A Call to Researchers and Historians

Submitted by Ziff72 on

Many of you on the board seem to love doing research, because we get a lot of great analysis.  As I wallow in my RR job in limbo depression I was wondering if the following has ever happened.

1. Has a coach ever been fired(for performance not being drunk or other off field debacles) after improving his win total by 2 or more the previous 2 years?

2. Has a coach ever been fired after sitting with his Heisman candidate in New York?

3. Has a coach ever been fired after having a top 10 offense in the country? 

Nonnair

November 29th, 2010 at 11:12 PM ^

Harry Kipke, who won national championships in 1932 and 1933, improved M's record from 1-7 in 1936 to 4-4 in 1937 -- a three-win improvement.

Was axed, as that was his fourth consecutive non-winning season following the national championships.

Fritz Crisler was hired to replace him, and with a lot of talented players that Kipke left behind, Crisler immediately turned Michigan into a winner -- one player of which was eventual Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon.

Michigan's three Heisman winners won their trophies with head coaches who did not recruit them. Kipke recruited Harmon, Bo recruited Desmond, and Mo recruited Woodson.

treetown

November 29th, 2010 at 7:35 PM ^

Both the Frank Solich and John Cooper findings show that it isn't just results - it is results with expectations. Solich was expected to be more dominant in the conference. Cooper was expected to beat Michigan more often. Give him some credit; he wasn't shut out in the series and did have competitive teams in most of the UM/OSU games. Before him, Bruce Earle had the same issue but in a broader way - he had too many 8-3 seasons and not enough 9-2 and 10-1.

What is interesting is that both OSU and Nebraska have the same type of devoted (some would say rabid) fan base as the UM, so anyone taking/holding this job can't pretend that these types of expectations are a surprise.

For the Heisman trophy question, usually the award has gone to players on winning teams, so looking back through the list back to WWII, no one stands out. There have been teams where after the Heisman trophy winner left, the coach retired or took on other roles. Pete Dawkins won for Army in 1958, his coach Earl Blaik retired and entered business in 1959. Alan Ameche won for Wisconsin in 1954, his coach Ivy WIlliamson experienced a losing season in 1955, and left coaching to be athletic director. Usually poor results got another year. Do you remember George Rogers? He won in 1980 for South Carolina, including a win up here in the Big House. His coach Jim Carlen had a bad bowl game losing in the Gator Bowl 9-37 to Pittsburgh and the following year was 6-6 and was gone.

jmblue

November 29th, 2010 at 11:51 PM ^

Many would argue that we're dealing with our own Callahan right now.  The parallels are interesting:

Bo : Osborne - the patriarch, beloved by all

Carr : Solich - the protégé, consistent but somewhat taken for granted

RR : Callahan - the outsider who tried to shake things up and struggled to bring back winning ways

Is Harbaugh our Pellini?

GOBLUE4EVR

November 30th, 2010 at 6:15 AM ^

that for a while now and just kept my mouth shut because i didn't want to say it out loud... its startling to look more and more like it with all of the former players bitching and complaining, but DB isn't an idiot like the nebraska AD that ignored everything that was going on the field until the school president finally fired him to bring osborne back...

Believe in RR

November 29th, 2010 at 11:59 PM ^

Can anyone find any current info on placekickers?  Specifically, are there any good kickers presently in D1 that are Freshman or RS Freshman?  Reason I'm asking is because many people want to write off Brandon Gibbons, but wonder if it is realistic for a kid to come right out of HS to kick well.  Seem to remember someone saying (could have been Cornblue) it takes a HS kicker at least two years to get used to kicking off the ground. 

Is there any place to find the present top placekickers and what year they are?