November 17th, 2020 at 1:50 PM ^
Gattis is not one of my top 3 candidates for a college head coaching position, so that would be my answer to "why not roll with Gattis if Fickell and Campbell say no?"
There are a lot of good coaches out there. Gattis may or may not be one of them. Putting him in your top 3 based on his track record doesn't make much sense. I hope whoever conducts the search casts a wider net than the OP.
November 17th, 2020 at 1:50 PM ^
Most everyone was roasting Fickell just a short time ago, and now some of you are interested in him being the next Michigan coach. WTF.....
November 17th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
The love people have for Matt Campbell and Luke Fickell astounds me.
November 17th, 2020 at 2:04 PM ^
Besides the fact he’s an Ohio State guy, what exactly do you not like about Fickell? I’m not saying he’s the second coming of Nick Saban or anything, but he’s done a pretty damn impressive job at Cincinnati, a program which itself has produced some pretty successful coaches in the past.
At this point I don’t care if zombie Woody Hayes is our next coach. As long as he can beat OSU on a regular basis and win a B10 title every 4 years or so, I’d be totally on board.
November 17th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^
The one thing that is symbolic of what Herbstreit was talking about on the broadcast last Saturday evening is the number of Ohio players on Cincinnati's roster. They have 80+ players from the state of Ohio on their roster. We have exactly 12 (2 of which are punters). It goes to tell you how badly Harbaugh and his staff have neglected recruiting in the state of Ohio.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:11 PM ^
I mean, it's a school in Ohio. I'd assume it would have a large number of Ohio players.
The "you need to recruit Ohio to win at Michigan" line drives me crazy because the goal should be to recruit the best players you can, not just based on geography. For example, OSU fills in the bottom of its roster with local kids but most years only takes 2-3 of the top Ohio kids because they also recruit nationally. Taking the #900 ranked kid because he's from Ohio wouldn't functionally change anything. I much rather Michigan do better in its home state as well as pull off some national recruiting wins than pull a Hoke where they try to pull a bunch of Ohio kids who don't work out.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
So we have no proof that Fickell can regularly beat OSU or win a Big 10 title; we all sort of assumed Harbaugh could do that. Hell, Brady Hoke is the only guy to have pulled that off in over a decade.
My concern with guys like Fickell is they are winning at schools where they have clear recruiting/talent advantages over their competition and it's not a given that they'll continue to do so at other schools. He's had the #1 recruiting class in the AAC 2 of the 3 years he's been there full-time (I'm ignoring his #3 class in 2017 because he came on a bit late). He stepped into a program that tended to be pretty good already; averaging 9 wins a season in the decade before he came on. It feels a bit like Scott Frost at UCF, where he stepped into a talented team that had recently been pretty good (something like 8+ wins in 7 of the last 10 seasons before he took over) coming off one down year and then just kept that going.
He won't enjoy those advantages in the Big 10, where he's going to be recruiting against 2 other top-tier/elite teams most seasons plus the usual cadre of national programs. He's 3-10 against top-25 teams, and 2 of those 3 wins came this year against Army and SMU. And it's not like he's playing a bunch of body bag games against major P5 programs in that top-25 group; it's mostly other ranked teams in his conference.
So he won't enjoy a recruiting advantage and he's not proven to be a particularly great "big game" coach. So then it comes down to what a Luke Fickell coached team looks like. Like, what does he bring to the table that you can hang your hat on? I guess he's a defense-first coach, and I'll cop to not being a very knowledgeable observer of Cincy schemes so perhaps he's doing some great stuff, but from what I've seen it just feels like he out-athletes his opposition with a hyper-aggressive defense that's good at generating sacks and turnovers. That's something I guess.
But we haven't seen it at the P5 level, and unlike a Mario Cristobal I'm not sold Fickell has the body of work to show he can run a program like Michigan. Again, I may be wrong, but I've not seen a compelling argument for Fickell beyond "he's not Harbaugh", which isn't worth the move in my opinion.
November 17th, 2020 at 1:55 PM ^
Just promote a 36 year old who has been a coordinator for two seasons (one decidedly average, one terrible). What could possibly go wrong?
November 17th, 2020 at 1:55 PM ^
How can Fickell and Campbell say no when they're not going to get offered in the first place? Harbaugh will get extended.
November 17th, 2020 at 1:57 PM ^
Why not roll with The Rock? Bring Dwayne Johnson into coach!
November 17th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^
I'm sure Gattis will get a look.. but honestly, we'd probably be better off with Lane Kiffin than Josh Gattis.
November 17th, 2020 at 2:31 PM ^
No, he won't. First off, Harbaugh isn't getting fired. Not happening.
Second, Gattis hadn't even been a fucking coordinator prior to last year. But sure, yeah, he'll "get a look", okay.
This fucking board is collectively insane. Just off the deep end, missing marbles, speaking in tongues crazy. Fire everyone! Burn it all down!
Or don't.
November 17th, 2020 at 4:01 PM ^
Agreed. His offense hasn't been exactly lights out during his brief tenure, whether that is due to him or Harbaughs meddling is up for debate, so besides some nice statements on Speed in Space, I cannot understand why so many pine for him due his relative lack of experience and lack of success. In my mind, he's closer to deserving to be fired than he is to be promoted to HC
November 17th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
Go away Maizen.
November 17th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
I just don't get all of the Gattis love on this site. He has only been ok as a recruiter, we are 80th in total offense this year which is worst then our defensive ranking. Last year we were 68th which was a step back from Pep Hamilton the year before. Was the 2019 offense more enjoyable to watch yes but was it better no. I would argue that getting an experienced OC would be our first step next year regardless of the coach.
November 17th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
Because his offense fucking sucks.
November 17th, 2020 at 3:15 PM ^
I don't think he's ready. It's hard to tell if the problems on offense are personnel, scheme, development, etc. It's also hard to tell if the schematic problems are Gattis or due more to JH. So, I guess if by some crazy stretch they canned JH mid-season I wouldn't mind letting Gattis be the interim coach for the rest of the year and see how it shakes out and if things turned around I could see him getting the gig for a short contract and a much lower price tag. But, I don't think you hand a blue blood P5 job to a guy that has yet to really even succeed as a coordinator.
November 17th, 2020 at 3:24 PM ^
I would let him have a shot at it...
November 17th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
Admittedly, I was one who told myself that Harbaugh was muddling in the offense and if Harbaugh left to at least give Gattis a look. After the Wiscy debacle, and more or less Indiana, I don't think you can put those results out and still build some buzz. Gattis basically coached himself out of a job, or let Harbaugh coach himself out of one.
November 17th, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
You mean the coach who registered 11, 21, and 21 points in the last 3 games?
that is pathetic for college football these days
November 17th, 2020 at 4:20 PM ^
I wouldn't even make him an interim coach if Jim gets fired mid-season let alone hire him. So far I'm not impressed and neither are our opponents defenses.
November 17th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
Take a deep breath, Harbaugh not getting fired.
November 17th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
Argument against Gattis: the offense sucks.
Argument for Gattis: well, maybe it isn’t his fault. Yeah, and maybe it is. It’s crazy to hand the reins to someone based on speculation that he is shackled. If he were producing, the shackles would be loosened, if they even exist.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:05 PM ^
Oh, good. Another hawt tayk.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:25 PM ^
Jim Leonhard.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:25 PM ^
This is basically saying "Clemson hired Dabo Swinney, an up-and-coming coach on the staff, who was known for recruiting but no coordinating, let alone head coaching experience. It eventually worked out for them so we should try it too." It's somewhat convincing though a longshot to work out that I don't think Michigan is willing to take. I don't think we would have the patience with Gattis that Clemson showed with Dabo - he lost to South Carolina 5 years in a row and 4 out of his first 6 to Florida State (not counting the 2008 interim season in either case). Having Deshaun Watson then Trevor Lawrence helps a lot too - if Gattis (or Harbaugh for that matter) could get a QB like that it would fix most of the other issues in the program.
November 17th, 2020 at 7:31 PM ^
If Harbaugh got a quarterback like that they’d sit on the bench for three years and look unprepared as shit when they did play. To pretend that Harbaugh hasn’t recruited multiple athletic QBs is inaccurate. None of them have really panned out.
There’s no way all of them are misses. There’s something going on behind the scenes.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:29 PM ^
Good thing you ducked.
Jim Leonhard should be on the short list of there is one. So should Hafley.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:34 PM ^
because?
November 17th, 2020 at 5:47 PM ^
I prefer to only promote people who are good at their current job.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
The guy doesn't have a fucking I-formation in his playbook.
I really think this is the worst Michigan Football team I have seen take the field.
It really sucks. But hey, at least we aren't Tennessee, yet
November 17th, 2020 at 7:28 PM ^
Brian Ferentz coordinated 49 points against the MSU squad that shut Michigan down. Perhaps we can set our sights a bit higher?
November 17th, 2020 at 9:53 PM ^
Harbaugh meddling is speculation, so unless we get credible sources saying he is I am going to say turning the keys over to a guy who hasn't proven to be even a good coordinator is not the best option even if turned down by other candidates. I would not be opposed to a new coach retaining Gattis though for some cohesion.
November 19th, 2020 at 3:52 PM ^
Even if Harbaugh is meddling I don't think that is a good enough excuse to hand it over. If Harbaugh is meddling it means that either Gattis is not assertive enough to push his style on the coach that hired him to run his own offense, or that he has not done enough to gain Harbaugh's trust. Either way this is not someone I would want leading my team.
You don't see Harbaugh meddling with Brown, as bad as his defense has been, which should tell you something about Gattis.
November 17th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Seriously this has to be a joke. I would like to think that you would have to show some form of sustained success as a coordinator prior to even thinking about that. How successful has he been so far?
November 18th, 2020 at 8:38 AM ^
No no no
November 18th, 2020 at 10:25 AM ^
Can we stop with the Campbell or Fickell crap, neither should be in the top 5 of any list put together.
Urban, Bob Stoops, Matt Entz, Adam Dorrell, Gary Goff, or Shawn Clark. The last four come from smaller schools with a record of winning, except Shawn Clark he is the App State coach, while a small school they are D-1 or FCS now.