JonnyHintz

January 18th, 2017 at 2:51 PM ^

Parallel positions? Every single coach took a promotion to leave. With the exception of Baxter. Which in his defense, he is by and large a West Coast guy. Aside from Michigan, he hasn't left the West Coach since 1996. After living on the West Coast for the past 20 years, it's understandable to prefer that climate and want to go back.

Joined: 01/11/2015

MGoPoints: 48830

Mr Miggle

January 18th, 2017 at 5:12 PM ^

at that. His writing is full of stuff that I dislike quite strongly, so I dislike him as a writer. On Twitter, he's petty and childish, so I dislike him there. As a person I don't know him and am happy to keep the status quo on that.

Is he a source for reliable info about Michigan football? He has one good source very high up, I believe. So he knew about Harbaugh when others were just guessing. He's gotten a little bit of other solid hiring info. Anything beyond that, I think he's mostly cobbling together less reliable info, stuff others post, his own imagination and hoping people pay attention. After all, he was right about something big. It's a waste if he can't parlay that into something more.

Joined: 10/07/2010

MGoPoints: 47770

LSAClassOf2000

January 18th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^

That's nothing really. PSULionInsider will block you before you even have a chance to finish a sentence, or at least that was my experience. I sent part 1 of 2 and was unable to send part 2 of 2, so he never heard the complete thought on what an absurd apologist he was being. Shame, as I had some witty retorts at the ready.

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130776

schreibee

January 18th, 2017 at 5:33 PM ^

This is gonna sting for a sec Chi - nobody cares if Kawakami blocked you on twitter but you!!!

I tried to tell people back in Nov-Dec '14, well before the JH firing/hiring, TK was the ONLY member of Bay Area media spinning a narrative opposing the York/Baalke narrative that JH is a douche and fracturing the 49er locker room. The ONLY one.

As such he has also been the foremost chronicler of their descent following that stupid decision to force Harbaugh out and publicly slander him. Although by now bashing the Niners is a pretty crowded bandwgon out here.

 

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 21184

schreibee

January 18th, 2017 at 5:44 PM ^

Within days of the famous Richard Sherman throat-slash NFC title game in Jan '14 it was leaked the 49ers had agreed in principle to trade JH to the Browns and the only thing holding it up was Sarah said Hell No to going to Cleveland.

Within days of that I started saying to all my many sports buddies that JH would be Michigan's coach following the '14 season. I knew he was not the guy to fuck with and disrespect that way, and I was pretty sure Hoke had showed us his best and was on a downward trend.

Like almost everyone they all said "NO WAY"

So I was first, nyah nyah

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 21184

MichiganExile

January 18th, 2017 at 2:35 PM ^

He was mostly misinformed because all his sources were NFL based. I seriously doubt Kawakami checked with Bacon, Wojo, Webb, or anyone else that may have info from Michigan's end. Kawakami gets more hate from the Michigan fanbase than he deserves but he does deserve some for willfullly ignoring a highly plausible landing spot for Harbaugh after the 9ers job. A simple call to John U. Bacon, journalist and known insider and friend of the Michigan program, and Kawakami could have easily stated that yes Harbaugh to M is a possiblity and immediately improved his credibility. Instead he stuck his head in the NFL echo chamber and vomited their rhetoric for a month before being proven dead wrong. 

Joined: 01/12/2009

MGoPoints: 12382

BlueCube

January 18th, 2017 at 1:29 PM ^

If this was true, why wouldn't Harbaugh have worked to get other recruiters involved with Collins and other recruits as well as current commits prior to Wheatley and Fisch leaving? They could have pulled in other staff members and pushed Wheatley and Fisch behind the scenes. I'm not reading the click bait material but I'm not buying it. 

Joined: 12/12/2013

MGoPoints: 45965

ChuckieWoodson

January 18th, 2017 at 1:20 PM ^

Interesting article, thanks.  IIRC, it took a bit of a hard sell for Harbaugh to get Wheatley to sign on in the first place - perhaps this was due to them not seeing 100% eye to eye from the beginning, at least to some extent.

In regards to Jedd, you wonder if just not having a truly elite QB, coupled with WS's injury late in the year pushed this up a bit. 

Either way, I think it's important for all of those guys to be in lockstep so if there was indeed some dissention among the ranks, this sounds like a good thing.

Joined: 01/13/2012

MGoPoints: 26377

Bo Schemheckler

January 18th, 2017 at 1:20 PM ^

I have a hard time believing that Harbaugh sent Wheatley down to recruit Nico Collins 1 day before they both knew he was getting canned but what the hell do I know. Wheatley is the consummate professional so maybe that is what happened.

Joined: 09/04/2013

MGoPoints: 37522

stephenrjking

January 18th, 2017 at 4:15 PM ^

Nothing in recruiting is a sure enough thing for any reasonable person to make the decision of a player (who hasn't actually committed yet!) the criteria by which a job is lost or kept.

I can't dog everything Henson does, and maybe he's heard some stuff, but I find it difficult to believe that Fisch would prefer to remain as an anonymous second guy at Michigan when a Power 5 coordinator position with a highly-touted QB is available. And while Wheatley's move isn't as obvious a step up, the theories that he got canned because one guy flipped and another one might flip are absurd. Perhaps Harbaugh wasn't anxious to have him back, but there's no way that the Wilson flip had anything to do with it.

Joined: 03/15/2012

MGoPoints: 20144031

jalenwestman

January 18th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^

but hard to believe with Wheatley. Unless Wheatley was pushing to be promoted at Michigan. Wheatley has been huge as a recruitier and coach.

Hard to argue with Harbaugh, so far he has upgraded with his replacements.

Joined: 08/04/2016

MGoPoints: 2480

Blue in Yarmouth

January 18th, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^

Perhaps he has been huge but as I coach I wasn't blown away. In my opinion the RB's weren't utilized effectively and the distibution made little to no sense. Smith got worse as a blocker as well while really showing little development that couldn't also be attributed to simply being a little older and more experienced. I'm no expert by a long shot but I wasn't terribly impressed with Wheatly as a coach. As a recruiter, yes, but as a coach...not so much. I wish him all the best and still love him for all he has done for UM as a coach and player but I'm not sad to see he or Jed go and it wouldn't surprise me if this article is on point.

Joined: 02/18/2009

MGoPoints: 6527

jalenwestman

January 18th, 2017 at 3:01 PM ^

I thought Smith got better as a runner while Wheatley was there. This year he had a true freshman in the rotation (who looks like a star), and he made the hammering panda into an asset.

I believe the stats will say we ran the ball better each year under Ty. Now, should we have run it better? That's debatable, but at some point the oline has to come into the talk about the running game.

Joined: 08/04/2016

MGoPoints: 2480

LGenius

January 18th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^

May explain the lack of deep balls toward the end of the season? The offense did seem to have progressively less ingenuity and ultimately become less effective. Wheatley is weird though. Maybe a mutual discord on the amount of influence over play-calling?

Joined: 02/28/2010

MGoPoints: 1028

Anonymous Coward (not verified)

January 18th, 2017 at 1:20 PM ^

Not saying I don't believe it, but the words probably and good source/s are not synonymous.

Joined: 12/12/2017

MGoPoints: 0

mgobaran

January 18th, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^

I feel like I hate Gregg Henson. Don't know why though. 

And idk, it sounds right. But Fisch definitely got a better job as offensive coordinator, so good on him. I expected him to move either this year or next anyways. Wheatley, Idk. I had a feeling that was a mutual break-up. Maybe Wheatley didn' t like Harbaughs offseason plans, or whatever.

For Wheatley to take the same position in the NFL (a step-up for sure, but a much smaller step-up than I thought he would take), and leave behind the opportunity to coach at his sons school, it seemed like there HAD to be some friction between Harbaugh and him.

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 22819

Sac Fly

January 18th, 2017 at 1:41 PM ^

For a self-anointed insider he bats .200 but he doesn't let anyone forget when he gets it right.

I'm also pretty sure that Seth and Brian found the sources he was passing off during the Brandon saga and during the coaching search and he was also a huge prick to them too.

Joined: 04/03/2010

MGoPoints: 5981

FrankMurphy

January 18th, 2017 at 2:02 PM ^

That's what gives me pause as well. Our failure to zero in on a featured running back might have been what caused Wheatley to fall out of favor. It's a little harder to believe that Jedd Fisch's departure was anything other than voluntary though, given that he's leaving for a better gig.

Joined: 08/19/2008

MGoPoints: 32324

stephenrjking

January 18th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^

This doesn't make any sense to me. If Harbaugh wanted to zero in on one back, Michigan would have zeroed in on one back. As it was, Harbaugh said publicly that rotating backs is the NFL way and that it better saves the guys for later. The guys that played did not significantly underperform, certainly not in comparison to the line in front of them.

And, again, Harbaugh was not yelling at Wheatley to leave guys in. I think the philosophy they used regarding the RB rotation was agreed by everyone with a say.

The stuff Harbaugh would be dissatisfied with, were there to be any, would be stuff behind the scenes. Practice reps, development, etc. We really can't know any of this.

Joined: 03/15/2012

MGoPoints: 20144031

Stay.Classy.An…

January 18th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^

from people that are paid subscribers to The Victors Club message boards at Scout that Fisch and Wheatley being forced out is true. I can't confirm this via Counter Strike, so it probably doesn't matter. Was going to post about this topic, but since I don't have a subscription to share proof of this, I didn't. But, it doesn't seem like Henson was the first to report on this. Anybody with a Scout subscription care to share a little bit....?

Joined: 11/27/2012

MGoPoints: 19972