered. And these are only announced the October before. Makes long term planning quite the chore if you have the restriction of a light load in the Fall. This becomes much more of a challenge once you get into tech electives, because most of the interesting/challenging ones seem to be offered once a year at best. That is, if you actually care about which tech electives you're taking.  

I'm not saying you'd be in school for ever, but it's not the easiest thing to chart out. 

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 6:21 PM ^

That was an email I got on November 15th from the me-aso account. Here's the full text: 

"Dear ME Students,

We hope your fall term is going well. The following ME courses will be offered this spring:

ME235, ME240, ME320, ME335, and ME481

Once days/times/rooms have been determined for the spring term, we will provide those further details. We hope this information is helpful as you schedule your Winter 2014 courses.

Have a good weekend!

Best regards,
Melissa
______________"

Save 235 and 335 to take during a major semester, they were the least rigorous ME courses I've had. 320 and 240 would be nice to take in a spring semester together where you only have to focus on those two classes. You can throw on something frivolous like ECON 101/102 as a pass/fail to complete your 9 credit maximum. 

 

pescadero

December 11th, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^

Chemistry (lecture and lab) and tested out of my language requirement.

 

I think the trick is - if you're taking 3 EECS classes, they'd better be your only three "real" classes.

 

Oh... and if 427 is anything like when I took it - take NOTHING else time consuming with it.,

JamieH

December 12th, 2013 at 2:45 AM ^

I was EECS and I loaded up with 17-18 credits several semesters, because i had to keep my falls lights (12-13) to be in the band.  

Most of the time it was ok (tough but ok), but my Junior year I screwed up taking 18 hours and ended up with too much tough stuff all at once (E-Mag, Relatavistic Physics, some advanced circuit analysis class and others) and I just crashed and burned with a few weeks left in the semester.  I was actually doing fine in all of the classes up to that point but I pretty much blew all of the finals because I just fell behind in every class and couldn't catch up. 

I remember I was taking a music history class pass/fail that semester and I don't think I showed  to it more that 6 times all semester.   I'm incredibly lucky the prof didn't fail me, but I guess I was able to just barely eek out a C in the class and that was all I needed to pass.

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 5:26 PM ^

Our statements aren't mutually exclusive. My point is regarding him jumping ship to Texas simply because they're regarded as a better engineering school. And I still find your point hard to believe when Michigan was right there in the end despite telling him to not do engineering long ago. 

Magnus

December 11th, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^

Da'Shawn Hand is really the only "legitimate" option to flip to Michigan. The other guys Michigan offered who are committed to Alabama and Texas weren't really interested in Michigan in the first place. People might whisper about Bo Scarbrough looking around, but I don't see him considering Michigan.

Bo Knows

December 11th, 2013 at 5:59 PM ^

Word is that another new contract with a pay raise has been sitting on Saban's desk since last Friday and Bama officials are starting to get uneasy.  To further speculate, I thnik Smary takes over if Saban bolts, keeping pretty much the entire recruiting class intact.

Mercury Hayes

December 11th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^

Saban to Texas would be great because it would steal some power from the SEC and help debunk the myth that they are far and away the best conference. Also, DeShawn Hand.

Lastly, Dantonio would be a prime candidate for 'Bama. I know there's a lot of other candidates and he probably wouldn't leave, but he has to be on the list. Stranger things have happened with coaching.

Mr Miggle

December 11th, 2013 at 3:23 PM ^

What's the most compelling reason?

He doesn't want a roster well capable of winning a national championship.

He doesn't want his salary to more than double.

He doesn't want his assisstants getting big raises to follow him.

He doesn't want Narduzzi to get a shot at his current job.

 

 

dahblue

December 11th, 2013 at 3:28 PM ^

State had a good year, but let's not get crazy...Dantonio isn't a candidate for a job like Alabama.  He has the people skills of a stick and is a mediocre recruiter at best.  His biggest selling point is, "I turn 2/3-stars into solid players."  The combination of a down year in the B1G and MSU's charmin schedule made things look even better for them.  He's an Iowa-level coach (and that's not an insult at all), but not a Bama/USC/Michigan/ND-level coach.

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^

Nick Saban, on the other hand, is widely renowned as a pleasant individual to be around:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/heath-evans-nick-saban-once-stepped-over-a-convulsing-player-on-the-field?urn=nfl,wp13450

I fail to see how someone who's been to two out of three B1G Championship games is not a "Michigan-level" coach. Everyone keeps talking about these "prime time" targets. Well, who are they? Nick Saban is the only assumed slam dunk out there and he, believe it or not, isn't a pancea. Who is doing so much better than Dantonio that isn't already at a first rate gig (Stanford, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, etc.)? 

dahblue

December 11th, 2013 at 4:01 PM ^

Saban likely is an...unpleasant person...but he's always been a star recruiter and that's been a soft spot for Dantonio.  In the evil world of the SEC, that could be a huge problem.  And while Dantonio has been to 2 B1G title games, he's done that post-RR years, which makes a big difference when Michigan is the main (and traditional competition).  Like I said, he's a good (Iowa-level) coach, but a program like Alabama is going to want more.

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 4:13 PM ^

Did Urban recruit that well at Utah? There is the limitation that he's at Michigan State. I don't think Alabama would go after him, but it seems that no one wants to throw names out there as to who Alabama would turn to if Saban left in the hypothetical "Saban to Texas" scenario. I don't really see any slam dunk candidates. Which I guess leads me to believe it would end up being Kirby Smart. 

NOLA Wolverine

December 11th, 2013 at 5:21 PM ^

Urban at Utah would be the point, not Urban from Florida to Ohio State. And Utah at that time to Florida would be a larger jump than Michigan State to anything else above them right now. Dantonio has been a recruiting upgrade over John L. Smith, even if you take the short sighted look at just star rankings. Do you think he hasn't maximized the ability of a head coach at Michigan State to recruit? Would Michigan State have to start out recruiting Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame to prove that he's worthy?

bigfan2959

December 11th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^

By your reasoning Hoke was not a Michigan level coach.  Coached at Ball St. and San Diego St, one great year at BSU.  Dantanio's years at MSU have been far more impressive than Hoke's anywhere, and Dantonio was the DC on a team that won the BCS title game at Ohio St. 

RickAndScott

December 12th, 2013 at 1:47 AM ^

Hoke's not a Michigan-level coach except that he has Michigan history...and that changes everything.

It absolutely should NOT change everything given how underwhelming his resume was. 

I think Hoke is a good guy and I have not written him off here by any means. But that doesn't change that Michigan is going to need to get lucky if this thing ultimately works out. It was a very odd hire and reaked of an unhealthy partiality.