First of all, that was an incredibly classy response by Craig Dunaway. If his son has half the poise that his father has Carter will be a leader at Michigan. I am glad you have supported your son in his decision to commit to Michigan, and we look forward to cheering him on in the years ahead.
Second of all, I went to almost every home game while Coach Harbaugh was at Stanford. I know guys who played for him. The guy is a flat out baller. He lives, eats and breathes football. He has an eye for talent. He is a relentless recruiter. He has a lot of self-confidence. He is not perfect, and no Michigan fan needs to take what he says or does with blind faith, but if anyone wants to take the opposite side of the bet (Will Michigan be successful under Harbaugh?) just let me know.
Coach Harbaugh went to Stanford and the program was a disaster. Two succesive coaches (Walt Harris and Buddy Teevens) failed miserably at the job (not a commentary on what they are like as people -- I have no idea -- but their teams lost a lot of games) and the cupboard was bare when Coach Harbaugh arrived. He turned things around quickly. Within days of being hired, he arrived on the Stanford campus to meet with all of the verbally committed recruits just before National Signing Day. There was not a lot of talent there, but what was there were he needed to stay. Instead of begging the kids to stay, he in effect said, "Either get on the bus or get off the bus, but we are goign to win either way." Every kid signed.
At the University of San Diego he took over from a guy that was just above .500 the previous eight years. In years two and three he had 11-1 records.
The bar has been raised in the Big Ten over the past ten years. Michigan has stumbled. If I was in charge of the search to find the next football coach at Michigan, I would start by asking former players who they think should lead the program. They wanted Coach Harbaugh and actively lobbyied Coach Harbaugh to come back to Michigan.
Coach Harbaugh is going to do some wacky things (I remember when he went for two against USC while up by 27 points in the fourth quarter -- in response to a question as to why he did it his reponse was something like, "Well, I thought I saw something up there in the line that we could take advantage of." It made no sense. What he really wanted to say was, "I wanted to hang 50 on USC." He is insanely competitive and very unorthodox. If you want to read some unbelievable stories, just read "Rags to Roses: The Rise of Stanford Football" (an e-book).
He will rub some people the wrong way in the broader UofM community. But do not bet against this man succeding at Michigan.
I have watched a lot of Stanford football over the past several years. Wayne Lyons is good player, but he gets beaten on big plays a lot. I believe he was the one who just blew the coverage on the last play of the Notre Dame / Stanford game this year, which gave Notre Dame the win. Perhaps a change of scenery with some new coaching will do him good.
John Denniston is a Michigan graduate who is a friend of Jim's. He is not Coach Harbaugh's agent (David Dunn is) but goes to Peru each year with Jim to do charitable work (google it, it is very impressive the work they do).
He has been a very successful venture capitalist for many years who now does non-profit work full-time with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Northern California. His bio from the web is posted below:
John Denniston
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
John has been a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers since 2001. He is a member of the partner team that conceptualized and launched the firm’s greentech investment initiative. Since then, the KPCB greentech team, including John, has invested in more than 50 companies across a wide variety of sectors. John co-runs the KPCB Green Growth Fund, which invests in and supports growth-stage greentech companies. In addition to the portfolio companies for which John has served as a board member, he has worked closely with many other KPCB greentech portfolio companies on key initiatives.
Before joining KPCB, John was a managing director and head of technology investment banking for the Western United States at Salomon Smith Barney. He also served on the investment committees for Salomon’s venture capital direct investment fund and CitiGroup’s venture capital fund-of-funds. Earlier in his career, John was a partner at the law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he was head of the firm’s venture capital practice group and co-head of its information technology practice group. He also served on the investment committee for the firm’s venture capital fund.
John has a J.D. from the University of Michigan.
The Pac 12 schools have talked at length about adding lacrosse at the varsity level, but there are two significant issues, both of which can and will be overcome.
1) Each school will need to add two varsity programs, one for men and one for women, in order for it to work with Title IX, and many Pac 12 schools (e.g., Stanford) already have women's varsity lacrosse, so it will need to be another sport.
2) The Pac 12 will want to have enough critical mass in the sport so they a) don't have to travel too far to play other D1 schools and b) they qualify for an automatic berth in the NCAA tourney, which requires six teams in your conference.
I expect each of these obstacles will be overcome in the next 5-10 years, and Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC and Colorado will field varsity men's teams (all six of these schools have varsity women's programs in the MPSF).
Recent Comments
First of all, that was an incredibly classy response by Craig Dunaway. If his son has half the poise that his father has Carter will be a leader at Michigan. I am glad you have supported your son in his decision to commit to Michigan, and we look forward to cheering him on in the years ahead.
Second of all, I went to almost every home game while Coach Harbaugh was at Stanford. I know guys who played for him. The guy is a flat out baller. He lives, eats and breathes football. He has an eye for talent. He is a relentless recruiter. He has a lot of self-confidence. He is not perfect, and no Michigan fan needs to take what he says or does with blind faith, but if anyone wants to take the opposite side of the bet (Will Michigan be successful under Harbaugh?) just let me know.
Coach Harbaugh went to Stanford and the program was a disaster. Two succesive coaches (Walt Harris and Buddy Teevens) failed miserably at the job (not a commentary on what they are like as people -- I have no idea -- but their teams lost a lot of games) and the cupboard was bare when Coach Harbaugh arrived. He turned things around quickly. Within days of being hired, he arrived on the Stanford campus to meet with all of the verbally committed recruits just before National Signing Day. There was not a lot of talent there, but what was there were he needed to stay. Instead of begging the kids to stay, he in effect said, "Either get on the bus or get off the bus, but we are goign to win either way." Every kid signed.
At the University of San Diego he took over from a guy that was just above .500 the previous eight years. In years two and three he had 11-1 records.
The bar has been raised in the Big Ten over the past ten years. Michigan has stumbled. If I was in charge of the search to find the next football coach at Michigan, I would start by asking former players who they think should lead the program. They wanted Coach Harbaugh and actively lobbyied Coach Harbaugh to come back to Michigan.
Coach Harbaugh is going to do some wacky things (I remember when he went for two against USC while up by 27 points in the fourth quarter -- in response to a question as to why he did it his reponse was something like, "Well, I thought I saw something up there in the line that we could take advantage of." It made no sense. What he really wanted to say was, "I wanted to hang 50 on USC." He is insanely competitive and very unorthodox. If you want to read some unbelievable stories, just read "Rags to Roses: The Rise of Stanford Football" (an e-book).
He will rub some people the wrong way in the broader UofM community. But do not bet against this man succeding at Michigan.
I have watched a lot of Stanford football over the past several years. Wayne Lyons is good player, but he gets beaten on big plays a lot. I believe he was the one who just blew the coverage on the last play of the Notre Dame / Stanford game this year, which gave Notre Dame the win. Perhaps a change of scenery with some new coaching will do him good.
The Pac 12 schools have talked at length about adding lacrosse at the varsity level, but there are two significant issues, both of which can and will be overcome.
1) Each school will need to add two varsity programs, one for men and one for women, in order for it to work with Title IX, and many Pac 12 schools (e.g., Stanford) already have women's varsity lacrosse, so it will need to be another sport.
2) The Pac 12 will want to have enough critical mass in the sport so they a) don't have to travel too far to play other D1 schools and b) they qualify for an automatic berth in the NCAA tourney, which requires six teams in your conference.
I expect each of these obstacles will be overcome in the next 5-10 years, and Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC and Colorado will field varsity men's teams (all six of these schools have varsity women's programs in the MPSF).