DC
I saw this on rivals and thought I would pass along the information. There is some chatter on Jim Herrmann (Yes that Jim Herrmann) and Chuck Heater the safeties coach for Florida State for our DC job. http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=899615
January 13th, 2009 at 8:56 AM ^
he was the Recruiting coordinator in Florida for a few years... an asset to say the least...
January 13th, 2009 at 9:03 AM ^
I didn't realize Heater played under Bo in the 70s.
So he's got the whole lineage thing, plus his fucking name is Chuck Heater. +2.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:14 AM ^
herrmann and heater.
this is like when one of the showcases on the showcase showdown sucks, and the other one includes the car and the trip to europe.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:24 AM ^
whoa, if i'm not mistaken, heater was also the recruiting coordinator at colorado under neuheisel, then at washington with neuheisel. at least we know that he knows how to get the job done regardless of the rules.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:27 AM ^
If he can't snake oil Percy Harvin to Michigan then fuck him.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:19 AM ^
Chuck Heater - Michigan (1971-74) - Three-year letterwinner in football at running back for the Wolverines. Earned second-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior and was named honorable mention as a senior. Finished his playing career as UM's fifth-leading rusher all-time with 1,981 yards on 406 carries (a 4.9-yard per carry average). Received the school's Fielding Yost Award in 1975 for the most outstanding academic and athletic performance by a senior. During his tenure at Michigan, the Wolverines went 41-3-1 and won outright or shared the Big Ten title every season.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:27 AM ^
I don't trust Heater. He was part of those Neuheisel staffs at Colorado and Washington and was the recruiting guy. Plus he seems to change jobs often.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:29 AM ^
I have no problem with a guy coming in, recruiting a shit load of talent, teaching a young D how to kick ass, then leaving. It's like bitching that Rachel McAdams will only spend 2 years fucking you before dating some other guy. I completely fail to see the problem.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:31 AM ^
The problem is that I can't tell if he's actually qualified for this job. He has a really great resume and yet he constantly makes odd moves (Secondary coach at Notre Dame to football support staff at Colorado State) and it begs a few questions.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:38 AM ^
http://collegefootball.rivals.com/viewcoach.asp?Coach=283
I'm not certain, but I assume when it's an old ass white guy coach, he does more than just hang around and recruit.
Also, was never at Colorado State.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:41 AM ^
http://www.gatorzone.com/football/bios.php?year=2008&staff=heater
1993 Colorado (Football Operations/Recruiting Coordinator)
Was the job I was referring to, he was D-Coordinator at Colorado State before that.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:51 AM ^
The MWC vs. the Big12, I'd say that's a move up.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:59 AM ^
This is what I can put together based on dates and no other information:
1992 was Earl Bruce's last year at CSU. So Heater's out of a job and goes to Boulder.
Meets up with Neuheisal in Boulder and follows him to UW.
UW staff gets canned, so Heater gets a job on Meyer's staff at Utah.
Follows Meyer to Florida.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:32 AM ^
"he seems to change jobs often"
Are you kidding? This is coaching.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^
He's only held jobs for one to two years, and has made odd moves like coaching Secondary to coaching Tight Ends.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:38 AM ^
gotcha. looks like a lot of lateral movement over 20 years. Not exactly a rising star eh?
January 13th, 2009 at 9:28 AM ^
Please no herrmann. Talk about taking a step backwards. I am totally against this. I think heater looks good. I believe he would bring a lot of excitement and promise to the program!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:29 AM ^
Herrmann is a million times more qualified.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:42 AM ^
Jim herrmann? See 2003 game vs oregon 2002 game vs iowa 2000 vs northwestern not to mention the likes of troy smith and vince young. The trend is he can't stop the spread off. I bet pryor is wishing herrmann comes back.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:44 AM ^
That's funny. I thought the trend was that nobody could stop the spread offense. That's why everyone runs it.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:07 AM ^
Were you not aware that the Spread is Dead, at least according to Gary "Tea-bagging Tebow" Danielson.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:09 PM ^
Are you laboring under the misconception that ANYONE stopped Vince Young after his Freshman year? Or Troy Smith (aside from FLA)?
Someone please show me a DC with a proven track record of consistently stopping spread attacks led by elite QB's, and I'll get pissed at Hermann for failing to stop McNabb, Young, and Smith.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^
I actually wouldn't mind seeing Hermann as DC one bit. He switched back and forth from the 3-4 to the 4-3 pretty fluently, and at one time was considered perhaps the best defensive coach in college football. I think there's a good possibility that Hermann, with actual speed at his disposal, would do just fine against mobile QBs.
I did hear, from someone with somewhat decent connections to the football program, that the problem with Hermann was that he's a really sour SOB whom the players hated. Said connection is a bit of a blowhard, however, so take that for what it's worth.
Anyone have any insight on Hermann's people skills?
January 13th, 2009 at 12:24 PM ^
Penn St. didn't have much of a problem with Troy Smith in '05. Other than that, I can't really think of another instance of the top of my head.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:25 PM ^
Valid. We all know Tom Bradley is a good DC.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:27 PM ^
PSU also locked down TP this year until that last drive.
I feel a lot of PSU's success against the spread has been excellent LB play and assignment football.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:31 PM ^
Sure, but Pryor isn't really Vince Young or even Troy Smith. Yet.
That's why I get annoyed when people complain about Hermann failing to stop "mobile QB's", and then cite Vince and McNabb.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:39 PM ^
Michigan scored more on PSU, in Happy Valley, than OSU did at the 'shoe.
Also, failing to stop VY or McNabb is fine. Failing to stop Northwestern when they scored 54 points is, to say the least, a huge problem. However, I seem to remember consistently decent defenses that were just a step slow at times against sicknasty talent (Witten, VY, McNabb). I just have doubts that Jim Hermann as the DC will be appreciably different from Schafer at DC.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:51 PM ^
Our D was bad twice under Hermann - 2000 and 2005. If you look at our starting D in 2000, it was awfully dicey outside of 2 good starting LB's (Foote and Hobson). The starting D-Line was Dan Rumishek, Shawn Lazarus, Eric Wilson, and Evan Coleman (I don't even know who he is, and I watched every game).
At LB, we had Hobson, Foote, and Erick Brackins (not good).
We had probably the worst CB combination in recent memory in Todd Howard and James Whitley (LeSeur, in his "toast" phase was the nickel).
Julius Curry was a slightly below average safety, and Dewayne Patmon was a mess.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:55 PM ^
I remember this scouting report on Todd Howard (paraphrasing only slightly, if at all):
'Struggles with big or fast receivers, and has trouble with double moves.'
So, if you put a medium-sized-or-smaller, slow guy who wasn't a very good route-runner out there, Todd Howard could cover him like white on rice. Otherwise: death.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:00 PM ^
Basically, he could cover button hooks run by slower receivers.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:57 PM ^
I bet Pryor has no idea who Herrmann is.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^
I don't know what everyone's bitching about. The new DC is going to be Brian Cook.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:47 AM ^
These guys are not going to be DC. Maybe I'll post a thread about people talking about Joe Barry being DC or Bill Bellichick....I heard Rod saw them both at the coaches conference and Bellichick wants to leave his job because he is fed up with the pros and just wants to coach kids but Rod felt more comfortable with Barry so he's going with Rod's son in law. Same likelihood as Hermann or Heater coming.
I'm calling for a thread end.
If you want to talk about a coach with Michigan ties that would be viable the only 1 is Hankwitz from NW, but I have to believe Rod could give a shit about Mich ties he has to get this hire right, he's going with who he knows or feels best with.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:06 AM ^
You're right - why would Hermann ever consider leaving his spot as LB coach, or Heater his position as safeties coach. Dream positions, those.
If you're not into discussions regarding hypothetical developments ... maybe message boards aren't for you. Understandable.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:51 AM ^
which is that the "athletic department" approached Coach Rod with a couple of legacy names to consider, a list that included Hermann, Heater and Vance Bedford, I wouldn't mind them talking to Bedford.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:57 AM ^
Tell me again - why would we be against hiring a former Michigan player who just got done winning a national championship and coached the safeties on one of the best defenses in the SEC?
I said this a week or two ago - I think the delay in the DC search was because Rodriguez was waiting for a BCS bowl team to finish their season so he could interview/hire them. This would make sense.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:13 AM ^
Nicely put magnus. Not to mention his recruiting ties in FL.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:41 AM ^
While the recruiting potential benefits I am assuming cannot be denied and are considerable with Heater, why would we think a guy who has only coached safeties or corners (not exactly the premier sub-coordinator job on any given team) is qualified? Didn't we see with Herrmann a guy who had talent but found it difficult to defend against the best? Why would Heater be different?
January 13th, 2009 at 10:58 AM ^
It's not like our recruiting desperately needs a shot in the arm. What we need is better coaching on that side of the ball.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:00 AM ^
I know this is Michigan, but a quality defensive coordinator from a quality school (Charlie Strong, for example) is not going to make a lateral move to Michigan.
Some other DC's have already turned down the position (Casteel, Hood, etc.) or stated that they're not interested.
Rex Ryan is not coming.
Therefore, we are pretty much assured to go with a position coach. Hopefully that position coach comes from a quality school with some defensive success. Heater seems to fit that description.
It doesn't necessarily qualify him to be a good coordinator. But it doesn't NOT qualify him either. (I love double negatives!)
January 13th, 2009 at 11:09 AM ^
He's been around a LONG damn time without ever getting a coordinator positions. You think Rod just sees some hidden nugget of schematic genius within Heater that no one else in the country saw after stints at Ohio State, Notre Dame, Colorado, Washington, and Florida?
Seems pretty obvious that Heater has always been hired as a recruiter. Full stop.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:13 AM ^
He was a coordinator in the early 90's at Colorado State.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^
But CSU was 3-8 in 1991 and 5-7 in 1992 with Heater as DC. The defense gave up 34.1 ppg in 1991 and 27.8 ppg in 1992.
That was the end of Heater's experience as coordinator.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:29 AM ^
1. It was Colorado State. Talent is not abundant.
2. The PPG went down by a TD in his second year. It's still a little high, but a reduction of almost 20%.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^
You could have been press secretary for Bush. Or Idi Amin. Yes, the defense was 20% better ... than 34 ppg. That's not a little bit high - that's fucking astronomically bad. And those schedules included:
1991
Arkansas State (24 points allowed)
Air Force (31)
Nebraska (71)
Southern Miss (39)
Hawaii (at home; 16)
UTEP (18)
Utah (21)
Wyoming (35)
Brigham Young (40)
San Diego St. (42)
New Mexico (38)
1992
Colorado (37)
Idaho (37)
Fresno St. (52)
LSU (14)
Utah (33)
UTEP (24)
Air Force (28)
Wyoming (31)
San Diego St. (20)
Hawaii (24)
Ohio (24)
New Mexico (10)
Noted that Colorado State wasn't a powerhouse, but they weren't playing a powerhouse schedule, either. It's theoretically possible that Chuck Heater could be a good DC. It's just that there isn't a shred of evidence to support that notion, from what I can tell.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:44 AM ^
What's your point? Sixteen years ago I couldn't do calculus, either.
What's more relative?
A WAC school from 16 years ago...
...OR...
...a national championship team from 5 days ago.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:00 PM ^
Magnus, how old are you? Because the "my intellectual development is stronger than it was 16 years ago" conceit, in the context of this argument, is one of the dumbest fucking things I've ever heard unless you're at least 40. Heater is 56. Unless you know a lot more about football coaching - not to mention human cognitive development - than I do, there's no reason to assume that he's become an exponentially improved coach in the last 16 years. Would you have hired Bump Eliott as Head Coach in 1974 if he'd gone to, say, USC and recruited his ass off after his tenure at Michigan?
What was Chuck Heater's position on that championship team again? If we were gonna hire him to coach the safeties and recruit, I'd understand the appeal.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:38 PM ^
I believe Magnus is a (HS)coach.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:03 PM ^
Heater seems to benefit from cronyism. A lot. Look at this:
Fired with Earle Bruce at Ohio State, hired by Lou Holtz at Notre Dame (old friends of Bo, both of them), hired with Bruce at Colorado State and fired with him (for calling a black player the N-word, no less), hired by Bill McCartney at Colorado (Bo again), retained by Neuheisel and brought with him to Washington, fired at Washington and hired by Urban Meyer (worked with him at OSU and CSU).