January 9th, 2011 at 12:17 AM ^
I'd prefer someone who can fix the defense.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:12 AM ^
Chris Balas said the groundwork for a deal is already done.
They're close to making it official.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
Chris Balas and Rivals have proven that they know fuck all.
January 9th, 2011 at 8:34 AM ^
+1 for the proper use of "fuck all" and not "fuckall". Yes I looked it up.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:15 AM ^
... and he's a Michigan Man that everyone loves!
Announced via Twitter:
"On the plane headed to ann arbor for the coaching job at Michigan!! Thanks for welcoming me back ann arbor fans!! I knew I was coming back! "
Our new coach is none other than .... Brandon Graham! (http://twitter.com/BGraham54)
This must be on the level because it was on the Internet and the Michigan coaching search is far too serious a matter for anyone to joke about.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:18 AM ^
Where is The Knowledge when we need him?
January 9th, 2011 at 12:21 AM ^
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!
January 9th, 2011 at 1:15 AM ^
Have I mentioned lately that I hate kids?
/s
January 9th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
Decide Brandon, before people get outrageous and further poison the waters
January 9th, 2011 at 12:27 AM ^
a while ago
January 9th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
even remotely the best choice available? Very little college experience; proponent of a completely outdated variant of the pro-style offense, which would almost certainly cause Denard to leave; and his Super Bowl was won by Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin's defense.
I'd put him near the bottom of my list.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:31 AM ^
qualify as great distraction FWIW. SNL.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:03 AM ^
Seen them live in Tampa. Great show.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^
Miles: 62-17 at LSU. Not too shabby. I for one, wouldn't mind seeing that record for the next six years
January 9th, 2011 at 12:40 AM ^
(disclaimer: this has nothing to do with this post)
I am playing NCAA football with Michigan vs Nebraska in the Big Ten championship 2012, and I just picked it off to seal the deal! I can't wait to watch us beat down Nebraska next year.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:31 AM ^
Michigan and Nebraska are in the same division, so Michigan could only play PSU, Ohio St, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin or Purdue for the Big 10 championship. :) And..the question is...is it moral to play NCAA football especially when we have no coach!! No coach, who will teach the players the right path in life??? :)
January 9th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
Until Michigan has its coach birds will continue to fall from the sky. Davey Brandon, the blood of those turtle doves in Italy is on your hands. Hoke, Gruden, Monkey Man Simmons from down at the arcade, I don't give a shit, just choose.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:32 AM ^
If we're picking random guys out of arcades to coach the team, I vote for Billy Mitchell.
January 9th, 2011 at 7:54 AM ^
I will take the other dude from the movie "King of Kong" any day of the week over Billy. The other guy broke the world record while his kid was yelling about having a poopy butt. That's focus.
January 9th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^
I'm pretty sure the other guy is Steve Wiebe.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
DB definitely is going with the wait until the last possible second and make us all happy approach. Or nobody has a clue who our coach will be...
January 9th, 2011 at 12:54 AM ^
Gotta believe he wants to make an announcement during the game on Monday night.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:23 AM ^
That would make total sense to keep the spotlight on Michigan.
Maybe all of this Brady Hoke stuff is a smokescreen.
I also wonder if Ross gave him a blank check with the express directive of getting someone splashy.
Is this the inflection point? Are things trending up from here on out?
January 9th, 2011 at 8:38 AM ^
I hope that was sarcasm. Real great move on losing three guys at the Army All-American game…Genius.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:38 AM ^
Oh, the old underpromise and over deliver CEO trick! The market analysts will love it.....but will MGoBlog?
January 9th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
stop the madness! start the movie!
January 9th, 2011 at 5:15 AM ^
Everyone who says Gruden repeatedly should close their mgoblog account and open up one at ndnation.com. You'll fit in just fine with the wackos over there.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:08 AM ^
But I can't believe how many people think he would be a bad hire. He won a Super Bowl. This isn't college football where you could make a case for the argument "someone else getting his players", it's the NFL, someone else almost always gets the players (a GM). It also isn't a case where there is a huge talent discrepancy amongst teams like in college football. He still coached a team to a Super Bowl! He was also highly successful in Oakland, where no one else has been successful to his degree in a long, long time. He's extremely smart, he knows more about football than probably 99% of college football coaches, has learned from and worked with many great coaches, and many great schemes.
Recruits would want to play for someone who understood the pro game even half as well as Gruden does, or for any Super Bowl winning coach. He has an extremely strong passion for the game and loves to continue learning about the game, so his schemes and ideas will not go stale. The connections he has would be great for the Michigan players who wish to make it at the next level and would be great for them at Michigan, as he could bring in a strong coaching staff.
The only worry I would have is him essentially dumbing down some things, which Weis struggled with (sometimes expecting college level talent to play like pro level talent). But I think Gruden is smarter than Weis and understands college kids' ability better.
Also, the Weis/Gruden comparison doesn't work. Gruden has had success being a head coach in multiple places. Weis had success as an OC in one place. Weis could very well still be a great OC at Florida (as he proved to be solid in KC this season), maybe he's just not a HC.
Again, I don't think we are getting Gruden, but saying he would be a bad hire is idiotic. The fact that he would be such a great hire is what makes it unrealistic. But to those that think he would be a bad hire, carry on with your preemptive bitter ways and how he is going to "spurn" us or whatever.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:19 AM ^
Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems that the Gruden love on MGoBlog parallels the RR love here. But...the Gruden fans keep pointing to how he'd be great with recruiting because of his NFL ties and would be great for Michigan players looking to go to the next level...
So, how does that mesh with the same people saying that the NFL didn't matter when RR was the coach because his job is to "coach Michigan" and "not put players in the NFL"? Would Gruden be a bad hire? No clue. Would he be a good hire? No clue. Are the RR/Gruden supporters being entirely inconsistent? Absolutely.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:25 AM ^
I don't know who you're talking about, but I was an RR supporter who thinks all the Gruden talk is ridiculous.
January 9th, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^
Not you.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:26 AM ^
To think that the NFL doesn't matter at all to these recruits is stupid. It does. The difference is that that argument was being made with respect to people picking a school based on scheme, saying they wouldn't go to Michigan because RR ran a spread verse another school that ran pro-style. Recruits still decided to go elsewhere because they didn't want to play in a spread, but that isn't the argument for Gruden.
The argument for Gruden being a great recruiter for kids with NFL aspirations is because he coached in the NFL. It has nothing to do with the scheme he will run. Heck, Gruden admittingly loves the spread, maybe he would even run that, I don't know. But, regardless, what would make him special wouldn't be scheme, but where he has been, who he has coached, so on and so forth, etc. etc.
For the record, I never agreed with the RR system won't matter at all to recruits. It obviously did, though I think the meme that recruits won't play in a spread offense to be vastly overblown.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:28 AM ^
Two people can be successful with two different styles. Chip Kelly wins with a zone read spread (plus) full of non-NFL caliber players. Alabama wins with a statue QB and NFL-caliber running backs.
5'9" LaMichael James ISN'T going to be a 1st round pick in the NFL. He IS going to finish in the top 3 in the Heisman, and he probably enjoyed that sales pitch on a recruiting level.
January 9th, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^
My "comprehension is lacking"? And yet your reply seems to have almost no connection to what I wrote. I said nothing about different coaches having different styles. I was only noting the irony that RR supporters scoffed at the notion that we should put players in the NFL and now we have (many of the same people) saying that putting players in the NFL is important. Thanks for the insult and making no sense.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:15 AM ^
"Decide already" and "hire Gruden" are completely separate topics. We should certainly get a new coach in here asap, but should it be a "hot name" with almost no college experience or should we get it right? The last time we did this, we hired the hot name. Now we need an eraser for the last three years.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:24 AM ^
"Recruits would want to play for someone who understood the pro game even half as well as Gruden does,..."
Substititute "Charlie Weis" for "Gruden" and you capture what was said about Notre Dame football a million times just a couple of years ago.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:33 AM ^
for full recruiting years, per Rivals:
2006: 8
2007: 8
2008: 2
January 9th, 2011 at 1:33 AM ^
And look at the recruits Weis got. Say what you will about Weis, he got talent to ND. I know people tend to disregard recruiting sites around here, but they still mean something, and before Weis came to town, ND had the #40 class. After, ND had #8, #8, and #2 according to Rivals. I'd also like to draw your attention to Pete Carroll and how he recruited (go ahead and make the Southern Cali and cheating arguments here, he recruited extremely well regardless).
I also said why the comparing Gruden and Weis didn't work. Weis was never the head coach of a super bowl winning team, Gruden was. Gruden knows how to be a successful head coach, Weis didn't. Super Bowl winning head coach has a lot more strength than Super Bowl winning OC. If you don't agree, look at the number of Super Bowl winning OCs you can name compared to Head Coaches.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:53 AM ^
Jesus.
Gruden knows how to be a sucessful head coach. In the NFL. Where he was a coach. Which isn't college. I bet the guy could do just fine in the NFL again, but Michigan isn't a job where we should be question marking the candidate.
Also, Weis recruited well and made awful coaching decisions. Would you like that? Or should we pay players like Carroll? I don't really know what to make of the top of your post.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:13 AM ^
And don't call me Jesus. /Leslie Nielsen.
Ex-NFL people with big names tend to recruit well. That's it.
And yes, Weis made bad coaching decisions, that doesn't mean Gruden would. And no, I wouldn't like Michigan's coach to make bad coaching decisions or pay players. I don't think Gruden would either. The point is that he had the talent there to succeed, same with Carroll, that's the only point I was making there.
And yes, I know Gruden was successful as a head coach in the NFL, the point is, at some time, he was still a successful head coach. Meaning he ran the operation, he got other coaches in place, so on and so forth.
And name me a candidate we won't be "question marking". Every candidate has question marks, Gruden just happens to have far fewer than most.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:40 AM ^
I picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue.
Listen, I don't think Gruden is the worst hire in the world. I don't think he is akin to hiring Tim Brewster. But his connections to the college game are minimal at best.
Does he know how to recruit? Just because the guy can flash a super bowl ring doesn't mean he actually enjoys the process. Pelini is said to hate the process according to some Nebraska fans.
Can he handle a locker room full of kids? These aren't paid NFL players, they're 18 - 22 year olds, some of whom have never played outside of their home state, let alone been away from their parents that long.
Does he get the college game? I'm not pretending to get either college or the NFL from a coach's perspective, but we at least hear that they are different animals. How different? I have no idea.
Hoke and Miles may have questions marks, but they've been HCs in college. That seems like one of the most important factors.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:02 AM ^
I just think that all other candidates have just as many, if not more, questions. I also think this is something that DB would at least have an idea of how Gruden would handle these situations after an interview.
For the record again, I don't think Gruden is coming. My number two choice would be Charlie Strong. I also don't think he is a probable candidate, but for other reasons.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:57 AM ^
but Michigan isn't a job where we should be question marking the candidate.
The only candidate who checked all the boxes was Harbaugh and that ship sailed.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:31 AM ^
The madness reflects our Athletic Dept. arrogance. We knew Lloyd Carr was retiring any year yet we had no succession plan. Now the AD CEO DB fires the president but has no succession plan and is willing to unprotect 25 % of the team (recruits) but we are MICHIGAN, mention MICHIGAN and they will come. Pure Arrogance. We have learned nothing from our neighbors from South Bend. DB can be a great marketer ( Big Chill/ ND night) but has a operational CEO the jury is out. Better find coach that unites the base or be careful what you ask because you will get it every 3/4 years.
January 9th, 2011 at 4:01 AM ^
Recruits are absolutely not a part of the team until they step on campus.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:51 AM ^
January 9th, 2011 at 1:57 AM ^
Women's BBall? The fuck?