Urban Meyer Reportedly turns down Texas Football job
Title says it all. According to Dallas Morning News and Yardbarker, Urban reportedly turned down Texas’ overtures to make him their next coach.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:48 AM ^
So youre saying theres a chance????
December 7th, 2020 at 11:17 AM ^
Guy in the back is the Michigan fan base watching this season
December 7th, 2020 at 11:45 AM ^
Or this:
December 7th, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
I'll join the fracas!
December 7th, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
So after all the talk about Urban paying players and all the remarks about how it was terrible, where is the fear about a reoccurence here? Insert Guffaws!
December 7th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
Fear of reoccurance? I think most of the fanbase hopes that our next coach plays by the same rules that the rest of the league does.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
LET THE MADNESS COME
December 7th, 2020 at 3:13 PM ^
Hopefully the administration and boosters can make this a reality!
December 7th, 2020 at 11:06 PM ^
Turn down for what?
December 7th, 2020 at 8:50 AM ^
They're going for Matt Campbell next.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
Don’t count out James Franklin.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
They are not going to pay a $25 million buyout to replace a 6-3 coach with an 8-2 coach.
Not everyone is as enamored with Matt Campbell as the fans on this blog.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:26 AM ^
The pockets are deep wrt Texas football. It wouldn't surprise me if they did
December 7th, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
They will pay the buyout but not for Matt Campbell. It will have to be a sure winner. It needs to be a Meyer, Sweeney, Saban, or such.
If Texas beats Kansas, which they will, and Oklahoma beats Iowa St., which is very possible, Texas finishes 7-3 and Iowa State finishes 8-3... $25 million is a bunch of cash for that risk.
Personally, I think the fact that Texas is this willing to move on shows the unrealistic expectations that are causing problems with the program in the first place. I would give him another two years and then decide. They are being very antsy if you ask me. I think they might regret acting to quickly. Players will be quick to avoid a team if they know that the coach is getting fired after 7-3 seasons.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:09 AM ^
If we fire Harbaugh, and Texas grabs Campbell, stay with me here, what do we think about Herman? Sure it didn’t go well at Texas but he had great offenses at OSU and Houston, could we surround him with good coordinators? He’s 6-3 this year and 31-18 overall, not exactly terrible and we could probably get him at a steal. Just curious what the football heads think?
December 7th, 2020 at 11:33 AM ^
Yeah, I’m sure he’d do much better at a school in a tougher division/conference without the inherent recruiting advantages that come with being THE program in Texas....
December 7th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
So...
Herman is to Michigan as
Muschamp was to South Carolina?
No thank you.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:49 AM ^
I'm not a football mind, but I think Herman shouldn't be that far down the list. He's had great, modern offenses everywhere he's been, which is what we need given where the sport is going. Also, he is both still young (45) and up-and-coming, while having the experience of running a big-time program, which is a rare combo. He's not a perfect fit and there are holes to poke in his resume, but he still would be better than many other options.
As a head coach at Texas and Houston, he hasn't lost a bowl game. He was Urban Meyer's first OC at OSU, helping them to their undefeated season in 2012 and National Championship in 2014.
There's a Twitter thread discussing Herman's record at Texas. The conclusion is that the majority of the games are close (within 1 score), which is not great when you're Texas and should be able to distance yourself from the lesser-talented teams in the Big 12. When you play close, sometimes you lose - it's what has hurt Harbaugh against MSU (and really only MSU).
December 7th, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
Thanks. That’s kind of my thoughts as well. I know he’s not preferred or ideal for M but if administration puts us in another terrible coaching transition, we may need to consider all options.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:02 PM ^
Herman is basically Harbaugh. Yuck.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^
I did not realize he was that young. Given that, If Harbaugh is around next year, I could see trying to hire him as an offensive coordinator/head coach in waiting. Upside: you get a proven offensive coordinator who understand the OSU system who could potentially be a head coach in waiting given a little more seasoning. Downside: next year implodes anyway if Harbaugh sticks around but you have a year of evaluating Herman as a potential replacement.
December 7th, 2020 at 4:04 PM ^
Upside: you get a proven offensive coordinator who understand the OSU system
Texas "titty bar Tom" coached a read option offense under Urban Meyer.. who is no longer the coach at OSU. Day has pretty much shown he can adapt an offense to his QB's strengths.. see the difference between Haskins' and Fields's play calling. Not saying he'd be a bad hire, but not sure you'd be getting a whole lot of insight into OSU's current offense, or team really. It's also been pretty well documented that OSU's team culture has changed quite a bit since Day took over.. much more relaxed and friendly than when Urban was HC.
Just my .02
December 7th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Urban is still the real head coach at OSU. Despite the outward appearances, there is a reason Smith kept Urban in the AD building when he agreed to promote Day to head coach despite not having any head coaching experience prior.
December 7th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^
I agree with you but not sure many others will. I actually was hoping we'd hire him in 2015.
December 7th, 2020 at 2:54 PM ^
I think Herman and Texas just exemplifies how good of coach that Meyer was/is.
Herman has half of OSU's 2014 Natty staff in Texas. He has Texas' money and recruiting brand. He also has 4-5 losses per year.
Meyer is a great coach and that is all there is to it. He is a monster recruiter and motivator. He is great at scouting talent (player & coach). He is a great CEO and no matter what anyone says, he is great at X's and O's.
The bottom line, Meyer made everyone around him better. He gets things out of people that others don't.
You could give Harbaugh's pieces to Meyer and we would win. I'm not sure it works the other way around.
December 7th, 2020 at 5:13 PM ^
It depends. Is he still allowed to tweet out a pic of his gold pants if OSU beats Michigan if he's our coach like he did when he was at Houston? I'm thoroughly enjoying watching him fail at Texas.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:52 AM ^
Ah well nevertheless. It would be nice to get him off the Fox set for my sanity as well as to shut down the TX-OSU pipeline that’s worked well for OSU recently.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
I wonder how much OSU is paying him to stay on Fox?
December 7th, 2020 at 10:22 AM ^
IIRC, Ohio State pays him about ~$200K/year to be an asst. athletic director these days. His position really is to help promote the growth and provide mentorship to the asst. coaching staffs in the non-revenue sports. I think for football, he tries to be hands-off except for on-site recruiting visits. Gene Smith said he didn't want to make Ryan Day feel like Urban Meyer is constantly hovering over him ready to take over at the first sign of failure.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:54 AM ^
It’s funny that Texas is shopping around for a replacement for Herman without even firing Herman outright. Great confidence boost for him.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:05 AM ^
At least their AD has some balls and wants better for their fans, unlike some ADs we know who settle for B/B- results while paying A+ money.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
Everyone knows you lure the best candidates by undermining the current employee and going behind their back. It's almost like you have no executive experience when it comes to hiring a candidate who has multiple suitors. Those with options tend to pay attention to how predecessors were treated.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:28 AM ^
For the company I work for, most of our executives that were let go, already had a replacement that was there right after, or in some cases, there, before they knew they were being let go.
I was really surprised when my VP of Engineering was gone one morning and a new one was there already. I had no idea, and thought he was in a good position with the CEO.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:24 AM ^
B/B- results?
Dude, Rutger took us to, wait - we came from behind and took Rutger (1-4) to 3 OT's. We beat Minnesota (2-3), and got fucking BLASTED by four other teams including MS fucking U.
You really think that's a B, or a B-, grade this year?
December 7th, 2020 at 9:26 AM ^
If you want to fairly evaluate Harbaugh you have to look at his entire tenure at Michigan. B/B- sounds about right. Excluding this year, we have never been terrible. The difference this year is that the defense fell off a cliff and we don't have an offense that can make up for that.
December 7th, 2020 at 2:26 PM ^
You can't give this program a B based on the last 6 years. It appears that it has been a house of cards - slowly trending in the wrong direction. All it took was the perfect storm of 2020 to expose just how bad we are.
No depth at all. The coaches have lost the team. We look like we have given up. And it doesn't appear that help is on the way anytime soon, unless we make big changes - especially in recruiting and strength and conditioning.
To me, anyone you bring in, whether it be a new head coach or coordinator, they have to have the players to make it work. One might say the current lack of depth or talent is a direct result of the coaches so fix the recruiting issue first and if that means cleaning house with the coaches - then so be it.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:30 AM ^
Well we aren’t grading Harbaugh on just this year. You evaluate a coach on his entire tenure, or at least the last couple seasons. Not just one year. B/B- is a fair grade for what Harbaugh has done.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:14 AM ^
Do you really think a B is a fair grade? If that's the case, then we might as well abandon any thought about him being shown the door any time soon. They won't let any B-grade coach go here.
2016 and 2018 were his best seasons, both were marred by disappointing losses and failure to reach the B1G championship. For that reason I score those seasons as 'B' level, and with this season's 'F' it pulls his cumulative to a 'C-' for me. There's been a couple seasons where it was apparent Harbaugh had lost the team, to me that's an automatic failure.
It's all subjective, but if we're willing to grant him a solid 'B' for 6 years' work then we might as well stop calling for his removal because that in no way justifies it.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:42 AM ^
That his cumulative GPA, not this year's.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:57 AM ^
Get that... Still don't think it's a B1. I'll give him an A for 2015-16, a C- for 2017, a C+ for 2018, and a C- for 2019, and an F for 2020. Add those up with the scale A=5, B=4, and so on...
(5+5+2.75+3.25+2.75+0)/6 = 3.125 - C/C+
Those scores are my opinion, you can have your own... In looking back - yes, using hindsight to see what I wasn't looking at - he has mismanaged the roster horribly, still cannot manage the clock, has no clue what 'tempo' is let alone how to best use it, and cannot get the players to believe in him or play with any kind of passion whatsoever. These are all items that go into his tenure as coach, not just the win/lose record.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
Your grades are fair enough. But isn't 3.0 a solid B? So 3.125 would even be on the B+ side of that.
Edit: Never mind. Not using a 4.0 scale...
December 7th, 2020 at 2:57 PM ^
This is a pretty interesting way of looking at it. Given your grades and adding in the fact that we have heard the AD is ignoring this year and giving Harbaugh a "pass". (Not saying you should but that is the way his evaluators are looking at it) You would get a 3.75 which is a B-.
In my opinion all of your grading is fair, I would only quibble with 2018. I would probably give that year a B (I realize this is totally subjective).
That would give Harbaugh an overall grade of 3.9 according to my grading (again given that the AD has decided this year doesn't count).
But that puts him right between a B/B-.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:34 AM ^
I am for getting a new coach but this is not the same situation Warde is in - Herman's only connection to Texas is that he was a GA while getting his masters degree there back in 2000. I'm not going to list out all the connections that Harbaugh has with Michigan/Ann Arbor as we should all know but this is not an easy decision for a former player and AD at Michigan to do. I know that most fans don't care but those making decisions do - if this was for non-football issues like what OSU went through with Urban and Tressel then it would be different.
We are going to have to hope that Harbaugh wants to jump to the NFL.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:48 AM ^
Wrong. It’s a very easy thing to do. Not only is it easy, it’s also what the AD gets paid a lot of money to do. M football has to beat OSU, ‘Michigan Men’ like Warde and Harbaugh know this and understand the consequences when you go 0-6.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:09 AM ^
Michigan is not a pro team. AD is not a GM. There are many factors besides wins and loses. I get that many are angry with the 'Michigan man' thing but you treat Harbaugh differently than an outsider like John Cooper at OSU. Warde has to realistically look at what the ceiling and floor is with this football program. He has made two great hires - he didn't hire Harbaugh - Hackett did.
December 7th, 2020 at 11:33 AM ^
"...many are angry with the 'Michigan man' thing..."
'Michigan Man' is nothing more than an employee of the university - that is how Bo used it, and what he strived for when replacing Frieder in '89. The 'Michigan Man' Yost mentioned is an ideal you strive for in the people you hire. Both can be true. It does not mean that you have to hire a Michigan alum.
"...but you treat Harbaugh differently than an outsider..."
I can agree with this - Harbaugh deserves respect for what he's done as a player, alum, and coach. But that doesn't mean that you can't fire him for poor performance. And yes, we have to hope Warde makes a football hire that turns out as well as his hockey and basketball hires have.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
Spot on again EGJ.
B- is really generous though.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:27 AM ^
I’m sure Herman has been told he’s not coming back after this season. Why do you think Ewers decommitted from his dream school?