Maybe, but I disagree that Michigan to Texas is in any way keeping his star rising. 

I don't think you stay at M because you think you will be head coach someday, Juwan is pretty young and will take several years to figure out where he ends up. I think Yaklich would need to HC somewhere else before he would ever have a chance at HC at M anyway.

Going to Texas is going to worse players, no system, uncertain HC situation (TX won't promote him if Shaka leaves either).

Even 1 more year at M with a struggling/rebuild roster is better than any amount of time at TX as an assistant. 

I think he goes to UT, their defense improves markedly, and his star continues to ascend.  That's what he's counting on.

Not exactly, because:

"Yes. About a million "what-ifs" that make his decision the right choice."

I can come up with 2 million that make it the wrong one, making stuff up isn't hard. Like.....what if Howard decides he wants to become a completely different person and change into a huge asshole and do everything wrong? See?

And for the record. I'm not at all coming down on Yaklich, I like him and he should clearly do whatever is best for him and his family, I'm just trying to understand the decision. 

I also don't expect Yaklich to devote his entire life to Michigan because "Michigan!", I'm more looking at the next y1-2 years in what is clearly a quest to be a HC and not seeing TX as the best path toward that at all. TBH, he could likely go spend a few years as an assistant at a much better program.

"What if Juwan appreciates Yaklich's work, but will be transitioning to his own successful defensive philosophy immediately. And what if he offered Yaklich the chance to stay on the staff, but he'll have to learn and teach Howard's principles instead of his own?"

Based on literally everything I have read about Juwan Howard, I wouldn't expect this to be the case and it was clear that Howard wanted to retain him. I highly doubt retaining him was for the purpose of scrapping what he has built so he can teach Yaklich a system that has never been employed at the college level. That would be phenomenally stupid. Dump a proven system that the players already know for one that is entirely untested in college and the players aren't familiar with? Sorry, don't see it happening. 

"What if Smart gave him the keys to Texas? Do whatever you want, the D is yours?"

Like he doesn't have that at Michigan? Here is less money (if reports are true) and they keys to a Ford that has a bunch of things to fix and we may or may not have the parts.....forget that Mazerati you have been working on. This is pure conjecture on your part that common sense and all current data would indicate is not at all likely.

"Does that change things? Now the job he really wants is in Austin, not Ann Arbor."

Neither of the purely hypothetical situations you mentioned, even if true, make Texas the best place for his career. I still think another year in Ann Arbor and then a HC gig is a better move, or a year or two as an assistant at a more premiere program, which he could undoubtedly get.  

"What if Yaklich met Howard and isn't optimistic? Would he rather try to improve a decent Texas squad as another data point on his resume? Or ride the likely defensive decline of post-Matthews, post-Beilein Michigan? Not much room to improve on his defensive numbers here."

Again, I'm not expecting 10 years from him. Even if this were the case, and it is somewhat plausible, taking more $ to spend a transition year at M with players who know his system is better than starting at square one with new players. I think we agree that he could shop himself around this year for all manner of HC positions after this season, so sustained success at Michigan is better than starting from scratch at TX. At best it is a wash and now he has to move his family twice in the next 2-3 years. 

"What if he likes Texas better than Michigan? (gasp!!!!)"

First of all, I currently live in San Francisco and got out of Michigan as soon as humanly possible after I graduated from M, so trying to act like I in any way stated that Michigan is the best/only place anyone would ever want to live is kind of dumb. I never said that, nor even implied that. Nice try though. That last start-up I worked for moved to Austin and I have spent a ton of time there and love it, it is one of the few college locations in the country I would put on a par with A2. Entirely possible he likes Austin better than A2, but he is also moving his family around quite a bit and that seems out of character for him, especially since his family seems well-established in MI and nothing has indicated they are dying to leave. So, if he is going to be a HC somewhere soon and it isn't going to be TX, now he is in a moving van again in 1-2 years. That is hard on kids in high school.

"What if Texas and a desperate Shaka offered more? What if Yaklich doesn't believe in recruiting clean, or at least doesn't mind getting dirty, and thinks he can recruit better defenders there?"

So far that seems to not be the case. It looks like he left for less $$, though certainly not verified info. At any rate, my whole statement was predicated on the stated assumption that the money was roughly equal. Read it again. I said that. so if the money at TX was way better, i would obviously understand that and it would make sense. Duh. 

"What if he doesn't mind moving because he just did it two years ago and will likely have to do it two years from now anyway?"

Hmmmmmm. "I love moving my family from town to town and starting over every few years!" said no one, ever.  Plus, I thought we agreed he wanted to be a head coach, so recruiting and building at TX is a 3-4 year process. I also don't think that he believes that he alone is going to turn Texas into a recruiting juggernaut. Again, that is possible, just not logical. 

"Stuff like that. There are plenty of reasons he would leave. You just have to think about it logically and not assume that the staffer in question is a complete moron. I'll never understand why people just assume by default that these Michigan guys are the dumbest people on earth. -- Like Harbaugh doesn't realize his offense was ineffective. Like after 15 years of being a D-1 athletic director, Warde Manuel doesn't know how to conduct a coaching search."

You're so right, I totally didn't think about what would happen if Howard came to town and dictated that everyone was going to have to wear pink jumpsuits everywhere they go and have their underwear on the outside so he can check it. You just have to think about these things logically, like you do, and assume that people LOVE moving their families around and accepting lower salaries against all evidence to the contrary. Except nothing you mentioned makes any sense logically. They are just fantasy hypothetical situations you came up with as possibilities.....not logical ones. Sorry.  Also.......I'm reading through what I wrote and trying to find anywhere that I even insinuated Yak is the dumbest person on Earth. I think he's a genius and a defensive basketball savant, so quite the opposite. Trying to understand the decision and asking people if they have additional information is hardly calling him out. Didn't mention Harbaugh either, perfectly happy with him and his decisions. Also, pretty big fan of Warde and I think he ran a great coaching search and love who we got. So, I think your putting me in a category of people that I certainly don't belong to. I'm firmly in the STFU if you weren't on the field or actually making decisions like a real coach and, quite frankly, unless you have proven you can do better, you should STFU when you feel like criticizing a coach, player or AD. Armchair players and coaches are the worst. Feel free to peruse my posting history, it will bear that out. 

Plus....the entire point of my post was asking if anyone had heard anything that would justify the move because it didn't seem to make sense to me. Weather is an entirely plausible reason for people to leave Michigan. 

"Like Luke Yaklich doesn't know what's best for Luke Yaklich and his own fucking family."

How you got that from me asking, "money being the same, wouldn't another year at M be better for Yak career-wise than starting over at a lesser program?" (while admitting that I'm probably biased) is beyond me, Good Job! being today's internet angry guy.