Prophetic words of wisdom from Jim Hackett

Serious question: Had Brandon hired Harbaugh back in 2010, do you think Harbaugh would have left and gone to coach in the NFL a few years later? 

I feel like coaching in the NFL was inevitable for Coach Harbaugh considering how successful he has been in college to see how he did at the highest stage in football. And maybe now that he knows he can turn a 49ers program that was struggling into a program that went to 3 straight NFC championship games plus a Super Bowl appearance, he won't feel as much of an urge to leave once he turns Michigan into a successful program again. 

I will probably pencil in Jim Hackett on the next presidential ballot.

This is why you have a good attorney there for each side: to think about all the things that can go wrong and let the parties figure out how to address them. "Who assumes the risk if X happens?" "What can we do to make sure the Y DOESN'T happen?" By ironing the questions out in advance, the parties see each other and how they deal with sensitive subjects, but at a time when both sides want to make it work rather than figuring out how much of a shit pie each side has to eat afterwards.

I'm curious who was in the room and why their wasn't a good transactional/HR attorney working through these items.

Jim Hacket OG status.

A Bo-era player told me in person three years ago that Brandon made the decision to hire Hoke at the 2010 UM spring golf outing, which meant that RR was a dead man walking the entire season. He's still well-connected to the program so it's hard for me to think that he's just making it up, but it's also a pretty damning accusation.

"We've heard many times that Brandon had a loose agreement with Harbaugh..."

No we haven't.  This has actually come to light in this latest coaching search.  The previous claims were that either Brandon didn't even pursue Harbaugh (various sources), or that he put feelers out "but the Harbaugh camp never really knew if Brandon was serious" (paraphrased from Bacon), or that he talked to Harbaugh and he wanted to be in the NFL (per Brandon, from his own press conference).

So now there's a new narrative, that I'm not sure of the details of, but if believed says Michigan and Harbaugh had a verbal agreement that he'd come.  Are we buying that?  If yes, are we retracting all the "Brandon had Hoke as his coach even before doing any search, it was all a sham" mob monger & such?  And all the "he wanted someone he could control and be his puppet"?  Because both of those (and various iterations of same) are bullshit if there was in fact a verbal agreement.  He targeted Harbaugh as his coach and got him to agree.

If Brandon let it fall apart by not seeing it through (which again, I've not heard definitively), we can blame him for that.  But are we not assigning any blame to Harbaugh, who - if any of this is true - agreed to coach his alma mater, then backed out when another offer came along?

Wonder what JUB has to say about the possiblity of Harbaugh coming back in 2010.  It was nnot mentioned in his two latest books.  Since JUB is not shy, I would think that he would have mentioned it in one of the books.

Swim Lanes

Hackett was around to handle the CC this time around.  I blame Martin and DB the most for the last 7 years of suck.  RR and Hoke are a distant third and fourth on my list.

I too am glad that JH has already coached in the NFL.  Unless he really wants a SB ring that itch has already been scratched.  Hopefully his experience with the 49ers soured him on the pro game entirely.  Massive success right from the start and management still craps all over you.

I believe him when he says that he wants to stay in A2.  He has young kids and wants stability for them.  Moving around all the time, even when you're rich, isn't the best thing for kids.

The great thing now in 2014-2015 is he's not just JH who turned around Stanford... he is JH who turned around Stanford, the 49'ers, went to 3 NFC championships, played on the biggest stage for football in America in the Super Bowl making him so undeniably relevant to the age group in which we recruit.

This means Michigan won't have to rely so much on "tradition" and the stars of MIchigan past that played when before these kids were born.

They're all around the house somewhere and provide much insight into things you go back and read about yet again later.

In "Bo's lasting lessons" JUB recounts how Bo described Hackett and Brandon.  Hackett was the leader who made it part of his business to leave the office and spend time with front line workers so he knew what was going on with the people doing the work.  It's nice to rely on people giving you information at meetings but it doesn't replace what you find out by visiting with the front lines.  Brandon was praised by Bo for something similar, he was plugged into his operation more electronically and as Bo said, you'd send him an email at midnight and have your answer in the morning.  Nothing wrong with that concept except for the sleep quality of the email sender.  Yet look what happened all these years later because of that original well intentioned habit.  My dad once told me there is nothing so good that people won't find ways to screw it up.