Coaching Search: It has begun

Submitted by MGoShtoink on



Well, let the speculation continue. The press conference told us a whole lot if nothing.

I imagine there will be hundreds if not thousands of rumors. If you like, you can can start by placing them here. Maybe this can help keep it consolidated.

1464

January 5th, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^

That is the dumbest thing I have heard.  Schools are full on signing day.  Good players are gone on signing day.  Signing day is the last feasible day to sign.  Did you wait until everyone had prom dates, and then ask someone? 

The only reasonable excuse is he was waiting on Harbaugh.  Once it was concrete that he would not come, he could not execute a change, because he vehemently denied he would change course.  Anything other than this is terrible, terrible clock management on the AD...

samgoblue

January 5th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^

Is the perfect way to describe this.  I thought we had all agreed that firing Rodriguez only made sense IF Harbaugh was in hand?  Where was that "process"?  You can't "evaluate" your sitting coach in a vacuum ... external factors, such as the quality and costs associated with available replacements, have to factor into your decision. 

Our choices should have been: Rodriguez or Harbaugh?  How did DB pick "c"?

mEEchigan04

January 5th, 2011 at 4:22 PM ^

Firing RR after the Gator Bowl is probably the right thing to do.  But... waiting to evaluate the program after the season was a bad move.  He might be the only boss to ever to go into an annual performace review blind. 

It's poor leadership to not have some form of a plan for every situation.  I didn't think there would have been anything wrong with saying "RR is our coach" in Nov.,  only to fire him in January.   I don't believe DB has an MBA.  Ross is right there for him!

mEEchigan04

January 5th, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^

You are probably right and this is just a viceral reaction.  And reading comments from this blog doesn't help. :-)  But watching the press conference, his body language didn't give me the sense he was confident in what was coming.

BluePants

January 5th, 2011 at 4:44 PM ^

It doesn't really seem like he does, now does it? I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and maybe he did have Harbaugh in place until the 49ers made him an offer he couldn't refuse, but it doesn't seem like he has a plan now. If he had a real plan, he would have given some sort of timeline or said something is in the works. He said he was starting the search. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

08mms

January 6th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^

No, because he is probably in talks with RR's lawyers to settle the buyout and related severance claims.  Being cute to help out an anxious fan-base isn't worth screwing up settlements around a multi-million dollar contract.  I have no idea if he has a plan, but I'm guessing we'll be able to find out post-mortem.

BluePants

January 5th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^

I didn't say he is an idiot, but I'm really sick of this blind reverence for former CEOs.  Being a former CEO does not make you a talented collegiate athletic director.  I'm reserving full judgment until we have a new coach.  But it's not "acting like a helpless moron" to note that our top option has seemingly spurned us and starting a coaching search on Jan 5th is far from ideal. 

I'm tired of this blind allegiance to everything Michigan does.  I have been loyal to RRod and will forever be loyal to Michigan, but sometimes you can note we're in a bad position without being a hater.  The fact is, we don't have a head coach a month before signing day, our main prospect is likely gone, and the other options are not so sunny (unless it's Miles).  He may not be the village idiot, but perhaps we can say he didn't handle this the best way?

Also, he doesn't have to officially hire someone contractually to say "BLANK is our new coach, we'll hammer it out in a week after the official waiting period is over." Jesus.

sum1valiant

January 5th, 2011 at 10:52 PM ^

CEO are appointed more by who they know and not what they know.

Where did you come up with this little nugget?  The guy has a proven track record in the business world, which is exactly what he's doing now...running a business.  You may not agree with his decision making and processes, but bet your life that 99.9% of anyone that gives a shit about this program is thanking their stars it's him and not armchair QBs like you guys making these decisions.

stillMichigan

January 5th, 2011 at 10:15 PM ^

If he has a plan , a good one anyway,  he sure looked uneasy about it at the press conference. Didn't exude his usual confidence.

I'm not saying he can't pull this out tho. We'll see. The hope I have is so far he's shown he does things big. Let's hope he pulls someone out of his hat. A plan tho?...I think he's scrambling.

mackbru

January 5th, 2011 at 1:39 PM ^

Are you kidding? Recruiting season is nearly over and we have no coach. Have you noticed how pretty much every other school makes changes before Christmas? Ask yourself why that is. You think the important thing is that DB stuck to his word about some arbitrary timeline? Dude, his job is to do what's best for M, not to rigidly honor some timeline that only he cared about. Everyone and his brother already knew what they felt about RR well prior to today. And what executive fires someone, in a major time-crunch, without a plan a, b, and c? Are you joking? Do you know how this impacts a) the team, b) recruiting, c) the school's image, and d) his bargaining-power? Plus, he's just annoying the shot out of fans.

artds

January 5th, 2011 at 1:45 PM ^

It's hard not to be short sighted and I understand that. There's nothing anyone can say that will change the minds of many of you. Winning on the fall is all that can do that, but unfortunately thats not something that can be hand delivered to all of you by tomorrow.

profitgoblue

January 5th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^

I don't appreciate your condescending tone.  Its not just about the result here.  There are many, many people watching the process very closely, including recruits.  And there are many, myself included, that are not interested in another 2-3 year rebuilding process.  I am very dismayed that we are going through another coaching search.  In my opinion, Brandon has had weeks to work on this.  No way the bowl loss was the deciding factor.  No way.  And if I'm right, Brandon should have had his sh-t together.

TheMadGrasser

January 6th, 2011 at 1:03 AM ^

would you think the bowl game had nothing to do with it? It probably had everything to do with it and from everything DB says, it was indeed the deciding factor.

The preparation for the bowl game (equivalent to spring practices) should have given them plenty of time to improve considerably if the problem was that the guys were "young". They came out and played awful and most of it was coaching including: guys not being in the right places, turnovers, etc etc. DB saw that this extra prep did nothing to improve the team, thus pulled the trigger. Not that difficult to understand.

J.Swift

January 5th, 2011 at 6:51 PM ^

I share your confidence in Dave Brandon because he brings a strong Michigan athletics background to the job of AD, along with a much stronger network into the coaching ranks than we saw in Ben Martin or his predecessor.  All the signs are that Brandon runs a very tight ship--no leaks, which is good.  Unfortunately, the press (and our Blog) has a love/hate relationship with rumors, unnamed sources, etc., and can't stand the uncertainty. 

I think Brandon will hire a solid HC who can recruit in the midwest and get the whole team pointed in the right direction.  And yes, I'm anxious to find out who it will be.  Glad MGlog is here to keep company!

Realus

January 5th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^

"You think the important thing is that DB stuck to his word"

I feel sorry for you.  You don't realize that keeping your word is not only valuable in ethical / moral sense, but it is the best LONG term strategy.  It is frequently painful in the short term, but once you have the reputation that you keep your word, power flows to you.

mackbru

January 5th, 2011 at 8:32 PM ^

But his word was totally arbitrary. No one asked him to set that date. If he passed up a great opportunity simply because he wanted to hew to a date nobody cared about, he wasn't doing his job. You're allowed to change plans if it's best for the school. You should. It's not about his timeline. It's about the school's timeline.

Maize and Blue…

January 5th, 2011 at 5:53 PM ^

that TCU spends more on its football program than most of the Big Ten schools.  Put that inot context against what those in TCU's conference spend and there is a huge discrepancy.  Not saying Patterson isn't a good coach, but TCU is 10th in the country in spending on their football program.  With them joining the Big East he will surely get a nice bump in pay.