January 26th, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
Is he taking JH with him?
This seems crazy..... John recommends Jim hire him as DC.... a year later John hires him away. "Thanks Jim, I guess he is up to the job. Thanks for giving him a test run for me."
January 26th, 2022 at 2:00 PM ^
As long as Jim gets the next boy wonder in return, I like this system
January 26th, 2022 at 2:16 PM ^
Humorous, but no. We need to have consistency. It's awful for everyone to rotate coordinators. You need a system in place, that guys can learn and execute. Hard to do when you have three coordinators in three years.
January 26th, 2022 at 3:17 PM ^
Name a good P5 school that has year in year out consistency at the coordinator positions. In college, if you're good, you're gone...if you're bad, you're fired. It's extremely rare to find a really good coordinator that stays more than a couple of years.. 1 year for MacDonald is pretty short, but he was gone after 2022 if he had another good season.
January 26th, 2022 at 3:35 PM ^
It's on Jim to incorporate the best of every good coordinator and assistant that he gets, and build that into the next guy. Forge a coaching tree.
Saban loses great guys all the time. This is how to stay great as a program, and make each new guy great too.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
Ok, I'll name a school - and it's one Michigan has been compared to frequently lately in terms of getting over the hump to actually win CFP games now that we've made the tournament - Clemson!
Just lost 10-yr DC & 7-yr OC. So OUCH!
January 27th, 2022 at 12:33 AM ^
wait, is that "ouch" meant as a dunk on someone? wow, you found the one program that somehow kept their coordinators for more than a few years when they should have left years earlier. why are you taking satisfaction in that? what a weird post.
January 27th, 2022 at 11:56 AM ^
VaTech is another as is Iowa. How long has Leonard been @ Wisconsin? The coordinators @ ND have probably been with Kelly quite awhile. Really not as a rare as the OP insinuates.
January 27th, 2022 at 5:41 PM ^
Leonhard has been DC since 2017, but he’s probably an exception to the rule considering he’s from Wisconsin, grew up a Wisconsin fan, and played for Wisconsin.
Kelly definitely went through his fair share of coordinators at ND:
Charley Molnar lasted 2 years as his OC, Chuck Martin lasted 2 also, Denbrock lasted 1, Sanford Jr lasted 2, Chip Long lasted 3, and Tommy Rees lasted 2 before Kelly left for LSU.
Bob Diaco lasted 4 years at DC, Van Gorder was fired four games into his 3rd year, Elko lasted 1 year, Lea lasted 3 and Freeman was DC for 1 year before taking over for Kelly when he left.
It’s definitely as rare as the OP insinuates. You’re only able to name a couple schools with any amount of sustained success and ability to maintain coordinator continuity. It’s rare.
January 26th, 2022 at 5:42 PM ^
By "consistency", I mean having someone who is likely to stay 3-4 years at least, to have a system in place. I don't expect coordinators to stay forever, unless they're old.
January 26th, 2022 at 8:45 PM ^
Agism
/s
January 26th, 2022 at 9:50 PM ^
2 years is a good minimum stay for a coordinator. With rare exception, if they stay too much longer it’s because they aren’t able to generate interest for better positions. Less than 2 years and it’s chaos. When you’re hiring elite coordinators, you need to have a shortlist for who is going to replace them before they finish their first year. You you want coordinators who are highly coveted based on the results at your school
January 26th, 2022 at 7:27 PM ^
Somehow Ohio State does for most all coaches unless they don’t perform. Nobody ever gets plucked away
January 26th, 2022 at 11:58 PM ^
Tom Herman, Jeff Hafley, Chris Ash, Luke Fickell etc Meyer made new coordinators sign a 2 year agreement they needed to fulfill before leaving for a bigger job. Recently Warriner was given the chance to take another job rather than be fired, but generally they are taking promotions. A lucky few like LarryJohnson perform at a high leavel but stay. Tony Alford is just waiting for the right offer. If you are an elite coordinator, you generally leave in 2 to 3 years. Nobody has been better at replacing elite talent coordinator positions then Nick Saban.
January 27th, 2022 at 5:07 AM ^
That’s not true at all. They have quite a few former OC and DC that became head coaches. And where it is true, is because they have a guy like Kevin Wilson at OC who is untouchable as a head coaching candidate.
January 26th, 2022 at 5:55 PM ^
We had Don Brown for 5 years, very consistent, and his last 2 years + 2 games (when all that consistency should pay off) were by far the worst.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
I don't know why you got negged for this. It's perfectly logical and fucking irritating
January 26th, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
The Ravens anticipated Wink being around a couple more years. This wasn’t the timeline of the original plan, but Wink butting heads sped up the process. But MacDonald was always destined to be the Ravens DC.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:07 PM ^
I'm guessing John didn't anticipate that he'd need to let his DC go. Baltimore has had a pretty good, consistent defense for quite a while, so when Wink had to be let go, that kind of changed the circumstances.
Nature of the business, my friend.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:31 PM ^
I think it’s elston
January 26th, 2022 at 3:24 PM ^
I think its Clinkscale.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:32 PM ^
Anybody know what Vic Fangio's buyout is? Perhaps he can be brought in as an analyst, coach the coaches so to speak, not have to recruit on the road, live on a fat buyout, recharge his batteries for a year or so, and move on. He and Harbaugh know each other well. Yeah, yeah, I know, wishful thinking.
January 26th, 2022 at 9:59 PM ^
I think it's Barrett.
January 26th, 2022 at 10:26 PM ^
Shut down the thread.
This is the move. Mike Barrett for DC (and OC if he has the time and energy).
January 26th, 2022 at 3:28 PM ^
Maybe that was the deal they made
January 26th, 2022 at 4:28 PM ^
Maybe we get Wink in return.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:40 PM ^
And all we got out of it was a win over OSU and a B1G championship. Who around here cares about those things!
January 26th, 2022 at 5:59 PM ^
"You're welcome, John. Thanks for the OSU win and B1G Championship."
January 26th, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
Why can't ANYTHING positive ever happen to this program?????
/s
January 26th, 2022 at 2:04 PM ^
Were you asleep the past 6 months?
January 26th, 2022 at 2:36 PM ^
If I'm not mistaken, that was what the backslash s thing was all about.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:15 PM ^
Give the guy a break. His username even tells us he's an old guy. He doesn't know about all this new-fangled slanty-line letters business. It's all just a bunch of nonsense jibber jabber. You know, back in his day, they used WORDS to convey meanings of things.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:21 PM ^
The 2021 season was hugely positive. The problem is, things like that don't last long around here.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
Seems like Elston may get his shot at DC. With this defensive staff pretty set, you don't want to hire a new DC from outside that may disrupt everything. I'm curious if Helow stays.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:31 PM ^
And how is making Elston the DC any different from hiring a DC from outside? Elston was not on the staff last year. If you hire internally, it should be someone who at least was on staff last year. If you are thinking about promoting Elston to DC, you might as well do a full search and find the best most qualified candidate (most likely not Elston).
January 26th, 2022 at 2:42 PM ^
Great idea and an internal hire to boot....Jay Harbaugh! Everything position group he has touched so far has been nothing short of stupendous, so why not defense!
January 26th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
Interesting. I think Jay will be a future head coach, maybe even at Michigan some day but there's another coach that almost exactly fits your description. I'd place a call to CP.
Same (or better) on field and recruiting resume as Jay, actual (co) DC experience in the SEC, and still pretty close to an internal hire.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:05 PM ^
^^this is the only hire that excites me. Unfortunately, I'm aware that my level of arousal isn't likely one of the major criteria being evaluated.
January 26th, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
Damn.
Hope there's something already in the works for a replacement.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:05 PM ^
Perhaps the Mike Elston hire comes into a different focus............
January 26th, 2022 at 2:09 PM ^
I think this is it. Elston gets elevated to DC, we hire another position coach.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:20 PM ^
Elston's interview for DC didn't go great at ND
January 26th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
If you mean the bowl, I don't think we can read too much into that. Aside from being one game, the new head coach (Freeman) had been the DC and probably had a lot of input in that gameplan.
January 26th, 2022 at 3:23 PM ^
Freeman took over Defensive play calling halfway through the game. He wasnt happy with Elston's coaching.
January 26th, 2022 at 6:22 PM ^
I mean it went bad enough that freeman saw it as reason enough to not promote him and lose him as a dline coach because of it
January 26th, 2022 at 2:10 PM ^
Yeah I'm not sure. I'd be open to maybe clink and elston being co-coordinators maybe.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
Elston is at Michigan in part because his live interview as DC during the Fiesta Bowl was a flop...