Brandon Not Pushing Up Timetable on Rodriguez per ESPN

Maybe he wants to evaluate the whole season. Or maybe he doesn't want a knee jerk decision and wants to contemplate the situation. I think the further away from this season he gets, and the closer to next season, increases the likelihood he keeps Coach Rod. Just my epinion.

I think DB keeps RR for one more year.  I think (Greg) Robinson will most likely be fired though.  I think that the offensive improvement leads RR to be retained, while the defensive decline leads to Robinson's firing.  I think that one of the keys to retaining RR is the amount of returning starters on both sides of the ball.  The offense returns starters at 9 offensive positions if you count Koger, losing only Schilling and Dorrestein.  Their replacements would be Barnum and Huyge, with Lewan at LT.  So, basically one new player.

On the defensive side of the ball, only 4 key players are lost to graduation: Banks, Ezeh, Mouton and Rogers.  Woolfolk replaces Rogers and that is an upgrade.  Ezeh had already lost his job to Demens and Banks usually came off the bench.  So, that basically leaves Mouton to be replaced by any number of players from: Jones, Bell, Furman, Fitzgerald, or another younger player (not likely.)

While it is frustrating for us, as fans, I guess that there are positives and negatives of waiting until after Jan 1 to decide.  To me, waiting until Jan 1 only has positives if RR is going to be fired, and only has negatives if RR is going to be kept:

Positives:

1.  If RR is fired, the buy-out drops by $1.5 million.  This $$ could be used to secure a better coach and DC.

2.  If RR is fired, we are not in a Les Miles types position, where possible targets are forced to hold press conferences disclaiming any interest in the job and reaffirming their loyalty to their current schools that are about to play in a BCS Bowl.

Negatives:

1.  Allows uncertaintly to hang over the program for a month.  If RR is going to be kept, why do this?

2.  Negative recruiting - you can bet that the Vest, Dantonio, Kelly and every other coach that is going up against us in a recruiting battle is going to harp on the uncertainty surrounding our program.  "Son, do you really want to go to Michigan?  You don't even know who you will end up playing for.  Hell, they might switch schemes again in 2 more years."  Pretty powerful stuff for a kid making the most important decision of his life.  Hard to recruit with this hanging out there.

I know that my list is incomplete.  Please point out some positives / negatives that contradict my view.

deserves to coach the team in the bowl game, since he led them to it.  Maybe he realizes a bowl win would help recruiting (it would), and we have the best chance to win with RR at the helm (we do), since he built our offense. 

Either way I agree with the decision to wait.  Either way #2, I look forward to setting a new course and getting on with it, whether it be with a new DC or HC.  Honestly though, the thing pissing me off the most right now is special teams, and no matter what, the head coach is responsible for the program and all its parts.  Corporate guys usually think along these lines too, BTW. 

If I had to guess, they're already scheduling to remodel the offices at Schembechler Hall (since they will all be empty the 2nd week of January).  Redecorating is so much easier when there's less stuff to move. 

I've been a pretty staunch defender of the smooth Pimp Hand for his entire tenure here, but...  I just don't understand this.  Especially if Brandon is going to continually tease the speculation with tweets about Desmond and the lack of press conferences.  It's bizarre. 

This whole thing just reeks of a "call me after the bowl game, wink wink" discussion with a certain west-coast coach, because anything else would have had the same "we support our head football coach" line we got from both Bill Martin and Mary Sue Coleman in the past.  He's leaving RR out in the wilderness right now, and it just doesn't smell right for a coach that will still be employed come January 1.

Does this mean that there is a press conference today. ;<)

/S

It's the media's job to get an answer out of DB! He's playing this coy, cagey CEO game. You really think DB isn't dealing with this until January -- that right now he's concentrating on volleyball and women's tennis? You really think he doesn't already have a solid opinion about RR? He'd be the only one in Michigan who doesn't. And he's an ex-football player in charge of the football team. Of course he's dealing with this right now. It will be the biggest decision of his career as AD. 

Brandon is being non-committal because he's exploring his options and isn't sure what those are. Is Harbaugh available? If not, would it be better to stick with RR? If it's Harbaugh, maybe Harbaugh insists on first coaching his bowl game. Plus, the payout to RR would decrease in January. Plus, DB won't commit to another coach until he knows he's got that coach. Remember how Bill Martin bungled the last search? I'm sure DB doesn't want to put M in a position of looking jilted and desperate. Smart executives plan three steps ahead. If he really doesn't begin mulling options until January, then decides make a change, then goes shopping, he's shopping from a weaker position. And he's got no coach right before recruiting signing-day? He'd be totally hosing this team. He damn sure isn't sitting on his hands.

Again: If DB felt good about RR, he'd say so. Why wouldn't he? Delay only further destabilizes things. It holds RR over a barrel. It freaks out players and recruits. It irritates and divides the fan-base. And the fan-base, in essence, pays his salary. 

The media is, of course, deeply flawed in many ways. But it has a great bullshit-detector. It knows DB is giving us CEO-speak. It know he's a spinner. It's the media's duty to press the powers-that-be for candor and action. DB can always say "no comment." But he can't get away with spin.

... DB realizes that you don't fire a coach unless you have a better one lined up.

Plus, a school like Michigan having to rip a coach out of a school pre- conference championship looks lame.  

Bill Martin arranged things so we were jilted by Greg Schiano, after the Village Idiot Herbstreit gave Les Miles a quickie raise by LSU.

Unless there is some erosion of trust between RichRod and DB/MSC, this is a hard decision.  As disappointing as the last three seasons are, how many coaches are (a) demonstrably better than RichRod and (b) would really move?

The only clear one I see is Jim Harbaugh, and he will likely have the pick of a few NFL openings (beyond the crappy 49ers gig).  He is certainly gone if Andrew Luck enters the draft.  If there is a draft...

... and please, none of this:

You've got to assume he's basically made up his mind at this point.  RR has coached here for 36 games.  Is Brandon really going to use game 37 to tip the scales?  I doubt it - especially given that most of the prospective bowl matchups are unfavorable.  So why do this?  If he's planning on keeping RR, this really isn't fair to him or the program - by leaving his coach stewing in the wind another month, that just means more uncertainty.  What would RR tell recruits?  And if the plan is to retain RR but have him clean house defensively, it'd be better to let him contact prospective assistants sooner, rather than later.

Conversely, if he's leaning toward letting RR go, it's better to do it sooner.  It gives you more time to make the new hire, gives the coach more time to assemble a staff, and gives players and recruits more time to decide if the new coach is right for them or not.  Waiting until January just compresses the timetable.

The one rationale I can see in which this would make sense is if Harbaugh has informed Brandon that he wants to come here, but not until after he's coached Stanford in the bowl.  If the only way we can bring JH here is to wait a month, then okay, I guess you have to do it.