[TDDance234]

RichRod didn't do any favors LEAVING WV or GOING to Michigan. (His wife wasnt exactly loved in either place as well)
I hate to see people lose jobs, but I thought the UM AD said it right. It was a bad fit and it wasn't b/c of lack of effort that caused the problems. Not sure Rich Rod's system would work in Ann Arbor or the Big 10. Purdue SORTA runs something similar, but the expectations aren't the same in West Lafayette as they are in Ann Arbor. Purdue can be on a roller coaster, UM CAN'T.
Les Miles would probably look long and hard at the Michigan job. LSU fans were on his case the last few years, and it wasn't like his record is THAT bad. He would LOVE to coach at UM. IF they can't get Harbaugh, I'd say LES IS MORE!

There were a few LSU fans on his case - but the guy has a National Championship and if he stays, LSU is likely a top-5 team next year. He's not going anywhere.

[ALUmnus]

Some names being thrown around to fill the vacancy at UConn:

KC Keeler (Delaware)
Phil Fulmer (Formerly Tennessee)
Mark Whipple (Formerly UMass, with Miami last year)
Tom Bradley (Penn St)
Hank Hughes (current interim at UConn)
Bill McGovern (BC)
Ken O'Keefe (Iowa)

There's also the many pipe-dream candidates, the usual NFL assistants and coaches that have been recently fired.

[LUconn]

eck, I hate all of those. Some stupid some boring. Pretty much what I expected them to do.

The Dolphins are also keeping Sparano Captain Smartypants. I bet it made him feel great that their owner flew out to San Fransisco to beg Harbaugh though.

[RubberMallet]

Not sure Rich Rod's system would work in Ann Arbor or the Big 10.

baloney. the spread offense regularly annihilates the big 10. that was what was so exciting about the hire 3 years ago. the system would work. it just takes time. i understand the firing but look moron alum. we aren't going to find a reincarnated bo. its not going to happen. we watched his last clone get lost in a new era of college football.

fire rr and bring in harbaugh or miles. ok i'll live. but hoke and fitzgerald are not steps forward. rr is a better coach than they are. and now we have to deal with denard possibly transfering.

[Cider Jim]

Rich Rod's system...we watched his last CLOWN get lost in a new era of college football.

FIFY

[Purple Haize]

MALLET - Before we go any further, since I was forced to change MY avatar, maybe you should look into changing yours
Purdue runs the spread. How is that working out for them year in and year out? Northwestern runs an "Up Temp" offense as well. I am not convinced that it can work year in year out in the Big 10. Alot of it has to do with brining those types of players in from Florida and Texas to visit Ann Arbor in say DECEMBER!! I can be convinced, but not there yet.
Now if they hired a certain former Texas Tech football coach.........

[RubberMallet]

MALLET - Before we go any further, since I was forced to change MY avatar, maybe you should look into changing yours
Purdue runs the spread. How is that working out for them year in and year out? Northwestern runs an "Up Temp" offense as well. I am not convinced that it can work year in year out in the Big 10. Alot of it has to do with brining those types of players in from Florida and Texas to visit Ann Arbor in say DECEMBER!! I can be convinced, but not there yet.
Now if they hired a certain former Texas Tech football coach.........

purdue and northwestern aren't michigan football.

25% of our roster is from florida/tx. denard is from florida. we can pull players with the best of them.

osu ran a modified spread with troy smith and they murdered the big 10.

[From the class of 09]

osu ran a modified spread with troy smith and they murdered the big 10.

OSU had something called a defense too

[LUconn]

is football season in the mountains of WV that much better than in Big 10 country? How many years in a row did we watch that offense embarrass Ohio State (Big 10 champs) in a bowl game? It's just absurd how little time they gave the guy KNOWING that he would have to change 100% of the roster to fit his system. The system you KNEW he ran. Which is why you hired him in the first place.

[Purple Haize]

Emphasis on the PAST tense word RAN a spread offense.
You will need more then 25% of your roster from Fla/Tx b/c in the Midwest they grow cornfed linemen! Not alot of fleet of foot athletes. Now QB's, THAT is another story. (Which is why I brought up Texas Tech)
As for football in the Mountains, yes it IS different then up in Ann Arbor. The Big Ten, despite being horribly over rated, is still tougher then the Big East. Also, remember that both Slaton and White were 3rd stringers before RichRod was forced to play them b/c of injury. No one was more suprised at how good they were then RichRod. To his credit he adopted his system to fit that tremendous talent.
I am not sold on RichRod, but probably would have given him more the benefit of the doubt on his coaching props had he stayed at WVU. Yes, the loss to Pitt STILL stings!

[vastrightwinger]

Harbaugh to the 49er's...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5999744

And the Dolphins are now talking extension with Tony Sparano. This may be one of the weirdest 48 hours in Dolphins history. It makes sense why they can't put together a solid winning team.

[bravo269er]

The dolphins front office believes they are a elite job, and that's obviously not the case. Miami fans are typically fairweather fans, and only show up in force when the wins are coming. They haven't won a SB in 30 years, and there is that NE machine that keeps dominating. I don't blame Harbaugh for wanting nothing to do with them. Sparano is still the coach, and look how Miami openly courted Harbaugh. It's embarassing, and who's to stay it wouldn't happen to Harbaugh? It's just comical.

[4everfsu]

Hoke to Michigan


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6012465

[RubberMallet]

stupid.

[Sly Fox]

As a native Ohioan, I can picture in my mind all of my Buckeye friends rolling on the floor laughing at this turn of events.

[jmdickens]

good hire

[From the class of 09]

yeah i actually think he will do well if they give him a chance

[ALUmnus]

I know this guy's a defensive coach, but what style of play does he use? And I don't see how this hire would make Buckeye fans laugh, they pulled their current sweater-vest from I-AA.

[RubberMallet]

osu ran a modified spread with troy smith and they murdered the big 10.

OSU had something called a defense too

best in the nation but that doesn't really matter when you put up almost 40pts a game.

[RubberMallet]

I know this guy's a defensive coach, but what style of play does he use? And I don't see how this hire would make Buckeye fans laugh, they pulled their current sweater-vest from I-AA.

well he is on record saying he hates the spread. so now we all sit and wait for one fo the best players in the nation to announce his transfer.

from mgoblog:

This is a stupid hire. It will always be as stupid hire and David Brandon just led the worst coaching search in the history of Michigan football. He managed to chase off half of an already iffy recruiting class, hired a Plan C coach on January 11th, probably ensured the transfer of the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and restricted his "national search" to people who'd spent at least five years in Ann Arbor. Michigan just gave themselves a year of USC-level scholarship reduction voluntarily.

What are the chances that the best available coach is a 52-year-old with a 47-50 career record and no experience as a coordinator? Why weren't a half-dozen coordinators with time and results on their side given the opportunity to interview? Why did Brandon waste time with Les Miles, a guy on the downside who may not have even gotten a serious offer? After learning a hard lesson about program continuity with the last hire why did Michigan hire a guy who professes to hate the spread 'n' shred a day after two spread teams played for the national title?

I'd rather have Rich Rodriguez entering year four with a new defensive staff than this, a total capitulation. Does anyone remember Tressel's record against Lloyd Carr? 5-1. Change was necessary. It didn't work, but that doesn't mean you go back to the stuff that required change.

Michigan should still be better next year. It depends on what goes on with the offense. Calvin Magee has already been hired at Pitt, so don't get your hopes up about tempting Denard by keeping the offensive staff that matters (QB coach and OC) unchanged.* The defense should be much better simply by virtue of returning approximately ten starters if you throw in Troy Woolfolk and not dragging the devilishly handsome corpse of Greg Robinson around. At the very least Hoke should have a quarterback, even if it's redshirt freshman Devin Gardner.

A completely average coach should be able to take 20 returning starters on a 7-6 team that sees the schedule ease considerably and get to 9-3. That's good, because that's probably what we hired. If Denard's out the door all bets are off except "will Brian cut down or across?"

*[Tony Gibson immediately found work at Pitt, too, which is amazing: the most maligned position coach on RR's staff is unemployed for ten days while most of Carr's coordinators fled to the NFL to be an assistant (to the) position coach. The exceptions are Stan Parrish, who is on a quest to rack up the worst winning percentage as a head coach in CFB history, Greg Mattison, who left voluntarily for an equivalent job at Notre Dame and shouldn't count as a pro, and Ron English, who got hired by Kragthorpe.]

Prepare for the media 180. This hypothetical 9-3 will cause the media to fall all over themselves declaring Brady Hoke the polar opposite of Rich Rodriguez (lazy media meme #1 is already underway) and whipsaw Michigan back to the positive side of the media ledger, whereupon that period where Michigan State could literally have 20% of their football team descend upon innocent bystanders in back to back years while Michigan gets painted as the Program Out Of Control will end with authoritah. Sportswriters—even the good ones—love nothing better than holding themselves above the outraged plebes, arguing that whatever they think is foolish.

We're unhappy, so they'll defend Brady Hoke to their dying single-sentence paragraph. This would have been a fascinating dynamic to watch if Miles was the guy. Seeing Rosenberg paper over Miles's oversigning hijinks would have been hilarious/infuriating. Since it's Hoke it will just be generic "why can't you be happy going 9-3 every year and beating OSU 30% of the time, I mean look at Rodriguez!"

Prepare for the program alum 180. Judging from twitter, Michigan guys in the NFL are happy, so there's that. At least we won't have Mark Bihl advising recruits to go to Michigan State and Dhani Jones walking into David Brandon's office and demanding a firing. Thanks for your support, guys! Your loyalty in this tough time is appreciated.

This is actually Hoke's main asset relative to non-Michigan candidates: the program won't be actively hoping he fails. This is not an insignificant bonus relative to Rodriguez.

[BigAl57]

well he is on record saying he hates the spread. so now we all sit and wait for one fo the best players in the nation to announce his transfer.

There goes my ticket resale prices

[LUconn]

Meanwhile it looks like Uconn will be hiring Mark Whipple. ugh. At least it's a guy with a background in offense I guess. But they interviewed Arkansas' OC. I think that would have been the better hire.

[ALUmnus]

That blogger guy called Devan Gardner a redshirt freshman, but they played him this year. Doesn't that make him a sophmore? And if Robinson left, wouldn't Forcier jump at the chance to start? Not that he's the better option, of course, but he's a great option to fall back on.

[RubberMallet]

That blogger guy called Devan Gardner a redshirt freshman, but they played him this year. Doesn't that make him a sophmore? And if Robinson left, wouldn't Forcier jump at the chance to start? Not that he's the better option, of course, but he's a great option to fall back on.

i don't know what the rules are exactly. Forcier will probably transfer. thats been the word for a few months prior to the bowl game anyway. he certainly isn't a prostyle qb and has a great eye for running in spots.

[jcmanson]

ESPN is reporting that Forcier is no longer with the program.