How Much Has Warde Prepared for This?
We’ve all seen the HOT Takes about firing Warde because he hates Jim Harbaugh, only drinks skim milk and doesn’t wear khakis. But his legacy will be defined based on what happens next. And I’m sure we are all curious how much he has prepared for this moment - the one where his National Championship coach may leave.
Back in 2020, after the abysmal COVID year, it was reported that Warde was heavily involved in getting the program back on track. We are led to believe the impact of this was an influx of young coaches - many with ties to Michigan.
I’d argue this is an important development that may allow us to avoid a repeat of when Lloyd Carr retired. The University would have never turned to Rich Rod if there was a head coach in waiting. As much as some boosters would have liked it to be Ron English - that was never happening.
Here we are 17 years later, with a young coach in Sherrone Moore who is as good as any option available (if not better). And while he was here before 2020, many of his potential assistant coaches weren’t. There are a number of former Michigan players (now coaches) who are less likely to leave during a coaching transition.
Let’s talk about them:
Ron Bellamy - Joined after the 2020 season as the safeties coach and quickly shifted to wide receivers coach (which makes sense given his pedigree). Spent his prior 10 seasons coaching as the head coach at West Bloomfield High School where he coached Donovan Edwards and Makari Paige who are both returning next season. Seems unlikely that given the opportunity he would leave Michigan this off season with his two players heading into their season season as starters (+ Semaj Morgan) as his top wideout. Getting to Michigan was a massive jump for him. A departure for Jim, and a promotion for Sherrone, and maybe other colleagues is only helpful to his career.
Mike Hart - Also joined after the 2020 season. Quit his role as a backup/practice squad NFL type to get into coaching. Said years ago that he wanted to be the head coach at Michigan. Has a strong stable of RBs returning and may be in the running to get a promotion to the associate head coach/OC ranks. He was an associate head coach at Indiana and has also coached running backs for about 10 years now at various stops including Syracuse and Directional Michigan. Seems like another candidate to stick around. Maybe for a while (FRED JACKSON BUT YOUNG!)
Mike Elston - Returned to Michigan prior to the 2021 season from Notre Dame. Has spent his entire career in the Midwest (directional Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame) and has almost exclusively coached defensive line. Has the best returning defensive line in the country. Would he leave? How the heck should I know? Would you leave if you were returning Grant/Graham/Stewart/Moore + Benny? I know I wouldn’t. Coupled with Elston graduating from UM/playing at UM this feels like one of those hires that could lead to Elston playing out his career here as a defensive line coach. Not a bad place to be for someone who hasn’t jumped/moved around as much as other coaches. Could take on more as he was an associate head coach at Notre Dame but was never a defensive coordinator.
Grant Newsome - Nothing to do with Warde necessarily, but notable as another full-time assistant coach who was a former player. Coaches the TEs now after being a TE assistant for a few years - could he get promoted as OL coach in the future? Is the future now? Are Dippin’ Dots the Ice Cream of the Future? I’m not here to answer the things, just to point out that we thankfully won’t have a situation where coaches have to petition for their jobs when Rich Rodriguez 2.0 comes into town.
Denard Robinson - Assistant director of player personnel who joined after 2021 season. Must have some coaching skill as he was employed as a quality control coach and scouting assistant for two years with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Following the pattern of young Michigan players returning to coach.
Overall, this feels like continuity - and we haven’t even talked about the non-legacy coaches at UM like Steve Clinkscale (joined after 2020) who is notably young, and was the co-defensive coordinator the past two years. Clink has coached exclusively in the Midwest with Michigan being his biggest stop.
Tell me who I missed and make sure to neg me in the comments!
January 24th, 2024 at 6:44 PM ^
Michael Barrett seems promising.
January 24th, 2024 at 6:54 PM ^
If Warde doesn't have a robust, ready-to-go plan that starts being implemented TOMORROW, we ought to be worried and probably he should go. This is one of the least surprising things to have happened in sports in recent memory. Warde has a tip-top brand, resources, and massive alumni support. If he's not proven to Santa Ono that he has a plan and is ready to execute, then Santa should announce his well-prepared plan tomorrow by introducing our new AD. Not much more to this, IMO.
January 24th, 2024 at 7:18 PM ^
I agree, if I was Warde, here's what I would do/have done.
1. Speak with Jim proactively and tell him that if he leaves, the Team should hear about it first via an all team meeting where he figuratively and literally hands the torch to Sherrone Moore. Sherrone Moore alongside Harbaugh, Warde and Ono speaks to the plan of keeping the entire staff, team and program together.
2. Contract should already be drawn up for Sherrone and make it public that Sherrone is the guy, contract is being finalized and they are going to run it back.
3. Salary increases/increased bonuses for coaches that stay.
4. Assistance from the athletic department to help Moore transition to HC role, and help Moore find top assistants to fill the holes he will have from Minter, Jaybaugh leaving.
January 25th, 2024 at 9:39 AM ^
I completely understand the logic of going with Moore and am fine with it. If, for whatever (reasonable) reason, the athletic department and university feels that a formal coaching search is necessary, I won't begrudge them that. It would be nice to learn that most of the groundwork for that has already been done, but that may not have been possible without various parties leaking info to the media (so we would likely have already heard about this).
It does seem to me that whatever happens should happen quickly. Is there any reason that Warde shouldn't make an announcement today/tomorrow about what the process will be going forward and roughly how long it is expected to take? Is it unreasonable to think that such an announcement would be in the football program's best interest?
I intend these as open as opposed to leading questions, as there are some here who have insight into the inner workings of actual athletic departments.
January 24th, 2024 at 7:41 PM ^
FIRE WARDE MANUEL what a POS
January 24th, 2024 at 8:10 PM ^
Warde is an experienced college athletics administrator and this isn't his first AD gig. No one in his position is unprepared for the possibility of a coaching search, especially not one where there's this much lead-up and heavy hinting of inevitability. Doesn't mean he's going to do a great job with it, but it's silly to suggest he's going into this process tonight with an empty binder.
January 25th, 2024 at 9:19 AM ^
I'm pretty sure Warde is prepared, but I do not agree that anyone in his position is prepared. We had a legendary AD in Canham but the position slowly degenerated to the Tom Goss era, at which time we were running a deficit and getting hammered by the NCAA for Ed Martin. So, businessman Bill Martin was brought in to get our finances in order, improve the facilities and restore order. He did improve the finances but disgracefully retired. As well, he was completely unprepared for Lloyd Carr's retirement even though it seemed to be inevitable the last few years. He did get the Athletic Dept back to running a surplus, so his business skills were obviously strong.
However, his lack of planning and insight resulted in absolutely zero succession planning, at least for the primary revenue generator, football. As well, Lloyd Carr's assistants in general were weak and he seemed completely obtuse to these issues. As a result, we ended up with Rich Rod and the devolution of UM football. Nonetheless, I will credit Bill Martin for giving us Tommy Amaker and John Beilein, both of which helped rebuild our basketball program after the Ed Martin scandal.
January 25th, 2024 at 1:42 PM ^
I mean, what you're outlining here are the exceptions to the rule, and why Michigan failed so badly in the 1990s. After Canham was Bo, who was more a figurehead as an AD and wasn't terribly effective at the job. Then came the trifecta of Weidenbach, Roberson, and Goss, none of whom had meaningful athletics administration background and more or less kept the ship afloat while doing nothing special, that is unless you were a halo fan (IYKYK). Roberson was a UM admin type, Weidenbach was in UM facilities management before being pulled in to Athletics to be Bo's underling, Goss was touted for being a successful football alum-turned-exec, and Bill Martin was a fancy sailor banking guy with some experience in yachting admin.
That's not Warde's story at all. If anything, you should be glad about that. Warde moved up the ranks in college athletics administration from the start, that was how he transitioned out of being an athlete when he got injured. He knows how this system works and the kinds of things you need to do to be prepared, the same kind of thing Canham knew when he more or less reinvented the position of AD as we know it. Lest we forget, before DB was hauled in, Warde was pretty much a perennial on the shortlist of "Michigan AD guys who are elsewhere waiting to come back" list, and just about the only one who didn't end up doing something iffy or catastrophic before that could happen.
This is not to say, again, that Warde will do a great job. But he has the bona fides to know how to do a great job.
January 26th, 2024 at 12:33 AM ^
January 24th, 2024 at 9:04 PM ^
All the fire Warde chatter because Harbaugh is off to the NFL is annoying. That’s a bad reason to fire the guy, but there are plenty of potential good ones. As this post suggests let’s see how he planned and whether there’s a lot of continuity with the old staff.
Warde makes $1.23 Million. More than Santa Ono or Jesse Minter. And the guy spent the last few years acting like NIL doesn’t exist! If you’re the THIRD highest paid UM employee (after Harbaugh and the Michigan medicine CEO), how can you be MIA on one of the only issues you can effect.
January 24th, 2024 at 10:38 PM ^
Time is of the essence during a coaching transition like this. Hopefully Warde & Moore are prepared and can announce a staff or at least part of one tomorrow before everyone starts attacking our roster
Comments