CC: Hiring a Coaching Search Agency

Submitted by Michigan Arrogance on

Kansas hires Chuck Neinas to aid in its coaching search
 

Link above got me thinking about the M search: is there any info about getting a head-hunter to provide a short list and vet candidates? I'm not sure if M used an agency in the past for RR or Hoke, but AFAIK they have not. Given the apparent success this firm has had- why not?

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Mi Sooner

November 5th, 2014 at 9:54 PM ^

remember, O-State wanted a coach to be a lifer there; it was assumed by everyone down in Oklahoma that Les was just biding his time until Lloyd retired and he would become the next Michigan HC.  he was asked point blank by their defacto AD,  T. Boone Pickens, O-State's version of DB, if he would commit to stay.  Les did not.  TBP encouraged him to start looking for a new job, since they had already had the same talk with Gundy who was a former QB at O-State.  Gundy isn't leaving O-State unless they fire him.  he will retire from that job.

at the time of the move to LSU, everyone, ncluding Les, thought that Les was going to be our next HC adfter Lloyd, and of course, the rest is history.

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UMgradMSUdad

November 6th, 2014 at 12:06 AM ^

"Gundy isn't leaving O-State unless they fire him.  He will retire from that job."  A lot of people who follow OSU (ntosu) football closely don't agree.  There's quite a few who think he'll be gone within the next few years.  This year, he's a bit screwed (if he wants to jump ship), because the team seems to have regressed as the season has gone on. He's not quite as hot a commodity as he was a few years ago. In fact the offense has only scored two TDs in the past 14 quarters of play.  Much of that has to do with a young and inexperienced O-line.

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jmdblue

November 6th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^

A search firm can gauge a potential candidate's interest in a school without verifying the shool is interested in the candidate.  This prevents the coach from stringing along the school with the vacancy to extort a raise from his current job.  It also keeps the whole process much more discreet.  Bill Martin would have done well to hire a firm the day Lloyd indicated he was leaving (or the day Lloyd was indicated to he was leaving).  

All that said, flight tracker won't do us much good if a search firm was hired.

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Magga Saraivah

November 5th, 2014 at 9:39 PM ^

Michigan is a much more attrractive destination to coach football than Kansas.  My guess is that we will most likely use a panel of former coaches and/or players to assist the new AD.

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jblaze

November 5th, 2014 at 10:00 PM ^

Michigan should and will hire an agency to discretely approach candidates. Every large company does this, even with strong internal hires.

The problem is that if an official UM rep contacts anybody then it'll be all over the internet, while if a search rep, who has a handshake agreement with Michigan contacts somebody, it's less likely to be known.

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mgobleu

November 5th, 2014 at 10:06 PM ^

like Michigan would need something like that. The pool of coaches that Michigan would want, who also would want to coach at Michigan has to be pretty small and high profile (hopefully). A place like Kansas probably has a much wider pool to search.

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the man in blue

November 6th, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^

I may be out of touch but I think the fan base is wanting to see either one of the Harbaughs or Miles. If we can't land one of them, then maybe Mullin.......for me if we get someone other than these 4, there needs to some explanations of what happened. So no need for a company to tell us who we need.

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double blue

November 6th, 2014 at 7:03 AM ^

Because the fan base is the smartest person in the room? Because the fan base wanted Bo? Hire a good ad and let him do his job. If he thinks he needs agency help then get it. Agencies are good for besting the bushes and finding the bos of the world - we may or may not/need to go that route. Everyone here pretending like they have the answer is becoming more humorous every day.


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Silly Goose

November 6th, 2014 at 1:03 AM ^

I wouldn't be surprised if they already had one. The point of a search firm is to find people under contract and get deals done. That's exactly what you need for both an AD and a HC.

Joined: 04/17/2010

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BlueHills

November 6th, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^

"Hi Jim, it's Jiim Hackett."

"Who?"

"Jim Hackett, from Michigan. I'm the interim AD now. I have a whole lot of money to spend on a new coach, and I'm hoping you're interested."

"Is it still cold in Michigan in the winters? I mean, has global warming changed anything yet?"

"Haha, no Jim, but that's a good one. No, it's still cold here in the winter."

"Do you think that you could get a giant dome erected over Ann Arbor to keep it warm in the winter, like California?"

"Heheheh. No, Coach, I don't think so but..."

"I'm sorry, you have the wrong number."

 

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NoVaWolverine

November 6th, 2014 at 1:38 PM ^

Anyone connected to Michigan athletics already has a fairly good idea of who the potential candidate pool should be for both the AD and the football coach positions. As others have mentioned above, the main reason you hire one of these firms (whether for the AD search or coaching search) is to keep your fingerprints off the whole thing, at least until the point when you've zeroed in on your top candidate, know there is mutual interest, and can start direct talks/negotiations. It gives both parties (Michigan and potential coaches/ADs) plausible deniability -- statements like "No, I haven't been contacted by Michigan" or "No, we haven't contacted Coach X" become true, at least in a lawyerly-literal sense, when you use a third-party intermediary like this.

Someone above said a high-profile school like Michigan shouldn't need this; actually, our high profile is all the more reason a headhunter/search firm is a good idea. Among other things, I'd guess it can help prevent coaches (and their agents) who aren't really interested in the Michigan job from leaking to the media, "Hey, Michigan approached us about their job!" just to wring a fat new contract/extension out of their current employer.

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