CC: Jeff Scott
Here's another interesting idea I haven't heard discussed much. Jeff Scott. Currently in his 1st yr as a HC at USF (which isn't going well). He was an assistant at Clemson for 12 yrs before that (WR's 08, RC/WR 08-14, Co-OC/WR 15-19). He was named one of Rivals.com's top-25 recruiters EIGHT times in his last nine yrs as an assistant.. which is totally insane. Since the list has been published online, since 08, no one has appeared on it more than Scott. Tosh Lupoi (formerly of Alabama), Tee Martin (Tennessee), Rodney Garner (Auburn) and Odell Haggins (FSU) round out the top-5 with 7, 6, 5 and 5 appearances each.
Some other notable appearances:
Brent Venables (4x), Sam Pittman (4x), Mike Locksley (3x), Mike Bloomgren (3x), Jeremy Pruitt (3x), Kirby Smart (3x), Ed Orgeron (3x), Luke Fickell (3x), Jeff Hafley (2x), Ryan Day (2x), Will Muschamp (2x), Mike Vrabel (2x), James Franklin (2x), Jimbo Fisher (2x), Jimmy Lake (2x), Greg Schiano (1x), Mel Tucker (1x), Mario Cristobal (1x), Tom Herman (1x), Dabo Swinney (1x)
No candidate is perfect. Scott lacks HC'ing experience. And Tony Elliott is said to be the real brains behind Clemoson's offense. But he was Dabo's main man on the recruiting trail for a long time. He was right there to see (and to be a big part of) how a team in a situation like ours *can* become elite. He's probably the best recruiter in the country, nothing's more important. He's probably the best recruiter there is in the southeast, also important. His dad was the former HC at South Carolina and has overseen his career from administrative roles at Clemson and now USF. He'd be fairly cheap to hire and could move a lot of Harbaugh's salary into the assistant pool. He doesn't have many midwest ties, but it's not hard to hire assistants who do. He doesn't have any Michigan ties.. but that shouldn't be a requirement. Seems like his dad could have a beer with Lloyd Carr and settle all that.
Just an idea.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:16 PM ^
Also. Before the baseless nonsense starts. There's never been even one rumor of one allegation ever levied against him for doing something even remotely below board as a recruiter.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
Who needs an allegation against the individual? Look at the teams on your list of top recruiters. They are all known to be the teams willing to cheat the most. Take a "top recruiter" out of the embedded infrastructure of those programs and see how long they stay on that list. That is a recipe for immediate failure. Give me the best recruiter from Stanford, Purdue, Northwestern, etc. Some place where they have really had to earn being a good recruiter against the teams that cheat. That will translate to Michigan far better.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:30 PM ^
"before all the nonsense starts"
November 9th, 2020 at 12:19 PM ^
man, this is going to be a messy coaching search, because there's simply not one must have coaching name out there.
So I feel like whoever we get, 80% of the fanbase is going to be mad because we didn't get "their guy", which is going to lead us right into Hoke/RR territory.
BPONE is real.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^
No matter what happens, if we fire Harbaugh now, the program is screwed.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
You misspelled it. It's k-e-e-p, not f-i-r-e. If we keep Harbaugh the program is screwed.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:55 PM ^
Yeah. I like harbaugh, but I'm also not blind to the fact that this is clearly not working.
But then, who do we hire? If the 100% can't miss, perfect fit candidate didn't work out, then how can we expect the next cut hire we make to work out?
Feels like we're screwed no matter what
November 9th, 2020 at 12:57 PM ^
The program is already screwed. Can you detect competence from either the offense or defense the last couple of weeks? The last couple of years? The trendline is going down, and has been since OSU 2016. A couple of good wins since then don't change those facts.
November 9th, 2020 at 1:00 PM ^
You're not wrong.
A coaching change just feels a lot better when the pantry is stocked. This year it's completely bare, unless we pull off some sort of coup
November 9th, 2020 at 3:01 PM ^
Agree to disagree. There are some fantastic coaches out there that by all accounts are up-and-coming "sure things," including Eric Bieniemy, Mario Cristobal, Robert Saleh, Brian Daboll, Josh Heupel, and I may even include both PJ Fleck and Luke Fickell. Granted, the NFL is gonna come knocking on both Bieniemy's and Saleh's doors, but they would be slam dunk hires; and, Cristobal certainly has an amazing set up at Oregon that I'm not sure UM can compete with...but - who knows until we make inquiries to test the waters with any of these guys? It's not all doom and gloom by any stretch of the imagination; instead, I just wonder if Warde will have the confidence to go after any of these guys.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:26 PM ^
So you want to replace a coach who’s a household name with an up-and-coming coach?
Fair enough. The “household name” hasn’t met expectations. However, let’s look at some of the risks here:
-transfer of current players: sans Harbaugh and the assistants don’t expect many of the guys in the current roster to stick around. A lot of you guys are advocating a hire from outside of the realm of “Michigan men”. Does anyone remember Rich Rod trying to retain talent?
-recruiting class decommits: sans Harbaugh and the assistants don’t expect many of the guys in the current class to stick around
-trouble marketing the program to potential recruits: we haven’t been a top program since the mid-2000s.
-trouble marketing the school and Ann Arbor to potential recruits: Ann Arbor is a wonderful, small city; however, the state of Michigan likely isn’t at the top of the list of states people want to relocate to. That goes for National recruits as well. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and, despite the vaccine news today, recruits will not be visiting Ann Arbor and discovering that they want to spend the next three-to-five years of their lives here.
-all we really have to sell recruits on right now is Harbaugh and playing time: an “up-and-coming” coach isn’t going to cut it for recruits when they can’t come visit the campus, experience the culture of the program, see Ann Arbor, or the university during a global pandemic.
-installing a new scheme with the uncertainty of practice time in spring and fall 2021: maybe we will have COVID under control by the spring, but we just hit another daily record high for new cases in the US today. We have no idea what the next few months hold, but it’s possible that a new coach won’t have the personnel or the time to make a new scheme work.
-switching schemes with a “raw” quarterback: Joe Milton is struggling with his progressions in a scheme that he’s had multiple years to pick up. If we change schemes again, it’s very unlikely he’ll ever be comfortable enough in an offense to reach his potential.
-We’re months away from Transfer-A-Palooza 2021: no (scholarship) limits, boys. No limits. Well, unless our new coach has to adjust to his new job instead of hitting the road.
Look, everyone need to stop freaking out. This was a rebuilding year and most of us knew that. Besides that, this might be the most irrational timing for a coaching change in the history of coaching changes.
Don’t believe me?
Make your own Pros/Cons list for changing coaches. I could write Pros/Cons lists and do SWOT Analysis all day, but the fact is that I don’t get paid for this.
If you have any statements like, “we won/didn’t win the X game”, “we have a winning/losing record against X”, or any statement about winning, success, losing, failure, or embarrassment, then cross it off your list. Those are emotional arguments. They have no place in making a sound strategic decision on the direction of an organization.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Does the current team look like they want to play for Harbaugh to you? We already get a fuck ton of transfers and players who opt out as it is.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:42 PM ^
Yes, they actually do look like they want to play for him. Otherwise, they would have given up against IU. It’s only the fans who have given up.
Question for you: If we go 3-9 next season with a loss to NIU or WMU under a new coach, would you be happier than if we go 10-2/11-2 with Harbaugh?
November 10th, 2020 at 12:02 AM ^
This is the best take on this blog. It's clear that everyone here is overreacting heavily over two losses. Sometimes, shit happens and you get roster holes; this is the real world. For an example, look no further than our basketball program. Michigan basketball under Beilein, which went through a rough patch in 2014, 2015 (no NCAA tournament appearances), and 2016 (up until the fated plane incident) is now one of the premier programs in the country.
Imagine if we listened to the message board warriors then and fired Beilein for some "up and coming" coach. The basketball program would be nowhere close to where it is now.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:22 PM ^
As with weight changes, all coaching changes are good.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Interesting thought. While I think we need a significant boost in recruiting on our team, I'm not sure we need a mostly unproven head coach who can recruit. I think we need more balance between running the operation and recruiting. And we need a guy who can load his staff with recruiters as well. But honestly, it's the coaching on our team that sucks. Guys are not getting significantly better and making the jumps they need to make. Our game planning seems suspect as well.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:47 PM ^
If anyone ever wants an idea for a diary— compare the rate of turnover with Michigan’s assistant coaches under Harbaugh against other Big Ten staffs.
I think we all have an idea of what the results will be, but it would be nice to actually have the hard data.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:26 PM ^
I would give Chris Creighton a really serious look. I know for whatever reason that seems like a desperation hire, but he could really be a Jim Tressel type.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:51 PM ^
Creighton damn near beat Pitt in their bowl game last year.
I know people probably go "meh, it's Pitt"
But this is EASTERN MICHIGAN. Taking them to 3 bowl games, totaling their bowl appearances to 4, is no easy feat, and obviously he got them their first ever back to back bowl appearances.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
I feel like being a top recruiter at Clemson is sort of like being a good changeup hitter on the Astros.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:34 PM ^
Did I miss something over the weekend? Ppl are talking like its a given that Harbaugh is fired. I could understand CC stuff for assistants, because we clearly need to boost recruiting, but we aren't firing Harbaugh based on this stupid COVID season.
November 9th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
We'd probably be fine if COVID was affecting other teams and not just ours. ?.
FYI, these are the symptoms
loss of taste/smell
cough
fever
jumping offside
thinking it's 1980
November 9th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^
And then next year your excuse will be "well the players haven't had enough time to learn the new schemes it's only been a year".
Other teams are having no issues in this "stupid COVID season".
November 9th, 2020 at 10:52 PM ^
How many non-Michigan games have you seen this year?
Penn State, LSU, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma have also all been having comparable or worse issues than we have. Everyone looked beatable the first few weeks they played. I don’t remember the last time that the SEC looked this mediocre. Even Alabama looked pretty rusty out of the gate this year.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:35 PM ^
I wish mlive was still a thing so some of you fools would go back
November 9th, 2020 at 12:35 PM ^
The question is whether he could still be a top recruiter on a northern team. Not sure how that translates, not to mention the handout bag, which he won't have here to give to recruits.
And you say he was a top recruiter... at all positions or only WR ?
November 9th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
Pass.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
Rather try for Elliott.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:55 PM ^
This is worth almost zero because Jeff Scott's record at USF is a huge turnoff but a little Wikipedia digging reveals that Jeff's brother (John) is an assistant professor of surgery at Michigan. Small world and all.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:56 PM ^
Never trust a man with 2 first names.
November 9th, 2020 at 1:01 PM ^
Jeff Hafley from BC, Matt Campbell from Iowa State, or Justin Wilcox from Cal.
All younger, all finding success at tough stops. All successful recruiters. Everyone but Hafley has a big upset under their belt and Hafley is only in year 1.
November 9th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^
I'm a Harbaugh stan and I think a Matt Campbell hire would silence a ton of the BAWWWWW following a Harbaugh departure.
November 9th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
Hard pass here. I don't get the hype. He is a fine coach, but for some reason he is hyped every off season. I still don't believe for a second that OSU would hire him if Day left. He'd get an interview, but that is about it.
November 9th, 2020 at 1:19 PM ^
If there does happen to be a coaching change this off season, which is a huge if. I'm hitching my wagon to Mario Cristobal.
November 9th, 2020 at 1:40 PM ^
I've been preaching Jeff Scott on this board since last weeks loss against MSU. He inherited a garbage fire at USF. USF hasn't been relevant since they fired Jim Levitt so his record is irrelevant right now. Jeff can find an OC that fits his style. Jeff is one of the best recruiters in the nation. He has ties to the talent rich areas of the country. We will win some battles with SEC schools for top notch kids. Jeff is super relatable and has a great reputation.
I would offer Al Washington or Chris Partridge as the DC. Al can be the guy who can recruit Ohio and the midwest. Without Ohio I don't think Michigan can compete with OSU and PSU. I'm certain there are plenty of elite young aspiring assistant coaches that would love to work at Michigan and for Jeff Scott. His reputation is amazing. I would love to have a Michigan program build in the image of Clemson.
November 9th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^
I think he'd be great, too. He had a front row seat and major role in Clemson going from -- basically what we are today -- to the best or 2nd best program in the country. He's a great recruiter, he knows its importance, he'll recruit hard himself, and he'll hire good recruiters who have ties to the midwest and northeast; his own ties in the southeast will be a great boost. He'll have money to hire good coordinators, and I think he'll be capable of just that. If there's anyone who could recreate what Dabo has here, it's him.
November 10th, 2020 at 1:18 AM ^
“Jeff can find an OC that fits his style.”
Jeff Scott hired Charlie Weis Jr. as his OC at South Florida.
November 10th, 2020 at 3:05 AM ^
"Currently in his 1st yr as a HC at USF (which isn't going well) "
Hire him tomorrow.
November 10th, 2020 at 7:17 AM ^
What does Lloyd Carr have to do with anything?
November 10th, 2020 at 8:14 AM ^
Recruiting rankings get overblown when you are recruiting at a spot that kids want to go so you have to take his recruiting with a grain of salt. That's like recruiting for Alabama. Hello I'm coach X and I coach at Alabama where we play for national championships every year and send the majority of our players to the NFL. Clemsons not far behind having become a perennial powerhouse with unbelievable football facilities. You have to do a wait and see with a guy like him and see whether it was the program doing the recruiting or the coach. Let's see how he recruits at USF and if he can win any games before turning the keys to the Michigan program over to him.
November 10th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
Pat Narduzzi??