OC/DC/Position Coaches - Where we go from here?
News today is what it is. We got lots of threads on the JH news, Warde, future of this contract, etc. Please use this to discuss coaches for this year.
We know McDaniels, Shoop, and Brown are out. We heard Zordich but not sure. Any I am missing? Ones we think are coming back with contracts up Monday listed below. Jean Mary? What’s his status?
HC/QB - Harbaugh
OC - Gattis (hopefully another guy like Moorhead or Herman with him? Think Tom Herman would be a home run. He hates OSU for how that relationship ended, and think he’s a great OC + could help our QB room).
RB - ? Jay Harbaugh moving to ST only. Need to fill this spot. Rumors or thoughts?
WR - Gattis
TE - Moore
OL - Hopefully Warriner stays. They need him.
ST - Jay Harbaugh
DC - Macdonald hopefully as Co-DC? Still hearing banks from PSU to also handle safeties? What happened to the Strong rumor?
DL - Nua? Gotta think he’s out. Who we hearing or want for DL? I think this is one of the most pivotal decisions we got for position coach. Chris Rumph? Heard his name some the last few weeks.
LB - MacDonald rumors true. Coaches this unit as well probably. Jean Mary out?
Safties - No clue. Thoughts? Twitter I saw Balas like stuff coming from Bellamy about taking a chance when it comes. The local Detroit guy, what position would he coach?
Corners - Zordich really gone? If he’s out, what we thinking?
With the late JH deal, need to move fast on this stuff for recruiting and more importantly the portal for instant players for 21 season. Hoping we can wrap up the staff by middle of next week.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:55 PM ^
Honestly, Harbaugh shouldn’t coach a position. He shouldn’t call a play either. He should walk up and down the sideline with a headset on with that 300ft cord attached to it and no one should plug it in.
That’s best case scenario.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:58 PM ^
Nobody should plug it in. Haha this made me lol. That’s exactly what should happen.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
Maybe that is why Brady never wore his!
January 9th, 2021 at 12:36 PM ^
You guys are complete, total clowns. Make me laugh, clown!
January 8th, 2021 at 10:24 PM ^
This is a wonderful post mpbear. As I read the 3 sentences my reaction was: yes, YES, HELL YES.
I don't know how a head coach can coach QBs. You have to focus so much on them that you are basically giving up control of the whole program. Maybe that's what he thinks he has to do.
January 9th, 2021 at 12:21 AM ^
He did it at Stanford.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:25 PM ^
Just tell him the rest of the staff is muted... LOL!!
January 8th, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^
Quite honestly Harbs seems to be in a dream world anymore. For the life of me I can't believe he rec'd a new contract. Yes, un-plug his headset.. lol,.. although won't matter one way or another. This team won't win more than 5 or 6 games this year. Will be plenty of excuses though from... "new D-coordinator, defense not comfortable with the system to, need one more year, the team is so young"....
January 8th, 2021 at 11:31 PM ^
And then Harbaugh will press the bluetooth ON button and say fuck that cord.
January 9th, 2021 at 12:34 AM ^
Ridiculous. The guys knows more about the game than any of us could fathom.
Need to stop whining. Grow and support the team.
January 9th, 2021 at 2:16 AM ^
Sure, compared to me Harbaugh’s a genius. Based on results so far, compared to Ryan Day he’s a dumbass. Which comparison matters more?
January 9th, 2021 at 8:38 AM ^
Still haven't seen Day lead to team to a Super Bowl.
January 9th, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
And coaching in a Super Bowl equates to success in the NCAA how? Nick Saban wasn’t successful in the NFL but seems to be doing OK in college.
January 9th, 2021 at 9:22 AM ^
I don’t think he said it equates to success. He’s saying coaching your team to a Super Bowl kinda defeats the “coaching dumbass” rhetoric
January 9th, 2021 at 11:47 AM ^
Uh, that was years ago and Jim’s not the same guy. Best case would’ve been to hire peak Jim when Lloyd retired.
January 9th, 2021 at 11:53 AM ^
Jim not being the same guy is a personality issue. Not a coaching knowledge issue. So now you’re arguing a different issue entirely.
January 9th, 2021 at 11:47 AM ^
Uh, that was years ago and Jim’s not the same guy. Best case would’ve been to hire peak Jim when Lloyd retired.
January 9th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh: Unplugged
January 9th, 2021 at 12:35 PM ^
You're so cool.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:56 PM ^
I can’t see any top flight assistants coming here. If they are solid, they will leave because Jim burns people out and most don’t want to be here long term.
If they are average or worse, they hang around because Harbaugh doesn’t like firing anyone, no matter how bad.
So you get no name position coaches as coordinators and hope they work out.
I am stunned how far we’ve fallen.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:03 PM ^
That logic doesn’t make sense though. As a top flight assistant or recently fired head coach you only want a 1 or 2 year spot before jumping to the head coaching ranks. Timeline doesn’t matter in that sense. If you do well, harbaugh keeps his job and you keep moving up. What top assistant wants to remain an assistant for 5 years (besides Venables)? And in terms of visibility, Michigan is one of the best jobs out there.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^
Fair, Squirrels.
My point is that truly top guys or potentially top guys - up and coming guys - are hitching themselves to a coach with a very poor track record at Michigan of being a good leader, boss and/or collaborator. He’s been a mess since he’s been here. And his approach appears incredibly grating. That’s speculation on my part.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:03 PM ^
Read on 247, that Harbaugh is targeting NFL talent to be the DC. Listed no names unfortunately. What I read wasn’t behind a paywall and thus had nothing specific.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
I believe they are referring to the Ravens LB coach
January 8th, 2021 at 10:32 PM ^
Ravens LB coach Mike MacDonald seems to be the latest rumor. No experience as a coordinator, no experience coaching college ball, and no experience in recruiting. Not sure if John is recommending him for further experience gathering or because he's limited out in the NFL...
January 9th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^
I'm here for the top flight attendants, not the top flight assistants.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:58 PM ^
Cyanide.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:00 PM ^
If Chris Ash or Tim Banks come as a co-DC, both have experience coaching safeties as well.
I could see Ron Bellamy coming in as a RB coach. That’s one position where freshman can make an impact which means as a coach you dont need to teach a whole lot for your players to be successful. It could help Bellamy transition to the college game and also take charge of in state recruiting
January 9th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Do we need/want both Bellamy and Banks? Having two proclaimed Detroit-area recruiters with maybe some questions about their actual effectiveness as instructional/developmental abilities at the collegiate level makes me hesitant.
We definitely need a good blend of recruiting chops and coaching ability.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:03 PM ^
According to Makari Paige, Bellamy runs the same defense at West Bloomfield HS as Don Brown. So I imagine he's a defensive coach then.
Also according to NCAA rules if we add Bellamy to staff, it must be an on-field role, not part of an endless army of analysts.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:33 PM ^
Yall do know Bellamy played WR right? I guess it dont matter because he went to Michigan and now yall want him to coach defense too but yall complaining about a potential DC coming from the NFL
January 9th, 2021 at 8:59 AM ^
Stop YALLING.
January 9th, 2021 at 9:39 AM ^
Playing a position in college doesn’t inherently mean you have to coach that position in college. Just for a couple examples with local relevance:
Josh Gattis was a college/NFL safety. Started coaching and was regarded as one of the better WRs coaches in CFB before becoming an OC.
Rich Rod was a defensive back and is known as one of the most innovative offensive coaches ever.
Urban Meyer was a defensive back in college. Even coached defense early on in his college coaching career. I think we’re all well aware that he is known much more for his offenses.
I don’t know personally what Bellamy specializes in now that he’s a high school head coach, but being a head coach means you have to be somewhat well rounded. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he can coach a defensive position. And it’s far from unheard of for a guy to switch sides of the ball when coaching, and do it well.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:05 PM ^
I've given up on any big names coming here to coach. Wouldn't surprise me if Harbaugh hires the Lions TE coach to be the OC. The DC hire was a big let down.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^
Imma go watch M basketball.
And the NHL starts next Wednesday. I’ll worry about M football in August since nothing I say or do will change anything in Schembechler hall.
that’s where I say we go from here .... dunno about you guys/gals
January 8th, 2021 at 10:37 PM ^
Imma go watch M basketball.
I want to want to care about basketball, but I just can't get into it, despite how much positivity is around the program right now. I haven't been able to watch basketball since freshman started going to the NBA with regularity. I'm starting however to get the same sense with football...that no one really cares that much about it any longer and they're just trying to get paid and be a pro. I miss the time when college on it's own was important and unique and their dreams were about winning championships for their colleges and then later when they got to pros great, but the pros wasn't their focus while in college. It just all seems like a formality for the top players.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
Don’t you go to college in order to make a living? That’s no different for athletes.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:47 PM ^
No? I went to school to be educated. I didn't give any thought to my career until I graduated. Most of the other students I knew were basically the same way.
January 9th, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^
Really?
This feels like a rose tinted glass remembrance of something that never was.
I love the Air Force Academy and Michigan both and had very valuable experiences at both places and learned a great deal at both.
Both were stops to get me where I wanted to go in the future and everyone around me viewed them the same way.
If all you want is to be educated, there are many better and cheaper ways to do it than a University of Michigan tuition bill.
January 9th, 2021 at 10:24 AM ^
That seems pretty stupid. There are ways to get educated without spending thousands of dollars to mostly teach yourself.
January 9th, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
The people who go to college just for shits and giggles to be more educated typically take a class here and there at a community college.
Nobody going to a major university is going just to be more educated. It’s to receive a specific education required to pursue a specific career path. Nobody goes to college to take law classes, graduates, then thinks about their career and decides they want to be a doctor. That would be stupid.
January 9th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
Maybe nobody should. Lots of people do. Hell, half the people I went to grad school with went there mostly out of momentum from undergrad, and had given relatively little thought to specific career choices other than "going to this school and getting this degree will help me" in some diffuse, ill-defined sense. A surprising number even got to the point of defending a PhD before they suddenly realized "Oh crap I have to go find a job! What do I want do do?" (The answer for many of them was to do a post-doc and postpone real life even further!)
I do think the ever-exploding cost of college tuition has forced a lot more people to get more serious earlier about what they want their careers to be, and the fraction of students enrolled today who have already put serious thought into what they expect to get out of college is probably higher than it's ever been. But that fraction even today is nowhere near 100%, and given the age cross-section of this board, a lot of us will remember a time when college was pretty explicitly as much about "the experience" as it was a means to a specific end.
January 9th, 2021 at 7:23 PM ^
Classic UChicago alum response.
January 9th, 2021 at 1:59 AM ^
I'll worry about M football a year from now when they hire a new coach. What a waste of time. If they've given up, so have I for the time being.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:16 PM ^
Bring Mike Elston home to coach DL.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
I'll be honest - I don't know Jaybaugh did to earn a demotion to just ST, but I assume they'll get another recruiter-type guy there. I know people clamor for Hart but...I'm just not remotely impressed by IU averaging about 1.5 ypc less than Michigan this year.
OC you could bring in a guy like Moorhead and probably be okay. Herman I'm less set on; his offenses at Texas were fine but never felt overwhelming, and I think you can get a lot of that same performance with Gattis/Moorhead and a healthy QB without shaking things up too much for a guy who's likely a one-year rental.
I assume the other offensive coaches stick around.
Defensively we'll have to see what MacDonald brings in with him but I assume Nua is gone and and maybe Jean Mary (since MacDonald is a LB coach anyway that might not be a huge miss). I really like the idea of keeping Zordich because he's a good coach and has some ins with top targets this year but we'll see.
January 9th, 2021 at 10:04 AM ^
I truly appreciate someone here finally being able to objectively look at Mike Hart’s actual results as a coach before clamoring for him to come here.
January 9th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
The recruiting is a bit harder to get a handle on because IU is IU and that likely puts a ceiling on how many top guys you pull in, but I also don't know if he's particularly great there either. But what got me were people saying him and Nick Sheridan we're building this monster down in Bloomington and the numbers weren't quite matching.
I like Hart and think he could be a good coach, but it's weird how Jaybaugh keeps getting dismissed because of nepotism while simultaneously people are champing at the bit for Hart mostly based on his playing career a decade ago and ignoring what he actually looks like as a coach.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:30 PM ^
Jean-Mary is not out. He's the only one that is a lock to stay on defense.
You have 2 open spots left, McDaniels and Shoop. Then you could potentially have more if Nua and/or Zordich is replaced.
Jim Harbaugh is going to coach QBs along with the new OC. Or he's going to coach them, hire a RB coach and Gattis will continue to be OC by himself (Jim will likely be co-OC).
Co-OC: TBD
Co-OC: Gattis
QB: Jim Harbaugh / TBD
RB: TBD
WR: Gattis
TE: Moore
OL: Warriner
DC: MacDonald
DL: Nua or TBD
LB: Jean-Mary
CB: Zordich or TBD
S: MacDonald
ST: Jay Harbaugh
Moorhead was rumored to be the co-OC but apparently he's staying where he is...should be interesting who fills the last 2 spots and if Nua and/or Zordich move on.
OR
Keep JayBaugh with the RBs, hire Tim Banks to be co-DC...he'd take the safeties and MacDonald would help with LBs like Brown did.
OR
Add Banks and a RB coach and Jim Harbaugh takes QBs while Jay keeps STs.
...there are a bunch of different ways this can go. Need a few more dominoes to fall.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^
Good call. I saw MacDonald spent several years as DB coach, so that makes sense for him there and Jean Mary stays as LB. Wow I really hope we grab someone as Co-OC or outright OC with experience and Gattis moves to just WR’s or adds Te’s/RB’s. No OC though.