Thankful that we are not Coach Shopping this year
With LSU, USC, and UF all open now, we'd probably be 4th in line at best for a coach. We have Jim below market value at this point and at least one or two hires are going to completely flame out and those programs will continue to be down. Beat Ohio and get us win #11
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:28 PM ^
"Jim should get fired if we don't beat Ohio State" -- someone on this site, still!
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:31 PM ^
Well, OSU under Day has yet to lose a Big ten game. So no one is beating OSU, before the year I thought 8-4 with the road games being losses. I'm very happy with this year, even knowing whats about to happen saturday. Rose Bowl would be a hell of a come back year!
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:42 PM ^
OSU also hasn’t had a bad QB in my entire life
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:12 PM ^
Steve Bellisari, I miss you.
You too, John Cooper.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:39 PM ^
Stanley Jackson FTW (ours).
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
Bellisari was always good for an ill-timed turnover. Basically their Adrian Martinez. Their little down period from 1999-2001 coincided with him starting.
Then he got arrested for drunk driving in November 2001 and was suspended for our game. Of all the luck.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:16 PM ^
That fuckin game. And yet, if we only have 4 turnovers instead of 5, we win, and start the clock on Tressel being winless in the rivalry.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:19 PM ^
OSU has UPGRADED every single time they changed coaches since Woody
Earl Bruce-won a little
John Cooper-won a lot, couldn't beat Michigan
Jim Tressel-won a lot, beat Michigan
Urban Meyer-won a lot, beat Michigan, took recruiting to elite levels
Ryan Day-wins a lot, beats Michigan, recruits at insane levels, elite offensive mind
Every other school has at least 1 dud coach in that time, but not OSU...
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:35 PM ^
Yet every single one of them was fired or left in disgrace.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:05 PM ^
Bruce wasn't an upgrade over Woody (except in terms of sanity). OSU slipped behind Michigan and Iowa in the Big Ten under his watch.
But since then . . . man.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:06 PM ^
Even their only coach who had a “dud” season is now the best Group of 5 coach and would be the top pick at Florida, USC, and LSU if he expressed interest
November 23rd, 2021 at 2:27 AM ^
You have to go back to 1890-91 to find an OSU coach who coached for more than one season at OSU and had a losing record.
That's pretty incredible.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
So, is Rich Rod our Earl Bruce? Or, would it be Hoke? Seems like the difference between beating OSU or not.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:06 PM ^
Bruce was probably their worst coach in the last 60+ years but he was still far more successful than RR or Hoke were here. There's no comparison.
OSU hasn't had a RR/Hoke type of coach for a long time, unless you count Fickell's one 6-7 season.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:28 PM ^
This a million times.
A large portion of our issues playing OSU are due to them doing very well with their coaching hires since Bruce and ascending to semi-pro levels for various reasons that I won't detail here.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:55 PM ^
When Earle Bruce is your worst hire in seven decades one of two things, or both, is true:
A) You’re living a charmed existence (Meyer coming available for nothing the year after Tressel is ousted)
B) The job is essentially failure proof. You’re the only P5 in a large state that cares deeply about football. And its easy to first get those kids from there to want to come, and then you fill in elsewhere based on that success.
November 23rd, 2021 at 6:57 AM ^
The key may have been their patience with John Cooper. In his first five years he never won more than eight games, and went 0-4-1 against Michigan. In today's era, they probably would have fired him at some point and may have gone into a Texas-like cycle of instability. But they stuck it out and his program performed a lot better after that, until a little slipup at the end. Tressel won it all with a team largely recruited by Cooper.
November 23rd, 2021 at 9:29 AM ^
Coop really did manage to put together some very talented teams during the second half of his stint at OSU, particularly during the '93-'98 window.
November 23rd, 2021 at 8:59 AM ^
Joe Bauserman.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^
I am not sure the B1G has been any good at least since Day has been coach at OSU. The only team that for some reason thinks the B1G is great every year is the OSU fan base which’s weird to me. For some reason they actually think they need this conference to be good to make them look better. This is the team that gets about every 50/50 call (except when they don’t have B1G refs) out of anyone in the nation. I live in Ohio, am a bitter Michigan fan but there is a reason they are the most hated fan base in the country and it is not even close.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:48 PM ^
Michigan doesn't have a Jim Harbaugh problem, they have a "The second best program of the decade is our end of year rival" problem.
LSU is 1-10 vs Alabama in the last 11. They just aren't defined by that to the degree that M is with OSU. Part of that is the fact that they have time to change the narrative rather than having to live with it all offseason.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:00 PM ^
LSU isn't defined by their results against Alabama? I cannot countenance such lies, sir. Les Miles was fired for going 3-6 against Saban.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:08 PM ^
"To the same degree" was disclaimer in the original post. Also Les was let go 4 games into 2015 so the problem has gone well beyond him.
Coach Cajun Brady Hoke is 1-6 vs Alabama if that timeframe fits your liking better.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:16 PM ^
Miles wasn't fired for his Alabama record. It was the rest of his record. And the point still stands, that if Michigan and OSU played the first weekend of November like Bama-LSU rather than the last weekend of November, they'd be finishing strong each year and likely winning their bowl games, which would mollify the overall rancor of the Harbaugh haters.
November 23rd, 2021 at 8:34 AM ^
+1 for using "mollify." Wish I could give another for "rancor." And in the same sentence no less!
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^
This point is so true.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
Second that!
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:38 PM ^
2008 was Saban's second year and when Bama took off. They went 12-2 and lost in the SEC title game. Since 2008 Auburn's record against Bama is 4-9. In those 13 games when both Auburn and Bama were ranked, Auburn is 4-4. Auburn's able to hold their own against Alabama.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:52 PM ^
That is the head scratcher isn’t it. Since 2010 Michigan has had only 4-5 real shots winning one of them in 2011. If you are within a score everyear your chances of winning increase. So I would argue the biggest issue isn’t Michigan losing it’s that the margins are not tightening.
November 23rd, 2021 at 9:17 AM ^
I have a friend who does this. After last year he was beyond done with Harbaugh. I am one of the "Who else do you get" people. I'm looking at a 10 win season and can't fathom how that's a fireable offense. I remember when everyone mocked Nebraska for getting rid of Pelini and he was a consistent winner, but not someone who was going to get them a championship. I understand why people want more, but I also don't understand the risk in having another Rich Rod or a Frost equivalent.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:29 PM ^
What do you mean. Dan Mullin might be available!
s/
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:32 PM ^
...at least one or two hires are going to completely flame out and those programs will continue to be down...
I can think of one university north of Ann Arbor that will have a coach that flames out.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:49 PM ^
I thought he was talking about big time programs?
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:35 PM ^
Yes, but there are some hidden gems out there. The coach at San Diego State has them at 10-1. I’d bet he’d jump at the chance to come to Michigan. Hell—he’d probably even walk here.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^
he'd probably walk here....over glass.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:42 PM ^
Nah, he's going to LSU. What could be better than replacing Cajun Brady Hoke with the real deal?
November 23rd, 2021 at 12:03 AM ^
Sometimes you gotta switch back from extra spicy to original recipe
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:10 PM ^
I was oblivious to how well he was doing this season, happy for the guy. I wish him nothing but the best.
Hopefully Jim will continue to crank out 10 and 10+ win seasons for awhile, but if Hoke got a second shot at being Michigan's head coach I wonder if it would turn out pretty well. Maybe he just wasn't ready for the job at the time, kind of like Luke Fickell his season as head coach at OSU, Fickell is looking like one of the best options for a power 5 school with a vacancy.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:15 PM ^
I know it’s not a popular opinion around here but I think Hoke could have been good without Dave Brandon meddling around. Whether that was consistent 9-3 or 11-1, we will never know, but I think there’s definitely something to leadership across the entire university that creates success (or failure) and Dave Brandon was a total disaster in that way. Look at Texas now - every institutional advantage but their AD is kinda a crack pot.
November 23rd, 2021 at 1:45 PM ^
Whatever hell Michigan has been through, here's what Texas has to say about it:
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^
I hope Brady stays right where he's at and enjoys continued success.
November 22nd, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
At least for a few years. I think he'd need to show some consistent results before another P5 were to take a chance on him.
And just watch as Washington offers him a job lol.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^
Hell, Texas didn't have much competition last year and they still wound up with an underwhelming guy in Sark. I totally get in the abstract why a team like MSU wants to keep Tucker, even if I don't expect him to come close to earning his possible salary - it's going to be insane in terms of schools trying to nab a top guy and starting over with your 3rd coach in 4 years would be awful. He's incredibly fortunate that this was the year he got lucky.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^
We hear earning his salary all the time. As long as he’s not below .500 more than a year at a time he’ll be worth whatever they want to pay essentially. Football makes a ton of money by itself, not to mention college applications, enrollment, etc. It’s peanuts. And I don’t think MSU cares about optics as much as many other schools.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
WE might be the lucky ones if he gets locked into an enormous contract and MSU has to hang onto him. . . or if they suffer the kind of anger they well should if and when he fails, expensively, while his university is trying to scrape together the scratch to keep labs and classrooms equipped, etc.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:16 PM ^
Tucker is a solid coach, but paying him $9.5MM a year means that they will not have a lot left over for top-flight staff. Nor will they have a Heisman candidate at RB.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:04 PM ^
The Sark hire was one of the craziest I've ever seen. A dude who was totally mediocre at Washington, flamed out at USC. Ranks right up there with the Ogeron hire, and that Mike something who preceded Frost at NU. Like where the hell did they come up with those hires?
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:09 PM ^
You can say that again.