Ann Arbor: A city in distress
A search that most are considering botched to this point has the majority of the Michigan alumni and die hard fan base in an uproar. As we know, the process of finding a coach to lead a program you hold near and dear can be a stressful time.
The rumors that fly and the fear or excitement they create when you imagine the rumored coach running your program is a heartburn inducing period that rivals the aftershocks from a White Castle Crave Case at 3am.
Think about it, remember how the Gruden, Belotti and Mason rumors, among others, made you feel? What about when Spielman's name surfaced or when The Vest was officially announced and the subsequent presser? The emotional roller coaster that unfolds churns the gut even when the selection turns out as well as the Tressel Era.
Michigan's search has that usual drama and accompanying acid reflux but its got some extra spice as Bo disciples continue to bash AD Bill Martin and Lloyd Carr for the supposed hijacking of a Les Miles To Michigan Lovefest. A popular thought is Martin either moved to slowly handing Miles the keys and/or Lloyd helped kill the possibility due to an undisclosed beef he has with Miles. Which brings up an obvious question. Assuming that's true, why on Earth does Lloyd have a say in who takes over? Fire, meet Kerosene.
Rutgers is a better job? Wow.
Sprinkle in the knowledge that Greg Schiano turned down the Wolverines and 2.2 mil a year after other names such as Kirk Ferentz and Brian Kelly (supposedly) came and went and UM appears to be left with Cal coach Jim Tedford, former Carr assistant and current Ball State head coach Brady Hoke and current Michigan coordinators, Ron English and Mike DeBord. Yikes. I think. You can never be to sure with success stories like the Tressel hiring.
Anyway, it's highly doubtful any of the current rumors get the job which leads us back to Les Miles. Do you think there's still a chance he ends up in Michigan even if that means Bill Martin is out or Carr's ties to Michigan take another hit?
I personally think there's still a legit shot. From what I've seen, Miles has a little Crazy in him and he probably wanted the UM job but only if truly welcomed. If those, such as Carr don't embrace him, maybe they'll be pushed aside by the majority paving the way for Les to leave LSU in favor of a chance to save Bo's program.
No matter what happens, its nice to know the collective hearburn of the Michigan faithful rages on as they struggle with losing 6 of 7 to Ohio State, dropping 6 of 7 bowls, losing to I-AA Appalachian State and now most likely hosing up a coaching search with the program at a crossroads.
Comments
What if by some gifted by God Himself Christmas present, Michigan decides to scrap the search for this year and allow Lloyd to step in for one more season. How unbelievable would that be...
*gift
if Michigan is smart *giggle*, they throw all their chips in Brian Kelly's direction. Be it Tressel or Paul Johnson -- who sadly left Navy -- there's a lot to be said about people who've demonstrated that they can win (I guess I'm saying that looking at the line in the Tressel announcement of "Jim Tressel is 135-57-2 with four I-AA national titles, but has no prior I-A head coaching experience."). Winning at that level requires program building skills and acquires coaching prowess and confidence in the ability to win and expect to win. Kelly has demonstrated that at the DII level with two national titles and a terrifying W/L ratio.
The thought of Kelly at Michigan worries me some, but I hope someone takes him away from Cincinnati, even Michigan. It may just be me, but the last thing Ohio State football needs -- aside from a loss again in January -- is an in-state rival. Curse the conference alignments and the BCS caste system that makes ESPN's Saturday morning noontime game crew call Cincitucky a "rival" of OSU.
It's funny Michigan is in this spot, but I'm hoping they get someone good, even Kelly. I'm fine with the Big Ten being Ohio State, Michigan and the nine dwarves (per Lou Holtz), but it hurts us and hurts the conference in general for Michigan to be in this spell.
Yeah, of course I hate Michigan. But I cannot possibly be delighted in their distress of the past 7 years. What hurts them really hurt us. We can't get any respect because no one in our conference is 'good', let alone great (although I beg to differ - but I'm not the media, nor do I get a vote). So I'm rooting for Michigan to kick some Florida ass (a team I despise now more than ever). And I'm rooting for the B10 to show up this bowl season. I think Illinois matches up pretty good with USC, despite the naysayers. And Wisconsin and Penn State have a pretty good chance with their opponents.
Back to the point of the post - I cannot imagine them picking up Les Miles. What if they lose to OSU in the title game? Do they really want him as a coach after proving that he can't win against us? I just don't see them taking a risk like that - Miles hasn't really proven himself as a great football coach.
SVM, "Rumors" are that Michigan is no longer interested in Kelly because he has a rep as being hard to deal with and hard to control from an athletic director standpoint.
hmm, but they were courting Miles who is probably guilty of the same thing (http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/20...). Heh, cool... at least the UM coaching saga makes for great blogreading.
who knows....everything is just a rumor.....how many times have we seen coaches say they weere going to do one thing and then 2 months later turn around and do the exact opposite.....and the same goes for athletic directors.
I'm also not sure how Les Miles signing a new contract with LSU takes him out of the Michigan coaching consideration.....the section under "termination by coach" supposedly didn't change at all from his previous contract. And hell, we gave John Cooper a new contract after the Michigan game and then turned around and fired him after the bowl game.
JEFF Tedford?
Agreed, Wil...Miles signed it but it has the same buyout clause for Michigan that it had before...brian's got the podcast of Miles discussing that provision with Dan Patrick over at mgoblog if anybody's interested..
I don't see Miles coming to UM now at all, the AD and President screwed this one up. I thought this might happen, Bill Martin is a former Real Estate developer turned Athletic Director and I was at Iowa when Mary Sue Coleman help screw up the football and basketball searches there, Ferentz and Alford.
How does a Martin have 3 months to prepare a list and come up with 20 names? One would think there would be ample time to whittle the list down to 3-5 "serious" candidates before Carr officially announced his retirement.
I am seriously enjoying this and I go to MGoBlog everyday to read reactions from their fans, which has caused me to laugh out loud plenty of times over the last couple of weeks.
But in all honesty, is there a coach out there better than Tressel?
One word Corey..... "No"
I'd have made a run at Paul Johnson when he was available. He's a heck of a coach, and anyone who can build a winner at Navy should surely do well at a major program with the cache of m*ch*g*n. I'm very surprised he took the Georgia Tech job; Martin let one slip away, methinks.
(I find the Sean Payton rumors hysterically funny, though. He may well be less of a game manager than Miles, if that's possible.)
This situation isn't as bad as it looks. OSU courted Belotti before "settling" on Tressel, and when we did hire a D-II coach, the folks in m*ch*g*n were laughing out loud. The Team Up North needs to take a step back, catch their breath, and not let the fans run the search. There are plenty of good coaches out there, but m*ch*g*n has to understand that cache isn't enough anymore - they're going to have to pay their coach competitive money.
I am, however, surprised that I don't see five hundred candidates banging down the door to coach there. For a program considered to be "one of the top three or four jobs in the country," the lack of public campaigning on the part of coaches across the country is very interesting.
Who, in all honesty, would want to come to Michigan, into what will already be a rebuilding year, and know that they have to beat OSU or the fans will retaliate? I think it is going to take someone like tressle who has proven ability, but needs the chance to prove it. I am not sure any "big" names will be willing to coach there for a while...
Great points, Joe. I mentioned, and totally agree, that while it looks bad now you just never know how it might turn out based on the Tressel process. I do think you make a great point about Michigan needing to realize that coaches aren't as overwhelmed with the opportunity to coach there as they used to be therefore the purse strings must be loosened to get an established guy.
I say they do away with the whole school.
More on the increasing Possibility of Miles Re-Visisted..
http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/20...
John L Smith is still available.
Fear his Power.
It is not likely that Les Miles will take the Michigan job, but there is some precedent. Les signed an extension before a bowl game with Oklahoma State and afterwards took the LSU job after Saban bailed. So, he might be nutty enough to do that again.
As for Michigan being a prime job, that is based on the past. With the amount of parity in college football, no coach needs to go to Michigan to have the potential of making it to a National Championship game. Besides, who would want to try to rebuild that program knowing how much pressure there is to win at Michigan, compared to lesser pressure to win at other schools.
Not too mention, having to listen too and take some direction from AD Bill Martin and the new Assistant AD Lloyd Carr.
As for facilities, many schools have facilities that are just as good as Michigan's. Plus, Michigan stadium sucks. Further, how about the sucky fans? Shaking their keys and looking like cheerleaders for the morgue? Come on, many schools have better fans than that.
Also, why would recruits from warmer climates want to go to Ann Arbor? At least Columbus has a lot more going for it and is close to many other interesting locales.
And, Michigan has a history of not developing it's players as well as it should, hence the lack of NFL drafts and 1st rounders.
Finally, anyone following the Big Ten has to know, that Tressel is the real deal. With what Tressel and his staff have accomplished, it would be very difficult and unlikely for a new coach to come in and win The Game. The Buckeyes are too well coached.
I find this situation hilarious and it does not matter if Michigan comes back or not. Some other Big Ten teams are stepping up and will fill the void. Look for the Big Ten to come back into prominence in 3 to 4 years. Maybe more quickly, if the Big Ten wins the majority of its bowl games this year and keeps wining it's out of conference games next season.
Keep in mind, past Wolverine success has hinged on their ability to come in and poach studs out of the state of Ohio. With the work Tressel has done lately in erecting that fence around the state, that makes the job even less appealing.
Of course we'll miss a couple (Sutton, Ringer, etc.) but Tressel gets whoever he wants in state these days.
haha boeckman fett, someone been watching that HBO documentary?
Saw the HBO documentary but didn't need that tot
tell me that only one state produced allow thestuds for the rivalry.