Exit: Mo Linguist
Jim Harbaugh took a big gamble when he hired former Dallas Cowboys, Texas A&M Aggies, Minnesota Gophers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Iowa State Cyclones, Buffalo Bulls, James Madison Dukes, Valdosta State Blazers, and Baylor Bears defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist, that the young assistant wouldn’t jump again until the cornerbacks room in Ann Arbor was properly restocked.
Alas, Linguist's career at Michigan couldn’t last six months. Kansas head coach Les Miles was fired in early March for sexual misconduct, the Jayhawks replaced him with Buffalo head coach Lance Leipold at the end of April, and Buffalo in turn announced today that the co-defensive coordinator Michigan hired on January 20 will take over the Bulls on May 7.
Introducing our new head coach, @CoachMo15! ?#UBhornsUP pic.twitter.com/9hlpPBfr1r
— UB Football (@UBFootball) May 7, 2021
Shit.
A crack recruiter, Linguist’s hire was the first widely regarded sign of hope that Harbaugh could turn the program around following last year’s 2-4 season. Linguist helped them secure commitments from legacy five-star Will Johnson and TN 4* Kody Jones for the 2022 class, and as of last week the Wolverines appeared to have a strong chance with several more elite athletes in the secondary. Most likely the fallout from today has changed that position significantly, especially with Jones, who committed just days after Linguist's hire. Michigan will also have to start over with top target TN 4* Myles Pollard, and explain to everyone why they go through so much staff turnover.
Not that this one is that hard to explain. There's familiarity, there aren't many head coaching offers that come along, and Buffalo is a solid MAC program that's recently been a springboard for other young coaches.
Linguist returns to the program he helped turn around as “co-“ defensive coordinator with Lou Tepper. If the name rings a bell, Tepper was head coach of Illinois in the early 1990s, after serving for years as former Bo assistant Bill McCartney’s defensive coordinator in Colorado. In their short time together in Buffalo, Tepper and Linguist installed a 3-4/3-3-5 stack defense, played match quarters behind it, and put a small scare into Ohio State in 2013. While Tepper retired not long after, Linguist has had seven different jobs since Harbaugh took his current one.
Harbaugh’s best shot at keeping it would be to find a replacement soon, get the new coach up to speed on their plans before fall camp begins in August, and avoid another program-devastating crater in cornerback recruiting when all their prospects come to visit in June. The new guy will also have to help the current roster improve on last year's abysmal output, and transition to more complicated schemes that pair with new coordinator Mike Macdonald's Ravens-like plans.
While there are coaching options in-house, Michigan’s best hope would be to pilfer some other school’s accomplished cornerback coach, preferably one who can bring a transfer or two along. Kentucky’s Steve Clinkscale, who’s been a recruiting thorn in Michigan for years, would be an obvious choice, although Clinkscale has turned down overtures from this program before. Maybe they’ll even be lucky enough to find Clink’s contract doesn’t have a massive buyout penalty for bailing mid-year. I mean, it’s happened before.
There are only comments after the jump. Do you really want to go there?
Easy come....
Easy Mo...
Can't blame Mo for leaving, but damn was he ever a gamble. Are there any Michigan men we can bring back to coach that position?
Cornerback black broke our back against MSU last year and OSU every year.
Les Miles might be available
Please stop with the Michigan men stuff. Best available please. If he happens to have any connection to M, then cool. Really could care less as long as he’s great.
What would Juwan do?
Can Martelli coach DBs?
Asking the real questions
Program is an absolute mess
Just fire Harbaugh and get it over with. Jesus.
Jim Harbaugh took a big gamble when he hired former Dallas Cowboys, Texas A&M Aggies, Minnesota Gophers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Iowa State Cyclones, Buffalo Bulls, James Madison Dukes, Valdosta State Blazers, and Baylor Bears defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist, that the young assistant wouldn’t jump again
Brilliant.
I mean, I'm no big-time coach, but I wouldn't hire some guy that has been to a new team every year or so. He isn't really stable and neither is JH. Maybe that was the attraction.
at some point, it's not a coincidence and it's not smart as you imply.
I don't understand this take. He was leaving programs because he was getting shots at bigger ones or taking promotions. He went from G5 to P5 to NFL to DC to head coach. That is what should happen at big time programs (the timing here was just unfortunate). I'm more worried about the guys that have been around several years that no other programs sniff around for a promotion.
The "Brilliant" was for Seth's writing.
Fwiw, I’m glad that hinted in your post that schools can structure buy-out clauses in such a way that assistant coaches can still take promotions but make it harder to do so in their first six months, or year, or whatever. It would be especially wise to use such a device with a coach who is constantly leaving jobs.
The board post on Linguist is full of claims that you can’t expect any decent assistant to sign a contract with a buy out clause as if the buy out has to last indefinitely. That just sounds like bullshit unless we have some expert sports agents or attorneys lurking in there. Full disclosure, I am an attorney and timed penalty clauses are pretty goddamn common. But of course it’s always just bad luck for some people.
Just be ready for this come up as another excuse if the team sucks this yea, as if it was a totally impossible to have foreseen Linguist bailing. Now we get to see Harbaugh, the guy who hired luminaries such as Drevno, Pep, Durkin, and Nuss, try to hire a replacement on short notice. Maybe they hire Clink and it’s great. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the Ravens assistant back up defensive analyst, who will get to work with a first time DC. By the way, how is the first time OC, Gattis, doing? Oh, that’s right, he can’t call a game for shit.
"and Nuss"?
Harbaugh hired a guy the year before he took over as head coach? Now that is impressive! I bet he was responsible for the 5-7 record that year as well, huh? Well....shit. I didn't realize.
Thanks for bringing in the knowledge. Lol
Survey some Old Blues and you'll probably find a few who think RichRod was at the controls for the Appalachian State game.
There are quite a few of them, I always take special joy in pointing out that was a Lloyd Carr game, just to see the look on their faces when I show them the proof.
Mo’s agent is CAA. Literally a zero percent chance that he takes the Michigan job with a buyout for leaving for a HC job. CAA would get smashed by other agencies for doing so and they’re also the biggest game in town. That’s just the game sometimes man.
Yeah, this site is dying to blame this extremely rare event on Harbaugh and Michigan for reasons that just seem performative at this point. It absolutely sucks for UM and is going to hurt recruiting, but at some point shit just doesn't go your way and it isn't anyone's fault.
It’s a good thing you’re on this site to spout positivity on the football program despite negative news. Linguist leaving in 3 months, tough luck, Shoop not showing up to coach at all, tough luck, starting Milton over McNamara, tough luck. Not utilizing Chris Evans out of the backfield as a receiver, tough luck, playing Ben Mason on the defensive line, tough luck, losing to Michigan State’s worst team in a long time at home, tough luck. Medical St Juste turns into NFL draft pick, tough luck. The punt, tough luck. Not being able to run a tempo offense, tough luck, no ability to execute a 2 minute drill, tough luck. The list goes on and on. At some point, it’s not tough luck.
it’s ok to be critical of the football program and their leader. Just look at the moves Howard has made in 2 seasons to identify weaknesses within his roster and bring in grad transfers. How long has it been since Michigan has had Defensive Tackles?
You seem to just follow around my comments at this point. Like, the last time you posted here was almost a month ago wherein you called me out (unprompted) for saying
Hey, thanks for calling me out. Was worried you were going to just focus on Ace today.
Anyway, not good if Worthy leaves, but if the guy doesn't want to be here so be it. Wish him luck. Sorry I can't get too bent out of shape about college athletes changing their minds.
I also don't particularly see the benefit of being eternally pessimistic about a season that hasn't been played yet, but you do you.
It's almost flattering my outlook annoys you enough that you seek it out whenever something negative happens to shit on it.
I am critical of the football program when I think it's necessary. You hire Mo Linguist despite the fact he moves around because you're banking on that year or two of recruiting benefits. I've said elsewhere that nobody would be remotely surprised or angry had he left after this season, which would have happened had, again, this particularly unique series of events hadn't occurred that led to a guy who was happily employed at UM by all accounts being offered a chance to head coach at one of the best G5 programs around.
Sometimes you do just have bad luck. Linguist leaving is bad luck; the laundry list of complaints you posted are a combination of poor coaching and bad luck, and if you've got ample evidence of me saying not utilizing Chris Evans in the passing game is "bad luck" have at it.
As for Howard, he's brought in two grad transfers, both at PG. That's good. Michigan has, in fact, brought in grad transfers to address sore spots as well. They had an issue with DTs last season and then signed 3 this class and are in on a couple of grad transfers at the spot now. So it's almost like they are trying to address it, but then again they must be incompetent so nevermind.
Anyway, I'm not going to stop posting around here and I may remain not as pessimistic as you feel is appropriate. If it helps I'm sure we could set up some system wherein it would be easier for you to find my posts to comment on them.
Question for you. In 2019, Michigan started 5 offensive linemen that are in the NFL now, had 3 WRs that are in the NFL now, had a TE in the NFL now, had a 5 star senior transfer QB and a 5 star freshman RB.
That team went to OT against Army in week 2, scored 14 against Wisconsin in their 21 pt loss in week 3, scored 10 against Iowa in a 7 point win, scored 21 against Penn State in a 7 point loss. Scored 45 against Notre Dame in a 35 point win(!). Ended with scoring 27 and 16 in losses against OSU and Alabama.
How do you have that amount of talent at your disposal and explain 4 losses with avg margin of 20+ pts and an OT win vs Army? Then in 2020, 2-4 before cancellation of the season saved the team from more losses. Again, I have no issue with you, just don’t understand why you act so surprised that people are negative on the football program under Jim Harbaugh.
You are so correct! We are in year 7 of Harbaugh and in a state of uncertainty. Saban has a ton of turnover, but he manages to recruit, develop, coach, and WIN thru it, EVEN in his 1st few years at 'bama. Now they are a well oiled machine, while we continue to have bumps in the road and many in this fanbase have just accepted it and don't like it when people point this out.
I've posted this many times before but I'm 2019 UM finished #10 per SP+ and lost to the #1, 3, 6, and 11 teams and beat the #19, 20, and 23 teams, the latter 3 by an average of 21 points. PSU, Alabama, and OSU had either parity or much more talent than UM, depending who you talk to. Wisconsin is the bad loss in the group, and I will absolutely agree that Wisconsin is a puzzle Harbaugh can't figure out and that falls on him.
Last year wasn't good and you can put blame on the coaches, but we shouldn't ignore the fact they suffered from a lot of talent loss as well as a rash of injuries to key players. In response to that bad year Harbaugh didn't say "oh, it was a rough year let's bring the band back and try again". Instead, he blew the whole thing up and hired a bunch of guys to address what he perceived as issues recruiting.
People are allowed to be mad; at no point have I acted like people aren't allowed to feel that way. But as with the last time you went after me for having a differing opinion, I'm not going to be too angry at Harbaugh because a guy got a chance at an HC spot and took it. Shows an eye for talent on Harbaugh part, if anything.
If they have a bad year this season Harbaugh should be gone; I tend to think they won't be 2-4 bad, but more like 9-3-ish. If you want to fire him for that go for it, but that's also been UM's historical average for decades and I'm not sold a new HC with a barely-.500 record at Iowa St, for example, demonstrably changes that.
"That team went to OT against Army in week 2"
-> Playing the service Academy's is a losing proposition. They run a style of offense which Michigan has to prepare for early in the year and then won't see for the rest of the season. If they never schedule another service Academy again it will be a blessing. Don't forget that the previous year Army took BCS Oklahoma to overtime as well.
"How do you have that amount of talent at your disposal and explain 4 losses with avg margin of 20+ pts and an OT win vs Army?"
-> Well let's look at who they were losing to. Alabama by 19. Of course Alabama that season was winning games by an average of 36.1 points. Ohio State. Sure it sucks losing by 29 but Ohio State was winning games that season by an average score of 36.15 points.
You are ragging on the Michigan offense because they only scored 10 points in a win against Iowa but the 10-3 Hawkeyes lost by 5 to Penn State and 2 to Wisconsin. That sort of makes Iowa's 7 point loss to Michigan the worst of their season not to mention that was the fewest points Iowa score all season.
2021 was a unique season. All of those linemen you mentioned who were playing in the NFL were not availible except for one of them. No spring practice. Limited in person coaching, modified fall camp, brand new starting QB. Yeah, what could possibly go wrong last season? If Michigan had their 2019 roster for 2021 do you think they would have finished 2-4? Last season if you had an experienced offensive line you tended to do pretty well, especially if you had an experienced QB. About the only thing you can about 2021 was that it let some people get some playing time. It was an unusual set of circumstances and you can't draw much from that.
People are angry because Michigan isn't Ohio State. Maybe everyone hasn't been keeping up with current events but Ohio State has been good for a very long time. What was Lloyd's record against Tressel? Urban Meyer took Ohio State to even greater heights. Countering that will take time. Harbaugh has made some mistakes and is also not very lucky. Still if you can't see that the right changes are being made and the results will come then you are just sour and nothing will please you. If not Harbaugh then who?
You brought me out of hiding to +1 this post.
Those are almost all very slanted takes, or half truths. You know it.
Howard inherited a very different situation, you know that too. Last year was basically fucked in total due to covid, and yep, you know that bit as well.
But people want to throw shit. So by all means, do not let context get in your way.
So those teams in the B1G that did well, shouldn't count those wins because of you know covid.
linguist has a history of short gigs. who could have seen this? anyone.
JH is a very poor decision-maker.
and that is our tough luck.
I've said elsewhere but had Linguist left after this year nobody would have been bent out of shape. That's what you sign a guy who jumps around expecting; a year or two. Somebody would have hired Linguist this offseason and had everything else played out the way it had he'd still likely be the HC at Buffalo.
The overwhelming sentiment was that the upside of Linguist (recruiting, results, experience) was worth the downside (job-jumping). With any success from the defense/secondary, I think it was expected he'd move on, and most of us would have been fine with that. Jumping jobs to move up, especially for a HC is understandable, but you've got to have some loyalty...to the program and to the players. To me, there's a HUGE difference between leaving after a year and leaving before you even coach a game. There were going to be HC openings after the season, maybe not Buffalo, but plenty of others. Besides, Linguist has plenty of time to become a HC. If he really wanted to go to Buffalo and Buffalo really wanted him, both of them should have said hire an interim coach for the year, let Linguist live up to his commitment to UM and its players for a year, and then jump ship in January. This just makes everyone look bad. If you're a MAC recruit, why give Linguist your commitment when he's proven he'll jump at the first opportunity?
I find it hard to see how recruiting can be a big upside for a guy who you expect is going to leave at the first chance and leave a bunch of your recruits hanging.
"Literally a zero percent chance that he takes the Michigan job with a buyout"
So a buyout would have been good because it would have prevented this farce?
I mean Linguist being here for a few months has zero benefit and definite costs.
Sure, schools can try to structure contracts that protect them while coaches (and their attorneys) are going to fight to provide their clients with the most flexibility with the least downside; as an attorney I'd assume you'd be aware that there are two sides to every negotiation. So yeah, a young guy looking to make moves up the coaching ranks isn't going to sign a contract that would hurt his chances of doing so if possible.
Even if you have a guy sign a contract with a buyout, realistically how much do you think a guy's going to agree to and how onerous would it be for a program that suddenly had their HC leave and are stuck trying to find a replacement? Leipold's buyout at Buffalo was only $600k, so it's unlikely UM was going to stick a co-DC and position coach with much.
Also, of your list of "bad" hires you include a guy Harbaugh did not, in fact, hire (Nuss) as well as Dj Durkin, one of the hottest DC candidates in the country at the time and a guy who a year later was the HC at a P5 program. The fact Durkin turned out to be a bad guy and a bad HC doesn't change that reality such a signing was lauded at the time.
I can say with near-certainty that it was, in fact, highly unlikely that UM could have expected Les Miles to be fired for years of sexual misconduct at LSU and Kansas in March leading to the Buffalo head coach taking over in Kansas and that particular program having a pre-existing relationship with Linguist and that leading to him being named the HC in May. If you could have predicted such a turn of events then you really should head to a casino or sports book and start making bets.
Yes, as someone already noted I fucked up on Nuss.
Continuing, just because the general public became aware Durkin was a piece of shit doesn’t mean we can’t expect Harbaugh to realize he’s a piece of shit. I don’t expect Harbaugh to foresee that he’s going to be involved in fucking killing a kid, but when somebody is weird enough to force kids to watch butchering videos while they eat I do take a second look at the guy who hired him.
But let’s get to the real interesting part of your post: the idea that one would need to predict the entire detailed sequence of events that led to this particular vacancy at Buffalo in order to consider the risk of a guy leaving very early in his term. Literally the most predictable event (of practical use) can be made unpredictable if we describe it in enough detail. You can predict that it’s going to rain here without being able to predict which particular molecule is going to fall each second of the storm, or without knowing the reason these rain clouds are in this area. You don’t need to predict that Linguist leaves for this exact job at this exact time (and this job came open because of that reason) to be worried enough about him leaving to try and address it.
absolutely, given the abusive nature of Durkin's behavior, I think it's definitely on Harbaugh for hiring/keeping him around because there's no way warning signs of that wouldn't have been seen before...obviously Harbaugh wouldn't have known that it would get somebody killed but that kind of abusive behavior doesn't just suddenly come out of nowhere....
Again, all of these Durkin issues came up once he became HC at Maryland; we never really heard of such intense issues at UM and perhaps his behavior was different when he wasn't in charge. Guys said he was a bit of a bully and that's not great, but lots of coaches are like that.
As for the latter part of your comment you're dismissing the crux of the issue people are having with this move, the thing that makes it so unique, as unremarkable. I've said elsewhere that had Linguist left for a HC job at the end of this season nobody would be surprised and you wouldn't be arguing about some non-existent and likely trivial buyout provision. That's the rain in your analogy, an event you can predict because you see storm clouds and it's Spring and that's when rain typically occurs. What people like you are complaining is that UM should have done "something" to stop him from leaving after 4 months, which again you noted above would have been difficult to craft and enforce. The fact he left after 4 months because the Buffalo job became open months after the usual hiring cycle is, in fact, unpredictable. Dismissing that out of hand because it allows you to heap the blame on others is your choice but doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
Anyway, clearly we're just going around in circles now. You feel this was wholly predictable that he'd leave for a job in April; I'm arguing it isn't. I'm not going to change your mind and you aren't going to change mine.
Well Durkin was a really good DC here that produced a top 10 unit. Pep was a scapegoat for an offensive playcalling model that lacked cohesion, but he’s a good coach. Drevno was a well respected OL coach at both the college and NFL levels when he was brought in, and Harbaugh didn’t hire Nuss...
Well.. Cato June it is.
My understanding is that Michigan also sent an OT and an OLB down to Pawtucket after claiming a CB and a WR off of waivers. Additionally, hitting coach Jesus "El Rey" Ramirez will coach first base while Andy Witkowski recovers from surgery to repair a hernia. The franchise is also moving to Las Vegas.
can't move there; oakland is still at play
+ 1 for the Pawtucket reference. The quintessential AAA team. Plus I’m originally from RI.
Condolences for your loss of the PawSox to Worcester. As a long-suffering Red Sox fan who waited 47 years for that 2004 World Series championship, I know your pain.
It sucks not only because of the timing, but Mo was a guy that was really doing well on the trail... not 100% how he was as a DB coach, but he has a lot of experience in college and the pros and Lewis vouched for him as well.
This is no one's "fault"; its hella bad timing though so late in the cycle.
Not sure where Michigan turns, but hopefully there's some candidates that are willing to jump ship...
I blame Les Miles.
Yes. And we can blame Michigan for Les if we really want to, but at this point why not...
So you are Blame-Les?
The negative effects (direct and indirect) of Les Miles on Michigan at this point seem to far outweigh his positives.
This may be a scenario where Michigan just has to go out and find the best available coach regardless of position and re-arrange some of the deck chairs once the new guy is onboard.
Perhaps Helow or Bellamy could take on the defensive backs position, but if the best coaching candidate out there handles a different position group by trade, it would probably be worth evaluating the abilities of the current staff and move a guy over DB's if you can do that to bring in the best coach possible.
Like you said, the timing of this is just the latest cosmic dong punch for the football program. They may have to get creative in the ways that they fill the spot, rather than just go look specifically for DB coaches.
One day, football will be fun again.. I mean the law of averages has to kick in at some point, right?
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