Getting Mullen won't be easy
Already local newspapers are campaigning to find a way to extented his contract without violating state laws allowing only four contracts. The article mentions the Hoke and Miles situation i.e. Miles going to Michigan and LSU coming after Mullun or Michigan going after Mullen with Florida in the mix.
http://www.forwhomthecowbelltolls.com/2014/10/12/6964129/dan-mullen-con…
October 12th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
I don't think he's the one for Michigan.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
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October 12th, 2014 at 10:41 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
Gregg Hensen is that you?
October 12th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
for what it's worth. The ball started rolling last Februrary. We'll see, I tend to think Jim's personality is more suited for college, but John could be a Saban type of guy. John is a special teams guru, though.
As for Mullen, I'd be surprised if he doesn't go to Florida. Maybe Muschamp can get an upset here or there and they give him one more year. It's pretty astonishing that Charlie Strong and Dan Mullen were on Urban's staff and they ended up with Muschamp.
Another coaching scenario that wouldn't surprise me is that OBC retires at South Carolina and they hire Dantonio, leaving Narduzzi at Sparty (which is why he never left)
October 12th, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
My baseless predictions:
DB gets fired in the next couple of weeks, the John Harbaugh thing somehow works out (for HC), and Harbaugh ends up keeping Hoke (or Mattison) on staff as DC / associate head coach or something.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
You can't keep the previous boss around in situations like these. It makes things incredibly messy.
October 12th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^
To be clear, I meant those as shot-in-the-dark predictions rather than a statement of what I hope happens.
I think what you said is true 99.9% of the time. This could be an exception, though. I think Hoke's just not meant to be a head coach at a high-profile school. He doesn't seem to like the spotlight, he's not good in front of a microphone, and aside from recruiting he doesn't do the typical head coach things well. At the same time, he clearly loves this university, clearly loves the players in the program, and apparently has a good relationship with John Harbaugh. I don't think he'd mind the ego blow of being demoted at his own school (the way he defers to his coordinators suggests to me that he's not a typical egomaniacal college coach). Hoke doesn't seem like the type of guy who would undermine a head coach. He doesn't even really seem like the head coach now. I think he'd be happier in a more modest role, and he might appreciate having a guy he likes take on the not-so-fun parts of coaching and allow him a chance to redeem himself to the Michigan community. If you're Harbaugh, maybe you see someone like Hoke or Mattison as good to have around for continuity and keeping attrition / decommitments / former player bitchiness down, someone who knows how college football coaching works, and someone with a great track record as a recruiter and a lot of experience coaching defensive football (with a defense that, if it ever gets healthy, still seems like it could turn into something pretty good).
Again, I'm not making an argument that this should happen. I'm not even really making a serious argument that this is going to happen. This is an out-of-my-ass, unlikely-to-be-right guess that I haven't heard mentioned.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:51 PM ^
Hoke has zero coordinator experience too. It would make lots of sense for Harbaugh to keep Mattison around. Mattison was his DC in Baltimore too. That would be a pretty easy transition for them.
Keeping Hoke around would be more trouble than it's worth.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 2:16 PM ^
I hate to be a debbie downer...but outside of teams with incredibly bad offenses Mattison's defneses have been torched this year. Why would you want to keep him on staff?
October 12th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
Mattison's fine, especially when you consider how many more possessions teams get because of how awful the offense is.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
You can go by stats if you want, but a wise person once said stats are for losers. Using the eye test they are nothing more than average in a year they were supposed to be elite.
476 yards to Rutgers is not fine.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:57 PM ^
Mattison's fine, especially when you consider how many more possessions teams get because of how awful the offense is.Huh? Our opponents have run 456 plays in seven games (65.1 per) which is a very low number. We operate at such a slow pace that neither we nor our opponents get many possessions. It helps to greatly deflate our defensive statistics.
October 12th, 2014 at 2:44 PM ^
You do realize that Mattison was no longer loved in Baltimore right? It's not like John fought like hell to keep him.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:36 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 7:09 PM ^
not a chance in hell of this happening
if we hire Harbaugh, we MAYBE keep Mattison and that's probably it.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:48 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^
The idea that Dantonio would leave what he's built at MSU to follow in the footsteps of Spurrier is nothing other than the vain hope of Michigan fans that he'll leave East Lansing.
Dantonio grew up in Zanesville and the entirety of his 34 years in coaching has been spent in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and Michigan. He never even served as a GA or position coach at SC. If he was 48 instead of 58 it might be a bit more plausible to consider, but he's in the position where he can retire at MSU as one of their legendary coaches.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
You're spot on. He's going to be remembered alongside Biggie Munn and Duffy Daugherty. Not even George Perles, as long as he coached and even considering his Rose Bowl/B1G championship year, put together the sustained record that Dantonio has.
What is it about coaches from central Ohio?
October 12th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
Dantonio's 59 years old. He'll probably coach five more years at MSU and then retire.
October 12th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
I'm going to just ignore the wild speculation passed off as insider knowledge without citation and just say this:
I will never cease to be amazed by the number of people who claim to have an aversion to the CEO style coach and yet will sit here and talk about hiring Les Miles, a man whose success is entirely reliant on coordinators.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
People have bad habits when it comes to over-interpreting lessons from small samples. It looks like we have a failed instance of CEO-style coaching here. That doesn't mean that CEO-style coaching can't work in general. In fact, I think there's a strong argument for a head coach who defers to his coordinators' expertise. You need good coordinators, but letting coordinators coordinate potentially frees up the head coach for other things and prevents the kinds of head coach / coordinator conflicts that sometimes get teams in trouble.
October 12th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
I have no problem with Miles. It doesn't really matter if your success is reliant on coordinators if you retain the right ones.
Les Miles is good at that.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^
I'm not saying that I think this rumor is true - I have no idea whether it's true - but people other than DB could initiate those conversations on behalf of the university. The worst part of that scenario is probably that the new AD might feel / look a bit powerless if this stuff is being coordinated without him. Then again, it's hard for me to imagine that too many incoming ADs would object to being handed a Harbaugh when he arrives. And I personally don't really care if our AD is (or appears) a little powerless. The most extreme possibility is that those in control know that DB will be canned, know who will be taking his place, and that guy actually knows that behind-the-scenes conversations are happening.
The bottom line is that a lot of scenarios are conceivable right now and we know next to nothing about what's really going on.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^
And I hope that David Brandon's resignation is on the President's desk at 9:00 am Monday. Hopefully, they are negotiating the terms of his "retirement" right now.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:23 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
Problem is, I'm not as convinced as some that he'd make a good college coach.If a man can match wits with other NFL coaches - guys at the top of the profession - and win, why couldn't he do so at the college level, against crappier coaches? The only real questions about John would be his ability to hire good assistants and to recruit. I don't think either would be a big issue here. We'll give him the money to hire the best and his Super Bowl ring (plus our institutional advantages) should make him a dynamite recruiter. "I left an NFL champion for Michigan" is a powerful sales pitch.
October 12th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
hes a known cheater
October 12th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
After this bad football season thinking basketball.:)
October 12th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^
"Mullins" - great basketball player, an awesome shooter, but not a great football coach IMO.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
HC of Florida before ever coming to Michigan
October 12th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
He's not coming here. He's got other very attractive options that are a better fit for him. It's a little bit arrogant to think that we just throw our hat in the ring and everyone will just jump.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
most of what I've seen here is a lot of doom and gloom about our chances of getting anyone good.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:13 PM ^
OptionS? Like what, besides Florida? Just because Florida has tons of talent doesn't mean they're a guaranteed winner either. Just ask Muschamp or Zook. I think people are being naive to say the Michigan job is head and shoulders above Florida, but I'd say they're really about the same. Some advantages and disadvantages to both.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^
Mullins?
October 12th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
Chris Danger Zone Mullens. He was one of my favorite ballers when I was a kid.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
So take the Miles to Michigan ---> Mullen to LSU scenario out.
October 12th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Not gonna happen
Miles to MICH, Rich Rod to LSU, Random HC to 'Zona.
book it.