Who is the most vilified assistant football coach in recent memory
With all of the criticism directed at Pep and Drevno the last two years it got me wondering if they are the most vilified assistant coaches in recent memory or if it just seems that way because of recency bias. Certainly guys like Al Borges, Darrell Funk and GERG received their fair share of criticism but not at this level.
I've been a fan since the late '70's and for me the most frustrating assistants were during the Carr years with the Mike Debord/Terry Malone/Stan Parrish offenses. I always felt they had a ton of talent that never reached their full potential. Those teams were stacked with the likes of Brady/Henson, A-Train, David Terrell and Marquise Walker but I thought the scheme and play calling was way too conservative. Going back even further, I remember people bitching about Cam Cameron quite a bit as well.
I'm sure I missed some, but these are the coaches that come first to mind. My question is, who of these offensive masterminds would you prefer? Would you rather have Pep or Debord? Is Drevno < Borges?
January 10th, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
Hermann is the linebackers coach in Indianapolis right now.
Man did that Minnesota game suck. I remember the scoreboard manfulctioned and they had to keep time on the field only for the 4th quarter. Game looked like it was headed to OT and Minnesota broke that huge run down the sideline with line 20 seconds to go.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
I was at that game.
That day at the stadium was.... interesting.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
Definitely Jim Hermann and then Ron English. Apparently no one even told them QBs were allowed to run because we got destroyed year after year after year by teams with a QB that could run.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:51 PM ^
The Game in 2005. We're up two scores against O$U with 7:30 minutes left. The two drives Troy Smith and Co took to take the lead and ultimately win the game they registered one (!) third down.
I wanted to climb through the tv and ring Carr's neck when it was 4th and 4 on THEIR 35 yard line and they fake the field goal for a goddamn pooch punt.
GODDAMMIT!!!!!
still pisses me off to thing about it.
and maybe a worse assistant than Hermann is Darrel Funk. It took years to fix that damage
January 10th, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
On the other team's 35 and you pooch punt it up 2 points...now you've got me all upset again. Fuck that game.
January 10th, 2019 at 8:02 PM ^
After '97, the luster came off Hermann pretty quickly.
His last yr (or second to last?) as DC, we had 5 or 6 games with a lead and getting a stop on defense wins us the game. The other team drove down and scored to take the lead or tie every single time. He needed to go.
January 10th, 2019 at 11:39 PM ^
Lost to ND 17-10, blew lead to Wisconsin to lose 23-20, blew lead to Minnesota to lose 23-20, blew lead to OSU to lose 25-21, blew lead to lose to Nebraska 32-28 in to this date one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.
Also beat #11 Sparty 34-31 in OT and #8 Penn State on the last play 27-25.
A lot of the reason we look back on those years as not so bad is A. We used to beat rivals despite derping away some other game(s) and B. We always most of the time beat someone ranked very high that finished very high. That's what we're missing right now. And we were seldomly blown out.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
i hated borges with the fire of a thousand suns. gerg was more of a joke to me, just a terrible, incompetent clown but i didn’t hate him.
mattison is a traitor and i hate him the most right now but it doesn’t compare to borges single-handedly ruining denard
January 10th, 2019 at 1:52 PM ^
I should have read further down the thread before I chimed in. Agree 1000 percent.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:37 PM ^
Those first two Hoke seasons are so frustrating to think about because the conference title game was right there to be a part of if only he'd hired a spread guy to run the offense.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
How about the Carr special teams coach - Jim Boccher - that after a few punt blocks and other issues left or got fired in the middle of the 2003 season I think. He was trying spread punts against Oregon and we had 1 or 2 blocked. I do not think he ever coached again.
Courtesy of Motley College Football
“Michigan put the "special" in special teams on September 20, 2003, against Oregon at Autzen Stadium. The carnage: one blocked punt surrendered, one punt return touchdown allowed, one botched fake punt, and two missed field goals. Epic failure. It was, quite frankly, a miracle that the Wolverines only lost by four points. The following week Indiana blocked a kick in a loss to Michigan at the Big House. And (why go for two when you can go for three?) in a week six contest at Iowa City, the proverbial wheels came off Michigan's special teams short bus.
Another blocked punt and long Iowa punt return sent fans (even those who normally despise Michigan) off the deep end. The Wolverines lost the game by a 30-27 count, and the Big Blue faithful were out for blood. The easy (and correct, I might add) target was special teams coach Jim Boccher. The following week against Minnesota he was nowhere to be found. The offical word was that his absence was due to "personal reasons", which is coachspeak for "he sucked so bad at his job that we've kicked his ass to the curb so he could go into the real estate business." He has not been seen on the sidelines of a college football field since that fateful day in October 2003.”
January 10th, 2019 at 1:55 PM ^
Wasn't he just a grad assistant? The blame might go to the head coach for not putting a higher priority on special teams.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^
No he was a full time coach. I think hired from Central Michigan.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
I traveled to that game and despite all the ST shenanigans, if I remember correctly we still had a chance to win the game on the final drive but couldn't convert. All the Ducks fans surrounding me were certain we were gonna win right up until the end. Nope!
January 10th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
Boccher has my vote.
I've heard from several folks in the know that the sheer public outrage over the special teams issues that season caused Boccher pretty significant mental distress. It's awful when you consider how it all happened without social media of any kind. Not the fanbase's finest moment, for sure.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
It's about to be Mattison.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
GERG and Borges could battle for top spot but my vote goes to Darrel Funk... ugh
January 10th, 2019 at 1:53 PM ^
I agree - so much wasted OL talent. We are still trying to overcome it. Ed Warinner to the rescue.
January 10th, 2019 at 4:14 PM ^
Totally forgot about him. My God he was terrible.
January 10th, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
Funk was such an ass O line coach that he almost makes Drevno seem competent in comparison. Almost.
The line never blocked anyone while this clown coached them, and they never got any better year after year.
Why Clappy chose to go down in flames with this guy rather than replacing him just astounds me. Did he have blackmail on Hoke?
January 10th, 2019 at 1:24 PM ^
For just Michigan?
GERG, Borges, Funk, Drevno, Fred Jackson toward the end, Pep, Debord, pretty much any OC I can remember except McGee.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
Borges was not a good OC, but I think he got much more hate than he deserved. As soon as he left, the offense got demonstrably worse (44th in S&P+ to 89th with a talented RS senior at QB). Maybe it's because the whole team was a tire fire, but I think Nussmeier deserved waaaaay more criticism and his post-Michigan history has further shown that he was terrible.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Nussmeier was not good, but I also don't think he had a fair shot to succeed at UM. If we're being honest about it, Brandon fired Borges and brought in Nuss, despite Hoke's objections to both. I don't recall Hoke ever saying one word to Nuss on the sidelines that entire season. I'm sure they did speak, but probably only to wish the other a warm seat in Hell.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:10 PM ^
I'm not sure giving him a chance would have done too much. After he left Michigan his offenses at Florida were ranked 73, 88, 88, and 108 in S&P+. Nuss seems to be one of those people who stumbled into the right place at the right time early in his career, then his inadequacy had time to shine at Michigan and Florida.
January 10th, 2019 at 4:50 PM ^
No one was going to fix that Trainwreck of an offense and OL...but Nuss also has proven to be a mediocre OC
January 10th, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
If you are a coordinator, the fan base is going to hate you.
Don Brown loses to Ohio State.
Pep Hamilton's offense doesn't open things up enough.
D.J. Durkin mailed it in during OSU week so he could interview for the Maryland job.
Tim Drevno wasn't imaginative and his OL sucked.
Al Borges had a bunch of random plays that didn't mesh well together.
Greg Mattison's defenses were good in the first half and then they always failed late in games.
These are the narratives that these coordinators' careers have followed. Nobody's ever happy with anyone unless you win a championship, and the coordinators who win championships end up as head coaches somewhere else the next year. Welcome to college football fandom.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
Well Jim Hermann rode Woodson's coattails for a championship his first year, then got worse every year after that to get run out of town.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Yep. I have a family member who is an OC and sitting in the stands at some games can be brutal. Even though they won their conference last year they could be up 3 TDS and still people in the stands will just spit fire over a 2 yard loss.
I suspect some of these people may lay off a bit if they knew the dude they’re berating has his wife and 2 little kids sitting a row behind him. Actually they probably wouldn’t lay off. Welcome to coaching.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:35 PM ^
Sitting in the press box where I can hear parents yelling during games...yikes. People are dumb.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
or you leave and become demigod Jedd Fisch
January 10th, 2019 at 3:15 PM ^
maybe bring him back as OC right this very now ......
January 10th, 2019 at 1:31 PM ^
Borges was a trainwreck.... but he called a near perfect game vs osu 2013
January 10th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
Emphasis on "near" -- that two-point conversion call . . . .
January 10th, 2019 at 2:21 PM ^
Right call, retarded play.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
Yes, to be clear, I meant the play call, not the decision to go for 2. Wasn't too sure about that either, to be honest, until we learned later that Gardner was playing on a broken foot.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
I liked them going for 2 at the time, mainly because I was sure we'd lose in OT.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
That call wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't take a timeout and then line right back up in the same formation...
January 10th, 2019 at 3:27 PM ^
I actually had a vision of Lewan lining up as a TE and breaking out into the endzone to catch the 2pt conversion.... Instead we had our QB roll out, like everyone expected him to, on a broken foot. That had to end well.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^
Who is the most vilified assistant football coach in recent memory
Ron English after the 2007 App State and Oregon losses.
He had absolutely no answer to the spread, and it was obvious to the Michigan fanbase.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:38 PM ^
In retrospect, I almost felt bad for Ron English. He couldn't find answers to something that people still can't find answers for, but that was at/near the beginning of the spread offense revolution. Michigan "only" gave up 39 points that day, which is nothing in today's spread-dominated college football world.
January 10th, 2019 at 7:53 PM ^
Eh, OSU actually shut down Vince Young and Texas in 2005 and held them to 25 points. Problem was they only scored 22.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
Jim Young and Bill McCartney.
Both of these guys were former defensive coordinators at Michigan under Bo who later coached at schools that beat Michigan at one point or another (Purdue and Colorado, respectively).
(As an aside, I never realized that Dave McClain [late Wisconsin football coach and assistant] and John Mackovic [former Texas and Illinois coach] were in the Schembechler coaching tree. McClain were both at Miami while Bo was head coach there in the sixties.)
January 10th, 2019 at 1:52 PM ^
Most reviled... I'll go with Borges for what he did to both Denard and Devin. Although he did that work with Hoke's blessing. Yet I can't get Darryl Funk out of my mind, either. And Gerg...
Dear God, we've had some winners...
Mattison has quickly climbed up my list, also. Not from a football coaching perspective, but from a sensibilities viewpoint.
January 10th, 2019 at 1:56 PM ^
Herrmann post 99 was pretty vilified, especially after the “suspects” season that saw the lead blown against Purdue and NW to put up 54, coupled with the problems stopping both Vince Young and Troy Smith late in his tenure.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:57 PM ^
I often think of that Rose Bowl against texas. Is our trajectory upward if we beat them? Do we compete for the NC the next year?
January 10th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
I don't know if this dates me, but I hated Mattison so much after he bolted for ND that I was not happy when he came back. I only warmed up to lukewarm during his second stint and was not surprised by his move this week.
Also, Stan Parrish was possibly the best OC we've had and no one realizes it. In 2000, it was Carr's decision to sit on the ball against Purdue, which allowed them to catch up and beat us. Win that game and we go to the Rose Bowl. We scored 51 points and still lost to Northwestern. We win those two games and we're likely playing for a MNC. The 2000 offense (under Henson) was probably better than any other offense in UM history.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:10 PM ^
The answer is clearly Mattison, because everything prior to January 1, 2019 has been wiped from the memory banks. It's like 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 .... 2008 never occurred.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:27 PM ^
Not an assistant coach, per se, but a case could be made for Mike Gittleson. RichRod pretty much put that guy on the curb surrounded by the equipment from his weight room (literally--they held a super sad sale at Oosterbaan to get rid of it all), then everyone and their uncle used Gittleson's career as a foil against the Cult of Barwis.
January 10th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
Debord
Neither is clearly better than the other
GERG is in another category. Michigan scored points this year (e.g., Penn State, Wisconsin, and 39 against Ohio State is pretty good).
January 10th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^
Mattison because the bastard defected to the enemy after years at Michigan. There are some things you really shouldn't do in coaching and this was one of them. Fuck him.