SI Reporting McElwain "strong candidate" to Michigan citing "Sources"

Submitted by clarkiefromcanada on

Bruce Feldman reporting 

"Jim McElwain has emerged as a strong candidate to join Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan working with receivers, multiple sources told SI"

Unsure if this means anything more than clickbait. Feldman citing "multiple" sources. Whatever.

Link Below

https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/02/10/jim-mcelwain-michigan-ji…

Edit: Title "Whatever Wordsmiths"

Bo Schemheckler

February 11th, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^

I hadn't either but it says it's him and McElwain for the spot in this article. Morton has worked for Harbaugh in San Fran and at San Diego. He took USC's offense from #44 to #14 in S&P+ in 2 years as OC despite the 2nd year being the first of their sanctions. I think anyone would argue he exceeded expectations with the Jets this year as well.

LSAClassOf2000

February 11th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^

I think it is a little more than that now - we seem to be building a staff of analysts and position coaches on the offensive side of the ball that might necessitate the founding of "Michigan Offense, LLC" by the athletic department. What they could do is make the coordinators and Jim the board of "Michigan Football", then spin off the offense as a subsidiary and maintain controlling interest so it is semi-independent but still answerable to Harbaugh. 

991GT3

February 11th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^

His success as an offensive mind is not in ddispute. More importantly, because of his familiarity of the SEC on how they recruit, identify talent, develop talent and scheme teams it would be a huge advantage for MIchigan to have him on their staff. The reality is the SEC plays the best football and Michigan/JH can learn a lot from him.

In short, his addition will make Michigan a better football team. 

DrMantisToboggan

February 11th, 2018 at 12:00 AM ^

No, Nuss was fired at Bama. Well, pushed out. We "hired him away" before he could be canned. 

 

McElwain doesn't fit the "anybody can be great at Bama" quip because he built the Bama offense. In Saban's first season they were 54th in S&P Offense. Then Saban replaced Major Applewhite with McElwain and he had them up to 7th the next year. 3rd, 1st, and 4th after that. Won Saban's first two national titles with McElwain's offense. McElwain came in before they were a juggernaut, he helped Saban make them what they are today. He was the first OC they won with. 

 

Then at Colorado State he turned one of the nation's worst offenses into one of the best. He knows his shit.

Goggles Paisano

February 11th, 2018 at 6:24 AM ^

I think his biggest mistake at Florida was the handling of the Will Grier matter.  I have no idea how it went down in reality, but my impression was that Grier was pissed enough to leave and sit out a year.  Had Grier remained at Florida, McElwain may still be there today.  

I always thought he was in over his head at a school like Florida, but the man does know his football and would add value to the Michigan staff.  

babarblue99

February 11th, 2018 at 5:29 PM ^

While I agree with the broader sentiment that McElwain would be better than status quo or Enos, this would be a long distance from the offensive version of the Don Brown hire. Bama was putting up huge numbers against Georgia State and Kentucky, but he probably averaged 15-24 points against the meat of the SEC. Same can be said for his success at CSU...big points against Fresno but they didn’t break 20 too often against traditional top-25 teams (sure talent is a factor in that but I’m looking for signs of being exceptional).

I’m all for this pursuit - I don’t think the “Don Brown” hire exists and McElwain should be an improvement - but I’d wait to see performance in the B1G schedule before I start yelling from the mountains.

Managing my own expectations has probably been the biggest issue I’ve had with UM football since 2011, so I’m working on improving myself each day.

the Glove

February 10th, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^

Yes please! His resume at wide receivers and quarterbacks coach is solid. He was also the offensive coordinator at Alabama in the early years of their national championships.

chunkums

February 11th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^

McElwain was the OC at Bama before Bama was what they are today. He was there for Saban's 2nd-5th years. Offensive rankings:

Pre-McElwain:

#56 total OFEI not available

#67 total #67 OFEI

------------------------

McElwain

#41 total #14 OFEI

#15 total #6 OFEI

#22 total #6 OFEI

#30 total #7 OFEI

 

 

JFW

February 11th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^

Can he recruit?



Is this an example of a coach with a good resume coming to us in a bad situation?



How does the chemistry between pep, him, and Harbaugh work?



I suppose in the end the lack of clarity and the confusing organization, on top of a bad end to our recruiting and our offensive nightmare of last year, has me nervous going into a brutal schedule next year.



I know there won’t be, and maybe shouldn’t be, but I would feel great if Harbaugh came out and said these are the responsibilities of each coach.



I would like to see some of his fire return.



I’d also like to know where mama bush went.

Dennis

February 10th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^

Enough of the shark talk. Harbaugh is diagnosing a known issue with our offense, and McElwain is in a great position to provide informed outside perspective into what those problems are, and how they might be solved. Harbaugh would be higher than giraffe pussy if he didn't hire McElwain as a coordinator.