I like the idea of Tom Herman...but one candidate I never hear of is Hue Jackson, current OC with the Bengals. The guy was successful at Oakland...and that folks is not easy!! He has spent many years as a college coach at some very fine programs out west: USC, Arizona State, Cal, Pacific, CSF as well as stints with multiple NFL teams. His offensives have been outstanding at most of his stops...while HC at Oakland his team finished 6th in the NFL in scoring...that is a feat people! The guy seems to have a very solid background, has been a successful HC, has had multiple stops in the NFL and in college football at storied programs and would make a solid HC candidate for a college program.
Utah over Alabama, Boise over Oklahoma, WVU over Oklahoma...Hopefully our first bowl game in the RR regime will be against Okalahoma. I would put Oregon in the same argument. I think the point about MSU getting more in state talent even strenghtens my point. What have those recruits done for MSU...not much. Michigan State plays the "we care more about our in state recruits than Michigan card" but some of that talent 1.) dosent fit the RR system and 2.) Michigan can get better talent else where. But Michigan still needs talent from this state and it is waining. I also did make the stance that MSU is "owning" in state recruiting...I said "Michigan has to share the talent with a in state rival...and with a talent pool as small as Michigan high school talent pool...that's a disadvantage to other top tier programs.
While Michigan will always recruit nationally...my point is,it is becoming increasingly difficult to lure this talent to places like Michigan. Look at Brians five star recruit graph...we have a very low number of 5 star recruits over the past few years. Can it increase...yes...will it...I don't think anyone knows. While our classes historically have ranked high...our recruiting does not compare either in talent or depth with Florida, USC, Florida State, LSU, Georgia, OSU, Okalahoma, Texas or Alabama. And while our proximity is close to PA and Ohio...most of the "Top" talent goes to OSU, PSU and Pitt and we and other programs poach what we can.
While we have had our share of talent coming from these states...the depth and level of talent that OSU, Florida, PSU, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, UCLA and others have coming from their states pales in comparison of what Michigan gets from its own state or either PA or Ohio. Michigan has to recruit nationally, always has, always will but that is getting more difficult. Given time RR system could hedge against this more challenging landscape of recruiting and help sustain and regain Michigan dominance. I just hope people give the man at least 5 years.
Did geography, competition and the economy lead to the hiring of Rich Rod.? Did Bill Martin after trying unsuccessfully to lure Schino and Miles to Michigan, sit back and look at Michigan’s economy, the population move from the state and the competitive landscape of college recruiting as a need to get a coach who’s system can be competitive even with lesser talent.
Folks, I love Michigan but how many five, four and three star talents does this state produce? Michigan as a state is not considered a “Football” state to begin with and it has to share the talent with Sparty. If you look at the landscape of college football, Michigan is one of the only “traditional” powers whose state cannot support its program, let alone two programs when you add Michigan State. I don’t think I need to discuss the long term economic outlook for Michigan. While I hope it gets better, this state has been losing population and hence talent for a while.
Does the system switch, while painful in the evolution process eventually help Michigan regain or even reach greater heights? I don’t know but think about this…Ohio State can pretty much recruit its state and be a top 10 football program. Penn State while it has Pitt has a population and geographic proximity to a ton of college football talent. Both Ohio and Pennsylvania are considered “football states” and they produce a lot of talent. Florida, Florida State, Miami can all be sustained by the state of Florida. USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Cal can all be sustained from three cities…LA, San Francisco and San Diego. With all of these great programs, with all of that talent so close to sustain them…the sales job to lure these kids away from Florida, California, the SE to Michigan gets a lot more challenging.
Rich Rod system has worked in areas very similar (without the great tradition) of Michigan: Boise State, Utah and WVU. While we at Michigan have traditionally always had very highly rated classes… RR teams have been very competitive with few of his recruiting classes breaking into the top 20. While he would get a Noel Devin once in a while, getting a recruit like that at WVU was few and far between. Same deal with Boise and Utah. RR has a much greater opportunity to lure top kids to Michigan but he can sustain a very competitive program with kids that fit his system and might not be the “big time” recruit. With the talent pool in the state declining, coupled with the fact that Michigan, while its produced some great talent, does not consistently produce a ton of D1 prospects...incorporating a system that dosent have to rely on "5 and 4" star recruits could be a good thing...I hope?
I don’t know, maybe I’m reaching here… it’s just a thought. Maybe a few too many Corona Lights after the Illinois and Purdue game has killed some brain cells. We won’t know for a couple of years but I do believe that RR and his system will work here at Michigan and potentially take us to greater more consistent heights.
We don't have to look far to see how the mighty have fallen because of their lack of patience and poor selections for a head coach:
Washington..nice little record since the mid 1990's when Don James left
Nebraska - Tommy Boy left, it went to Solich, Callahan to Pelini
Notre Dame-Holtz to Davies to Willingham to Weis
Miami - Butch Davis, to Cocker to Shannon
USC - Tollner, Smith, Robinson (again),Paul Hackett
Alabama...they had freaking brutal streach: Dubose, Price, Shula and now Saban (almost Rich Rod).
I don't think I need to go on...I could if you would like. Think of the coaches listed above except for Robinson, Smith and Willingham (though he had a short tenure as a head coach at Stanford) they were all assistance...poor choices. And other than Alabama and USC...these teams still don't know if they have found the "right guy"!
Rich Rod has a very good coaching record, he has build and rebuilt programs...given the time he will bring Michigan to prominence once again. He needs more than one recruiting class and 24 games people.
We fire Rich Rod now, we will not be good for a long time. I know why the divorce rate in this country is so freaking high...every other women and coach looks good when the times rough. We want the good ole days back...well other than 1997, Michigan football wasn't as pretty as it seems it is now.
And to say Rich Rod would only get a job in the WAC or MAC is a joke...he would get a job in the ACC or SEC very quickly. I live in the ATL...they talk about him down here quite a bit and regard him highly! There's a couple teams who would love to have him now!
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I like the idea of Tom Herman...but one candidate I never hear of is Hue Jackson, current OC with the Bengals. The guy was successful at Oakland...and that folks is not easy!! He has spent many years as a college coach at some very fine programs out west: USC, Arizona State, Cal, Pacific, CSF as well as stints with multiple NFL teams. His offensives have been outstanding at most of his stops...while HC at Oakland his team finished 6th in the NFL in scoring...that is a feat people! The guy seems to have a very solid background, has been a successful HC, has had multiple stops in the NFL and in college football at storied programs and would make a solid HC candidate for a college program.