Bacon's Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. You Won't Like Plan B.
John U. Bacon on the Huge Show this afternoon, offering his updated assessment:
- Plan A is (in no order) Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh or Les Miles.
- Plan B is Greg Schiano. Dan Mullen was part of Plan B, but he's fading.
- Plan C is another Brady Hoke.
November 24th, 2014 at 11:56 PM ^
Pretty certain I've been going to games longer and more in number than you may ever get to.
November 25th, 2014 at 8:25 AM ^
What's really annoying is reading posts by two guys with no inside information go back and forth on a Michigan sports blog about whether or not some other guy has inside information. FWIW, I think Bacon does a good job of reporting facts, I appreciate that the man can say "I haven't heard anything, but here is what I think will happen" versus, "My unnamed source in the athletic department says..." who doesn't actually exist. I've never felt that Bacon talks just for the sake of hearing his own voice, which is more than some other personalities can say.
November 25th, 2014 at 6:00 PM ^
I seen every single game RR coach at michigan, It wasnt a disaster on everyone, RR had rebuild to benefit his Offense, Defense coach and his Assistant didnt mash well of the scheme there were running those year. And he no support from AD or Fan base how the hell do u think he was going to succeed if everything didnt mash out they way it was.
Brady Hoke Failed horrible.
November 25th, 2014 at 6:00 PM ^
I seen every single game RR coach at michigan, It wasnt a disaster on everyone, RR had rebuild to benefit his Offense, Defense coach and his Assistant didnt mash well of the scheme there were running those year. And he no support from AD or Fan base how the hell do u think he was going to succeed if everything didnt mash out they way it was.
Brady Hoke Failed horrible.
November 25th, 2014 at 8:14 PM ^
Do you have a mental disability?
November 24th, 2014 at 8:45 PM ^
If your username is ijohnb
November 24th, 2014 at 9:26 PM ^
/s
November 24th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
I would be curious as to what really happened then.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 8:00 PM ^
Mullen is fading because his grandpa hit Marty with the car instead of his father. So his father never got the chance to ask his mom to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and they never kissed, feel in love and never had Dan. The only way to keep Mullen from fading is.......to hit his father with a car. I'm..I'm right. Right?
November 24th, 2014 at 8:39 PM ^
McFly!
November 24th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
Bacon is continually accused of being an apologist for that infamous non-Michigan Man Rich Rodriguez, but now you're asserting that he's advancing the candidacies of famous Michigan Men directly related to Bo Schembechler. So is Bacon anti-Michigan Man or pro-Michigan Man? Anti-Bo or Pro-Bo?
November 25th, 2014 at 9:31 AM ^
November 25th, 2014 at 6:07 PM ^
Look at Arizona and explain youself this. What is Arizona doing under RR that Michigan never did under RR.
November 25th, 2014 at 2:42 AM ^
a pompous asshole. i remember beating the shit out of his huron high school hockey teams, and his reaction afterwards was always so smug (our locker rooms were right next to each other, i played for pioneer).
November 24th, 2014 at 6:09 PM ^
I never thought I'd see the day that I'd get sick of bacon...
November 24th, 2014 at 6:10 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 6:11 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 6:32 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 24th, 2014 at 7:17 PM ^
But they don't "hate" Brady Hoke.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:24 PM ^
He's an ass and a mediocre coach. Brady Hoke is just a mediocre coach.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:15 PM ^
Schiano was 68-67 at Rutgers. He was 11-21 at Tampa Bay.
His mediocrity is self-evident. When you add a tendency to piss off more people than Jim Harbaugh does, he is not a desirable coach.
As for Bacon, maybe he does have sources and is just the messenger. If he is right, it will be extremely important to get Harbaugh. I don't think he has an "agenda" to stay within the Bo Tree, as much as he is just reporting what he sees and hears.
I really hope he is wrong about a lot of this stuff.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:26 PM ^
Schiano is not mediocre. He's a good coach. Part of the reason for his average record at Rutgers is because Rutgers sucked balls before he got there and he turned them from one of the worst D1 football programs to legitimate. His first two seasons he was 3-20, so if you take that period out, he had a good record at Rutgers. Sure, he sucked in the NFL, but so did Spurrier and Saban and Petrino. That's not a huge deal.
Is he good enough for us to hire him? I don't know, but it depends on our other options. If you take out the Harbaughs and Miles, he's about as good as any other option. Not bad, but not worth getting excited about.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:29 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 6:35 PM ^
No but Michigan fans aren't going to get excited unless it's a Harbaugh...and there are of course plenty of above average coaches out there, very few sexy enough for "us".
November 24th, 2014 at 6:36 PM ^
I mean, it depends on what average is to you. Take all of the Power 5 coaches and rank them, Schiano is in the top quartile. That's not "average" to me. And considering most of the guys in that quartile aren't coming to Michigan (except maybe Miles), I think Schiano is one of the better guys we have a shot at.
I agree that I won't be excited about a Schiano hire, but at this point I don't think I would be excited with anyone other than Harbaugh. It's easy to rip on Schiano, but if the Plan A guys don't come, who is better? You can always advocate a hot coordinator, and that can be more exciting, but it's also more risky than a guy with 13 years of HC experience. Muschamp was exciting, but wasn't any good. Usually coordinators cut their teeth somewhere mid-level before being a big time HC (McElwain went to CSU, Mullen went to Miss St, Strong went to Louisville).
November 24th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 7:08 PM ^
No, and I wouldn't want them to.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:06 PM ^
His record since he was approached in 2007 is thoroughly mediocre. Beginning with his flip-flopping on our job offer, his resume has added more minuses then plusses.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:09 PM ^
Fine. Show me a coach we have a legitimate shot at that has a better one. There are some, but not many.
November 24th, 2014 at 10:02 PM ^
knows who we have a legitimate shot at. I am sure that the people that think that no one who has a decent job now will come are wrong. I could easily name at least 30 coaches I would rather see. I'm not inclined to settle for someone who's 100% certain of taking the job.
Schiano shares an unfortunate characteristic with Hoke. His record is trending down, Over the six years after going 11-2 He had a losing record in the Big East. I'd like a reassuring answer to why that's not a concern before I'd even consider him.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:31 PM ^
I'd rather have a highly successful coach from a lower division or lower-tier BCS school than Schiano. At one time, all these guys were successful lower-level guys:
- Jim Tressel
- Urban Meyer
- Nick Saban
- Les Miles
- Bo Schembechler
November 24th, 2014 at 7:52 PM ^
Fine, but most of those guys either had tons of success at that lower level (Meyer and Tressel) or they worked their way up to big time - they didn't go from lower-level right to big time. Nick Saban coached at MSU before LSU - not exactly FCS, and Miles was at OK St. Tressel won multiple national championships in I-AA and Meyer went to a BCS bowl at Utah. What coach like that is around right now? I don't see one.
November 24th, 2014 at 8:52 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 6:33 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 6:39 PM ^
Yeah, you could. But Schiano did it longer and in a better league. Ball St and then two years at SDSU is not the same as Rutgers for 11 years.
Look, I know it wouldn't be awesome. But it wouldn't be awful either.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^
We grabbed the best one at the time. That didn't work out so good.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
when Dantonio was hired at MSU. Sometimes it's just doesn't work out
November 24th, 2014 at 6:44 PM ^
Schiano coached in the Big East, which was pretty crap at the time.
The only season where his results were good (i.e., a top-25 AP finish; they were 11-2 and finished #12) was in 2006, when he had:
- 2 NFL-caliber running backs (Ray Rice and Brian Leonard)
- 2 NFL-caliber DBs (the McCourty brothers)
- 1 NFL-caliber OL (Zuttah)
- 1 NFL-caliber WR (Britt, who was a FR but had 440 yards receiving)
That team was stacked. Sure, you could say that he will recruit well at Michigan, but would that 2006 Rutgers team have come close to winning the Big Ten? They beat one ranked team (Louisville, at home), lost to Rich Rod's West Virginia (away). Those were the only ranked teams they played. They beat UNC, Illinois, Ohio, Howard, USF, Navy, Pitt, UConn, Syracuse, and beat Kansas State (coached by Ron Prince) in the Texas Bowl. YUCK.
I see no evidence that makes me believe that Schiano would succeed here at Michigan, based purely on the on-the-field product.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
I agree that his 2006 squad would not have won the Big Ten. However, he was either able to recruit all that talent to Rutgers while they were still a punchline, identify all that talent or coach it all up. He didn't just luck into a team with a solid amount of NFL talent and win 11 games. Rutgers, especially then, was one of the toughest schools to recruit to. And he turned them into a legitimate program.
I've never said he was amazing. But I think a lot of people forget what Rutgers was like before he got there - they were God awful. The worst BCS conference program, for like 50 years.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
I just worry that the upside isn't very high. I mean, one top-25 finish in 11 years at Rutgers is impressive for Rutgers, but it's not that impressive. We hired a better coach from the Big East and that didn't work out so well. But who knows.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:58 PM ^
When are you gonna get that recruiting ability and coaching ability do not always go hand in hand?
November 24th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^
What you just described here is exactly the argument I made for Hoke when he was first hired. Minus the NFL part, obviously.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^
And just because it didn't work out, that doesn't make it a bad argument. Hoke had, what I felt at the time as well, a very good resume and deserved a shot to do it at a big school. It didn't work out, but that doesn't mean that another coach with a similar resume should be thrown out for that reason.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:15 PM ^
While I agree with your premise, I don't think it would be reasonable to ask the fanbase to be psyched about Schiano, until he proves anything. Looking at his resume, I don't think he's what UM should be aiming for for the next coach. If we want to be a top football school, we damn well better do what is necessary to get a top coach, which Schiano is decidedly not.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:58 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
I'm not pining for Schiano or anything, but I don't get the argument that a guy who has never been a HC (like Herman) is a better option than Greg Schiano. Sure, it's possible those guys turn out to be great. But it's more likely they can't hack it because they either aren't HC material or they just don't have it yet because they've never done it.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:53 PM ^
Vanderbilt sucked balls before Franklin got there too and he had them at 9-4 in two years and 9-4 again in his 3rd year. Schiano is not a miracle worker like some people like to think for making Rutgers okay.
Same with San Diego State and Hoke.
November 24th, 2014 at 7:55 PM ^
Right, and then Franklin was a hot commodity. And no one is saying Schiano is a miracle worker, just that he's one of the better options.