Jaybaugh is a good coach and should be recognized as such
There has always been an undercurrent of discontent on this message board with Jay Harbaugh. Likely because of suspicions of nepotism and frustration with the family name. It has never made sense to me and I think we should put it to bed. Jaybaugh is both a good recruiter and a good coach. My evidence:
His recruiting has been fantastic. We have landed several top options at both TE and RB with him as the primary/sole recruiter. This running back room was entirely recruited by him. The running back room is so deep that the best back in the PAC 12 transferred out because he wasn't getting enough touches. And that decision was justifiable! He beat OSU for the best RB in the country and found the fourth-best back in the country (as ranked by PFF) under a rock in Missouri.
The dude can evaluate talent, recruit talent, and land recruits.
As for coaching, this offseason he was moved to TE & Special Teams coach. From Today's UFR:
"The dirty secret to Michigan’s excellent running game this year is the tight ends are doing as much or more than the official hogmollies. Of them, Erick All is an All-Big Ten player who had an All-American caliber game. The reason Michigan loves to run split zone and counter in the first place is it usually ends with Erick All kicking out a stationary defender of some kind."
UM also has one of the best special team units in the country.
Sounds like he might be doing a good job on the Xs and Os.
Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here (I know there are some detractors out there) but I think Jay should be recognized as a huge asset to the program. Go Blue and Beat State!
October 27th, 2021 at 2:16 PM ^
If I die....tell my wife....hello.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:16 PM ^
Beat staee
October 27th, 2021 at 2:17 PM ^
You might be a redneck if you live in a rural area and behave as such
October 27th, 2021 at 2:18 PM ^
You might be a redneck if you stand out in the sun too long without sun protection
October 27th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:47 PM ^
I did build a tower tumbling through the trees
October 27th, 2021 at 6:33 PM ^
I get the Foxworthy reference, but I thought I'd chime in with an interesting tidbit about the word redneck.
https://www.wvpublic.org/news/2015-05-18/do-you-know-where-the-word-red…
"The thing that gets me, I guess, and what makes me want to do this, and tell other people about this, is that all these immigrants from all these different countries, they didn’t speak the same language. They did not have the same culture. And they were fighting each other and divided. But when they tied on these bandanas and marched, they became a brotherhood. And one of the things I love about the union is that the union was one of the early ones that said equal pay for blacks and whites. It’s pretty special.”
The term redneck predates it, but the red bandanas at The Battle of Blair Mountain seem to have had a "reclaiming" effect on it. After learning about the history of it I stopped using "redneck" as an insult.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:18 PM ^
I wholeheartedly endorse this view. It seems to me that Michigan fans will only value JayBaugh when he is gone. Unfortunately, he is going to be gone soon because he is going to be picked up by a MAC team or similar mid-major program to be an OC or possibly the HC. He knows recruiting, he knows football, and he is being groomed for bigger roles. I think his resume is strong enough that someone will grab him in a year that will have a stunning number of coaching changes.
October 28th, 2021 at 3:07 AM ^
Getting a job for a non-family member is exactly what the guy needs to do if he actually wants to prove himself.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:20 PM ^
I think he's fine. The areas he is responsible for certainly seem to do well. A lot of people criticized his RB coaching because the RBs in past years didn't seem to quite make the right cuts or reach their potential. How much is due to his coaching and how much is due to their performance is unclear; multiple guys under Jay frustrated us by picking bad holes, but Haskins is excellent this year and he really developed into the #1 type that pushed out Charbonnet under Jay. One thing that has been visible is that Michigan running backs got really good at blocking under Jay, including guys like Karan Higdon for whom it wasn't their calling card but became a weapon.
A lot of people blame him for things that aren't really his call, like rotating 4 RBs last year. Whether he was a good RB coach is tough to tell, but I never saw him as a negative. He certainly does seem to be good at recruiting, and seems fine as a staff guy who is producing good special teams performances. Of course, part of the special teams thing is just having good kickers this year, and there's absolutely no way Jay can offer any meaningful coaching to strengthen the kickers, since the position is notoriously challenging to coach as it is.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:32 PM ^
I'm not an insider, but I'll offer one perspective on Jaybaugh as ST coach. The Harbaugh family is really tight, and famously communicate and share coaching ideas/thoughts.
Jay's Uncle John is maybe the best ST coach on the planet. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Jay has learned a ton about ST's - including kicking - from John and the entire Harbaugh family.
October 27th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
This is the point I wanted to make -- Jay spent multiple years learning from John Harbaugh, certified special teams guru. He also has a direct line to talk about trends, ideas, and strategies with him as well. It shouldn't be a huge surprise that he's been pretty good in that roll. And while it looks like Hart was an upgrade over him at RB coach, he's always been solid, whether coaching TEs or RBs.
October 27th, 2021 at 6:19 PM ^
Excellent point. A lot of good “nurture” here.
October 27th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Baxter and Partridge probably rubbed off on him as well
October 27th, 2021 at 2:23 PM ^
We are lucky to have Coach Jay at this point. If he were not Coach Jim Harbaugh’s son, he probably would have left for a promotion by now. We should be thankful for his loyalty to his dad and this program. We are getting quite the bargain.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:36 PM ^
I never thought he had the resume to warrant his position, but since being an assistant at UM he's proven he's not only a good coach but also a good recruiter. I'm sure he doesn't have the technical knowledge that Mike Hart does coaching RBs. But, his units have always performed well and I've never heard any of his players say anything negative about him.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:04 PM ^
He can be a good RB coach, and yet still be not as good as another RB coach. There's no shame in that...
October 27th, 2021 at 4:17 PM ^
That's sound thinking. Could that apply to other positions on the team ?
October 27th, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^
Dorothy Manthooth is a SAINT!
October 27th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
I'm more of a Nurse Dixie McCall kind of guy myself.
October 28th, 2021 at 1:59 PM ^
Wow, that’s a name that I’ll bet most on this board don’t recognize. +1 to you for pulling it out of the TV archives.
October 28th, 2021 at 10:16 PM ^
Is Randolf Mantooth the link between these two comments? My girlfriend at Stockwell once said she would leave me in a second for Ranldolf Mantooth. Blast from the past.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:46 PM ^
Preach Brother! I have been saying this for a while. When he took over the special teams in 2016, they were as good as the year before with a ST guru running the show. He moved to the RBs, and as a group they were team strength. Back to ST, and the beat goes on.
Jaybaugh would benefit from moving to another school and coaching for someone other than his dad. Not because he needs to improve professionally (although that is always a goal), but so he can get out from under Jim's shadow and be recognized for his own merit.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:05 PM ^
I've been harping your second paragraph for a couple of years now. Dude has earned his keep.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:47 PM ^
I think a lot of posters can’t get over that he is Jim’s son … overlooking that college football coaching is seldom actually a meritocracy. Most guys get their big break through personal connections.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:49 PM ^
He's an elite recruiter and special teams coordinator, and his TE groups have been better than the TEs with any other coach in the Harbaugh era. He's good.
Hart is still a huge upgrade as RBs coach.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:32 PM ^
I think you hit the big points. He's a very good recruiter, and very good at coaching TEs (his pre-Michigan coaching background) and ST (which he picked up very well from Baxter and Partridge, and maybe some from John Harbaugh and his time in Baltimore as well).
He wasn't a bad RB coach by any means, and was probably pretty decent on the whole, but Hart is still a huge upgrade, and that's not a slight to Jay, because Hart is a great coach. Plus the fact that he had little to no experience coaching RBs when he took over (due to staff shuffling). I remember reading insider reports that, at least early on with the RBs, he leaned heavily on grad assistants and was using Youtube videos or something like that (no joke) to learn how to coach the position...
October 27th, 2021 at 4:12 PM ^
Funny, I remember reading several interviews with runningback recruits who said they were always amazed at his knowledge and that they improved just by being recruited by him. Youtube must be pretty smart.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:57 PM ^
Lot of observations in this post by the OP. Enough to know this topic has been discussed as nauseam.
October 27th, 2021 at 2:58 PM ^
Jaybaugh has been excellent for years, and this year is when the fruits of that excellence are most fully on display. His recruiting in particular has been a huge asset to the program. So if that's a "nepotism hire," then it's one that's worked out better than just about any other example I'm aware of, in any field
October 27th, 2021 at 3:07 PM ^
No one claimed nepotism when Rex Ryan hired his brother Rob in Buffalo......
October 27th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
Now do me!
October 27th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
While nepotism may have helped get him through the door, his competency at every position he's been assigned to has kept him in good standing. He is a very good, young, coach that can recruit and teach. He may not have played the game at a high level, but he's learned it from family members that have significant coaching accomplishments: won a college National Championship through an actual playoff; won multiple NFC/AFC Championship games; won the Super Bowl; held head coach/coaching positions across a bevy of nationally recognized top performing organizations; are still held in high regard by peers across the football world.
The kid knows football, he knows how to teach it, and he knows how to recruit for it.
I'll reiterate what was said earlier in this thread, though. He needs to get out from under Dad and Uncle to make his own name. He'll be successful wherever he goes - so I hope it isn't to a program that will compete with UM. But honestly, I hope he sticks around a couple more years...
October 27th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
Beat State.
Or, to echo DetroitBlue's use of that old standby, Beat Staee.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:15 PM ^
I'm just going to come out and write that Jay will end up being a better college HC at Michigan than his Dad.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:41 PM ^
Dick Dastardly, you did it again
October 27th, 2021 at 3:22 PM ^
It was a nepotism hire, of course it is going to come under scrutiny. However, I think it's clear he has passed.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
October 27th, 2021 at 3:24 PM ^
At this point, this is among the coldest takes out there. I keep hearing about this supposed "discontent" however I'm not sure I've ever actually seen it in the wild.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
Saw it a lot during the coaching overhaul this offseason - multiple people crying that Jaybaugh should be out just like the rest
October 27th, 2021 at 3:48 PM ^
Oh, I've definitely seen it in the wild. After the early season success of our running game I had a friend state "amazing what happens when you get a real running back coach".
October 27th, 2021 at 3:25 PM ^
From the Jon Jansen podcast earlier this week, it was Jaybaugh who recognized the opportunity from Northwestern's specific punt formation for a block, and singled out Cornelius Johnson to practice a "one-shot" play to pull it off. I thought that was pretty cool.
October 27th, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
He's a virtual lock to be a head coach someday. Maybe even here, who knows?
October 27th, 2021 at 3:29 PM ^
Always been a good coach in my book.