Gwen Bush/ Recruiting staff house cleaning info?
I normally hate these kind of open question posts, so I apologize in advance, and am prepared to get some negs. But I'm very curious and I think its relevant to the state of the Football program.
In the Roundtable last Thursday Sam stated that the recruiting staff underwent a 'House cleaning'; with Gwen Bush gone, and Chris Partridge promoted. While I'm totally on board with giving Partridge as much influence as possible in recruiting, I'm not sure that the staff that helped us get two top 10 classes needed to be purged.
And what happened with Momma Gwen? I looked at her Linked in page and she is still listed as a UM staffer. I did some google fu over the weekened and didn't see anything on staff upsets or Gwen Bush leaving. I think she was a big factor in some recruitiments.
The lack of clarity and the talk of 'toxic atmospheres' (Bleacher Report) combined with Sam's 'House cleaning' is starting to get very worrisome to me.
Does anyone have any more info?
February 12th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
at Oregon and Tennessee since we were so foolish to let the golden goose go. I'm sure the fine Carolina Panthers fans are excited to experience the thrill.
February 12th, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
Let’s see....
Chris Partridge is great
Don Brown is great (because, y’know, he was hired by Harbaugh)
Zordich is a great DBs coach
Rice apparently thought Brian Smith was good enough to offer him a promotion
Ty Wheatley was our best recruiter after Partridge
DJ Durkin was good til the Ohio State game and Maryland hired him
Greg Jackson was good and the NFL scooped him up after one year
Jedd was a good hire
JayBaugh has been fine. Solid recruiter and was pretty good as TE coach
Mattison is the Hoke holdover you’re thinking of
Frey didn’t mesh but is still a good coach
Pep and Drev, sure. I’ll give you those two I guess.
Obviously the jury is still out on Washington and Moore and whoever the 10th assistant will be. But Moore and Washington both come in with very good recruiting reputations.
So yeah. Harbaugh has made good hire after good hire. But no one trusts him anymore because they think Pep and Drevno killed the offense (Drevno was still the OC in 15 and 16, guys)
February 12th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^
Da fuck?? You should lose your posting privileges...
February 12th, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
Explain the specifics of Drevno's failings please.
February 12th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
The offense, which i'm told he coordinates, performed very poorly this past season
February 12th, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^
Still amazed that it is lost on people that we played 3 QBs last year, with the third string QB starting the most games. How could anyone reasonably conclude that an offense that relies on the QB so much performed poorly last year due to the OC solely?
February 12th, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
I wonder about is if Shae Patterson comes in if we are going to see a sea change in scheme to fit him. More of a pistol? More of a spread? Less reading by the QB? Zone or Gap blocking? I don't know.
February 12th, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
I'm always leery of the 'TERRIBLE PLAYCALLING' bit because any playcalling depends on execution, and the judgement lends itself way to much to Monday Morning QB'ing.
The O line coaching worried/worries me alot.
But bad luck happened too. The Purdue hit was base cheap shot, IMHO, and could have really caused a permanent, catastrophic injury.
February 12th, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^
In charge of the worst offense since 2007? Check. Worst O-line in forever? Check. Do you need a third?
February 12th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 10:51 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
We know Harbaugh has a great eye for talent, so making the staff more NFL like in evaluating recruit seems natural. It benefits you to have more accurate grades on high school recruits. If you can find that 3 star who grades out as ahigh 4 star to you and your staff, they are generally pretty easy to land and they fill a spot in the class so you have more time to devote to other top targets. Doesn't mean you give up finding 5 stars, just that you can devote more time to them if you've locked up some hidden gems more easily.
February 12th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^
Does Hiring Don Brown count? Dude had never even considered leaving the NE but was recruited by Harbaugh and is doing a hell of a job. Or how about Mike Zordich or some of his former staff that are leading other Power 5 programs, etc. Or even the fact that he brought in Gwen Bush in the first place. You don't get where he's been without having an eye for talent and know how to put together a staff and program.
Its easy to go on and on and on on here but most dont have experience in building a staff/team. Its never easy and its constantly in flux. The fact that Harbaugh has done it at multiple stops and had high level success at each pretty much answers your question.
February 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
Remember when people thought Gwen was hired to get her son to A2?
Here it was Momma Gwen not Wayne, that was a contributor.
February 12th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
The BR article is not all BS. Despite the Ferris Bueller reference - a good friend of mine is also a good friend of Jedd Fisch. Drevno was a major reason for him leaving the program. Not the only reason, but he saw no upward mobility at Michigan while Drevno was there and this was a big issue. While I don't believe the entire article - particularly the speculation of why position coaches haven't been assigned - there is some truth in there. The Drevno Trust issue has been brought up by many including Sam and others close to the program. As for the players having issues? I think that is pure speculation.
February 12th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
Fisch left for a promotion...that's not on Drevno. Could have been anyone in that position, he was leaving for a much better job. That's not a reason to speculate negatively re. Drevno. And I have no idea if Drevno is a personality liability...but I do seriously doubt that a long-time coach, coaches son and winner like Harbaugh would sacrafice his program, reputation and potential fortune for a guy who is a personality liability. That would make zero sense.
February 12th, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
Now I liked Fisch too but anyone else think that the offense was so much better in 2016 because Speight had qaan NFl TE and tow NFL ready WRs to throw to? And they were all fully developed seniors
February 12th, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Brian is fatigued by some of the trying comments here and on Twitter. Also, he's fatigued by being sick. Still, it's kinda weird he hasn't had a dedicated post to the state of recruiting or the program in general. Is he as bewildered as everyone else on this stuff?
Also weird is not hearing from guys like UMBig11. That guy usually had some things to say about the state of targets, players, etc.
February 12th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^
Brian seems to be beaten down. I wouldn't be shocked if he quit the blog.
February 12th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
that would suck.
February 12th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^
I was joking somewhat, but I could see him pulling back to only a sporadic contributor. I guess we'll find out if his current funk is permanent when the football season rolls back around.
February 12th, 2018 at 5:57 PM ^
This guy blogged us right through the 'Nam of Michigan Football history. I think he'll stick around while Harbaugh sorts things out.
February 12th, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
There's so much turnover when it comes to these recruiting positions. I see what Harbaugh was trying to do with the guys brought it, but it needs to get better. Hopefully with another year, things will improve.