Jay Harbaugh as RB coach: why?
Can anyone else think of someone who never played college football much less the position they were coaching who jumped right into a college assistant coaching job?
Better yet, has anyone ever heard of a guy who never played the position of RB replacing a former NFL RB and All-American at the position with a proven track record?
I’ll hang up and listen go blue
January 2nd, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
Again lean on the history all you like because that's all there is. Its been 15 years since there's been a championship.
January 3rd, 2019 at 1:19 AM ^
Yep!
15 years since we won anything! Who should we fans be most upset with? The guys who ran the ship aground, or the guy trying to extricate it from the mire because he’s not doing it fast enough?
We waited nearly half a century between NC’s, and we’ve waited over a decade and a half for another B10 Championship. What’s the problem waiting a few more years?
The immediacy makes no sense.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
JH is likely going to have his 3rd top 12 finish in four years. he is one ream job down at osu in 2016 and one fluke blocked punt against msu away from sainthood here. but you know, arbitrary cutoffs are just that, arbitrary.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:21 AM ^
Yep one fluke punt where he wasn’t in max protect and insisted on gunners. Start looking at the whole picture with Jim
Worst argument of all time is that “Fluke block punt”
January 2nd, 2019 at 10:33 PM ^
At one point Jay Harbaugh had recruited and gotten commitments from the our #1 RB target and the #1 APB in the country. That was until Gray decided he didn't want to compete with Charbonnet and chose to get paid at Tennessee. He's a damn good recruiter
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:30 PM ^
Besides the point that he was on coaching staffs at Oregon State and the Baltimore Ravens for 6 years prior to coming to coach at Michigan, many coaches have similar starts. Bill Belichick played a little bit at center for a very small school, but he started his coaching with special teams and then receivers (much like Jay did with special teams and then running backs). Belichick had zero playing and/or coaching experience with wide receivers prior to taking that position.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:33 PM ^
Belichick's dad was the coach at Navy right?
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:35 PM ^
Bilichick never coached at Navy.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:54 PM ^
His father was a backfield coach at Navy.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:17 PM ^
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:38 PM ^
Oh dear...did I break wind again?
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:44 PM ^
Oregon St, yeah, that's good. The HC at Oregon St was Jim Harbaughs HC when he was QB at the San Diego Chargers.
Baltimore Ravens, also good. The HC at the Ravens is Jim Harbaugh's brother.
Not trying to draw a conclusion yea or nay. Just pointing it out.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:30 PM ^
I would expect better from you. Then I remembered that I shouldn't.
He "replaced" Tyrone Wheatley because Ty left to go be an NFL coach. Jay didnt kick him out the door.
Jay has done just fine with the RB's the past two years and has been a solid recruiter.
You don't have to play the game or play a certain position to be able to coach it. And maybe a guy surrounded by the coaching talent in his family might have picked up a few things?
If you're going to play the "hurr hurr he didnt play" card, then can we play the "you didnt play either so you can't think you know more than the coaches card?"
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:08 PM ^
And the church said "Amen!"
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:31 PM ^
Welp! I'd have to do some digging, but hasn't Jay been a great recruiter for us? Didn't the backs improve significantly when he took over? (probably due to improved line play.) Attacking coaches without any evidence/facts is sort of shitty.
I'm pissed we ended the season so badly, but we went 10-3 and Harbaugh is 38-14 over four years. Hoke was 31-20. RR didn't make it four years.
23-22-1 Nick Saban's first four years at MSU.
33-19 Mark Dantonio's first four years at MSU.
29-19 Dabo Swinney's first four years at Clemson.
38-11 Nick Saban's first four years at Alabama
39-13 Nick Saban's first four years at LSU. He went 9-3 his fifth year.
Harbaugh is a gift from God. Y'all a bunch of pissy little bitches.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:49 PM ^
Throwing out Saban's records at LSU and Bama without additional context is misleading. He won a national title in his fourth year at LSU and his second year at Bama. He also won two conference titles at LSU and one at Bama in that time frame.
(I agree with your points about Jay and obviously the comparison of records to Hoke and RR.)
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:54 PM ^
You failed to mention that Saban won a National Championship at both LSU and Alabama in his first four years. Success at MSU should never be a measuring stick for Michigan’s program and Swinney didn’t have half the resources at Clemson that Michigan has. They just recently started putting huge dollars into the program. Harbaugh has been good, but a gift from God? That’s going a little bit too far.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:30 PM ^
Dude. We spent 7 years in the desert. Even Brady Hoke's 11-2 season was shaky. GIFT FROM GOD! Get behind me Saban. er Satan.
...and but for a few odd bounces, spots, we could have won a national championship in 16.
January 2nd, 2019 at 10:12 PM ^
"Didn't the backs improve significantly when he took over?"
2016, the year before he took over, running game numbers:
#33 in the Nation, 212.9 yds per game, 2593 yds total
2017, the year he took over, running game numbers:
#49 in the Nation, 177.7 yds per game, 2236 yds total
January 3rd, 2019 at 7:28 AM ^
So not an improvement, but not bad considering he lost De'Veon Smith, Drake Johnson and Ty Isaac and our lack of an oline.
2018 #26 in the Nation with 214.3 yds per game, 2572 total.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:08 AM ^
WTF dude?
Damn your logic and lack of cherry picked stats showing a larger sample size and discussing contributing factors. This guy is trying to have a shit hemorrhage and youre ruining it by bringing a better argument.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:03 PM ^
You seem to have missed why I posted those stats. He said "Didn't the backs improve significantly when he took over?"
So I posted number which show the year he took over. I did not draw a conclusion. You drew a conclusion of your own making of what I posted. Quite a rude viewpoint to take. This would be a reflection of who you are, not of me.
Can you conclude that the RBs improved "significantly when he took over" from those numbers? He concluded they did. Do you conclude they did improve? Also, do you give all credit for improved rushing game numbers in 2018 to Jay Harbaugh? Does any credit for it go to Ed Warinner?
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
And BTW, I made it a point, throughout comments in this post about Jay Harbaugh, to not offer an opinion, one way or the other, about Jay Harbaugh. You read into what I said what YOU wanted to read into it.
I did, though, offer my opinion of Ed Warinner in comments on this post. I absolutely think he was the most significant factor in the improvement in both run blocking and pass blocking by the O line this year. We did not see any QBs knocked out of games this year. No QBs brought to the locker room during games for X-rays, or rolled away in a wheelchair. I give credit to Ed Warinner for that. What a great hire by Jim Harbaugh!
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:55 PM ^
Thank you for bring that up. Do you give any credit for that to Ed Warinner?
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:32 PM ^
Why are special teams coaches never former kickers, punters, or long-snappers? Why is Lincoln Riley coaching Oklahoma when he had one year as a walk-on QB? Most people think the OC holds the key to a team’s success on offense, but clearly it is the RB coach. And people in here know exactly three—Jay, Mike Hart, and Wheatley. Michigan may have 100 problems, but RB coach ain’t one of them.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:33 PM ^
I can’t wait for B1G basketball season to start. We will have a few days a week to actually talk about a team and not flood the board with ridiculous football posts.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:33 PM ^
Its entirely possible to both get a job you might otherwise not have because of who you know and also be good at said job.
There's nothing about RB development and recruiting over the last few years that suggest Jay Harbaugh has been a detriment to the team.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:34 PM ^
The process by which he was hired was probably less than an ideal of meritocracy. But the results have been fine.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:35 PM ^
I wish I could make a post.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:46 PM ^
You just did.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:38 PM ^
He was a coach for the ravens and has a Super Bowl ring...there are a lot of coaches that didn’t play, a blessed body doesn’t always make a blessed mind...people need to get off the jaybaugh bashing stuff he’s far from the biggest issue. His position groups have fared well during his tenure.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:39 PM ^
Why not? To quote Magnus:
It's odd to me that Jay Harbaugh is still considered a choice based only on nepotism. Every position he has coached has been pretty dang good. When he was the TE coach, Jake Butt got a Mackey Award. When he was put in charge of special teams, the special teams improved over the performance when "guru" John Baxter was around. When Jay switched to running backs coach, we suddenly found way more production than when De'Veon Smith was leading the charge at that spot.
The reality is that each position he's coached has been good to great, he's a solid recruiter by all accounts, and there's no reason he should at all be critcized for the work he's done at UM.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
He's a third generation college football coach. Yes, Zach Smith's grandfather was Earl Bruce, but in most cases, being in the family business, in a competitive arena, you have a huge boost in background knowledge.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^
Maybe he should be in charge of linebackers next?
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:41 PM ^
Can we please stop with the hot fucking garbage takes??
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:43 PM ^
WD, I tend to stick up for you, but I can’t go with you here. I get that nepotism is a hot button issue, but our RB performance hasn’t really been an issue and he’s a willing and able recruiter. Bottom line, Jay Harbaugh isn’t in the top 10 list of our biggest issues IMHO.
Edit: It’s also a chicken shit move to not comment in the replies so you can avoid the neg-bomb. I expected better from you.
January 2nd, 2019 at 11:56 PM ^
You shouldn't.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:45 PM ^
WD, no offense but if you start a thread and it’s not about your new UM footy pajamas or some obscure statistic, chances are it’s going to be a clunker.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:37 PM ^
Seriously, where can I score some of those adult sized, UM branded footy pajamas?
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:54 AM ^
Lol! Not Footy! That made my morning!
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
There is a shocking amount of backlash against the RB coaching and I honestly am not sure why. If anything, our RB's have been limited by the coaching at levels above their position coach.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:49 PM ^
You have a lot of takes for someone who never played...
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:49 PM ^
WD I always questioned why people hated you. Now I have my answer. You’re a fucking idiot.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:08 PM ^
A measure of humility would serve him well. He will find out that in the real world -- not in college, and not on a message board -- if one talks tough, one had better deliver. I'm 35 years deep into a professional career at a multinational, and I've witnessed only a few who justify arrogance. Related: some of the most powerful and respected are those that operate with quiet grace.
January 2nd, 2019 at 9:34 PM ^
The wealthiest person I have ever met once told me, "A rich person doesn't have to tell you how rich he is." Always stuck with me and I find it to be more true than not.
January 2nd, 2019 at 11:58 PM ^
Good beer doesn't run commercials all day long.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:50 PM ^
I rarely root for neg bombing but this stuff deserves it. Please stop acting like MSU fans. It’s sad.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:50 PM ^
Of all the people on the coaching staff to complain about I’d say Jay Harbaugh is pretty damn low on the totem pole. He’s been good in every role he’s been ask to perform and he’s been asked to do many.
January 2nd, 2019 at 8:51 PM ^
Our defense gave up 700 freaking yards to and 69 points to OSU. We followed that by giving up approximately 1 million points in the peach bowl (I assume, since I stopped watching in the third quarter). During that two games stretch, we got zero pressure on opposing quarterbacks, routinely gave up third and long and our offense of line failed to keep Patterson remotely clean.
Yup, definitely the running back coach’s fault. Seriously, of all of our position groups, other than cornerback, the running backs may have actually performed the best this season. I am probably more frustrated and disappointed in the direction of our program that I have ever been since we hired Harbaugh, and there is certainly a lot Of valid criticism to direct this way, but this is not one of them.