If not Harbaugh then who?
I still support Harbaugh but after yesterday I think it is just a matter of time before there is a coaching change. Most likely JH it will be worked out where he accepts a NFL job rather than being fired. Save UM money and Harbaugh the embarrassment of being fired by his alma mater.
The question becomes is who will replace him? Clearly the guy needs to be a dynamic recruiter with a good eye for assistants.
Fleck seems to be the best fit for this. He can recruit, has deep Midwest ties, and is a master motivator. Granted, Minnesota sucks this year and his persona doesn’t necessarily fit Michigan’s staid culture. But I think he fits most of what people desire in the next head coach.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:24 PM ^
Maize & Blue row boat?!
November 1st, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
He’s too much of a load mouth and not much of an in game strategist.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
Thank god we don't have that problem
/s
November 1st, 2020 at 2:57 PM ^
I don't think Fleck would fit here, culturally. I'd love to just promote Gattis. Seems like Harbaugh is the one with the issues and it looked like his old offense yesterday. Give the keys to Gattis and let him hire his people. I don't think there's any other way you'd keep from having a drop off in recruiting.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:26 PM ^
Matt Campbell of Iowa State would be another candidate, IMO.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:54 PM ^
I like Campbell and Klieman at Kansas St. Hafley is a name to keep an eye on but very early days for him.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
I’d take an unknown over Campbell
Campbell has a losing record in the big 12
November 1st, 2020 at 2:14 PM ^
Yeah at IOWA STATE. Consistently having 7-8 win seasons at a program as awful as Iowa State is nothing to scoff at.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
Sort of like taking Stanford from 1-11 to 12-1? ???
November 1st, 2020 at 3:06 PM ^
Ok?
is that supposed to be impressive that he has beaten 4 big 12 teams with records over .500 in 4 years?
November 1st, 2020 at 4:13 PM ^
Dude, I’m not suggesting we go out and hire him, but just bear with me and try and see the forest for the trees. Iowa State is an incredibly hard program to win at. I mean, yeah feel free to pick apart individual stats as much as you’d like but there’s definitely something to be said about consistently managing 8 win seasons at a program like Iowa State.
November 1st, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
bearly
November 1st, 2020 at 2:25 PM ^
Iowa St is also one of the worst P5 jobs in the country.
November 1st, 2020 at 3:07 PM ^
Stanford was worse before Harbaugh in my opinion. Bad roster, losing culture for a long time, and legit difficulties in recruiting that no other power 5 school has.
I went to high school with Matt Campbell and root for him to have success wherever he is, but I'm not 100% sold he would be right for Michigan. He has done well at iowa State, but hasn't quite gotten them really going yet. Maybe I'm underestimating how difficult it is to win there though. Of course the only difference could be Harbaugh got the program changing quarterback and Campbell hasn't yet
November 1st, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
They’ve only won two conference titles in their entire existence and have only gone to 14 bowl games. It’s a bad job. Kansas St and Kansas have an argument for being worse in the Big 12, but Kansas St at least has some history do to Bill Snyder.
Stanford is also a bad job. Just cuz he failed here doesn’t mean every coach will. If we are only looking at coaches that are succeeding at big time programs, I’m not sure who we will get.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:28 PM ^
Noooobooooooooody!
/s
November 1st, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
For real though, noooobooooody has a more consistent program than Harbaugh:
* 10-3; 10-3; 8-5; 10-3; 9-4 = 7 win floors, 11 win ceilings, 9-10 wins on average
* Second-tier Top 10-20 program always
* Guaranteed losses to Ohio State (0-5 likely 0-6 after this year)
* Splits games with Michigan State (3-3)
* Destroys every other ranked team at home
* Loses road/bowl games against any top 15 team with comparable player talent
Harbaugh has made UM predictable. Will that maintain revenue? Probably. Is it fun or exciting to watch when you can almost predict how literally every season will go? Not as much.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
Fleck at least gives a shit.
We don’t see any evidence JH does anymore.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
Hoke gave a shit, too. He would've taken the job for a bag of Fritos and a case of Bud Light.
- - -
I'm mostly flexible on the new coach except for a few things:
- He has to not run into stacked boxes when presented with them.
- It would be best if he had no ties to any old Michigan regime. (If they hire Scot Loeffler I'll commit to never attending a Michigan game again. That's extreme. I really enjoy the experience even when the product is lacking.)
- Ideally he'd be someone who can read and understand the school's (academic) culture as opposed to some hillbilly who thinks UM is interchangeable with Mississippi State.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
Unless you’re Clemson, osu, or Alabama it’s just rearranging chairs on the titanic.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
Clemson fires a fairly big name in Bowden and then hired who they thought would be the best coach regardless of his name or pedigree. Clemson took a big risk and now have Dabo. Michigan could learn a lot from that.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
It’s still so weird to me that Clemson is a national powerhouse. That would’ve been unthinkable when I was growing up.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:55 PM ^
Clemson’ing used to be a thing.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:11 PM ^
Same here. I often wondered who Clem was and what was such a big deal about his son.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
We took our swing on the "Dabo" hire with Rich Rod and it didn't work out. Harbaugh needs to kick himself in the ass, but you ditch Harbaugh and you become Texas/FSU/Floirda spending decades in the wilderness. Though I guess we already have.
November 1st, 2020 at 4:41 PM ^
The same Florida that kicked our ass two years ago and went 11-2 again last year?
November 1st, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
That’s the thing - Dabo was an unknown WR coach before taking the Clemson job.
The M arrogance would insist on having extensive head coach experience, but that’s just not necessary in today’s game - plenty of examples exist that prove otherwise.
November 1st, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
Is Josh Gattis our Dabo Swinney? Dabo was the AHC/WR coach before becoming interim and then given the job.
Dabo was an up-and-comer mostly known as a good position coach and outstanding recruiter.
I am not convinced Gattis called most of those plays yesterday. That looked way more West Coast offense (Harbaugh) than the spread, RPO based offense we saw against Minnesota (Gattis). Sure it would be a risk making Gattis the head coach with no head coach experience, but is any other realistic option not a risk? Harbaugh was the “sure thing” and look where that has gotten us. At least we know Gattis can recruit and I’d bet he’d hire great recruiters as assistants.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
Leads off with "I still support Harbaugh"
Why?
November 1st, 2020 at 1:32 PM ^
Because he is Michigan’s coach and a legend at the school.
His record says he is a good coach. The fact that he isn’t achieving more success is alarming for me. If he can’t get over the hump who can?
November 1st, 2020 at 1:37 PM ^
Correction, his record at his OTHER places said he was a good / great coach. No one would look at Harbaugh’s last 6 years and the way his teams have prepared for big games and Bowl games and come to the conclusion he is even in the ball park of being an elite coach.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
I said a good coach.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
Ok, well then he was a good coach at other places, but not here. At the beginning of year 6, Harbaugh’s narrative has been set.
He can’t beat his biggest rival and has been the coach in the two most historic ass kickings by OSU. He can’t develop talent. He can’t recruit and develop a QB of his own. He can’t win big games. All the while, some way some how, the NFL keeps drafting our players.
I am grateful for JH and what he has given our University as a player. He has overall been a good representative as a coach (although most consider him a bit kooky) and brought stability. Now it is time to make a change.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:07 PM ^
He is a good, but not great coach. Comon, I know we're all disappointed after yesterday, but he's not Brady effing Hoke.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
Brady Hoke had two wins better than any Harbaugh has had at Michigan. OSU and Bowl Win vs VTech
November 1st, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
Lol oh wow. Virginia Tech. Yeah if Harbaugh beat them this board would really be singing his praises then. Michigan under Harbaugh has beaten a lot of teams better than that OSU team.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:35 PM ^
He beat the worst OSU team since WW2 and barely beat VT. And he did that all with RR recruits. After that, the wheels came off. Like I said, he's a good - not great - coach. I don't think that's controversial.
November 1st, 2020 at 4:58 PM ^
That VT game was a BCS bowl. Barely beating them is still impressive. And after Hoke's recruits JH has been on a steady downward trajectory.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
Harbaugh still recruits well enough to win a bit more than he loses. There is nothing in his record at Michigan to think anything is going to change in the future.
What is very bothersome is the coaching carousel and the number of players that leave at their earliest opportunity or enter the transfer portal. I'm still pissed at Mattison but there is a reason why someone with his Michigan connection would leave for OSU.
Don Brown is showing more than a slight decline over the last few years. He needs to go also.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:36 PM ^
Why did Wheatley leave? Partridge (same pay)? Mattison? Fisch?
November 1st, 2020 at 2:21 PM ^
He's 100% a good coach. He's gotten UM back to where they were in the Carr days. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about and forget about the RR and Hoke eras. Carr had these same type of losses, they just weren't to MSU. Biggest problem is OSU is a damn machine now and UM is just getting back to where they were.
November 2nd, 2020 at 9:53 AM ^
We’re not paying for a good coach.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:39 PM ^
His record says he's Bo Pelini who never wins the big game.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
When you have to cling to a victory in a deluge against Norte Dame and use that as an example of a “great win” you know you have a coach that has racked up what appears to be a decent record but with mostly meaningless wins.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
If Harbaugh can't get over the hump and no one else can does it even matter? What's the difference to you between a 7-5 season under Hoke or a 9-3 season under Harbaugh?
The reality is that, barring a paradigm shift in college football, THIS. IS. MICHIGAN. So it doesn't really matter who loses to OSU. Might as well spend less money and keep it more interesting. At least Denard was fun to watch.
November 1st, 2020 at 7:19 PM ^
That's where I am. Michigan is not going to be too tier. Accepting that as truth, I just want to look competent and have it be fun. Michigan football is boring AND bad. Where's the fun in that?
November 1st, 2020 at 10:31 PM ^
Except there’s two humps to get over. People keep focusing on the Ohio State problem, but they have a bigger Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State problem. They haven’t figured out how to consistently beat those teams and establish themselves as the second best team in the Big Ten. That’s goal 1. Fix that issue.
Goal two is once you’re the clear No. 2, figure out how to compete with and beat Ohio State. Until they figure out Problem No. 1, there’s not shot at solving Problem No. 2
November 1st, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
That record you speak of is:
0-5 vs OSU, 3-3 vs MSU and 1-4 in bowl games so...
November 1st, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
The issue with the whole "Who else are we going to get?" is you have to ask yourself how long are you willing to let the experiment go before you feel comfortable with the results.
If people feel like we cannot at least replicate that shit show yesterday with somebody else, then what message are we sending our current players and future recruits?
November 1st, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
His results at M speak much louder than any career record. There’s nothing more we need to see. He gots to go- unless watching unprepared undisciplined unmotivated teams lose to rivals every damned year is your thing. In that case, harbaugh is your guy