From:
"Wow, we can be at Saban/Alabama or Kirby/Georgia dynasty level of football for the next bunch of years!"
To:
"Wow, what a debacle. Maybe it can still work, but maybe we go back to 7-5 or 8-4 seasons."
All within a few weeks.
Admin/regents reportedly:
-- Knew in 2023 what it would take to keep Harbaugh (and thus also to not have coaches strip mined),
-- Sat around into 2024 until it was too late (despite common knowledge that things get decided a week or two into January),
-- Then said "OK" AFTER it was too late.
Is that remarkable, bungling ineptitude? Or purposefully malevolent because a clique of regents have Harbaugh Derangement Syndrome?
Ohio State, Pettiti, the anti-Harbaugh NCAA, the loser contingent of Big 10 coaches -- they got EXACTLY what they wanted. They must be laughing so hard and derisively at Michigan right now. Seeing a clown show with endless stepping on rakes and ridiculous pratfalls.
I think things like this get fixed -- only -- if somehow the bewildering incompetence or intentional sabotage of the admin/regents gets fixed.
I love Michigan football.
I don't love admin/regents. (Other than Ono and maybe Acker -- they seemed to be doing the best they could to make it work.)
My guess, regents would want a scapegoat for their bungling -- to divert some heat away from how they knew in 2023 what it would take to keep Harbaugh (and preclude strip mining of coaching staff), then sat around until it was too late before finally saying "OK, let's do that".
Assuming there is no fit with programming, IT, or any form of engineering, my suggestion would be accounting. Not too hard. Lots of jobs, which exist everywhere in the nation.
As for Wall Street, I interviewed with some places (Goldman Sachs, D. E. Shaw, for being a quant back in the early 1990's) and have pals who are investment bankers, but I didn't end up working on Wall Street. So, my view isn't the most experienced or recent, but my opinion based on the above is: Wall Street selects for people with high energy and high ambition, who are happy to work intensely for very long hours all the time, can work under a lot of pressure, and generally are very smart or have a high level of persuasion skill or are high achievers.
To me that reasoning is like "Well, sure they failed. But that failure was certain because he was certain to leave."
But according to the news story, that is totally false.
Because that news story directly and fully contradicts that line of reasoning.
The news story says "I wanted to stay. I gave necessary conditions in 2023. They were OK with those conditions -- but only well into 2024, after weeks or a month. And by that point, it was too late for me to take the deal. I was already committed elsewhere."
There are many ways you can blow recruiting. But blowing it that way -- by agreeing too late, when you know WAY beforehand that your deadline to get it down will be a couple weeks into January -- THAT is some next-level ineptitude.
Nah. Here is my opinion of the "whole Harbaugh affair":
That admin/regents displayed such a monstrous level of dumbassery that there should be an investigation and firings for inexcusable incompetence. Or if that much incompetence seems unbelievable, maybe there was an anti-Harbaugh faction that did it on purpose.
Because Harbaugh (one of the most sought-after coaches in all college AND pro football) WANTED to stay given conditions he proposed in 2023.
But they bumbled and fucked around well into 2024, until it was finally too late. THEN agreed to the conditions. Like incompetent morons.
"Acker, old boy. The plebs are sniffing around our role in this whole Harbaugh affair, and turning their angry gaze toward us regents. They seem to like you, though. How about you write some rah-rah fluff for them to gobble down, to distract them onto different topics? Or write something that has us coming out looking swell. Did all we could, you know. Heroic effort under difficult circumstances and time pressure, and all that. Good man!"
Exactly right. That's why I suspect some regents are anti-Harbaugh and anti-Michigan football. I would not at all be surprised if there is a clique of them that torpedoed this by slow-walking it and having the opposite of person skills.
Michigan admin -- the deadliest enemy of Michigan football?
"IMO, if he would have been treated with the respect that he deserved, he would have been happy to hang his cleats up in AA for the duration." That's what I believe, too. That's why I think a bunch of people should be fired. Inexcusable if that's the case.
Also, if that news is true, then no, Harbaugh leaving was absolutely NOT inevitable. Success was actually in the bag -- except for egregious mismanagement turning it into dismal failure.
For people who really have experience in corporate recruiting and retention, you know that there are often factions. And not all factions have best interest of whole company at heart. They have personal interest at heart. So, if there is a guy they don't like, because he doesn't help further their plans, or personal vendetta, or "just not my kind of guy", or you don't want the football program to get too big for its britches, well, you can get shit like this.
Also, you know that there can be lots of incompetent assholes embedded in the system. People who will dig in heels over some thing that overall is a meaningless triviality because they can never see a big picture.
I've felt all along that Michigan admin was BLOWING IT. The signs were easy to see. Starting way too late. Stooging around over stuff that is not of major consequence in the end. Taking waaaaaaaaay too long while your candidate is exploring alternatives. And many others.
If true, that confirms an inexcusable level of incompetence.
Or it could be purposeful sabotage by elements that could bog it down long enough for it to fail.
This whole thing was a shitty failure. In many places, people would get shit canned over it.
If Warde gets fired, I would not believe for a second that he is the only problem. I would believe only that he was part of it and a convenient scapegoat for others who get to skate away.
The above is all speculation, of course. I have no personal knowledge of any of the details involved and am providing my input here only in the spirit of a message board where people speculate widely.
Is it through sheer incompetence, or intentional? A bureaucratic pile of moronic bunglers, or a cesspool of despicable scheming saboteurs?
I'm wondering if there are anti-Harbaugh regents. And/or anti-football regents. People who would be way happier if Michigan had a football program like Yale, which would be inconsequential and know its place.
If this is true, there should be a bunch of people shit canned over this.
For jobs like Head Coach, CEO, etc., it is common to have termination language in the contract.
It is common to have things like, if you are terminated before normal contract end for other than Cause, we pay you X. But if it's for Cause, we don't pay you. So what counts as Cause is a usual point of negotiation in such contracts.
The problem in this case is that the NCAA made it a Level 1 violation for a head coach if any staff member does a Level 1 violation. So, if a staffer commits the violation, it gets assigned to you. That's OK if you encouraged the violation or didn't have appropriate communication or controls. But it's not OK if you didn't know and did all the right things with respect to communication and controls.
Few CEO's would agree to a contract that defined Cause to include anything bad under any circumstances done by someone else. It would have carve outs, like described above.
I suspect such carve outs will be standard in head-coaching contracts going forward. Not just for Harbaugh -- for any head coach.
So does Tom Mars:
@DanWetzel points out that the NCAA’s new strict liability rule means every collegiate head coach is now at risk of being fired for cause if anyone on their staff commits a Level I violation. Expect a trend of head coaches seeking amendments to their existing contracts to exclude https://t.co/M9CPpbiXTq
All this stuff on immunity from the current BS smear campaign and wanting a 3-man panel instead of Warde should not be a big deal to get the excellent Harbaugh.
Don't blow it, Michigan admin.
Quit f-ing around and being timid and weak over a bunch of lame BS. Should have gotten this done half a year ago or more.
If Michigan wants to compete with the NFL for Harbaugh, it has to have faith in him and realize that the NCAA stuff was a witch hunt and smear campaign.
Michigan has had plenty of time to look into the current BS and judge it. They can absolutely agree not to terminate for those items.
As for a panel for deciding cause instead of one man, that should be no barrier at all.
Don't blow this, Michigan administration.
Don't drop the ball on the 1 foot line right before you were about to get into the end zone for the win.
Don't be inept.
Step up with confidence and bravery for this excellent Michigan man, Jim Harbaugh.
True. But they didn't listen to my awesome suggestion to work in the reverse Statue of Liberty play with the backwards scramble for 30 yards, double reverse, lateral, then 90 yard bomb to one of our 300+ lb linemen with jersey change who sneakily lined up at TE. I was sort of peeved that they didn't use it and feel like it was probably good for an extra 2 touchdowns per game. Maybe this year.
Recent Comments
[well, image imbedding doesn't seem to work anymore -- or at least not how I used to do it.]
We have one. It is great. (We have 2 kids, though.)
It is great for road trips.
B-52's are one of my favorite bands.
+1 to fellow Lovecraft fan. :)
That hit was a thing of beauty. So glad he is on the team this year.
Game against Minnesota was excellent.
I'm looking forward to the game against Sparty.
What a marvelous guy The Don is. I'm so happy that he's a Wolverine.
5 highest-ranked conference champions?
That's lame in this age of the Power 2 and the 3 lesser conferences.
A couple of those 5 conf champs are probably going to be ranked 15-20 or so. Yet they will get seeds 4 and 5.
To see how that can work out:
Here's what would happen if last-year's week 15 rankings happened with current conf. memberships (rankings in parentheses):
1. Michigan (1) bye
2. Alabama (4) bye
3. FSU (5) bye
4. Arizona (14) bye <---------------------
5. Oklahoma State (16) <-----------------------
6. Washington (2)
7. Texas (3)
8. Georgia (6)
9. Ohio State (7)
10. Oregon (8)
11. Missouri (9)
12. Penn State (10)
What a huge scam the whole thing is.
Admin/regents just blew it about as bad as you can blow it, if this is true:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466?s=20
If so, doubling down on idiocy is to be expected.
I think Michigan football will remain in trouble until the anti-football (or moronic) contingent among regents are flushed out.
Except for this total ineptitude:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466?s=20
FB Dive, are you still uninformed about this?
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466?s=20
If that is true, the regents/admin were abysmally inept, or did it on purpose.
I'd like to see replacing a bunch of regents.
I stopped doing that when I felt like the admin/regents ineptly bungled or purposefully sabotaged Michigan becoming a dynasty program.
"Wow, we can be at…
From:
"Wow, we can be at Saban/Alabama or Kirby/Georgia dynasty level of football for the next bunch of years!"
To:
"Wow, what a debacle. Maybe it can still work, but maybe we go back to 7-5 or 8-4 seasons."
All within a few weeks.
Admin/regents reportedly:
-- Knew in 2023 what it would take to keep Harbaugh (and thus also to not have coaches strip mined),
-- Sat around into 2024 until it was too late (despite common knowledge that things get decided a week or two into January),
-- Then said "OK" AFTER it was too late.
Is that remarkable, bungling ineptitude? Or purposefully malevolent because a clique of regents have Harbaugh Derangement Syndrome?
Ohio State, Pettiti, the anti-Harbaugh NCAA, the loser contingent of Big 10 coaches -- they got EXACTLY what they wanted. They must be laughing so hard and derisively at Michigan right now. Seeing a clown show with endless stepping on rakes and ridiculous pratfalls.
I think things like this get fixed -- only -- if somehow the bewildering incompetence or intentional sabotage of the admin/regents gets fixed.
I love Michigan football.
I don't love admin/regents. (Other than Ono and maybe Acker -- they seemed to be doing the best they could to make it work.)
My guess, regents would want a scapegoat for their bungling -- to divert some heat away from how they knew in 2023 what it would take to keep Harbaugh (and preclude strip mining of coaching staff), then sat around until it was too late before finally saying "OK, let's do that".
Assuming there is no fit with programming, IT, or any form of engineering, my suggestion would be accounting. Not too hard. Lots of jobs, which exist everywhere in the nation.
As for Wall Street, I interviewed with some places (Goldman Sachs, D. E. Shaw, for being a quant back in the early 1990's) and have pals who are investment bankers, but I didn't end up working on Wall Street. So, my view isn't the most experienced or recent, but my opinion based on the above is: Wall Street selects for people with high energy and high ambition, who are happy to work intensely for very long hours all the time, can work under a lot of pressure, and generally are very smart or have a high level of persuasion skill or are high achievers.
Ug.
More strip mining.
Ug.
Harbaugh left.
…
Ahhh, !@#$
Harbaugh left.
And rest of coaching staff getting strip mined.
Ug.
To me that reasoning is like "Well, sure they failed. But that failure was certain because he was certain to leave."
But according to the news story, that is totally false.
Because that news story directly and fully contradicts that line of reasoning.
The news story says "I wanted to stay. I gave necessary conditions in 2023. They were OK with those conditions -- but only well into 2024, after weeks or a month. And by that point, it was too late for me to take the deal. I was already committed elsewhere."
There are many ways you can blow recruiting. But blowing it that way -- by agreeing too late, when you know WAY beforehand that your deadline to get it down will be a couple weeks into January -- THAT is some next-level ineptitude.
I agree with you, based on Partridge's public letter explaining the circumstances of his firing.
However, I think Michigan has said that under their administrative rules, they would not hire him back no matter what.
I think it sucks, but that's what I think it is.
Nah. Here is my opinion of the "whole Harbaugh affair":
That admin/regents displayed such a monstrous level of dumbassery that there should be an investigation and firings for inexcusable incompetence. Or if that much incompetence seems unbelievable, maybe there was an anti-Harbaugh faction that did it on purpose.
Because Harbaugh (one of the most sought-after coaches in all college AND pro football) WANTED to stay given conditions he proposed in 2023.
But they bumbled and fucked around well into 2024, until it was finally too late. THEN agreed to the conditions. Like incompetent morons.
If this is true:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466?s=20
If they can…
Yay for Moore!
If they can keep the rest of the coaches, too, I'm liking how 2024 is looking.
Among businessmen, there are good ones, incompetent ones, ones who undermine things they don't like, etc.
"Acker,…
I hope this isn't:
"Acker, old boy. The plebs are sniffing around our role in this whole Harbaugh affair, and turning their angry gaze toward us regents. They seem to like you, though. How about you write some rah-rah fluff for them to gobble down, to distract them onto different topics? Or write something that has us coming out looking swell. Did all we could, you know. Heroic effort under difficult circumstances and time pressure, and all that. Good man!"
Exactly right. That's why I suspect some regents are anti-Harbaugh and anti-Michigan football. I would not at all be surprised if there is a clique of them that torpedoed this by slow-walking it and having the opposite of person skills.
Michigan admin -- the deadliest enemy of Michigan football?
…
Incorrect if this is true:
https://twitter.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466
If that is true, Harbaugh was all set to stay. And Michigan bureaucrats totally, ineptly blew it.
"IMO, if he would have been treated with the respect that he deserved, he would have been happy to hang his cleats up in AA for the duration." That's what I believe, too. That's why I think a bunch of people should be fired. Inexcusable if that's the case.
If Warde hates Harbaugh, then in my opinion he should be shit canned.
Also, if that news is true, then no, Harbaugh leaving was absolutely NOT inevitable. Success was actually in the bag -- except for egregious mismanagement turning it into dismal failure.
If the news is true:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353682959401466?s=20
That is inexcusable ineptitude. To the point where there should be an investigation and firings.
With that level of ineptitude, if Michigan doesn't fix it, giant future problems are bound to crop up, with handling of other coaches, NIL, whatever.
That level of egregious ineptitude cannot be allowed to fester and to infect other important decisions.
It is enraging.
"A detail about the Harbaugh contract negotiations."
Sheesh.
"Reported that Michigan catastrophically mishandled Harbaugh contract negotiations" more like it.
No, I won't be watching the Chargers.
I do not care about the NFL.
What I do care about is if Minter, Herbert, or anyone else gets strip mined out of the Michigan football program to join the Chargers.
For people who really have experience in corporate recruiting and retention, you know that there are often factions. And not all factions have best interest of whole company at heart. They have personal interest at heart. So, if there is a guy they don't like, because he doesn't help further their plans, or personal vendetta, or "just not my kind of guy", or you don't want the football program to get too big for its britches, well, you can get shit like this.
Also, you know that there can be lots of incompetent assholes embedded in the system. People who will dig in heels over some thing that overall is a meaningless triviality because they can never see a big picture.
I've felt all along that Michigan admin was BLOWING IT. The signs were easy to see. Starting way too late. Stooging around over stuff that is not of major consequence in the end. Taking waaaaaaaaay too long while your candidate is exploring alternatives. And many others.
This news through J. U. Bacon:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353313696981186?s=20
If true, that confirms an inexcusable level of incompetence.
Or it could be purposeful sabotage by elements that could bog it down long enough for it to fail.
This whole thing was a shitty failure. In many places, people would get shit canned over it.
If Warde gets fired, I would not believe for a second that he is the only problem. I would believe only that he was part of it and a convenient scapegoat for others who get to skate away.
The above is all speculation, of course. I have no personal knowledge of any of the details involved and am providing my input here only in the spirit of a message board where people speculate widely.
Outrageous…
I f-ing knew it!
Outrageous!
They completely blew it.
Is it through sheer incompetence, or intentional? A bureaucratic pile of moronic bunglers, or a cesspool of despicable scheming saboteurs?
I'm wondering if there are anti-Harbaugh regents. And/or anti-football regents. People who would be way happier if Michigan had a football program like Yale, which would be inconsequential and know its place.
If this is true, there should be a bunch of people shit canned over this.
Damned enraging!
Fuck 'em all. They blew it.
I'm in BPOFH, bottomless pit of fiery hatred, for the administration.
Here's why the NCAA immunity stuff matters.
For jobs like Head Coach, CEO, etc., it is common to have termination language in the contract.
It is common to have things like, if you are terminated before normal contract end for other than Cause, we pay you X. But if it's for Cause, we don't pay you. So what counts as Cause is a usual point of negotiation in such contracts.
The problem in this case is that the NCAA made it a Level 1 violation for a head coach if any staff member does a Level 1 violation. So, if a staffer commits the violation, it gets assigned to you. That's OK if you encouraged the violation or didn't have appropriate communication or controls. But it's not OK if you didn't know and did all the right things with respect to communication and controls.
Few CEO's would agree to a contract that defined Cause to include anything bad under any circumstances done by someone else. It would have carve outs, like described above.
I suspect such carve outs will be standard in head-coaching contracts going forward. Not just for Harbaugh -- for any head coach.
So does Tom Mars:
If Michigan is unwilling to have some carve outs in Cause, they are not serious in their negotiations.
I'm hoping they are serious. I'm hoping they don't fumble it and blow it.
More reasons for Michigan admin not to blow it and get Harbaugh signed up.
Half a year or more of screwing around.
Don't blow it.
Michigan, get in there and get it done before Harbaugh gets taken out of your hands.
Don't fumble it. Don't blow it. Get a move on.
Get Harbaugh signed. …
Meh.
Get Harbaugh signed. Do what it takes. Don't blow it. No excuses.
This should have been done more than half a year ago.
Marvelous post. Where is my ability to give it a +1million?
…
Thanks for posting that.
Once college football is over, I looked forward to XFL, USFL, and CFL.
And I liked watching teams with Michigan players on them.
No, I read it all, and I understand it. I have a professional background in contracts, negotiation, and legal.
But you are correct about me really liking Harbaugh being coach.
FFS, just get Harbaugh signed.
All this stuff on immunity from the current BS smear campaign and wanting a 3-man panel instead of Warde should not be a big deal to get the excellent Harbaugh.
Don't blow it, Michigan admin.
Quit f-ing around and being timid and weak over a bunch of lame BS. Should have gotten this done half a year ago or more.
RealElonMusk, I like your post and agree completely.
Don't blow it, Michigan admin.
Don't be weak in the face of NCAA BS smear tactics.
Don't be incompetent and fumble the ball 1 foot from entering the end zone for the win.
If Michigan wants to compete with the NFL for Harbaugh, it has to have faith in him and realize that the NCAA stuff was a witch hunt and smear campaign.
Michigan has had plenty of time to look into the current BS and judge it. They can absolutely agree not to terminate for those items.
As for a panel for deciding cause instead of one man, that should be no barrier at all.
Don't blow this, Michigan administration.
Don't drop the ball on the 1 foot line right before you were about to get into the end zone for the win.
Don't be inept.
Step up with confidence and bravery for this excellent Michigan man, Jim Harbaugh.
Don't blow it…
Get Harbaugh.
Don't blow it.
Screw NCAA and Big 10.
Lol. Even with upvotes, an underappreciated comment. +1
True. But they didn't listen to my awesome suggestion to work in the reverse Statue of Liberty play with the backwards scramble for 30 yards, double reverse, lateral, then 90 yard bomb to one of our 300+ lb linemen with jersey change who sneakily lined up at TE. I was sort of peeved that they didn't use it and feel like it was probably good for an extra 2 touchdowns per game. Maybe this year.
Marvelous! Stewart! Scotland! Freeeeeeeeedom!