*IF* Harbaugh fails... Brent Venables?
First of all, I'm pulling for the team to turn things around and have a great season. Crazier things have happened (Lloyd's last yr, post-App St/Oregon, for example). But in the event it doesn't work out.. how about Brent Venables?
He's the best defensive mind in college football today. He's the only DC in the country who seems to be able to stop Elite modern offenses (in CFP games, against equal'ish competition).
He's only 48 yrs old. He's been the #2 man at a top-5 program (Oklahoma/Clemson) for the last 20 yrs; since he was 28. He knows how it's done at the highest level. He's an outstanding recruiter -- Rivals.com's National Recruiter of the year in 2016. He's got enough experience, 3 or 4 times over, to be ready.
He could probably bring one of Clemson's co-OC's (Tony Elliot-the more proven offensive mind *or* Jeff Scott-the elite recruiter) with him.. probably replacing himself as the highest-paid assistant in the land.
There's been talk about Clemson, Oklahoma over the yrs.. but he's been a college assistant coach for 26 yrs and I've never heard so much as a rumor about him doing anything below board (would you blame Don Brown if some Michigan booster gave a kid money?). I think it's completely irresponsible to baselessly say anything to the contrary.
Dabo, Kirby Smart, Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day -- the HC's at 4 of the top-5 programs had zero HC'ing experience before assuming their current roles.
And he publicly stated that he would've been interested in the Texas Tech HC'ing job had it been offered last yr. What other HC'ing jobs he's been offered in the past idk (he has, Dabo confirms).. but he makes more than half the power-5 coaches in his current role.. so it makes sense that he'd wait for a real big one.
I personally think he's the next Nick Saban. I think he'd be able to recruit / put together a staff of great recruiters. I think he'd be able to find solid, modern offensive minds. I think he'd be able to develop players. I think he'd be able to run our program with integrity. And I think he'd make elite defense (against elite competition.. sorry Don) the backbone of our program.. ala Saban.
What say you?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
Too soon.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
Absolutely yes, but you're going to get the blue blood donors wringing their hands over his possible under-the-table recruit payments so it won't happen.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:23 PM ^
Possible based on what exactly? What did you hear about Brent and where?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:42 PM ^
Are you really this dense? Just listen to Bacon talking about Gary's recruiting (in his new book). He basically says Clemson offered $200k to Gary (https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/dig2b9/mgoradio-5_0.mp3).
If you are fine with shitty morals, then fine, be honest about it. Don't friggin act like this is some news.
And if we are going to dig at the bottom of the barrel in morality, why not just go after Urban?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:44 PM ^
Sam assumes someone at Clemson offered him money. What's that have to do with Venables?
Is it Brian Dutcher's fault Ed Martin paid Chris Webber?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:45 PM ^
It is not Sam. Bacon got it from Gary. Venable is the main recruiter for Clemson. Do you also have problems adding 1 and 1?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:52 PM ^
Gary told Bacon "someone" offered him money. He and others ASSUME it was Clemson. And to further assume that it was Venables who offered him money and not some booster or something is absolutely ridiculous.
"#1 recruit in the country" brings out the boosters, bud.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:02 PM ^
So Urban says he did not mean to mislead people and did not know anything about his assistant beating his wife. So why would we go after Venables when Urban is available?
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:03 PM ^
There are literally hundreds of rumors about suspect things Urban has done. "Searching, searching...": Exactly zero about Venables.
What is the basis of your comparison?
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:04 PM ^
Bacon.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:05 PM ^
Bacon never said anything about Venables.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:11 PM ^
And it was never proven that Urban knew about the beatings.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:20 PM ^
There were literally hundreds of articles written about how he did.
Number of articles written about Venables doing anything wrong in almost 30yrs as an assistant? Correct--zero. Thank you.
September 23rd, 2019 at 8:43 PM ^
in 3 years will it really matter? New York just put a law to their senate to allow payment too. face it like it or not in 2023. SOMEONE IS GETTING PAID.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:34 PM ^
Venebles is widely reputed to be among the dirtiest recruiters in the nation and has been so for many years.
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:03 PM ^
So widely reputed that you can't find one article over the last 30yrs to send me, right?
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
...says the guy who can't come up with an article to back up his repeated claims about Venable wanting to take the Texas Tech job.
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:28 PM ^
Unfortunately I'm not 4 yrs old and your brilliant deflection techniques don't work.
A) Didn't find the exact article I was looking for, but a decent one--which I posted just now.
**B) Where is any article over the past 30 yrs even suggesting it could be suggested it was ever once suggested to be suggested that Venables has ever done anything to break any rules?
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:24 PM ^
And Shouldn't!!!!
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
Again, why? What is the issue with using full sentences.
September 23rd, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
2019 NCAA doesn't care. Just maintain some insulation from the program to provide plausible deniability, and it's okay. This is the message the NCAA has sent, again and again and again.
You want to compete for a NC in today's NCAA? You need a coach who can deliver a great offense, defense, connections, AND establish a cheating system that meets the NCAA standard of teflon.
And that's essentially according to the NCAA.
I don't like it, but if that's the game, that's the game.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
If he knows how to pay 5* recruits, not get caught and have them produce great results on the field then I’m all for it ??♂️??♂️
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
If Harbaugh succeeds though, lets stick with him.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
I feel like I’ve read this 26 other times today. Give it a rest. It will never happen
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:24 PM ^
Care to explain why we wouldn't hire -- hands-down -- the best candidate for the job?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:26 PM ^
He wouldn’t talk to us. We wouldn’t bother calling him.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
Why wouldn't we call him?
Why wouldn't he talk to us (when he was basically asking Texas Tech to offer him their HC'ing job in the media last off-season)?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
Michigan won’t call because they have a stick up their ass. He wouldn’t talk to Michigan because it:
A. Won’t cut corners academically.
B. Won’t allow for SEC/ACC shenanigans.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:56 PM ^
A) What corners does Venables cut academically?
B) What "SEC/ACC" shenanigans has Venables partaken in?
Do you want me to answer for you... or do you want to say that you're just baselessly shouting out completely unfounded, bitter assumptions.
C) Should this proverbial "stick" be what continues to run our program into irrelevance?
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:09 PM ^
Some of the players Venables would want to bring in would probably not qualify academically.
Clemson is known to utilize bagmen. You can deny it all you want, but the proof is there.
The stick is a lot of different things that have helped lead Michigan to where it is. It is hard to explain without naming names, but let's just say it takes more than one cook to fuck up a stew.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:19 PM ^
A) Who are the bad students that Venables wants to bring to Michigan? Who are the bad students that he brought to Clemson? How did you find out?
B) Michigan got caught (was not rumored) using bag men. Which assistant coach on the staff was "doing" that. How did you find out?
Just more baseless inaccurate blasting. This is what makes us worse than Notre Dame ever was.
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^
Bro, do you not understand that different schools have different standards for what football players get let in? It was a big reason Wisconsin lost a coach to Oregon State like 6 years ago
September 23rd, 2019 at 5:34 PM ^
BRO, what are the differences in academic standards between Michigan and Clemson?? Please tell me. I'd love to know. (because there are none).
If you meet the minimum NCAA standards... you get into Clemson, OSU, Bama, Michigan, Michigan St. 18 on the ACT and like a 2.0 gpa or whatever it is now.
We're not Notre Dame. Or Stanford, Northwestern, etc. We have no higher entrance standards.
Harder politically to get convicted criminals in here, given the media attention. But tell me, please -- what convicted criminals/horrible students has Clemson let in? Venables specifically. Where is your evidence that he loves bad human beings and has recruited them so relentlessly.
Seems like Michigan's had much worse student athlete problems than Clemson over the past 10 yrs... Gibbons, Lewan, Frank Clark, etc. I can't think of a single Clemson guy who's gotten in trouble lately..
September 24th, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
There are 2 former teammates of Shea Patterson at Ole Miss that beg to differ. They wanted to transfer here also but couldn't clear UM admissions. Obviously they cleared NCAA admissions. Sorry, but your statement that all you have to do is clear NCAA admissions is straight up wrong. UM admissions COULD have cleared them to enter but CHOSE not to.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
.... it's because the 'fathful' have no stomach for a non-Michigan-Man at the helm, they want the team to look like they're coached by Bo, but with a soft touch (lol), and perform like Alabama.
M can't figure out why the above is not working because "This is Michigan" lmao... once they pull their heads out of their lower posteriors, and realize that no one else gives a damn if it's "Michigan" then they'll finally join the rest of us in the 21st century.
In other words... remove ego from the equation... then they'll have success!
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:20 PM ^
This is in virtually every posting on the board.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:25 PM ^
Virtually every post on the board is about who the HC of this program should be. I'm glad the best guy for the job is at least being discussed finally.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
"I'm glad the best guy for the job is at least being discussed finally."
True, but you are the only one discussing him.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
Who are you referring to as "him"?
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
Seriously? Him = Venables
You have posted about HIM in nearly every thread today.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:59 PM ^
Palm to face. sigh.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:20 PM ^
"I'm totally down with the team and hope they pull it out, but I wanna talk about a new coach."
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:26 PM ^
"Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst" is a fairly un-novel approach.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:45 PM ^
Ah, it's been awhile since we've had a "Make an awful OP and then respond to every response in a futile effort to keep my MGoPoints above 100" troll.
Good times.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^
Like I care about my whatever points aside from getting to start this thread.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:23 PM ^
Well, thankfully you made this stupid thread and commented a bunch in it, which allows us to neg you to oblivion and prevent you from making more posts.
Now we just need the mods to delete this thread and ban your account
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:26 PM ^
Good work. Glad you accomplished your goal. Thumbs up.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:20 PM ^
Mods delete.
This is about the tenth time I have seen this same exact post letter for letter.
Mr Copy and Paste needs a time out.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:40 PM ^
27, but who’s counting.