If he leaves, who?

Figure it would likely be Gattis. Creates continuity, chance to keep the staff together and he's clearly a highly-thought-of coordinator across college football. So the idea would be to recreate the Riley/Day/Shaw effect. 

Not sure if it would work, but I bet that's who they'd choose. 

Give Bob Stoops whatever he wants to come out of retirement.

Dabo was only Clemson's WR coach when he got the job. 

I’d say you get no’s from Fickell and Aranda, and then hire a search firm and find someone who has the qualities even if they haven’t made a name for themselves yet.

Maybe it’ll become a shit show, but I’m not concerned about finding a new coach. Harbaugh stabilized the program and the team is loaded, so I think the program is as attractive as it was when we got then-big name Rich Rodriguez (who turned down Alabama a year before we got him). Aside from the NFL, we are the only major college football job open AFAIK, and there are candidates (it’s not like we were going to get Riley, Kelly if Harbaugh left earlier). If it goes poorly, it’s on Warde.

I’d prefer Harbaugh to stay, after his success this season, but if he leaves, it’s not a doom-and-gloom situation. With the resources available to Michigan, we can find another guy who can average almost 10 wins a season and go 1-5 against Ohio State. That’s what three, occasionally four, losses a year with 13 games including a bowl game? That’s a very climbable hill.

First, I do not think JH is leaving any time soon. However, if he does, at this point it has to be a next man up hire.  Gattis most likely would get the call. There are a lot pluses to hiring Gattis:

• He’s young
• Good recruiter
• Broylles Award winner
• Keep what we have going – I don’t think hiring him as HC would ruffle many feathers on the current staff
• He’s Black – A Black head coach at Michigan would play very well in places like Alabama, Georgia. Just like I think it will work out well for Marcus Freeman at ND

The down side to hiring Gattis:

• He’s young – This is a really big job for a first time HC
• He’s Black – A Black head coach at Michigan could be an issue with some of the fan base as well as some of the Old Money folks. Just look at what happened to Charlie Strong at Texas and Tyrone Willingham at ND.

Gattis would seem like the likely fit. Hart becomes OC in what would be a huge promotion. You'd have a ton of continuity and Mac will remain D coordinator with a pay raise.

I believe Gattis would have a good year next year, maybe the one after as well but we won't truly found out if he is "ready to be CEO" until years 2-4. That's the gamble. 

Quit drinking and go to bed. 

Luke Fickel

Gus Malazan

Tom Herman

I trust Warde to do the best for Michigan.

Where the My Sherrona's at?

Maybe his promotion to "Co-OC" was just ego dressing but they did have the #15 rushing attack as opposed to the 68th best passing attack. And his pre-game motivation on the field was epic.

Plus, his recruiting profile is un matched:

He was the primary on

5* s on both offense & defense (Dax and JJ)

4* s at WR, DT, SDE, CB, TE and 4xOL

IMO, the answer is Sherrone F'n Moore.

Peterson ( fomer Boise state and Washington coach )

Something to consider, if Harbaugh leaves he'll likely be taking MacDonald and Weiss with him, maybe a couple other coaches too.

So you've got to get an established coach IMO, one that can bring his own staff and maybe hold onto 1 or 2 of the current staff.

I don't know, but I do know that Harbaugh letting this drag out as he has feels more and more like narcissistic douchebaggery to me every day.

If you're going to leave, go. If you're going to stay, stay. You'd either work here for nothing, like you said, or you said something that wasn't true. Shit or get off the pot already.

Fickell is never coming to Michigan because in doing so he would be setting fire to his past for all eternity.  

We all know very well how uncouth that fanbase is, imagine if he announced he was going to Michigan, it would probably require Seal Team 6 to extract him and his family to safety out of Ohio.

If he leaves, I hope we stop the whining about how the AD “didn’t do enough” for a dude who immediately jumped back to the NFL after finally having a season that was a success by his own standards.  That’s not a guy who got away, it’s a guy who wanted to leave.

 If he leaves it’s because he wants to coach in the NFL.  As much as people complain that NFL insiders think everyone wants to go there, college fans act like there is no allure to not having to recruit and competing at the highest level of a sport.

The other Harbaugh?  Can we lure him away from the Ravens?

Or, maybe, that guy who never punts.  I hear he's available.

I think if you stay internal Gattis gets the nod, groom Hart for OC (personally think he'll be HC at UM at some point).  If you go external,  you contact Bob Stoops, Luke Fickell, Dave Aranda, Les Miles and if you've been drinking Urban Meyer.

Jim Caldwell

Took the worst franchise in the history of football to the playoffs 50% of the time he was there.

I’m probably still jaded by the RR hire, but IMO only desiring the latest, greatest shiny object head coach from another school has little to no chance of working out how everyone thinks it will. Their coaching success is more likely to be a mirage of simply being in the right place at the right time coupled with a small handful of really good to great players, than it is to be evidence that they are, in fact, a really good head coach that would be really successful no matter where they were at. 
 

I don’t think Campbell or Fickell or another semi-successful current head coach is necessarily the answer if/when Harbaugh leaves. It could be, but to completely discount hiring and promoting from within, even if they’ve never had head coaching experience, doesn’t seem very smart to me. 

I will preface everything with I've never been a harbaugh fan, but he might as well leave for the good of the program. We have a really good offense returning next year so we aren't in rebuild or anything but he is going to flirt with the NFL every year.

Disclaimer: I did not read 153 replies....

The clear answer is a in-house promotion of Gattis. I don't endorse this, and I think it's highly likely to crater the program again, but it's probably too late in the process for much else.

I want nothing to do with Luke Fickel

Why do people keep saying Bob Stoops as a candidate? That dude will never leave the south and if he did it will be for another OU job. He a southern through and through and was willing to coach OU for free in their bowl game. Asking for Bob to come here is like asking for Carr to coach at Arkansa
For the sake of continuity and not loosing half of the roster, you simply hand the keys to Gattis and gove him a chance. You hire someone new and say good bye to this class.

I’m available.   Your move, Warde.

What about Michael Barrett?? I would think he has to be a top candidate. What can’t this guy do??

Who should UM hire in the event that Harbaugh goes to the NFL? Looking at the current roster I don't see any home runs there in the coaching ranks, not yet anyways. McDonald, Gattis, Moore, Hart, Jay... could all one day be HC's but are they ready to take that step? UM is in a critical point I feel, if Harbaugh leaves can they take a chance on one of their current staff coaches? I'm not sure they should or will.

A year ago I was firmly in the Matt Campbell camp as I didn't think Fickell would come here at the time. Boy has that ship sailed. I think Campbell is probably still a good choice but I do have some doubts after this past season and I wouldn't hire him now IMO.

All that said, among head coaches I see Fickell as the best choice out there. I do think now that he would be willing to take UM. Its not his dream job but its absolutely one of the top jobs out there and if he could get UC to the playoffs I would imagine he could do the same at UM.

Outside of that, I'm not familiar enough with assistants, coordinators, et all at any level to say who we should hire. So I guess at this point I'm in the Fickell camp if that eventuality happens. 

Here is to hoping he leaves.    Best coach in Mich history?   Psssssh.    I am a Mich fan thru and thru, but this is crazy!    Mich has the money to get whoever whenever where ever and they stick to this bs?    Adapt!     Adapt before its too late and we truly are left behind.   

We beat OSU once in the past how many years?     State?     What exactly makes a good coach?     I am tired of Mich blending what is one of the best Universities in the world to what could be one of the most dominant athletic programs in the world for athletes 17 to 23ish.   These are not related and its ok to stand for greatness in more than one context.

If it isn't Harbaugh it will be someone else. They will either succeed or fail. I have no special knowledge in which to suggest what candidate is best. Last year, many here were worshiping Campbell and saying anyone would be am upgrade over Harbaugh. I think illustrates well how little we know as fans.

That being said, I feel it will be an internal hire since some of the "reports" surrounding the situation suggest that there is a contingency in place. It seems unlikely that would be someone outside the program.

My guess would be Gattis. 

Broyles Winner. Recent Broyles winners are generally promoted within two years. The offense was "disappointing" in his first year on the job but still 21st to SP+, 26th to FEI. I. Won't even look at 2020, because you know why. This year we were 10th. He does have an offensive minded HC but we have limited knowledge of how that labor is split. When the offense struggled in the past many blamed Harbaugh interfering. Now the offense success is Harbaugh's according to many posters (some of these camps probably overlap) It smells a lot like Martelli does the coaching shtick.

Recruiting. He is a great recruiter. He was recruiting coordinator during part of this stint with Franklin in PSU. 

Experience: I calculated 50% of coaches to reach the CFP we first time (did not include interim) HC. It includes guys like Day, Riley, Swiney, Fisher, and Smart. A website I was reading for this response suggested that at that time coaches averaged 14 years experience but it could be shorter if they played in the NFL. Gattis played in the NFL and is at 12 years.

And most the other stuff is us guessing if he can build/maintain structure, hire coaches, et cetera. Experienced HC failed at this all the time so there is no safe bet.

Fickell will never, ever coach at Michigan. If Jim leaves, there aren’t a ton of options. Heffley from BC could be a risk, same for Gattis. Maybe go the NFL route? 

Dave Aranda or Josh Gattis 

Lure Chris Peterson out of retirement?